Since producing the first portable PA speaker columns back in 1963, Traynor has made major strides in the world of amplification. Traynor amps are prized by their fans for their heady, punchy cleans and ample volume. It has also been a company keen on helping bassists in their quest for tone, having designed and manufactured one of the world’s first 8x10 bass cabinets decades ago. The new YBA300 bass amplifier— which packs 300 watts of all-tube power—continues to drive Traynor’s reputation for big tone and high headroom, with plenty of tone to spare.
Welcome to the Thunderdome
Bassists who swoon at the sight and sound
of late-’60s to early-’70s vintage Ampeg
SVT rigs should feel right at home with
Traynor’s pummeling powerhouse. The
amp was designed with those massive,
rumbling tones in mind and coupled with
considerations for modern reliability.
The YBA300’s circuit is entirely tube based, which is sadly a rarity in the world of modern bass amps. Three 12AX7s process the preamp signal, along with a 12AU7 acting as a driver between the preamp and power amp. Speaking of the power amp, the YBA300’s absolutely ridiculous amount of volume is fueled by 12 power-amp tubes, which can easily be switched between 6L6’s and EL34’s via a panel on the back of the amp. With a maximum wattage of 300 watts, the YBA300 is sure to satisfy any bassist’s cravings for more power, punch, and expansive volume. Each pair of power-amp tubes has its own dedicated bias adjustment control, along with LED indicators to indicate if the bias is too high or too low. If the dreadful case occurs where one, or an entire pair goes bad during a gig, the circuit is designed to knock out the offending tubes safely, keeping the amp running steadily for the time it takes to finish the set and get them replaced.
The majority of the amp’s tone is shaped from four EQ controls, as well as separate Gain and Master volume knobs to adjust the volume and overall sharpness and softness of the sound. A standard grouping of Bass, Mid, and Treble controls are laid out in a familiar fashion, along with Mid Frequency knobs for sweeping through the 200 Hz-3.0 kHz mid-range frequencies. Directly to the left of the controls are three tone-shaping, push buttons— Deep, Bright, and Resonance— which add varying degrees of extra subs, brighter cut, and even more low-end muscle to the already walloping tone. Separate jacks for basses with active or passive pickups are onboard as well.
Bringing a separate DI box—or even worse, hoping that the sound guy at the gig knows his stuff and has an extra one on hand—isn’t a concern with the YBA300, since it has its own built-in XLR DI/Line Out jack on the back panel. The DI can also be can be switched to either pre or post configurations. Rounding out the features is a serial effects loop, just in case you want to throw in your favorite parametric EQ or other effects.
She’s Got Balls
As I mentioned previously, the YBA300
yearns to please those who desire deep, rich
bass with an immense amount of volume
and heft behind it. This amp was made to
fill large venues and make sure the crowd in
back at an outdoor gig can hear you loud
and clear.
To help the YBA300 accomplish its mission, Traynor designed the TC810. A mammoth 8x10 cabinet made with solid, birch plywood slabs and covered in thick Nubex material, the TC810 boasts a metal grille and handles, skid rails, and built-in wheels to tilt the cab back for easy transport. Moving the 1600-watt cabinet—which can also be split into separate 800-watt, 4x10 configurations—was a real back breaker due to the density of the birch ply construction. Birch plywood is considerably heavier than the commonly-used particleboard or medium- density fiberboard, but Traynor claims this helps the tone project with stronger authority and body. I was in complete agreement after plugging in a 2011 Gibson Les Paul Jr. DC bass and laying down some stoic, rock grooves.
The tone of the YBA300 was staggeringly huge. As I worked with some Clutch-inspired, bluesy, hard rock lines, I didn’t have a need to move the Bass control higher than 1 o’clock. The tone breathed naturally as I alternated varying degrees of finger picking attack, heaving in and out like a strong wave of water hitting my chest with every note, I plucked on the Gibson’s short-scale neck. All the EQ controls had a good amount of range, but the Mid Frequency control seemed to make a noticeable difference only when I moved into the 2.0 kHz range.
One of the best things about an alltube preamp is that the Gain control can be used for tailoring the feel and response of the tone, rather than just piling on distortion. The YBA300 exemplified this well as I moved the Gain control to the upper registers of 2 o’clock and beyond, which softened the highs, thickened the mid-range, and pushed the low end to even deeper territory. There wasn’t a lot of onboard overdrive available from the amp—just enough to add a slight amount of grit to the top end—but the YBA300 doesn’t appear to be designed for the heavy overdrive crowd. Instead, Traynor gives a nod to the old-school style of using the preamp Gain knob for altering the overarching response and feel of the tone—a refreshing approach in these days of modern, saturation-soaked amplification.
Even with all the glee I was experiencing while exploring the amp’s tonal offerings, the real fun began when I started kicking in the Deep, Bright, and Resonance switches. The Deep switch added extra subs and a slight amount of extra cut on the treble, making it perfect for modern, hard-rock bass tones that demand a solid foundation underneath heavy guitar-riffing. While the Bright switch performed its designated job well—simply boosting the treble a tiny amount—the real kicker came from engaging the Resonance control. This effectively removed a large portion of dampening on the low frequencies and allowed the bass to bloom and vibrate in exhilarating ways. Even with the Master Volume at 10 o’clock, this was not for the faint of heart. Two pieces of glassware, located two rooms away, vibrated off a shelf and shattered with the Resonance control engaged. The tonal experience was not just hearing with my ears and feeling with my hands, but vibrations through my entire body—all without any excessive abrasiveness in the highs or low mid-range.
The Verdict
Traynor’s YBA300 head is a must-play for
any bassist who’s serious about big volume
and tone. It’s a rock bassist’s dream, if that
dream involves massive, all-encompassing
tones that sustain and bloom naturally
with a good playing style. It’s certainly
capable for a myriad of other musical
styles with its highly responsive EQ section,
but just like any other good tube
amp, it sounds best when pushed. That
said, it’s also the YBA300’s only real downfall.
The amount of volume thrown out
when it’s really cooking could be too much
for a number of players—and a good way
to piss off the sound guy if you’re not careful
with the controls! But if you yearn for
more power and a desire for your tone to
punch you right in the lunch, there aren’t
many other choices that I can recommend
highly enough.
Watch the video review:
Buy if...
big, boisterous bass with incredible definition and expansiveness are what’s needed to take your music to the next level.
Skip if...
you need to lay back in the mix with a less-aggressive presence.
Rating...
Street $1388 - Traynor - traynoramps.com |
TC810
Buy if...
you need pant-leg-flapping power to push your bass tone with commanding authority, along with copious amounts of clarity.
Skip if...
your back can’t handle hauling a bulky, 157 pound cab back and forth to gigs.
Rating...
Street $1079 - Traynor - traynoramps.com |
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Once the news of the Oasis reunion got out, Sadler Vaden hit YouTube hard on the tour bus, driving his bandmates crazy. The Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit guitarist has been a Noel Gallagher mega-fan since he was a teenager, so he joined us to wax poetic about Oasis’ hooks, Noel’s guitar sound, and the band’s symphonic melodies. What are Sadler’s favorite Oasis jams? And if he ever shares a bill with Oasis and they ask him onstage, what song does he want to join in on?
