Traynor Reverb Master (50 Watt Tube Head)

Old, classic tube design. I believe mine was made in 1973, based on comparing the serial number and outside design with others I've seen. I play mainly blues, with a little jazz and classic rock -- and I use it for bass. While others may find it too "dark" for their 6-strings, it excels at getting bottom tones. Features are limited (one channel, tremelo, reverb, bright switch, and a master volume) but you can get pedals for all that stuff. I wish it did have an effects loop, but back when this was made that was high tech. Used in bars and at home, and am always told to turn it down, so yes, it gets loud!

Used for blues bass, it is great! My bass collectoin includes an Ibanez Black Eagle, Magnatone Hurricane, Gibson EB-0, and a beat up Fender Precision. This thing has a warm, creamy tone, and sustains forever. I run it into an old Ampeg B-15 cab, although it sounds good, but brighter, through a LAB Series 4-12 cab I have too. Vibrato is the best I've heard -- smooth, easy to modulate, and makes me sound much better than I really am. Reverb is clanky, which has been my experience for older amps. But I don't use it for bass anyway. You can get this thing to distort, but it's more of a growl than a scream -- sounds good to me, but again, if you wanted anything less subtle you can buy a stompbox. I get some noise at startup about every 4 or 5 days, but it goes away, so I have not addressed it.

This is my second Traynor over the past 25 years (the other was a YBA-3). I've never taken either to be serviced, and they have never ever failed. No new tubes, no caps, nothing. Plus the cabs are built rock solid -- truly, you might be able to drive over this head. (Try it on your own one, mine's sacred!)

I know Yorkville was gone for a while, now appear to be back, or at least trading under the same name. At this point, it's academic, there's nothing they could offer you couldn't find yourself on the Web.

Been playing for about 30 years, and I love the warmth you get from tube amps, even if you have to treat them with some more respect than the solid state versions. Traynors are reasonably priced, especially given the "vintage" status of most that I see -- if they were late Marshalls, they'd be at least 3 times as costly. I've played through Marshalls, and in fairness I can tell a difference, but not enough to pay a lot more for. I also have a '68 Kustom 200 rig (yes, with the tuck and roll cabs, and yeah, it is solid state), and an early 60's Magnatone 415. I would definitely buy another Traynor if this thing got stolen, but the guy running away with this heavy monster would be pretty slow, so chances are I'd catch him... This amp does what an amp should do -- sounds loud, sounds good, works all the time.

I bought my '73, 50 watt Traynor Reverb Master from a friend in 2000 for $175. It features a single channel with a Normal and Boost input and a Bright switch. It also features a spring reverb (which sounded ok before it went out), and a tremolo circuit which also sounds good. This amp was in good condition and for what I paid for it was really quite worth the money.

Let me start out by saying that this amp is not for everyone! I play a lot of styles and I even do some odd experimental stuff. If you like vintage style amps or you're a noise pop fan, you will really like this amp. The Reverb Master has a hint of Vox to it and it's especially cool for nailing that Link Wray sound that I like so much. As far as generating a good distortion sound goes, I tried a butt load of pedals before I found one that worked perfectly with this amp. The amp is a little on the dark and lardy side which sounds great clean, but for distortion this amp needs a bright pedal that doesn't get too fuzzy. I found that the perfect match for this amp is the Vox Distortion Booster pedal with the tone turned all the way off (this is a really bright pedal!) and the gain turned all the way up. You get a fairly warm and cool distortion (not especially chunky, but very rock) with a lot of sustain. I have a bunch of guitars that sound good with this amp, but the one that I use the most with it is an American Standard Tele with a DiMarzio Fast Track 2 pickup in the bridge. Not only do chords sound cool, but you get a very hip Ebow like lead sound. I highly recomend Monster Studio Pro 1000 cables to get the most from this amp. They really do make a big difference. While this amp won't give you the versitility of a Line 6 (which I don't think sound all that great), The few tones you can get are very good. For $175 I could have done much worse. I have 10 amps (and counting) in my collection which includes a couple of 100 watt 70's Hiwatts, a Plexi and a JTM45 reissue, a Sound City 50 plus, and a '59 Bassman reissue to name a few, but I still value this amp for it's unique sound and the special niche that it fills.

Besides the reverb, not a problem with it. These amps are known for their reliability.

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If you're in the market for a cheap, reliable tube amp with a unique and hip sound, this is an excellent choice. Viva la Rock baby!

This is a pretty standard mid-1970s master volume tube amp, based on EL-34 power tubes and 12AX7 preamp tubes. Given that there is only one channel, there is no channel switching available. Very much in the Vox tradition, there are two inputs, Boost and Normal, into the one channel, and a bright switch which affects both. A three band EQ, one knob reverb, and two knob tube vibrato are also included. Interestingly, the amp is circuit breaker protected so you won't need spare fuses! A three-wire grounded mains cable is provided along with a power receptacle on the back panel. The amp has two speaker jacks.

The amp is extremely "dark". Without the bright switch on, it is just about unusable with humbucking pickups. With the bright switch on and the treble wound out, it is still on the dark side. It has no hint of a bright, stringy, Fender sound. The normal input does provide a clean sound.
On the other hand, it has a wonderful, dark, smooth, low gain EL-34 distortion which is just a little colder than the classic Marshall sound. You'll want to plug into the Boost input. It can be boosted further with a preamp or booster for a great lead sound. I used an Electro-Harmonics LPB-2 or an MXR Microamp. Of course, this adds some background noise.
Obviously, with only one channel, you r are going to have to do some heavy-duty knob twiddling to change sounds so this amp isn't very flexible onstage. This is a one-trick dog.

In 17 years of use, I had no failures at all. The only bug was a loss of the vibrato feature due to a worn-out tube. This amp is extremely dependable! It is built like a TANK.
I used mine without backup for YEARS. I ran it with the stock 2x12 folded horn exclosure (for stadiums ONLY), a 2x12 custom Cab. cut down from a Leslie tone cabinet, and other crazy Cab.s and combinations.

After 18 years, I DON'T KNOW... NEVER HAD TO GET IT SERVICED. One time at the Audio Engineering Society New York convention, I bumped into the guys from Yorkville Sound (parent company of Traynor) and they had moved on from this product and literally had no knowledge of its EXISTANCE. Hehehe... There's a handy schematic posted inside the lid of the chassis for the serviceman. Note that while the case is put together with Torx screws, access to the chassis is via standard Phillips screws.

If I was penniless and needed an amp... This amp and I got along great, but I always wished for more brightness and more flexibility. I finally bought a Marshall JTM-612 combo and got both.