Holy cow of all mothers! Trident A-Range

[Lindell]

Has anybody experienced these Trident A-Range modules???
Looks might fine to my eyes.....

[Jeff Goodman]

I've tracked and mixed on 2 consoles filled with these modules, and all there is to say about them is...ain't none better.

Jeff

[Dave Martin]

Those look nice...

[Lindell]

Here they are:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=23785

Where can I get $17´......?!?!?!?

[Jeff Goodman]

This is the second or third time they've been listed on ebay. They are certainly worth 1700 a piece, but 17k seems a little steep for the rack.

Jeff

[Drumsound]

Originally posted by Jeff Goodman
This is the second or third time they've been listed on ebay. They are certainly worth 1700 a piece, but 17k seems a little steep for the rack.

Jeff

I don't understand that statement. Do you mean coming up with $17K is a problem? I feel you there! If you think a 'quantity discount' should be in order, I disagree. Besides the rack and power supplies, these are the real deal Trident A-Range. They only made 13 consoles total! Finding these things are harder then finding hens teeth.

[ziegenh5]

these are the real deal Trident A-Range. They only made 13 consoles total! Finding these things are harder then finding hens teeth.

Well, a friend of mine has actually talked to the seller at length about these. They are the Cherokee Studios "clone" of the Trident A Range. My understanding is that Cherokee could not get Trident to make the consoles fast enough, so they started commissioning their own. I believe they made a few updates to the modules to actually improve them headroom and noise wise(don't quote me). The biggest difference is they changed the input transformer. We saw it in the pictures he sent us. If these had all original Trident A Range parts, we would have purchased them months ago. These should still be killer, though. And the seller is a great guy. Still, at the right price I would consider it, but last time I checked, I didn't have $17000 big ones lying around, let alone $17 to make a run to Taco Bell. Now, price per module wise, he is definitely in the ballpark. $1700 per module would be great if he wanted to part them out. It's coming up with the $17000 that's the tough part. Still, I don't know if I would rather just get a pair of Daking's for less. Nobody needs 10 channels of the same pre anymore. That's why people started parting out their old Neve's. And that's why he's having trouble selling these as a group.

My $17,000......er.......2 cents

Sean

[Lindell]

Originally posted by ziegenh5
They are the Cherokee Studios "clone" of the Trident A Range. My understanding is that Cherokee could not get Trident to make the consoles fast enough, so they started commissioning their own.

Well, thats a shame! Suddenly $17´ is very expensive.... How ´bout $7´ for the kit.....

[Dave Martin]

Quite honestly, $17K doesn't sound like a bad price for these modules, whether they came from the Trident shop or Cherokee's shop. I don't have that money available, though (bummer...). As for the input transformers, I wouldn't make a judgement as to whether they're better or worse (or the same) than the Trident trannies without actually A/Bing them. Has anyone here at Gearslutz had the chance to work with this rack AND an A Range console on the same session?

And I regularly find myself needing more than a stereo pair of identical mic preamps, so I wouldn't saythat 'nobody' needs 10 identical pre's.. There are times when 10 identical pre's would be very handy.

The only thing I really wonder about is whether I'd leave them in the nifty roll around rack or if I'd want them to be mounted in a 19" frame... Id anyone wants to buy me a really nice Christmas present, I'd igure it out, though...

[Jeff Goodman]

What I meant was that while 1700 is about right per module, 17k is a big chunk o change, and seems a little steep to me for non original modules. That's probably just me though. Having said that, I have worked with these extensively, and they are ****ing awesome to say the least. I have a pair of original A Range modules that I've been carrying around for about 15 years and have put them up against those at Cherokee and there is NO difference in sound. My modules were actually put into one of the consoles there for comparison. The Robbs and I listened to a variety of signal through both and could find no real differences.

Actually the story behind these Cherokee A ranges is that they had a second (maybe third) one on order and partially paid for and Malcolm Toft came back to them and said that it wasn't going to happen, costs too much to produce and he couldn't get the same xformers anymore, but I got something new for ya, it's called the TSM. They took the TSM, liked it but eventually decided that they liked the A Range that much more. They had their chief engineer at the time, Toby Foster, back engineer the console, changed some things in the aux sends, and a few other things, had the xformers remade to the original specs by someone else, and made one themselves. For those that are familiar, that's the one with 48 input modules and no monitor section. It was in studio 1 up until the API went in about 2 years ago (it's back in there now). They made a bunch more input modules and sold I don't know how many.

They have had a pretty sizable number of the original 13 A Ranges over the years. Sold most, kept 1 (in studio 3) and their homemade one and most of the modules in both of those are the ones they made. They still have 15 or so original modules peppered through the 48 ch console.

I have seen more than one person that think they own Tridents but actually have Cherokee's. Any A range modules that are not the plum colored, brownish paint, have been through Cherokee. They are usually the grey lexan like the modules on ebay, but they did do another color at Cherokee at one time (I don't remember what it was though).

So with all that in mind, you cannot go wrong with any A Range modules, Trident or Cherokee. They are truly oustanding mic amps and eq's. Maybe Fletcher will chime in, I know he loves them and has a good story about the A range console up there near him.

Jeff

[Dave Martin]

Thanks for the information, Jeff - That's what I wondered.

[stealthbalance]

ive worked with trident a range - of all the audio available out there that is looked upon as the creme de la creme- the a range is my very favorite eq/pre. although i have not heard them , i wonder if the re-issues are good and identical to the original a ranges? i think someone is making a single or dbl space unit that has the full modules in it. for my pro tools rig when i have the cake , thats probably what i'll get.

[BattleAngel]

doesn't radiohead have an A range console or something like that in a studio they put together?

[DrDeltaM]

Malcolm Toft is working on a new (small) console btw, the prototype is finished. 12 channels + 12 channel expander...

[ziegenh5]

had the xformers remade to the original specs by someone else, and made one themselves.

I'd be interested to hear how they went about doing that. I was under the impression that the original Zutts were made such that they could not be reverse-engineered. Something to the effect that if you opened them up, they would self destruct. Sounds silly I know, but that's what I heard from a very good Trident tech. Now, if they were able to do it, why don't they do it again so "real" A ranges could be made today? That would be sweet.
Sean

[Jeff Goodman]

I don't know about self destructing xformers. Since they bought at least one from Trident, and were friends with Malcolm and the rest of 'em over there and Dave Michaels and the rest over here, I'm pretty sure they got the specs from someone. As for why they don't make the same xformers now, I was told that the originals were made with some materials that are not evironmentally sound and are, in fact, illegal to use now.

The Robbs still have all the die's and blueprints for all the stuff, though, including the plywood boards with nails in them to make the wire bundles that are handwired into the pre/eq modules. It's no wonder that Trident had to stop making them, very labor intensive.

Jeff

[BrianT]

A-Range sounds simply incredible for hi-fi rock.


BT

[shikawkee]

My buddy just bought a Trident A-range *before* they started numbering them and is putting it in one of his two rooms here in Nashville. Can't wait.....

[lkaven]

Originally posted by BattleAngel
doesn't radiohead have an A range console or something like that in a studio they put together?

I think they used an MTA 980 on OK Computer.

Luke

[barforama]

I thnink the Re-issues are "THE STUFF" for recording drums. I have 3 dual A-range re-issues and after they've all gone through a 300$ a piece PSU mod, they are rock'n'roll!

[geoffdake]

According to Malcomb, the A Range was designed by Barry Porter, who died earlier this year.

The Cherokee modules were so faithful to the original design, they were virtually indistinguishable.

The original input transformers had a 10:1 ratio, pretty typical of current thinking. The most popular transformer used these days is a Jensen at 8:1.

The originals were great sounding, but the construction was ify, lots of point to point hand wiring. Kind of like a 60's British sports car, you love it but the toolbox is never far away.

gd

[bradward]

That's EXACTLY what we have at the place I work daily... And I will confirm they sound amazing! Trident or Cherokee, these things smoke every pre I've put up against it, hands down. The EQ's are a dream to use, almost everything sounds good! Anyone know what kind of bandwidth you get on each particular boost/cut? I may not even want to know , sounds pretty wide to my ears!

Anyone know how many of these 10-channel Cherokee's there are kicking around in wooden rolling racks? This may have been the exact auction we acquired them from