Traynor Custom Valve 40 Review (YCV40)
Traynor Custom Valve 40 is a great choice for a tube amp for the gigging musician. It is somewhat similar to a Fender in its clean tone, but it also provides real tube overdrive at a loud 40 watts of power.
The Traynor amps are made in Canada, and they are of very good quality. The price of these amps is very low, considering it's a high quality tube amp. You can't go wrong with one of these!
Features
The Traynor 40 has 2 channels. Channel one has overdrive with boost, so in essence you get 3 channels. It has an effects loop, wich can be used as a line out. There are 2 speaker outs located underneath the amp. The amp comes with a footswich for channel and boost and a cable.
Channel one has Gain, Volume, Boost, Treble, Mid, Bass controls and Channel 2 has volume, brighness and 3 band eq. Master has presence and an accutronics reverb - very nice and lush sounding.
The cab is solid birch plywood - very tough stuff. It comes with a Celestion 12". Overall, the amp looks really good.
This amp is easily loud enough for gigging - probably too loud for practicing at home. As we all know, a real tube amp just sounds better cranked up...
Sound
The sound is big and impressive for a 12" combo. Very thick and rich tone. The clean channel is definitely Fenderish and can be very sparkly with the bright switch on. Very nice tone, and even though it reminds me of a Fender amp, it definitely has its own thing going for it.
The dirty channel is also great. Impressive slight crunch to pretty heavy overdrive. Kick in the lead boost and this amp goes into some serious punch in your face distortion. For saturated lead sounds, the boost is excellent and gives a nice increase in volume.
Summary
Bottom line - this is an unbelievable value in an all-tube amplifier. You get big, very usable tones on both channels, and there is plenty of volume for small to medium sized venues. You can practice at home with it, but you'll have need to keep the volume at 0.5 and the fat tube tone comes alive at higher volume.
I'll have to say, Traynor has done a fantastic job with this amp, especially considering it has a very attractive price point. If you like Fender amps, please give the Traynor YCV 40 amp a chance.
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