Modifying a Traynor YCV40...

[azrael]

Looking at a Traynor YCV40.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p315 ... rYCV40.gif
vectorized form - schematic starts at Page 8.
http://www.traynoramps.com/downloads/se ... mycv40.pdf

I was thinking about modding mine a bit, just for kicks.
The first tube stage kinda looks like a Vox, in terms of how it's boosting the amp.
What if we changed...
R4 to 68K
R3 to 2.7K
C1 to 680nF

So it looked more like a Marshall?

According to the service manual, the two difference that make the YCV40 and YCV50 take different tubes are R78 and R106. I might try that mod, and try EL34s.

What other mods could be made? I'm mostly looking for a thicker drive, and less noise.

[selloutrr]

put R78 and R106 on a switch so you can have both amps in one.

Increasing the quality on the tone caps and tubes will make a noticeable difference.

If they used any ceramic caps replace them with orange drops.

usually a better OT will also give you more dynamics.
as will a speaker swap.

use a potentiometer for any resistor swaps you want to try so you can dial in a sweet spot then remove the pot and meter the value.

Remove all the clip terminals and solder directly to the point of contact.

[azrael]

Good point on capacitors! I noticed a significant tonal difference when I upgraded the caps in my Peavey VTM to Sozos.
I'll open it up and take notice of cap material.

Any ideas for thicker OD? I was going to try some coupling cap changes, maybe double the value of C17 to 22nF.

[selloutrr]

bass can be achived by changing the coupling cap, or if you have a batch or tubes on hand you can use them to voice the OD. a speaker with more bass or less highs will also help - as will the cabinet the speaker is in.

for the most part the circuits are a sound design it's just the execusion in the assembly and the price point parts that needs work.

[Philoffline]

This doesn't help with the drive channel, but there's an easy mod for the clean side that converts the fairly useless Presence pot to a simple master volume. Works like a charm and makes that annoying hiss go away.