# YCV50 vs YCV40WR



## keto (May 23, 2006)

What's the tonal difference?

I owned a YCV50 Blue, one of the very first ones. I never should have sold it, loved that amp - but traded it towards a half stack for my kids' band at the time. I'm thinking about picking one up, the current production YCV50B(black).

But I'm curious, those of you who may have owned or played both - I know the 40 runs 6L6's and the 50 runs EL34's. Looking at the manuals, they otherwise look much the same - FX loop, reverb, footswitchable boost, full independent tone stacks for each channel. The only difference I can see is the 40 has a Presence control the 50 lacks, which is no way shape or form a deal breaker.

How do they differ from one another tonally? If I had to hazard a semi-educated guess, I'd say the 40 should have a firmer bottom end due to tube type. Otherwise, I don't really understand why Traynor has both of these models, so close together in specs and wattage.

Also, for both amps, they say the internal speaker is 8 ohms and you can connect another @ 8. They don't specify whether it's series or parallel. One of the first thing's I'd likely do is replace the V30 in either case, have some 16 ohm speakers around. If the amp is set up series, no problem. If parallel, problem. Anyone know?


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## 5732 (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm interested in this too. I also owned a 50 but found it kind of dark. I have a ycv20 and was thinking of checking out the 40 next time one shows up used.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Yeah, that's a specific reason I would grab a 50 - I favour bright tones but it pisses off my bandmates, and all I have right now are Marshalls and derivatives, so they strongly favour that bright upper mid sound. And very hard to tame them, most of them are still pretty spanky with the treble and pres @ 0. To me it sounds muddy to them it's AHHH TURN DOWN THE TONE.

Also, independent tone controls per channel is something I haven't had in a long time and have missed a lot. Right now I go back and forth between a JCA22H and a DSL50. Both great sounding amps but only can be dialed for 1 channel or the other due to shared tone controls, rendering the other almost unusable - worse on the DSL than the JC, but anyways.


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## Bobby1note (Jan 6, 2014)

keto said:


> Yeah, that's a specific reason I would grab a 50 - *I favour bright tones but it pisses off my bandmates*, and all I have right now are Marshalls and derivatives, so they strongly favour that bright upper mid sound. And very hard to tame them, most of them are still pretty spanky with the treble and pres @ 0. *To me it sounds muddy to them it's AHHH TURN DOWN THE TONE.*
> 
> Also, independent tone controls per channel is something I haven't had in a long time and have missed a lot. Right now I go back and forth between a JCA22H and a DSL50. Both great sounding amps but only can be dialed for 1 channel or the other due to shared tone controls, rendering the other almost unusable - worse on the DSL than the JC, but anyways.


Keto,

Any chance you're not using a tilt-back stand, and you have the amp firing at the back of your ankles? This ALWAYS presents problems when I'm running sound. With the amp on the floor, people in front of the amp hear ice-picks. People who are off-axis (often the guitarist), can't hear what the amp really sounds like, and tend to turn it up. The cure is to place the amp on a tilt-back stand, facing the guitarist. This ALWAYS gets results. :smile-new:


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## soldierscry (Jan 20, 2008)

FYI l&m (at least here in Halifax) has 3 ycv50 blues in stock for $399


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Bobby1note said:


> Keto,
> 
> Any chance you're not using a tilt-back stand, and you have the amp firing at the back of your ankles? This ALWAYS presents problems when I'm running sound. With the amp on the floor, people in front of the amp hear ice-picks. People who are off-axis (often the guitarist), can't hear what the amp really sounds like, and tend to turn it up. The cure is to place the amp on a tilt-back stand, facing the guitarist. This ALWAYS gets results. :smile-new:


Nah, we mic up and play thru a mixer into headphones/earbuds. It's nothing to do with amp orientation....in fact, it's across the room facing me the way things are right now. No, the guys I play with aren't experienced musicians (I'm no pro, but have been around tons more live music than any of them) and, at least 2 out of 3 of them, are extraordinarily sensitive to high notes and brightness....it's like they've never been to a bar or concert with live guitar. So, I do my best to accomodate. I've thrown a bunch of money at the "problem", pickups, different pedals and, as noted, turned the top end of the amps almost off. Reoriented amp mic away from the cone. It's mostly them. I'm just using this as an excuse for another amp


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I had both of these at the same time:










I no longer have the blue one but I loved it. I actually owned the blue version twice and the 15 watt blue one as well - I ended up trading that 15 watt one for a nice hybrid bicycle. One main feature the blue 50 has that the WR doesn't have is the master volume which makes levels easier to manage. For me, the easiest way to describe the overall tone of the blue one was always 'Marshally'. It had edge and punch on tap to spare.









The WR one I still have and the easy way to describe the tone is 'gritty Fenderish'. That's not to say that it doesn't have a really nice clean but the gain/drive can sound a bit harsh so if I am being a stickler, I grab a Tube Screamer and use that instead. I would say that the bottom end of the WR isn't firmer. I would definitely say softer. More mids and warmer would be a definite overall description of the tone.

The addition of the ext cab (closed back) took both of them to completely different (yes, higher) levels as far as sound quality. Number one, the more air moving always seems better so more than one speaker always wins. So, with the closed back cab, the bottom does firm up a lot and seems to broaden the spectrum of the unit. It doesn't hurt that it looks bad ass too.

As to the series/parallel question...can you tell by looking at the service manual which has a schematic? You can check it online:
http://traynoramps.com/downloads/servman/smycs50.pdf










My biggest knock is that reverb isn't channel independent nor is it footswitchable. Two things that may not make a difference to many but still knocks in my book. In a time when they make a million of everything, they should make them as close to perfect as they can.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

The schematic shows the speaker jacks in parallel. There is a switch for 4 or 8 ohm operation (stock internal speaker is 8 ohm).


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Direct from Yorkville:

Hi Kent. As is the case with most intrument amplifiers, the speaker 
outputs are in parallel. Also true of most of our tube amps including 
the YCV40 & 50, 16 Ohms is an acceptable overall load The amp will 
put out around 25% less power into 16 ohms but no problem for the amp 
and the sound level may not even decrease by all that much, it 
depends on the new speaker's efficiency. If you add an ext. speaker - 
let's say 8 Ohms - the overall load will be 5.3 Ohms and power will 
be at maximum - ditto if the ext. cab is 16 Ohms & the resulting load 
is 8 Ohms.

Thanks for the replies and especially to smorg, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for! Well done, sir.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

I've had 2 40's and a 50. I prefer the 50, primarily because the master allowed me to push the clean channel gain a bit. Didn't really miss the "presence" much.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

keto said:


> Thanks for the replies and especially to smorg, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for! Well done, sir.


You are welcome! Any time I can help, I do what I am able. It's tough sometimes to get specific with how something sounds though, especially since the nuances can be appreciated and interpreted so differently.

As to the earlier discussion on amps pointing at the ankles and so on...there are some nice stands on the market that lift them up...sometimes making the controls a little less accessible (but do the new Traynors have front controls?) but the sound doesn't go whooshing past your ankles. 

They are about $48 + tax.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Banged around on a YCV50B that had been out on rent a few times. Brought it home, discounted but not quite as cheap as the ones referenced by soldierscry.

I remember why I loved the one I had. I like just about everything about it:
-clean can be dialed fairly 'Fenderish' and has decent headroom
-I like the tone of the gain channel's 'roar', and the amount of gain on tap
-it has a superb overall master volume
-the channel independent tone controls work really well for me
-the built in boost

And it's not a bright amp at all (I suppose you could engage the bright switch and tear someone's head off with the clean channel, but I have no need to do so), so should fit my situation very well.

It's either heavier than I remember, or I'm getting older and weaker LOL.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

keto said:


> It's either heavier than I remember, or I'm getting older and weaker LOL.


LOL, I saw a used blue one for sale at The Arts in Newmarket a month or two back. It might still be there, I don't know. Price was very attractive, well under $500, tho i don't remember exactly.

The first thing i did was pick it up, and that made up my mind. It's not crazy heavy like an old YGL3 or anything, but I'm looking for something lighter.


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## Beach Bob (Sep 12, 2009)

I've got a 40WR that pretty much out Fenders a Fender... great amp, but too damn loud for a basement player... I'll probably sell it soon...


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Beach Bob said:


> I've got a 40WR that pretty much out Fenders a Fender... great amp, but too damn loud for a basement player... I'll probably sell it soon...



I was just playing in the basement, with people asleep in the house. 50 has a GREAT master volume, I was getting very usable tone at 'TV volume' levels.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

keto said:


> Banged around on a YCV50B that had been out on rent a few times. Brought it home, discounted but not quite as cheap as the ones referenced by soldierscry.
> 
> I remember why I loved the one I had. I like just about everything about it:
> -clean can be dialed fairly 'Fenderish' and has decent headroom
> ...


I clearly recall all of the points that you make there.
I still love the ext cab too though...even at low volume.
Aside from that, a pedal EQ gives a super broad spectrum of sonic sculpting and a reverb pedal (if you like to turn off reverb without using the hands).

I have even retubed them myself which is an easy project for anyone who ever does even limited DIY. I either bought tubes from Eurotubes or like last time using a link on the forum here to buy via the tubestore. Both places have packages specific for the Traynors as well as many others.
They are heavy.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Used it for a 4 hour band practice yesterday. I retubed just the power tubes the night before, just experimenting but a set of JJ's made the gain a little less fuzzy. Cranked up it sounded good in the mix, I was happy with it. 95% of the time on the gain channel (gain at around 7), about half of that time boosted with an OD808. Best tone I've ever had? Well, nope, but a real good solid hard rock sound.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

keto said:


> about half of that time boosted with an OD808.


That's pretty much like a tube screamer isn't it?

Most people just crank them and try to get dirt/distortion/heavy sound from them.

If you haven't played with the controls on it much try these:

On heavy overdrive amp channel- Gain=0 Tone=3 o'clock Level= 2 o'clock. 
The amp is still making the gain tone/overdrive but the OD kinda tightens it and 'smooths' the overdrive.

On the clean channel before the tubes begin to breakup- Gain=3 o'clock tone=2 o'clock Level=3 o'clock.
The OD to dirties the sound.

Settings might vary a bit but they will give you an idea.

2 different ways that give 2 different results as opposed to people who get the pedal in the mail and crank the drive up & go. Hey, not that it doesn't work perfectly sometimes! 


Love the YCV50


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Nah, I played with it extensively (hours!) the night before going to band practice. We're playing pretty hard rock verging on metal without the shredding, so lots of gain is generally my sound. It sounds good on its own no pedals, undoubtedly, and works real well at lower gain levels, as I have found out now and previously with my old 50. I only use the 808 to get just a touch of gain (vol high, distortion real low - boosting more than driving), but more to tighten up the bottom end for chugga chugga. It can be just a little woofy, but dialing out the bass control on the gain channel gives unsatisfactory results, so the OD808 is the correct answer *for me*. I actually tried a number of overdrives with it - Green Rhino, SD-1, GTOD, MXR Dist+, and a couple of others, the Maxon just sounded best (Rhino was also nice. Yes, both are TS style ODs). I also have a Spark Booster in the loop for a solo boost, the built in boost gives more gain but not much vol when the vol is high (at low vol, it really does a number on both).


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## Stratotone (Jan 29, 2014)

You would never notice it in a live band setting but the ycv40 I owned had a noticeable background hiss on the clean channel at home basement solo volume. Spent some tube money and tech time money trying to quiet it down but finally moved it on. Think I would go for the 50 if I try again.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Stratotone said:


> You would never notice it in a live band setting but the ycv40 I owned had a noticeable background hiss on the clean channel at home basement solo volume. Spent some tube money and tech time money trying to quiet it down but finally moved it on. Think I would go for the 50 if I try again.



You replied to a 7 year old thread. I'm pretty sure the point is moot by now.


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