Tranynor YBA-1A vs YBA-1 Distortion Tones 

Hey. So, i'm using a Weber attenuator in this demo which equalizes the volume but without it obviously the mark2 is a lot louder. I would say the mark 1 and mark 2 are pretty similar in how much distortion they have. The mark 2 (on the bottom, the one I play first) is "tighter" sounding in its distortion. It also has more clarity for clean tones. I'd attribute this to the MUCH larger transformers. The mark 1 is more loose sounding. Different tubes have a huge effect though. Hotter vs cooler tubes will affect the breakup a lot, and could affect the tonality and tightness too. I don't remember what tubes I had in each amp for this demo. Also, it's worth noting that even though you can equalize the volume with an attenuator, the mark 2 is pumping 90W out of two EL34 output tubes. That's crazy! The B+ voltages inside are super high, meaning it runs those tubes about 1 mm away from killing them. I've gotta believe playing the mark 2 turned up will wear out the tubes MUCH faster than the mark 1. That's just speculation though, I haven't played either of these amps cranked enough to kill a set of tubes.

Thanks for that detailed response . Yeah I was reading that the higher watttage version was going to be running higher voltage and much hotter . Iv never bothered to mod amps but these sounds pretty sweet. I wonder if the amp could be modded to take another pair of tubes to run cooler. Would you say the larger transformer also adds extended bottom and highs aswell? Didn’t seem that way but I had read bigger transformers tend to add more bottom atleast . Im leaning towards the lower wattage version, since those are the ones I tend to hear most so I have a better idea of how they handle mods.

@@heythere6983 If you added tubes you'd need a new power and output transformer, probably not worth it since transformers are very expensive. The mark2 CAN have move bass if you turn up the bass knob, and yes that's due to the larger transformers. It makes a better bass amp. But with the EQ controls flat the amps are voiced the same. The mark1 would just get loose sounding more quickly as you turn up the bass and volume. And yeah I definitely think the mark1 is way better for mods, it's a much more "normal" amp as far as how it treats the tubes, etc. and it still does have relatively excellent bass response too.

Pete Traynor’s buddy Mike Holman who is still Head of Sales at Traynor/Yorkville wrote a history of Traynor. Hope it helps.Bottom of page 6/top of page 7. “Competitors were often quite liberal with their power ratings. Some used fully distorted maximum Watt ratings - double the sine wave rating - and called them “rms” which is perfectly legal since “rms” (root mean square) has no bearing on distortion. Others used “peak” ratings which are even less meaningful. But Pete couldn’t do this. Having established a “clean” criterion for bass amp power ratings, he naturally later carried it into PA and guitar amp power ratings. Why not use two types of ratings, a clean one for bass amps and PA, and a “dirty” one for guitar amps? Because Yorkville could end up with “90-watt” guitar amps that were clearly no more powerful than “45-watt” bass amps - a major ratings jumble, especially considering that guitar players were using Bass Masters almost from day one. So, not surprisingly, Traynor literature contained no power specifications well into the 1970s. And when the numbers did finally appear in literature, for years thereafter people would say,“There are Watts and then there are ‘Traynor Watts,’” implying that the Traynor Watts were somehow bigger. (But now you know the rest of the story.)” www.0rigami.com/vb/yorkvillehistory.pdf

My 90 watt breaks up at about volume 4. Very loud though but lots of head room for pedals

Probably the best way is to look at the date codes on the pots. Or maybe traynor has a serial number reference on their website.

Maybe April ‘69? My buddy had a modded YVM P.A. head and it was different than my ‘75.

I found out it is 65. Do you know anyone who knows how to update it? I live in Toronto and I see you are a fellow Csnuck and thought I would give it a shot.

The one on top is the regular yba-1 (mark 1). The one on the bottom is the mark 2, otherwise known as yba-1a. 40w vs 80w, respectively, but the same volume here as I'm playing through an attenuator.

Yeah, the YBA-1A is about 80W while the YBA-1 is about 40W. But that also results in a difference in tone. The 1A has much larger transformers, and so to my ears it sounds more tight. The voicing is similar on both amps, however. The 1A is on the bottom, by the way. I do have another video of the YBA-1: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JxXEQ7v05tQ.html

Yes it does, on the side. It's decently noisy, a little annoying for very low volume playing. I've thought about replacing it with a newer fan if I can find one that'll fit.

Yes that's correct. The one on the bottom is the 1A/Mark II.

Did you do any mods with it? I have the same amp but with a loud fan.

@@rossman265 no mods except changing the volume pots to 1Meg, and adding an adjustable bias. The fan is loud on mine too, it's kind of annoying.

0:00 is the YBA-1A (Mark 2), 0:55 is the YBA-1