Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

[Torren61]

Day before yesterday, I saw an ad on CL and went to check it out. I found an old Traynorass-Master Amp head with no head cab. It had a pretty crappy three prong cord badly wired leaving the death cap AND they had cut the end off and spliced a two prong end on it, lol. I talked the guy down to $100 and left with the amp. I found three Rogers 12AX7 preamp tubes and two Sylvania EL34 power tubes in the amp. One of the Sylvania tubes had a broken center pin.

I determined the date of manufacture to be 1968 based on pot and resistor codes. I wired in a three prong cord and removed the death cap and fired her up. She's VERY loud even with one power tube.

I ran her speaker out to a Palmer PGA04 speaker simulator. It's the only way I can crank her and get that amazing overdrive.

Anyway, that's my deal of the year... or is it? :scratchch

 

[trevorus]

Re: Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

DON'T RUN IT WITH ONLY ONE POWER TUBE!!!! You can easily destroy this amp.

 

[zzmoore]

Re: Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

Anyway, that's my deal of the year... or is it? :scratchch

Man.....I would be thrilled to get the tranny set for 100 bux.!
You did well in my book.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

100$ is a great price for a YBA-1. They're quite nice amps, but loud as **** . . .

 

[Torren61]

Re: Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

DON'T RUN IT WITH ONLY ONE POWER TUBE!!!! You can easily destroy this amp.

Thanks for the heads up. I stopped playing it and only just turned it on today to hear how it sounded with new JJ KT77 tubes.

Man.....I would be thrilled to get the tranny set for 100 bux.!
You did well in my book.

I was so lucky to find this deal. Thanks!

100$ is a great price for a YBA-1. They're quite nice amps, but loud as **** . . .

You are correct! I have it run through a Palmer PGA 04 speaker simulator and into a Universal Audio Twin Duo and then into my iMac and then into Logic Pro and THEN through Guitar Rig 5 where I run it through a stereo component. I also have a delay sitting ready in GR5. It comes out through an Alesis solid state power amp and out EV studio monitors.

I tried to run it through a 2X12 cab but it's waaaay to loud to crank it.

It has a bit of noise which I think my be from the original filter caps. I intend to replace them with Marshall caps. I'm going to swap out the 4 meg volume pots for 1 meg Bourns. There are a few other bits I may or may do but I wanna hear how those mods sound.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Traynor Mass-Master Amp YBA-1

Incredible deal, since these are now known as the poor-man's Plexi. I spent as much in service on mine as the purchase price. But it's the loudest amp I own, louder than a Hiwatt 100. Huge transformers in those things. It gets painful around 3-4 and I have to leave the room with a longer cable if I dime it. But it sounds so good. The right tube make/model make all the difference too.