# Garbage Day Curbside Rescue- 70's Traynor YBA-4! Pics



## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

I'd often heard about how in the 70's you could get your hands on old beaten up traynors just by looking in the dumpster behind the music store. I took the plunge and bought a 78 yba-1 head a few months ago and immediately fell in love with it (after a little tinkering). 

Fast forward to the present and I'm walking down to college street in Toronto and and sitting out there on the curb waiting for the garbage pickup was a very beaten up and dirty YBA-4 1x15 combo with an obviously destroyed speaker but still with tubes in it. I picked up the filthy beast and loaded it up and headed home to pop the top and you can imagine my surprise to find it completely stock down to the 2-prong cord. The yba I paid for was so hacked up I ended up rebuilding the whole front end. 

It took about two days of scrubbing with murphys soap and thoroughly vacuuming it before I could convince my family to let me bring it inside the house. I replaced the filter caps and removed the ground switch but noticed that the heavy hammond power transformer had broken two of its mounting tabs and was hanging by the other two. Luckily I was able to fit a metal cable clamp to the transformer without any filing or serious effort which was a huge relief. Lastly, before firing it up I replaced the 2 prong cord with a grounded cord (safety first!). 

I was even able to find a cheap eminence legend 15 to replace the blown speaker and now she's pretty much good as new. The grill cloth may offend purists but I couldn't find regular black screen locally and it passed the breath test so sue me! 

Here's pics of it in various states of disrepair as it slowly came together. All in all, I'm happy that I was able to rescue this piece of canadian music history before it hit the garbage dump and give it a second life in my jam room (and without spending more than 60 bucks). 

Top popped as soon as I got it home, you can barely see but the grill cloth is shredded and the speaker has no cone left

















Chassis tucked away on my work bench now its time to take the cab apart and scrub off the grime









Grill cloth removed and now we're mid scrub and its starting to look less like crap and more like wood 









Back removed, now to remove all the ants and detritus who'd made this cab their home (Do ants affect tone?) 

















Now that the housekeeping was done it was time for the fun stuff. Here's the output transformer after patching the first mounting tab 









I might have taken some liberties with the grill cloth









After taking care of the grounded cord and recapping in went a replacement 15 inch speaker 










Here she is all cleaned up and getting to know the new family


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

You lucky duck! Good job on the restoration - including the psychedelic grill cloth. I love it. That'll be a real conversation starter.

BTW, the ants were originally for top end sound diffusion, so it may produce a little more treble at the highest frequencies...


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

shit! I knew I should have saved 'em to sell over on the gear page lol. 

Thanks for the kind words, this was my first attempt at a full cosmetic restoration and I figured I might as well really make it *mine*. 

I still can't really believe my luck but I tell myself its good karma I've accumulated from spreading the traynor gospel lol.


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## epis (Feb 25, 2012)

Good job! I like grill cloth as well ! :applouse:


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## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

Great job, both on finding it and on cleaning it up.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

You had me until I saw the grill cloth. I may change my mind if they ever legalize pot.


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## 5732 (Jul 30, 2009)

Sweet find...now just dump that mesa for a ygm 3 and you're set.


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

Thanks guys for the comments and the opinions the grill cloth was going to be divisive, I knew that from the get go lol

as for dumping the mesa, ironically it is the least used out of all my amps. It's convenient but it's just not the same as a simple non master volume ear splitter


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Guitar101 said:


> You had me until I saw the grill cloth.  I may change my mind if they ever legalize pot.


light one up dude, you live in sunny canadia! the bad news is, pot won't make that grill cloth any more appealing. for that you'll have to be under the influence of a coldate - capsular induced modulation of singular unit activity, in the mesophonic reticulation of the cerebrum. now me, i kinda like that grillcloth. reminds me of my very first amplifier.


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

cheezyridr said:


> light one up dude, you live in sunny canadia! the bad news is, pot won't make that grill cloth any more appealing. for that you'll have to be under the influence of a coldate - capsular induced modulation of singular unit activity, in the mesophonic reticulation of the cerebrum. now me, i kinda like that grillcloth. reminds me of my very first amplifier.


this guyyy, this guy gets it


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## Icebox (Jul 15, 2014)

Great fine! Nothing sounds like an old traynor. I own a new YGL-2a but it's just not the same as the 70s stuff. Congrats!


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

thanks icebox, I caught the bug with my yba-1 but to be honest I haven't really experienced much of the new traynors. I played a friends combo but I can't remember the model but it was nice tone without blasting you to the other end of the room like the old traynors lol


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Kudos on your "good eye" in spotting it, your good heart in believing it was redeemable, and your diligence in making it so. The grill cloth is perfectly okay. The only thing I would worry about is having an amplifier that dresses better than me!


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Congratulations on the amp and the excellent work you put into it. I'm not too keen on the grill cloth but it does make it unique.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

That was a great find. You obviously had your eyes opened the day you found this! Congrats on the restoration work as well. I can just imagine the colourful sounds coming through that new grill cloth.


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

That is awesome. The grill, can only be topped with "Hyper-color". 
Man, garbage in your area rocks!


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

thanks guys had a minor panic there getting a bias reading but it turned out a ground had come loose and after resoldering the ground wire its reading as it should


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## noman (Jul 24, 2006)

Nice find and great restoration. I kind of dig the grill-cloth. Definitely has it's own vibe going on...........


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

bzrkrage said:


> Man, garbage in your area rocks!



one of those things you might not expect to hear yourself say, yet in context....
hahahaha


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

_Dear Penthouse,

I've read this forum for a long time and, frankly, didn't think these stories were true. Then, one day, I was walking down the street and....
_
Just kiddin' - I love these stories like this. Great catch, and yeah, I'm jealous - just wish I lived in a neighbourhood where trash looked like this. In our area, trash looks more like....er....trash.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Bless you, Samwise!

Not just for the beautiful job but for keeping the flame alive and burning brightly!

Wild Bill/Busen Amps


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

Lor' bless you gandalf! Thanks for the kind words Wild Bill its an honor!


Wild Bill said:


> Bless you, Samwise!
> 
> Not just for the beautiful job but for keeping the flame alive and burning brightly!
> 
> Wild Bill/Busen Amps


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## stringer (Jun 17, 2009)

Great find. One mans junk... Really like that you saved something from the scrap pile. Too much stuff going to landfills these days. Brave choice on the grill cloth, but I like the idea of different grill cloths... brings to mind the pin up marshalls. Well done!


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

Awesome work, I really admire someone with the talent and the determination to accomplish something like this!


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

I like the grill cloth idea. 

I made a 2-10 when I was 17 and chose to build three different grill cloths. Gold and black sparkle, paisley, and plad wool. Way to stand out. !!


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

Very cool. Love the grill cloth!


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

wow that is awesome!!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

re: your grille cloth










Cheers

Dave


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Cool find, never happens to me, but I'm happy for you...


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Great find. I'm jealous. I NEVER see stuff like that!! Nice job on the restoration.


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

Thanks again for the positive comments guys you sure know how to fluff up my ego! Nice to see so many likeminded folks who appreciate a good piece of Canadian hardware. Cheers!


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Hey - our pleasure. After all, it's not everyday you get to meet someone with a real _Penthouse Forum_ story... (chuckle)


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## sammyr (May 7, 2013)

Now the problem is I have nothing left to tinker with, it's too nice and clean to mod, I guess I gotta start walking around on garbage day again lol. If anyone in the gta has an amp thats a candidate for this sort of treatment I'd be up for another project...


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