Trainwreck amp with a real 59 Les Paul

[Mark Davis]

I love how this can go from clean to grind just from the turn of the vol knob.

[Paul G.]

Very nice demo showing exactly that edge of drive that Ken Fischer was all about.

I especially get excited when an amp squeals. It just gets me giddy.

P.

[fierce_carrot]

I've got a ceriatone wreck (liverpool el84's) and a Les Paul, the tones are amazing..but it becomes alive when you use a tele or a firebird!!

[Dan R]

Thanks for posting that Mark.

Dan R

[11 Gauge]

I scratchbuilt an amp that takes the TrainWreck Express/Liverpool preamp and runs into a 5E3'ish power amp. It's easily become my favorite amp. It sounds fantastic with whatever guitar is plugged into it. And at ~15 watts, the neighbors are (fairly) happy.

Kudos to Ken Fischer. His designs are fantastic, and they don't require massive amounts of circuitry or odd rare components.

[Mik]

I think I saw that clip months ago when there was a lot of twreck talk on tdpri.

Is the player stepping on a footswitch?? for boost, or higher than boost preinput gain? This is a 1 channel amp right?

[ramseybella]

Must be nice to own such pure gear what a tone!
Ken was a super guy as well R.I.P!

[fierce_carrot]

Originally Posted by Mik

I think I saw that clip months ago when there was a lot of twreck talk on tdpri.

Is the player stepping on a footswitch?? for boost, or higher than boost preinput gain? This is a 1 channel amp right?

Wrecks are single channel amps. What you are hearing is just turning up the guitars volume knob....

[Mik]

Originally Posted by fierce_carrot

Wrecks are single channel amps. What you are hearing is just turning up the guitars volume knob....

No, it's what I saw not what I heard, the player makes a stepping motion at least twice early in the vid, at his transition from clean chord noodling to distorted shredding, and back again. Hand was nowhere near a knob. Unless the motions were mannerisms and sleight of hand!

[tboy]

Great post. Thanks.

[fierce_carrot]

Originally Posted by Mik

No, it's what I saw not what I heard, the player makes a stepping motion at least twice early in the vid, at his transition from clean chord noodling to distorted shredding, and back again. Hand was nowhere near a knob. Unless the motions were mannerisms and sleight of hand!

I have no need for any boost pedals with my wreck....dial the guitar volume back to clean it up...crank it to get the most incredible sustain you have ever heard....like a soldano slo100 but more...

[Paul G.]

No pedals. I'm not sure what you're seeing--the first change was him switching from the neck pickup with the volume set low, to the bridge pickup, with the volume set high. Don't forget, 2 volumes on a Les Paul.

Every other time it got crazy, he either turned the volume up, or picked hard.

A responsive amp does this. Ken's designs were close to a straight line with gain, so they react much more radically than most, but a good amp running right at this "edge" will react the same way.

P.

[maestrovert]

Thanx Mark ! i love the clean tones he's getting at the start of the clip, and especially the singin' tones as he winds the wick up a bit !

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

I scratchbuilt an amp that takes the TrainWreck Express/Liverpool preamp and runs into a 5E3'ish power amp. It's easily become my favorite amp. It sounds fantastic with whatever guitar is plugged into it. And at ~15 watts, the neighbors are (fairly) happy.

Kudos to Ken Fischer. His designs are fantastic, and they don't require massive amounts of circuitry or odd rare components.

Sounds like a dream come true !

well, i can dream, can't i ?

[Mik]

I see the pick up switching now, his mannerisms were distracting.

Mik

[JDO]

Originally Posted by Mik

No, it's what I saw not what I heard, the player makes a stepping motion at least twice early in the vid, at his transition from clean chord noodling to distorted shredding, and back again. Hand was nowhere near a knob. Unless the motions were mannerisms and sleight of hand!

you're not crazy. i know about wrecks and was waiting to see him use the volume pot. i too wondered if he stepped on a pedal because it does look like it. he turns his body and it looks like his foot is lifted up onto something. BUT, you can see that he has switched to different pickups during those times. it threw me at first glance.

[Easydog]

Thats incredible! So thats what a good tube amp is supposed to do. Massive sustain too. Impressive..... very impressive.

[Mark Davis]

To me thats the perfect sound good cleans and a turn of the vol knob gets into grind land.

I really liked the cleans they had good body to the tone. Seemed warmer than Fender cleans.

[Geetarpicker]

Hello folks! Glen Kuykendall here. No pedals I promise on any of those "Trainwreck amp" Youtube videos, and that no pedal philosophy goes for my entire instrumental CD too. To be honest an Express isn't all that pedal friendly to begin with, unless you lower the gain substantially with different preamp tubes. That said, they are truly great amps for what you can do totally without pedals anyway.

I wish I could of had the video camera farther back so that you could see that I wasn't using any stomp boxes. However the iso booth I was in was so small that the camera was at the back wall and could only go so wide.

Here is another video with a strat in a full band context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL75YzhAcJ4

I just got a FENDER endorsement, so pretty soon I'll be doing some more videos once I get my '57 relic strat that is on order...I can't wait!

www.myspace.com/glenkuykendall

[Mark Davis]

Glen that Callaham Strat sounded great too! Your an excellent player. Thanks for adding the extra info to the thread.

[maestrovert]

Welcome Aboard Glen !
i'm seriously impressed with your tone(s) through that amp, with both the Strat & the LP.....

[chabby]

The TopHat Emplexeador 50 watt does the same thing even better. Of course for 3 grand it sure as heck oughta. I was so close to going for one the other day as I got a demo like that with me on the end of the guitar - live. Guess my limit is about 1500 for amps these days. I say that, but the fact remains I haven't even been able to bring myself to spend that much.
Max I;ve spent so far was 899.00 on my Masters TVA30.

I have not near as much trouble throwing down money for guitars though - go figure.

[Geetarpicker]

The Trainwreck Express in my Youtube clips (and on my "Can You Hear It Ring?" CD) is an '89 model, which puts it about in the middle of Ken's building years. Back when I got it hardly anyone had heard of such amps, and I paid $850. I use to carry it to gigs with it on end in a foam lined milk crate, with a trash bag over it in case it was raining. :)

It runs x2 EL34s (currently GT EL34Ms), and puts out about 35 watts. It is fairly high gain, and has about as much gain on half as a typical 4 input Marshall all dimed. It is VERY finicky about tubes, speakers, cords, everything. Not the amp for everybody for sure. Kind of like having a fast sports car with a peaky power band and a tight clutch. You have to learn how to drive the thing...

FYI my CD (regularly listed on ebay) features nothing but my original Express and an original Liverpool.

Glen Kuykendall

[Geetarpicker]

Double post

[tele_jas]

I really dis-like this clip......... It makes me want a $40,000 amp!!!

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by chabby

The TopHat Emplexeador 50 watt does the same thing even better. Of course for 3 grand it sure as heck oughta. I was so close to going for one the other day as I got a demo like that with me on the end of the guitar - live. Guess my limit is about 1500 for amps these days. I say that, but the fact remains I haven't even been able to bring myself to spend that much.

Save your $$ - go to the Blue Guitar website, and grab the Express PDF. You get 2 schematics of actual peeks inside of real 'Wrecks, along with some tweakers' twists, a "blues" version or three, and schems for the hot clones by Allesandro and others. Then, either roll your own, or take those schems to someone who knows how to build an amp. It should be easy to come in way under 3 grand.