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Topic: Took a chance on an oddball amp for pedal steel |
Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2014 1:31 pm |
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... After selling all my old BF Fender tube amps, and going digital and/or SS[Cube 80XL/ 200 watt Peavey/Fender Princeton Chorus], I have decided that I simply must have the tube sound back.. I did some gigs with the only old tube amp I kept [1964 Bassman], and the sound was simply incomparable to the SS amps I had been using..
Tubes win...
Tubes always win..
So I started looking for tube amps again.. I walked into a music store in the northern tier of Pa. about 30 miles from here, and spied one of these..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX2VnqomxP4
They are pretty rare in this particular configuration... 4x10 -45 watts w/ 2 EL 34 output rubes, and a great reverb that uses an audio output tube driver, NOT a preamp tube..
Its fairly big and has casters.. I did NOT find it overly heavy,, Never found Super Reverbs that bad either.. Twins yes, but not Supers for some reason, and thats what this amp looks like..
I left a deposit, and will return for it this week.. Not cheap really but at $500 out the door, not bad either.. A Super would cost me $250-300 more easily..
That $500 is pretty close to what a Classic 50 or Fender Hot Rod Deville would cost me anyway, and these old Traynore have massive Hammond iron, are hand wired, and are incredibly overbuilt.. They are even more reliable and solid than Fenders... I have had several and they always sound good with the steel.. I am thinking this "poor mans super", might be a nice steel amp for the medium volume gigs I play.. I do NOT need 100 watts anymore, and anyway, Traynor amps are well known for intense volume per watt, and a ton of headroom... This guys demo had him leaning too hard on the reverb but you'll get the idea.. It sounds syrupy to my ringing ears... comments??... bob
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I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 28 Jul 2014 2:31 pm
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| What's not to like?!? |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2014 2:38 pm
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Cool amp. Nice to see others using power tubes to drive reverb tanks. I modded my '68 Bandmaster Reverb to use a EL84 to drive the reverb transformer & tank. It's just a better way to do it than a 12AT7, it seems. Sounds better too. Fender did it right in their stand-alone reverbs using a 6V6 (or 6K6?) to drive the tank.
B
Last edited by Brad Sarno on 28 Jul 2014 2:40 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2014 2:39 pm
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| Cartwright Thompson wrote: |
| What's not to like?!? |
Well.. Its ugly... and old... but hey, so am I... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Matt Bush
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 28 Jul 2014 2:45 pm
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| Brad Sarno wrote: |
Fender did it right in their stand-alone reverbs using a 6V6 (or 6K6?) to drive the tank.
B |
I believe the original early 60's model used 6K6, the late 70's silverface model uses 6V6 as do the current reissues of the 60's model. |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 3:05 am
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| Traynor has always made nice amps ......I'm not fond of 10 inch speakers for pedal steel , but YMMV .....Good Luck with the amp .... i also like the MusicMan amps that are also in this price range .....Jim |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 3:56 am
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Over the years, there have been a lot of experiments. And I believe that the particular midrange of amps using "American" tubes - 6L6 and 6V6 - has historically matched up better with the typical musical requirements of typical steel guitar gigs, i.e. country and country-rock. If anybody in those bands is going to hog the upper mids, it's going to be the guitarist. However, many years back I discovered that if you want to do a really, really detailed "Duane Allman imitation" a typically "British" type of tube amp helped a lot - EL34's and EL84's in the power section. And while there are plenty of people who will tell you that American tubes can sound British, and vice-versa - they usually don't. A Marshall type voicing can be applied to a 6L6-powered amp, in the preamp; but it usually isn't.
That big wide loud midrange of a Marshall helps a steel do something NEW, IMO. And though I've never had the opportunity to own a REAL one, in every single modeler I've ever used the "HiWatt" model was most pleasing (and cleaner) than any Fender model in 'em. But your guitar player may declare war, bring watts. This all presupposes you're still using clean "P.A." speakers even with a different-sounding amp head, there's not much good can come of a steel guitar through 25w Celestion Greenbacks. IMO... 
P.S.(If you have some lying around, you may want to try that head through a couple of 12" Black Widows or JBL's or even the fairly cheap Eminence "PA/bass" speakers, the BETA-12A's.) |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 4:52 am
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Traynor amps can be real gems. I walked into a music store once and plugged into a Traynor twin speaker amp (forget the model) and I think it sounded beautiful, having a shimmer to it that a Fender Twin wishes it had. I should have bought it, but it was beat to hell and only one channel was working, but what a channel!
These amps are easily modded, too. I forget whose book has a lot of mods for traynors--maybe Kevin O'Connor.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 4:53 am
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| Maybe set it up to run 6550's. Probably wouldn't be a big deal, you might get more headroom and a little more "American" tone. |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 5:23 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
Traynor amps can be real gems. I walked into a music store once and plugged into a Traynor twin speaker amp (forget the model) and I think it sounded beautiful, having a shimmer to it that a Fender Twin wishes it had. I should have bought it, but it was beat to hell and only one channel was working, but what a channel!
These amps are easily modded, too. I forget whose book has a lot of mods for traynors--maybe Kevin O'Connor. |
That was probably a YGL3 which is a 100 watt 2x12 combo.. They are as clean as a Twin, with insane power, actually louder and cleaner than a Twin, and they have truly great reverb.. They don't really sound like a Twin however, No worse or better, just different. I had 2 of the heads and they always sounded good with a steel.. I used single 15 cabs..
Within the past year I sold my last Traynor called a YGM4 Studio Mate.. I was an enclosed combo with 2 EL 84 output, maybe 18 watts, and it had 4 x 8 inch speakers. Webers in mine. Huge sound out of that little amp.. Sold it to a local young guitarist that was absolutely thrilled to be able to own such a cool amp.. It just wasn't powerful enough for steel otherwise I would have kept it.. Traynors are incredible amps.. In a way they remind me of Music Man amps , only because a lot of steel players bypass them because they sound different than a Fender. To my ears the Traynors don't sound quite as sweet as a Fender, nor do MM amps, but they are certainly warm, wonderful amps in their own right, worthy of a look and listen.. If this amp doesn't work for steel, off she goes, but I do want to give it a good shot... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 5:29 am
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| Cartwright Thompson wrote: |
| Maybe set it up to run 6550's. Probably wouldn't be a big deal, you might get more headroom and a little more "American" tone. |
Believe me, Traynor amps don't need headroom.. They have LOTS!.. They can get dirty depending on how you set the master volume and the channel.. If the master is dimed, Traynors have massive headroom.. That 45 watts is all I will ever need as long as its as clean as most Traynors are... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 6:10 am
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| Yeah, they run pretty clean. I think 6550's sound a lot better for steel though and you'd probably only need to re-bias. |
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Don Poland
From:
Hanover, PA.
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 3:19 pm
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| Bob Carlucci wrote: |
| Cartwright Thompson wrote: |
| What's not to like?!? |
Well.. Its ugly... and old... but hey, so am I... bob |
You're not old!!  |
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Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 5:34 pm
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What about the Traynor YGL-3 Mark III? It has four power tubes so 80 watts, and 2 twelves. It appears to weight somewhere in the mid-70 pound range.
Putting the weight aside, is that a good PSG amp? (I could probably make a separate head cabinet to get the weight within reason.)
Oops. I see Bob already mentioned this model above.
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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 6:04 pm
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Hey Paul.. yes the YGL3 is a good steel amp... It doesn't sound the same as a Twin, but is loud and clean, with a rich tube tone.. Just different from a Fender.. The YGL3 came in a Twin size 2x12 combo, but there were a lot of YGL3 heads made as well.. All you need is a 1x15 cab, and you're in business.. I did it for quite a while.. They sound GOOD!... bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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Daniel Policarpo
From:
Kansas City
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Posted 29 Jul 2014 7:21 pm
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| Anybody ever use those old tuck n roll Kustoms for pedal steel? |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 30 Jul 2014 5:03 am
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| Daniel Policarpo wrote: |
| Anybody ever use those old tuck n roll Kustoms for pedal steel? |
they are ok, but to be honest they are a very generic solid state amp... Your average Peavey would be a much better choice.. Now if you want a big tube sound, you can try a Plush amp... These were padded tuck n roll like the Kustom amps, but were tube, and were based on the Fender Showman.. From what i understand they can be serviced using a Showman schematic!
They are robust good sounding amps.. However, they aren't that easy to find, and they have become more and more expensive.. Still not as much as a Fender but almost as much now as other vintage tube amps such as Traynor,Music Man, Sunn,Ampeg etc... They were made by a company called Earth Sound Research back in the early 70's, and some were marketed under that brand as well. bob
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!
no gear list for me.. you don't have the time...... |
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