Tubes for a Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster

[abakerdabra]

It's the early 70's rubber bumper with silver trim.

Right now I have Marshall tubes and have been thinking about swapping them out for something different.

Any suggestions?

[Redmaz]

I have a '68 YBA-1 I just retubed with JJs from Eurotubes. It sounds great. The amp had EH el34s, 2 RCA 12ax7s and a JJ ecc83. IMO, if you use the amp as a clean platform for pedals like I do, it's not worth spending a dime more than JJs from Eurotubes. I have not found a more stout, reliable el34 for new production. They gave the amp more headroom in the output section with a tighter and more robust low end. I ordered mine with the balanced phase inverter, but you could save a few bucks by just asking for 3 standard ecc83s, since I doubt anyone could tell the difference. If you're not familiar with JJs, I'd get the E34l, not the el34.

[abakerdabra]

I have a '68 YBA-1 I just retubed with JJs from Eurotubes. It sounds great. The amp had EH el34s, 2 RCA 12ax7s and a JJ ecc83. IMO, if you use the amp as a clean platform for pedals like I do, it's not worth spending a dime more than JJs from Eurotubes. I have not found a more stout, reliable el34 for new production. They gave the amp more headroom in the output section with a tighter and more robust low end. I ordered mine with the balanced phase inverter, but you could save a few bucks by just asking for 3 standard ecc83s, since I doubt anyone could tell the difference. If you're not familiar with JJs, I'd get the E34l, not the el34.

Thanks! Some very helpful information there. Why the E34l over the el34's?

[Redmaz]

The E34L is tighter and punchier with a more robust low end. The EL34 is more Mullard like which still sounds great, but I'm not trying to do the crank up an old non-master Marshall thing to get preamp and output tubes pushed. I'm using it clean with pedals, which I think works particularly well with the YBA-1, because it's a lot more hi-fi than a Marshall. You can look at it like a SS rectified JTM-45, but with giant Hammond trannies like in a twin reverb. I don't know about yours, but with a nice overdrive or two (Barber DDSS, Zendrive, modded TS), I can get killer Dumble tones.