# Traynor YCS90



## aC2rs (Jul 9, 2007)

Does anyone own one a YCS90, or have had the opportunity to play through one?

I am considering one of these so I would like to hear your thoughts, and experiences with it.


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## Gene Machine (Sep 22, 2007)

*almost*



aC2rs said:


> Does anyone own one a YCS90, or have had the opportunity to play through one?
> 
> I am considering one of these so I would like to hear your thoughts, and experiences with it.


I have a YCS50 and love it.

It gives me very versatile range of sounds. fender or vox type clean, marshally or mesa-like gain. 

I am a big fan.

g.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I've tried out a YCS90, and it didnt really jump out at me as being a fanstastic amp. im sure it would suit a lot of people, but there was no "it" factor for me.


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## aC2rs (Jul 9, 2007)

I should have added that I have heard great things about the YCS50/90 including great clean tones. I actually have a YCS90 (which isn’t mine) to try out, but I am having a pretty difficult time “dialing” it in with both humbuckers and single coils.

There are some pretty cool features on this amp especially the US/ Brit tone switch, and the separate gain and volume controls on each channel plus the master volume. 

The amp seems to sound better with presence and resonance controls on but they don’t seem to have a huge range of effect. 

Gene Machine, what settings are you using on both your clean and dirty channels? It might give me a good starting place.

Thanks


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## pickslide (May 9, 2006)

I have a YCS50 head and I think that it is a very good amp. There is a lot of tonal flexibility with this amp, a good master volume, the choice to use 50w or 15w and I think that it takes pedals really well. That being said, I have a few amps and I will likely be selling mine. If you are interested, pm me.


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## Gene Machine (Sep 22, 2007)

aC2rs said:


> Gene Machine, what settings are you using on both your clean and dirty channels? It might give me a good starting place.
> 
> Thanks


I have the tone controls set at half on both channels. Clean channel is set full on gain. dirty channel is about 1/2 way on gain. channel vols are set so they are about the same volume, and the presence/resonance are on, but turned down all the way. I play on 15W setting.

This suits my style because i use my guitar volume. So for clean channel, i clean it up with Les Paul on 5. Then I can turn it up the guitar volume and go into Peter Green land. Sometimes I will use a tube screamer set for low gain just to push the front end a little bit. I get a good SRV kinda thing going on.

On the lead channel, same kinda thing but with a little more sizzle, kinda like old ZZ top. I also use the tone on my guitars to roll off some of the high end when needed.

I don't use the boost.

If I realy need saturation for some reason, I'll crank up the gain on the lead channel, but I'm not into that any more.


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## GuyB (May 2, 2008)

Just had my YCS50 combo two days ago. Just love the clean channel mainly with the add-on (vs the YCV50) of the gain and the Brit/US switch. Still have to understand how to deal with the Presence and Resonance controls. Like others said above this channel alone is almost versatile enough to suit my needs.
For the dirty channel, I still have to find the tone I want. I find it much too "bright". Will have to fiddle with the EQ and the tone controls of my guitars. I was also wandering if a change of power tubes might change something there and if so, what kind (whitout disturbing too much the clean channel !)


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## pickslide (May 9, 2006)

There is lots of talk about this amp on the harmony central forums. Many people talk about tube swapping and which tubes they like in the amp. Many over there say that a simple tube swap makes this an unbelievable amp for sure.


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## aC2rs (Jul 9, 2007)

Thanks Gene, I will try your settings and see how they work for me. 

I must say I am having a really hard time get some tone with a bit of life to it with my humbucker equipped guitars especially on the clean channel. :confused-smiley-010


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## Gene Machine (Sep 22, 2007)

*bright bright*

I find this is a very bright amp. So I use the tone knob on my guitar rather than killing it all on the amp. That way there is a bit of bite available for the neck pickup too, when needed.

I'm using a Les Paul with Burstbuckers.

good luck. by the way, what tone are you looking for? that's usually a good starting place. I had mine chosen... Peter Green for clean and Rev. Willie G for dirty.

g.


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## Lemmy Hangslong (May 11, 2006)

I just purchased one used after trying it out i was so very impressed. I use a Mesa Roadking half stack with a 3 channel Dual Rec 100 watt head as back up... i wanted something i could lug around to jams and rehearsals. The YCS90 is about 20lbs or more lighter than most other all tube 100 watt 2x12 combos. Its a two channel with a gain volume boost on channel one for a suedo 3 channel amp.
Tones are awsome asis the flexability and build quality.
I would pick this amp over many of the current production Randall, Peavey and Marshall ( thats what this amp competes with mainly ) and i would do so based on overal quality of build and tone plus the tonal versatility. I paid $700 used for one in mint with recent retube. new they are $1125 and still worth every penny.

Anyone have a top card with the suggested settings they could take a high quality photo of and email it to me?

[email protected]

cheers
Craig


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

i only use HB's...but heres my thoughts...

i have the YCS50H...not the same as the YCS90...but almost...
i found that with EL34's i loved the amp...its got my sound...i tried it with 6L6's and it just didn't do it for me...the clean was just too clean...and the gain sounded/had the thump like a recto...not my style...the 34's gave it more british flavor...
my bro-in-law used to have the YCS90...but he also had a MESA...he thought they were too similar and sold the traynor...

i played mine with a Marshall 212...with the75's in it...didn't really like it...i use a mesa recto 2x12 with v30's and it sounds amazing...so speakers make a difference too

my 2c...


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