# Traynor YBA-1 Issues



## Drazden (Oct 26, 2007)

Hi guys, one of my coworkers did a trade for a Traynor YBA-1 and, as he doesn't need it, has offered to sell it to me.

But it's so damn quiet! How can I increase the volume on this thing? Everything works--both volumes, etc, but it's soft... sort of muddy. Bad pre tube? The powertubes look new--Electroharmonix 6CA7's. My coworker didn't let me know this was an issue, so I'm wondering if he's even plugged it in.

These things are supposed to be ignorantly loud. 

As well, where is the serial number located on these? I can't find it anywhere. Is there any other way to figure out how old this one is?

thanks!


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

It should indeed be ignorantly loud, well before you hit 2 on the volume. Sorry, dunno where you would start - one would think if the power tubes are new the pre's should be too, but that's a broad assumption on my part. If they're not, go there first.

I can't swear to it, but think the SN on my '77 was upper left of the rear of the chassis - should be there plain as day.


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## Drazden (Oct 26, 2007)

lol. I had the speaker cord plugged into the wrong jack. 

This thing IS ignorantly loud. Wow.

Still can't find a serial, though.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Drazden said:


> lol. I had the speaker cord plugged into the wrong jack.
> 
> This thing IS ignorantly loud. Wow.


LOL.

I've told the story here elsewhere, but my 2 sons, who are respectively lead guitar and drummer in a 5 piece hard rock band that practices at FULL GIG VOLUME, would both go running if they saw me starting to set up the YBA-1 in the basement (where their bedrooms but also our jam space are). They couldn't be in the same room with me playing it kkjuw

The top of the head box flips up, and there should be a schematic glued to the underside. You may find some clues there as to dating. Also, pics here will bring out the experts who can put you in a date range just by looking. (not me).


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Drazden said:


> lol. I had the speaker cord plugged into the wrong jack.
> 
> This thing IS ignorantly loud. Wow.
> 
> Still can't find a serial, though.


Serial numbers are only of limited accuracy for dating an amp. That's because the manufacturer never intended to bother dating an amp that close! It didn't matter to Traynor if the serial number was a nice continuous run that was easy to match up to the actual calendar date. What was important was which batch or production run was involved. If there was a quality problem they could use that info to nail down who was on the production line and what procedures were being used, to identify errors and make changes.

So serial number sequences would start and stop, change in midstream or whatever. Worse yet, after all these years much of the info has been lost, as it was no longer considered valuable enough to keep.

However, all is not lost! When you open up the amp, look on some of the parts like the volume and tone controls, the large rectangular ceramic resistors or some of the larger filter caps for numbers like "6817". This is manufacturer's code for "1968, 17th week". The way things work with manufacturers, if the volume control was made in the 17th week of 1968 it would have been part of a large production batch and shipped almost immediately to whoever ordered it, in this case Yorkville Sound. That meant they could invoice Yorkville at the same time. Yorkville would have had to pay within 30 days so they weren't going to put those parts on a shelf for a few months. They would almost instantly use the parts on the production line, so they could finish and ship the amps to their dealers, invoicing them right away to get the money to pay the volume control people.

So if the part said 17th week of 1968 the amp was almost certainly built within the next couple of weeks. 19th or 20th week would be a safe guess.

:food-smiley-004:


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

Well after about 71 for sure all yorkville serial numbers contain a date code. 

This was done to make warranty and rentals easy with traynor products. 

The Goal was to sell off units as they reached 2 years old. 

Your amp sounds like a later one since it sounds like it has the OT protection 

resistor on the speaker jack. When plugging into the wrong jack a 150 ohm 10 

watt resistor protects the output transformer.

p


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## Drazden (Oct 26, 2007)

Well, the panel and box are of the earlier style (short box, 4-input, w/squared-off boxes around each channel's inputs, and 'range expander' written below the knobs, not above.) But it has the block Traynor logo on the middle of the front of the panel, rather than the script logo to the left, like the really early ones.

As well, below the pilot jewel, it says 'Bass-Master Amp,' no Mark II, no 'Traynor.' 

I have no idea how to take it apart, or tell if the things I see when I look in the chassis tell the circuit revision. There's 2 powertubes, 3 preamp tubes on one side and two what look like preamp tubes on the other side (though one of them is labeled 'Mallory' so I assume those two are really caps of some kind) and then 3 larger transformer-lookin' things in behind.

I have no idea if that'll help anyone; I'll try to get some photos, but I'm going to send it to Yorkville first thing anyway to get it checked out and tuned up. 

Thanks for your help if you can offer any, guys!


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

Drazden said:


> Well, the panel and box are of the earlier style (short box, 4-input, w/squared-off boxes around each channel's inputs, and 'range expander' written below the knobs, not above.) But it has the block Traynor logo on the middle of the front of the panel, rather than the script logo to the left, like the really early ones.
> 
> As well, below the pilot jewel, it says 'Bass-Master Amp,' no Mark II, no 'Traynor.'
> 
> ...


Sounds pre-70 based on your description. I used one of those for a couple of years back in the mid 90's. I switched out the 4 Meg volume pots for more conventional 1 Meg units and did a few other mods that I can't remember off hand.

You might want to consider sending it to our own Wild Bill and let him work his magic on it.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Scottone said:


> You might want to consider sending it to our own Wild Bill and let him work his magic on it.


Thanks for the kind words, Scott! I've learned some over the years.

Still, it should be remembered that the REAL magician is Pete Traynor!

As far as I'm concerned, Pete is an amp genius who invented rock and roll! Without his contribution to the world Canada would be a wasteland of polka cover bands!

Not a bad bass player, either!:smile:


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> Thanks for the kind words, Scott! I've learned some over the years.
> 
> Still, it should be remembered that the REAL magician is Pete Traynor!
> 
> ...


He sure brought some cool circuits to the masses. Unfortunately, the crappy speakers that they used weren't really selected for tone :smile:


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Scottone said:


> He sure brought some cool circuits to the masses. Unfortunately, the crappy speakers that they used weren't really selected for tone :smile:


No, they were just the cheapest choice! Those were the days before Free Trade and the duties on speakers were rather high. In the Kitchener/Waterloo area we had had a speaker factory called Radio Speakers of Canada. They actually produced brands like Jensen under license for the Canadian market. Being locally made escaped the duties.

By the end of the 50's and early 60's the Japanese were kicking the crap out of domestic products with their pricing. RSC went under and from the remains sprung the Marsland speaker company. Again, being Canadian with no duties made them much cheaper. 

Eventually Marsland bit the dust. Some of the former employees went on to form McBride, which didn't manufacture but operated as a stocking distributor. They are still in business today and are the stocking master distributor for Eminence. They will sell at retail prices to the general public and offer a discount to their distributors.

Free Trade has pretty well eliminated the duty on speakers but unfortunately the government kept all the paper work involved! So when you order a Webber speaker you have to pay brokerage fees, exchange and shipping that really sucks. To my knowledge McBride is the ONLY stocking Canadian master distributor! This usually makes Eminence the best choice for those of us who don't want to pay brokerage or wait around for Canada Customs to shuffle papers. Steamco and Long & McQuade stock Eminence as dealers, although I don't know to what level. Service shops like myself usually just order as required. Next day courier delivery in southern Ontario at least is never a problem.

Could you imagine what might have happened if Traynor had have had competitive access to modern spec speakers? Today whenever I replace those old Marslands in a Traynor combo with Eminence the improvement is mind-boggling! Traynor amps might have become an even bigger name in the marketplace, worldwide!

Even with Marslands, Pete did an amazing job! So did Gar Gilles, for that matter.

:food-smiley-004:


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

Amen to that!!

:food-smiley-004:


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