Re: Tell me about Traynor's YCV 40.
man, am i the right guy to give you this review. i played a YCV40 for a long time with a tele custom...so i've pretty much covered all the bases you want to know about (minus changing the tubes/speakers....this was before i knew that would help too much).
even with stock tubes/speakers i loved that amp. it reminded me alot of a Fender HRD on steroids. the clean wasn't QUITE as good as an HRD, but sounded pretty similar. with my tele's oversized "fenderbucker", it sounded good, but lacked a bit in the clarity. without it being too bright, it would sound a bit muddy. in hindsight though, this was probably due to the speaker.
the overdrive channel more than made up for what the clean (just barely) lacked. it had a very classic, ballsy crunch to it, but nothing too much. definately not a good distortion for metal or nu-metal, etc, but a very good classic rock tone. possibly the best tones i've ever heard out of a combo not in the boutique price range, IMO. and as i said earlier, this was completely stock. i'm thinking when i get the funds to get a new (probably not any time soon) i'll pick up another one of these and get a nice speaker or nice extension cab for it and put some nice tubes in it. i can't even imagine how awesome that would be. all in all, i'd say it was one of my favorite amps and at such a low price, you really can't go wrong with it.
PS - as far as how it held up, the thing was built very very well. i don't know if you know this, but the front grille is not just cloth. its a cloth-covered metal grille. very cool to know your speaker's safe even if your retarded drummer does happen to ram a cymbal stand right into the front of the amp.

i gigged with one regularly and never had any problems from bumping it around.