Won myself some speakers with a free Traynor amp on Ebay ;-)

[Le Chat Noir]

I've been on the lookout for something a bit different since selling my Rocker 30, and I just stumbled across a Traynor YCV80 ending on Ebay. Traynor seem to have a fairly good rep, and most criticisms of this amp in reviews seemed to be the sub par stock speakers. What really got my attention was that this one has a pair of Celestion Golds fitted in it!

[indianDYsummer]

Awesome deal! That's pretty sweet. I bet the amp will be pretty decent, but it sounds like you could flop in some different speakers and make some $ if you don't like it.

[Le Chat Noir]

The only Traynors I've heard in the flesh were vintage and very Fendery in character, pretty nice. This one is meant to have one 'Marshall' voiced channel and one 'Fender' voiced. Traynors seem to go for very low prices used, I think these retailed around 700GBP or so new here, probably cheaper in the US and Canada though.

I've always fancied trying some Golds anyhow, so if I don't get on with the Traynor I might try the Golds in my AD30

[indianDYsummer]

Oooh fancy

[Le Chat Noir]

If I recall correctly, fellow forumite brianr0131 used to have a YCV80 listed in his sig with his gear, so I am interested to see if he'll chip in here!

[DoctorJay]

Sounds like a great find Teddy.

I tried a 20W Traynor a few years ago and really liked it. Great Fendery clean IIRC.

More amps!

[Neiloler]

Traynor is either a major hit or major miss, our guitarist had one and we didn't like it at all, it seemed really scooped.

The speakers were a big part of the problem though. I'm darn jealous of your 2xgolds, that'll be AWESOME.

[a.hun]

Sounds like a great find Teddy.

I tried a 20W Traynor a few years ago and really liked it. Great Fendery clean IIRC.

More amps!

Yeah great score Teddy!

A good mate also had an old 20ish watt Traynor combo Jarret.
Lovely sounding amp. Really well built too - they always had a great rep.


Andy.

[Daves]

How your amp was made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2oXPlV ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Les Paul Lover]

How your amp was made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2oXPlV ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That actually was pretty interesting to watch!!!!

[Le Chat Noir]

How your amp was made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2oXPlV ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was very interesting, thanks for sharing! Wow, the bit where it goes through a solder bath instead of each part being hand soldered - that's really clever, never knew about that process! Weird that the preamp tube is on the board underneath.

[brianr0131]

If I recall correctly, fellow forumite brianr0131 used to have a YCV80 listed in his sig with his gear, so I am interested to see if he'll chip in here!

Good memory Teddy.

It's a nice amp. I think you'll like it to be honest. I think you'll find the cleans to be incredible after you play with them a bit. I know you don't use cleans much though.

The dirty channel is relatively versatile as well. You can get really nice crunch on there and it can get pretty ballsy too. It's nothing like orange dirty though (obviously).

I think you can find a voicing for it in your setup for sure. The fact that it is so different will most likely "thicken" your already thick sound. Another thought might be to overdrive the clean channel. It's very fendery and overdriven won't have the clarity or articulate sounds you get from an orange, but it would likely sound very big.

A nice trick I used with that amp for boosts is using the trim pits on the effects loop (I never used any effects in loop) and putting my tuner in there to cut it. I would then turn the tuner off to engage the boost I created. It worked well for me and the nice part is that it works well on all channels too.

The "boost" function on the footswitch isn't a distinctly different sound unless you have the dirty gain at 2/3 or below. If you do that, you truly have 3 different footswitchable sounds (technically 6 with my loop "trick"). I know you usually dime your amps, so I don't think the versatility is your main concern ecxept maybe for practicing.

Master volume works very well. All in all I think you'll be pleased with the amp. the 70/80 speakers really suck, so you're lucky to have those golds in there. A lot of people like them with V30's for some reason. If you sell it, maybe you can throw a pair of those in there.

This is a LOUD amp. I found it to be on par with 100 watt amps. But, I think with 4 6l6 you already assumed that.

Also, by changing one or two caps you can use EL34s in there. I know that will give you a more british type sound if that's what you're after. But, to be honest, I think your best bet will be overdriving the clean channel for something really fat.

You may surprise yourself and keep it.

Good luck. Good buy too! You got a nice deal.

[Bensen]

The golds should sound awesome in your ad30. Have a pair of red fangs in mine (wich are aimed after the blues) and much prefer the sound. The alnico makes it sound more open, sparkly and gives better cleans vs. tight, cutting and aggressive sound of the v30 - if thats what your after. i imagine the golds will sound even more classy than the fangs, but i honestly never tried them.

[Le Chat Noir]

Went and picked up the amp yesterday!

Tried it briefly last night - first impressions are that this amp sounds nothing like any other amp I've used before. I'm not going to gush that it's the best thing I've ever played through, but it is certainly different! I've owned about a dozen amps to date, and all have been British-voiced - Marshall, Orange, Carlsbro, etc - and haven't ever even played through an American-voiced amp really, so the 'Fender' type channel on this is a new experience for me.

Besides the tone stack and the valves, I think a big part of what I'm hearing may be to do with the Golds - it has this lovely syrupy, chimey high end, but coupled with a deep, fat, warm low end. Next to my AD30, the difference in voicing is huge - the AD30 is incredibly focussed in the mids, kicking out loads of low mid fuzz but with a restrained high end and not much lows at all. This amp has less mids but a ton more low end and high end chime without 'ice pickiness'.

Interestingly, whilst Brian says his was incredibly loud, I think mine is much quieter than most 30w+ amps I've owned! I cranked the master to full and I could hear myself shout over it - whereas my old Carlsbro TC100 or Marshall Super Bass both made any voice inaudible at about 3 on the volume dial, plus giving you physical pain in your ears at about 5 or so! It doesn't sound much louder to me than my AD30 to be honest.

All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase so far, will see how it sits in my rig - I'm feeling positive though, like I say it's voiced so differently from the AD30, I think it'll definitely fill out the sonic space a bit more.

My next test will be plugging the AD30 into the Golds to see how much of a difference that makes! I'm worried though that I may like it too much and have to buy more Golds, haha!

Brian, out of interest how come you parted with the Traynor in the end? Just wasn't the voicing you were after?

P.S. Pics to follow

[baytamusic]

Nice Score! Traynors are very popular around my area.