# Traynor YCV20 Tubes?



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Apologies in advance if I've missed a related thread already, a search wasn't helpful.

I'm looking for the best quality (ie, for tone) tubes for my Traynor YCV20. The originals have tripped back and forth to a zillion gigs and practices, and to the east coast and back, and they seem to have lost some of their colour. It takes three 12AX7A and two EL84 tubes, according to one part of their website, or two 6BQ5 tubes according to the manual. What brands have proven good?

Thanks all.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Balou (Apr 1, 2008)

Hi Mooh. I have the ycv20 since last year. When i received it, i replace all tubes with JJ tubes. At that time, the amps as no low end, poor mid and i don't tell you about hight. I took tubes from Eurotube with the "blues option". What improvement it did!!! Fantastic change. The sound is warm, full and very musical.
Another improvement that i did is to replace the stock "Emminence rocket 50" speaker with a Weber alinico silver bell. And then again wow. I'll never go back on that.
But changing tube in that amp is a pain. I had to remove the speaker to get access to the EL84 tubes. They are so close to the speaker and you have to remove the retaining plate over them.
Hope that help.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Interesting, thanks! 

I haven't made up my mind about the speaker, the stock Celestion Rocket 50 isn't that bad to my ears. I may instead use an extention cabinet with a Weber or Emminence so that I have options.

I'll look into the JJ tubes.

Peace, Mooh.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

i 2nd the JJ's. i bought the KT77 standard kit for my jsx last fall, havent looked back since!


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

FWIW, I used Tung-Sols in my YCV-40 and they were dynamite. A little smoother than some tube, so you might lose some drive if you use the onboard drive channel, but that was a good thing to me.


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## Archer (Aug 29, 2006)

I personally dont like JJ preamp tubes at all but their EL84's are quite nice.

For preamp tubes (talking non NOS stuff here) I like the new Tung Sol and Mullard reissues.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Thanks for all this.

Btw, some YCV20 amps seem to have an external speaker jack and a defeat button (series 2?) but mine does not (earlier model?). I do wonder if there were other small changes. 

As an alternative to the much heavier YCV50blue which I prefer, the YCV20 is dynamite.

Peace, Mooh.


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## soundhound6 (Jun 30, 2008)

Mooh said:


> Interesting, thanks!
> 
> I haven't made up my mind about the speaker, the stock Celestion Rocket 50 isn't that bad to my ears. I may instead use an extention cabinet with a Weber or Emminence so that I have options.
> 
> ...


I don't know if it's these "older ears" or not,but I too, like the Rocket 50w that came stock.Of course I still want to experiment with a few speakers in the next year or so. 

The next step for me is a tube change, while I have the chassis out of the combo. I'm going with JJ's all the way this time...later, who knows?

I'm in the middle of rebuilding my YCV-20 into a head/cab type of set up.I have a fair amount of pine,mahogany,maple plus a few exotics to use up
wisely on my builds! :wink:

Jan


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I wouldn't bother changing your tubes unless they really are starting to go.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Time to go shopping. Thanks folks!

Peace, Mooh.


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Is there something wrong with me or my ears? Almost every review I have read of the YCV50 has mention of how replacing the tubes (usually with JJ's) has totally improved the sound. My BLUE has the stockers in it and I love the sound of the amp. Is it just me, or is everybody else just being all 'Eric Johnson' about it? Sorry I got a little off the topic here!
-Mikey


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Spikezone said:


> Is there something wrong with me or my ears? Almost every review I have read of the YCV50 has mention of how replacing the tubes (usually with JJ's) has totally improved the sound. My BLUE has the stockers in it and I love the sound of the amp. Is it just me, or is everybody else just being all 'Eric Johnson' about it? Sorry I got a little off the topic here!
> -Mikey


Have you tried new tubes?

Don't get me wrong, the amp is a fantastic amp in stock form, but it has much more potential. My YCV40 went from a pretty good amp for the price to a complete steal for an investment of about $100. The only thing I didn't like at that point was the reverb.

On the other hand, if you like the way your amp sounds, then don't mess with it, but if you have the opportunity to try out some tubes (from a friend or something), take a listen. You might be surprised. Also, I'm not talking snake-oil here, I recorded a few tracks before and after re-tube, and to my ears, the Tung Sol and TAD tubes I swapped in trounced the Sovteks that the amp came with.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I'm shopping for tubes because the YCV20 is loosing a little bit of tone...and I think I can trust my ears. It's a great amp otherwise, and even now sounds better than anything in its class.

My YCV50 blue still has its stock tubes (whatever they are) and sounds fantastic. Sure, a re-tube may improve things, but I'm in no hurry to mess with success. It's still my favourite amp of all time.

Peace, Mooh.


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## salvatruco (Mar 17, 2008)

try Ei EL84E power tubes, preamp tube try different brands in different locations e.g. JJECC83S on V1, tung-sol new production on V2 and PI (V3). you'll notice the most change by replacing V1 and V3. try it and have fun!!!


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## Balou (Apr 1, 2008)

Archer said:


> I personally dont like JJ preamp tubes at all but their EL84's are quite nice.
> 
> For preamp tubes (talking non NOS stuff here) I like the new Tung Sol and Mullard reissues.


Tung Sol in v1 is well known to be quiet, hum and hiss free. Never tried it but it will be my next try. EH in v1, don't know, the stock one that i had in the YCV20 don't impress me at all, maybe it was tired even the amp in brand new condition  Maybe i'll re-try it too, just to give it a second chance:banana:


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## gpower (May 12, 2006)

I use eurotubes Blues set with a 32 gain. I've also replace the speaker with a Weber 30 watt ceramic Blue Dog. The tubes tightened everything up tone wise and the Weber drop kicked it into a different class.


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## Balou (Apr 1, 2008)

gpower said:


> I use eurotubes Blues set with a 32 gain. I've also replace the speaker with a Weber 30 watt ceramic Blue Dog. The tubes tightened everything up tone wise and the Weber drop kicked it into a different class.


Hi gpower. I'm pretty close to your set up. From one to ten, when i bought my amp, everything stock, my tone/sound was something close to 3 (i did'nt know that at this time), then i replace the tubes and that goes to 6, and after changing the stock speaker for the weber one that goes to 9. Imagine all the improvement.
The thing is that when you listen your amp with no reference all seem fine. But when you make some changes sometime it's for the better.:food-smiley-004:


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

Spikezone said:


> Is there something wrong with me or my ears? Almost every review I have read of the YCV50 has mention of how replacing the tubes (usually with JJ's) has totally improved the sound. My BLUE has the stockers in it and I love the sound of the amp. Is it just me, or is everybody else just being all 'Eric Johnson' about it? Sorry I got a little off the topic here!
> -Mikey


I hear ya' - I've done the tubes/speakers/pickups upgrades too many times and sadly have come to the conclusion that my "pedestrian" ears just aren't good enough to appreciate a lot of the subtle differences that others seem to hear.

Here's a little somewhat related story: I was at a bar over the weekend that had a bunch of bands playing outside for Labour Day. About 4 hours into the celebration and folks are getting pretty well oiled. The band that's on stage burst into a full rendition of Wipeout - guitar playing in C and bass in B - for over five minutes and it seemed that I was the only one who heard - the band kept leaping, posing and rockin' out, the crowd kept dancin, yelling and pumpin their fists the the air. 

Don't suppose anyone really cared at that point which tubes the guy was using.


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

allthumbs56 said:


> I hear ya' - I've done the tubes/speakers/pickups upgrades too many times and sadly have come to the conclusion that my "pedestrian" ears just aren't good enough to appreciate a lot of the subtle differences that others seem to hear.
> 
> Here's a little somewhat related story: I was at a bar over the weekend that had a bunch of bands playing outside for Labour Day. About 4 hours into the celebration and folks are getting pretty well oiled. The band that's on stage burst into a full rendition of Wipeout - guitar playing in C and bass in B - for over five minutes and it seemed that I was the only one who heard - the band kept leaping, posing and rockin' out, the crowd kept dancin, yelling and pumpin their fists the the air.
> 
> Don't suppose anyone really cared at that point which tubes the guy was using.


At least you and I can both tell when somebody is in or out of tune anyway! LOL! I have a friend (a really good player) that ALWAYS plays TOTALLY wrong notes in the riff when his band does the Van Halen version of Oh Pretty Woman. It's like a different modality or something, and I can't see why he doesn't hear the fact that he is totally out to lunch on that one song he plays-the notes are too wrong to be intended that way-they don't even fit in an avant-garde jazz kind of way!
-Mikey


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