Metropoulos Forum

Hello everyone . I hope all are doing well. I had a a Traynor YGM guitar mate that had a blown OT. So , I called and was told a tech would return my call. A man from Canada called and was in no hurry to hang up.Anyway he claimed to be around ,"from the beginning. " I inquired about a replacement ,we got to talking ,and he seemed to remark that those Hammond transformers are so large because of substandard steel laminates and heavily insulated winding's therefor creating overly large and inefficient transformers. This came about because I remarked about how large the trannys in my YBA-3 's are, Their size was to compensate for cheap ingreadients. Anybody have some input ? I always loved the info from the old timers that passed to the next generation's tradesman. Take care everyone, Charles.

I have a few plexi builds with Hammond transformers, have not had any issues with them.

I've never had any issues with Hammond either.

Drake's and Dagnall's are what I would definitely call sub-standard transformers, including the vintage ones (although the modern ones are ridiculous), but they are a part of what makes those Marshalls GREAT. Okay, so part of this is down to the spec-ing (often under spec-ing) by Marshall, but they were certainly made on the cheap.

We're not building hi-fi with the last word in detail and efficiency here, we're building crappy guitar amps designed to do things an amplifier shouldn't do, that just happen to please our ears BECAUSE of what they do wrong. Hammond transformers are no-less suitable for the job than any of the others.

I've used Hammond plenty of times and think their stuff is very well built and priced very competitively.

This amp has Hammond transformers and I reckon it sounds pretty decent... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2noCzehE_sA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks everyone for the input. I just referred to how much larger my vintage Traynor amps trannys were and that tech , who claims to have been around since the start of Traynor claimed they were not so good. My Traynors sound great to my ears but it seemed worth mentioning and if anywhere someone may know something this is the place.

It's a convoluted issue, back in the day versus now. Nobody would ever accuse Hammond of substandard practices now and then in fact their reputation holds up! Even then. They are not so good compared to what they themselves can produce NOW, that's what the tech is saying. But they were pretty admirable to what alot were producing from back then. It's a sliding scale. They were made that way because they did what they had to do and what they had to work with in order to make them as robust as they could, which meant using lossier stuff, but, More of it to compensate. Just think of all your vintage mi gear that didn't even put that much thought into it.

Now of course they can engineer a great, and smaller tx using more efficient stuff, so of course their old stuff in their eyes is crap, but it was some of th best you could get back then!

Hey clown, I received a pt for a BB and a ot for a jmp50 from Marstran and at quick look, it looks like someone spray painted the caps and the part number on the pt is missing they look cheesy. I don't like when part number are missing, I feel they sent me something else just for a sale, you know what I mean. We will see if they hold up when I;m done building this amp.

axeman wrote:Hey clown, I received a pt for a BB and a ot for a jmp50 from Marstran and at quick look, it looks like someone spray painted the caps and the part number on the pt is missing they look cheesy. I don't like when part number are missing, I feel they sent me something else just for a sale, you know what I mean. We will see if they hold up when I;m done building this amp.

Really? who did you order the Hammond from, Strange, I just opened one of their chokes that has been sitting on my my shelf for years, And it looks pretty polished to me, not that the aesthitics has anything to do with it. But that sounds funny. Do ypu have a picture? Here is this one:

Oh wait a sec, maybe I misread what your saying Art... Sorry man!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8MbdHcIesg[/youtube]

I can vouch for the old hammonds and know they respond well if you know how to dial in a good plexi or cascaded circuit. They even work with a jubilee circuit! And this is all from first hand experience not internet speculation.

I love that clip. I do have a hacked up 70's yba-1 that could be a platform for mods. I could never do anything to my other bassmaster as it is untouched. Never got gain like that clip, but bolth do sound cool. I dont think I even own any pedals. Never sound right to me. Dont have many mv amps either. My first amp was a mesa boogie .50caliber+. It does not sound very good to me anymore either. Basically used for reasonable volume practice when I cant play loud. Has pretty good cleans though. What mods did that amp in clip have? How about some suggestions for a yba-3 custom special? I own three, one later mv, one pristine early one and one hacked up early that could be modded for more gain. Hardcore plate voltage (57vdc) yet tubes live on. Pretty good cleans on non mv yba-3's. Absoltely gigantic iron. Was once told OT's were not ment to handle distortion, clipping? Play them loud enough ,they break up kinda cool.

no you'll never get that tight gain with a stock bassmaster. The 2 I 've had did not sound great to my ears stock but modded they crank. I highly recommend you try the jubilee circuit if you are at all into that amp. I swapped out the OT for a merc but the stock OT was good too, just thicker and a bit slower...but the Hammond iron with that circuit is a very unique but complementary marriage. the distorted jub circuit with the overly smooth Hammond iron works well together and it sounds better than either of my other 2 real jubilees imo.

I don't know what difference the yba3 iron would be from a yba1, probably just a different plate voltage? In any case I would think they'd be fine for a souped up marshall rebuild.


heres a sweet diagram sdm made up. the wiring is correct for the stock Hammond iron too!

Thanks brother. I am not familiar with the jubilee.Totally cool to turn me on to mod. I will research circuit and try it out. Those yba3's without mv have an unused triode at v1. Output section has bias hooked to screens I think. Mv version has way more gain. Kinda sounds similar to a hiwatt when cracked. I wonder if yba1 played into 8ohm sounds better than when l play into 16ohm 4x12. Thanks again.

Charles if you decide to give the jub/Hammond a try it will sound similar to this exceot because you have the hammonds it will be thicker and more bassman/plexi sounding. That is if you switch out all the pots to the correct values, since most traynors have odd values that don't work well with marshall circuits....In any case the circuit board is similar to the jscm800 plexi board except you'll have to rearrange and add a turett or two in the preamp to accommodate the diodes but it's no biggie and if you don't dig the sound you can easily just revert it to plexi or jcm amp......I'm in the process of sourcing a traynor and building another and I've owned lots of original old amps )traynor, marshall /1969, 70, 71 72 74 75 78 81 superleads 50's jtm45 pa supertrem, as well as 60's laney supergroups, suns, carlsbro etc and the little jub/Hammond hybrid as outlined in the above diagram was one of my favs. some people are put off by the solid state diode clipping but I can tell you if you dial the whole amp in right, you cannot tell there is any diode clipping, it sounds like an all tube fired up old marshall, the clipping just adds a cool slight rasp and grind to the tone which is part of why it's so classic sounding. And I am a vintage all tube purist who never uses any pedals or auxillary gear. I plug straight in and am not a solid state fan so the fact that I like the diodes should tell you something...I will say that I had 3 original jubilees, 2 silver and one black a 50 and two 100's. The 50 to me sounded best but because they use standard drake trannies they tended to be a bit harsh at times escpecially in the upper mids and a bit dry without enough output saturation, but with the Hammond power tranny those issues were no longer and so it has the old marshall sag but with the twist of the cascaded diode jub feature. very unique sound but still classic. I may also try a tube Rectifier and make it a jtm45/jub since as I get older I like a slower and more harmonic sound vs when I was young and wanted tight chug and searing leads.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQL_rKU8HJE[/youtube]

Sorry for the delay in my response. I would almost guess you read my mind. Its wierd. I did actually have some concern regarding diodes, but did not want to offend your generous response. I have not owned to many desirable vintage amps but have a small collection. Two Traynor yba-1. Three traynor yba-3. Traynor ygm-3, mojave peacemaker, mojave coyote, old epiphone ea22-rvt mighty mite, traynor yvm-1, 135 watt sf twin reverb, 100 watt sf twin reverb, two ac568 sf bassman, mesa .50 caliber+, tweed deluxe clone, and of course my favorite Metro 45 kit build. Now that i made the list, it really does not seem small. I have a problem. My intention was to rebuild/mod everything. Instead i mostly play them for what they are. Keeping tubes in all them costs enough. I have not had the solder iron in action in a while and would like to try your suggestion with the sdm layout. Any insight that applies to yba-1? Could clip doides if no good. I probally need to look into speaker options also. I have two cab's. Both peavey 4x12. Seem soild. Contain celestion g12k-85's. Not sure how they compare. My Metro 45 actually sounds good to me through them? Have no comparison. I never play pedals either. Thanks again man. Be well. Charles