# Traynor YGL-3A Mark-3



## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

Does anyone know where the V1 preamp tube is in this beast?


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Oh, I have two of these amps. I think the older ones (silver Grill Cloth like my early 70s one) have V1 up at the front of the chassis toward the faceplate, where as my newer (black grill cloth - late 70s model) has all the preamp tubes along the back and V1 is the tube on the far right while looking at the back of the amp from the rear.
Which amp do you have?


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

It is an older one, 1971 I believe. Silver face.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

ok, cool. My older one is 1973 I think, so it should be the same as far as I know. V1 is the tube socket up near the front of the amp by itself near the input jacks for the normal channel. So V1 only effects the Normal channel.
So, what are you up to? Swapping in a new 12ax7? Are you looking for more gain or something?


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

Thanks, I thought I might tame the beast by swapping a 5751 for the 12ax7. Where would the V1 tube be for the second channel? I downloaded a schematic but it looks like something my Doctor jotted down on a Prescription pad.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Wileyone said:


> Thanks, I thought I might tame the beast by swapping a 5751 for the 12ax7. Where would the V1 tube be for the second channel? I downloaded a schematic but it looks like something my Doctor jotted down on a Prescription pad.


If you're looking for less volume, I would suggest either pulling 2 of the 4 EL34s (the two outside ones, or two inside ones - don't mix and match!) or disconnecting one of the speakers (assuming the remaining speaker can handle the full wattage of the amp - also, this will cause an impedance mismatch, but those big old hammonds in the Traynors can handle it).

I pulled the 2 of the tubes on my old YGL3 to get it down to about 40-50 watts or so and it was still too loud and heavy for me


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

So that will change the Amp from 4 ohm to 8 ohm's?


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Wileyone said:


> So that will change the Amp from 4 ohm to 8 ohm's?


No, the OT still wants to see 4 ohms, but disconnecting one of the speakers will make the load the amp sees 8 ohms instead of 4 ohms. Again, shouldn't be a problem. This is assuming you're just disconnecting a speaker and leaving all 4 EL34s in.

If you want to pull tubes, as far as I know, pulling 2 of the power tubes creates a small and mostly negligible difference in output impedance. Your amp will go from 4ohms to maybe 5 or 5.5ohm, so using a 4 ohm load is still ok. This is conjecture based on what I've heard. I don't have the maths to figure it out exactly.


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

Right now I have the outside 2 power tubes removed. I am running both speaker outputs from the Amp into a 2x12 cab with 2 inputs. It seems to be working fine. Just still a little to loud. I will unplug one speaker and try that. What power tubes are you running?


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Wileyone said:


> So that will change the Amp from 4 ohm to 8 ohm's?


Yes.
I haven't done that on mine. I don't find half-power switches very effective in my experience.

So what is the problem exactly? Usually the problem people (I) have with these is that they can just be too clean. So, I would think that changing the preamp tube to lower gain would only frustrate even more. But I guess that doesn't seem to be an issue for you. By the way, the other channel's first preamp tube is up toward the front of the chassis as well near the inputs for that channel. Should be easy to spot as well if it is the same as my '73.

Is it just that the volume is too touchy and it can get too loud too easily?
I'm thinking that a good Type 2 Post Phase Inverter Master Volume would be a decent mod to make overall volume more controllable. You would just need some shielded cable, a dual-ganged 250K pot and a couple resisters (I would have to recheck the value). YOu could mount it on the back panel in place of the ground switch that you shouldn't need anymore... Anyways, that's one idea...


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

bcmatt said:


> Yes.
> But I guess that doesn't sound like and issue for you.


Not really sure what you mean by that.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Wileyone said:


> Not really sure what you mean by that.


Oops! Sorry. That was a typo. I was just heading out the door when I wrote that. I should have said, "But I guess that doesn't seem to be an issue for you." What I mean is that you are complaining about the amp being a beast (volume-wise I suspect, unless it has some mods), and not about it being too clean.
Swapping in a 5751 would clean it up even slightly more at the very front end. I did that on my Trainwreck Liverpool Clone with desirable results for me, but that is a lot higher gain amp. On this amp, I doubt it would tame volume much, it would just change the tone slightly... but it might have a nice effect. I suspect it would be subtle.

Is the channel volume too touchy, or is it the Master Volume that is to touchy? Or am I assuming too much? Are you actually saying it has too much gain?

One mod I did to both of mine was to put a switch in that reduces the amount of negative feedback being fed back into the preamp, and it opens up the amp a bit more when I want it, sort of "unleashing the beast" a bit. Maybe that's what I'm having difficult understanding. It seems you want to go the other way. Maybe you would want to reduce the size of your feedback resister off of the speaker jack and that would tame the amp even more.


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## Wileyone (Jul 23, 2011)

I guess the thing is I am more used to modding higher gain Amp's. Where the 5751 can actually make a difference. After looking at all the Preamp tubes they are all NOS RCA's so I am just giong to leave it alone. And enjoy the clean sounds this old girl makes.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Ya, that's fine too. My '76ish model has some great old tubes in it too. Sounds fantastic. Original English Mullard 6CA7s in the power section.


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

Most traynors split the first tube for both channels a la bassman/plexi. Changing to a lower gain v1 tube will affect both channels. Won't affect volume that much though.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Cups said:


> Most traynors split the first tube for both channels a la bassman/plexi. Changing to a lower gain v1 tube will affect both channels. Won't affect volume that much though.


Most Traynors might, but the YGL-3 does not. V1 is the first 2 gain stages of the normal channel with the tonestack between them and V2 is the first two gain stages of the reverb channel with its tonestack between them. I've played around with the circuits in my YGL amps a lot and it is a lot more Black-Faced Fenderish than it is Tweed or Marshally.


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## traynorfan (Jul 24, 2014)

Hey bcmatt - I know it's been a few years but I'm dying to find out what V3 powers on the YGL-3, as well as which position is the PI (V4 or V6).

Thanks in advance!



bcmatt said:


> Most Traynors might, but the YGL-3 does not. V1 is the first 2 gain stages of the normal channel with the tonestack between them and V2 is the first two gain stages of the reverb channel with its tonestack between them. I've played around with the circuits in my YGL amps a lot and it is a lot more Black-Faced Fenderish than it is Tweed or Marshally.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Just looking at a schematic and assuming they did not move around where each tube is used from year to year (highly unlikely):

V3 is used for the tremolo circuit
V4 is used as sort of the reverb recovery and another gain stage right after
V6 is the PI




traynorfan said:


> Hey bcmatt - I know it's been a few years but I'm dying to find out what V3 powers on the YGL-3, as well as which position is the PI (V4 or V6).
> 
> Thanks in advance!


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