I think I will give a YCV40 a Try

[martyb1]

I went into my local music store today to kill some time while my wife was in the furniture store
As I walked in I seen the salesman I usually deal with talking to another younger salesman and he looked a bit upset.After he was finished he come over and we started talking and I mentioned he looked a bit pissed
Well it seems the other salesman somehow was setting up a display and somehow knocked a stand onto a YCV40.It put a big ding on the side and ripped some of the covering.I joked that I bet it was on sale and he said he would give me a real deal on it.After he got his calculator out and did some figuring,he give me a price I can hardly turn down.I told him I would let him know monday morning after I did some research.
I did a search here and see that there are lots of good reviews but seems the speaker may be a bit weak in them.
Anything new anyone can add?
I am looking for another smallish amp for small gigs and at home
Should I go for it?

[wetland10]

I owned one for several years. I recently sold mine because I was no longer using it much. I had a custom amp built. However, the YCV40, in my opinion, is an amazing amp. When I bought it I was comparing it to a few Fenders in the similar price range. Actually, the YCV40 was a little cheaper at the time. I thought it sounded much better than the Fenders. The cleans remind me of VINTAGE Fender, and the overdrive channel is actually usable. ALthough I always used a pedal for overdeive. The amp is really clean and crisp. I had the stock speaker, I swapped the junk tubes it came with for a set of JJ's, that made a HUGE difference in the tone. Some people don't like the speaker, it didn't bother me.

Wayne

[fuzzferatu]

I miss mine.

[sax4blues]

I got the YCV40WR about 2 years ago for $490 brand new mail order from a shop. The description I often heard was Fender clean meets Marshall crunch.

I mainly use the clean channel and it breaks up nicely for blues.

The lead channel isn't really Marshall but I do like it. The only problem for me is it needs to be cranked pretty good to get a tone I like so most of the time I use a modded Boss SD1 for my overdrive.

The WR model has the Celestion V30 speaker and it sounds great.

I find the clean channel very useable at lower volume.

[Chicago Slim]

I owned a YCV40WR, for a while. I think it is one of the better amps out there. The model I had, came with the Celetion Vintage 30. Although it's a good speaker, I think that you could find a speaker that sounds better, and weighs less.

I sold it because I had too many good amps, at the time. It seemed a little heavey, for the volume. That can be improved with a speaker change. Overall, it's a good amp, and I would buy anotherone, if the price was right.

[TG]

I tried 2 in shops and both had an awful lot of background hum from the transformer. As I often would play clean at low volume that's an issue with me.

[Telenator]

The one I had did hum pretty bad if the wall current wasn't clean. The amp was a bit more sensitive to that than other amps I've owned. I bought one really cheap just to flip it on ebay. It was a very nice amp.

[tonfarbe]

Originally Posted by TG

I tried 2 in shops and both had an awful lot of background hum from the transformer. As I often would play clean at low volume that's an issue with me.

What? - those must have been defective.

My tech here in Berlin does the exclusive repair service for former Yorkville Germany (now represented by Beyerdynamik), so every defective Traynor amp
that comes to Europe lands in his repair shop.
He's not a guitar player and has more of a PA, mixing consoles, synthesizer etc. background.
When he got the exclusive repair deal 3 years ago, he gave me some of his first repaired jobs for testing and to evaluate, that everything sound correct from a guitar player's point of view.
All of the Traynor amps he gave me after his repair job was done were dead quiet!

The YCV20WR with the Celestion Greenback was my favorite of the bunch.
As others have mentioned, the built in Accutronics reverb is way too oversized.

[candh]

I have a ycv40wr. Changed out the V30 for an Emi RWandB (anything is better than a V30 in this amp), winged C 6L6's and NOS in V1,V2. Also, the metal grill is a tone sucker...I didn't believe it until I tried taking it off.
It's a good, solid amp.

[ol man]

IMO the Traynor YVC40 is one of very few massproduced amps with two
usable channels. The clean is Fender black face-ish but with more omph.
The lead channel sounds like Vox/Marshall. Any tech I've run into think this amp
is much better built than any new Fender. Very underrated.
The celestion 70/80 speaker does an ok jobb, but
I changed mine for a Emi Cannabis Rex. Loved the improvement.

[voided3]

I have a friend who has one. I didn't get to try it, but his Strat sure sounded nice through it. I own an old Traynor 2x15 Bassmaster cab, but that's as close as I have gotten to owning/using one first hand.

[old_picker]

had a ycv40 and it was a solid very loud amp
i didnt fool with it by replacing speakers valves etc
it just didnt go out often so i sold it
didnt like the clean - it was kind of plasticy - the drive chaneel on boost was hot - damn heavy as well

[FatTeleTom]

I have a YCV40WR and use it regularly both at home and for gigs. To my ears, it offers a great sounding clean channel, and a very useable drive channel.

I mostly use pedals for overdrive these days, as I need multiple flavors for cover songs (the Traynor takes pedals really nicely). Also, pedals work better for me for low-volume overdrive sounds, as you need to have the amp cooking a fair bit for the gain channel to sound its best.

But, for a very toneful two channel amp in a handy grab and go format, it's hard to beat.