Traynor YCV20WR

J

Jebarri

New member
Hey Folks, this is my first post here... it looks like a great forum!
Anyways, Im looking into getting my first amp, to be used for practice, recording, and capable of doing small gigs.
Having read a bit on the internet Im thinking a 15-30 watt tube amp. So after looking at the Blues jr, Peavy classic 30, possibly the vox night train etc. I came across the Traynor ycv20wr, it looks like a great amp! I really like its features, its made in North America, based on the reviews I have read it sounds like it has a good sound after a retubing.
Now my problem is I can't really seem to find much in the way of sound demos on youtube etc. and I live in Alaska which didn't show up in Traynors dealer search tool so Im not sure that I could find one to try in person... and Id really like to get a better idea of the sound before taking the plunge.
I did se a demo or two of the YCV40WR, how is the sound of the 20 compared to the 40?

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks, Jebarri
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

Welcome aboard, Jebarri!

I don't have a YCV20, but I did find a video or two that could help out.





















 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

Thanks, I had seen a couple of those but it was helpful, its not like playing one in person but that may as close as I can get.
Does anyone here have one? if so what do you think of it? what kind of music is it good for?

Thanks again, Jebarri
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

It IS a great amp!

Traynor is a Canadian company, and they're very prevalent down here. I rented one for about a week to use at a small gig, and I practiced with it as well. It doesn't have very much clean headroom, but if you don't need a lot of volume it has some beautiful tone.

The 40WR does a great job of that Fender-y clean tone, but gets a little bit muddy at high gain. The 20WR has a far nicer high gain tone IMO, but the cleans are more Vox-like. That could be a plus or a minus depending on your perspective.

All the Traynor combos are nice amps, especially when you consider the price.
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

This amp just keeps sounding better! My guitar isn't ready yet so Im not in a terrible rush but considering all I have heard I think Im gonna go for it.
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

I have a YCV40 and I've played my guitar through a YCV20, both are nice amps. The YCV20 is loud enough for bar gigs, takes pedals well and has nice clean and overdrive.

I used to have a 2x10 YCV40, now a 1x12 which has had the stocked speaker swapped, for an 8 ohm "Mojo Tone" and the difference was night and day. If you get a YCV20 with a stock speaker and feel it could be better try a different speaker. As to how the 20 and 40 compare, the 40 has more headroom and is much louder, especially through the combo and a 4x12.
 
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Re: Traynor YCV20WR

The 20 is definitely gonna be loud enough for what I need.
As for the speaker I have heard that some people really like it and others think it doesn't suit the amp... so yeah...

Thanks, Jebarri
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

Both of those are very good sounding amps in their price range. I would say you will be happy with either one, just depends on your headroom needs. The clean channel is very good, the lead channel sounds better than what you get from Fender in that price point. Sounds like your location will dictate the purchase of a new amp. Am I correct in that?
We owned both of those models. We still have the 20WR. The 40WR went in a trade, but we would have been just as happy to keep it. Our 20 has a Greenback, and the 40 had a Vintage30, we were content with both set-ups. We did do some tube swapping at the one year mark, with good results. But I would not encourage you to dump the stock tubes in a knee-jerk effort to "improve" tone. Play the amp for a while until you get use to each other.
Good Luck
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

"Sounds like your location will dictate the purchase of a new amp. Am I correct in that?"
Not so much which amp I get as weather or not I can try it out beforehand.

I saw a listing on an ebay store for the 20WR brand new which in the pic didn't have all the connection ports in the back, no ext. speaker, no headphone jack and no DI out. Is this an older model or something?
Thanks, Jebarri
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

I have had a YCV20 since about 2002 or 2003. I think it's great! I don't really ever use the drive channel on it; I've pretty much always just used pedals in front of it on the clean channel. The drive channel is better than a Fender, but still wasn't my bag.

I don't play a lot of large gigs, mostly smaller places where I've always got a mic on it so it's worked great for me. I played one show where my amp was in-between a Marshall half-stack and an Ampeg 8x10 cab - the sound guys were laughing while we were setting up, saying the mic was begging them "don't put me on the little amp" but then when we started playing they were pretty impressed. (with the sound of the amp, not with me) :) The only reason I'm not really using it anymore is I got a YCV40 to replace it.

Traynor's customer service has been good, too. The new ones have a 2-year-even-if-you-break-it warranty, and when mine was knocked off the stand a few months back they sent me the parts for free, even though it was like 5 years out of warranty.

The older ones don't have the speaker/headphones/DI out jacks on the back; I think that was only the recent wine-red versions (I don't think any of the black ones have those; at least, mine doesn't) I wouldn't use the DI out anyways, but the ext. speaker and headphone jacks would be cool to have.
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

Yeah the one I saw was the wine red but it didn't have the extra jacks on the back, I noticed later that the pic on amazon.com is the same?... I guess Ill just have to confirm that whatever I get DOES have the speaker/headphones/DI...
The concept of a DI out seems really cool to me for recording or live, but I don't know if realistically what the quality is like vrs miking.
Thanks for all the help, Jebarri
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

I've always put a Shure SM 58 mic in front of my YCV40 when recording and I think that works pretty well. Some of my recordings can be heard here
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

i've always wanted to give one of those a try for that el84 sound!!!
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

this model the one with the Greenback speaker? if so it was the wine covered one i wanted bad after giving it a demo a few years back...
 
Re: Traynor YCV20WR

WhoFan said:
this model the one with the Greenback speaker? if so it was the wine covered one i wanted bad after giving it a demo a few years back...
Click to expand...

yeah man...and they go for around $300 used...i'd love to snag one someday!
 
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