Rocket Done Tonight

[Greg]

Sure would love to hear a clip of a ROCKET...

[RJ Guitars]

Sure would love to hear a clip of a ROCKET...

http://www.aleestephens.com/player.htm

Ask and you shall receive - The guitar on "Learning to Live" is Derek Ferwerda.

Amp - Trainwreck Rocket #1 - Ken Fischers very first Rocket amp.

Guitar - ESP Stratocaster (swamp ash body and Lindy Fralin pups).

Amp Volume setting - 2 O'Clock

Opening lick was with the guitar turned up.

On the rhythm guitar and lead solo the guitar was backed down a bit.

Listen to the crunch chords going into the chorus and later in the bridge - that is Rocket tone... plus that funky lead, the guy can play!!

Derek also did the guitars on "stay with me", Andy Lee Stephens cover of the old Rod Stewart tune. There is also some slide work he did on that album, see if think you can spot it from listening to the songs?? Here is one clue, Derek only uses the Rocket, and never adds an effects pedal.

Look around on the forum and you'll find some more from the various forum built Rockets. Take time to find the tracks by "Fishy" - he has a great sounding amp.

Check out the Christian Band Novella - Derek did all the lead work on their 2nd album.

Also listen to the Christian band Guardian, Dereks original Rocket was used on a few of their recordings also.

Cheers and happy hunting!!

rj

[Fischerman]

RJ, have you asked Derek (or do you know) what speaker cabinet and speakers KF preferred with the Rocket? AFAIK, it was a 4x12 with G12M-25s for the Express/'Pool...but what about the Rocket?

[Ron Worley]

Hey Fischerman-

I seem to recall that Hoagy came on the board a while back and noted that Ken liked 2x12 Celestion Blues if I remember right...

Ron

[RJ Guitars]

RJ, have you asked Derek (or do you know) what speaker cabinet and speakers KF preferred with the Rocket? AFAIK, it was a 4x12 with G12M-25s for the Express/'Pool...but what about the Rocket?

Fischerman - here is a quote from one of Derek's notes to me. I think I posted this elsewhere, but it's worth repeating.

... it was my years of interacting with Kenny, in his basement listening to sound variations, that led him to tell me that he was building me a “one of a kind” amp. I remember the day like it was yesterday. Sometime in early 1988 I believe, we were sitting around playing through three different cabinets. They were my 1968 ampeg v4 cabinets that were all outfitted with pre-Rolla 30 watt green back celestians....

The Andy Lee Stephens stuff was recorded using the Rocket through a 60' Marshall reissue cabinet, but I don't know what speakers were in it.

I talked with Derek on the phone tonight and he said send him a list of gear questions and he'll answer them for us. He has enjoyed posting info for us and he'll talk pretty openly to us about any gear questions we've got. A few folks have asked about his and or Ken's (Derek always calls him Kenny) preference in speakers so I'll put that on the list of things to ask him about.

He also mentioned that he had just finished a live recording with the band that backs Patty Labelle. He'll let me know when that is available and we should have some more Rocket recordings to listen to.

I'll post a note indicating that Derek will take some technical and gear questions over on that "Meet Derek..." thread, I don't want to Hi-Jack Allyn's thread here.

rj

[RockinRocket]

This is a duplicate of a real one down to the perf and parts. You can use this as a layout for an exact duplicate. here are some pics...

Allyn very awesome build! Very inspiring!

What year Rocket was this based off of?

Do you remember the part number for the terminals used (perhaps T28 .062 hole size)? Or was it the .092 size hole terminals?

Are the Pecs correct for the Pots? All 4

Thanks!