1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

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xtian
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1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by xtian »

I wasn't going to post until all done, and you could just enjoy the pretty photos.

I bought this amp, knowing it would need some work. All original and untouched! Original Philips (Great Britain) tubes. Filter caps were showing signs of venting, and had 2-conductor power cord, so didn't even power it up before getting to work.

Replaced all e-caps, installed 3-conductor power cord, removed AC ground cap, installed 1R bias sense resistors and bias adjustment pot. Cleaned pots and sockets.

Powered up, set bias, all good, except no reverb. Found two broken wires in reverb tank and fixed. Sounding good--great trem, very good reverb. Cranked it up. Nice distortion! Original AlNiCo speaker sounds good. Then, SNAP, no sound.

Found my 1R bias sense resistors had burned through! Not too surprising, since I've got 400v on plates, 395 on screens.

What do you think? Do these Traynors survive today with 400+v plates, or do I need to install a B+ dropper, and/or drop the screen voltage?
traynor.jpg
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xtian
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by xtian »

Well, I patched the 1R bias resistors, and we're back to working. I can't believe the power tubes survived that blowout!
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davebolden44
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by davebolden44 »

I recently got a yrm 1 off ebay for real cheap. just the chassis no tubes cabinet or reverb tank. slapped some tubes in it and bought a reverb tank and fired it up safely. works perfectly. traynors are underrated, its a badass amp. If somebody was on a budget looking for a great amp traynor would be my first recommendation. i will recap it and add bleeder resistors for safety, other than that its perfect. If anybody knows where an empty headshell is let me know
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xtian
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by xtian »

Yes, nicely made, good components, good lead dress. Too high voltage.
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davebolden44
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by davebolden44 »

The schematic calls for 398 on the plates. Im no expert but if the 6bq5s can take it they are probobly very lively and linear.
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xtian
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by xtian »

I prefer not cooking tubes, so I made the following changes: added MOSFET B+ reducer, first resistors in the dropping string changed from 470R/22K to 1K5/10K, 1K screen resistors added.

Results are excellent. Plates at 340v, screens at 310v, 12.5 watts clean output into 8 ohm load. Sounds lovely, very nice distortion character.

Many people have noted that a speaker upgrade is a good idea. I can confirm that, while the tone of the original speaker is fine, it is very quiet. It must have a sensitivity in the low 90s dB. I played thru a Celestion V-Type, and the output volume jumped dramatically.


NOTE ON TREMOLO: This amp uses a bias-vary tremolo, like Princeton Reverb, BUT the circuit is different. I think the PR varies bias voltage between preset bias and 0v (ground, hotter), but the Traynor varies between preset bias and full -ve bias voltage (colder). Can someone confirm my observation?

Result is, the tremolo is deep and nice. Want to slow it down, though.
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jjman
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by jjman »

PR Trem is an AC signal thru a cap to the bias, so it pushes the bias up and down. I think all non-photo-resistor trems push and pull. Photos just pull down.
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by pompeiisneaks »

jjman wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:48 am PR Trem is an AC signal thru a cap to the bias, so it pushes the bias up and down. I think all non-photo-resistor trems push and pull. Photos just pull down.
Actually the original AC30 used a tremolo with a 3 tube circuit, one tube is the oscillator, the second tube is doing the channel preamp and PI work and the third is the tremolo Modulator. Then the normal input has either a 12AX7 for the later models, or a EF86 for the first tube in the version AC30/4, so that's another variant, all tube tremolo. The oscillator part is pretty cool, I'm attaching the schematic of just the AC30/4 tremolo to show that version,.
AC30-4-Tremolo.PNG
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sonicmojo
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by sonicmojo »

You could make it a Snider:

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Bryan
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Barks
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by Barks »

xtian wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 10:05 pm

What do you think? Do these Traynors survive today with 400+v plates, or do I need to install a B+ dropper, and/or drop the screen voltage?
Hi - quick answer is yes.

I've been continually using a 1969 YGM-3 installed into the carcass of a Selmer Thunderbird Twin 50 since 1994.
It had the wrong PT in and ran happily with B+ voltage at 452vdc although tubes would need changing approx once a year as headroom would decline a little bit. Used Sovtek tubes and they were cheap at the time.

Just restored it to original PT spec with help from the fine chaps on this board, and its now at around 428vdc B+ and sounding good.

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28001

live recording from 1997 when it was at high B+ - Telecaster plugged straight in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLs0U9ltSI

Barks
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Phil_S
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by Phil_S »

Barks wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:39 pm live recording from 1997 when it was at high B+ - Telecaster plugged straight in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLs0U9ltSI
A+ work on this. A fabulous tight band. Several dynamite solos. Guitar work is exemplary. I forget, why did Barks post this link? :o
joeboo88
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by joeboo88 »

Can someone answer why this ygm3 has a 5.1k OT?

I thought 2 el84s want something around 8k impedance?

I've been wanting to build this amp for awhile, and am confused about the OT.
Is it because the OT is rated for 25 watts?

Thanks , Joe
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by martin manning »

Does seem odd. Aaron, what OT part number is in your YGM-3? 8-ohm speaker impedance as stated above?
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Barks
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by Barks »

On mine its a Hammond A1339 - not sure if it would have changed much over 5 years later?

Image

Phil_S wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2017 4:00 pm
Barks wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:39 pm live recording from 1997 when it was at high B+ - Telecaster plugged straight in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVLs0U9ltSI
A+ work on this. A fabulous tight band. Several dynamite solos. Guitar work is exemplary. I forget, why did Barks post this link? :o
To demonstrate that a very high B+ didn't destroy it when it was 452vdc, or the tonal quality of course!
joeboo88
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Re: 1974 Traynor YGM-3 Guitar Mate Reverb

Post by joeboo88 »

Hammond make that OT same specs as on the PDF schematic floating around. It's called 1750s
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