DetroitBlues Posted April 2, 2023 Posted April 2, 2023 New vintage amp day! Stopped in Guitar Hi-Fi in Royal Oak, MI. They always have have some great used amps, mostly vintage stuff. They have their own amp tech that services all those amps, today I stumbled across a 1970’s Traynor Guitar Mate Reverb. 20 watt, all tube amp with Reverb and Tremolo. It had been recapped and new grounded power cord. Years ago, I had a similar amp. Traynor Guitarmate IV, only difference was 4x8 instead of 1x12 configuration. Heres a quick demo I recorded on my phone. Amp is a bit bright, but gets loud and nasty. Reverb is dripping wet and the tremolo is amazing.
TalismanRich Posted April 2, 2023 Posted April 2, 2023 I certainly has a Fenderish vibe with the tremolo and reverb. Traynors a great amps.
rwinking Posted April 2, 2023 Posted April 2, 2023 19 hours ago, DetroitBlues said: Amp is a bit bright, but gets loud and nasty. Do you think the brightness might be the speakers? Not sure what was stock in them.
DetroitBlues Posted April 3, 2023 Author Posted April 3, 2023 On 4/2/2023 at 5:13 PM, rwinking said: Do you think the brightness might be the speakers? Not sure what was stock in them. I’ve thought about that too. I have a creamback, but it’s 16ohm and the amp is 8ohm
kbp810 Posted April 4, 2023 Posted April 4, 2023 Awesome find, I really need to make a trip down state to visit that place. Any idea what speaker is in it now? A shame that it doesn't have a 16ohm out, that creamback could have been just what the doctor ordered. As we discussed a bit too, I think it could benefit from adding a snubber cap in the PI; that can really help yank some brittle highs out of a hard pushed pair of EL84's. It looks like the first gen of this amp didn't have one, later gen's did. Either way, that amp certainly has the goods.
bolero Posted April 4, 2023 Posted April 4, 2023 Those are great amps! There are some basic mods around to improve them too. Congrats DB!
DetroitBlues Posted April 4, 2023 Author Posted April 4, 2023 16 hours ago, kbp810 said: Awesome find, I really need to make a trip down state to visit that place. Any idea what speaker is in it now? A shame that it doesn't have a 16ohm out, that creamback could have been just what the doctor ordered. As we discussed a bit too, I think it could benefit from adding a snubber cap in the PI; that can really help yank some brittle highs out of a hard pushed pair of EL84's. It looks like the first gen of this amp didn't have one, later gen's did. Either way, that amp certainly has the goods. My Lil Dawg has a Weber C1230 (8 ohm), however the amp has selectable 4/8/16 output. I could put the Creamback in there and try the Weber in the Traynor.
rockabilly69 Posted April 4, 2023 Posted April 4, 2023 Sounds rock and roll to me! At 1:48 I like when it was on the edge of feeding back. That's where the fun happens!!!
rwinking Posted April 4, 2023 Posted April 4, 2023 4 hours ago, DetroitBlues said: Weber C1230 Is that a hemp weber? They tend to mellow out any brittleness. i had one of their D130 clones in an amp and it is fine for straight out twangy C&W, but any music with an edge made it too fizzy. I swapped it out and it was like a different amp. After all of these years, I still tend to forget how important speaker selection is!
DetroitBlues Posted July 25, 2023 Author Posted July 25, 2023 While its recommended by many of a Traynor member to swap the speaker, I liked what I heard coming out of the amp. Its bright, but when set in a mix with a band, it cuts through. Did a two hour gig with it and the amp rocked!
DetroitBlues Posted August 1, 2023 Author Posted August 1, 2023 Yesterday, I had a chance to A/B compare my Lil Dawg to the Traynor. Lil Dawg is a hybrid of a Marshall 1974 with Fender Reverb circuit added. The amp is much fuller and deeper sounding than the Traynor. There are some major differences between the amp, but the efficiency of the Blue Weber Speaker Ceramic 1230 might be the difference too.
bolero Posted August 18, 2023 Posted August 18, 2023 Yeah I'd try upgrading the speaker in the Traynor. The stock speakers in Traynors & Garnets are the reason they weren't well regarded for years.
DetroitBlues Posted September 12, 2023 Author Posted September 12, 2023 I've since upgraded the speaker to a Celestion Creamback Neo (a highly recommended upgrade from the FB Traynor Amp group). The amp is so killer!
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