# NAD Traynor YBA1 Tribute



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Finally got the cab which I should've ordered at the same time. Still haven't had the time to play with it but I'll have a chance on Sunday during rehearsal. Looking forward to gig with it next month. So here's my new Traynor YBA-1 50th Anniversary Tribute head (62/100) with the YBX212 cab.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

That is a great looking setup, including the 335 (339?). Just screams 60's blues rock to me


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

keto said:


> That is a great looking setup, including the 335 (339?). Just screams 60's blues rock to me


Thanks. It's a 339.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Very cool! I'd love to see the back too. It has power-scaling or an attenuator or something in it too, right?


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Yeah it has power scaling: 40, 20, 10, 5 and 2.5 watts. I tried cranking it at 2.5 in my family room and it was still loud, specially with the cab. The wife wasn't too pleased. LOL I should be able to crank it up today when I bring it down to the studio. I'll also have a chance to break it in a bit tomorrow during band practice. 

Here's the rear of the head as requested.


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## Destropiate (Jan 17, 2007)

That's a real nice setup. I don't need a new amp right now but if I did I would be looking into these reissue Traynors. The power scaling seems like a great feature.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I really like that tall, skinny, slant top cabinet. It should make for a small footprint on a cramped stage, plus there's no need for a chair or tilt stand to hear yourself. The amp has all the features I could personally ask for in a head. I'd say that if the tone suits you, it should be an ideal gigging amp for many types of player.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

That cab is cool! How much do the cabs run?

TG


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

It was $470+tax. You might want to order now as I believe they're only making 60 of these to pair with the Tribute YBA-1. Mine was shipped from the Oshawa store. I don't exactly understand why they would only make 60 but I guess some people already have cabs that they could use. I actually have 2 other Traynor cabs here LOL but I still got it coz I think it matches the amp well.

@TG I was very tempted to get your amp but the idea that this one is on a limited run plus power scaling, made it more attractive. I actually prefer 6V6 amps to EL34s but I already have a DRRI which satisfies my need for a 6v6 amp.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

Chito said:


> It was $470+tax. You might want to order now as I believe they're only making 60 of these to pair with the Tribute YBA-1. Mine was shipped from the Oshawa store. I don't exactly understand why they would only make 60 but I guess some people already have cabs that they could use. I actually have 2 other Traynor cabs here LOL but I still got it coz I think it matches the amp well.
> 
> @TG I was very tempted to get your amp but the idea that this one is on a limited run plus power scaling, made it more attractive. I actually prefer 6V6 amps to EL34s but I already have a DRRI which satisfies my need for a 6v6 amp.


Thanks for the info about the cab. I cannot get one until my head moves. How do the V30s sound with the bassmaster?

I have had *so* many guys contacting me about my bassmate and all have ants in there pants wanting to buy it. But . . .
Somebody will grab it and then I will be flooded with guys asking, "is it still available? I want it!!!" LOL

TG


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> Thanks for the info about the cab. I cannot get one until my head moves. How do the V30s sound with the bassmaster?
> 
> I have had *so* many guys contacting me about my bassmate and all have ants in there pants wanting to buy it. But . . .
> Somebody will grab it and then I will be flooded with guys asking, "is it still available? I want it!!!" LOL
> ...


It's a bit bright and spiky at the moment but the cab makes it sound big. I need to break in the speakers.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Great setup, all round!

Cool to think that you'll only be one of 60 to have the entire seup,
that's the way I would've went too, if I needed another head and cab.


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## corailz (May 1, 2008)

Really nice!


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Chito said:


> Yeah it has power scaling: 40, 20, 10, 5 and 2.5 watts. I tried cranking it at 2.5 in my family room and it was still loud, specially with the cab. The wife wasn't too pleased. LOL I should be able to crank it up today when I bring it down to the studio. I'll also have a chance to break it in a bit tomorrow during band practice.
> 
> Here's the rear of the head as requested.


That is awesome Thanks! It looks great! I can't believe these are such a great deal!


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## drs13 (Apr 1, 2013)

Cool
They have one at the L&M in Coquitlam BC. $620 + tx. I considered it but I bought a Darkhorse as I was worried the YBA1 would be too much amp.
What tubes does it run? I can't seem to find this info on Traynor's site but I assume EL34s. What does it sound like? I can guess what channel 1 sounds like but how about clean tones on channel 2? And how effective is the attenuator for clean tones?


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

The tubes are EL34s. The surprising thing is the tone doesn't vary much when you move from 2.5 to 40 watts. The sound just gets bigger and louder. Mind you it is still loud when it's cranked at 2.5 watts. I had a rehearsal yesterday, I had it on 20 watts. And it sounded incredibly good being that I played clean most of the time. It does respond very well to the guitar volume in terms of cleaning up your tone from distorted to clean.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I just bought the head, without playing it lol. So, can you use an ABY box to change channels?

**EDITED** the below is after I brought it home.

Yes, yes you can. But I don't think I will, or if I do I'll go from Ch1 low --> bridged 1+2

Very unique setup with the 4 inputs...I didn't realize it's a true 2 channel amp.
-Ch 2 alone...recommended for bass. Not very bright at all, fairly woofy. I can't see using it for any guitar application that *I* would use.
-Ch 1 low - for more headroom but still some crunch
-Ch 1 high - pretty crunchy even low on the volume
-bridged 1+2 - very crunchy right from the get go

I just tested straight in, with high output humbuckers and thru a well broken in Marshall 4x12 with G12H30's, for about half an hour, playing with the various inputs and etc. I found the attenuator very usefull actually. Sure, it's still loud at 2.5W - you wouldn't use it for a bedroom amp, that's for sure. But there is a meaningfull and noticable volume difference between each setting. I'll probably use it on Ch 1 low and 10W or maybe 20W in my band's context - won't get to test that out for a couple of weeks.

It's a pretty bright amp, which is good by me as I favour a bright tone. The extra High Range and Low Range Expanders are very usable, and the low (which Traynor says is more of a mids control) is interactive, ie. the higher it goes, the more gain I was getting. As my intended use is as a barely hairy pedal platform, I'm going to use it turned down quite low....which does NOT result in a scooped-mids tone, YMMV.

As pertains to another thread running, it's way more Marshall-y than Fender-y, but it's certainly not a dead nuts Marshall sound.

Mine's #59/100

Although the cab is DEAD SEXY, I did not get it as a 2x12 is just too much for my needs.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Great review keto! I thought the 2x12 would be too much for me too and I also already have the Traynor YCX212 but the ext cab and the head just looks great together. LOL Anyway, congrats!

So that makes 4 of the 100 are now owned by GC members.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Nice buy, it looks incredible! Congrats!!! One of these days I am going to build some cabs, just for fun.


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

i have thought about picking up the cab...looking for a good vertical 2x12 with V30's...and its canadian to boot!


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I just spent a couple more hours testing it out with my pedal board.

I ran and got my Voltage 2x10 from our rehearsal space. It wasn't as bright thru this cab, but still enough for me - again, I favour a bright tone mostly. I forgot to mention above, when I was using the Marshall cab it is 16 ohms, the amp only has 4 and 8 ohm taps so I had it set to 8. I liked how it sounded better properly matched 4ohms-->4ohms of the Voltage cab.

As I had expected, I ran it at 10W and into ch1 low input, giving me a mostly clean or only slightly hairy tone - keeping in mind I'm using fairly hot humbuckers, I imagine there's lots more headroom with singles (and there for sure is at higher wattage settings on the attenuator). As I had hoped, all my dirts sound great with this amp. In particular, I had the Megalith Delta doing a great metal tone. And my op-amp Muff, which pretty much sounds killer with everything, didn't disappoint here. Again as expected, it sounded best for my context with the Low Expander turned almost all the way off - if I was using the amp's native dirt more, I would surely turn it up.

2 weeks till band practice and the true testing.


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