Komet modded by Ken on eBay

[wreckboy]

My Personal Trainwreck Experience:

I got my 1st Express from a local collector (from Kauai) who was a BIG TIME collector of both electric and acoustic guitars and Amp. I think he parted with the Express to fund another major purchase. Up to that point I had only read about the legendary Trainwreck amp in Guitar Player Magazine and the Groove Tubes Book. I was playing an SLO, a reissue Marshall, and various Silverface Fenders. But I wasn't happy with my tone. I couldn't believe that I actually bought one. Playing that Express for the 1st time was so memorable. It was soooo good that I immediately selling off my amp collection. I played and 1989 Alder CE with a white tolex Fender cab loaded with the PRS issue Celestions. The Express was loaded with Mullard power tubes, a Mullard labeled ecc83 in 1st position and a Sovtek and a Chinese 12ax7. Just like I had imagined everything was there at the twist of the volume knob. My friend describes it like there are 4 stages of performance, some amps give you a couple of stages of performance. Everything was there...the responsive muti dimensional Clean...to Crunch..to Drive (anything in the Classic rock sense) and finally the Over the Top...endless sustain...responsive feedback. I honestly had never heard one amp do this at the twist of the volume pot...WOW. The coolest part came when Ken welcomed me into the Trainwreck family. Like others have experience, Ken used to talk for HOURS on the phone. He would later go on to help me build my collection. At that point I only played my Express, at every rehearsal and every gig. I spent countless hours and a fortune on vintage and current tubes and speakers. But it was all worth it for that Tone.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Thanks for the insight, please don't let a rotten apple spoil the whole bunch. I'm sure most of us would love to hear all of the details and stories you can give us. I read here alot more than I post but I'm here for the love and admiration of the great tone tools that KF gave to us guitarists, I would wager that most of the guys here are on the same page, I'd love to listen to what you have to say.

[Tubetwang]

Interesting read wreckboy!

Here's a little clip from a band called American Minor. These guys are really good!!! They are Plexi's friends i think... Lead guitar is Trainwreck approved. Granted, it may be a clone, but the proof is in the pudding.roll:
.
Get's yar-blood-runnin-and-yar-foot-a'thumpin...

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzJvD1ST ... ed&search= :

[Jack]

Jack,
You need to take it down a couple of notches. You are not in a position to dictate what is and is not appropriate for this forum. You are creating a hostile environment that I don't appreciate.

As for wreckboy's comment, there is nothing in his post that I found to be out of bounds. If you have a specific problem you can PM me and I will look into it.

Omar

I guess you're right. Everybody please accept my apologies.

[UR12]

Interesting read wreckboy!

Here's a little clip from a band called American Minor. These guys are really good!!! They are Plexi's friends i think... Lead guitar is Trainwreck approved. Granted, it may be a clone, but the proof is in the pudding.roll:
.
Get's yar-blood-runnin-and-yar-foot-a'thumpin...

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzJvD1ST ... ed&search= :

TubeTwang

It's very true that AMs guitarist Bud Carrol uses Richie's amps exclusively, along with an Express clone. You are not hearing an Express being played in that video. Bud did use the Express at that show and the video proves that as you can catch a glimpse of the amp in the background. Unfortunately who ever took the video made a production out of it and used the audio from AM's studio CD instead of the live audio.

Richie can tell us which amp was used on the CD but I believe it was one of Richie's custom built 36Watter or maybe one of his 18watt combos. (Bud owns both) Either way Richies 36 or 18 just has tone to die for also as you can hear in the video.

Bud did take one of our Express clones on tour with him during the summer of 2006 and the live performances where Bud used the Express were phenominal, if you were there in person to hear it. I do have a few poorly done clips of a sound check where Bud was using an express. They were recorded using a video cam mike and the quality is not that good but you can hear the Express with all of it's singing sustain and punch. Just wanted to set the record straight.

[Tubetwang]

Hey Dana

thanks for the tip, i really appreciate that report...

These guys deserve a good video on Walk On.
They have the sound and the right man for the amps.

[hairyandy]

Jack,
You need to take it down a couple of notches. You are not in a position to dictate what is and is not appropriate for this forum. You are creating a hostile environment that I don't appreciate.

As for wreckboy's comment, there is nothing in his post that I found to be out of bounds. If you have a specific problem you can PM me and I will look into it.

Omar

I guess you're right. Everybody please accept my apologies.

Not a problem Jack, apology accepted and thanks.

Andy

[joe6v6]

Hey WreckBoy - What TrainWrecks do you currently own? How about some detailed photos of the inside of the DLM if you still have it? Do you have any clips of you playing the DLM? What is the name of your Express and how does the circuit compare to the Fransesca schematic?

JOE

[riscado]

joe I too welcome wreckboy to the forum, however you shouldn't get your hopes to high on obtaining a lot of information...

[novosibir]

riscado - your own thoughts may influence your life, may make things happen or not! So better stay (or become) optimistically, skip your 'worst case thinking', and all will become fine

Larry

[riscado]

and life is a joy 24/7...

[Richie]

Interesting read wreckboy!

Here's a little clip from a band called American Minor. These guys are really good!!! They are Plexi's friends i think... Lead guitar is Trainwreck approved. Granted, it may be a clone, but the proof is in the pudding.roll:
.
Get's yar-blood-runnin-and-yar-foot-a'thumpin...

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=tqzJvD1ST ... ed&search= :

As Dana posted, that clip was dubbed over one of there shows.
too bad we don't have any real good quality clips of one of there shows.

We did make a clip at a sound check of another show, using the Junkyard Wreck Dana built. Not recorded very good off a video cam..but still a nice tune.

The band is a bit different now, only the singer and bass player remain.. Bud has his own band.

They did get a really good live recording at Smiths ole bar,but i don't think its still out there.. I thought it was better than there CD.
Here are a couple links One using the Junkyard..
and the other was recorded live podcast i believe.
Mostly for amps bud had to use less wattage amps, so the 18 and 36 were used. If he could use more watts,depending on the gig, he got to use a 50 watt plexi i built for him,and the 36 watter. And would switch between them for clean and dirty. Thats what he used at the smithes ole bar recording.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnUCwlCEvs


http://www.archive.org/details/amminor2 ... csb.flac16


Smiths bar recording is here..[link below] or maybe e-mail Chip to get a copy of it. One really great recording,and good show.
http://www.dynasonic.com/jukebox/AmericanMinor.html

[wreckboy]

Trainwreck Experience (part 2)

After I got my first Express, I got a bit worried about certain gig conditions not being idea for such a valuable piece of equipment. I shopped around and either bought or demoed a bunch of other high end amps. I bought and sold quite a few amps during this time they just couldn't capture some of that Wreck magic. Of special interest, were 2 particular amps a Budda Twinmaster head tweaked by Ken and a Climax combo. I don't remember the time line details but I didn't care for either. Then I saw an ad for an Express up for sale in the Vintage Guitar magazine classified. I talked to Ken and he told that that was a KILLER Express. So I bought that Express, and for the way that I like to play, has been my favorite Wreck. That amp was loaded with Seimans EL34 (Groove Tubes grade 4 which was Ken's favorite for that particular brand of EL34s). Tungsgram ECC83 (#1) Yugo ECC83 (#2) and another Tungsgram ECC83 (#3). Ken used mostly, Tungsgram and Yugo pre-amp tubes because he felt they were the best preamp tubes that were available at the time, although no necessarily his all-time favorites. That class of favorites included the golden era tubes inculding Mullard, Amperex, Valvo, Telefunken. At the time my cab was an open back cab made by TOPHAT (Bogner style) loaded with 2 Celestion Alnico Blues.
My guitar was a Warmoth swamp ash strat with a maple neck loaded with Fralin vintage singles and a Fralin humbucker. This Express featured the new model transformer. My 1st Express featured the old style transformers that were off the self models. The newer Express was a 1992 and the older was a late 80's model. The newer model sounded tighter, more focused, with a powerful mid upper midrange focus and just plain more intense. The older model was rounder and a bit smoother. I loved both. My next thought finding a Liverpool and / or a Rocket. Note: each of these amps took every last penny that had and then some.... I very poor in the bank but felt very rich in TONE.

[geetarpicker]

Nice to hear from another Wreck owner from way back! I was hooked back in '89 when I borrowed Steve's (the owner of Angela Instruments) grey OT Express for a one week test run. I then got my own Express in late '89, and have dug it ever since. Mine is also of the later Pacific (black) OT variety. I had a Liverpool for a while too, but later realized I always came back to the Express sound anyway. I remember back in the early 90s this type of amp was really against the grain, as most everyone was moving to amps with more and more knobs or full on rack setups. Heck back then it seemed there were only 3 boutique makers... Dumble, Trainwreck, and Kendrick. Dumbles were too expensive, and had to be paid for totally in advance if you could convince the guy you were worthy. Kendrick only made tweed Fender type amps. That left the Trainwrecks, which by the way Ken didn't take any money for up front. He would just call you when it was done, but sadly he never got to everybody on his list.

[wreckboy]

Aloha, Geetarpicker.