Traynor YC810 Big Bertha Cabinet

Pre 70's 8x10 cab with rear loaded Marsland speakers,heavy 3/4 plywood construction with two horizontal dividers creating a very stiff,solid,& HEAVY sealed cab with 56 screws holding the back board.

I bought this cab with a YBA-3 Custom Special head primarily for the purpose of fixing it up to sell to a bass player who needs a budget rig.
I found out later after having Gar Gillies of Garnet re-cap & re-tube that someone had modified it for guitar by bumping up the input gain & installing a good master volume.
When I got her home & plugged in I was so impressed on how good this rig sounded for guitar that all thoughts of selling it were gone.
The cab sounds simular to a good 4x12 Marshall in the tight bottom end it produces,but with a more defined upper mid,probably due to the 10" drivers.When used at loud volume it stays very clear & tight.An excellent cab for aggresive dropped tuned chugging riffs but also has a pleasant clean bell like sound with single coils.
I use a strat mostly & have found through trial & error how to get the sound I hear in my head,I go for a very agressive sound but with clearity,& find that the strat is the best choice for this.

This is my favorite of all my cabs & I've had a few vintage,4x12 Marshall cabs over the last 15 years.Plus,4x10 Naylor,2x12 Fender,ect.
The 8x10 is the best for clean & heavy sounds in one cab.

The only reliability issue I would have is how my back would hold up if I ever decided to gig with this cab.

I've been playing for 20 + years & have had many great rigs over the years & in the past I would'nt give Traynor or Garnet a second look,but now I've finally learned how to hear with my ears instead of my eyes,& have found that Traynor & Garnet have built some really fine products.

This speaker is a very well hidden gem of a speaker, it has eight (8) 25 WATTS RSC (Radio Speakers of Canada) for a total of 200w of power. Arranged in a 8ohm configuration, with the best plywood available at the time (60's), internallly you see 2 trays of plywood arranged for what I believe it was for structural support and not for acoustical properties. The speaker array is unusual and not seen anywhere nowadays, 3 on each side and 2 in the middle.It has handles which in my opinion were not practical. It came with a huge nut so you could mount the speaker on a metal frame and rotate the speaker as desired. The speaker was too thin more my taste.
Basic black tolex covering, wired in series/parallel configuration to achieve the 8ohm. The wire used at the time was of poor quality. Pete traynor designed this speaker to be used with a bass guitar and did not use techniques for speaker construction which are standard (with some manufacturers) of high end speaker design. but he had the right idea it just had to be tweaked a little to achieve a sound that can put your traditional 4x12 to shame.

I originally heard this speaker being played with Bass amps, and had a hunch that it would sound better if I use it with straight guitar. After trying it with guitars (Acoustic and electric) and several amps, effects, and enhancers, came to the conclusion that there was a sound just dying to come out. I Had to do extensive modifications that required a complete restoration project, sort of like when old car are restored. Modifications done as follows:
1) The back of the speaker was to be extended 6 1/2 inches with russian 13 ply Birch wood.
2) Internal trays were added to create six square boxes for
acoustical properties.
3) High end automotive insulation used to prevent air leakage.
4) All speakers were repaired with clear shellac for improved stifness. Edges were reinforced with rubber cement.
5) Speakers were wired with military grade silver wire. locking
1/4 inch conector was used, new metal grill, 4 rectangled holes were made to insert 4 metal handles, and a very nice imitation black leather material was used.
6) The back cover was reinforced with 13 ply russian plywood.
7) For acoustical properties the internal compartments were cleaned and stained with a special oil stain and murphys oil combo that makes it possible to skip using fiber insulation.
after all these was done there was only one thing to do THE SOUND TEST!!!
I have created a unique frankenstein that defies all standards for guitar amplification to date. The sounds are amazing and not duplicated by anything period. Real controlable mids while maintaining low end response.
In other words I could not leave it alone, I had to gut it out and re-build it from scratch using existing parts and new materials as well.

Extremely reliable, but it could be too heavy to carry around for
clubs,
I am a strong believer in modifying anything you buy, after all the original designer of your product might have missed something, and you can do some research to improve upon it.

You can contact yorkville sound website and you can find anything under resources, and other information you never knew you needed.
They will answer your email promptly! for any Traynor product.

After learning techniques from several famous manufacturers and some not so famous, I learned that you can take one product and improve upon it. you can take techniques from one manufacturer and ideas from some one in the industry and use it for your own, and achieve something that it is missing from diferent products.

wow..YC810...amazing cab. better bass cab than guitar cab. made in '71 i believe...i owned another one previous to this one, late 60's...but it came without speakers and looked like it was run over and set on fire. it was an earlier model..rear loaded speakers. it did have an interesting feature wi wish they had kept for the later models...there was one handle on the left side but TWO handles on the right. this was awfully convenient because if it was standing upright you could put a hand on either side...or if it was laying on it's side for a lower profile..you still ad two places to pick it up from . the BIG-B i have now has the standard one handle on either side.
anyway...the cab is 8x 8 ohms speakers for a total load of 4 ohms. the 8 speakers are set up in a unique fashion...there are 4 corner speakers, and a diamond set up of 4 speakers in the middle. OR depending onhow you lookat it..there's 2 rows of three speakers vertically with a row of 2 speakers in vertical in between. it's better to look at it the first way...because a trained eye will notice that the 4 corner speakers are completely different from the 4 middle speakers. not sure exactly the sound difference between the two sets of speakers...but the model numbers are different as well as the dust caps being larger on the corner speakers. there is only one jack. it's a speaker cabinet with a single jack..but because it houses 8 speakers in a cab smaller than typical 8x10's with two different varieties of speakers..i would say it's features are pretty good given the limited options of features for a cab to have. my rating of 8 is only shy of ten because it could have seperate 8ohm jacks for the two types of speakers or for piggy backing if you have an amp that will run 2 ohms.

i've used this cab with a mesa boogie SOB, a marshall JCM800 (2203 single channel), and an ampeg V4. (with guitar or bass). i originally bought this cab in an attempt to tame the piercing brights of the 100w marshall head...it didn't quite work. it definately darkened the amp up..but in a way you'd expect playing guitar throgh a bass cabm like throwing a thick blanket over guitar speakers. just kind of muffled and quieter than i'd like. i played bass through the V4 and it sounded great...switched over to guitar, and the voicing of that amp was a little more condusive to allowing the cab to push more guitar. but it still makaes a better bass cab in my opinion,(for now...). i plan on replacing the 4 middle speakers with celestion vintage 10's to make it more guitar friendly...i'll keep the corner speakers as is, it will probably provide some thick bass and lowmids to the guitar tone.

is it reliable....?
traynor used to throw all of the prototypes out of a 2nd story window as a durability test. if it survived the fall and still sounded good...it went into production.
so YES...it is plenty reliable.

unfortunatly the traynor of old is long gone...there is still yorkville sound making amps. but they don't compare...although they are somewhat helpful with questions regarding the older stuff. but i would just as soon ask a vintage amp connesiuer..i don't consider the new yorkville company the same as the old traynor line.

i've been playing guitar for about 5 years seriously. aside from the amps i mentioned above..i also own a traynor 4x12 with altec 417-8h's, and a mesa boogie 2x12 with icelestion vintage 30's. if my traynor 8x10 were stolen...i'd be pissed. probably wouldn't find another, although i'd try. myfavorite aspec t of the cab aside from toneis the size...it's smaller than an ampeg 8x10...and narrower thana typical marshal 4x12..so it packs well for tour, and delivers 8x10's worth of punch. i wish i'd still had my old 8x10, (the one that came without speakers...) i would've loved to rebuild the baffle into a 6x12 to accompany the current 8x10. a match made in rock-rog heaven!