Traynor YRM-1 Update

There are three guitar stores in Portland (Maine). Buckdancer's Choice has been around for years and is owned and operated by two guys. One of the owners is a Luthier and the other is an amp tech. I enjoy this store as it is old, small, and comfortable. As well, the employees are musicians. It's a completely different experience than going into a Guitar Center store. You'll never see any young kids hanging out at Buckdancer's, just musicians.

They finished up the mods on my Traynor. He made the following changes: bypassed the tremolo circuit, reduced the gain drain from the reverb circuit, replaced tone related caps to give it the plexi tone, and added an output feedback pot. He replaced the unused ext. speaker jack on the back of the chassis with the new feedback pot. This control, when cranked, adds a lot of dynamics to the tone. I have no way to confirm as I only have one guitar, but he said the feedback control is much more responsive to humbuckers.

The tech was surprised with the results and keep going on about what an amazing amp it is. This is an old guy (my age) who seems pretty well grounded and not full of bull shit. It really is quite an amp! I'm glad I picked it up as they're getting harder to find (and more expensive). The work cost $200, so at this point I'm $600 into the head. This is a quarter of the cost of an old plexi.

Next week I should have the new 1x12 cab for the JBL. Then I can really crank on it and see how it sounds.