Traynor Bassmaster YBA-1, what can I plug this into? ohms?

[cstocker77]

I just picked up a Traynor Bassmaster YBA-1. I have a Marshall cabinet 4x12 from an older amp, I am wondering if I can plug the Traynor in to this cab. My concern is ohms. The amp says 8 ohms. The cabinet has a option for being stereo or mono. In stereo mode, each side wants 8 ohms. So I've been doing that, which seems safe, right? 8ohms to 8ohms. The thing with Stereo mode is that the head now is only playing through 2 of the 4 speakers.

In mono mode there are options to plug the head into a 4ohm, or 16ohm jack. I know this question gets asked a lot, but I can't put my finger on it, can I plug into the 4 ohm jack, if the amp head says it wants 8 ohms? Or the 16ohm? There is no option for mono 8ohm, as that would be the one I would use...

Any thoughts?

[Corey Y]

Plug it into whatever side has more resistance than the amp, which would be 16 ohm in this case. If you've got a mismatch in impedance you want the lower impedance on the amp side.

[Sean Sullivan]

Not helpful (but it looks like your question has been answered) but I really enjoy your band, the High Strung. I have your last 3 records.

[cstocker77]

1. fucking sweet that you've heard my band!
2. so it won't hurt the amp to plug into a 16 ohm cab, but it will hurt the quality of the sound i.e. tone, and or volume?

[Corey Y]

It's not ideal, because the power amp isn't working at the resistance it was designed for, but it won't kill your tone and shouldn't harm the amp, but the if you're running it at full volume frequently it could be a bit more dicey. It would be much worse to go with less impedance on the cab side, as that could lead to smoke and fire. If you like the amp enough save up for another cab that's matched (or see if you can rewire the cab to an 8 ohm load), but it should be fine to run it into the 16 ohm input of the cab for now. You'll get a little less output, but you shouldn't hear a huge difference.

Still, I feel like I should do the disclaimer thing and say of course it's best to match impedance.

[Professor T]

I have one of those amps - they rock. They're pretty damn beefy in the transformer department. I think they'd be fine with a 50% mismatch either way (4 or 16 ohm cabs).

[pulse_divider]

+1 on those being cool amps

[Dubious]

just picked up this '68 for $50

she's on the bench now.. EXTENSIVE wiring goin on. The lil dood in the background is taking up a GREAT deal of my time lately : )

[ofajen]

It's not ideal, because the power amp isn't working at the resistance it was designed for, but it won't kill your tone and shouldn't harm the amp, but the if you're running it at full volume frequently it could be a bit more dicey. It would be much worse to go with less impedance on the cab side, as that could lead to smoke and fire.

Can you explain this in more detail? I have the exact same amp, BTW, a YBA-1 and it is great for both bass and guitar. I also have a YSR-1, which is essentially the same amp plus reverb and tremolo. Anyway, when I discussed this last week with the local amp tech he said the opposite, i.e., that 8 ohms is best and that it would be better to run at lower impedance (4 ohms would be tolerable, but expecting a loss in power) but not to run at a higher impedance, such as 16 ohms, as that would be more detrimental to the amp.

Cheers,

Otto

[ofajen]

BTW, has the power cord been rewired to modern standards?

Both of my old Traynor amps were wired according to original spec, which was actually rather a hazard: two-prong cord (no ground reference) and the phase (hot) wire connected to the outer portion of the fuse holder and with a "ground" switch.

I completely rewired both amps with proper 3-prong cables, solid ground connection to the chassis at one of the power transformer bolts, phase lead first to inner contact on fuse holder, then to power switch and on to accessory connector and power transformers. "Ground" switches are now in my parts bin.

It's probably worth opening it up to check how it's wired inside, unless you already know that that has been redone properly.

Cheers,

Otto

[calaverasgrandes]

BZZZZZZZ!
Those amps do NOT like 4 ohms. Stick to 8 ohms or above. Traynor used to sell 16 ohm cabs to go with those so it should be fine on a 16 ohmer marshall.
They are very rocking amps. Love tehm on bass (well the YBA1a really) and on guitar with the right pedal they are god.
It will benefit from a good tech. A recap is in order most likely and as mentioned above, GROUNDED power cable. They can shock the eff out of you!
God I want one of those again.
Or a stack of 2 running my 2 remaining 8 ohm cabs.

[0xeneye]

That amp is worth the time and effort to find a proper cabinet for it. Please, don't do 4 or 16. Get your two 16 ohm speakers wired in parallel (Google it, it's very easy) to make a 8 ohm load, and have fun.

[Darlington Pair]

Ok,

The YBA and YSR and not the same amp plus reverb and trem, they have the same power amp but the front end and tone stacks are completely different.

Pete Traynor designed these amps to be rented and not blow up because he was tired of fixing the rental amps where he worked, they have huge Hammond output iron that is very forgiving. It is the general consensus at the Traynor group that a Traynor will take a 2 to 1 mismatch in either direction without breaking a sweat. Of course you are best using an 8 ohm cab or two 16 ohm cabs (the outputs are wired in parallel)

I have been running a YSR-1 for 20 years in to a 4ohm load and running it hard, I have a second YSR that I've been running into a 16 ohm YTL-15 for the last ten again with no problems, my bassist has been using a YBA-1 in to a 16 ohm YTL-15 that he bought from the original owner and it's a 72 and always paired with that cab.

Check out the Traynor yahoo group, those guys will fill you in.

[Dubious]

the trannies on the 68 i posted above are absolutely MASSIVE, but i've heard that the later versions skimped out on the trannies. If you've got a good old one 4 ohms should be fine.

Now you should def pop the hood and take a look inside. These amps ran HOT and most of them seem to have really wavey / warped boards as a result. The one in mine was so warped it looked like ripple chips... components all jammed up against each other, parts touching things they shouldn't be... pretty much trashed.

Im completely rewiring mine with a whole new board, all new pots (half of them had been switched), all new caps, all new tube sockets etc etc... GOin with a marshall plexi bass 50 circuit and crossign my fingers the iron is still good.

[ofajen]

Ok,

The YBA and YSR and not the same amp plus reverb and trem, they have the same power amp but the front end and tone stacks are completely different.

Pete Traynor designed these amps to be rented and not blow up because he was tired of fixing the rental amps where he worked, they have huge Hammond output iron that is very forgiving. It is the general consensus at the Traynor group that a Traynor will take a 2 to 1 mismatch in either direction without breaking a sweat. Of course you are best using an 8 ohm cab or two 16 ohm cabs (the outputs are wired in parallel)

Yeah, sure, I have the schematics and one of each, so I know the differences on the front end... but for this purpose they are about the same since the power amp is the same. I've used mine for years with 4 and 8 ohm cabs and no problems either way.

Cheers,

Otto