Is Yorkville Any Good

[Jammin'John]

Are their bass combos great ????? :?

JJ

[BB]

Originally Posted by Jammin'John

Are their bass combos great ????? :?

JJ

JJ, I have no personal experience with their bass gear, but a good friend ( out of state ) bought one and loves it. I don't know if it's his main gigging amp or if he uses it for practice, but he raves about the tone, power and bang for buck. Yorkville also makes the Traynor line of guitar amps. I picked up a YVC-40 for a friend after his Fedner Blues Deville was stolen and he has never looked back....or sounded better. A TDPRI member who I have not seen around for awhile, bought a Yorkville acoustic amp and told me it's among the best he has played.

[hedzup]

Originally Posted by Jammin'John

Are their bass combos great ????? :?



Yes

JJ

[BB]

A christian bluegrass band played at our church yesterday. The bass player had a yorkville amp that she plugged her Tacoma acoustic/electric bass into. It sounded great!

[Oster]

Yorkville bass combos are a great value. Packed with features, sturdy and pretty affordable. And, yes, they are a direct descendant of the venerable Traynor line. They sound great.

[Caper]

I just bought my son a used Bass Master 50, to go along with a Squire Special Precision Bass. He is 12 and has been playing percussion in the school band for the past 2 yrs, now he wants to try the Bass. This looks like a sturdy little amp.

[TB72]

Our bass player ended up renting a Yorkville when we toured out west a few years back. I don't know the model number. I believe it was a single 15" combo though. Whatever it was, it was built like a tank, and it sounded amazing.

Later....

[alabubba]

I just treated myself to a Yorkville BassMaster xm200 combo for my precision bass. I am quite impressed. Last Friday night it got tested at a jam with 3 loud guitar players and a drummer who is the loudest rock drummer I've ever played with, and it hung in there volume-wise on its own without being connected to the PA, although it (as well as the guitar players) was turned up much louder than I normally prefer to play.

At just under 60 pounds, it is not light, but quite manageable, and it rode well strapped into the passenger seatbelt in my pickup truck.

Features are all useful: tuner out with adjacent mute switch for silent tuning, inputs for either passive or active bass, limiter on the power amp to prevent it from distorting, a single volume knob, four tone controls and a "scoop" control, an effects loop, headphone jack, and xlr out switchable for pre or post eq. As I prefer stage volumes to be low enough that I can hear every other instrument and voice clearly, with reinforcement provided by routing to and through the PA if needed, the xlr out guarantees that the combo will work for me in any forseeable situation. (Heck, on guitar I gig with a miked-up Champ, and have for the last couple of years).

As others have said it is built ruggedly, and looks like it was designed and assembled with pride and good craftsmanship.

As a side note, the amp it replaced at the jam session was a GK 700RB head with a GK 2-15 cab, a rig that was capable of causing an earthquake with it's power and volume (it used to belong to Earth, Wind and Fire). Nobody missed the GK, got all favorable comments about the sound of the new combo, so I think that speaks well for the Yorkville.

All in all, I consider it a keeper, and money well spent.

[bluezguy]

Hey,
You guys just made my heart skip a beat :D . Is this Yorkville stuff you talk about made in Canada??
If it is, it has quite some history. When I was 'garage banding' in the '60's, you wanted a Traynor amp...all tubes and balls to the wall. It was the Canadian response to Fender and Marshall...awesome equipment then.
I just wonder if Traynor evolved into these Yorkville products you folks talk about.

[alabubba]

Yes, this is the same Canadian company that makes Traynor. They currently market their guitar amps under the Traynor brand, and bass amps under the Yorkville brand.

They still have a line of tube amps that look tasty (for both guitar and bass) but my only justification for getting one would be G.A.S. , which is of course something many of us live with but TRY to keep under control!

[4mal]

I'll preface by saying that I am not in favor of combo amps for bass. To many compromises in cabinet design. That isn't an inherent flaw in the concept. It is more a fact of execution.

As a rule of thumb, you need around 4 cu ft of ported space as a minimum in a 1x15 or 2x10 bass bin, a bit less in a 1x12 if you are going to get decent low end extension. Say 1 db down at 60 and 3 db down at 40. By the time you add room for an amplifier you have a pretty large, heavy box. Nobody would buy the thing. So to make it work sales wise, the manufacturers use a smaller box and there is your compromise.

Combo amps ? guitar Yes! Bass no.

To the Yorkville bass combo's though ...Gave one a listen, as combo amps go are OK. Solidly build. Boring as all get out. If it died you wouldnt worry as it would be easily replaceable. An amp to get attached to ? Not me ... It's like the lady said about Oakland - There is no 'there', there ... So to sum that up, a wedding band, country club, lounge band amp - sure. The description 'great' would be applied to amps of a significantly different caliber IMO ...

Set your sights up scale JJ. In bass amps there is no inexpensive magic bullet ...

Old vintage Traynor stuff, if it hasn't been modded to hell and back or otherwise thrashed is very, very interesting, has gotten incredibly hard to find and is now about the same price as similar vintage Fender. Great stuff. The only thing that today's Tranor shares with the old Traynor is the name. Completely different stuff. It is more or less like comparing todays Fender HR Deluxe to a 60 or early 70's SF Deluxe. On the one hand you have a PCB and a Master Volume with bunches of pre-amp gain on the other you have PTP wiring and the classic Fender pre ... you pays your money, you takes your choice ...

(having said that, if I were in the new guitar amp market, I'd be taking a serious look at the new Traynor 20 or 40 watt combos way before the HRD ... If I were looking for a bass combo, the best of the worst would be the GK 400 or the GK 700 2x10 combos, the SWR WM 15 would be another choice but tonally I'm more a GK guy )

[alabubba]

Granted, there is always a better rig out there, whether it is a combo or a head and cabinets. No argument there at all. But if JJ is interested in a combo, the Yorkville delivers quite a bit of thump for the buck. It's simply a matter of matching the right rig to his requirements. Personally, I am past the point of caring if my rig is either the biggest or the best, or if I am 1 db down at 60 hz etc. - if it works well and meets my requirements for mobility and weight with good reliability and a great price point, it is indeed great, if just for me. The rig is only a means to an end, not the end in itself. I get calls to play not because of my equipment, but because I can play.

[Dennis_UK]

...have an extension cab with your combo. That gives you the versatility for small gigs, or a mini-stack for larger. I DI the amp anyway, so the rig is just for me to listen to. I prefer having the extra cab; as 4mal says, the 'proper'cab sound much better at the bottom end.

[Jammin'John]

4mal said :"I'll preface by saying that I am not in favor of combo amps for bass. To many compromises in cabinet design."

Very true ! :(
"As a rule of thumb, you need around 4 cu ft of ported space as a minimum in a 1x15 or 2x10 bass bin, a bit less in a 1x12 if you are going to get decent low end extension. Say 1 db down at 60 and 3 db down at 40. "

I ended up gettin' a Doctor Bass 2x12 cab............
100db efficient, 8 ohm, 800w rms, 60 pounds !

"To the Yorkville bass combo's though ...Gave one a listen, as combo amps go are OK. Solidly built".

"Set your sights up scale JJ. In bass amps there is no inexpensive magic bullet ... "

Very true........... 8)
That's why I looked for an all tube bass amp !
I already knew how much I LOVE tube guitar amps.
A good bass head is very expensive and HEAVY !
I ended up with an Aguilar DB359 ! A used 2001 model.
It runs 5751,12ax7,12au7, & 4x6550's.
200w of all tube power .............50#'s (58#'s in rack )
Sounds & FEELS a lot larger than a SS amp of the same power .

I LOVE it..... ......it's the FEEL and the way it BARKS & SCREAMS when you wind it up.....I couldn't be happier !

JJ