Approach to Harmonics

[RossH]

I think Doug H is right.

I do too...and well said, Doug.

From all I have heard Ken talk about and others reference in their conversations with him...I believe he would concur with a smile.

Ross

[ampdoc1]

I agree with part of what Doug said in that these amps are "special" and it may be that there is an "on the edge" factor that might be impractical for most manufacturers to copy without fear of warranty problems. Certainly I've seen numerous Boogies that exhibited very bad sounds if used in certain ways. However, that being said, the circuit layout I used to build a "clone" is very close to Marshall/Fender typical topology, and I had NO problems with instability from the get go. And, there is no combination of settings that produces any problems. I can't claim that my amp is everything that a vintage Trainwreck might be, but it is heads above all but a very few "commercial" amps I've played (that number is > 1000), and it exhibits all the qualities that most players ascribe to TWs; wonderful, multitudinous harmonics response, and extended dynamic range.
Further, the amp on which I based my "clone" (and I reverse engineered this myself) used perfrboard with a few connecting wires for the layout, and adhered pretty closely to vintage M/F component locations. All in all, I'd have to say there seemed to be little in the layout or choice of components that seemed "special", and there was no evidence that any of the components had been removed or resoldered (indicating changing values , etc). I do believe that Ken nailed a very robust and touch sensitive combination of gain stages and smooth EQ to produce a wonderful guitar amp.
Can't CLONE one of these"? No, but you can take any number of the published schematics that contain a large part of the Trainwreck genome and make a wonderful amp. And, you can do it for thousands of dollars less than the boutique Trainwreck siblings available today, as well as have a grerat time doing it! DEH

[snide]

ampdoc1 brings up a very good point. The amp I built was purely based on the A1a schematic. I have never heard a real wreck in person, so I can only compare what I built to the few recordings on the net. My amp seemed to share several of the qualities I hear in the recordings. I have however seen, heard and played a komet (which has a more modern sounding distortion voice). I liked that sound so I changed the values in my wreck to more closely follow the komet topolgy (the fast/gradual circuit is nice!). The current tone of my amp sounds very similar to a komet. The point is, clones/copies will never be 100% of the original but I think if you can get 70-80% right, it will blow away most of the junk on the market today. Not long ago I converted a bogen pa to an express...this thing is cheaply made and laid out point to point with a steel chassis. In the end it sounded incredible and used 7868 output tubes! So, the circuit is a large part of the puzzle. David, was the amp you studied for your clone an actual trainwreck?

Eric

[Doug H]

Can't CLONE one of these"? No, but you can take any number of the published schematics that contain a large part of the Trainwreck genome and make a wonderful amp. And, you can do it for thousands of dollars less than the boutique Trainwreck siblings available today, as well as have a grerat time doing it! DEH

I agree with that 100%.

Doug