Traynor YBA 200-02

200 watt Bass Amplifer
All tube
Made in Canada
Passive eq, scoop, resonance, volume and gain controls
Adjust able bias (previous version was fixed bias)

This is an early 2000's version. Technically it's a YBA 200, but as has happened with some others that I have read about, the fixed bias went into meltodown. I sent it to traynor and they upgraded it to the specs of a YBA 200-2. The two models are the same except that the YBA 200-2 has the adjustable bias. Thus I review it as a YBA 200-2.

With a preamp tube swap (more on that later) I have found it to be more than versatile for the music I play: mostly rock and country. The cut only eq is easy to figure out. The Scoop feature is of limited use, though I often run it engaged a little bit. The Resonance feature is pretty useless.

The front mounted line out is quite nice on a darkened stage, and the active and passive inputs are usefull addition in this day and age. The tuner out is a nice touch, not really usefull.

The only feature I wish this amp had was the ability to run at 2 ohms. Realistically, I will probably never run more than my 4 ohm Carvin 8x10, but it would be nice to have the option. For all practical purposes, the 4 and 8 ohm options are just fine.

Power Tubes: I am glad to see that Eurotubes now ships these amps with the KT88's it was designed for. I have the same JJ Electronics KT88's in the amp that new models come shipped with, and I think they are great. Very clear and defined (for a tube amp) and plenty of volume. Worlds ahead of the Sovtek 6558WE's that the amp that I purchased came with

Preamp Tubes: As far as the preamp tubes are concerned, this amp comes tubed for those who want alot of overdrive and soon. Traynor must have decided that that was the what most buyers would want.
It's not what I want, and if you don't want that, the first thing you should do is pull the 12ax7's out of position V1 and V2 and pop as couple of 12at7's in there. This is only a $20 investment, and will lower the "gain" but dramatically raise the clean volume. I have JJ electronics ecc81's (European designation for 12aT7's) and it has plenty of loud clean headroom without the early overdrive it had before.

I have a variety of basses with a variety of pickups that I play through this, Precision, Jazz, T-40s, artcore, carvin, Lakland 55-01. I have found that it reacts well to all manner of pickups. From Darkstars, to fender style, to Jack Casady low impedence, to passive/active setups in my carvin and Lakland.

With the ecc81 preamp tubes, it gets all the thick warm, loud tube sound I could want. It is not as crisp as a Solid State amp, but that's not what you buy a tube amp for. It can be bright when wanted, but I like a darker tone and am not a fan of too much high mids, so setting most everything at 5 and engaging the scoop just a bit gets a tone that I really like.

It's not perfectly quiet, but nothing out of the ordinary for a tube amp, and certainly nothing disruptive.

Overall, it has a very good tone. I somewhat prefer the sound of a vintage SVT, but it wouldn't be fair to compare that tone to an amp that retails for half that.

In the tone department, nothing about the tone of this amp makes me feel that I am "settling:

This is a sticky one. I got this one used, and it had a meltdown as soon as I purchsed it. Now that it is reparied and upgraded to 200-2 specs, it seems to be working well. Additionally, since the 200-2 specs allow for adjustable bias to better match the amp to the tubes, I feel it will be a much more dependable amp. I've had it on stage since the repair, and it worked flawlessly, so I'm going to give this a 7 for now, if it's still working this good in a year, I'd have no problem bumping it up to an 8 or 9.

Despite the fact that I was out of warranty, Traynor was very good to me. I had read about the "upgrade" to 200-2 specs from a Traynor emplyee on Talkbass, but the first person I spoke to at Traynor had no idea what I was talking about. Once I spoke to the tech, however, everythingwas clear. He was very helpfull and personable, and the repairs, upgrade, bias (I sent a set of tubes along to the factory)and return shipping only cost me $150 or so, and they sent it back very well packaged.

Also a quick shoutout for Eurotubes who were incredibly hepfull in deciding on the right tube selection for this amp. I purchased a YBA200 low-gain retube kit from them, and they later sold me a replacement tube at cost when the amp melted down shortly after purchasing the tubes.

Overall, I am pleased with this amp. Tonally, I prefer it to the SWR Silverado Special and Carvin RL1000 I previously owned. I also prefer it somewhat to the tone the uber-lightweight Ampeg Portabass 250 that I use for small gigs. I've played Vintage SVT's, Orange amps, and Fender 300's, and while this amp can't top those, it more than holds it's own, especially when price is figured in.

This is my first tube amp, and if it were lost and stolen and I had 800 bucks, I would probably buy another one. That said, the Peavey VB2 and Fender 300 are great amps, and now that I have a taste for tubes, I might be tempted to try one of them if I had more dough.

One note, if it's a YBA200 model, and it is more than 400 bucks, don't buy used. If it fries out and you have to pay for shipping, new tubes, and repair/upgrade, you may well invest nearly as much would cost to buy a new one, and you won't have the 2 year warranty. This happened to me, and I am happy with the amp, but I should have just bought new.

In the end, the YBA 200-2 is a great amp. Except for the recently released, and slightly more expensive 225 watt Peavey VB2, it's the only 200 watt bass tube amp in it's price range. The preamp tubes are a disapointment to us less-agressive bassists, but that's really no big deal, and switching tubes is part of the tube amp experience.

For those looking to get good quality tube tone at a price point significantly less than $1000 it completely delivers.

This is the new version with KT88 tubes. A pretty simple amp in that it easy to get a sound. I bought this amp with the Traynor 8X8 ( 800 watt) cabinet for my 9 year old son who plays base. He was using my band bass players YBA 200 ( first version wingned logo) and the first this the boy said was the old amps sound is better.

As mentioned the boy said: The old one sounds better, put down the bass and walked away. I just spent almost $2000 to get him his own rig so needless to say I was defflated. The distortion was terrible, no deffinition in the notes...Just sounded bad. Let me say I have many Yorkville products and they have always been great. I am a guitar player

I did some reading on the bass forums and took the approach in replacing a pre-amp tube. What I find stupid is that I would have to do this on a new amp, but that said : What a differance, it does not sound half as shitty. I put a 12T7 in the V1 position ( i had one lying around so gave it a try and it worked so I will get a couple of new tubes and hope for the best. What this amp has that is better is that it does NOT have the auto-bias. As in the first version. This is good because the minute you blow a powere tube in the amp it goes into "melt down" and you need some repairs done and a new set of tubes. Traynor did see the problem and fixed it. The YBA 200-02 has a fixed bias and shown not melt down when a tube blows.

Still to new to say but as mentioned above the auto bias feature has been removed. Yorkville stuff, as a rule, last along time.

The dude on the phone when you call is great. He know the equipement.

I have allot of Traynor ( Yorkville ) stuff and for the most part it is good. I do think however that Traynor could have tried a little harder with this amp. It could be a great amp with a little more attention to detail or as I say : If they really gave a shit!. I will continue to buy Yorkville stuff as you probably gues ....I live in Canada and like to support all things NOT FUC@#ing made in China.