How many of us Canadians had these things "back in the day", but didn't appreciate them for how great they really were? I seem to recall seeing dozens in local pawn shops etc.
I have been playing a Traynor YGL III since 1971. Bought it new in 72. I still play through it professionally. I have bought many amps over the years but the Traynor continues to be my stage amp of choice. I have owned 2 Fenter Twins. The Traynor is built better than either one and out performs them at any volume. I have changed out the the preamp tubes to fit my liking. Mods - grounded plug and removed the ground switch. New Caps in 88 and 2000. Replace OEM speakers in 75 with Jensen's but went to Eminence and stayed with them. It is heavy but it rarely comes out of it's ATA case bottom. (good rubber castors) I have been lucky to have had Traynor available to me since 85 for tech support even though it has never had to be sent to Traynor. In 1000's of hours of playing, I only had one stage mishap, a blown output tube. With the design of the amp I was able to yank out 2 output tubes and played the rest of the night.
Beautiful playing on a beautiful amp. Great demo! I have one of these back home and miss it dearly. My father is a Traynor nut and has been collecting them for years. It's amazing how cheap you can find them! Still a great little secret for gear enthusiasts.
I have a 72. Bought used in 78. Gigged with it solid till 98. The Marslands farted out in the mid 80's. Threw in some 50 watt Peaveys and rocked on. Great workhorse amp. Very heavy ... I think the Hammond transformers alone weigh as much as a Blues Junior. Tried it with casters , but they just get in the way when you have to climb stairs. The carrying handle sucks . Installed side handles. Had it recapped in 2000. Verb and Trem still working. Get your lead vocalist to help you lug it around if you can pull him away from the mirror. lol Rest in peace Pete ... bless you.
DUDE !!!You're a monster player haha! Great feel, style and heart to spare in those fingers. I've been watching (almost obsessively) most of your vidz because of my Traynor needing a service and wanting to do it myself. Your channel is an invaluable wealth of info, and I always look forward to your chopping around while demo-ing the finished product. Cheers from North Bay Ontario brother....Pete Traynor was a tech at Long & McQuade (Canadian music store) in Toronto (4 hours south of me), and got sick of fixing Fender and Marshall amps all the time so decided to design his own, and was backed by the store owners (the story in a nutshell). His legacy lives on under the brand Yorkville, and of course through his many early amp models still kicking ass and taking names today, and more recently the reissue of some of those great Traynor amps. The "machines" he produced in the mid '60s through to the late '70s are nothing short of awesomely reliable. Can't kill a Traynor my dad would say :-). And he was right, sir.
Traynor build quality is very high. Sound quality is very good. Amazing amps. People always talk about them being platforms for mods and this and that, but most sound awesome stock. I've seen so many with removed logos because for so long, they have been considered a "poor man's" this or that, but I think the original ones are finally starting to get some of the respect they richly deserve.
Traynor is by far the most indestructible tube amplifier ever built. Pete Traynor himself would actually toss 100 watters off the roof of his shop to demonstrate their durability. Replace the tubes and rock out to Guitar Boogie
Damn Brad! Makes me proud to be a Canadian. Peter Traynor was Robbie Robertson first bass player in his teenage band. Traynor spent some years cutting his teeth repairing amps and noodling around and learning from his dad, who was a real electrical engineer from the 1940's and 1950s school. In his early 20s, Peter turns to Long & McQuade (Canada's music store chain, 90 stores and counting) owner Jack Long (now 93), and repairs every amp the store has in the back, within 1 day. Jack offers Peter a job, obviously. Peter shows Jack his self made bass amp, absolutely glass shattering loud, and nicer sounding than the Fenders of the time (61- 62). Jack, the ever clever businessman (trumpet player) says " Hey, that amp would make a great rental work horse!" (Built like tank), Traynor starts production in 1963, and the rest is history! Must watch : Traynor tests his amps by throwing them from roof, no shit ! ruclips.net/video/ayV9FMhoS4U/видео.htmlsi=Go7V864VE7ofhDr3
Very underrated amp builder. RIP Pete Traynor. And the other Canadain amp builder legend Giles Garnet. I got one of his amps too. A 1x 12 5 watt 6v6 powers combo. With my 1977 Traynor YGM3..they sound great together in stereo.
Great play in’. Just picked up a used YGL-3 head only myself today. :-). Loved Traynor amps since the late 60’s. Great price and will be wailing tonight!
I'm getting a kick out of much you enjoy Traynor amps I'm from Vancouver Canada and our high school band rooms had these amps....we all hated them and wanted Marshall's and Fender's....but we obviously didn't appreciate what we had....A awesome player like you could make them Rock !
I liken amps like this and old Marshalls to jumping on a bull and holding on for dear life. When you kick them in the loins, they're gonna buck! You better know what you're doing or it'll end badly.
I retubed a friends YGL-3A. Never played a Traynor before. Tubes were not working put in all new Mullards. Fired it up with a Rivera 4-12 with Celestian vintage 30s. Holy crap! Where has this been hiding? A tremendos full sound, big, warm, room filling. Since I was testing this head I HAD to take it through his paces. So I dimed it out and blew my head off. Perfect.
One of these followed me home a couple of years back ;-) Nice playing guy, and of course 'the twin killer'. shush guys, this is the best kept secret on the net.
I guess I'm late to this party but just wanted to compliment your playing on this one. Great sounding amp and nice playing there, Brad. I could listen to that all day.
We’ve had one for about 30 years... beautiful sounding amp. Only gripe is the reverb has gone out on many occasions but no one knows how to work on them.
had one of these back in the 80's in a band with a Gretsch 6128 duo jet the combination of those two was just divine . The other guitarist had a Fender twin and this used to blow it away could never crank it right up or it just drowned out the Fender at the fenders full volume ,only downside is the weight of them ,weigh a ton!!
Also had a volume pot on a footswitch which was dialed to max and wired to the input volume pot which overloaded it so had overdive crucnh at a simple push of the pedal .nice mod done by amplifier tech .
+littleblackdoglilg That's the idea. I try to play to the equipment. This one had such a beautiful clean tone, you wanted to just bask in that tone with some big, open, ringing chords and slow, measured single note stuff.
John Wagoner Yes, that is correct. I do not use any pedals in any of my amp demos. I hate it when others do that, so I avoid it. It totally defeats the purpose of demoing an amplifier to slap pedals in front of it, if you ask me. Thanks for the compliments and for watching! Be sure to subscribe if you like seeing vintage amp demos. I do them quite a bit. Never know what I'll have next. :D
Still play my traynor ygl-mark III every week. And my fender twin silver face 1969 has not been plugged in since 2 years and stands there a little bit lost. What a versatile, solid and high quality amp the traynor is... love it! (Ok, maybe a liiiiiiitle bit loud 😂).
I think it sounds even better than a Twin. I have one that needs a bit of love, but it still sounds great. Crazy loud amp. Mine still has its original GE and Phillips/Mullard tubes. The speakers are Marsland, I believe. Supposedly not the greatest, but they sound pretty good. Enjoy the amp! Excellent playing, by the by.
Mine's the version just before this one. Living in Ontario,Canada of course old Traynors were/are everywhere for very reasonable (although the 60-70's one have appreciated a bit more recently). Mine came with '74 fender Utahs in it when I acquired it. I have three or four Traynors in the arsenal at present, and have owned many over the decades. Great amps for the coin, and as stated elsewhere- better to swap out those crappy Marslands. I think Pete only used those because they were made in K-W close to Toronto- and were cheap. Like the great Hammond iron from Guelph.
I think it depends on two other things. I like the Marslands in my YGM3. it suits the amp. The marsland are flat EQ speakers. Pete was a Bass Player. You want a flat response from speakers...except for guitar. We use our speakers for colouration of the tone, a lot. So the flat response of the marland shows the quality of the amps, they just sound less lively than a celestion greenback. The Bassmaster sounds perfect with marsland while playing bass. Even good with guitar. I play mine though EVH (re branded heritage greenbacks) 212 cab, just to lower the volume on these beasts. 96 db on the heritage vs 100 db on a vin30. That is like switching from a 40 watt head (traynor bassmaster) down to a 20 watt (traynor bassmate)- half the wattage means -3db change. Double output wattage is only a 3 db boost. That is why a 1 watt amp can still be loud and a 5 watt is much louder(slightly more than a 6 db change in those 4 watts). But doubling from a 50 watt to 100 watt head isn't that much of a change in sound levels.
@@thorinbane that is some really useful information as i am going to look at this amp tomorrow and it makes sense why you stuck the greenbacks/evh in there. How did your tone change? I think this one has the marsland but i like your lower decibel thinking.
Ok now that MY Marshall (the JMPs) are 50 years old, usually messed with, usually missing output transformers, and (at best) were an amp that wasn't up to it 50% of the time (every other one simply wasn't a 'good' one) and going for 2500.00 I guess I'm looking for something else. A Traynor? Found one of these heads for $850.00...
I have this amplifier. Pure awesomeness. It's better than a 100 watt Marshall but it has 2 x 12" speakers and a master volume with great reverb and tremolo. Tubes are all original Mullard tubes
I have this amp and it is amazing. However my termolo stopped working and my tech says the "bug" is not available. Any ideas where I can have it repaired? Traynor/Yorkville where no help.
Bad Mann Yes! Another local tech says he ca rewire it with the Fender circuit. I guess that's what I will have to do. Thanks! BTW mine still has the original mullard caps in like new condition!!!!
***** Any competent tech can rewire your tremolo to work in some fashion. I haven't looked the schematic for this one in a while, so I'm not sure what the issue is.
That is just a lazy tech that has worked on a lot of fenders. Traynor has a 'unique' tremolo that doesn't sound like a fender. Its sweep is more usable. You can find the schematics online in many places, but that requires more than a quick fix. Too many Traynors have been molested over the years. Turned into twins, turned into marshalls. They have their own voice and if it had been recorded a bit more often (so people would be familiar with its tone) you would see people modding other amps to emulate this one. My Traynor advice is a tone cap change or two is all any traynor needs to deviate from its original design. They sound amazing on their own. I just wish more people had a chance to hear one in person, STOCK.
Hey! I have the head version of this amp - mine doesn't break up at all with my strat until the volume is at 10. I switched out the tubes and that didn't make much difference - is this normal for this amp?
Your Strat may have really weak output, but it should still break up. You gotta crank the mids. A lot of players have been so used to scooping mids. Maybe that's it? Check to see you aren't doing that. Beyond that, you may need a service. What kind of power tubes are in it? Brand and type.
hey thanks for such a fast and thorough response! your videos are really a gift to the online community! I've got JJ el34's in there. Even cranking the mids it doesn't get near yours. I thought it might have been model but I'm starting to think it needs a good servicing myself. Thanks again for all your help!!
Wow cranking the mids does make a huge difference as well. My strat has vintage low output pickups once I cranked the mids i was starting to get some grit at 10. I'm thinking it's probably just my low output pickups at this point. Got to try it with humbuckers now... Although I'm sure a service wouldn't hurt.
The stock speakers are in this one. They are probably made by Traynor/Yorkville. Marsland is another large Canadian speaker manufacturer at the time, but I doubt they are Marsland.
Almost all those old Traynors came stock with Marslands, I have a '76 of this same model as my main stage amp and the Marslands kick pretty good. I've never seen a MARK iii without a MV btw, I think it's always been in the schematic. My model has the flat face-plate slightly counter-sunk under the top of the amp as opposed to this slightly later model with the slant-face. I needed a rig that could compete with the mighty volume and presence of my other lead guitarist's '59 Bassman reissue, and this amp will hurt everyone on the stage if I'm not careful. So much jam! I do however have the same issue as some of the above replies, nowhere near the breakup from the preamp section at all... clean for days it seems (which is good for some things), but I'd really like to know what I can do to get that sweet dirty tone out of it. I've even removed the V1 preamp tube to heat up the second channel and that helped a bit... but still.....
Most the mark 3’s twins came with RSC (radio speaker Canada) Jensen licensed 100 watt ceramic ( very similar to the modern c12k) the other common speaker was the RSC 50 watt Utah license speaker, Marslands generally were in amps 25 watts or less like 15 watt studio mates ygm3, the RSC speakers were of very good quality (unlike the marslands)
Nice demo. Beautiful playing with the clean tones. These amps are fantastic. There is a nice demo on the skaboosh channel of the overdriven sound of the amp at: watch?v=x7ZiFTK94d0
I believe that this amp was the first with a factory fitted 'master' volume control... the over-driven sound is predominately from the pre-amp valves rather than the output valves (tubes then) unless you play it insanely loud! Great amps and sound killer, but most are plus forty years old now... so need a bit of TLC. Mine needed electrolytic's, rotary controls cleaned and tightened and the valve socket pins re-tentioned... good to go now for another forty years and with the original Philips (Mullard) valves :)
You may be right about the MV thing. I'm trying to think of an earlier example, but I'm drawing a blank. You're also right about the overdrive. The output tubes will not saturate until the amp is really cranked (which I didn't even do in this video!) Traynor amps are WAY underrated, I'd say they are probably the most underrated of all the amps from this late 60s, early 70s era. The build quality is tip top, components are tip top, and tone is as good or better than equivalent Marshall and Fender amps, IMO.
Nice amp, but it is far from being a Twin Reverb "killer" in my opinion. Now the old Peavey Road Master; Now that one would give a Twin a run for it's money.
How many of us Canadians had these things "back in the day", but didn't appreciate them for how great they really were? I seem to recall seeing dozens in local pawn shops etc.
Great amp, and great playing. I've sold every Marshall I ever had, but not my Traynor
I have been playing a Traynor YGL III since 1971. Bought it new in 72. I still play through it professionally. I have bought many amps over the years but the Traynor continues to be my stage amp of choice. I have owned 2 Fenter Twins. The Traynor is built better than either one and out performs them at any volume. I have changed out the the preamp tubes to fit my liking. Mods - grounded plug and removed the ground switch. New Caps in 88 and 2000. Replace OEM speakers in 75 with Jensen's but went to Eminence and stayed with them. It is heavy but it rarely comes out of it's ATA case bottom. (good rubber castors) I have been lucky to have had Traynor available to me since 85 for tech support even though it has never had to be sent to Traynor. In 1000's of hours of playing, I only had one stage mishap, a blown output tube. With the design of the amp I was able to yank out 2 output tubes and played the rest of the night.
Thanks for the informed comment. Better carry some spare output tubes. :D
Beautiful playing on a beautiful amp. Great demo!
I have one of these back home and miss it dearly. My father is a Traynor nut and has been collecting them for years. It's amazing how cheap you can find them! Still a great little secret for gear enthusiasts.
hell yes..... traynor had some freaky big amps..... :)
I have a 72. Bought used in 78. Gigged with it solid till 98. The Marslands farted out in the mid 80's. Threw in some 50 watt Peaveys and rocked on. Great workhorse amp. Very heavy ... I think the Hammond transformers alone weigh as much as a Blues Junior. Tried it with casters , but they just get in the way when you have to climb stairs. The carrying handle sucks . Installed side handles. Had it recapped in 2000. Verb and Trem still working. Get your lead vocalist to help you lug it around if you can pull him away from the mirror. lol Rest in peace Pete ... bless you.
haha. great summary
DUDE !!!You're a monster player haha! Great feel, style and heart to spare in those fingers. I've been watching (almost obsessively) most of your vidz because of my Traynor needing a service and wanting to do it myself. Your channel is an invaluable wealth of info, and I always look forward to your chopping around while demo-ing the finished product. Cheers from North Bay Ontario brother....Pete Traynor was a tech at Long & McQuade (Canadian music store) in Toronto (4 hours south of me), and got sick of fixing Fender and Marshall amps all the time so decided to design his own, and was backed by the store owners (the story in a nutshell). His legacy lives on under the brand Yorkville, and of course through his many early amp models still kicking ass and taking names today, and more recently the reissue of some of those great Traynor amps. The "machines" he produced in the mid '60s through to the late '70s are nothing short of awesomely reliable. Can't kill a Traynor my dad would say :-). And he was right, sir.
Traynor build quality is very high. Sound quality is very good. Amazing amps. People always talk about them being platforms for mods and this and that, but most sound awesome stock. I've seen so many with removed logos because for so long, they have been considered a "poor man's" this or that, but I think the original ones are finally starting to get some of the respect they richly deserve.
Traynor is by far the most indestructible tube amplifier ever built. Pete Traynor himself would actually toss 100 watters off the roof of his shop to demonstrate their durability. Replace the tubes and rock out to Guitar Boogie
yorkville, live 20 minutes from the head office. GO CANADA!!!
Go where?
Damn Brad! Makes me proud to be a Canadian. Peter Traynor was Robbie Robertson first bass player in his teenage band. Traynor spent some years cutting his teeth repairing amps and noodling around and learning from his dad, who was a real electrical engineer from the 1940's and 1950s school. In his early 20s, Peter turns to Long & McQuade (Canada's music store chain, 90 stores and counting) owner Jack Long (now 93), and repairs every amp the store has in the back, within 1 day. Jack offers Peter a job, obviously. Peter shows Jack his self made bass amp, absolutely glass shattering loud, and nicer sounding than the Fenders of the time (61- 62). Jack, the ever clever businessman (trumpet player) says " Hey, that amp would make a great rental work horse!" (Built like tank), Traynor starts production in 1963, and the rest is history!
Must watch : Traynor tests his amps by throwing them from roof, no shit !
ruclips.net/video/ayV9FMhoS4U/видео.htmlsi=Go7V864VE7ofhDr3
Great amp. First amp I owned in the 70s. RIP Pete Traynor. Legend!
+FreddysFrets Yep, RIP Pete. Great builder. Far underrated.
Very underrated amp builder. RIP Pete Traynor. And the other Canadain amp builder legend Giles Garnet. I got one of his amps too. A 1x 12 5 watt 6v6 powers combo. With my 1977 Traynor YGM3..they sound great together in stereo.
Great play in’. Just picked up a used YGL-3 head only myself today. :-). Loved Traynor amps since the late 60’s. Great price and will be wailing tonight!
I'm getting a kick out of much you enjoy Traynor amps I'm from Vancouver Canada and our high school band rooms had these amps....we all hated them and wanted Marshall's and Fender's....but we obviously didn't appreciate what we had....A awesome player like you could make them Rock !
I liken amps like this and old Marshalls to jumping on a bull and holding on for dear life. When you kick them in the loins, they're gonna buck! You better know what you're doing or it'll end badly.
I retubed a friends YGL-3A. Never played a Traynor before. Tubes were not working put in all new Mullards. Fired it up with a Rivera 4-12 with Celestian vintage 30s. Holy crap! Where has this been hiding? A tremendos full sound, big, warm, room filling. Since I was testing this head I HAD to take it through his paces. So I dimed it out and blew my head off. Perfect.
One of these followed me home a couple of years back ;-) Nice playing guy, and of course 'the twin killer'. shush guys, this is the best kept secret on the net.
I guess I'm late to this party but just wanted to compliment your playing on this one. Great sounding amp and nice playing there, Brad. I could listen to that all day.
Thank you.
Great amp, I have one that's identical. I've owned a few Traynors over the years, built like tanks. I also have a 750XL too. Sweet guitars.
We’ve had one for about 30 years... beautiful sounding amp. Only gripe is the reverb has gone out on many occasions but no one knows how to work on them.
had one of these back in the 80's in a band with a Gretsch 6128 duo jet the combination of those two was just divine . The other guitarist had a Fender twin and this used to blow it away could never crank it right up or it just drowned out the Fender at the fenders full volume ,only downside is the weight of them ,weigh a ton!!
Also had a volume pot on a footswitch which was dialed to max and wired to the input volume pot which overloaded it so had overdive crucnh at a simple push of the pedal .nice mod done by amplifier tech .
Great demo! I have one of these, and had no idea it could break up like that!
Better crunch than a lot of Marshalls, really.
do you use it as a plant stand?
@@TheGuitologist wonder how it takes your favorite boost pedal so you can get boosted tone at lower or bedroom volumes
Amazing! Does everything well! Who would have thunk it, very cool!
Brad, amazing demo ! Such cool tones 💛👍
Nice playing. Smooth and mellow. We can hear the sound of the amp.
+littleblackdoglilg That's the idea. I try to play to the equipment. This one had such a beautiful clean tone, you wanted to just bask in that tone with some big, open, ringing chords and slow, measured single note stuff.
Better than a twin reverb if you ask me :)
Sorry for being dense-but are you running all tones in this demo without any effects pedals?
Great playing. Very dynamic, melodic and expressive.
John Wagoner Yes, that is correct. I do not use any pedals in any of my amp demos. I hate it when others do that, so I avoid it. It totally defeats the purpose of demoing an amplifier to slap pedals in front of it, if you ask me.
Thanks for the compliments and for watching! Be sure to subscribe if you like seeing vintage amp demos. I do them quite a bit. Never know what I'll have next. :D
Wow that reverb sounds so damn good. Nice.
Still play my traynor ygl-mark III every week. And my fender twin silver face 1969 has not been plugged in since 2 years and stands there a little bit lost. What a versatile, solid and high quality amp the traynor is... love it! (Ok, maybe a liiiiiiitle bit loud 😂).
I love the old Traynor amps .
You tend to forget how good of a player Brad is
I think it sounds even better than a Twin. I have one that needs a bit of love, but it still sounds great. Crazy loud amp. Mine still has its original GE and Phillips/Mullard tubes. The speakers are Marsland, I believe. Supposedly not the greatest, but they sound pretty good. Enjoy the amp! Excellent playing, by the by.
Mine's the version just before this one. Living in Ontario,Canada of course old Traynors were/are everywhere for very reasonable (although the 60-70's one have appreciated a bit more recently). Mine came with '74 fender Utahs in it when I acquired it. I have three or four Traynors in the arsenal at present, and have owned many over the decades. Great amps for the coin, and as stated elsewhere- better to swap out those crappy Marslands. I think Pete only used those because they were made in K-W close to Toronto- and were cheap. Like the great Hammond iron from Guelph.
I think it depends on two other things. I like the Marslands in my YGM3. it suits the amp. The marsland are flat EQ speakers. Pete was a Bass Player. You want a flat response from speakers...except for guitar. We use our speakers for colouration of the tone, a lot. So the flat response of the marland shows the quality of the amps, they just sound less lively than a celestion greenback. The Bassmaster sounds perfect with marsland while playing bass. Even good with guitar. I play mine though EVH (re branded heritage greenbacks) 212 cab, just to lower the volume on these beasts.
96 db on the heritage vs 100 db on a vin30. That is like switching from a 40 watt head (traynor bassmaster) down to a 20 watt (traynor bassmate)- half the wattage means -3db change. Double output wattage is only a 3 db boost. That is why a 1 watt amp can still be loud and a 5 watt is much louder(slightly more than a 6 db change in those 4 watts). But doubling from a 50 watt to 100 watt head isn't that much of a change in sound levels.
@@thorinbane that is some really useful information as i am going to look at this amp tomorrow and it makes sense why you stuck the greenbacks/evh in there. How did your tone change? I think this one has the marsland but i like your lower decibel thinking.
Great playing.
+tremolo1965 Thanks! And thanks for watching too!
+Brad Linzy (The Guitologist) this is a really nice amp! how much are these going for? if you know that is.
They should bring around the same price as the Fender Twin of the era, if not a tad more.
This was my amp from 84 to 89. Miss it big time.
that amp sounds beautiful
Sounds awesome. How loud are you playing the amp here? I’ve got a chance to get one of these and I’m curious how super loud it is.
If you have a chance to buy one of these, do not hesitate. They are MONSTROUS amps. I was playing in an apartment, if that tells you anything.
The amp is nice but I really dig that Charvel 750xl "Les Paul killer" you have there!
I got that guitar for my 16th birthday instead of a car.
1976 or slightly newer. these amps are much much better than fender in terms of sound and build quality
Ok now that MY Marshall (the JMPs) are 50 years old, usually messed with, usually missing output transformers, and (at best) were an amp that wasn't up to it 50% of the time (every other one simply wasn't a 'good' one) and going for 2500.00 I guess I'm looking for something else.
A Traynor? Found one of these heads for $850.00...
I have this amplifier. Pure awesomeness. It's better than a 100 watt Marshall but it has 2 x 12" speakers and a master volume with great reverb and tremolo. Tubes are all original Mullard tubes
That doesn't have the original Marslands in it does it?
What are the tubes in that? It sounds awesome!
Sounds like an old marshall
Is there diodes in overdrive channel?
I have this amp and it is amazing. However my termolo stopped working and my tech says the "bug" is not available. Any ideas where I can have it repaired? Traynor/Yorkville where no help.
same issue with mine. It can be replaced and made to function again, just not repaired with original tremolo setup
Bad Mann Yes! Another local tech says he ca rewire it with the Fender circuit. I guess that's what I will have to do. Thanks! BTW mine still has the original mullard caps in like new condition!!!!
ya, get it repaired...it's worth it. Mine has everything original and has never had castor wheels mounted either
***** Any competent tech can rewire your tremolo to work in some fashion. I haven't looked the schematic for this one in a while, so I'm not sure what the issue is.
That is just a lazy tech that has worked on a lot of fenders. Traynor has a 'unique' tremolo that doesn't sound like a fender. Its sweep is more usable. You can find the schematics online in many places, but that requires more than a quick fix. Too many Traynors have been molested over the years. Turned into twins, turned into marshalls. They have their own voice and if it had been recorded a bit more often (so people would be familiar with its tone) you would see people modding other amps to emulate this one.
My Traynor advice is a tone cap change or two is all any traynor needs to deviate from its original design. They sound amazing on their own. I just wish more people had a chance to hear one in person, STOCK.
holy crunch! that sounds awesome.any mods?
No mods I could see. The secret to crunch on these is to boost the mids.
Would u say Fender cleans and Marshall dirt? Footswitchable?
There's one on fb local to me for 400 is it worth it said in working order
BUY IT NOW!
Hey! I have the head version of this amp - mine doesn't break up at all with my strat until the volume is at 10. I switched out the tubes and that didn't make much difference - is this normal for this amp?
Mine has the silver grill cloth though rather than black.
Your Strat may have really weak output, but it should still break up. You gotta crank the mids. A lot of players have been so used to scooping mids. Maybe that's it? Check to see you aren't doing that. Beyond that, you may need a service. What kind of power tubes are in it? Brand and type.
hey thanks for such a fast and thorough response! your videos are really a gift to the online community! I've got JJ el34's in there. Even cranking the mids it doesn't get near yours. I thought it might have been model but I'm starting to think it needs a good servicing myself. Thanks again for all your help!!
Wow cranking the mids does make a huge difference as well. My strat has vintage low output pickups once I cranked the mids i was starting to get some grit at 10. I'm thinking it's probably just my low output pickups at this point. Got to try it with humbuckers now... Although I'm sure a service wouldn't hurt.
humbuckers are all you need,single coils just wont give you the drive
started out good but something about that guitar or what you were playin ....
and it just got continually better and better and better AND BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER
what about loudspeakers ?
The stock speakers are in this one. They are probably made by Traynor/Yorkville. Marsland is another large Canadian speaker manufacturer at the time, but I doubt they are Marsland.
Almost all those old Traynors came stock with Marslands, I have a '76 of this same model as my main stage amp and the Marslands kick pretty good. I've never seen a MARK iii without a MV btw, I think it's always been in the schematic. My model has the flat face-plate slightly counter-sunk under the top of the amp as opposed to this slightly later model with the slant-face. I needed a rig that could compete with the mighty volume and presence of my other lead guitarist's '59 Bassman reissue, and this amp will hurt everyone on the stage if I'm not careful. So much jam! I do however have the same issue as some of the above replies, nowhere near the breakup from the preamp section at all... clean for days it seems (which is good for some things), but I'd really like to know what I can do to get that sweet dirty tone out of it. I've even removed the V1 preamp tube to heat up the second channel and that helped a bit... but still.....
Most the mark 3’s twins came with RSC (radio speaker Canada) Jensen licensed 100 watt ceramic ( very similar to the modern c12k) the other common speaker was the RSC 50 watt Utah license speaker, Marslands generally were in amps 25 watts or less like 15 watt studio mates ygm3, the RSC speakers were of very good quality (unlike the marslands)
Marsland speakers were in a lot of Traynor stuff. They were the only real weakness
Nice demo. Beautiful playing with the clean tones. These amps are fantastic. There is a nice demo on the skaboosh channel of the overdriven sound of the amp at: watch?v=x7ZiFTK94d0
+ironpirites There's a demo of the overdrive on my channel as well if you want to hear this specimen overdriven. Thanks for the comment.
I believe that this amp was the first with a factory fitted 'master' volume control... the over-driven sound is predominately from the pre-amp valves rather than the output valves (tubes then) unless you play it insanely loud! Great amps and sound killer, but most are plus forty years old now... so need a bit of TLC. Mine needed electrolytic's, rotary controls cleaned and tightened and the valve socket pins re-tentioned... good to go now for another forty years and with the original Philips (Mullard) valves :)
You may be right about the MV thing. I'm trying to think of an earlier example, but I'm drawing a blank. You're also right about the overdrive. The output tubes will not saturate until the amp is really cranked (which I didn't even do in this video!) Traynor amps are WAY underrated, I'd say they are probably the most underrated of all the amps from this late 60s, early 70s era. The build quality is tip top, components are tip top, and tone is as good or better than equivalent Marshall and Fender amps, IMO.
Nice amp, but it is far from being a Twin Reverb "killer" in my opinion. Now the old Peavey Road Master; Now that one would give a Twin a run for it's money.
I think the Traynor is better because it's more versatile. It'll do Twin, but it'll also do Marshall JTM
What did you use to record the amp? Sounds good.
Vercus100 I use the internal mic on my iPhone 4 on all my videos. No special mics and no processing of any kind.