Z wreckish build fired up

[M Fowler]

Dr. Z when Chad was on the video with Rebecca D. from Premierguitar.com rig run down, chad said they lost the original Zwrecks in the Nashville flood and that the replacements you made were different from the originals. The red tolex ones. Prehaps your current production is different as well as you said you went through notes from Ken and build this production amp.

Are there then version 1, 2 and 3?

Mark

[DR.Z]

Yes Mark, but maybe more then 3 variations if memory serves me.

The orginal Amp that Ken tweeked is safe at BP's home, he never took it on the road. I built copies on the Stang Ray chassis for his road rig.
Those got destroyed, and rebuilt replacements Ver 2 in a hurry for rehearsal and tour.
Then I re-approached the design looking over notes from Ken. So then Ver 3 with a complete new chassis design, in the Trainwreck maner. Ken had written that he could wire 10 TW's with wire used on one Fender Twin. So he advised I alter the layout to shorten the wire runs and lead lenghts. I also took into account ETL compliance so the new amp would pass UL CSA and be able to be exported, some thing that DIYer's don't have to adhere to, but does effect lead placement.

So the design and story grow.......


Z

[M Fowler]

It's a good story Doc and thanks for sharing.

Besides being a heck of a good sounding amp the Zwreck has some style, obviously the wood panels being one but also the grille cloth. I have never seen that type of cloth before.

[bitsandvolts]

Hello all,

Just finished my Z Wreckish build. So far it sounds fantastic!

I could not have put this together without the information shared by all of the generous members from TAG.

Here are some pics of the completed chassis.


Rich

Rich,

First, Looks great. However, based on the gut shots I've seen, the B+ rail may some greater value resistors. It looks like the two resistors coming off of the later two 8uf filters are 27k's not 9.1k's.

Granted, if it sounds good it's good! Plus, the Doctor said it looked good.....which, by the way, I have to second sliberty's comment. Mr Mike Zaite is a-ok in my book. It really warms my heart watching some of the big guys who are kicking ass and taking names in this business (and anyone making amps for Brad Paisley is doing just that) come in here and throw a few suggestions, words of praise to some of us......Way to go Doc!


Getting back on the filter comments, I've been tempted to play with alternate filtering on the Rocket I just built, as Im finding the filtering a tad too stiff for my liking.....and it's interesting to see that the Doc used a 40-40-8-8-8 rail on his Zwreck...with some beefier dropping resistors.

I might be tempted to drop down the filtering to something like a 33-33-22-22-22 or try the 40-40-8-8-8 instead. with some bigger dropping resistors, just to see if I can a) get a little more feel back into the amp and b) get some more hair out of the preamp.

[M Fowler]

Yeah I think the dropping resistors are 27k then 22k and 20k on B5 on the board.

[azatplayer]

It is going back to AC30 values really. The branched B+ rail rather than dropping string, 8 uf filtering as well. I'll bet the B+ is much higher than a rocket too, more in line with AC30.