Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

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Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by dune736 » Thu Feb 13, 2020 12:15 pm

I have one of these sitting in my house, but don't know what to do with it. It actually sounds great for a solid state amp, but heavy as f@%&.
I know Steve Albini is a fan of these. Any info would be appreciated.

Here's a picture of one, but it's not the one I own. It is the exact model.

Image

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by lunaticjaguar » Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:17 pm

ya, every Canadian has one in there garage. Great amps.

Give it a good slap and see if you hear the spring reverb. They sound "dark" The 25 shouldn't be THAT heavy. I had a 140 2x12 and that was a MONSTER!

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by s_mcsleazy » Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:34 pm

my friend had one of these. i used to run my baritone into it.
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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by somanytoys » Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:15 pm

I have a TS 50B (head) and a TS-25B combo (bass amps), and a TS-10 guitar amp that I bought for fun. I assume that the 10 is similar to your amp, with less power and a smaller speaker. As small as the amp is, it’s pretty damn heavy.

I don’t really play the 10 that much, but when I do, I keep the preamp as low as possible (2?) and only use the volume, because the preamp’s square wave distortion doesn’t sound good to me at all.

I use a TS-9 (that I’ve had for a long time but hadn’t been using), with the gain down and the volume up, to fatten the main tone. I stack it into a modded Blues Driver, set to mediumish or so to use when I want dirt, and they go together pretty nicely in it. I also use a Keeley 30 MS for some delay, verb and modulation.

These are just pedals I’ve had that weren’t being used, I’m sure that there are other pedals that would work as well or better. It works that way pretty nicely for a small practice amp, but I’m really not a big fan of solid state guitar amps, but I’m keeping this one.

I think you can probably get some good use out of it, at least as a practice amp, but I think it definitely needs help from pedals.

Edit: I see that one has a boost switch. My bass amps have one as well, and it makes a difference in the sound. My 10 doesn’t have one of those, and I’m using the TS-9 to basically do the same thing. I would think it’s worth keeping, if you aren’t hauling it around.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by parry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:59 pm

somanytoys wrote:
Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:15 pm
I have a TS 50B (head) and a TS-25B combo (bass amps)
Same. The bass player in our band runs the 50 head in to a 2x15" Traynor cab and it sounds absolutely massive. Plenty of volume, plenty of growl - and we're a loud band. I use the combo at home and play my VI through it. Sounds great and can get the same kind of growl that the head does. It (too) is ridiculously loud and rattles the windows/doors without even trying. Steve and Bob (Weston) were my influencers.And it's funny... you plug in and there it is. "That sound".
8)
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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by somanytoys » Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:39 pm

Yeah, they're really great amps. The guy I play with has always been a Big Black/Shellac fan, and got me to buy the 50 years ago, and it’s a cool, unique sound. I bet it sounds pretty cool with a VI, I’ve only used basses with them.

I was running the 50 into a GK Backline 4x10, and it is a huge sound, I actually rarely turned it up all that much. It was actually too much for where we were practicing, and I got the 25 to replace it there. I go straight into the 25, and use dirt pedals on a Hartke combo (2500? 3500? Can’t remember). I almost always use 2 amps, on bass and guitar.

The Tronographic Rusty Box pedal is dead on the same sound, and works as a pedal or a preamp. The guy did a great job on it, even the controls work the same, at the same positions for the same sounds, as the amp.

I bought it to use as a preamp to run into a power amp, because I decided that if we played out, I didn’t want to move the old 50 (or 25) around and risk having something happen to one of them. He also makes one that’s tuned to guitar frequencies, but I forget the name of it.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by parry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:00 am

somanytoys wrote:
Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:39 pm
The Tronographic Rusty Box pedal is dead on the same sound, and works as a pedal or a preamp. The guy did a great job on it, even the controls work the same, at the same positions for the same sounds, as the amp.

I bought it to use as a preamp to run into a power amp, because I decided that if we played out, I didn’t want to move the old 50 (or 25) around and risk having something happen to one of them. He also makes one that’s tuned to guitar frequencies, but I forget the name of it.
Hahahaha, we must be living parallel Traynor amp lives :D The Tronographic is on my long list and for that same reason. Have you ever looked at the guts of the amps? It's almost comical, how empty the chassis is! All that heft and weight for a pedal-sized PCB.
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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by StevenO » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:28 am

I've always wanted one of these, mostly the combo version. I have a Rusty Box and it's awesome. I really love it as a preamp and a gain pedal. It has a really affective EQ and the gain is quite articulate.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by somanytoys » Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:44 am

Parry:
Haha - that’s really cool that you have both of the same exact amps! I’ve never looked inside, or at a schematic, but I figured that there wasn’t a whole lot to to the board because the head is actually pretty light.

The pedal is worth getting, especially if you or the bass player don’t want to risk having anything happen to the amps. The pedal is very solid, and as small as they make ss power amps now, the only big/heavy thing would be a cab to move.

StevenO:
Yes, that pedal is really great, all of the controls really make it pretty versatile, in either mode. I prefer the preamp mode, just because some preamps can “color” the sound a bit - which can also be cool - but it has such a nice sound of its own...

I’ve also used it into the receive of an effects loop on an Acoustic amp head, largely so I don’t overpower the preamp, but also to keep the pedal’s tone intact. Like you said, no real need for the additional tone controls of a preamp anyway.

I’ve since dedicated that old QSC to a Sansamp Geddy Lee preamp, and have been mostly using a VT DI into a pa, along with a beat buddy to make loops to play guitar with. I‘m going to try this pedal into the pa, too, since I have other inputs available on the pa (moar is better...)

The amps don’t seem to come around for sale that often (that I’ve seen), and at least used to be pretty well sought after, but that may have changed some over the years, especially since the pedal came out.

They may be more common and easy to find where you are, since that’s where they’re from - I don’t know. I hope you can find one.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by StevenO » Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:59 am

I bought a couple of small Japanese stereo cabs with 6.5" speakers in them and have run the Rusty Box into a little 50 watt-a-side stereo solidstate amp with them and had a really great sound.

So, it's a useful pedal for sure!

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by somanytoys » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:42 pm

That sounds like it would be pretty cool, a nice small package setup! Do you like using the high or low input switch? And do you kick on the boost? Lots of flavors in that pedal.

I hooked mine up from the bass looper to the pa tonight and let it play for a fee minutes (in pedal mode so I don’t damage the pa or its speakers). It sounded good, but I’ll need to spend a little more time, balancing the levels of that and the VT DI, and the drum machine. I need to also try playing guitar through it, I don’t think I’ve done that yet, always used it with bass.

I was also playing the little Traynor TS-10 for a few minutes, a little louder than I usually do. But to get louder, you have to turn the gain up, and it’s just not a very good sounding gain to me. Not sure if the amp might need some work or if that’s just the way it is, or how much the 40 year old little 6 or 8 inch speaker in it have to do with it. Pedals most definitely help.

It wasn’t very expensive, and it’s really more of a novelty thing anyway. I have plenty of other guitar amps, and this looks interesting stacked with the other Traynor amps. Its possible I may be able to get a better sound out of it, after I spend some more time with it. Not sure if the Rusty Box would be good going into it, I guess that’s an idea...
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by StevenO » Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:24 am

I usually use it in the high-gain mode and keep the gain anywhere from 12-5 o'clock. It's not an overly saturated pedal so depending on my pick dynamics, it can go from clean too driven. I rarely use the boost switch, but I figure I would if I needed to, like if I were in a situation where a heavier guitar sound was necessary. As a whole, I tend to use it as an always-on preamp pedal into whatever amp I'm playing through. With a fender it really helps in taming the amp's frequencies, which usually means attenuating highs and lows and adding mids. Just a great pedal. I bet if I were using other gain pedals with it, I'd have the pedal running on low-gain and as an end of signal chain EQ/boost.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by somanytoys » Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:47 pm

Damn. You’re really making me want to try this pedal with guitar now.

Which is cool, I have plenty of bass pedals, and whatever works, works...

Thanks, I appreciate that info. Always fun to try new stuff with things you already have.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by StevenO » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:43 pm

I should note.... This is me using the pedal with GUITAR. I almost never use it with bass, but mostly because I don't feel the need to/don't play bass enough. It's my main gain pedal for guitar, though I sometimes use a Fairfield Barbershop OD and Accountant Compressor, though I don't need either if I'm using the Rusty Box.

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Re: Anybody into Traynor TS-25s?

Post by lunaticjaguar » Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:08 pm

i just plugged into my TS25 for the first time in a while, the reverb is so nice and springy, i was getting some real sweet barre chords out of it at low volume. I felt like Sterling Morrison for about 5 minutes.

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