Traynor YBA-1 N(old)OAD

[Kapo_Polenton]

Picked this thing up locally for 350$ which I think is a pretty solid price for a powerhouse like this. I just had it on the attenuator and to get it to breakup (sweet early AC DC tones to a tee) i have to run the attenuator pretty high thus sacrificing some tone. Unfortunately I think this thing will need a MV or PPIMV. So I was thinking of doing the standard Marshall mods such as a cascaded preamp, lower negative feedback resistor, master of some type, and finally get an effects loop in one of my amps so I can run a delay pedal. I've been doing the wet/dry thing but all i use is delay so why bother. Would be so much easier to just have a delay pedal. So what else would I want to consider? changing values of the pots? I welcome any and all suggestions from you amp gurus...

PS- This thing is unbelievably loud.. I thought my JCM800 was loud. I think this beast might be louder..

 

[Mudder]

Big iron in those. Great old amps.

 

[Phrygian]

Jumper the channels! You'll love it even more!

 

[The Hoff]

Nice. Congrats-HNAD!

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Yup jumpered them to bring out some fatness... huge thunderous sound from this thing. I might leave it on the hotplate for now and do a few cap and resistor swaps for more crunch but i'm diggin it.

 

[Chubtone]

Congrats man! Those things are supposed to be the bargain "plexi". Should turn out very cool and besides the birthplace of Loverboy, you just pointed out the other cool thing about Canada..... Traynor amps can be randomly found.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

lol indeed... thankfully we also produced Rush! ... and Lee Aaron! ..Killer Dwarves too! That's 3 right there

 

[FortinAmps]

Those old traynors are great for modding. It's not uncommon to find them loaded with NOS glass and filled with mustards for $350 used

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Mustards are all there except for one, NOS output tubes were stolen but hey, for 350$ I ain't complaining. Apparently the Wizard amp chap and AC/DC tech went over this amp and swapped a part or two and gave it a clean bill of health so it is in good solid working order. Anyway after looking at some layouts and schems last night I think I am going to do the bare bones basics and go from there:

- mixer resistor and bright cap mod to bring in some more crunch
- negative feedback resistor mod (tighten it up)
- jumper the channels internally
- bias resistor mod (so i can actually run a lil hot if i feel like it)
- lower filtering (caps are original, i'm thinking at close to 38 yrs it might be time) maybe 32/32?
- split cathode? Still undecided. I have always been a split cathode guy but then I got to thinking why not have this guy do the JTM45 thing? Apparently shared cathode is a better pedal platform as it is more balanced and this would give me the flexibility to goose the front end with an OCD or treble booster if I wanted to cover early and mid 80's tones.

- Later mod: effects loop using existing holes. One input and maybe speaker extension jack. This way it can go back to stock.


I kind of like the idea of this amp attenuated and pinned to get the tone so I think I'll just leave the master volume stuff for my JCM and my other JCM clone I have. What is the point in making another right?

Any other thoughts?

 

[1big1]

nice score! as you said.. you already have the nmv thing covered.. so why not tweak it a bit?

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Right here is the ticket.. why complicate: http://www.ceriatone.com/images/layoutP ... iatone.jpg I think Nik updated the layout as his MKI was said to sound too dark.. good starting point anyway as it is essentially what i am looking at + the tone stack which I had forgotten.

 

[Mr. Burton]

Man not even a crappy iphone pic? Nice score btw, but....

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I'll get some pics up tonight! It is really clean inside..not spaghetti!

 

[stephen sawall]

Congratulations...

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Here she is.. I'll prob have to swap those filter caps for safety and tonal reasons but overall, eyelets are pretty easy to work on. Compared to that pain in the ass PCB in my JCM800 this is a breeze.