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Traynor YBA200 NIGHTMARE... advice needed (dial-up beware)

slowburnaz

slowburnaz

Commercial User
Mar 27, 2002
1,389
2,033
52
Tucson, AZ
www.turnerpickups.com
Disclosures
Owner, Turner Pickups
#1
So, I'm not a violent man, but right now I'd like to stuff a raging pit bull, which I've fed 50 pounds of gunpowder and a burning ember, right up someone's rear end. Maybe you can help me sort out who that lucky person should be...

My little story starts about 2 years ago. I bought a Traynor YBA200 from an internet store (out of business now). The amp treated me well for a while. I loved the tone I was getting, loved the glow of the tubes, sounded great on stage...

Then it started...

After about a year, the amp started dying on me.


First it was a blown fuse. Replaced that, and things were fine for a while.

Next, a tube glowed like the sun for a few seconds, frantic bandmates pointing at our new smoke machine... err, my freakin' amp. Needless to say, amp dead. Took the amp into the shop and they fixed it up. However, tech guy tells me a resistor in the auto-biasing circuit fried (hence the smoking death), taking with it a nickel-sized chunk of circuit board. The amp was patched up, though, and ready to go!

Next, cue the blown fuse again. Replaced, amp works fine.

A while later, another tube bites the dust, but the amp seems fine.

Couple months later, another tube in a different socket goes supernova. I could swear I didn't buy a barbeque...
I take it back to the shop. SAME... PROBLEM... AGAIN. Another socket's auto-biasing circuit has a fried resistor, causing more untold damage to the circuit board. This time, the amp tech fixes it for the cost of parts and wisely tells me to buzz Traynor about this.

There's an idea! Soz I call Traynor. Traynor's tech tells me that he can't understand why my tech couldn't tell me the real problem: the resistor in the auto-biasing circuit has been known to overheat at times and even fail, and that's why I'm blowing tubes. REALLY NOW?! Now THERE'S some insight.
Anyway, he tells me to send it to him, and he'll upgrade the amp to the "Mark 2 specification"... then proceeds to tell me that the Mark 2 spec (the newer YBA200-2) doesn't include the auto-biasing circuit, and operates more like your standard SVT, etc. (Gee, I wonder if there was a PROBLEM with the auto-biasing circuit?)

So, I send the amp to Traynor, on my tab.

I get a call from Traynor about a week after they receive the amp, saying I need to pay for some tubes. The new spec uses KT-88s, whereas the older spec used 6550s. In all of my conversations with the Traynor tech, no cost was ever mentioned. I tell this to the lady that called me, and she comes back with, "Ok, I was able to get you the tubes for half price." (Remember that... half price = 50% = 4 tubes for the price of 2) I say, "Ok, that's fair." She gives me the grand total, which is the price of 2 KT-88s PLUS the return shipping. "Damn," I think... gotta pay return shipping, too, which I totally didn't expect.

Today, 5/19/08, I'm at work and I get a call from my fiance... "You're amp's here." SWEET!

I get home from work, open up the box... and find... ahem... this:
2.jpg


Nice tube! Wait, aren't there supposed to be 4?


3.jpg


Hmm... not over there... lemme take this screen off and get a closer look...


8.jpg


Oh, THERE they are!


7.jpg


Yes, yes... packed and handled with the utmost care.
Let's get those out of there and take a closer look, shall we?


tubes.jpg


Wait, what's with those 2 tubes on the right? Oh yeah! My 50% discount... yeah, that must be it. They even included extra parts. Err, umm... extra bits?? of glass and broken plastic?

How about a closer look?

tubes3.jpg

tubes4.jpg


Oooh... free fairy dust!:
tubes6.jpg


I'm thinking the vacuum in these vacuum tubes no longer exists:
tubes8.jpg



And wait a sec... is this a used tube? The logo looks like it's half way rubbed off!:
used.jpg




So... as you can see, I'm now stuck with a broken-ass amp. Who gets water-boarded first? Traynor? UPS? And how the heck do I go about getting reimbursed for this?

Ughhh.... :help:
 
#3
Despite the situation, your post is damn funny! I feel for you and would have expected better customer service from Traynor. There is no way you shoulb be responsible for this. Call Traynor in the morning and demand that they make good on this. Let them deal with UPS and send you out 4 new tubes asap. Once the tubes arrive, if the amp doesn't work flawlessly, then it needs to be sent back on their dime.

Time to get medival on someone! haha
 
#6
It's not all that uncommon for bias resistors to be damaged by defective tubes.

It's also not that uncommon for parcel carriers to break stuff.

Not much can be done about either situation except take care of the few problems that do arise. Give us a call or email - no need to demand anything or get upset. The people that answer the phone are nice people and will do whatever's possible to get you taken care of. Ask for me if you like. Please have your RA, packing slip and serial number handy.

edit: I see we crossed a few posts there... Let me know if I can help out. I do drop by every now and then, but not as often as I'd like. My time is pretty tapped as they have me working hard on the line array launch here in the States and I tend to just veg out when I get home if I'm not working on that stuff.
 
#9
You amp was obviously dropped and mishandled. it is VERY common with UPS. IMO, UPS has been the worst of all of the carriers for quite some time now. they are responsible for damage (outright smashing!) of alot of my vintage gear, shipping and receiving (way too many to mention)..........and its not getting any better. what's worse, I think that they are hiring monkeys now to offset the cost of higher fuel prices.

johnk
 
#14
Ben Clarke said:
It's not all that uncommon for bias resistors to be damaged by defective tubes.

It's also not that uncommon for parcel carriers to break stuff.

Not much can be done about either situation except take care of the few problems that do arise. Give us a call or email - no need to demand anything or get upset. The people that answer the phone are nice people and will do whatever's possible to get you taken care of. Ask for me if you like. Please have your RA, packing slip and serial number handy.

edit: I see we crossed a few posts there... Let me know if I can help out. I do drop by every now and then, but not as often as I'd like. My time is pretty tapped as they have me working hard on the line array launch here in the States and I tend to just veg out when I get home if I'm not working on that stuff.
Click to expand...

Hey Ben,

Please understand that I was being a smart ass, and trying to maintain good humor (given the circumstances) with the post.

Even so, I did need to get upset at first so I don't take it out on anyone when I call in tomorrow. The only thing I demand is some sort of reimbursement, whether that be from Traynor or UPS. I've already spent way too much money on this amp. Of course, I don't think Traynor would send out an amp like that... it's pretty certain that UPS kicked her around a bit.

UPS Package Sorting

What gets me is the fact that I've gotta shell out all this cash when it seems to be that the auto-biasing circuit is known to be defective, or prone to failure. At least in my case, anyway. I always used matched sets of tubes in my amp, and went through too many in the time I've had it. Now this Mark 2 comes out and lo and behold there's no auto-biasing circuit.

Well, that's good and all, but my warranty covered the original amp. Why did I have to pay for the tubes to use in my amp when I had no choice but to "upgrade" to an amp that uses KT88s? I shipped the amp in with 4 perfectly functional 6550s in it. I even asked Guy Beresford, the tech I was corresponding with, if I should remove the tubes before shipping. He said to leave them in there. I paid my local tech for those tubes, and the amp had never been used after that, before being shipped to Yorkville.

What's a customer to do?
 
#15
slowburnaz said:
What's a customer to do?
Click to expand...
Watch your butt when you bend over. That's really all you can do. If you mail tube amps you have to take a chance, that's all there is to it. All you can do is hope someone makes good for you, and it looks like they will. I do think Traynor should have put something in there to protect the tubes in shipping, or even pulled them out and made you put them in, so I don't know if I blame it totally on UPS. Everyone knows that your package is going to get dropped or slammed at least once every trip. And the tubes are kind of exposed in there. But they haven't been in business for 40 years by screwing their customers, so I'm sure everything will be good in the end. Ben's already offered his assistance, and UPS does pay its claims even though they do their best not to at first.
 
#17
I'm glad to see this post. I had a similar problem develop last night.

I just got a YBA200 (self Bias model) on ebay. It sounded fine, but not good enough for me. I just got a low gain retube set from Eurotubes and I think I may have fried my amp. Here's what happened

1) I first switched out the preamp tubes. Sounded fine, with noticiable improvements in tone.

2) I then switched out the power tubes. I cleaned the sockets like Eurotubes recomends, then I let her warm up for a few minutes. Then I flipped off the standby.

3) A brief popping/scratching sound, an orange sun shining from the second tube from the left (viewed from the front), and NOTHING!

4) Tried changing the fuse. Nothing.

5) Changed the fuse again and put back in the 6650's that I got the amp with. Still nothing.

6) So I've got one blown KT88 and an amp that turns on and lights up, but makes no noise other than a low hum.

Eurotubes was superhelpfull. They offered to send me a new tube right away. I told them to hold off until I tried a new fuse and the old tubes, but after pulling the KT88's out lat night, the one that flared up is obviously a bit charred inside so I'll have them send a replacement.

A few questions.

1) Who do I call at Traynor? Their USA number just sends you to a series of voicemail options with no "service" or "repair" options. Could I call the Canada office for better service?

2) Is there anything else I could do to user service the amp? Does the YBA 200 have internal fuses or anything like that?

I'm a bit frustrated, as the amp was working fine before the switch, and everything I've read including quotes from Traynor employees says that these things are made to work fine with KT88's. We'll just have to see how things work out...
 
#18
johnk_10 said:
wow! after seeing that, i guess that there's no sense taking the extra time to put the "fragile" , "handle with care" or "contains glass" stickers on my packages. :eek:

those guys are idiots!

johnk
Click to expand...

I never write fragile on packages. My mother used to work in a sorting facility for the USPS and she told me some people will treat packages with fragile on them even worse than other packages.
 
#19
I had exactly the experience as Eilif with my Traynor. Eurotubes was extremely helpful and said it was possibly a bad tube so they sent me another one free of charge. In the end I don't know exactly what caused it to burn a tube and part of the amp up but it did get fixed eventually.

I don't really have anything positive to say about Traynor's customer service but nothing overly negative. They need to have some decent service tech's to start with. I took it to a supposed authorized repair dealer and they did a hack job on it. Had the hardest time finder another authorized repair dealer, finally talked to Traynor and they agreed for me to take it to my own tech and send them the bill. About two months later my amp was finally fixed.

I talked with all kinds of people @ Traynor but noone in specific was very helpful including my local Traynor rep.... I was given his number so he could help me find a local repair dealer but he acted like I was bothering him when I called. overall I walked away very unimpressed with Traynor's customer service.
 

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