the Traynor YBA-200 thread

In a photo of your rig, I saw your range setting at around 6 IIRC, which jibes with my impression of where the mids are. However, ISTM that often these tone controls affect one another and here's another opinion of that:

Brent Norton said:

Couple of other things I noticed to get the most juice from this head...

-Mid control: On the tip of a fellow lister, pushing the mids on this head is key. It's not a terribly mid-y head to begin with, and backing them off just seems to kill.

-Scoop: Same deal... shut it off. IMO, Traynor would be doing more of a service by eliminating this altogether.

-Range: Another Traynor hang-up. It's there for two reasons... 1) Nostalgic purposes, and 2) to kill tone. Set it to zero.

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In a different direction, what about changing out the 12AX7 tubes for ones with different sonic characteristics? You"ve probably already run searches on TB for tube info, so maybe looking outside will turn up something. Like this

http://www.netads.com/~meo/Guitar/Tubes/MooksTasteTests/tt-12ax7.html

And, audio or antique tube vendors sometimes have descriptions or comparisons that might be useful to you, as at audiotubes.com. Prices are all over the map, availability too, but a more common one might just do it for you.

Here's another place to do some digging if you're thinking about maybe changing tubes:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tubes/bbs.html

An EQ pedal would definetly help, my YBA-3 only has Bass and Treble controls so getting any mids out of it is pretty tough. I got an MXR 6 band EQ pedal and boost 800Hz and 1Khz and it does the trick....also I see you are using an aguilar cab, from everything I have heard those cabs are a little mid shy also, so you are just compounding the issue...I found the YBA200 to sound great with Ampeg cabs.

From what you describe, this amp sounds like my old Sunn 200S. All T&A and nothing in the middle. I ended up turning the bass and treble all the way off, switching on the deep and bright switch and cranking the gain to get enough mids. What I'm saying is that the tone controls don't work like other amps. Try turning the mids all the way up and the treble and bass clear off. Then add bass and treble a little at a time until you get the sound you want. Of course adding an EQ pedal will help but, I would use it only as a last resort. When you go to the trouble of using all tubes it doesn't make much sense to stick a SS EQ pedal in the middle of all that tubishness. Of course this is just my humble opinion.

Another thing to think about is that the traynor Does not exactly have the best tubes in it and Some JJ's from Eurotubes would sweeten nup that midrange some Also Different Pre amp tubes will effect this situation. Call Eurotubes or e-mail them tell them what you have what sound you want to get and they will help you fine tune the tube compliment to get you where you want to be.

So your only complaint is mid-shy ? are you happy with the vol you get?
are you happy with that cab ? I'm still trying to come up with a solution to my gs112 sound problems.I thought about adding another gs cab but i'm not sure that will give me what I want. your head looks like it fits nice on the
2-12 a 1-12 is a little shorter (not a good fit).Is that a 4ohm cab only?

I love my Traynor, but like you said its very mid shy and the mids that it does seem to have are upper mids....it's just very scooped sounding to me and I always run with the scoop control off.

I also remember someone saying in another thread that the EQ is only cut, it doesn't boost.........so another words you should start with all the EQ's all the way up and cut each one accordingly, this way you will get the most clean headroom possible.

edt: I use mine with an Eden 410T cab....fwiw

him666 said:

My GS212 cab is 8Ohm. I'm happy about the volume, it can get pretty loud. But I haven't used it in my band yet. The head fits the cab perfectly, like their way made for eachother
But I i really feels my sound is mid-shy. I really need more mid to get to the Geddy Lee and Chris Squire sound with my Rickenbacker.

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I don't have any experience with your cab... but I find the more you push the amp the more the mids come out... I get tons of mids when I play live/jam volumes... but at low home volumes it does sound on the scooped side. I do use the matching cab.

I just wanted to post a few facts that I have observed with this head... as I seem to post them a lot. I should note that I use this head with the 2x10, 1x15, tweeter matching ported cab. This cab produces huge lows and bright highs. A little scooped sounding at low volumes, but the mids fill out really well at jam/gig volumes. It sounds huge with the warmth of the 15, and the punch of the 10's.

THE EQ: NOt all of the controls are immediatly intuitive... and I find the Traynor website/manual can be a little vague.

Treble/Mid/Bass: This is a passive EQ... so 10 is FLAT. Everything is cut after that. I prefer to cut bass to 6-8 depending on the room (cut less for larger rooms), and maybe cut highs to 7-8 if my strings are fresh or I am going for a more mellow sound.

Treble boost button: This is a very bright amp... so I wouldn't use this if you have fresh roundwounds... the highs can get harsh to my ears. I also keep the tweeter off when I play live. I prefer to let the guitarists play the shrill notes.

Range: I was told by Traynor that 10 is flat. I find the tone at 10 to be a little thin in the mids, but 'full frequency range.' As you go towards zero, highs and high mids are gradually cut and lows and low mids are boosted. Range on zero gives you a huge low end rumble (dub players would love it). I prefer my range around 5 for a good mix of highs and low mid punch.

SCOOP: A great feature so long as you keep it disengaged. IT is there for the hi-fi lovers though... this can be the tube amp for the guy that likes a little hi-fi with his rock tone. I think scoop is evil.

Resonance: Tube amps are known to have low damping factors which result in boomy unfocused lows (often why they sound better with sealed cabs... they help to control that). Well, the resonance dial in this amp does the same thing. At 10 you get big booming lows... as you dial it back towards 0 the bottom end really tightens up. I like to keep it at 0-2.

In the end... I think this is a great rock amp, though it has a more modern High mid 'gritty' rock voicing. The lovers of a low-mid 'muddy' rock tone out of the box may not like it as much... but you can get that tone with tweaking (range below 5). The huge low end potential will also appeal to the dub crowd... and the scoop knob and tweeter will please the folks who like a little bit of hi-fi. Finally... you can get a nice smooth bass tone too... though I personally go for a raunchy tone.

I find this amp/cab to be very versatile in the tone types that it can produce. The EQ can easily give you just about any basic tone you want, but then it can just as easily give you somethign you don't want if you don't know what you are doing. I get the feeling (not scientific), that although this amp can produce a good range of tones, it is not the best at any one sound. It's a good all-round amp for a jack of all trades. Mind you, I absolutly adore the gritty rock tone I get out of it...

Great post, John! Thanks!

Tom.

Just a few pictures.

I also swapped all the tubes for JJ's (KT88's au7's and ax7's). It is a little hard to compare tone side by side as I had no recordings... but the JJ's seemed to tighten up the lows and fill out the mids. I am quite happy and will continue this setup into the future. Mind you, I had no issues with the stock tubes.

Also, the power section of this amp is self biasing. I didn't do any adjusting when I popped in the new KT88 tubes. I am told that they will run slightly cold... but I love the tone so I will take the extra tube life that this should give me. Most manufacturers run their tubes a little cold out of the box anyway to maxamize life.

Finally, and I talked to traynor about this, the amp can run at 2ohms. Just switch the amp to 4ohms on the back when you run 2ohms. HOWEVER... output is reduced to about 160W so it is kinda pointless as you will get more output at 4ohms.

On that note, you can run the amp on the 4 ohm setting (I am talking the matching speaker cab... I am not sure about others) OR on the 8 ohm setting and still get the same output. You can choose which ever setting you like the tone most with. I prefer the 4ohm settign as it sounds fuller.

I've been very happy with my YBA200. I think it's a fantastic amp, given how light, relatively inexpensive, and good sounding it is.
I do have to push the mids all the way up with the range down, and cut the bass and treble to almost full down - but it sounds excellent (at least what I like) after some tweaking.

I find the preamp starts clipping at a very early setting. It's overdrive sound is very nice indeed, but not my thing all the time. Does anyone know of a tube replacement or modification for this amplifier, that would allow LESS gain from the preamp?

I didn't realize this head has been around for a couple years now, but many TBers have been down these roads.

This thread has quite a discussion on tube swapping in the YBA. I am studying it myself, even though I am happy with the stock tubes, since it looks like you could make a big improvement with not too much effort or money (depending).

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150395


Along this same line, there are a few tube reviews worth looking at here as well:

http://thetubestore.com/12ax7review.html

In the meantime, I'm lovin' it!

Your problem isn't the head, it's the cab. I had an Aguilar GS212 and found it to be notoriously mid shy.

cheezewiz said:

Your problem isn't the head, it's the cab. I had an Aguilar GS212 and found it to be notoriously mid shy.

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I was wondering the same thing, but not having spent any real time with a GS212, I didn't want to speculate. I do think, however, that the YBA200 is slightly mid-shy, but I have no problem dialing in a great tone (or at least a tone that I like a lot, personally).

Tom.

tombowlus said:

I was wondering the same thing, but not having spent any real time with a GS212, I didn't want to speculate. I do think, however, that the YBA200 is slightly mid-shy, but I have no problem dialing in a great tone (or at least a tone that I like a lot, personally).

Tom.

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Exactly Tom. When a mid shy head, and a mid shy cab are combined, it's not a good combination! When I got my Mesa 400+, I used it for exactly ONE job with my Aggie 212. I had heard the Mesa with other cabs, and knew how great it sounded, but it just wasn't there with the Aggie. Once I tried it with the NV610, well, as they say, the rest was history. When I was using the Aggie with a GK head, I had to boost the mids quite a bit to get an acceptable sound.

I own an Eden 410 and I still say it's mid shy......I have one hell of a time trying to dial in any low mids.