Brad Paisley in Gtr Plyr Mag, talks TW..

[rooster]

This month's issue. He has a Liverpool, which surprised me, I thought he had an Express? But when you think about it, him being an AC30 kinda guy it makes perfect sense. He talks about the amp as if it is the dominant amp he uses for his solo gtr work, and talks about a particular track that you can hear it on. He mentions Z and the AC30s, but it is very clear that he and that TW are mated for life. Very cool.

[M Fowler]

BP has been using his Liverpool for quite some time now. He also has the Z-wreck built by Mike Zaite (DR Z) and fine tuned by Ken Fischer. Also you can see that he uses the Bruno Cowtipper, Bruno 30 and some others. I believe he relies on his 62 Vox AC 30 also. He has been in all the major guitar mags lately with nice shots of his gear. He also likes his Stingray as well and I sure like mine too.

Mark

[gearhead]

He got it sometime in mid-07. Someone here identified it as Hattie Mae. It's owner passed away and the family sold.

Brad talked about it in an article in another mag about a year ago. Unlike all his other amps, who ride below in cargo, she get's her own seat on his bus. LOL.

[Ron Worley]

I'm surprised that he hasn't done the Glen K. thing and have a really accurate clone made for touring, leaving the original for the studio. Kinda like have a VOS Les Paul made a leaving the '59 Burst safely in it's case at home!

[M Fowler]

He already has custom amps made such as the Z-wreck, two of those, custom Brunos, custom VOX 30 made after his old 1962 VOX and the Dr Z Evan which is a amp Dr Z was not allowed to name after his son, Evan, due to another product already called that per Dr Z announcement. The Dr Z Remedy is now out along with the new Z reverb.

Mark

[RJ Guitars]

This month's issue. He has a Liverpool, which surprised me, I thought he had an Express? But when you think about it, him being an AC30 kinda guy it makes perfect sense....

The Rocket is really the AC-30 clone, much more so than the Liverpool, but still a whole lot closer than an Express. If you listen to Derek Ferwerda's country licks on the Andy Lee Stephens recordings then you can hear how great the Rocket is for Paisley type of picking.

Assuming money is no object, I believe that the Rocket would be an interesting amp, maybe even a first string amp for many famous pickers... if they could find one. Finding one is really the problem. Does Any know the number of real and legitimate Ken Fischer Rocket amps that he built?

rj

[Ron Worley]

There were supposedly only about 100 of all 3 kinds built. My guess is that the LP and particularly the Rocket were built in lower quantities, so 20 wouldn't be a bad guess....

[RJ Guitars]

Ron,

I'm with you on the total, but I'll guess that it was less for the number of Rockets.

We only know of a handful of Rockets... I think I can name 5 or 6, although some of them might be a repeat. Of course there is #1, Amanda, Derek's amp. Ken made himself one at about the same time. Then, according to Derek he didn't make any more for quite a while.

Allyn has mentioned that he has seen two Rockets, neither of which was Derek's. There is the Rocket "Malou" that Dave Funk actually finished... I don't know how much Ken actually did if anything on that amp. There is one at http://www.ultrasoundampsales.com. If we assume each one of these is a different amp (which we don't know) then that is a maybe for 6 known specimens. There could be others as well, I really don't have the info to know otherwise.

If we consider that KF was a very busy guy with backorders for Express and Liverpool amps, even before he came up with the Rocket, plus worked with the Komet guys, plus in his last several years was plagued with health problems, it seems reasonable that he might not have made too many Rockets... just my guess but seems reasonable and it also appears that almost nobody has one of them.

Going back to the Ultrasoundampsales - those guys have images of nine different Trainwrecks on their WEB site. We can't tell the difference between the Express and the Liverpool amps by the front panel, but anyway you look at, those guys are probably holding 10% of the total product built by Trainwreck amps.

Curious if anyone else can add any info to the total numbers. I agree with Ron that he made more Express amps than Liverpools, but it's mostly speculation and guesswork on my part. We see a few Express amps for sale like the one on Craig's list recently and obviously Brad Paisley found a Liverpool. We also know that Glen had a Pool for a while.

Thanks,

rj

[Brad737]

Mark,

Where have you seen BP playing all those amps? Every time I've seen him perform lately, he's only been playing the Z-Wreck, the Bruno UG30 and the Liverpool. I've never heard of him playing the EZG-50, Remedy, or the Z-Verb.

Thanks,
Brad

He already has custom amps made such as the Z-wreck, two of those, custom Brunos, custom VOX 30 made after his old 1962 VOX and the Dr Z Evan which is a amp Dr Z was not allowed to name after his son, Evan, due to another product already called that per Dr Z announcement. The Dr Z Remedy is now out along with the new Z reverb.

Mark

[geetarpicker]

I recently ran into Brad's guitar tech. He said as far as he knew all the distorted tones on Brad's new mostly instrumental CD are his Liverpool. That said, alot of the guitar on the CD is clean stuff and other players. But there are a few places where you can hear a screaming tone that sounds very familiar to me

[Brad737]

Yeah, Chad's a good dude. He used to post a lot on the Dr. Z Forum. But lately, Brad's only using the Z Wreck, which isn't available to mere mortals, and the Z cabinets. He uses the UG30 and the Z Wreck for his clean tone, then switches to Hattie Mae for his lead tone. But the Stingrays and Prescriptions seem to be history for BP.

[M Fowler]

Brad737

Paisley has been in all the major guitar magazines lately or actually continually and they always have great shots of his gear and write ups. I was wrong about the Remedy he was using the Evan the amp that Dr Z had to rename per his report on the Forum.

Vintage Guitar 1/2009 issue notes Brad reported he is running Hattie May the Liverpool 30, Two Z-wrecks now housed in Hardwood cabs like the Trainwreck, Stingray head, two Bruno Underground 30s, Bruno Cowtipper, and Fender Vibro-King and the Dr Z Evan. In the studio Brad reports he uses his old red Vox by itself, a lot, with another amp. Used the Underground 30 with a three knob reverb unit for the song, Play. He notes lots of things were just plugged into either the Z-wreck, the Bruno, or Trainwreck.

Oh by the way Brad, thanks for the heads up on the blemished cab section on Z forum. I ordered a head and combo in Red of course to match my red Stangray. Now I need to get my RT66 build done.

Mark