User Reviews of Traynor YCV50 Blue Alltube Guitar Amplifier with Cover

Unboxing this amp was a real suprise... it's smaller and lighter than I had thought (this is a good thing). I'm not a big fan of blue amps, but this is not a bad looking piece. I was a bit shocked that the knob quality seemed so poor - they are much to easy to turn and feel weightless... this does not fit with the buld quality of the rest of the amp. The amp warms up quick and is ready to go. Sound quality is just what I was looking for!!! cleans are very Fenderish, overdirve channel is like my old mod'ed JMP Marshall head! The master and channel volumes are so great - this amp acutaly has a NON touchy volume!!! I have yet to find an amp that can be played at very low volumes and be turned up smoothly (no more of this off to ear shattering with a nudge of the master). I'm very very impressed - great tones - great boost great overdrive channel great cleans!

This is a fantastic, simple tube amp with plenty of headroom and a gain boost that delivers pick attack very reminescent of Ain't talkin' about love by Van Halen. I actually returned the Traynor 40 for this, being that the 50 has Electro-Harmonix power tubes, a master volume (crucial for house playing!) and a Celestion classic 30, all for around $30 more. I also retubed with JJ's from Eurotubes to ring the last bit of gain out of the preamp stage, and BAM, it sounds similar to a JCM 800 even at low practice volumes -- but better pick attack (and a much smaller package to tote around). One caveat: it delivers less than steller low end due to the open back, so consider getting the closed-back extension cab, or do what I do, and mic the amp and send signal to good floor monitors through a recorder or mixing board. I mic straight into a TASCAM DP-01, then to a power amp, and out to two floor monitors. Micing low to the amp picks up a good bass-rich tone and beefs it up through the monitors.

I bought this amp to have a small, lightweight tube amp that I could carry around to small gigs but that was also loud and sounded good. I also have a Traynor YCV40WR and like it a lot too. This YCV50 has more balls though in the OD channel. The master volume, regular volume, and gain knobs let you dial in almost any sound you want on the OD channel. I don't even need any pedals with this amp, the OD is THAT good IMHO. I'd compare it's tonal range to a Fender Prosonic (I used to have one of those too) but it has way more clean headroom than the Prosonic did, plus it's lighter. At the end of the day it all boils down to what you're looking for, what you play, etc. I'm older now and don't want to lug around lots of big equipment anymore. I like this amp. The clean channel lets me play real sweet clean jazz or country like the best Fender amps and the OD channel let's me get all the growl or crunch I need without pedals. The OD channel has been compared to a Marshall. I guess that's a fair comparison. I used to own a Marshall too but the Marshall was more of a one trick pony (loud OD) where this amp does that plus other things (like clean) very nicely too. The reverb is sweet sounding. I give it two thumbs up. I rated the reliability 8 because after all it IS a tube amp and they do require retubing from time to time, but mine still has the factory tubes and sounds fine. I like that it has separate controls for both channels. That way you can set your clean controls for what you like and leave them and then set your OD controls the way you like and leave them and switch back and forth without having to readjust the EQ like on a Fender Blues Deville. I bought it from MusiciansBuy too with no problemos and got a free cover. Comes with footswitch too and a pretty good warranty, just in case. I think Yorkville Traynor amps may just be one of the best kept secrets out there. I'd buy another if I lost this one.