Last night my band played a show with the fabulous and very athletic band, The Blind Shake from Minneapolis. I decided to play my Electrical Guitar Company guitar through a Traynor YBA-3 that I'd purchased a while back from the only other known EA board member in Nebraska.

Due to general busyness and lack of access to our practice space recently, I'd only played through it for about one hour since buying it. I liked the way it sounded at practice so I decided to use it at the show.

It was SOOOOOO LOUD! My left ear is screaming at me as I type this. I can't make out exactly what it is that my ear is screaming at me, but I think it's just "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH STUPID FUCKER AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Anyway, I knew the whole time that I was going deaf and that all I had to do was walk over to the amp and turn the fucker down. But it sounded SO AMAZINGLY GOOD I just let 'er rip.

And now I'm deaf.

The End.

Oddly enough, last night at practice i played my TB-2000 through a traynor YBA-200 through an 8 X 10 at full volume because my guitarist refused to turn his guitar down. My left ear drum physically hurts. The screaming in my left ear stopped with a final cry, then whimper, and finally with muffled moan it ceased. My ear has remnants of a greusome sword fight with the 6 handed, multiweilding swordsman from the land of Bean.

Either Traynors should be illegal or there should be some sort of safety training course.

Another option would be for us to turn the fuck down.

Wheely wrote:Either Traynors should be illegal or there should be some sort of safety training course.

Another option would be for us to turn the fuck down.

Don't forget about some of the other options...

1) Pull out two of the four output tubes (middle two or outer two)
2) Use less efficient speakers, so the amp still works hard but the sound level output is lower
3) Wear more heavy-duty earplugs

The most dangerous thing about the YBA-3 is exactly what you've said here... it's so loud, but it sounds SO GOOD. If it sounded terrible, you'd be in a big hurry to turn it down. But it's so fricken pleasant, in whatever way.

And then you know there's always option 4 which is to use a YBA-1A instead. They're pretty closely related, the YBA-3 and YBA-1A. Pulling two tubes on a YBA-3 is maybe gonna get you a better sound/range of sounds.

Also, what output tubes are you running? 5881's will get you a quieter breakup than 6L6GC's will. And of course 6550's are gonna be super loud. I'm guessing you're running EL34's, as that's the most common output tube for that amp.

Don't go deaf, okay?

I SAID, DON'T GO DEAF, OKAY?!?

WHAT?

Yes, I think pulling out 2 tubes might be in order. I never play venues where anything of the magnitude of a full-on YBA-3 is necessary.

I think the tubes are the 6L6's, but will double check. I don't even know what speakers are in the Marshall cabinet I've had for 11 years. I should know this stuff.

Wheely wrote:I don't even know what speakers are in the Marshall cabinet I've had for 11 years.

Unless something has gone horribly amiss, they are some flavor of Celestion.

Though its a valid suggestion, I would not change them to a less-efficient speaker for the sake of lower-volume breakup. Rather, I would get one of these first.

endofanera wrote:Though its a valid suggestion, I would not change them to a less-efficient speaker for the sake of lower-volume breakup. Rather, I would get one of these first.

My old roommate got a YBA-1 and got the Weber MASS for it. Definitely makes it more useable.

Well if it's a Marshall cab, there's a good chance the speakers are G12T-75's, which are very inefficient speakers. So that's good. Those are the ones I bought to play my YBA-1A through, cause they're so inefficient.

So hey, you *were* wearing earplugs, right?

Also, if the tubes in there are 6L6-GC's (as opposed to 6L6-GB's, which are aka 5881's) then you could switch to EL34's for a little bit less output volume, and also a kinda different sound. So you might not wanna do that.

The bassist in one of my bands plays a YBA-3, and with EL34's he was so unhappy with it, and with 6L6-GC's, he loves it. The 5W per tube and beam forming plate versus suppressor style design make a pretty damn big difference. We all could tell the difference, clear as day.

If you pull two tubes, I would recommend checking the bias of the remaining two.

Kyle Motor wrote:

endofanera wrote:Though its a valid suggestion, I would not change them to a less-efficient speaker for the sake of lower-volume breakup. Rather, I would get one of these first.

My old roommate got a YBA-1 and got the Weber MASS for it. Definitely makes it more useable.

And the YBA-1 isn't even in the same ballpark as the YBA-3. The YBA-1 is rated at ~45W, versus the YBA-3's ~130W. Also, these ratings are the measured output power *before clipping*.

Yeah, the YBA-3 is loud enough that it can actually be used as a bass amp, as it was designed, and it doesn't feel underpowered even in a big room.

i now want a yba-3.