traynor amp

Gary Glisson · From: munford, tn 38058

has anyone played thru a traynor amp? I found one its tube amp with 2 12'' speakers mid to late 70's mfg
thanks gary

John Limbach · From: Billings, Montana, USA

Gary:

I have a couple of early 70's Traynor heads that I restored. I really like the Bassmaster. Did a lot of mods including increasing the low frewuncy response in the preamp stages and changing the tone stack to Fender values to get a more pronounced mids "scoop". Also individual biasing of each output tube.

I like it a lot for lap steel. Be glad to share any mod info with you.

John

Allan Haley · From: British Columbia, Canada

Hi. I have a 71 YGM 3. I replaced the original driver with an Eminence 12. I know of one pro player who cut the speaker baffle to fit an Eminence EPS 15.
I like the amp a lot. I don't use the reverb, and the tremelo is pretty unusable (speed is way too fast). However, it was cheap and has tons of power and a very very clean bright tone.

Michael Brebes · From: Northridge CA

You are talking about the YGL-3 Mark 3 amp that is similar to a Fender Twin. I still have the one I bought back in 1973 and it still is my #1 amp. Great sound. Fender late Tweed-style preamp with a Marshall style power amp and Ampeg reverb circuit. Some later ones had some strange mods to the preamp circuit but can easily be modded back to the original circuit.
_________________
Michael Brebes
Instrument/amp/ pickup repair
MSA D10 Classic/Rickenbacher B6/
Dickerson MOTS/Dobro D32 Hawaiian/
Goldtone Paul Beard Reso

Mesa Boogie Studio Pre/Hafler 3000
RP1/MPX100

Allan Haley · From: British Columbia, Canada

YGM3
Very reliable. Clean. Unmodded, original hand-wired. Also, very inexpensive.
Traynor never caught on in the States. Peter Traynor was an amp tech/maker in Toronto who worked for Long and McQuade before he started his own line of amplifiers.

Allan Haley · From: British Columbia, Canada

James Quackenbush · From: Pomona, New York, USA

I have a couple Bassmaster heads ....The one with the fan in the back is the higher powered model .... They are considered the poor mans Plexi ....I get some great tones out of mine without any mods ....I will look into some of the mods at another time ...JIm

Walter Killam · From: Nebraska, USA

I have a pair of YBA1 Bassmaster heads, #1 is configured for Clean Headroom, and I had #2 modified to add a preamp gain pot, and configured for early break up. I use them together for Bass mostly, but I ran my steel up through #1 and it was plenty Clean & Loud. #2 sounds REALLY good for 6 string & lap. I haven't changed the tone stacks on either and probably won't, I figure if I need more control I can add an EQ pedal to the front end. Traynor amps are starting to catch on, so keep a sharp eye out if you're looking.

All that said, for Pedal Steel, I prefer my Evans FET LV 500
_________________
Mostly junque with a few knick-knacks that I really can't do without!

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

I have had a bunch of them, probably 8 over the years, from the big YGL4 100 watters down to the little Guitar Mate and Studio Mate, Guitar Mate had 1 x12, Studio Mate was the same amp, but with 4X8!.. SOOO cool!.. They are excellent amps.. virtually bulletproof.. That being said, I personally have never really bonded with the sound.. The front end is just too clean , and to my ears, lacks harmonics.. They sound a little sterile to me. Almost like a Music Man, or a Peavey with SS front end and tube output. Good, but just not "complex" enough.. I like the Fender sound a lot better. If you like a tube amp that will not distort period, get a YGL 4.. They are a pretty good steel amp, anvil like reliability, nice reverb, but VERY heavy, and to my ears, not near as sweet sounding as a Twin... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......

John Limbach · From: Billings, Montana, USA

Walter Killam · From: Nebraska, USA

I didn't do it myself, my local amp wiz did the work. I didn't describe this well, what I have is the Master Volume mod which allows me to drive up the pre gain while controlling the overall output. Then I installed a matched pair of Red Svetlana EL34s, and some OLD Ratheon 12AX7s I had in my tube stash.

Some of the most common mods are described at:

http://www.kilback.net/Traynor_Tweaks_rev12_sk2007.pdf

My Tech added the pot to one of the holes originally used for guitar input on channel 2, and then configured the other 3 so that 1 goes to channel 1, 2 goes to channel 2, & 3 goes both channels bypassing the need to bridge the channels manually with a patch cord. If you haven't bridged the channels you should give it go, there's some real magic there
_________________
Mostly junque with a few knick-knacks that I really can't do without!

MIchael Bean · From: North Of Boston

I had a YB1A Bassmaster. It was a great amp that I could play bass through one night and guitar the next.

I was just given a YSR-1 Custom Reverb head. It doesn't work yet, but its going to be nice. I'm looking forward to some PSG through it.

Michael Hummel · From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Here's a great story from when I was a teenager living in Toronto (sounds like a fairy tale but my friend swears it is true):

I had two bandmates that had summer jobs at Traynor (now Yorkville Sound) in the east end of Toronto. One of them fondly recalls when Steve Miller was in town for a tour and needed to find a bunch of amps. He asked Pete Traynor to take a couple of Bassmasters up on the factory roof and thrown them down to the parking lot. Once they took out the broken tubes and replaced them, the amps worked perfectly fine.

Steve Miller and bandmates were so impressed they bought a bunch of them for the rest of the tour.
_________________
MSA Classic 5+4
Too many 6-strings and amps to list

Forum Index > Electronics		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: