Gr8Scott
Wookieologist
YIKES!!! What a difference this tube makes. Not all good either, but it's a refreshing change. Bone stock, the Edana goes from quiet to moderate volume sparkling clean to varying shades of dirty at almost max volume until it finally gets to cranked to the max stage where it can take no more gain and get no louder without getting all confused and stuff. With the hot mod in it the volumes on the amp can no longer make her silent at zero and the unbridaled gain increase steps up to semi clean when you crack the knob a fraction of a digit. Then it steps up from varying stages of dirty until it reaches a plateau that it certainly can't reach on it's own. It sounds hot-rodded for sure, but without the expensive tech time and irreversible mods. All I have to do to un-mod it is remove the hot mod out of the V2 tube socket and put in the 12AX7 I removed initially. Easy as pie. Took me a few minutes to install because it's tough to get the pins lined up just so. It actually made the Edana's pre tubes go microphonic ever so slightly, which means I'll have to try some other tubes in the V3 slot or some other tube in the hot mod to tame the volume increase down just a hair. In channel 1, this thing acted like it was running on a pedal without using a pedal, and I could dial down the distortion with the tried and true guitar volume knob. It was nice and fun to boot. LOUD though.
The Traynor YCS-100 has finally been replaced by the factory. It no longer whistles while it works. Sounds really good and balanced this time because of the better pre tubes (V1 in the last one was weak and made the whole amp sound thin). The amp doesn't really do the marshall thing all that well by itself as it seems to lack something in that area (upper mids). It does have a nice voice all it's own when you tap the modern and scoop voicing buttons along with the boost buttons. Makes for a nice thick and barky amp with heavy distortion that still rings clear as a bell and you can hear all the notes you play in a large chord under the most vicious sounding gain it can do. I may try some other pre-tubes to see if I can wrangle it closer to marshall territory as I really do like more british sounds, but it's very very nice as it is. The cleans seem slightly better on this amp than the last one too, but that also boils down to a better V1 also I'll bet. This thing absolutely thrashes a Peavey XXX in terms of useable gain, attitude and clarity. The XXX still sounds thicker and slightly higher gain for single note runs and power chords, but it can't do full chords like the Traynor YCS-100 at the same gain levels. It mushes up into complete garbage when you try that. Unlike the XXX, pinch harmonics ring off nicely no matter where the gain knob is set on the YCS-100. It's also MUCH quieter than a XXX under heavy gain. It's almost like someone has a very natural sounding noise reduction system built into the amp. I doubt that is the case, but it plays so clean and without unwanted noise that it puts every other high gain amp I've used to shame. It's much easier to control and tame unwanted noise with for sure. Great little high gain rig. Mid-gain and cleans are ok, but high gain chunk in both drive channels is where it's at so far. Channel 2 seems to have a great tight chunk that has a sweet bass response to it and hits hard with great attack. Channel 1 (the highest gain channel) is designed to be a thicker saturated rythem channel or a saturated lead channel. With similar settings, Channel 1 sounds like a more saturated version of channel 2. Good reverb too. Not quite fender good, but very good nonetheless. I think it really needs vintage 30's to sound it's best though. That should complete the marshallization program (that's the speaker it was designed to use). Vintage 30's would deliver the upper mids this amp calls for. That part of the EQ seems to be under-represented to me. With that, the cleans would probably suffer more though. The presence knob on this amp really works well. In fact, there are no useless knobs on the amp period as they all work well and do what they say they will do. It may seem very confusing to work with given all the knobs and buttons, but it's really very simple to use. It's also very simple to get great sounds out of it.
The Traynor YCS-100 has finally been replaced by the factory. It no longer whistles while it works. Sounds really good and balanced this time because of the better pre tubes (V1 in the last one was weak and made the whole amp sound thin). The amp doesn't really do the marshall thing all that well by itself as it seems to lack something in that area (upper mids). It does have a nice voice all it's own when you tap the modern and scoop voicing buttons along with the boost buttons. Makes for a nice thick and barky amp with heavy distortion that still rings clear as a bell and you can hear all the notes you play in a large chord under the most vicious sounding gain it can do. I may try some other pre-tubes to see if I can wrangle it closer to marshall territory as I really do like more british sounds, but it's very very nice as it is. The cleans seem slightly better on this amp than the last one too, but that also boils down to a better V1 also I'll bet. This thing absolutely thrashes a Peavey XXX in terms of useable gain, attitude and clarity. The XXX still sounds thicker and slightly higher gain for single note runs and power chords, but it can't do full chords like the Traynor YCS-100 at the same gain levels. It mushes up into complete garbage when you try that. Unlike the XXX, pinch harmonics ring off nicely no matter where the gain knob is set on the YCS-100. It's also MUCH quieter than a XXX under heavy gain. It's almost like someone has a very natural sounding noise reduction system built into the amp. I doubt that is the case, but it plays so clean and without unwanted noise that it puts every other high gain amp I've used to shame. It's much easier to control and tame unwanted noise with for sure. Great little high gain rig. Mid-gain and cleans are ok, but high gain chunk in both drive channels is where it's at so far. Channel 2 seems to have a great tight chunk that has a sweet bass response to it and hits hard with great attack. Channel 1 (the highest gain channel) is designed to be a thicker saturated rythem channel or a saturated lead channel. With similar settings, Channel 1 sounds like a more saturated version of channel 2. Good reverb too. Not quite fender good, but very good nonetheless. I think it really needs vintage 30's to sound it's best though. That should complete the marshallization program (that's the speaker it was designed to use). Vintage 30's would deliver the upper mids this amp calls for. That part of the EQ seems to be under-represented to me. With that, the cleans would probably suffer more though. The presence knob on this amp really works well. In fact, there are no useless knobs on the amp period as they all work well and do what they say they will do. It may seem very confusing to work with given all the knobs and buttons, but it's really very simple to use. It's also very simple to get great sounds out of it.
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You are pimping out poor innocent little Edana. She'll never be the same. She's now your gain ho.
