Glen, Your old Liverpool?

[JamesHealey]

Hey Glen,


Wonder if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions?

What was your old Liverpool called? did you sell it to someone you know? or is it gone and u'll never see it again?

Also just add anything u'd like to about her.

Cheers,
James.

[geetarpicker]

Her name is Hetel, who as far as I recall was the name of "hot" Indian girl that Ken saw at a fast food place at the register! It ended up with the guy that owns Hi-Test guitars, but I think he no longer has it. I probably should find out where it went. Mine was a Pacific transformer amp, and had a cab made by a different builder than my Express and it had a very nice rubbed out glossy finish. Nice amp, but it was always a bit too bright for me and at least with the drummer I played with at the time not quite loud enough on stage! I was never quite able to get as good a clean to mean range, and though the clean sounded killer it was never quite loud enough in relation to the dirt. Ken suggested a couple tweaks to the circuit to darken it up (that I did) but still no go with me. My main cab has G12Ms but I tried it with a 4x12 with Alnico blues but maybe that was the problem. Typically those speakers seem to sound better in pairs as they are pushed just enough. Just recently I played and absolutely loved an earlier stancor equiped Liverpool into original Blues in an AC30 ext cab. Also just recently I picked up an Alnico Gold 12" speaker and it sounds really killer with some amps but I haven't tried it yet with a wreck. That said the low end on a blue isn't very strong, but the golds have a bigger low end and might be a great combo as a single driver with a Liverpool. Back in the day maybe I was expecting the Liverpool to be more similar to my Express, but they are different.

[funkmeblue]

I would be interested in the tweaks to the circuit Ken suggested

[JamesHealey]

Pacific said they only ever made Ken a 6k6 OT so I assume the Pacific in the Liverpool you had must have been 6k6..

I was pretty sure that Liverpool's must have all had Stancor Output Transformers but if they had Pacifics and Pacific claim to have only ever made a 6k6 OT.. I'm pretty sure we can say later Liverpools had 6k6 OT?

Or am I just jumping the gun a bit here? It could also explain how you found the Liverpool a bit too quiet and not as nice as the earlier Stancor model.

[geetarpicker]

My bet is Ken used the same 6.6k OT in perhaps most Liverpools and Express amps, but others may know more.

Ken's tips to warm up/darken a Liverpool was pretty simple. Adding an 820 ohm resistor going into V2 (darkens it up a tad and also a stabilzing trick) and to add a .002 ceramic cap in parallel with the existing .002 PVC.

Here it is in Ken's own words.

[img:924:1200]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-10/ ... oltips.jpg[/img]

[funkmeblue]

hey thanks Glen, I'll have to try those two things

[RJ Guitars]

Pacific said they only ever made Ken a 6k6 OT so I assume the Pacific in the Liverpool you had must have been 6k6..

I was pretty sure that Liverpool's must have all had Stancor Output Transformers but if they had Pacifics and Pacific claim to have only ever made a 6k6 OT.. I'm pretty sure we can say later Liverpools had 6k6 OT?

Or am I just jumping the gun a bit here? It could also explain how you found the Liverpool a bit too quiet and not as nice as the earlier Stancor model.

I have this in writing from Pacific and it's pretty unambiguous... they only made one output and one power tranny for Trainwreck. That doesn't mean that everything written is correct or truthful, but it lends credibility to the thought that there wasn't a 2nd Pacific tranny for the Liverpool. We've had some guidance from knowledgeable folks that indicate the Rocket power tranny was slightly less voltage than the Liverpool and the Output was a reworked Dynaco... does anyone have a good idea of who made up those transformers?

rj

[JamesHealey]

Ii guess it makes sense that then i mean why would pacific have any reason to state other wise. I think ken had a hard time finding stancor replacements and probably settled on the pacific

[selloutrr]

as long as we are talking about transformers. which power transformer was used during the early stancor builds?

[Jackie Treehorn]

Pacific said they only ever made Ken a 6k6 OT so I assume the Pacific in the Liverpool you had must have been 6k6..

I was pretty sure that Liverpool's must have all had Stancor Output Transformers but if they had Pacifics and Pacific claim to have only ever made a 6k6 OT.. I'm pretty sure we can say later Liverpools had 6k6 OT?

Or am I just jumping the gun a bit here? It could also explain how you found the Liverpool a bit too quiet and not as nice as the earlier Stancor model.

I have this in writing from Pacific and it's pretty unambiguous... they only made one output and one power tranny for Trainwreck. That doesn't mean that everything written is correct or truthful, but it lends credibility to the thought that there wasn't a 2nd Pacific tranny for the Liverpool. We've had some guidance from knowledgeable folks that indicate the Rocket power tranny was slightly less voltage than the Liverpool and the Output was a reworked Dynaco... does anyone have a good idea of who made up those transformers?

rj

I've posted about this before, but 5 or 6 years ago I bought a Trainwreck power transformer off of Ebay. Apparently, Ken gave it to the person I bought it from to repair one of his amplifiers. It's slightly smaller than the Heyboer 260v/300v transformer and I've suspected that if it was ever used in a wreck, it was probably the rocket. So, I stuck it in my rocket build.

It's got 300v, 275v, and 250v taps, and the center tap, (technically 600v, 550v, and 500v, I suppose) at 250ma. 6.3 volts at 5 amps and a 5 volt winding of unknown capacity. It also has a wire to the copper ground shield which I thought was unusual.

It has two numbers stamped on it. 00249 is visible on the copper shield and underneath the Trainwreck sticker, is 10421, which seems like it might be a Pacific part number since the output transformer model is 11415.

Glen, thanks for sharing that note from Ken, too! Very cool! I think the paralleled ceramic sounds pretty nice, myself. I don't see it very often on the build pics, though. Also, glad to hear your liking the Celestion Gold. I've got one in a 1x12 for my rocket.

[funkmeblue]

hey glen, did she have the rc network on the 2nd stage plate resistor? And as well, did she have the 150k resistor after the two .002's? thanks

[paulster]

What I'd be interested to know, now that this is an 'Ask Glen' thread, is why the choice of Liverpool rather than a Rocket given that you already had the Express?

Was there something specific you were hoping to achieve with the Liverpool that you thought the Express wouldn't do, or was it just the chance to expand your collection and see what it could offer?

[geetarpicker]

hey glen, did she have the rc network on the 2nd stage plate resistor? And as well, did she have the 150k resistor after the two .002's? thanks

Looking at my one blurry pic the 2nd stage plate resistor simply looks like the standard 100k by itself just like my Express. I can't quite make it out but it appears that a 150k was not used and all I can see was that the 3rd band on that resistor was red or orange.

[geetarpicker]

What I'd be interested to know, now that this is an 'Ask Glen' thread, is why the choice of Liverpool rather than a Rocket given that you already had the Express?

Was there something specific you were hoping to achieve with the Liverpool that you thought the Express wouldn't do, or was it just the chance to expand your collection and see what it could offer?

I was at least 50% looking for a backup to my Express, something a little different but that could be used for the same gig. If I recall correctly this was before Ken had started making Rockets. A couple years later when I visited Ken he had me check out a Rocket and it was awesome. However still the Rocket was not something I could have gigged with totally pedal free. At the time I owed perhaps two pedals, a Phase 90 and a Distortion +. I was TOTALLY into the pedal free setup, and was enjoying the gain levels of the Express/Liverpool models. Yep it would have been cool to get and keep all 3 models.

[JamesHealey]

Glen i know you don't post pics of the internals of your express and understand why and respect that. But would you consider sharing that one blurry Liverpool pic as as a community we lack liverpool gut shots. Thanks