# Traynor YGM Revision Differences?



## ga20t (Jul 22, 2010)

Over the years I've probably come across 15 or so of these and never really paid much attention; $150 at garage sales, bunch at $350-$450 on kijiji. I was doing work a year or so back for a friend, clearing junk left by a deceased relative, and literally tripped over a YGM-3 there. I asked her to set it aside for me for all the work I'd been doing, told her I'd even pay her whatever she wanted for it, but she threw it out at the dump (no longer a friend, many other reasons).

I've read complaints of these being too bright, and then others seem to love them. I had a hand-wired reissue a while back also but that thing pretty much sucked IMO. Very low power, icy/thin top end, flabby bass, and weighed quite a bit for the hassle. A lot of that could easily have been the modern Jensen, but I was so thoroughly unimpressed with the thing that I didn't bother swapping before I let it go.

Is there a particularly desirable model? I'd be interested in those with reverb & tremolo. What changes took place between the YGM-1/2/3/4 revisions?

I think this one sounds great with the Tele (and not at all like my HW Reissue did).


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

I've had a few YGM-3s and my favourite is the earlier one with the reverb transformer. My all time favourite YGM is the cathode biased YGM-1


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## Distortion (Sep 16, 2015)

Traynor released ygm 3 reissue's a couple of years ago so I would say that is the most desired amp. Refered to as the poor mans Fender Deluxe Reverb by some.


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

I find my 1976 YGM3 hard to part with. It has the bumper design side panels. I am certain that I will likely never get a financial return on the amp, to make it worth selling.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

I have a very early YGM2 (earliest serial number that Traynor is even aware of) which is the exact same model but without reverb. 

Now that I have my JCM800 and AC15 I am probably going to sell it. A friend has it now and he was buying it until he ran into money issues/ I have to grab it back from him and put it on the market. I'll probably just sell it for what I paid for it.


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## 5732 (Jul 30, 2009)

My reissue sounds close to this cranked with a few simple mods (speaker and bright cap clipped). Does great swamp too with reverb and trem. It grinds really nicely with an OD pedal.


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## ga20t (Jul 22, 2010)

mud_guy said:


> My reissue sounds close to this cranked with a few simple mods (speaker and bright cap clipped). Does great swamp too with reverb and trem. It grinds really nicely with an OD pedal.


I definitely should have played around with speakers, definitely should have snipped the bright cap straight away, checked the bias & power tubes etc. before I moved mine along. I was pretty impatient with that one, even though I got it for a great price, it was really well-built, it looked great, even smelled great. I need to consciously remind myself just how bad modern Jensen speaker are (IMO) and remember to look past that when assessing whether an amp is improvable.


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

The amp in the video is mid to late ‘70’s, like mine. My amp can do that without a pedal, with the right guitar, but at high volume. It is easier with a pedal.


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