Traynor Mark 3

[Mustang]

I bought my Traynor tube-type amp around 25 years ago. It looks very similar to a Fender Twin reverb and seems to have similar specs. It's always sounded great to me. I had the 'Amp Doctor' in Nashville go through it a few years back and didn't need much of anything, maybe a tube or two. I was just wondering, are the Traynor amps considered to be good equipment? It's worked fine for all these years and I suspect it will provide all the amplification I'll ever need.

Just curious.

[UnklMickey]

mustang said:

... I was just wondering, are the Traynor amps considered to be good equipment? ...

that all depends on who you talk to.

Traynor had a sort of cult following in the '70s.

other folks considered them "bargain bin".

IMHO neither group was right.

i liked them better than Gibson amps, but not quite as well as Fender or Ampeg.

also they did some stuff that was a bit different - 6CA7s (EL34 cousin) in the output compared with Fender's use of 6L6s or 6V6s.

one thing i never understood was their use of a 6BQ5 (EL84 cousin) in the reverb driver, instead of a 12AT7 (or 12AU7, or 12AX7).

they are probably one of the better values on the "vintage" market. notice i didn't say a good value. -- there is no such thing these days when it comes to "vintage"

[Mustang]

Thanks for the comments. I'll have to take another look, but I thought my amp had 12AX7 tubes in it but I could be getting confused with the what's in my old Drake TR4C ham radio. I was reading one of your posts earlier today where you were talking about 'plate currents' and it made me want to go out to the shack and tune up the old transceiver. Sad to say but today, most hams are just appliance users. Other than building antennas, we've lost the art of building and experimenting.

Thanks again.

[UnklMickey]

it DOES.

Traynor uses 12AX7s in the pre-amp and phase inverter

Fender uses 12AX7s in it's pre-amps and (usually) 12AT7s in it's phase inverters.