# NAD: Vintage Traynor YGM-2



## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I recently stumbled across a vintage Traynor YGM-2 from late 1967 for only $399 so jumped on it. While waiting for the amp to arrive I had spoken via email to someone at Traynor who told me that the lowest serial number in their records is G-105. The serial number on my amp is G-102 so it is the lowest serial number that anyone has any knowledge of.

I picked up the amp yesterday and, for the most part, it sounds great. There is a loud hum, even when nothing is plugged into the amp, and that hum pulses when the tremelo is turned on. Also, there is a very loud pop when the standby is engaged. But since I bought it from Long & McQuade it is under warranty so I took it in today and they are sending it off to Traynor for a tuneup (gotta love L&M - a warranty on an amp built in 1967!!!).

While there we played it a bit and were able to crank it. The amp sounds glorious! There is no need to do any mods to it, and I am not even going to bother changing the speaker. Comments I had read on the web claimed that the original Marsland speakers sounded like shit but that is not true in this case as the amp sounded great with the original speaker.

The nameplate on the amp isn't original but, so far as we can tell, everything else is with the exception of the power cord which was previously changed to a three prong cord, and the tubes. Unfortunately the original tubes are long gone but I can replace the Groove Tubes that are in it with others...but Traynor might replace the tubes as part of their warranty service so I'll wait to see what they do before looking for tubes for it.

I didn't take a picture of the amp but below is the pic that the original store posted. It is in surprisingly good cosmetic shape for an amp of its age. We opened up the amp today so I took a picture of the original speaker and another was taken of the guts of the amp. Gotta love that hand-wired circuit, mustard caps, etc.


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

Terrific amps. I had one years ago, and wish I'd kept it.
FYI - your amp has had some work done on it. All but one of the small blue capacitors has been replaced. I'm not sure, but it looks most of the resistors too. The one i have here has all the dark brown ones like on the far right beside the red diodes.
Still a great deal.


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## MarkusV (Sep 24, 2009)

I think those mustards are original
I have a YGM3 that I modded modestly and upgraded the speaker with a WGS Reaper. It is one if my fave aamps ever. Have had many vintage Traynors- all of which I regret getting rid of. This one is going nowhere .
You may need a Power Cap transplant . But that said - the wire routing for the tremolo can be a culprit for the hum.
Keep it and explore the tone stack, it's very interactive and productive!

Markus


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

dtsaudio said:


> Terrific amps. I had one years ago, and wish I'd kept it.
> FYI - your amp has had some work done on it. All but one of the small blue capacitors has been replaced. I'm not sure, but it looks most of the resistors too. The one i have here has all the dark brown ones like on the far right beside the red diodes.
> Still a great deal.



Thanks for that. We aren't overly knowledgeable about vintage Traynors so we were just guessing that it was unmolested.


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

MarkusV said:


> I think those mustards are original


Yes they are. Looks like all the caps except what i mentioned previously are original


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## Moot (Feb 15, 2009)

Nice score, congratulations!


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I had a '69 YGM-3 at one point. You got it for a great price by the way. 

I'd be willing to bet that if the amp sounds great cranked, it's probably been tweaked a bit at some point.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Awesome!


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Congrats, man. That looks like a lot of fun.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

dtsaudio said:


> All but one of the small blue capacitors has been replaced.


I'm going to respectfully disagree here. 
My take is that the 3 blue are original and the white/blue with arrow is the replacement.
Edit: perhaps all the blue ones have been replaced. The 2 small non-electrolytic to the right of the blue/white have been kludged in there also.


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

The very far left blue cap is original, at least it's physical size makes it look thst way. The two on the right should be the same physical size, at least they were in the amp i just finished working on. They are fairly old though as the new production are a different colour. So they might be original but different value. Traynor often made changes on the fly.
The one in the middle is definitely new.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

Reminds me of a very early YGM1 that I had, including the weird dual cathode bias resistors (most cathode biased amps share a single resistor). These are the larger power resistors on the board with the blue bypass caps.

I seem to remember that I changed mine out for the single resistor.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

Here is a pic of my YGM-1 before modifications. Note that the resistors are the same type as your amp so I would dispute that they have been changed out. Also note the dual cathode resistors on the power tubes...that was definitely a quirk on the earliest versions. One of the cathode resistor bypass caps was blown on mine as you can see.


__
https://flic.kr/p/38347360326


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I emailed Mike Holman at Traynor about my amp coming in. He said that they have a specific guy there who works on their vintage amps, so he will be the one working on mine.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

dtsaudio said:


> The very far left blue cap is original, at least it's physical size makes it look thst way. The two on the right should be the same physical size, at least they were in the amp i just finished working on. They are fairly old though as the new production are a different colour.


I see what you mean now. Agree those 2 on the 10W power resistors have probably been changed. I don't think Traynor would mount them right on top of the resistors like that, heat is a cap killer.



Scottone said:


> Reminds me of a very early YGM1 that I had, including the weird dual cathode bias resistors (most cathode biased amps share a single resistor). These are the larger power resistors on the board with the blue bypass caps.
> I seem to remember that I changed mine out for the single resistor.


I've never seen the separate resistors on any of their schematics. I thought maybe someone had changed it to separate resistors, but if you've seen it before, that is probably how it was done early on. The advantage being it is more tolerant of mis-matched power tubes. The extra part cost probably got nixed when production ramped up.


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

Scottone said:


> Note that the resistors are the same type as your amp so I would dispute that they have been changed out. Also note the dual cathode resistors on the power tubes...that was definitely a quirk on the earliest versions. One of the cathode resistor bypass caps was blown on mine as you can see.


You are probably right about the small resistors. The ones in the amp I just delivered were the dark brown carbons however. Probably just a production change.
As for the output tube resistors, Traynor used the dual cathode resistor and caps in this particular amp. They are original. Most of the schematics I see however only show one resistor and cap. Somewhere along the line things changed. As JB mentioned, probably a cost cut. I've never seen one with only one cathode resistor on the output tubes though.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

jb welder said:


> I've never seen the separate resistors on any of their schematics. I thought maybe someone had changed it to separate resistors, but if you've seen it before, that is probably how it was done early on. The advantage being it is more tolerant of mis-matched power tubes. The extra part cost probably got nixed when production ramped up.


I was able to find the schematic for my amp, including the dual resistors, but don't have it anymore. The pre-amp design was very quirky as well.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

dtsaudio said:


> You are probably right about the small resistors. The ones in the amp I just delivered were the dark brown carbons however. Probably just a production change.
> As for the output tube resistors, Traynor used the dual cathode resistor and caps in this particular amp. They are original. Most of the schematics I see however only show one resistor and cap. Somewhere along the line things changed. As JB mentioned, probably a cost cut. I've never seen one with only one cathode resistor on the output tubes though.


Were all of the YGM-2's cathode biased? I've never owned one, but assumed they were fixed bias like the YGM-3s


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

As far as I know, yes. The YGM-1 and 2 were cathode biased. The 3&4 are fixed.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

There were some later YGM-2's that were fixed bias, around '72 ?
As shown on schematic here:


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

First time I've seen that. I'll have to add that schematic to my collection.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I don't understand any of this technical talk (I don't even understand the difference between a capacitor and a resistor), but it is still fascinating to read.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I got the amp back today.

Traynor's vintage amp guy went over it and replaced some filter caps, cleaned the pots, redid some solder joints, replaced the power tubes (he put Ruby tubes in there...I've never tried them before but obviously thought they were the right ones for the amp), and did a few other things that I can't remember at the moment (I didn't bring the detailed repair slip home with me). In the end, he gave it a clean bill of health and said it was good to go. You gotta love having a warranty on an amp that was built in 1967!

It was in my trunk for about an hour so I am going to let it come to room temperature for a while and will then fire it up.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

colchar said:


> You gotta love having a warranty on an amp that was built in 1967!


That is amazing, it itself!

Let us know how it sounds.

Enjoy.


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