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Traynor Amps - Like em or not? Happy New AMP day! (HNAD!!!)

Taylor Player

By Taylor Player
in Gibson Acoustic

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Taylor Player

Taylor Player

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I realize this has little or nothing to do with acoustic guitars, but I also know we have a pretty good contingent of Canadians in this little section who might know a bit more about these amps then me. I had never had a chance to play on in any store in my area.

 

To give you the back story.......

 

I made a very successful trade yesterday for a new amp. I wanted to get something bigger than my little 15 watt Fender Blues Jr. The BJ is a great little amp that does one thing very well and that is play Fender cleans at house volume. If cranked, I found it to be a bit on the Boxy side. Plus I am hoping to do a bit of gigging with a local Blues/Harmonica guy and his band and my BJ was my only electric amp. So, I offered it up on Craigslist in trade for something bigger. I got the typical Crate and Peavey amp offers in the 20-40 watt range that didn't interest me much and actually had two people offer up Fender Hot Rod Deluxes for trade which I likely would have jumped on. Then, when I was in the middle of responding to one of the Fender HRD guys, I got a message from a guy who offered up a 2008 built Traynor YCV80 212 in trade! 80 Watts, two channels with footswitch, effects loops, Celestion seventy/80 speakers and a standby switch (which I always wished my BJ had) and all housed in a heavy duty Birch Plywood cabinet. (Not the cheapo chipboard that Fender uses on it's Mexican built amps). I figured something had to be wrong with it, but immediately contacted the guy anyway. Turns out he was an older guy who was blessed with a few nice "Big" amps like an old MusicMan and a Vintage Fender Twin. He was looking for something smaller to mess around on and said he rarely played the Traynor as he tended to prefer his Fender Twin. He even acknowleged that most people would think him nuts to make a down-trade like that straight up, but I have to say, I am certainly appreciating it. If Craigslist and Ebay prices are fairly accurate, I just doubled the value of my amp with no out of pocket!!!

 

On top of that, he had recently re-tubed it with Mesa STR425 tubes which he said tended to keep the treble of the amp under control. All I can say is, WOW..... this amp blows my BJ away for tone and I haven't even come close to cranking it yet. With 80 watts, I would likely peel the paint off the walls and scare my cat into next week, but I will be doing that tonight when my house is empty for a bit! [biggrin] (poor kitty will have to live with it!)

 

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the Traynor amps. I know they have been around since the 60's and have a reputation as fairly bullet proof amps, but not much else.

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ksdaddy

ksdaddy

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My only experience with Traynor was that when my brother got (honorably) discharged from the Army in early '74 the first thing he did when he got home was to buy a used Jazzmaster and a brand new Traynor monster. I mean we're talking an early 70s overkill amp here. Can't recall the wattage of the head but the bottom had 6-12's. It would make the electric meter spin and would vibrate knick knacks off the shelves.

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jefleppard

jefleppard

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in the 80's, they were the cheap amps, solid state we all grew up on. but at 14 years old we'd have never appreciated tube tone. here's some reviews of the one you're talking about...

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Traynor/YCV80+212+Combo/10/6

 

i played one in the store (long and mcquade) a couple years ago and i hated it. the cleans were ok but the dirty channel was way off. it has this gravelly tone that sounds like something isnt working right. idk, maybe just me but...it seems like you lucked out. great to hear it blows you and the cat away. i love shaking stuff off the shelves when no one's around. i really admire how you've got this trading life thing down to a t. when you get sick of it, place an ad and get something else. really cool.

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Taylor Player

Taylor Player

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in the 80's' date=' they were the cheap amps, solid state we all grew up on. but at 14 years old we'd have never appreciated tube tone. here's some reviews of the one you're talking about...

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Traynor/YCV80+212+Combo/10/6

 

i played one in the store (long and mcquade) a couple years ago and i hated it. the cleans were ok but the dirty channel was way off. it has this gravelly tone that sounds like something isnt working right. idk, maybe just me but...it seems like you lucked out. great to hear it blows you and the cat away. i love shaking stuff off the shelves when no one's around. i really admire how you've got this trading life thing down to a t. when you get sick of it, place an ad and get something else. really cool.[/quote']

 

Thanks Cunk....

 

I was hoping you would chime in being one of my Canadian buddies! I agree about the clean channel. It kicks butt over the Blues Jr. for fullness and tone. I also have to say that the Gain channel is pretty sweet too. Maybe it is due to the upgrade in tubes to the Mesa tubes. I have heard the original Sovtek tubes were pretty crappy. I am not thrilled with the extra boost on the gain channel, but then again, I don't play any metal so too much gain never sounds appealing to me. Using just the gain channel I think it sounds very Marshall like and I can see where I will get some great bluesy lead tones with some pretty sweet crunch. The clean channel is almost a sweet Fender clean tone and may even appeal to me a bit more than some of the larger Fender amps I have played. It seems like with this amp, I actually have two very useable amps with a huge variety of tones whereas my Blues Jr. just gave me the Fender tone with a little variation when using my pedals.

 

I have to agree about my trading skills! [blush] I haven't had a bad trade in at least a couple years and I have done a lot of trading as you know. I basically started trading with an old somewhat collectable 70's style Ibanez Custom Agent that was given to me by a buddy for helping him move. He had lent it to a friend and got it back several years later in pretty beat up condition. It was unplayable as is and had a cracked scroll off the headstock. I just left it on a music stand as a decoration in my music room for about 10 years. I then Sold it to a collector in NJ who just needed mine in the very rare color I had to complete his complete collection of Custom Agents. He also knew how to repair them to original. I sold it to him for $750 and then used $500 of that to start a little trading thing on Craigslist. Over the last two years I have turned that $500 into the following gear by trading

UP!!!: (2 amps, 2 guitars and 4 pedals)

 

1) 2003 built Genz Benz Shenendoah 200 Stereo Deluxe Acoustic Amp (Around $1200 new)

2) 2008 Traynor YCV80 Tube Amp (Around $700+ new)

3) 1964 Gibson LG1 (I paid for a neck reset and having a pickup installed)

4) 1996 Epiphone Casino with a factory installed Epiphone Bigsby

5) Boss RC20XL loop station

6) Fulltone FB3 - Fat Boost pedal

7) Boss BD2 - Blues Driver pedal

8) USA built VOX V847 wah pedal

 

I also got my Gibson AJ in a trade for my 2003 Taylor 454CE-Ltd 12 string guitar from Craigslist. That was a pretty even trade although I play the AJ much more than I ever did the 12 string. I also traded an old Amelio Burget Classical guitar with a cracked lower bout for a variety of things that has ended up being my current 2008 Schecter C1+ passive humbucker guitar. Again, I play that much more than I ever did the classical and the "new" value of that is equal to the Classical.

 

All in all, I LOVE CRAIGSLIST!!!!! My wife, not so much, but I keep telling her that trading music gear is much better for the both of us than say having an affair! [biggrin]

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jefleppard

jefleppard

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awesome trade stories.

i see you've still got the FB 3 and the blues driver. i'd experiment with those on both channels - using them primarily as clean boosts. you'll get extra vol and some drive but you'll still have clarity and note separation. on my clean channel, i have a boss eq on all time that gives me some grit. when i'm doing a lead, i use the fulltone with the volume and the drive at 2 o'clock. nice punch - very marshally - but my guitar has p-90s so they never really get muddy. have some fun with it - then relist. cool. i like your style.

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Taylor Player

Taylor Player

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awesome trade stories.

i see you've still got the FB 3 and the blues driver. i'd experiment with those on both channels - using them primarily as clean boosts. you'll get extra vol and some drive but you'll still have clarity and note separation. on my clean channel' date=' i have a boss eq on all time that gives me some grit. when i'm doing a lead, i use the fulltone with the volume and the drive at 2 o'clock. nice punch - very marshally - but my guitar has p-90s so they never really get muddy. have some fun with it - then relist. cool. i like your style.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the tips Cunk....

 

I have been playing around with the pedals and both channels. I am finding big differences in settings when playing my Casino with the P90's and my Schecter with passive Seymore Duncan humbuckers through the amp and pedals. I have to agree about the P90's not getting muddy... they can scream through this amp. The Humbuckers in the Schecter also are sounding amazing with great sustain and harmonics I couldn't seem to coax out of my Blues Jr. amp.

 

I was having a problem with my Vox Wah and the amp at first. It had a bad hiss, but when I took my "One Spot" adaptor off the pedal and put a 9 volt back in, the hiss went away. That happened with a VOX Valvetronix amp I had too but not the Blues Jr for some reason. With the BJ, using the plug adaptor into the battery plug worked without the hiss. [lol] I guess I will just have to remember to unplug my cord from the Wah when done now so I don't wear out the 9 volt.

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Murph

Murph

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Remind me NOT to trade with you....

 

[lol]

 

My only experiance with Trayner amps were the old ones, all good. I never owned one, but was around a few.

 

If you like it, it's good, eh?

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Murph

Murph

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Well I have been looking for a "Birth year" guitar and that 61 Melody Maker would work..... Hmmmm I have a nice Peavy Rage 115 practice amp.... wanna trade Murph?!?!? [love]

 

:-k

 

Hmmmmm.

 

A genuine Peavey.....

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