Anyone built a trainwreck and not liked it?

[nickt]

... or Pre war EI's. That is the TW sound.

Which war? Surely not WWII? Really?

[jaysg]

Which war? Surely not WWII? Really?

I was about to say the war where we...but I don't think you guys had anything to do with it: mid-late 1990's, USA Clinton administration sent some bombing missions into the former Yogoslavia to stop ethnic cleansing of the Muslims by the non-Muslims. I recall our Air Force managed to drop some bombs on a Chinese embassy in one of the countries. Gotta be careful with reading the GPS.

[nickt]

Which war? Surely not WWII? Really?

I was about to say the war where we...but I don't think you guys had anything to do with it: mid-late 1990's, USA Clinton administration sent some bombing missions into the former Yogoslavia to stop ethnic cleansing of the Muslims by the non-Muslims. I recall our Air Force managed to drop some bombs on a Chinese embassy in one of the countries. Gotta be careful with reading the GPS.

Ah ha! so EI got bombed to prevent a dastardly serbian plot to kill the NOS market by producing quality new issue tubes - the evil swine!!

[briane]

I built a wreck, and really like it.

My hard core buddys show up, and every single one says its too loud. These are the guys you loan an amp to, and it comes back with every control maxed.

Its so loud that with the volume as low as it can go, and still be heard, the walls shake. I seriously fear turning it up all the way (at least when I own the walls)

[jem]

It sounds like you have a speaker plugged into your guitar with no amp...only really f%^$ing loud!

All in favor of this being the official definition of transparent say "Aye"!

[benoit]

I recall our Air Force managed to drop some bombs on a Chinese embassy in one of the countries. Gotta be careful with reading the GPS.

I was in China at the time. They were PISSED. Due to the nature of their own government, they're really pretty good about understanding that the average American (i.e. me) has nothing to do with government decisions to bomb this that or the other thing. Little scary though.

[castor]

I had the same problem at the beginning... an I tested it only with a strat type guitar... I tought I had trown away money.
after that.. I changed the OT with ther right one.. all caps to the right ones (refer to Allynmeye's pic), put new good tubes (EI 12AX7 and Winged C EL34) and.. changed my guitar to a les paul --> I loved the sound it had with volume at 1-2, all rest at 12 and full bright (or for knopfler's sounds mid bright).
now.. after replacing the V1 with old NOS telefunken and 2 NOS Siemens EL34.. the amp is fantastic! my guitar now is a pensa with HB!

I use it with a marshall 2x12 but when I tried it with an old 4x12 marshall I was completely shocked by the beautifull and rich sound.

castor

[Lonely Raven]

It sounds like you have a speaker plugged into your guitar with no amp...only really f%^$ing loud!

All in favor of this being the official definition of transparent say "Aye"!

Aye!!


As for my TW styled amp. I thought at first I didn't like it at all, but the more I tweak it, the more I see how wonderful and beautiful it can be. The problem is, I don't have the skill and experience to dial it in like Ken or the more experienced amp builders here would. So I feel like a blind man trying to paint...I have the tools, I just have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm very surprised at how sensitive the amp is to what is typically minor changes in other amps. Tubes, speakers, cabs, even my patch cable makes a difference with this amp. I do like the clean sounds I have, but I don't know about the dirty....

If all goes well I should be moving out of my apartment and into a house soon, I'll be able to have some quality time (volume at 12O'clock) with the TW and see if I can dial her in.

Now as for my playing.........

[gearhead]

Now all I gotta do is find a source for NOS Siemens. Grack. Mesa caught on in the last month and upped their Mesa-branded NOS Siemens from 70 a pair to 150! Aaaahhh.

Glen "Mr. Trainwreck" Kuykendall says he has been using the new GT XF2 Mullard reproductions in his Express clones. Have heard a lot of good things about them, but that they had a high rate of failure in the first 10-20 hours. Anyone else use them, and are they now doing fine?

[Allynmey]

Now all I gotta do is find a source for NOS Siemens. Grack. Mesa caught on in the last month and upped their Mesa-branded NOS Siemens from 70 a pair to 150! Aaaahhh.

Glen "Mr. Trainwreck" Kuykendall says he has been using the new GT XF2 Mullard reproductions in his Express clones. Have heard a lot of good things about them, but that they had a high rate of failure in the first 10-20 hours. Anyone else use them, and are they now doing fine?

I bought a pair of the GT's They were perfectly matched out of the box....for 8 seconds. They started separating and now they are 12 mA apart in any amp! They also sound like ass to me. I bought a matched quad of siemens and they were dead on even in dissapation...both sets! They sound great. Usually it's not the amp if you've built it correctly with the correct parts. It's almost always the tubes and guitar. I like a LP with an Express...period. But that's me. YMMV. I also play with the volume between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock and control gain with the volume knob. I don't think TW's get into gear til then.

Allyn

[drz400]

Well nothing wrong with good NOS but when my other amps sound great with off the shelf JJ's I have to start wondering if it makes sense.

I dont mind revisiting the whole thing
I like an amp that is tight with good drive like the ultimate Tres Hombres "Beer drinkers and Hell Raisers" tone. Is there a trainwreck amp that fits this bill? I thought the Express was the logical direction but I had too much trouble dialing in the second stage coupling cap to have enough bass but not too much when pushing gain and playing clean.

Which schematic / transformer set is the ultimate one for those of you who love theirs?

[jelle]

One thing that made the express schem work for me in a particular setup was a choke instead of the 1K resistor .... and the g12H bass cone speakers did not hurt either....

[sst4270]

I built a wreck for the guitarist in my band. He love's it but it's a little (and I mean just barely) over the edge. Most of the time he's able to dial it in just right! I added a power scaling circuit to it because gigging in a small to medium sized club... the Wreck really doesn't get going until it's overpowering the rest of the band.... Anyways... I replaced the original EHX's I put in with some expensive NOS Bugle Boys I had. WOW! What a difference. Since then, because we were unsure of how it would treat them in the long run we've replaced the bugle boys with JJ's. They're adequate. They get the job done, but I must admit that I'm gonna have to tweak some values to dial it in better. All that being said... In the vein of KF... I think if you make minor tweaks to the right components eventually you'll find the right combination that you desire. (Be patient) Realistically, you can't expect to have a limitless supply of NOS tubes, so learning about the circuit and tweaking values to work with current production tubes is the way to go IMHO. After reading through every bit of info I could find on KF's TW's I've come to the realization that he:
1. used HIS favorite tubes at a time when that was economically feasible.
2. aside from that each TW he built was adjusted as needed to be pulled just back on this side of the hairy edge of overboard. And then let loose on the world!
3. Every TW built be it clone or original is alive. (If built correctly.) The chassis is alive (sometime you'll see the lead weights added to the underside of the chassis... different amounts for different express's). The tubes are alive. (TW's don't tolerate microphonic tubes at all.) The circuit is alive. (It want's to be handled and tweaked and adjusted until...) Treat it with love and care in order to coax out that magical tone it's just die-ing to give up to its owner.

Respectfully,

Steve

[dartanion]

So far on the wrecks I've built for myself, I find that I didn't really like them so much to start, but I decided to be patient as I know they would need to break in as everything is new. There came a point with each one where it just came to life in the middle of jamming. Somewhere in the 20-30 hours of use when this happens. Since then, I have considered some small changes, but I am overall really pleased with the tone.

So, be patient and wait for that magic moment to happen.

[Ron Worley]

[quote="gearhead"]Now all I gotta do is find a source for NOS Siemens. Grack. Mesa caught on in the last month and upped their Mesa-branded NOS Siemens from 70 a pair to 150! Aaaahhh.

Mike at KCA has them for less than that.... plus, he's a good dude...

Ron