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Traynor YBA200?

I

itsnottruerufus

Guest
Apr 13, 2011
141
7
#1
Hey guys, so I played a Traynor YBA-200 today and absolutely loved it. I'm currently runnings a PF350 with a VTbass always on for my sound and I'd really like to maybe step it up a notch. I like a grindy, ampegish tone, and this seemed to do that really well. I know Dave Monks from Tokyo Police Club plays through these and I was pretty obsessed with his tone for a while. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts about these heads? Price was $500 which seems really good for a 200 watt All Tube Head.

Also, how do you think this would compare to something like a V4?
 
#3
Owned it at one point years ago.
Thought it was underpowered and broke up sound wise too early for me.
But then i didnt know about changing tubes then.
But sound wise it was fantastic, i was in a very loud band and this through an avatar 2x12 wasnt cutting it.
Played the yba300 a short while back and thought that blew the 200 out of the water.
 
#4
Just bought a used YBA-200-2 about a month ago. The -2 designation denotes the 2nd iteration of the amp. The straight YBA-200 had auto-bias (and 6550's as outputs), but the auto-bias was causing problems, so Traynor re-designed the amp by taking out the auto-bias circuitry and switched to KT88's as output tubes.

If you search that amp model, you will find that some have had their version 1 amps modified to be a version 2 amp. Also, for those who do not want the somewhat early break-up that is a characteristic of this amp, you can change one or both of the 12AX7's in the pre-amp to 12AT7's for cleaner headroom.

Other than the auto-bias problem with the first version, Traynor makes very solid, reliable equipment. And from their website you can download full schematics if service is needed down the road.

As to versatility, some have written how they don't really like the EQ section of the amp - mainly the "Scoop" controls, and that the tone is somewhat bright. It is a passive tone stack, so better to crank bass/treble/mids full up (in effect, zero attenuation) and then turn down (attenuate) what you don't want.

I don't find it too hard to get out of it what I want, but I am not a gigging bassist (yet), so have very limited experience with all the variables different venues can throw at you.

Anyway, that's my limited knowledge in a nutshell.

If you really want headroom, go for the YBA-300. Better EQ section, too. Just more money, about $1500 new and harder to find used ones.
 
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#6
I just picked up a yba200-2 not too long ago. It took a while to figure out how to set it to the sound I like but instead of changing preamp tubes to lower gain ones I just plugged into the active -6db input. It allows you to turn up the gain "this amp also scoops the midrange when the gain is at lower settings". As a bonus doing this also helps tame some of the high end. If I leave resonance and scoop off, turn to bass right off to 0, full mids and very little treble and just turn the range to about the 9 oclock position to loose some of the sub lows, I can get it sounding how I like. It reminds me of my old 200s sunn using these settings only a lot more powerfull. It took a lot of knob twisting to come up with what I like but I am now very happy with this amp and it also has adequate volume for me.
 
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#7
VerryBerry said:
Just bought a used YBA-200-2 about a month ago. The -2 designation denotes the 2nd iteration of the amp. The straight YBA-200 had auto-bias (and 6550's as outputs), but the auto-bias was causing problems, so Traynor re-designed the amp by taking out the auto-bias circuitry and switched to KT88's as output tubes.

If you search that amp model, you will find that some have had their version 1 amps modified to be a version 2 amp. Also, for those who do not want the somewhat early break-up that is a characteristic of this amp, you can change one or both of the 12AX7's in the pre-amp to 12AT7's for cleaner headroom.

Other than the auto-bias problem with the first version, Traynor makes very solid, reliable equipment. And from their website you can download full schematics if service is needed down the road.

As to versatility, some have written how they don't really like the EQ section of the amp - mainly the "Scoop" controls, and that the tone is somewhat bright. It is a passive tone stack, so better to crank bass/treble/mids full up (in effect, zero attenuation) and then turn down (attenuate) what you don't want.

I don't find it too hard to get out of it what I want, but I am not a gigging bassist (yet), so have very limited experience with all the variables different venues can throw at you.

Anyway, that's my limited knowledge in a nutshell.

If you really want headroom, go for the YBA-300. Better EQ section, too. Just more money, about $1500 new and harder to find used ones.
Click to expand...

I have a YBA200-2 that I put NOS Philips 12AT7s in. The tube swap pretty much tamed the tone stack. Reading a little about passive tone stacks helped, too. The knobs are interactive and behave a bit differently from what one would expect. The trick with getting the gain control turned up to fill in the mids helped a lot.

The YBA-300's more powerful tone control comes at the expense of it not having an all-tube signal path. The tone section is solid state. I guess Traynor got tired of the complaints about the YBA200, which indeed has an all-tube signal path, and built a more powerful tone stack for the YBA300. The only real way to do that without a large increase in cost and weight was to abandon the all-tube design.
 

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