# Review my proposed Traynor Bassmaster Mods



## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

I am going to have a set of small and simple mods done to my bassmaster head. This is a very early unit with a tube rectifier and 7027s. It differs from the later models. You can read about the amp here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho....php?t=1436311

You can find a schematic here, but even this early schematic doesn't have a tube rectifier: http://www.0rigami.com/vb/traynor_bassmaster_yba1.pdf

Anyway, here are the mods I am going to ask my amp tech to do. I have culled these from other posts, other bassmasters I've owned, and talking to a few people. The amp sounds strong and is noise free, so for now I am going to forgo a complete cap job until I have a bit more cash on hand.

Mods.

1.) Replace Volume Pots with 1 Meg Audio Taper pots

2.) Snip treble cap (or possibly replace with a less bright value; suggestions?)

3.) Replace the Bias Cap (or caps, is there only one?)

4.) Replace Bass Pot cap with .022uF

5.) Have grounded plug redone to current standards

6.) Remove ground switch and cap.

7.) Either remove current Master Volume or replace with a PPIMV.


These are pretty simple mods that really bring the amp to life without modding it into something for the sake of change. FWIW, I prefer Traynor to both Fender and Marshall and hate the phrase "Poor Man's X".

Any comments, further suggestions, concerns? I don't have a great deal of technical knowledge and my amp tech is French (I am just learning French) so I want to make sure I am as knowledgeable as possible before sending it in.

Thanks so much!
TG


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## Tyler Savage (Nov 16, 2009)

traynor_garnet said:


> I am going to have a set of small and simple mods done to my bassmaster head. This is a very early unit with a tube rectifier and 7027s. It differs from the later models. You can read about the amp here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho....php?t=1436311
> 
> You can find a schematic here, but even this early schematic doesn't have a tube rectifier: http://www.0rigami.com/vb/traynor_bassmaster_yba1.pdf
> 
> ...


I did every one of those mods to a number of traynors/garnets for myself and others, including that exact same amp (which I find is one of the best traynors you can get)

the 1Meg pots and snipping the bright caps are probably the most noticeable right off the bat. I actually found I liked the bright cap on there because of the 'range expander' tone controls, I was able to just eq the amp darker, and liked having the available brightness to me. 

Get the tech to replace the master with a Lar/Mar PPIMV (details available different places online) - basically a dual pot, with two resistors in parallel to give you the same values as the grid resistors going to ground from your power tubes. Make sure he uses shielded cable for the signal lines in this. This circuit works really well in these amps. To mine and my friend's ears it sounds better than his hotplate for turning the amp down. It's incredibly linear, and with the shielded cable so deadly silent, in vintage amps its kind of spooky because everything else is so damn noisy.

Good luck!


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