Traynor mods

[Valvehead]

Im tinkering with an old Yba-1 .. changing the preamp to something more high gain. Will be 4 stages with a plate driven tone stack .

What is the general consensus on mounting parts right to / above a preamp socket ? Will this cause noise / oscillation issues?

Ran out of real estate and wondering about mounting 2 plate resistors and a coupling cap on one of the 12ax7's (v2)

[The Dude]

I see no problem with that. Many of the older amps were built that way with no turret/eyelet/printed circuit board at all. It worked for those amps.

[Enzo]

Well that is how things were made for decades.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, I went town the street to a TV repair shop. And out behind it were dead TVs they were throwing out. I would take the chassis out of one and haul it home to tear apart for parts. That is what "point to point" means.

In fact spreading parts all over the places causes more problems than concise tight wiring.

In fact, I used to service juke box amps and some had 9 or 7 pin sockets with the ring of solder terminals, and then a rod sticking down from the center about an inch and a half with another ring of solder terminals. SO you could solder parts to the socket pins and have these other terminals nearby to connect the other ends.

[Valvehead]

ok thanks !!

[The Dude]

When I was a kid, I used to go to the landfill and get old electronics for salvaging. This was in the day when dump grounds were unattended and they didn't care what you dumped. Nothing was recycled. My first stereo system was built entirely out of scrap that I brought home from the dump. The old point to point stuff was easy pickin's because you didn't need a solder iron to rob parts- just a side cutters. Most leads were left long to get from socket to socket or terminal strip.

[g1]

This was in the day when dump grounds were unattended and they didn't care what you dumped.

As kids we used to take our minibikes to the dump to check for stuff we could drag home.
I clearly remember getting on a bulldozer one day and being shocked that the engine turned over when I pushed the starter button. Now, having run diesel tractors, I realize if I had only known how to turn on the fuel I could have taken it for a spin.

[The Dude]

Another thing we used to do is shoot out the CRT's on old TV's. Probably not advised, but fun nonetheless.

[Valvehead]

How about the input resistor? In jack goes to v1 with shielded cable...and 68k right on the socket , pin 7 .

[catalin gramada]

Some sugestions: decouple the new stage with its own power supply filter cap and ground it directly at the inputs sockets point to chassis ( only this stage-meant input jack ground, own grid leaks resistor, cathodes resistor and local filter cap). Try to put a local shield screen over the input jacks and usually 1M grid leaks tied here. Usually you must have care here by anything meant EM interferences including heaters wiring. The rest of circuit is far less sensitive. The noise should be drain directly at the chassis input ground point and not giving chance to run into grounding path and eventually rised into signal path. 1M grid resistor is also s part of external circuit you want to ground it at echipotential point at very entrance to amp chassis. Grid stop resistor will not do a difference, specially shielded wire used.

[The Dude]

Most literature will tell you it's best to have the resistor at the socket. Convention is to have it on the jack. I don't think it makes much difference either way. I think the jack lug is probably a more solid/stable place for it compared to a socket pin, but that's some hair splitting.

[Enzo]

If you want it to be an actual grid stopper, it ought to be on the socket. Fender put them on the jack because they had two and were using the jacks to switch them . I agree it likely matters little.

[gui_tarzan]

When I was a kid, I used to go to the landfill and get old electronics for salvaging. This was in the day when dump grounds were unattended and they didn't care what you dumped. Nothing was recycled. My first stereo system was built entirely out of scrap that I brought home from the dump. The old point to point stuff was easy pickin's because you didn't need a solder iron to rob parts- just a side cutters. Most leads were left long to get from socket to socket or terminal strip.

I have a nice (but inexpensive) bass drum and pair of toms from when the dump was still open when I was a teenager. There was a lot of good stuff there at the time.

[Chuck H]

When I was a kid, I used to go to the landfill and get old electronics for salvaging. This was in the day when dump grounds were unattended and they didn't care what you dumped. Nothing was recycled. My first stereo system was built entirely out of scrap that I brought home from the dump. The old point to point stuff was easy pickin's because you didn't need a solder iron to rob parts- just a side cutters. Most leads were left long to get from socket to socket or terminal strip.

It's not unlike that here now. You can't dump solvent based paint or household chemicals, but otherwise it's a free for all. There are some rules for appliances, mattresses, etc. but they seem to be treated more like suggestions by the locals.

I think you know about one of my finds from a few years ago. A Telefunken Opus 7 table radio in good condition. When I took the panel off the back I found the original receipt, AC cord and SWAG from the out of business store that sold it in Hollywood, Ca. Considering it's age and obvious decades of disuse I never fired it up. I just cleaned it up some and gave it to my daughter. She makes extra cash sometimes selling discarded or cheaply acquired, but still useful stuff through apps and the internet. I had some criteria for this unit. First, I put a note on it that indicated it's age, that it was untested and could be seriously damaged if powered on before being inspected by a qualified technician. And I wanted her to see to it the buyer understood this and had some intention to observe it. In other words, I wanted to be sure it found a good home with someone who knew something about what they were buying. She got $250 for it. I just wasn't interested in trying to restore it and had to get rid of some things in my last move due to space constraints. Otherwise it would probably still be in a closet waiting for me to make up my mind. Which didn't seem right.

[Chuck H]

Along similar lines, and back on the subject of Traynor amps...

I can remember a time twenty two years ago before Traynor amps caught on as a respectable alternative to the two big name amps. Since Whidbey is near the Canadian border and these amps didn't sport the logo of the better known brands I could find them in pawn shops for fifty to a hundred bucks. I use to own a Bassmaster that I bought here and took home to California. My mod for that amp was to gut it and rebuild it to a Marshall schematic. I never liked it as well after that. The stock amp had a fat, focused overdrive sound that livened up well with a boost pedal up front.