Thoughts on Traynor YBA & YRM amps

[toneman335]

Can anyone comment on the Traynor YBA and YRM amps of the late 60's and early 70's as far as tone and construction? Seems I heard they were suppose to be great amps. Are they both great guitar amps as the YBA was intended to be a bass amp. Lastly, is there a version or series that most agree is best?

[Sparky6string]

I have a YBA-1 Bassmaster and IMO it's as good as any amp I've ever heard. Two channels- one for bass use and one for guitar, so it's versatile. Great tones, plexi like distortion, and it likes single coils and humbuckers alike. Also you can bridge the two channels. I still use mine as my #1 for humbuckers. Construction is about as buletproof as you can get, huge Hammond trannies and many of them have mustard caps that the early Marshalls utilized.

[Belmont]

The YBA-1 and YSR-1 are both great amps,I have a couple of each one stock and one modded,killer amps.I just picked up a heavily modded YBA-1a and it nails Van Halen1 tone.

[ROKY]

Haven't plugged into a YRM, but I've had a couple YBA-1s, and still have
one; a mid 60's version.

Great-sounding amp in stock form-- voiced more JTM Marshall(flatter mid).

A little spongier on the attack with the stock volume pots(4 Meg)

If you change the vol. pots to 1 Meg it firms up the attack and makes it
feel more Marshally ,, if you wanted to change a few resistors you
can voice it to be more late 60s JMP .. some guys do that some only
change the vol pots to 1 Meg, and some leave it completely stock.

The bright cap on one of the channel volumes is a little too high of a
value, so many people change that to a lower value, or clip it out,
altogether.

Good amps that can be tweaked [like any Marshall of the period] to
reflect the subtle differences between the the 66-72 Marshall amps,
for the most part.

A die-hard Marshall player may not like the Hammond output tranny,
feeling it doesn't saturate the same way the old Drake's do, but then
there are some who appreciate the fidelity of the Hammond iron, and
find it adds a certain clarity that is uniquely Traynor .

Hope this helps.

[sliberty]

The YBA-1 came in several versions, pretty much tracking the Marshall moels of the day. The earliest versions looked more like a JTM45 from a cisruit point of view. It then evolved into more of a Plexi type circuit. At each stage, some fo the values were different from teh "standard" Marshall values, but still, they sounded very much like their Marshall cousins. Many people changed the values (usually just resistors and pots) in an effort to bring them even closer. At the end of the day, the transformers present the biggest difference, but are good quality and sound very good, so they are rarely replaced (expensive to do so).

As for construction, the one I have experience with reminded me of a Fender. The eyelet board was very Fender-like, complete with "Tweed Disease" (warping of the board due to moisture absorption). Strong heavy chassis', good hardware, its all good.

They are real bargains compared to a vintage Marshall, usually costing around $400-$600 for a YBA-1 (50 watts).

[Mr. Crow]

I just sold my '73 YBA-1 Bassmaster. I never was going to need that volume, and at my home volumes it was okay, but obviously needed a bit of cranking to get it to where it shined.

But I just bought a '77 Traynor YBA-2B Bassmate combo, EL 84's and a 1x15 speaker. It's got the black front as opposed to the earlier gray front. Some people say the mid to later Traynors aren't as good, but this thing just kills. Fantastic overdrive/grind at about 2/3 volume, and at 20 watts it plenty loud but not so much that it scrambles my brain. I'm very happy with this amp. Probably going to change the speaker, and I've read about people changing the Bassmate circuit over to the Guitarmate circuit to make it a little more guitar friendly. Supposed to be quite easy. I'll investigate that, but I'm a little afraid of taking away this one's magic.

[SuperReverb2]

On a bit of a side note, Traynor has just "reissued" the YGM-3, 20 watt, EL84 amp from the 60's. It's point to point handwired as well. (see link) We have one in the store, and it's actually a GREAT sounding amp. Retails for a bit over a $1000.00 Canadian.

http://www.traynoramps.com/products.asp?type=3&cat=63&id=409

[Sparky6string]

I just sold my '73 YBA-1 Bassmaster. I never was going to need that volume, and at my home volumes it was okay, but obviously needed a bit of cranking to get it to where it shined.

But I just bought a '77 Traynor YBA-2B Bassmate combo, EL 84's and a 1x15 speaker.

What I did recently was swap out the el34s in my YBA-1 for JJ 6V6s to lower headroom and wattage. Worked like a charm.

[Mr. Crow]

What I did recently was swap out the el34s in my YBA-1 for JJ 6V6s to lower headroom and wattage. Worked like a charm.

Oops, may have been a premature sale! Live and learn, although I did get a very good price for it ($560).

[steadygarcia]

Great amps. I've been in the market for a YBA-1 for quite some time. Some guys have caught on that they're getting valuable and are asking way too much. I figure if I wait, I should be able to pick one up for about $400 to $450. I do have a YBA-3 custom special (120W). It's a bass head as well, but sounds killer for guitar.