DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 Has anyone tried or owned a Traynor amp? I've seen a few of them rather cheap lately and wondering why they are so cheap. 40watt all tube for $300 is rather cheap. Made in Canada too... And to those "who heard good things about them", great. Doesn't help me though...
Guest HRB853370 Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 Has anyone tried or owned a Traynor amp? I've seen a few of them rather cheap lately and wondering why they are so cheap. 40watt all tube for $300 is rather cheap. Made in Canada too... And to those "who heard good things about them", great. Doesn't help me though... Doesn't Fender own the brand name now?
DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Author Posted February 7, 2012 Doesn't Fender own the brand name now? Nope.
LK155 Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 There seem to be at least three flavors of Traynor amps: 1. The tube amps from the 60's and early 70's (for example: YBA1 Bassmaster): absolute BEASTS. Very desireable. 2. The solid state amps from the 70's and 80's: less desireable. (disclaimer: I have no direct experience with this type.) 3. The tube amps from the last 10 years or so (for example: YCVxx series): good bang for the buck. Use printed circuit boards instead of point-to-point wiring, but quality of materials and construction is quite acceptable. You will likely want to replace the factory tubes with something better. Lots around on the used market. I had one of the very early tube amps in my misguided youth. Wish I still had it. (and my youth too.) Loud enough to lift the roof off the house and turn my dad's hair gray overnight. Also had one of the recent YCV amps (2xEL84). Never thought it had quite enough bottom end for my tastes; sold it and replaced it with a blackfaced Vibrolux Reverb, which suits me perfectly. Bottom line: if you do your research and know exactly what you're looking for, you can get a very good amp for a reasonable price. I think that's true both for new and used.
DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Author Posted February 7, 2012 I'm seeing the YCV40's for around $300. Seems rather reasonable. Never really heard any bad products coming from Canada either...
schundog Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 I own a YCV40. Cleans similar to a Deluxe Reverb, not as good reverb and no tremolo. Dirty channel us the best I've heard from a combo. Marshally. Celestion 70/80 speaker is OK, but I'd like to hear it through my Weber Blue Dog sometime. Buy it for $300, for sure.
DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Author Posted February 7, 2012 Have to sell one amp to get another...Its a real shame too, because I just bought the Deltablues exactly two months ago today.
rjsanders Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 owned an old ('70s) YBA-1 and liked it a lot. very tweedBassman-JTMBluesbreaker but with EL34s. especially dug the smaller format headshell (Marshall's "small box" is 26" wide...sheesh). a fine amp for guitar, as is. less so for bass, IMHO (tho OK for recording). great mod platform (mine went to Andy Fuchs eventually w/xlnt results). the PCB ones sound good, but the YCV40 i looked at had the tube sockets on the PCB, which i dis-prefer...the new Dark/Iron Horse heads are a trip. i played the first Dark Horse (15w) and really enjoyed it. have not looked into where these things are actually made...
DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Author Posted February 7, 2012 owned an old ('70s) YBA-1 and liked it a lot. very tweedBassman-JTMBluesbreaker but with EL34s. especially dug the smaller format headshell (Marshall's "small box" is 26" wide...sheesh). a fine amp for guitar, as is. less so for bass, IMHO (tho OK for recording). great mod platform (mine went to Andy Fuchs eventually w/xlnt results). the PCB ones sound good, but the YCV40 i looked at had the tube sockets on the PCB, which i dis-prefer...the new Dark/Iron Horse heads are a trip. i played the first Dark Horse (15w) and really enjoyed it. have not looked into where these things are actually made... I've read in Cananda, but at that price point, who knows?
t0aj15 Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 I've got a YCV-50 Blue that I've had for several years now, bought it when they first came out to replace my much disliked Peavey Classic 30 & 50. It was a great replacement for the Peaveys, IMO better quality and better sound. Keep in mind though that Yorkville (the owners of Traynor) use the same power rating system that Fender uses on amps like the Twin. In other words even though the amp may be rated at 40 or 50 watts it only has a 4 ohm tap on the output transformer and the power rating applies only to 4 ohm loads, but they come with 8 ohm speakers, so in order to get the rated power you have to either add another 8 ohm extension speaker to drop the impedance to 4 ohms or you need to change the on-board speaker to a 4 ohm speaker to reach rated power output. Not a major factor to most folks but just something I thought I''d mention. Bang for the buck though IMO a much better choice then the Peavey Classics.
rjsanders Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 I've read in Cananda, but at that price point, who knows? the old all-tube ones were, but the new PCB ones are likely from China or thereabouts. Traynor himself left around '70, Yorkville Sound is no boutique outfit. more like St. Louis Music & them
rjsanders Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 the old all-tube ones were, but the new PCB ones are likely from China or thereabouts. Traynor himself left around '70, Yorkville Sound is no boutique outfit. more like St. Louis Music & them so, i downloaded some manuals off the Traynor site. they say the Dark Horse is 100% designed & manufactured in Canada, the YCV40 is 100% North American (might that mean Mexico?), some powered monitor is made in China. guess it depends.
DetroitBlues Posted February 7, 2012 Author Posted February 7, 2012 so, i downloaded some manuals off the Traynor site. they say the Dark Horse is 100% designed & manufactured in Canada, the YCV40 is 100% North American (might that mean Mexico?), some powered monitor is made in China. guess it depends. According to their site, they have a 250 person production facility in Cananda. Which I'm perfectly fine with buying a peice of Canandian gear....
bolero Posted February 7, 2012 Posted February 7, 2012 I have a couple from the '60's and can attest they are fantastic, handwired, point to point amps. they used Marsland speakers as stock, which are generally crap....but if you get an old YBA head & plug it into a decent cab they will compare to any vintage marshall, fender, or hiwatt I'm not a fan of the era from '75-2006, but the recent amps like the dark horse are pretty funky as well.
DetroitBlues Posted February 8, 2012 Author Posted February 8, 2012 Wow, cool vid Brian! Thanks for digging that one up!
sonar Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 Had a YCV 40 a couple years ago. Good tubey sounding amp and reliable too. More power than I need now that I'm old (gone to lighter to schlep amps). I think they're kinda workhorse amps, and cheaper than Fenders in the same class. I put in a C-90 Black Shadow (Mesa) speaker just because I like those. It tightened up the sound a bit over the stock speaker without changing the sound of the amp too drastically. I just ran the stock tubes. Good generic tube sound with a bit of bouince, though not quite as distinctive sounding as something like a sparkly BF Fender. Nice for Rock. A bit harder to hit the sweet spot on the distortion channel for Blues, and the clean channel is pretty loud. In the end I prefer tweed era designs with the spongey midrange, so have gotten away from switchable amps. That's just my preference though. It's a good club amp though, to my way of thinking. Power to spare.
bolero Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 these are the good vintage ones: http://tone-lizard.com/Traynor_Amplifiers.htm Pete Traynor used to test his amp designs for the road by throwing them off the roof of a 3 story building the YBA1 is the hot one to get for guitar....there is also a YBA3 but they are really loud...still good for guitar but also great for bass, I have a YBA3 with a "Big B" 8x10 cab and it really rumbles
t0aj15 Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 Had a YCV 40 a couple years ago. Good tubey sounding amp and reliable too. Nice for Rock. A bit harder to hit the sweet spot on the distortion channel for Blues, and the clean channel is pretty loud. That's why they followed up the YCV-40 with the YCV-50 Blue. It's basically the same preamp but they changed the output tubes from 6L6's (YCV-40) to EL-34's (YCV-50 Blue) hence the name. They also got rid of the presence control and in it's place they put a master volume, which makes it much easier to get good blues & crunch tones from it. They also changed the speaker to a Celestion Vintage 30.
sonar Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 That's why they followed up the YCV-40 with the YCV-50 Blue. It's basically the same preamp but they changed the output tubes from 6L6's (YCV-40) to EL-34's (YCV-50 Blue) hence the name. They also got rid of the presence control and in it's place they put a master volume, which makes it much easier to get good blues & crunch tones from it. They also changed the speaker to a Celestion Vintage 30. Nice. Had a Mesa/Boogie Mark II-something with 2 X EL-34's. I like those! People say the EL-84 is a small bottle EL-34 but NUH-UH!
t0aj15 Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 Nice. Had a Mesa/Boogie Mark II-something with 2 X EL-34's. I like those! People say the EL-84 is a small bottle EL-34 but NUH-UH! No the el-34 & the el-84 are two completely different animals. I'm a fan of the 34's for a good crunch tone and don't care for the 84's at all. IMO the 84's are to thin sounding with not enough bottom end to them, and that was the problem I had with the Peavey Classics, they just sounded to thin for my taste. For a great clean tone though my favorites are still 6L6's.
barrymclark Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 No the el-34 & the el-84 are two completely different animals. I'm a fan of the 34's for a good crunch tone and don't care for the 84's at all. IMO the 84's are to thin sounding with not enough bottom end to them, and that was the problem I had with the Peavey Classics, they just sounded to thin for my taste. For a great clean tone though my favorites are still 6L6's. Interesting. My tube amp has EL84's and thin isn't what i'd call it at all. Granted, that is a tube that has to be driven though. But still a very thick sound is what I get. The bass thump is WONDERFUL from the JCA20H into the JCA24S+ when I am driving it.
sonar Posted February 8, 2012 Posted February 8, 2012 ...el-84...not enough bottom end to them... For a great clean tone though my favorites are still 6L6's. Yeah the only EL-84 based amps I ever liked that I have owned were a Ampeg JT-20 (St Louis Music)), and a Dr Z Studio 38 (and that was just with Tele's). 6L6's give the tight bass I love, but EL-34's in the right circuit - though mushier - have their charms.
rjsanders Posted February 9, 2012 Posted February 9, 2012 EL84s seem (imho) to respond to preamp design better than any other tube. some examples of the wide range of sounds you can get from them are Blues Jr (& Pro Jr.), lotsa Mesas, Matchless, VHT Pittbull 45, my beloved Heritage Briton II, Vox AC-30, Dr. Z, Trainwreck, and many more. if you encounter flub or mush in an EL84-based amp, then the designer put it there
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