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Is my amp dead?

W

Wolzly

Oct 16, 2005
33
4
#1
I have a Traynor YBA300 and a Traynor 8x10 cab. I had a friend over today and he was messing around on my bass when suddenly there was a huge pop. Power went off on the amp and when I looked at it, the circuit breaker was tripped. Now after pushing the little breaker button back in if I power the amp back on after 5-10 seconds my cab starts humming (standby is still off on the amp) and by 12 seconds it kicks into a huge growly buzz.

I have a spare set of tubes which I swapped in but no effect.

Any idea what could be wrong? I did buy this amp used but I've been using it for years with no issue. Worried something is seriously wrong and my friend feels horrible.

Any help / insight welcomed.

Thanks
 
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#3
Very broken, stop messing with it before you break it more, or you break the speaker too.

Contact a Yorkville authorized service center. They will have access the necessary service info, parts and especially factory support should they need it.
 
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#4
Something is definitely wrong internally. Don't do any thing else with it until the proper technician has a chance to look at it. Herb Venticinque and Mike Holeman over at Yorkville Sound are amazing technical resources for any of the authorized service centers that you would go to.

The circuitry for the YBA 300 has not changed since 2016. Mine was made in 2013 and a service center made the necessary updates and changes to the circuit boards to bring it up to the latest iteration. Thankfully the person I bought it from who is the second owner was able to confirm from the first owner he bought it from had it properly serviced at an authorized center.

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#5
How would I go about finding the right place to take it for service? I poked around google and yorkville/traynor websites but am a little bit lost. In my area it seems like Long & McQuade is the dealer of choice, but would that be the right place to start looking for service as well? I'm in southwestern ontario (canada), London area.
 
#7
Wolzly said:
How would I go about finding the right place to take it for service? I poked around google and yorkville/traynor websites but am a little bit lost. In my area it seems like Long & McQuade is the dealer of choice, but would that be the right place to start looking for service as well? I'm in southwestern ontario (canada), London area.
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Take it to your local L&M. They will box it up and send it to the factory in Pickering where it will get fixed.
They’ll ask for an upfront payment of $200.00 which will cover shipping and all or part of the repair cost. If it comes in under $200.00 you’ll get the difference back and you can ask for an estimate call if it exceeds a set amount you’re comfortable with.
 
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#9
You could save shipping costs by heading east on the 401 through Toronto and into Pickering. Get off at Whites Road and you are essentially there!
Drop off for repair is on the north side of the building.
While you're in the GTA, you could drop into some local shops to spend more money!
Fishheadjoe
 
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#10
Wolzly said:
How would I go about finding the right place to take it for service? I poked around google and yorkville/traynor websites but am a little bit lost. In my area it seems like Long & McQuade is the dealer of choice, but would that be the right place to start looking for service as well? I'm in southwestern ontario (canada), London area.
Click to expand...
L&M IS Traynor and later Yorkville.

Pete Traynor was a legend in the industry. Those 1960s 8x10 cabinets under the Custom Special and Super Custom Specials were so much better than the Ampegs.
Fishheadjoe said:
You could save shipping costs by heading east on the 401 through Toronto and into Pickering. Get off at Whites Road and you are essentially there!
Drop off for repair is on the north side of the building.
While you're in the GTA, you could drop into some local shops to spend more money!
Fishheadjoe
Click to expand...
If you do that, drive in the early morning, like 0300. The 401 is a parking lot most of the time. Might still be at 0300. Good luck.
 
#11
Fishheadjoe said:
You could save shipping costs by heading east on the 401 through Toronto and into Pickering. Get off at Whites Road and you are essentially there!
Drop off for repair is on the north side of the building.
While you're in the GTA, you could drop into some local shops to spend more money!
Fishheadjoe
Click to expand...
My choice of words may have implied there’s a separate charge. There is not. Shipping from an L&M is free. It goes on the store truck with everything else that’s moving from here to there.
I would NOT recommend a drive from London to Pickering unless you were fleeing a tornado.
 
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#12
Alright thanks for the info, I called L&M and will take the amp in tomorrow hopefully if I can pull away from work for a little bit. I hope it's not a crazy expensive repair. I mean I like having good gear and I paid way less than what it would be new, but still you know it sucks spending money :P
 
#15
Wolzly said:
I paid way less than what it would be new
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I have always looked at this as a reason NOT to get upset at additional costs be it tube replacement or repair costs.
Once fixed this head should give you years of trouble free use apart from tube costs which can never be predicted but the odds are always in your favour.
Good luck, I’ll keep an eye on this repair and feel free to DM me if you have any more questions.
 
#17
Well I do know what happened, he slapped the strings (not like a slapper just with his fingers all in a group) and the strings smacked against the pickup. I have a really cheap squier bronco shortscale with single pickup and I switched the pickup out for one of those "hot rail" type pickups trying to get some growl out of the little thing. Anyway... I'm wondering if maybe my bass has a grounding issue? Although I don't know if that would cause the catastrophic failure that occured. The impact of the strings to the "poles" of the pickup caused quite the pop and then that was it, the thing (amp) was dead. I dunno. Any insight into that (bass grounding issue) could be the thing? I was always under the impression that the amount of power actually going between the instrument and the amp was super tiny though so maybe this theory is just complete garbage. Plus I'm relatively certain there isn't a grounding issue although I did the wiring myself and am an amateur so it's possible.

Anyway I'll keep y'all posted on what happens with the amp for sure. Thanks again for all the help. I haven't posted in here in probably more than a decade. Love this place though :D
 
#20
Wolzly said:
Well I do know what happened, he slapped the strings (not like a slapper just with his fingers all in a group) and the strings smacked against the pickup. I have a really cheap squier bronco shortscale with single pickup and I switched the pickup out for one of those "hot rail" type pickups trying to get some growl out of the little thing. Anyway... I'm wondering if maybe my bass has a grounding issue? Although I don't know if that would cause the catastrophic failure that occured. The impact of the strings to the "poles" of the pickup caused quite the pop and then that was it, the thing (amp) was dead. I dunno. Any insight into that (bass grounding issue) could be the thing? I was always under the impression that the amount of power actually going between the instrument and the amp was super tiny though so maybe this theory is just complete garbage. Plus I'm relatively certain there isn't a grounding issue although I did the wiring myself and am an amateur so it's possible.

Anyway I'll keep y'all posted on what happens with the amp for sure. Thanks again for all the help. I haven't posted in here in probably more than a decade. Love this place though :D
Click to expand...
No offense, but your wiring is a way more likely cause than a loud transient pop. Loud Transients can blow cabs, but amps have long had protection built in for that. But since you don’t know, call your local L&M and get it worked on. The money you spend is more than offset by the damage that can be done by not being a pro at repair.
 

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