Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster Combo

This is a Yorkville made Bassmaster, made in Canada. I'm not sure of the age. The controls are basically relabled Marshall non master controls, with the mid and prescence labled Low and High. 4 inputs, also has bass and treble knobs, volumes for each channel. 3 phillips 12ax7s and 2 Groove Tubes EL-34. Its easy to tell where this amp is coming from. The speakers are 2 10 inch no names. They are blue and have a small squarish magnet on the back. Oh yeah, 50 watts.

Well surprise! It sounds like an old 50 watt Marshall. Set clean on the bright channel, the amp is already loud and actually kinda chimey with a Telecaster. Tone knobs do very little at this point. Turning it up, the amp distorts smoothly, even with full treble and a very bright bridge pickup. Here, the controls start to shape the sound a little more. The high (prescence) knob works well to add crunch, and the low knob (mids) is voiced to gently control the distortion. With the bass channel, the tone is thick, but not muddy at all. Sounds very punchy with the neck pickup. Clean sounds are very tight and almost a little compressed sounding. Both channels clean up really well, maintaining some grit, but with exeptional clarity, even with a fairly dark pickup setting. This is probably due to the 10 inch speakers. I like how the amp doesn't ever get really harsh sounding.

When i got it, one tube socket seemed to have something loose (crackling occasionally) and the amp does hum a bit. If i get the socket fixed, im pretty sure that this amp can handle gigging. I hear that these amps are built very much like Marshalls, and my Marshall has never failed me yet, so we'll see.

This amp is basically a 50 watt Marshall combo. I like the ten inch speakers, they help to keep the sound a little more under control than, say, my old Sunn 4x12. I plugged in my 72 JMP just to do a little head to head comparison. The Traynor sounded a little tighter and darker than the marshall. The Marshall had more bright channel crunch and more midrange too. It also sounded more open with the bridge pickup especially. At higher volumes (6-7) the Traynor had a little more clarity and compression. It also sounded gainier, but this may just be differences in tubes. Overall, just a clearer, more modern sounding 50 watt Marshall. I'll also add that the Traynor isn't as touch responsive as the Marshall. Still impressive, but i can get the Marshall to do anything at about half volume. Anyhow, I really like this amp, it seems perfect for gigging once i get the tube socket fixed.