selloutrr wrote:Red you sound pretty confident you have it all figured out. So are you asking or telling? If you need help I suggest asking / researching the archives if you are telling... it's all been on a thread many many times in the past.
As far as YouTube. After the lossy file compression, sample rate and device playing the data it's no longer a "true" source of tone. If my express sounded like any clip on YouTube I'd strip it for tubes and give it away.. Maybe burn the cabinet to stay warm
JM has several TW on hand to voice from including a couple of Ken's personal amps. that is a good part of what you pay for in a reissue TW is knowning what you get is going to sound like a TW. The other benefits are value of the investment. The clones sell used for less than the cost of the parts they take to build. I'll be happy if the amps JM builds for me sound close to Marcella the '90 express I picked up last may.
Asking or telling? Maybe a little bit of both I love to learn from others but also if a newbie comes here for the first time it will be a good point to start. I have to say your contributions are great. Not so sure i agree with all of them but with most of them I do. I agree that the youtube videos can't compare to the way a real wreck sounds in the room but I said to have an idea of the way the amp "performs". My first suggestion was to listen to a real one in person.
Talking about the JM amps there are a few videos of them on youtube and to be honest the videos of them on youtube sound closer to the good TAG clones than the old KF amps. I have to say that there may be a number of reasons why this happens. Not saying that they are not a good recreation of old Ken amps but I would like to hear one in person to make a better judgement of them. I will agree than buying a reissue is a better investment than buying parts but we all have fun building our amps here and in all honestly I can't afford a reissue, if I could maybe I would order a rocket for sure.
Congrats for the purchase of Marcella, maybe you should post a video demoing the amp or tell us about it here. Not asking for gut shots but in general type of sound, tubes, etc. would be nice.
selloutrr, can you walk on water too. you must be really good. why dont you ask yourself im sure the answer is yes. MAN the arrogance around here sometimes drives me crazy. me i'm nothing in all this i've been trying to learn to play for 3 years starting at 48 messing with amps a lot less. get off your high horse. have i ever played thru hi end amp depends on what you call hi end 2 different Alessandros. matchless. but i suck at both playing and building. want a an airplane you can go pull all the g's you can handle and stay alive call me. sick of arrogance.
selloutrr wrote:JM has several TW on hand to voice from including a couple of Ken's personal amps. that is a good part of what you pay for in a reissue TW is knowning what you get is going to sound like a TW. The other benefits are value of the investment. The clones sell used for less than the cost of the parts they take to build. I'll be happy if the amps JM builds for me sound close to Marcella the '90 express I picked up last may.
OK this is THE biggest load of crap. JM HAD KEN and couldn't make an amp sound like a TW which is why Ken didn't tap JM to build for him. But now after Ken's death JM is a miracle worker? Get a grip dude!
Before we get into another sissy feces slinging name calling tread i think in building theses amps aside from learning the technical side of things (you know learning how to build an amp) you will need to learn how to voice these amps. This is so so much harder than you might think and you will need to buy a bunch of tubes, new and vintage. It has been over 2 years since i finished my express and i am still having issues voicing. I had one of my power tubes die (Winged C), i then decided to go another route (tung sol) and my amp was essentially different and for the worst. After several months I had to go back to the winged c's.
This is what i learned or atleast my opinion on voicing, power tubes are most important, it defines clarity and how much gain. The pre-amp tubes defines character, eq and gain of the amp. I have put telefunkens into the amp and then sound horrible. The one thing i noticed about new production tubes is they do distortion well, but clarity (string separation in chord playing) stink. BUT there are some good new tubes out there, foremost by a mile are the winged c power tubes - they have almost doubled in price over the past year, match quads use to cost me $100 and are now $170. As far as new production preamp tubes and trying to voice an express with them takes much talent and a harder task then say using vintage. I think it be done though.
Lastly, I think of all three amps, the express is the harder amp to voice and get right, just my opinion.
Wow you guys are funny you missed the entire point of my post.
Don't worry about posting information for the next guy it'll be lost in the thread history and they too will be to lazy to read up and search the archives. If we cleaned the archives and deleted repeats it would be 80% smaller at least.
You said hearing an original was the best way to voice that is why I mentioned JM. As far as why ken didn't use him it's not my place to say. The YouTube of JM builds I agree blow! The idiots buying TW play them like a Marshall and they sound like shit. The TW is an amp that plays you so you both have to work together or it points out every mistake.
Tell you about Marcella... KF built '90 express. pacific PT, Stancor OT, EL34's, maple head shell. Mullard,ei,brimar 9 pin tubes, Siemens EL34. Picked it up in a sort of trade/ pay off for studio work. She spent most of her life in Seattle.
Ill post a thread on her next time I'm in CA.
selloutrr wrote:Wow you guys are funny you missed the entire point of my post.
Don't worry about posting information for the next guy it'll be lost in the thread history and they too will be to lazy to read up and search the archives. If we cleaned the archives and deleted repeats it would be 80% smaller at least.
You said hearing an original was the best way to voice that is why I mentioned JM. As far as why ken didn't use him it's not my place to say. The YouTube of JM builds I agree blow! The idiots buying TW play them like a Marshall and they sound like shit. The TW is an amp that plays you so you both have to work together or it points out every mistake.
Tell you about Marcella... KF built '90 express. pacific PT, Stancor OT, EL34's, maple head shell. Mullard,ei,brimar 9 pin tubes, Siemens EL34. Picked it up in a sort of trade/ pay off for studio work. She spent most of her life in Seattle.
Ill post a thread on her next time I'm in CA.
It would be cool to have a thread about Marcella! by the way, you said before I sound pretty confident. The confidence, if I have some come from amps that I had built before that I worked hard on and that made me feel proud. Now I know a little bit more so I can't see why the second express can't sound better than the first! but seriously, we all build this amps and by experience evaluate what makes the biggest and the smallest impact out of all the components and we prioritize. I would love to build one with all the vintage components but that would be imposible. I don't think even JM uses all vintage components. He uses new stuff too cause he mentioned it before. So there's many ways to skin a cat and as said before understanding that every amp will have its own personality and help it sound the best it can posibly sound is key in this process. Spend time with it, tweak it carefully and LISTEN.
JM has several TW on hand to voice from including a couple of Ken's personal amps. that is a good part of what you pay for in a reissue TW is knowning what you get is going to sound like a TW. The other benefits are value of the investment. The clones sell used for less than the cost of the parts they take to build. I'll be happy if the amps JM builds for me sound close to Marcella the '90 express I picked up last may.
...Don't worry about posting information for the next guy it'll be lost in the thread history and they too will be to lazy to read up and search the archives. ...
I noticed that the trainwreck.com site only mentions one KF built amp, a Rocket called "Reality Check". That implies there is no Express based "Reality Check" equivalent or did they miss their opportunity to market that?
I'm about a 1/3 of the way with the book. I'd say most of the information is gathered... Now it's just digesting it and throwing it back up into something that reads as a complete piece. It covers ken, TW, komet, weber, K&M, dr. Z, the new generation of TW, his Ampeg years, briefly touches on Jess Oliver and Dennis kager as well as JM. It's purely celebrating ken and how his vision has shaped these companies and music. I have some 200 hand written notes, pictures, documents from manufactures, conversations explaining why and how he did things, a list of almost all TW amps in detail. As well as close to 40 of the amplifiers photographed in detail and growing. A list of music the amps were used on for a guide to what a TW sounds like. Along with all the other stuff you can pull up on the www. If you look hard enough. To pull from. Out of respect to the estate ill have to find out how much detail I can share on the circuit and modifications / voicing.. Tube selection etc. ultimately my goal is not to make this a cloners bible. But I do want to share the beauty and wisdom of ken and his amps in a book I would enjoy reading. Guessing around 400 pages.
I have 2 albums to mix and a song to write before ill have time to get back to the book. (June) I find it takes a different part of my brain that is difficult to switch on and off and keep the motion/tempo flowing. I don't want it to be a heavy read or feel pieced together.
I think it's an excellent idea and one thing. The book can't never be a cloners Bible because even knowing all the details and I mean all of them the art is in the put together. I can have all same ingredients in the table next to Bobby Flay and if we both have a recipe to make a key lime pie his will be way superior. Get it? What makes the trainwreck sound is the combination of the ingredients by the chef and not the ingredients themselves. Let's finish this secret society drama and let's all learn from Ken's genious. That way people will be motivated to learn as much they can from him and build better amps and I don't mean clones.
Thanks for this effort selloutrr!!
Follow the build guide Ron Worley worked hard to put together, the layout and schematic. Once the amp is finished then go back and fine tune.
Ask lots of questions if you don't understand something. Make sure you understand the wiring of B+3, 4, 5 on the boards and cap stack. Pay attention to the presence circuit wiring on the Express.
I recommend shielded wire from input jack to V1 and volume pot to V1 with 820R grid. Other changes can be determined after amp is built.
Make sure your tone board is all the way over to the left side of chassis so you have plenty of room for the cap stack especially if your using the large Mallory TC filter caps. Decide placement for the PT and OT drill holes, then figure out where your going to drill for the dropping string/bias board and it may need to be cut around the switches to fit. When mounting the PT your better off putting the bolts through from the inside with nut on top side of chassis this gives you more room for cap stack and the other board.
Hey Mark, this will be my second express. The first was a succesful project. I started this thread with the intention of knowing what elements of the express amp people think should be as close as posible to Ken's amps, you know certain mojo parts or procedures...
In the first express my not original components were: filter caps (I used F&T), potentiometers (the original aren't available anymore so I used mojo CTS), board was RJ vector's copy with turrets.
For this new project I have real vector board and clips, planning to use Mallory TC75 and TC78(If i can get them), If not will use Sprague 40uf.
So a few "improvements"compared to my first one. I just wanted to know what people consider the most important parts.
I love to learn from others but also if a newbie comes here for the first time it will be a good point to start. I have to say your contributions are great. Not so sure i agree with all of them but with most of them I do. I agree that the youtube videos can't compare to the way a real wreck sounds in the room but I said to have an idea of the way the amp "performs". My first suggestion was to listen to a real one in person. 
but seriously, we all build this amps and by experience evaluate what makes the biggest and the smallest impact out of all the components and we prioritize. I would love to build one with all the vintage components but that would be imposible. I don't think even JM uses all vintage components. He uses new stuff too cause he mentioned it before. So there's many ways to skin a cat and as said before understanding that every amp will have its own personality and help it sound the best it can posibly sound is key in this process. Spend time with it, tweak it carefully and LISTEN.
Was their some question or something else the someone missed? 
