Need amp advice

[TomC]

Hi all,

I currently have a Traynor YCV 40. I know it's a good amp, but we just haven't bonded. So I am thinking about selling it to get a new amp.

And I need some advice.

I play primarily rock/blues/country. If I need heavy distortion I would use a pedal rather than amplifier distortion.

I love Fenderry reverb. And I am still thinking tubes would be the better way to go.

The most common amps that are mentioned to me are the Blues Jr. or the Peavey Classic 30. Neither of these really does it for me.

So, what else is out there that is worth investigating?

Any and all help would be sorely appreciated.

Tom C

PS While I am not quite ready to put the Traynor on the auction block, if you are interested in it, let me know.

To answer some of the questions below:

I am on a budget, with $700 being absolute tops. (That's right, I have champagne taste with a near-beer budget.)

I used to have a Blues Jr and a Rivera Jake Studio Combo. The clean channel on the Jake was awesome - and is the amp that I most bonded with. I never was able to get the sound out of the drive channel that I wanted, however. This leads me to think that a quality single channel amp may just be the ticket for me.

The Blues Jr. was actually pretty nice, as long as you didn't compare it with the Rivera, and could tolerate the hum in the reverb circuit.

[iownit4]

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[straightblues]

Buy an old Fender. How much do you want to spend? You can buy several different models for less than a $1,000.

If you want a newere amp and don't want to spend a lot, the Peavey Classic 30, Peavey Delta Blues, Fender Blues Deluxe, Fender hotrod deluxe, Fender Pro Jr., Fender Blues Jr., Ampeg Jet II, Crate Vintage Club series, Reverand Kingsnake, Reverend Hellhound, are all nice amps if you put quality speakers in them and NOS tubes.

[Guest galejt]

Tech 21 TM-60. Toss your pedals.

[Brooks]

i heard good things about the ycv40's; if its not doing it for you, & you don't like peavey 30/fender jr's, but you like fender-ish tones, you might need to upgrade to something booteek.

i have a carr rambler, 28w pentode/14w triod, PTP wired, 2x6L6, verb & tremelo, 1x12", basically a handmade upgraded fender deluxe, *killer* tone but pricey (got mine used ~$1450). that last 10% of tone will cost you double the asking price, ha.

[tomteriffic]

Tom, I'm sort of in your camp, too. My suggestion would be a Classic 30 or Delta Blues, as modified by our own Teefus to open it up and let the thing breathe. Add a set of good tubes and (maybe) a different speaker and you wuldn't believe how dynamic the amp becomes, not to mention the great reverb that's already there. Those two are my go-to amps these days.

The amp's inexpensive, so are the mods, and you get a near boo-teek experience for the price.

Failing that, look into some of the Rivera stuff. A bit more spendy but it may get you where you're headed.

[bobbymack]

Assuming you want to stay in the same general ballpark pricewise I'd recommend a Reverend Hellhound or a Deluxe Reverb reissue with a better speaker...

[DavidE]

Riveras tend to be quite a bargain on the used market.

[tgoss]

The big question...how much do you want to spend?

[Jimbilly]

If you like pedals for distortion, then maybe you don't need a channel switching amp? And if you like fender reverb and clean tones, get a 70's bandmaster rev head (or similar, or a Rivera era Fender), those can still be found for good prices.

[mattb]

I have a Rivera Pubster that is just awesome. I also am singing the praises of my MESA Mark III Simul.

[JohnnyB]

What amps HAVE you bonded with?

That's the place to start.

Since the YCV-40 seems to be spot-on for your stated needs, and IMO is a better amp than the Hellhound and Peavey Classic 30 (unmodified, anyway), maybe a different speaker in there would work better -- like something Jensen-y and/or alnico-y -- like a Weber or something from the Eminences Patriot Series. The std. Traynor speaker is a Celestion or something like it. Maybe the Screaming Eagle from the Eminence Patriot series would be a good match.

I wonder if the Traynor I tried (which I liked a lot) had a UK Celestion? Maybe something's a little different with the Chinese ones, if that's what's in your YCV-40.