Kendrick New JoyZee Trainwreck Climax (KendWreck?) Amp Kit ?

[AshokanKid]

Kendrick New JoyZee Trainwreck Climax (KendWreck?) Amp Kit ?

Just arrived here from reading the other (older) post regarding this amp and kit and was wondering about other owners experience, tweaks and mods. (Would love to hear and see more from Gerald, too.)

Quick background about me. I began life in my teens fascinated (like many) with playing The Electric Guitar as The Beatles had just completely changed Music for me and The USA (post Elvis, etc.).

My Basement Band days usually ended with everyone else continuing to jam as I sat in the corner, soldering iron in hand, fixing the stuff that broke (I had also worked with my buddy building ham gear).

My Teen Years came and went and I got involved in Life (family, kids, job, etc.) and the guitars and amps went into the closet storage. Fast forward MANY years and I am now re-discovering My Old Love.

Although I still tinker with soldering iron and tools on occasion and have a few amps (old Fenders, Marshalls, etc.) my eyes are not as good as they used to be and my "skills" certainly are not either.

This is what brings me here. I just bought a Kendrick New JoyZee amp that was home built (in New York, bought direct from Gerald?) several years ago (by someone else) and got it home.

First thing that I found was that there was no tone control on the first (clean) channel and then discovered a loose (non-existent) solder joint between a resistor and tone pot body (ground).

That gave me back tone controls and I've gone through the rest of the circuit as much as I can (don't have all schematics, yet?) and everything looks as designed, but it is still not quite "there".

I would be interested to collaborate with any other owners of these amps to see what experiences they are having and if there are any tweaks, tips, mods, or advice that can be offered.

The other post covered the "History" of these amps (Ken Fischer / Gerald Weber collaboration, of sorts) and so we are not interested in re-hashing any of that unless it is pertinent to amp operation.

I would love to get this thing up to snuff and performing nicely as it seems like the base design, bones and guts certainly have promise and potential. (Might like to get the caps off the pots too, perhaps.)

In any event, if there are any other owner / builders / tweakers out there who can offer advice and assistance it would be greatly appreciated. Wanna get my iron warmed up again~!

Thanks in advance for any interest and help.

AK

[M Fowler]

Here is the kit instructions for those that want to help out but I don't have the layout.

Mark

[AshokanKid]

Mark;

THANKS so much for the Kit Instructions. I have a few of the pages (from the previous owner / builder), but not all.

I do have the Parts list and Layout, which I will scan and post here as well (as soon as I can figure out how).

I just DLed the Trainwreck Climax schematic (posted on the older thread) and compared it to what I have here.

My amp has 6L6's and the Climax (in the schematic) is set up for EL-34's. I only found one other change in the parts.

My amp sounds pretty good as the two 12" Kendrick brown frame home built cabinet that recently came to me "as is".

My feeling is that I may make this into a head as it may be easier to tweak / mod and utilize in different situations.

I'll post pix and clips in case that helps anyone else out, but I'd really like to open this amp out a bit more.

From my recollection, this one sounds a bit "muffled" compared to a real Blackface old Fender amp. (speakers?)

More to come and THANKS again~!

AK

[TerFore]

Here is my take on this amp. I purchased the kit in June of this year. It took about 1 month to receive the kit and I had to call a few time to get a status. When it arrived, the box was 2 pieces of cardboard that was held together with alot of tape. The power transformer had a huge dent in it and the chassis had a broken spot weld on one side. So, that is the bad part of my experience with Kendrick.

The good part is that Gerald is pretty giving with his time and helped me on the phone troubleshoot a nasty hum that I was getting on the clean channel. The board and layout were easy to work on and the ample instructions (see attachment) were very helpful.

For this amp I used 2 10's in series (16 Ohms). The cabinet, as I was told by Gerald, is basically a Vibrolux Reverb with one inch of depth added. I used Western Themed Vinyl tolex and a loose white basket weave for the grill cloth.

This amp should really be used for a bigger venue. In order to achieve the tone that I like, the volume had to be up so much that it was a bit overwhelming. The lead channel has a good bit of hum if you are not using a humbucker pickup. Overall, I really enjoy the amp and think that this is a great sounding amp.

[M Fowler]

Replace that Texas Tea pot with a dual pot to add a master volume and wire the amp without the Texas Tea circuit.

Then you could have some control over volume.

I would run a 12AX7 or 5751 in V1 rather then the 12AY7 shown for more gain.

Mark

[AshokanKid]

Hey TerFore (& Mark);

That is one NICE looking amp! Good job. That is very similar to what I am wanting to do, as my amp came to me already built (not sure of the year, but am guessing 2006-2008 or so) and in a 2 X 12 tallish cabinet with the speakers one up and one down, barely the width of the amp chassis.

My plan is to build a cabinet with possibly 2 X 10's or a single 12, which is more where I am leaning. Where did you get the specs for your 2 X 10 cab? Is this something that Gerald assisted with or recommended? There is very little other info on the Kendrick web site about cabinets or heads.

I am also considering a head for this until I get it tweaked and dialed in the way that I like it (easier in and out from a head?). As per Mark's suggestion regarding a master Volume (and any other mods) it may be easier to pull in and out of a head than a full cab.

Since this amp is purported to run on a variety of output tubes, where is there info on what is required to do this for each possible configuration? My amp came with 6L6's and I may like to try EL-34's and perhaps some other options. Any info on what else needs changing?

Thanks much for the input, guys, I really appreciate it. I have other amps (old Fender, Marshall, etc.), but since this one is / was a kit, I feel MUCH more inclined to dig in and mess with the circuitry and see what else can be mustered from this base platform.

GREAT to hear from other owner / users.

AK

[John_P_WI]

Since this amp is purported to run on a variety of output tubes, where is there info on what is required to do this for each possible configuration? My amp came with 6L6's and I may like to try EL-34's and perhaps some other options. Any info on what else needs changing?

As long as your output tube sockets are wired as the previously posted schematics show, pins 1 and 8 connected together and to ground (or current sense resistors). Also the 1k5 (1500k) screen grid resistors shown will help with the EL34s too.

If your amp is similar to above, plug in and re-bias.

John

[AshokanKid]

Hi Mark;

Oh, man, just noticed your hound dog and the date~! Sorry to hear. My own Chocolate Lab is nearing 13 (on Halloween) and I can feel his time coming. His back legs and hearing are shot, but his spirit is still full and loving as ever. What a blessing those guys are.

Thanks for the 12AX7 / 12AY7 idea (& master Volume). I have not even begun to play around with tube swaps, though I am considering trying EL-34's in place of the 6L6's that my amp came installed with. Where can I find info regarding what else needs changing when using any of the separate tube options?

Listed on the Kendrick site, the options are;

6V6, 6L6, EL34, KT66, 6550, KT88, 5881, 7581A, EL37

7581's! Wow. Very cool. Wonder how 6550 / KT88's would work. This amp seems loud and powerful enough already with the 6L6's. . .

AK

[AshokanKid]

Hey John;

Thanks for the info. I'm just getting back into playing with vacuum tube electronics after a rather long hiatus. (30 or 40 years?)

Here's how long it has been. I'm glad that you wrote "1k5 (1500k) screen grid resistors" because I was wondering what that 1k5 meant.

We would have always written that as 1.5K or 1500 ohms. Ahh, times change. Thanks for the schoolin' as I was curious about that.

AK

P.S. Confusing to me particularly because when I saw 1K5 I would have thought that it was 1K 5 Watt rather than 1500 ohms? Hmmmm

~

[Firestorm]

Small value resistors tend to get written as "1D5" with the "D" meaning decimal (as in 1.5R). So following the same style, 1K5 is 1500R and 1M5 is 1,500,000R. Confusing, I know. But the one that still stops me is the capacitor shorthand, like "10mmf" for 10 micro-micro farads...

[Firestorm]

Small value resistors tend to get written as "1D5" with the "D" meaning decimal (as in 1.5R). So following the same style, 1K5 is 1500R and 1M5 is 1,500,000R. Confusing, I know. But the one that still stops me is the capacitor shorthand, like "10mmf" for 10 micro-micro farads...

[M Fowler]

For EL34's pin 1-8 are tied together so as long as your amp has that your good to go with a variety of tubes.

The 12AU7, 12AY7, 12AT7, 5751, 7025, 12AX7 also noted as ECC83, and many more can be swapped in and out as you like. It's a matter of gain of the particular tube. Lowest to highest gain.

Thanks about my dog, something is going on today as my other dog is chasing ghosts around the house not sure what he is seeing.

Mark

[AshokanKid]

Small value resistors tend to get written as "1D5" with the "D" meaning decimal (as in 1.5R). So following the same style, 1K5 is 1500R and 1M5 is 1,500,000R. Confusing, I know. But the one that still stops me is the capacitor shorthand, like "10mmf" for 10 micro-micro farads...

I'm guessing that this convention is meant to facilitate a schemo that has smudged or faded, where the decimal point could get overlooked.

Personally, I still think that 1500 (or, 1.5K) has less potential for confusion than the 1K5 which may seem like 1K 5 w.

Isn't mmf = pf ? (My metric conversion without actually calculating it was never very good). Getting back on topic;

Had sent an email to Gerald (Weber) asking about any updates, tweaks, mods or any other advice that he could offer now that this design has "matured" and he replied with this very nice email;

" Hi ;

That is one cool amp. I am sure you will love it. There are no updates needed. We have been making those amps since 1998 and the kinks were worked out and updated years ago. It is perfect just the way it is.

Gerald "

Still, I am very curious to hear about others personal experiences with this amp and any mods or tweaks that have worked for them.
Seems kind of like a modders dream amp in a way (or one of). Pretty good bones and guts and a good basic design to start with.

AK

[AshokanKid]

The 12AU7, 12AY7, 12AT7, 5751, 7025, 12AX7 also noted as ECC83, and many more can be swapped in and out as you like.

Thanks about my dog, something is going on today as my other dog is chasing ghosts around the house not sure what he is seeing.

Dogs (and other animals) are WAY more sensitive about stuff like that (ghosts, etc.) than we are. Actually, we Humans USED to be more Aware in the past, but it is less "useful" now, perhaps? Pretty amazing.

I just bought a few boxes of preamp (and other) tubes on eBay just for this purpose, though originally for my tube mic pres and tube mics.

Fun and interesting that many of these can be swapped for differences and variations in audio characteristics, not to mention various manufacturers of vacuum tubes as well (another variable!).

AK

[Structo]

I know what John meant but he wrote the long number as 1500k.

1K5 is 1500R.

Just to be clear no numeral nazi here.