From the early 1960s to mid 1970s Traynor guitar and bass tube amplifiers were good value, work horses that filled many a club and music hall. After years of dormancy, the Traynor name is back with a line of new guitar amps that provide the same value and performance as the old line.
The $699 YCV40 is the first entry for the resurrected Traynor name, which is manufactured by the Canadian amp/PA/speaker company, Yorkville. The company also manufactures an 80-watt, two speaker amp as well as a head/four-speaker cabinet version.
Features
The YCV40 is a 40-watt tube combo with a vintage look and sound, but with a few modern enhancements that make it competitive with others in - and even above its class.
The combo includes switchable clean and distortion channels, reverb, effects loop and footswitch channel switching. The tube biasing is done automatically with a built-in matching circuit. The top-mounted controls include bass, treble, midrange and volume controls for each channel
The overdrive has separate volume and gain knobs and a push button that takes it from blues overdrive to heavier metal territory. Both channels share presence and reverb, (spring reverb, thank God) controls.
With its solid Baltic birch construction, the amp weighs in at 40 pounds. It is wrapped in black tolex. Protecting the special-designed 12-inch Celestion speaker is a grill that seems typical at first glance.
The material is a typical weave-gray, but underneath the material is a perforated metal grill to protect against the accidental guitar-through-the-speaker routine.
The all-tube combo utilizes five Russian12AX7s and a pair of Russian-made 6L6s output. Unlike many of the tube combos today, Traynor hides the preamp tubes with a metal cover that has to be unscrewed for replacement. The power tubes are held in place with spring retainers.
The main power switch, the effects loop and external speaker jack are on back; the standby power switch is on the top panel.
The audition
When I fired the YCV40 up I immediately knew it was a winner. Plugging in an American Series Fender Telecaster, the YCV40 had a very vintage Fender amp character. In the clean channel, think BF Vibrolux crossed with a Deluxe Reverb.
The reverb has plenty of dimension without too much spring boinginess, and the presence adds low treble sparkle without hard edge.
The clean channel in my unit had a bit more hiss than I am used to hearing in new tube amps; more on par with old tube amps with aged carbon resistors. A Yorkville designer told me that that the clean channel has quite a bit of pre-gain before the volume control in order to get that vintage compressed richness.
Indeed, I tried to lower the amount of hiss, in order to get a totally hiss-free recording of my jazz guitar, by substituting a less-gain, 12AU7 tube in the clean channel circuit; the gain and hiss was reduced, but the warm compression also disappeared; it sounded better with the 12AX7 and the noise.
Using the Tele, a Fender Fat Strat and a Les Paul Standard with PAF 57 Classic reissue pickups, I found the distortion channel to be quite capable. Its sounds ranged from full, tube distortion blues to a decent, metal mid crunch.
Because of the relative inexpense of the YCV40, it is a great amp to modify with accessories. I added a set of Svetlana 6l6GCs for a bit more punch at louder volume, and I installed a vintage speaker that put it into even more vintage Fender territory. It sounds great out of the box, but street priced allows a few bucks for extras if desired.
My only nitpicks are the perforated metal grill, which adds some weight and, to my ears, some low treble peakiness when using the Celestion speaker.
Like most tube amps today, the circuit boards are wave soldered, not hand wired. But it should be as road worthy as any of its competitors. With its durable solid birch cabinet and metal speaker grill, this amp should be a good one for the rental market.