Chaps and Chapettes.

I've seen that a lot of people are using Traynor amps. What's the skinny, why so good? Do they still make 'em?

Loves
G

Gramsci wrote:Chaps and Chapettes.

Do they still make 'em?

Loves
G

I think they do, but it's pretty much a different company. I think they make 2x12 combos that try to compete with fender's "twin amp" combos with lots of knobs that pull and push and funny leds that light up with you click stuff.

My guess is everyone's nuts about them cause you can find good Traynors used for cheap, and people usually overlook them for Marshalls, Fenders, Oranges, etc. Same thing with the Ampeg V-4, and to a lesser extent, Music Man.

The heads I've heard sounds like a cross between a V-4 and a high-wattage Marshall. Clean, lots of mids, very crisp, but more "sparkly" and vibrant than the V-4.

I mean, the guitarist in our band just bought a Traynor 8x10 with a 50w Mark II head (that sounds really pretty) for $430. If it were a Marshall 8x10 with a 50w JMP it'd be "a steal" at $2800.

More or less, they used to make solid state amplifiers that would make a person say "Fuck Tube!" Now they make tube amps that don't make you say anything really.
The TS-25 I borrowed from a friend had to be the best sounding amp I'd played through in a while, but alas, it had to be returned. Went to a guitar shop down the block with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, they'd have something comparable. Instead they bring out this brown leather covered, all tube, $1400 dollar thing.
The old solid state ones are where it's at nice and clean sounding with plenty of that "just enough" dirt sound, and I could go on and on and on...

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:More or less, they used to make solid state amplifiers that would make a person say "Fuck Tube!" Now they make tube amps that don't make you say anything really.
...
The old solid state ones are where it's at nice and clean sounding with plenty of that "just enough" dirt sound, and I could go on and on and on...

The reason they started making solid-state amps in the first place is because they got involved in some program the Canadian government had going back then (the 70's) where they would give money to Canadian companies who were making technological innovations... part of the making technological innovations deal was that they had to be desiging solid-state shit, not tube shit, since tube was old news.

Traynor rules for their tube amps even more than their old solid-state amps. The solid-state amps have this thing called "Dyna-comp", which is a distortion that comes in a weird wave-shape, intended to closely immitate the sound of a tube amp. Their tube amps are what put them on the map back then, that and the fact that they invented lots of things like the 8x10 cabinet, and the portable PA, and the wedge monitor... the Ampeg SVT amp is rumored to have been designed after Dan Armstrong got a hold of a Traynor YBA-3A and brought it back to Ampeg...

The YBA-1 is, like a Marshall "Plexi", basically a copy of the old Fender Bassman design that launched the badass rock guitar amp. The Traynor philosophy is part of why they're such great amps... Pete Traynor was a bass player and a repair technician... he wanted to make amps that sounded great, and were as reliable as possible. And cheap, too! Nobody pulls that shit off! Great sound, reliable, and cheap?!?! Traynor did.

The current amps are probably great. I haven't checked one out yet, though some day I will end up with a YCV50 if the ebay community-at-large is snoozing. I am constantly bidding on them, but always getting outbid. I put in absurdly low bids. Some day my horse will come in, and I'll let you know if it's as good as the old stuff.

Check out their site at www.yorkville.com

If you really want to know everything about them, including what year they did XYZ, etc, there's a pdf document of their company history HERE. Believe it or not, I've read the whole thing.

One of the best things in that document is the part where they talk about the beta-testing process for Traynor amps back when Pete was designing them... He'd take one up to the roof of the building (I think it was 3 stories?) and throw it off. Then go pick it up, and put new tubes in it, and see if it worked. If it didn't work, the design needed to be fixed.

I have a YBA-3A that, according to the guy who sold it to me, fell out of the back of a van going 50mph. He didn't tell me this until after I had already paid him. I didn't care. That amp was made about 35 years ago, and it hasn't had a cap job, and it still has what I presume to be the original tubes or very close to original (they're Mullards, from what people have told me; branded as "GE" and stamped "Made in Great Britain"), and it works like a goddamn champ. 35 years old, and it fell out of a van, and it works like a champ.

Traynors what i can say. I've owned a Custom Reverb, Guitar Mate, Bassmaster and a MarkIII. Perhaps the best North American made amps ever. I would recomend a vintage Traynor tube amp to anyone but stay away from the new ones... why would you buy a new one when you can get a vintage one at half the price.

atlantic wrote:Traynors what i can say. I've owned a Custom Reverb, Guitar Mate, Bassmaster and a MarkIII. Perhaps the best North American made amps ever. I would recomend a vintage Traynor tube amp to anyone but stay away from the new ones... why would you buy a new one when you can get a vintage one at half the price.

'cause it doesn't have someone elses funk all over it.

I've never owned a Traynor, but I've played through them. One I can remember was an old bass combo with a 15 inch speaker....forget the model and all..........awesome for guitar though- very beefy sound.

i have learned with traynors, as well as all other amps be sure they are grounded

i got lit up like a goddamn christmas tree. but it sounded good....

my first all-tube amp was a YCV40 12" combo, and one of the loudest 40 watt amps i've ever heard. sounded killer, great clean tone, and it was less than a grand, brand new. is it a '68 deluxe reverb? no, but definitely as a entry/mid level amp or a backup to whatever badass rig you have already, ya can't go wrong with these things. and they have the best warranty in the universe.

this canadian gives em 2 hoser thumbs up!

Anyone recorded anything with a YBA? I really want to hear what they sound like.