Members whmkes Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 When I was a teenager a friend of mine had this weird guitar head + 2 speaker cabinet about 3 1/2- 4 feet tall from Yamaha that had sliders instead of knobs. It was single channel, reverb and tremolo and I'm guessing it was made in the seventies/eighties. Ever since I've kept my eyes open for another one of these things, but have had no luck. Does this ring a bell for anyone? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted March 27, 2011 Members Share Posted March 27, 2011 It could be a TS-60 , or the EXTREMELY RARE TA-90Both were equipped with the "Yamaha Natural Sound Speakers" and separate (pre)amps with sliding pots on top.If you want the same sound, in more common Yamaha amps, get the (pyramid/monolith) TA-30 or TA-60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted March 27, 2011 Members Share Posted March 27, 2011 Here's a brilliant link for Yamaha guitar amp info: https://yamahamusicians.com/forum/vi...hp?f=24&t=7006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teemuk Posted March 27, 2011 Members Share Posted March 27, 2011 The amps OP talks about would be the YTA and YBA guitar and bass piggyback systems. The highest power, professional models of those series to be exact. These amps had the somewhat typical configuration for the times: The head (PE-200 or BE-200 for bass) was just a preamp and the cabinets (e.g. TS-100, TS-110, BS-100, etc.) were self-powered and came in various configurations so one could combine them to make a somewhat customized system. Solid-state design, naturally. TA-series was released a bit earlier. It featured Yamaha's proprietary flat panel speakers that failed if you overdrived the amp too hard. The TA-70 and TA-90 were the only piggyback systems in that series, and those two did have slider controls and a more typical cabinet design. Those lower power models ( TA-60 combo. TA-30 looked similar but it was somewhat smaller. The YTA-series combos, on the other hand looked like this (YTA-95): Some of them didn't have those chrome "side strips" and the grille cloth was a bit different too. e.g. YTA-45 An unique feature of some of these amps was an "auto wah" circuit. These were the days when designers were slowly beginning to abandon the somewhat old-fashioned tremolo effect, and started replacing it with some more futuristic alternatives like flangers - or in Yamaha's case auto "wow wow" circuits. These amps have an absolutely stunning clean sound but they were never designed for overdriven tones - not even for tones with slight amount of "hair". Seventies and eighties is too late for all this stuff... These things date back to very late 1960's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted March 27, 2011 Members Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hey! That's my amp! I prefer it after the mods though: I'm attaching the original brochure page for the series if you're really interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted March 27, 2011 Members Share Posted March 27, 2011 To confirm, they YBA and YTA series were 60's - early 70's. I remember lusting after them when they were new back in the early 70's. One of their most unique features, and quite revolutionary for the time, was that they were designed to be used as a component system. The preamps have multiple outputs - mine has 4 - so you can easily run to at least that many cabinets directly from the preamp. The power amp [in the cabinets] has 2 ganged inputs allowing you to daisy chain as many cabinets as you could afford. The cabinets were designed to be stacked so you could literally build a wall of them, each adding another 100 watts RMS to your output. They were dubbed as the Ampeg killer at the time but never caught on in any big way. Partially because of the price - they were made in Japan and very expensive by the time they made it to North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reauchambeau Posted March 28, 2011 Members Share Posted March 28, 2011 I know a guy who's dad had one of those wedge shaped guitar amps, the speaker was actually rectangular. weirdest amp I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted March 29, 2011 Members Share Posted March 29, 2011 Wow !! ...... brilliant info !! , Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted March 29, 2011 Members Share Posted March 29, 2011 In an odd sort of twist, I found this little Takt amp a while back on my local CL: It's MIJ from the same period as the Yamaha YBA series. Notice the similarity in cabinet design. There isn't any info to be found on Takt, but it looks to me that it was either made by Yamaha, Yamaha subbed out their cabinets and the cabinet maker made it for someone else, or Yamaha's design was considered so cool others copied it. The wiring is a point-to-point rats nest, so I would tend to rule out it being made by Yamaha. But you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whmkes Posted April 5, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 5, 2011 To all that responded: Thank You! The Amplifier from my teen years was indeed the TA-90! Now to scour the net for the rest of my life to find one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 Link to pictures of TA-90 (probably sold by now). http://st-george.classivox.com/Musical-Instruments/-Yamaha-TA-90-model-Big-amp-90-watts-970s-issue-.pots/v/81365/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted June 26, 2012 Members Share Posted June 26, 2012 Quick amp flash: Yamaha TA-120 , the biggest of them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 I found some pics af a TA-90, enjoy !! TA-90 consists of the PE-100 preamp and TS-90 active speaker with 3 Yamaha JA-4001 natural sound speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nielsdaj Posted April 29, 2013 Members Share Posted April 29, 2013 I came across your posting re the Yamaha TA-90. I purchased one in the mid-seventies and still have it, and the owner's manual. :-) I think I have the original sales receipt somewhere too, but that may be very difficult to find. I am the only owner of the amp, and it served me well over the years. It still works beautifully but I no longer use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted April 26, 2014 Members Share Posted April 26, 2014 Another combination: TS-60 and PE-100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted April 26, 2014 Members Share Posted April 26, 2014 Another combination: TS-60 and PE-100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Buzzard070661 Posted June 29, 2014 Members Share Posted June 29, 2014 More info, pictures and youtube clips about Yamaha amps: https://yamahamusicians.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7006 Best RegardsPeter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.