Traynor TR-1 Reverb

I find it totally easy to find a number of excellent reverb sounds from this unit, - with 3 dials to fiddle with, it is uncomplicated, but able to provide rich and varying reverb warmth, when using in sync with my 59 bassman

Sound quality is excellent, I bought this item very used, and the components needed to be sprayed with some cleaner to get rid of the scratchiness, but after doing that, it sounds like a million bucks.

I haven't had it long enough to have an opinion on it's reliability

Haven't yet had a need for customer support.

I play blues and rock n roll, the reverb unit sounds ideal for my playing style, but i can imagine it sounding suitable for virtually any style.

If you turn the mix way up, you can get that really cool distant, swelling sort of reverb sound similar to zep's 'over the hills and far away' outro.....not at all necessary, but a cool little effect to make use of if you think it applies to something you're playing

The day I brought this unit home, I was able to get a rich reverb tone through my Fender Deluxe. There are only three knobs - Reverb Gain, Tone and Mixer - that you basically just need to play around with for a while to get the sound you want. "Reverb Gain" is a bit misleading in my view, because this knob doesn't really add gain in the sense of making the output louder or distorted - what it does is add depth or richness (at least, to my ears). I bought it used, so there was no manual, but I don't think I'm really missing any important info.

This is a tube-driven spring reverb unit that's pretty similar to a Fender reverb, at a basic level at least. The tubes are two 12AX7s and a 6GW8 (or ECL86). My main complaint about the tubes is that, because the back edge of the reverb tank sits directly under the tubes, it's impossible to remove the cover off the 6GW8/ECL86 without unplugging the tube itself at the same time and easing both parts out. Poor planning by the folks who designed this unit.
I run the unit through a 1964 Fender Deluxe and alternate between a Strat and a Les Paul. Both guitars sound pretty good through this combo. I like the Reverb Gain set at around 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock, the Tone around 12 o'clock and the Mixer at around 1-2 o'clock; I get a small amount of hum/noise at these settings, but it's virtually unnoticeable while I'm playing. Going past about 2 o'clock on the Mixer results in moderate to severe hum/buzz, but to me that's too much reverb to really be usable. I also run a T-Rex compressor pedal and an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer into the reverb unit, with decent results.

I've only had the unit for a few weeks, but all signs are that it will last a long time. I'm holding onto my other reverb pedal as a back-up.

Very helpful - I guy at Yorkville e-mailed me the schematic sheet for this unit within 24 hours.

I bought this reverb unit because the price was really low for a tube-driven spring reverb unit. I had tried out a reissue Fender Reverb Unit that cost $400+, and this Traynor delivers a comparable sound for much less $$. It was a unique find, and I'm quite happy with it. I play blues and rock styles, and I find that this reverb is well-suited to the music I play. I can get a broader range of reverb sounds out of it than I could with the Danelectro "Spring King" reverb pedal that I was using before. The Traynor even compares favorably to the built-in reverb in my Fender Blues DeVille amp.

This is a tube driven stand alone reverb box made by briefly Traynor in the 60's. The features / controls are esentially the same as on the Fender Reverb - gain (dwell), tone and mix. All of this gives you the abilty to really fine tune the sound of your reverb vs the usual one knob settup.

I bought this to go with my fine old YBA-1 bassmaster head (both are the old style - slide in chassis / pointer knobs). I was hoping that, like most old Traynor gear, this would be a copy of the Fender design, but unfortunately that's not the case here. I've come to learn that these units were designed to be used with a tube PA head Traynor had out at the time that actually had an effects loop. As a result, in it's stock form it has way to much gain - both the delay and dry signal - to be at all usable in front of a guitar amp. It was also very noisy.
I tried bleeding off some of the signal to ground in a couple of key places but the results were disappointing. I finaly wound up rewiring a good portion of the unit so that it's now same as a Fender Reverb box.
The end result is excellent, but in based on what it's like in it's stock form, I've got to give a low rating.

I've worked on & owned lots of Traynor stuff - top notch in this department

A real pleasant experience here. I called Traynor's Toronto office to get some info on this unit. I spoke with an older gentleman who'd been there since the early years who was very helpfull. He found a schematic in his file cabinet, made a copy and mailed it to me at no charge. In my view this makes present day Traynor a great company to do business with!

This unit now performs beautifully. It provides reverb that, because of the tonal flexibilty offered by the controlls, is far superior to what I get from my Twin or Deluxe Reverb.
But,in it's stock form it's of little or no use in front of a guitar amp - and because of that I give it a low rating - but if you have the know-how it's pretty easy to convert.