Pete Traynor had a bigger impact on the sound of Toronto rock than most non-musicians will ever understand. His Traynor amplifiers and Yorkville Sound equipment have been in the backlines of innumerable acts since the 60s, and his design philosophy had a subtle yet powerful influence on Canadian musicians of all genres.
“He had an uncanny knack for knowing what people were going to want five years down the road,” recalls his former business partner, Jack Long.
Originally a Long & McQuade customer, Traynor talked his way into a job in the repair department in the early 60s. He started doing custom work out of the shop, and was soon commissioned by a band to build a portable PA system, a novel concept at the time. By the time they came back to pick it up, several other acts had ordered their own after seeing it sitting in the middle of the store, which sparked the beginning of Traynor amps and the Yorkville Sound company.
Traynor had played bass in bands with musicians like Robbie Robertson prior to getting into making equipment, and so he understood the importance of ruggedness. To test out designs, he’d throw his equipment off the second-floor roof of the shop. Even after they moved production to a single-storey location, they’d use forklifts to duplicate the same drop test. Eventually they made a machine to violently shake new designs, but his legendary drop tests are still occasionally part of the process.
“It was a pretty solid idea, really,” Long admits. “We were having dinner with a couple of Ampeg executives once, and they said, ‘We heard this funny thing about your company, and it’s probably not true. We heard you throw your amps off the roof to check them.’ Pete and I looked at each other, sort of dumbfounded, and answered, ‘Doesn’t everybody?'”
Yorkville Sound eventually discontinued the Traynor brand, but revived it in 2000 with both new designs and reissues of old favourites. It was the attention to detail of the reissues that prompted local pedal steel player Aaron Goldstein to approach Traynor for sponsorship.
“If you open up one of those reissues and look inside, they are perfect,” Goldstein gushes. “There are guys charging north of $3,000 for boutique amps that look exactly the same as they do inside.”
While Goldstein appreciates the security of using a modern version of a vintage design, he sees the original classics as underrated gems ripe for rediscovery.
“I have an amp from around 71, and that thing is unstoppable. I’ll be able to give it to my kid someday. They’re also loud as hell and will peel the paint if you crank them. [Pete] never even published the impedance rating for his old amplifiers, because they were so robust you could plug any speaker combination into them and they still wouldn’t blow.”
Traynors’ durability, affordability and power are legendary, but so is their tone. Their circuits may have been largely based on other manufacturers’ designs, but Traynor still put his own stamp on how they sound.
“There’s an inherent warmth and breadth to the tone,” says Toronto garage rock hero Craig Daniels. “You can always get a nice, full sound right out of the gate, and once you activate the wild-ass reverb and tremolo, as a member of the Two Koreas said to me at a recent gig, ‘There’s magic in those Traynors!'”
That Traynor tone is also a big part of the sound of the Meligrove Band, who’ve used many of his amps on their recordings. Their relationship with his gear stretches back to their earliest days.
“When we met in high school, we all had these little practice amps that couldn’t really be heard over the drums,” recalls Jay Nunes. “One day I remembered my dad had a bunch of old gear stashed away at my grandmother’s house, and there in her dingy old basement was this giant, glorious Traynor stack. This thing was older than me and covered in cobwebs. I plugged it in and it worked perfectly. Every amp I’ve owned since has been a Traynor.”
Death from Above 1979 and MSTRKRFT’s Jesse Keeler is also a fan but has a more personal connection than most musicians of his generation. His recording career was kick-started when Traynor volunteered to help with his first album, thanks to his dad being a long-time friend of the amp designer.
“We recorded a bunch of stuff, and then he said we could hold on to the equipment and record some more. He left it with us for months, and I’d record with it almost every day. I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life making multi-track recordings for a living, and it was that time with Pete that got me hooked.”
Murray Lightburn of the Dears also holds Traynors close to his heart. The band tried out a number of classic amp and guitar combos while recording Gang Of Losers in their house, and “nine times out of 10, my 71 Traynor Guitar Mate won the shootout. By the end the Traynor just lived in the closet, never to be moved until the last guitar track was recorded. It has remained, and still remains, a studio go-to, from Missiles all the way up to our latest, Times Infinity. It never goes out on the road, however, as it is far too sacred.
“There’s something special in that circuitry and in that sound. That’s what makes him and his work immortal.”
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benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles
