Yorkville XS800H Head

I play rock/hardrock with immersions into jazz/blues once in a while, nothing this amp can't do. Has everything you can imagine, really. Passive/active inputs, XLR out, 4 speaker outs(2 1/4 and 2 Speakons), effects send/return(foot switchable), compressor, tube drive, etc... In fact it's more than i need as i often use external effects, straight in the active input, but for someone who likes to keep it simple in terms of amount of equipment it's hard to beat, there's nothing vital this amp doesn't have.

I generally play an American P-Bass with di-marzio PUs and i keep my strings on a looooong time, Rotos 66. Power goes to a Fender Pro 115 and/or a Fender Bassman 410 and the sound of my P-Bass is translated really well, there's no signature in the sound of this amp like with an Ampeg for ex. This amp is dangerously loud, i can't believe some people post doubts on the power of this amp, maybe their cabs are already blown. I play small/medium venues, like up to 250 people and for sure it has enough power, i never used more than 50-60% of the power. The compressor, though i just tried it because i use an MXR-132, does a good job at low levels only, 12 o'clock max, otherwise it sounds synthetic. The overdrive is pretty nice, again i just tried it as i use a Blowtorch, is foot switchable and goes from very subtle to maniac grind, really. The best part though is the eq, it works really well and i ??ber-enjoy the parametric mids, it helps emphasize the harmonics even though i prefer to play with old strings(i find them more uniform and less harsh). I'd resume by saying that this amp has more of a "power amp" sound than a "personality" sound like an Ampeg or a Mesa and this is, to me, a good thing because my "own" sound comes from my effect pedals, not from the amp.

Traynor/Yorkville makes, to my opinion, the most reliable amps out there. I carry this head all year long(amp is 5 years old) from gig to gig in the summer at 90 degrees or in the winter at 10 degrees, any season, and i've never had any problems. Any amp can fail you know, i've had a Mesa fail on me(all tube though) and for the price you pay, i've decided that never i would take the risk of having a high priced amp fail on me again, i just prefer to buy a Yorkville instead. It's not as glamorous as an Ampeg or a Mesa but sounds just as good, if only a bit different, and it surely gives me peace of mind and of wallet.

Dealt once with Traynor but wasn't about this head or any problem in fact. It was about my other head, the one i use for practice only, an all tube YBA200. I had a question on replacing the 6550s with KT88s and i called them. They answered my question right away. How about that!

I ve been playing bass for ...hhhh... omg! I also own a YBA200, also from Traynor/Yorkville. Yes, i would buy an XS800 again if something ever happened to it, it's definitely the best quality/power/price amp out there. I compared with an Ashdown(don't remember model) when i bought it and realized that only the high end Ashdown stuff was made in the U.S. while all Yorkville heads are made in Canada. I encourage anyone, no problem with that, but especially MY folks(canadians/americans/mexicans) you know!

I've bought My Yorkville XS800 im 2006, because it seemed to me a good compromise between price, qulity and power and it semmed to have a good sound (when I played it in the shop on a Markbass 4x10 enclosure....)
I don't use most of the options and I think they are too much to be good... Tube pre, Compressor, distortion... not so good as a real good pre or a Sansamp, I prefer a Multicomp opr a DBX160A, the resonance controlo doesn't cahnge the sound really...
The power seemed to be enough on my Hartke VX410, but it did not satisfied me at all...

I play with tribute L 2500, Pedulla TB5 and Sandberg KT6 and I did not succeeed in cutting some treble.
It has a bad noise when you don't play it a thin "shhhhhht" and it is not damaged, it's normal for this head...
I did not succeed in listening the real sound of my basses. I changed my enclosiures buying a new ATS 2x12 (a marvellous anclosure!), transparent and powerful, but this head doesn't fit any enclosure. or better I don't like its sound...
The distorted channel is noisy, it seems to have a lot of mosquitos in your ears... I don'??t like it. I prefer the samsamp sound.
I feel this head cold, absolutely without warmth and it is even unable to transalte into sound any note on the low B string till F....

I play pop and rock, and I want a defined, clear, precise warm sound, full and powerful, not a guitar one. I did no t succeed in finding anything I like even usig all the controls of the head.... I wnat to start with a good sound dierectly form the head and after use some pedals to modulate it, but I have to love the sound ogf my rig even without any modification! and I don't like this sound....

It is very well built and it seems solid. nothing to say about this...

I've never used it

I played for a some years when I was young, after I stopped for almost 20 years and started to play again in 2005.

I played last evening with a Markbass LittleMark head on my enclosure and even if it is only 500w against the 800w of the York, it seemed to have the double of the power and it costs the same.... No comparison: the Markbass was much more powerful, warm, transparent, even in flat the sond was good and my basses had their own sound, not that icy one! (When I buy a bass I test it in my favourite shop "Basszone" with Glockenlang Heart Rock and Accugroove El Wahppo to listen to the real sound...)

No way, I'm selling it to buy a GK or a Markbass head that are surely better and much more powerful, simple, warm, linear, transparent and satisfying.

I will never buy anymore a head for its declared power or its options or other. I will always do long sessions to test it with my enclosure and my basses...

Has all the basic features that you would expect from today's amps including tuner out, effects loop with wet/dry blend, sweepable semi-parametric mid control, mute switch, overdrive with wet/drive blend, limiter, compressor, etc, plus a few other features like selectable solid-state or tube preamp, pre-amp out LED level display, scoop control and Line Out/DI selection. Pretty versatile for sure. Would like to see a pre-amp out jack along with the line out jack however a lot of amps don't have that option either. Everything is easy to use and doesn't take long to tweak the tone. Plus this thing is ultra light for an 800W 3-rack space head weighing only 25lbs!!! Only real negatives are a) that the mute switch doesn't truely mute the signal. It's faint and probably can't be heard be an audience at stage volume but it's still there; and b) the manual does not have any suggestive settings to try-out different sounds/tones, however you can find these in the XS-400H manual which is basically the same amp.

Very Sweet. With some playing around you can dial in a nice clean sound, or go balls-to-the-wall heavy metal distortion. Obviously you can find anything in-between including that nice SVT-like tone as well. The scoop dial can really affect the sound and is very nice to have to find that right balance of punchy lower-mids without being too obnoxious (but if that's your thing, it can be done). The compressor is subtle and effective. Isn't really a problem dialing in just about any tone you like. I took a good two months trying just about every possible combination but ended up back to where I usually like to be: slightly tube driven, slightly compressed, boosted bass and lower mids, reduced mids at about 400Hz, upper mids kept flat and treble rolled off slightly. I usually keep the scoop around centre and tweak it when I need to. Sound wise, it can compete to just about any amp out there. There are nicer sounding amps and setups, but not for this price.

This is my third Yorkville amp. I still own a 400B combo and have recently traded up from the XS-400H head to this head. I've NEVER had an issue with and of their products and even if I did, they have the best warranty in the business!

When I first got my XS-400, I e-mailed the company through the support link on the web page to tell them that I liked the amp. I got an e-mail back within a day from the head designer saying "thanks" and offering his assistance if I ever needed any help. Now that's pretty cool...

AWESOME amp for AWESOME value. It's got killer tone and literally half the price of an AMPEG. I play all rock and some blues (no jazz or metal) and this is a grat amp for just about any sound you need to play. If I could afford it, I would own an SVT, but I'm just a regular working stiff, amateur player and like a lot of us, don't make enough on gigs to pay for my dream gear. The XS-800 is a true work horse and you can't beat the price thus it has to be recommended as a BEST BUY!

I won't re-state all of the numerous features that this amp has as the other reviews more than adequately cover the features. It can take some time to learn how to use all of these features in conjunction with one another, but once you've got it down you'll have a huge amount of tones at your fingertips. It is indeed an extremely versatile amp.

I play two G&L L2000s (one w/ flats and one w/ rounds, always using both pickups and in passive mode, which gives a jazz on steroids type tone). I play in a blues/blues-rock band, and this amp gives me just the tone needed to suit this style of music, but you can get tones appropriate for any type of music with this amp - as others have mentioned and I've already stated, its an extremely versatile amp. Warm tubey tone, tube gurgle and grind, sawtooth distortion, clean defined tone, growly mid-heavy crisp tone . . . you name it, its there in this amp. I love that you can blend in as much overdriven tube tone as you want, and I also like the parametric mid used in conjuction with the Scoop function.

I've had this amp for about 5 months without any problems, but that's not enough time to accurately assess reliability. However, given what I've heard from several owners of this amp and Yorkville/Traynor's reputation, I don't expect any problems. And, Yorkville has a great two year no fault warrenty.

Very responsive and friendly customer support. Answered all of my questions before and after I bought this amp.

I've been playing bass for 9 years now, and this is my favorite amp that I've owned. I've owned SWR, Ampeg, Eden, and GK. I had been a GK fan for sometime, and still am, but this Yorkie has now become my main player and the GK is my back-up - supplanting my GK as my main amp was not an easy task, but the Yorkie won me over once I started to understand how to get the tones I wanted out of it. GK makes the best solid state amps in the business IMO, but I found myself wanting some tube warmth, so I tried an Ampeg SVT-6 Pro and SVT-4 Pro, Mesa MPulse 600, and the Yorkie. The Yorkie sounded just as good and was more versatile than the other amps I tried and cost A LOT less. It was an easy decision. I would definitely replace it if anything happened to it. Like others have said, I can't believe this amp isn't more popular, especially considering the pricetag. I'm also surprised that none of the major bass mags have reviewed this amp yet. If you're looking for a hybrid amp, you can't go wrong with this amp - its a wonderful value.

I bought this amp new in 2006. It certainly has every feature I would use in an amp: selectable tube/solid state preamp, fx loop, footswitchable drive channel, 2:1 compressor, DI, loaded with tone adjustments, output level display, active and passive level inputs.

The one feature missing is an INPUT LEVEL display. The indicator shows output level, but I feel input level is more useful. In any case, no one would ever accuse this amp of lacking a feature.

This amp should have plenty of power for any gig. It hasn't let me know.

Rock-solid, tank like construction backed by a all-inclusive warrenty.

Excellent sound. I would certainly rank it above my old solid-state Ampeg for tone quality. In the studio, I ran it direct from the DI out into the board, and the sound was fantastic. Live, I have a cheap 8 ohm 2x10 cabinet. In the store, I tried the Yorkville 4x10, and I'm going to save up for that. Unless you come into a hella lot of money and want to start dropping some cash, this could easily be the last bass amp you ever buy.

Absolutely reliable so far, and I gig it without a backup. Yorkville has an excellent warrenty. Thankfully, I have never had to call them.

I have only 2 complaints about this amp: The mute switch does not entirely mute the amp, but it does it close enough. Also, the mounting holes for thowing it in a rack do not line up right, and I can only use 2 screws to mount it. But this could be my SKB rack, since I've never tried it in another rack. Buy a 4 ohm cab, since this baby can handle 2 ohms. The XS800H is a great amp at a good price, and I would recommend it to any player looking for an amp you can use in any situation and never have to worry about replacing.

I got my Yorkville XS800H new in the winter of 2005 after months of research and trying many heads, I finally narrowed it to a Eden 8008WTB and this amp) to power my new Schroeder 410 cab. After about 4 months of playing this remarkable head-speaker comination,all I can say is I am very,very pleased...beyond the ability to GAS for anything else. I've been playing since 1966 and I've never been happier with my sound. I play in a Blues-Rock band that plays pretty loud,but tone is our real deal...and this amp is serving up killer tones with many possible tonalities existing within this head...due to it being a true hybrid tube preamp-which you can blend to get full tube sound,,full SS or any combination of the two.There are so many features that modify tone on this amp ,it really takes quite a while to figure all of them out,though you can also just turn it on and find a good sound with the tone knobs set flat IMHO -but take the time to learn the subtleties of this amp. It has an active and passive channel,compresser,limitor,separate gain,drive,and master-tube drive,cabinet resonance(tight -loose)and more tone controls than you may know what to do with(bass,low mid,semi-parametric mid,high mid,treble,scoop,and effects return volume control. the back has a tuner out,foot switch for tube drive and effects return,2 1/4 inch and 2 speakon speaker output jacks, a circuit breaker,amp in and line out jacks,and ground lift switch. It doesn't have a headphone jack and that would possibly be nice at times(though I use a smaller amp at home that does have one)It does have plenty of power-my 4 ohm Schroeder 410 handles 1400 watts and the Yorkie puts out a solid 800W at 4ohms and 1200W burst(600W at 8 or 2 ohms)and I rarely have to turn up to 9'o clock and the house is literally vibrating on its foundation,candles and other household decorations crashing to the ground(to my wife's dismay)This amp is all I need(with more than enough headroom in our band... with 2 loud guitarists with a 1/2 Marshall stack each,loud drummer (all three of them going through the PA-but not me)I like a warm but deep, dark, clean sound and thats what I'm able to get.Extremely versitile!

I use an Ibanez SR 900 with active EQ and Bartolinis.Its perfect for my style of playingloud and rich.It's very quiet...you can just barely hear the fan if there's no other noise in the room.You can get a very clean sound as I described above,or if you like ,you can turn the drive up and get a nastier gnarly distorted sound(ie,from Mesa to Marshall to Marshall with fuzz tone as you turn up the drive and gain))however if you keep the drive turned down-even at full volume,through the Schroeder 410 cab-it just almighty roars,but basically no distortion.

This amp truly looks like it is part of a tank that was built...solid as a rock.no problems with mine at all.I always carry a backup-but if my back-up died ,I would'nt worry using this without a back up for a while...Yorkville's reputation for reliability is well known. This amp has a no fault 2 year warranty,and 10 year limited warranty!

I have written the company to ask them questions about the tubes they use and they were very resonsive immediately.Otherwise I have'nt had to deal with them.Warranty is 2/10 as above.

I have played for 40 years professionally-starting out on Fender Bassmen,Dual Showmen,Twin Reverbs with home made cabs,occasional Vox cabs(all at the same time),an SVT with 2 8x10 cabs,Acoustic 360 with 2 Acoustic 361 powered cabs,Bruce preamp head,SWR 350 head,SWR 2x12 cab,SWR Workingman's 15,Hartke 3500 with Avatar 2x10D cab currently for practice at home,and currently play my Yorkville XS800 thru my Schroeder 4x10 cabinet-an incredible cabinet.This rig together just sounds so perfect tonally-and louder than Ampeg 8x10 stacks with 1000 watts. And the head is beautiful with those blue lights arching over the top of the face of the amp the louder that you play! If lost I'd buy another one again in a heart beat,esp. for the cost...I only wish it were a little lighter...can't recall the weight but it must weigh at least 24 pounds.I also wish it had an input jack for my Ipod to play music thru. I compared this head with my cab to Eden WT800,and 800WTB...GKRB1000,several Ampegs,and SWR 750 and 900...for the tone and $ and volume ....this could not be beat.I wish I could have tried a Thunderfunk 550 and I've heard good things about the Carvin B1500 since I bought the Yorky,and I never got to try out an Aggi DB750 but I think its out of my price range...and I think I would have been afraid of Carvin's reliability record for now.Its unbelievable that an amp of this quality at this price is still so unknown here in the States.

I just purchased my new 800 Bassmaster here in Canada from Long & Mcquades. It was built this year 2005. The amp is much more versatile than the previous 2 different Yorkville 400 heads I have owned in the past. I started again with Yorkville products since 1993 when I purchased a 200 combo with a 15" extension cabinet. I then purchased there 400 head with the graphic eq. Then the newer version with the scope feature and solid state/ tube option and parametric eq as opposed to the graph. I play with my same badn of 35 years Jameson Roberts Revival our instrumentation includes, 2 horns, B-3, Les Paul, 2 Girl BG"S, drums and my new 5 string Fender Jazz Bass.

I use the 800 head a 1 15" inch cabinet with the horn and the bass port as well as their 2 X 10" speakers with a horn and also a ported cabinet. I think I might like to change my speaker configuration.

Our repertorie ranges from original to BS&T, to Electric Flag, Sons of Champlin to Jimi Hendrix. The new amp finally has enough head room for my needs and a variety of bass sounds to suit the wide range of music in our repertoire. I use my amp at all my concerts and festival gigs.

I have a new Fender 5 string Jazz Bass and a 1979 Fender Precision. I am using stock Fender pick-ups with this yorkville system.

The amp is not noisy but the single coil Fender pickups tend to make some noise.

The amp has a soild state and tube feature. You can play with 3 different options. I like the tube sound added to the solid state amp. It is important to mix it carefully reviewing the sounds of the amp with your bass. Nice and puching as well as round and defined.

I don't use distortion for my bass sounds, I have never been attracted to that sound but the amp. does provide that feature.

Yorkville is known for realiabilty and I am confident it won't break down. None of my Yorkville amps over 38 years of playing their gear has ever broken down for me.

Yorkville take of their customers here in Canada. They are usually terrfic. The amp has a 2 year unlimited warranty and an extende 8 year limited warranty. Long & Mcqaudes is a god send for Canadian musicans. They give everyone a chance. They understand what their market is doing and works with them. They handle all the problems for us from Yorkville.

For the money it is a great professional amp with all the latest features of modern bass technology. You usually you get what you pay for in the area of bass amps so for the money I give the amp a 10. I like Fender, Ampeg, SWR, Mesa Boogie, Trace Elliot and Eden bass rigs. I would like to explore them in the future but for the time being this 800 is very good value for the money. Playing great bass is in the hands. It is a combination of many things which include good gear. My bandmates like the sound of my bass rig and bass guitar and that is important to me. I have worked closely with our guitar player Ron Marinelli to review all the features of the bass and the amp in the many variety of combinations to get the utlimate sounding bass. This is all a big adventure so enjoy the journey.

Just got my Yorkville XS800H last week. 800w of PURE FUN. This amp is rich in features. My favorite is the Tube blend and the compression. I'm not going to write down all of it's features because if you've got this far, you probably know this amp inside and out. I'll tell you that everything is laid out beautifully.

This amp sounds INCREDIBLE!!! I've played bass for 20+ years and when I tell you that I've played through everything I mean EVERYTHING....SWR-AMPEG-SUNN-BOOGIE-ACOUSTIC, you name it. And by far this Yorkie sounds better than ALL of them. The only problem is that I purchased a DBX compressor and a BBE Sonic Maximizer before I bought the amp and now I have no idea what to do with them, I don't need them. The amp sounds too perfect, and I'll probably just diminsh it's excellence by adding on rack gear. BTW, I'm playing through an Acme B4 4x10 cab. I guess I should give the Acme it's props as well. The combination of the Yorkville and the Acme puts a smile on my face, ear - ear. I play lots of styles from punk - funk and everything in between. This amp gives me any sound I want. From super clean to super dirty. Just take the time and explore.

I'm sure you've read lots of reviews about this amp, and the one thing that's a constant is "built like a tank". All I can say is believe it, because it's 100% accurate. It's so fu*k'n solid I almost feel stupid for not playing Yorkville years ago. Wait, let me rephrase that... I do feel stupid for not playing Yorkville years ago. They've been around for a lot longer than people think. But most Canadians already know this. And the 1 thing that everyone agrees on is it's reliability, and a warranty that no other manufacturer can touch... Get a load of this... A 2 YEAR NO FAULT WARRANTY. Let's say your carrying the amp upstairs and you slip, and then the amp goes flying and something bad happens to it. Yorkville will fix it and all you have to pay for is freight..that's it.. just freight. UNBELIEVABLE. Ask Ampeg or SWR to fix your amp because you fell down some stairs, and that you only want to pay for freight... They'll either laugh in your face before they hang up on you, or laugh in your face after they hang up on you.

I can't give them a 10 on this only because I haven't dealt with them yet. However I'll give them a 9 based on reading other opinions on customer satisfaction. I did a lot of homework before buying this. And most everyones review of customer support has been stellar.
I did however email one of Yorkville's west coast reps regarding where to buy Yorkville in Las Vegas and he did email me back within 24hrs. If it makes any difference... I bought the amp from Bronsteins Music, So. San Francisco. Of 9 or 10 Yorkville dealers I called across the west coast, they had the best combination of price and service. I'd definetly rate Bronsteins Music a 10.

Well I'm sure this won't come as a surprise but the overall rating is a 10. And not just for the amp itself. It's for everything... The buying process, the salesman, delivery time, the sound, the features, the amp itself. etc. etc. And if it were lost or stolen you bet your sweet ass I'd buy another one. I'd buy another one if it were double the price.

Here's the deal... I don't want to sound like an a-hole but I really could care less if you buy this amp or not. I have no vested interest what strangers do. And to be honest I kind of don't want anyone buying this amp because with popularity goes higher prices. $629 for an amp that should be $1,258 won't last long. So go ahead, fall for the hype and buy your "whatever" at Guitar Center and pay $999 for something that's worth $399 and fool yourself into thinking that your happy. Just because Yorkville is being ignored by every Bass publiction doesn't equate to inadequacy, although you should ask yourself why.

Like I said I did a lot of homework, maybe too much homework. I'm an Obsessive Compulsive idiot who can't make a final decision on anything. And for the 1st time in 20+ years, I can finally say that I've found "my sound".

This is a brand new amp that Yorkville just came out with to be big brother to the 400 watt head. 800w Program, 1200w Burst. 25lbs, 3 rack space. Built in compressor w/ limiter that can be tuned on or off. Tube or solid state pre-amp selector, tube drive, tuner mute, bass resonance control (to tighten or loosen the sound). The amp also has an output meter on the face with blue lights showing you how your amp is pushing. I play three times a week, and I bought it with the matching 8x8 cab (similar to SWR, but cheaper) This is the best value I have ever seen with an amp of this caliber. Must reiterate: PLENTY OF POWER! I knocked my neighbors pic. off the wall in the next apartment! The one thing I don't like about this amp is the tuner mute isn't true bypass.

I play a cheaper Fernandez bass with an active Bartolini preamp/pickup system installed. I like how the bass plays and the pickups growl great. The amp puts plenty of clean power! The amp is very versaltile to me because I can get a nice overdrive to sawtooth distortion. The tube drive is the most unique thing about it because you can almost get a Sansamp bass driver sound or a vintage tube amp sound if you like. Lots of variety.

This amp is still fairly new so I'm not sure how it will act in ten years. I have used it hard for the first month in a half and no problems late. Yorkville also has a two year unconditional warranty so they cetainly believe its a good product!

I haven't really deal with the company so I can't have an opinion about that yet!

I think this is a really great amp, and I have been extremely pleased with it so far, so I'm gonna give it a ten.

Introduced and built in 2004...versatile? This amp can go from funk, to classic rock, to country to R&B and back. Amp does it all!

Only the input jacks (passive and active) are on the front. On the rear is the effects loop, power amp in, speakr outputs, footswitch and tuner out jacks. No headphones...this ain't no practice amp!

I wish the mute had a remote/footswitch in addition to the drive and effects loop footswitch, but that's a very minor grievance...the adjustable (mix and level) drive, the compressor, the 5 band EQ with adjustable mid, the scoop, and the resonance (coolest new feature) make it very easy to get your tone...

Using it with two modded Spectors from the professional series. Mostly playing funk, soul, and CCM, sometimes some classic and current rock. Suits all of my styles great! Haven't noticed any distortion in the six months that I've had it. Hasn't crapped out on me during a performance in that time either. I've extremely satisfied with the sounds I can get from this baby.

I don't worry about this rig when I go on a gig. Never craps out on me. Always there when I need it!

See my XS400TC review ;-)

Unless they make an XS1200H or something with more wattage, this is my choice for life. After 20 years of experience with Yorkville Equipment, having played some of the great bass amps from the 60s and 70s up to know, I can attest that they really hit the ball out of the park with this one. Compared to the competitors' similar products I'd say this is as good as (and in many cases better than) theirs...and comparing prices, it blows them all away!

Again, I'll likely never need to have another amp, this one is just fantastic and I can't say enough good things about it.