Traynor YB-18A Cabinet

i believe this old school made in Toronto cabinet dates to the early 70's. unfortunately, at some point in its rock & roll life the Traynor logo was ripped, smashed or pulled off. anyway, it's a huge goddamn box with an enormous 18" Celestion Greenback in it. handles 100 watts. It is supposedly, according to Traynor literature from that era, a folded horn cabinet. It has a little bit of a reverse horn loading, but not much, you may as well consider it a bass reflex design. it has two very solid handles on the side. they aren't attached, they are cut right into the damn side of the cabinet! this thing is truly well constructed, i think it will last another 30+ years with care. i think, as a 1x18" cabinet goes, this is as good as it gets in terms of design. i just love everything about it.

I have used a few different basses through it. I have a heavily modified Squier P-Bass with flatwounds on it, and i can get a great vintage tone. well, to the limit of that bass. it's not THAT great, but other basses i used, like a real fender Jazz from 1971, a 1966 Rick 4001 or a Hofner 500/1 gor GREAT old school thumpy bass tones. Most people will tell you that a 1x18" cabinet will be mud city, but not this one! i get all the highs i need and it tracks just fine. no icepick, no slow response, whatever. in fact, i was lazy one day and i wa splaying bass with my Laney GH50L guitar head plugged into it. well anyway, being lazy i wanted to play guitar but not switch cabinets, so i didn't. it turned out to sound incredible, so i decided to make it my main guitar cabinet! biggest, fullest sound ever. serious projection too.

i could probably depend on this cabinet to back me up in a gunfight if i asked it to.

Traynor as it was in the 60's and 70's no longer exists, particularly after Peter Traynor left Yorkville Sound in 1976. Even still, Yorkville does an admirable job of acknowledging what they did in the past and trying to support their old stuff even while they are busy selling huge PA setups to people.

I have been playing close to 5 years and i would cry, then go on a shooting rampage if this box were to be stolen. I love that it is big, old, looks vintage, SOUND INCREDIBLE, works well for guitar and bass, and the easily removeable grille. it is pretty heavy, but if you want a lightweight bass setup, plan on paying more. there was no lightweight bass setup in the old days, when this thing was made. i just love it to pieces. the good thing is, i get a pretty unique sound out of it. being 17, most of my friends/peers come to me and say "dude, i just bought this killer [random manufacturer] combo!!! it has 360 amp models on it! it rocks your amp!". while that might be cute and have a bunch of coloured flashing LEDS, none of them sound all that great, and when i fire this thing up, they all come asking how i got that sound.