Members funkymonks16 Posted January 29, 2008 Members Share Posted January 29, 2008 Hmmm, maybe my amp has a problem? Ill call traynor and ask. It seems like everyone who has this amp has nothing but praise, but I cant seem to dial in a better than average tone with a strat, which seems completely the opposite of everyone in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hallowed1 Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Has anyone tried to boost the overdrive/distortion channel on the YCS50 with a TS/DS or similar pedal? Anyone like to try and report back the results? Boosting this way can provide a more saturated distortion tone and generally provide more gain and tightness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members funkymonks16 Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 I tried that. But considering Im having major tone difficulties, its no surprise it didnt sound that great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hallowed1 Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Have you tried it without the 'expander' switch engaged? I read someone's comment that it doesn't take pedals well, with the expander 'on'. Have you tried pulling out the tubes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted January 30, 2008 Author Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Have you tried it without the 'expander' switch engaged? I read someone's comment that it doesn't take pedals well, with the expander 'on'. Have you tried pulling out the tubes? I don't get the expander switch. It sounds really odd to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Well having had my YCS50 for a couple of days, here's what I have observed. #1, it really likes my cheapo humbucker guitar...I have Carvin C22's in it, and it sounds really great on the overdrive channel, warm and smooth. Clean channel with this guitar is kind of meh, but I assume it's because of the cheap wood of the guitar (PLYWOOD ). This just means I need a better guitar...have my end on a cherry Les Paul Special Faded. #2, the clean channel sounds great with my USA strat, but the overdrive channel can be borderline ice-picky...a little trebly, to say the least. BUT, here is what I have found solves this for me... a. When I have the master volume cranked high, the gain turned high, and then control the overall volume from the channel volume control (which means the channel volume low is rather low in my office), that's when the brittle sound is very noticeable. b. However, when I turn the gain high and channel volume control high, and then control the overall volume with the master volume, then the brittleness goes away, even on my strat...it becomes much more warm, smooth, open. Even when I crank the MV up it stays this way for the most part. So, the answer for me seems to be having the channel volume up and keeping master low for bedroom/home use. I don't know enough about tubes and such, but this may be some interplay between preamp tubes and poweramp tubes... Also, this works in 15W mode...have not idea how it would work in 50W mode. Now, if I can find a way to keep that Power tube that's almost right behind the speaker from rattling/vibrating at high levels...I'd be set. Mark P.S. I like using the expander switch with my strat...could almost past for an acoustic modeler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dudeman1967 Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 I don't get the expander switch. It sounds really odd to me. I was wondering about the expander myself. I have yet to find a use for it in any combination of modes on the clean channel. The Traynor web site (and teetop) say it gives it an acoustic tone. It doesn't sound very acoustic with my humbuckers--just odd. Re distortion pedals: I've tried my DS-1, Big Muffs (Russian and US), and Digitech Tone Driver OD with this amp for a short time each. They sounded as I expected on the clean channel and not so great through the lead channel. I didn't spend alot of time trying to dial them in though. I find the distortion tones from the lead channel give me all the level and type of dirt I want without pedals. I'm trying to cut the pedals to a bare minimum. Thats one of the reasons I bought this amp. Most times now I'm going straight to the amp through my volume/wah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 yeah Dudeman...I should clarify... the expander switch only sounds good with my single coil strat...it doesn't sound good with the humbuckers, and as I said the clean channel doesn't not as nice with the humbuckers.. i am VERY satisfied with the clean channel and my strat. Overdrive channel with the strat is not as great, but what I am doing to make it better is use my Seymour Duncan pickup booster to feed it...this particular booster has a "resonance" switch which essentially pumps up the mids and chops of the highs of the pickup, making the single coil sound more like a humbucker...NICE sound Haven't tried any dirt pedals on the clean channel yet...I think the overdrive channel gives me all I would need. I would like to try a basic OD pedal (Tube Screamer, Bad Monkey, Boss OD-3) on the clean channel just to see if it will give me a little break-up. With the overdrive channel, I am finding that the boost is not acting like a volume boost, more its a gain boost which saturates the tubes even more, providing more distortion. Therefore, when I EQ and gain the channel right, it's ALMOST like a three channel amp...clean channel, overdrive channel (boost not engaged), and distortion channel (boost engaged)....throw the pickup booster pedal on top of that and I have lots of tonal/distortion options. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hallowed1 Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 Thanks for your responses guys...much appreciated!I'm going to give the YCS50 a go, sounds like it will work for what I need, and at 6.5 bills you can't go wrong for 2 Ch. all tube amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members diddlybo Posted January 30, 2008 Members Share Posted January 30, 2008 I've had mine for a couple of weeks now and I'm having trouble with it sounding shrill and harsh at gig volumes. It sounds fine at lower volumes but not so good at high volumes. The midrange is congested on the hi gain channel and the highs are defintely on the shrill side. The clean channel is a bit brittle and the Brit clean is splattery with the gain turned up. Having said that, none of these problems are extreme. The amp still sounds good enough to do a gig but it doesn't sound nearly as good as the one I demo'd. I can send this one back for a new one but I would much rather get this one sounding good. Any suggestions? Tube swaps? Rebiasing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members funkymonks16 Posted February 1, 2008 Members Share Posted February 1, 2008 I have the EXACT same problem. Any suggestions would be sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rushtallica Posted February 1, 2008 Members Share Posted February 1, 2008 Damn; sorry to hear of the problems. Maybe they're only good practice amps. On the other hand, I just about NEED to use an eq pedal in the fx loop of my Ultra Plus to get it sounding right to my ears. Maybe give one a shot in the YCS and see what you think. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members antareus Posted February 1, 2008 Members Share Posted February 1, 2008 Open it up and see what kind of tubes it uses. I bet the stock tubes are average from a tonal perspective since the amp doesn't cost more than $2,000, and every amp manufacturer likes to cut corners here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members musicdog400 Posted February 1, 2008 Members Share Posted February 1, 2008 Any suggestions? I have been able to improve many bad sounding amps by using two EQ pedals, one before the input and one in the loop. Typically I use the one before the input to roll back the bass a bit. IMO almost every preamp design lets too much low freq into the beginning stage. This can make distortion harsh or flubby or muddy and ruin palm mutes. I think the low freq somehow swamps the tube. The EQ in the loop is for boosting the bass back up and also taming any shrill midrange or high frequency spikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members obgust Posted February 1, 2008 Members Share Posted February 1, 2008 Maybe it's a strat thing? I've tried everything from lipsticks to DeArmond pickups with this amp (YCS50) and have discovered that the best sounds come when mated with my stock '83 telecaster and a LP Special with Lollar P-90s. Interestingly enough (to my ears), the worst sounding guitars through it were my strats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members diddlybo Posted February 5, 2008 Members Share Posted February 5, 2008 To follow-up:I replaced the Sovtek 12ax7 in V1 with a Tung Sol and the amp sounded much better but it was very noisy. I then swapped the Tung Sol for a JJ 12ax7 and the amp came to life. Wow, what a difference! This thing is now a fire breather! The harshness and congestion is gone and I can now dial in some really cool tones. The Sovtek tube must have been a dud. I just spent an hour with the amp on the British clean channel with the gain and volume dimed and the amp in the 15 watt mode. Very nice 60's Marshall vibe going on. It doesn't clean up with the volume control as well as an old non-mv Marshall does but it does have a non-mv feel when set up this way. Very responsive. Maybe I'll replace the rest of the tubes but I'm pretty happy with it for now. Now I can finally play a gig with this thing to give it a real test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted February 5, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 5, 2008 To follow-up:I replaced the Sovtek 12ax7 in V1 with a Tung Sol and the amp sounded much better but it was very noisy. I then swapped the Tung Sol for a JJ 12ax7 and the amp came to life. Wow, what a difference! This thing is now a fire breather! The harshness and congestion is gone and I can now dial in some really cool tones. The Sovtek tube must have been a dud. I just spent an hour with the amp on the British clean channel with the gain and volume dimed and the amp in the 15 watt mode. Very nice 60's Marshall vibe going on. It doesn't clean up with the volume control as well as an old non-mv Marshall does but it does have a non-mv feel when set up this way. Very responsive.Maybe I'll replace the rest of the tubes but I'm pretty happy with it for now. Now I can finally play a gig with this thing to give it a real test. Good to hear. As you said, sounds like you had a bad tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted February 5, 2008 Members Share Posted February 5, 2008 Very interesting results...since my last post I finally had the chance to crank this amp up (wife and child out of the house), and I got brittle, harshness out of the strat, that I couldn't really dial out. This was on the lead channel...the clean channel is as wonderful as ever. I was thinking about doing a full tube replacement with some JJs from eurotubes, replacing the 6l6s with some el34s, and maybe looking at the amps bias to see if I can warm it up a bit that will. Will report back on whether these changes, if any are made, do anything to remove the treble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted February 8, 2008 Members Share Posted February 8, 2008 Well, I put in a set of JJ 12ax7s and matched JJ 6l6GCs...the sound is much more "full" and a tad darker, as if the frequency spectrum got shifted down a notch or two. My humbucker guitar sounds absolutely fantastic through it, particularly on the lead channel. Thick, thick, thick.... The strat also sounds great on the clean channel, quite a bit more sparkle and I noticed that toggling back and forth on the USA/Brit switch brought about much more of a pronounced differences. The Brit setting was more plexi'ish, and I was definitely getting some fenderish clean tone on the USA setting. I imagine staying with the 6l6 power tubes helped here, as switching to el34s might have compressed things a bit more. Alas, it is still overly bright with my strat, particularly with the bridge pick-up. It is no longer harsh and painful, just too much high frequency. I was able to dial much of this out with the amp's tone controls and an EQ in the effects loop. So, I am undecided as to this point whether I will keep it. I am going to try the Supersonic combo yet again tomorrow, as well as see if the local GC has anymore Crate Palomino's they are clearing. If those scratch the itch, the Traynor YCS-50 may be heading toward the For Sale area. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted February 8, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 8, 2008 Well, I put in a set of JJ 12ax7s and matched JJ 6l6GCs...the sound is much more "full" and a tad darker, as if the frequency spectrum got shifted down a notch or two. My humbucker guitar sounds absolutely fantastic through it, particularly on the lead channel. Thick, thick, thick....The strat also sounds great on the clean channel, quite a bit more sparkle and I noticed that toggling back and forth on the USA/Brit switch brought about much more of a pronounced differences. The Brit setting was more plexi'ish, and I was definitely getting some fenderish clean tone on the USA setting. I imagine staying with the 6l6 power tubes helped here, as switching to el34s might have compressed things a bit more.Alas, it is still overly bright with my strat, particularly with the bridge pick-up. It is no longer harsh and painful, just too much high frequency. I was able to dial much of this out with the amp's tone controls and an EQ in the effects loop.So, I am undecided as to this point whether I will keep it. I am going to try the Supersonic combo yet again tomorrow, as well as see if the local GC has anymore Crate Palomino's they are clearing. If those scratch the itch, the Traynor YCS-50 may be heading toward the For Sale area.Mark What kind of pickups do you have in your Strat? Mine has the Samarian Cobalt and it sounds great. I've had other Strats that were pretty ice-picky though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 17 Tubes Posted February 8, 2008 Members Share Posted February 8, 2008 I have mentioned in MANNY othyer threads that the V30 isn't suitable for this amp when you crank it up. V30 fine in a 4x12, but it lack top end power with this amp, like it's squishing the amps character.I can;t tell you what speaker to try, but I put an EV 12L in mine, after removing the reverb tank, 12L being just a TAD larger. There wasbn;t a lot of difference at low volumes, but as I kicked it up, the speaker handled EVERYTHING the Blue could throw. The amp just blossomed wide open. I used to fell that after going past half power, I was spinnign wheels and marring the tone, but no longer. HAd the same good tone, but kept getting louder and louder. It seems we spend a lot of time and money putting the perfect speaker in a 4x12 cab, but just accept whatever speaker is in a combo, and then just write off the amp if it doesn't sound good to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted February 8, 2008 Members Share Posted February 8, 2008 What kind of pickups do you have in your Strat? Mine has the Samarian Cobalt and it sounds great. I've had other Strats that were pretty ice-picky though. Just the ones that came standard with my 2004 US strat. I thought a while back about going to stacked humbucker single coils (e.g., Bill Lawrence 280/290s, Dimarzio Area 58/61s), but just decided to keep it. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tonyg Posted February 10, 2008 Members Share Posted February 10, 2008 I've had mine for a couple of weeks now and I'm having trouble with it sounding shrill and harsh at gig volumes. It sounds fine at lower volumes but not so good at high volumes. The midrange is congested on the hi gain channel and the highs are defintely on the shrill side. The clean channel is a bit brittle and the Brit clean is splattery with the gain turned up. Having said that, none of these problems are extreme. The amp still sounds good enough to do a gig but it doesn't sound nearly as good as the one I demo'd. I can send this one back for a new one but I would much rather get this one sounding good. Any suggestions? Tube swaps? Rebiasing? I bought one for my son and I had feedback problems. I contacted Traynor and they repaired it. Apparently there was a problem with some of the circuit boards. Maybe you problem is related. Call Traynor and send it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members laheart1 Posted February 10, 2008 Members Share Posted February 10, 2008 FWIW Guys, I have two Traynor YCV-40's and the tubes-both preamp and power-have major control over the amp's sound. If you are getting harshness and overly bright tones, like I did on both of my Traynors, then total tube switches are in order. I actually run 12at's in V1 and V2 with a 12ax in the phase inverter-V3. I use Mullard 4024's in V1 and V2 with a NOS 12ax in V3. For Power tubes I use either NOS RCA's or Svetlana's. I can attest to the Traynor's quality as I have not had any problems with either amp and they have hundreds of hours on them. I really like the feature set of these new amps particularity the ability to set reverb and effects levels on each channel. I have that on my Mesa Lonestar and it is really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members teetop Posted February 13, 2008 Members Share Posted February 13, 2008 My Traynor YCS-50 is at the amp tech right now to get biased and check out some noise on the clean channel...we got multi-meter readings of 38-39mV on the power tubes, way below the recommended 75mV +/- 10. So, it could be that my amp is biased way cold...I heard a few of the early Fender Supersonics had the same issue from the factory, resulting in a piercing, cold thin sound. So, he's opening everything up to rebias, so I should know in about a week whether or not this makes any difference in warming things up and taking off some of the high end. Will report back at that time. He also said the Celestion V30 in a single speaker open back combo is NOT the way to go...he says they can get quite a bit harsh in that set-up...so, next step may be to go to a warmer, more low-end focused speaker. Fingers crossed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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