1992 Trainwreck Express Katie

[RockinRocket]

The photo of 6 Wrecks siting on the 3 Voxes was that your collection? With the Indian (Kaylene?).

I mention Komet simply from the schematic has the express cathode resistors of V1 switched around and the bypass cap is a .68uf on the first stage. Other than that from the schematic its basically a Express and Komet was Kens way of making amps with current production components.

I forget who you are and how you came to have had a big collection of Wrecks. Do you have a link to a thread(s) that would be insightful in any way?

Thanks the replys in this thread.

[2tone]

No those weren't mine. I have never posted a pic of mine. I started getting Trainwrecks before most people had heard of them. Talked on the phone with Ken weekly for years and years! Got a great insight and appreciated his many talents and knowledge of many things. He was a fellow animal lover too. Anyway I didn't buy them to collect, but because they were all so unique. I made big sacrifices to get one when I could, and they were more affordable then. Yeah there are similarities in Komets and Trainwrecks, and I think Holger was the impetus to start the Komet thing when he got with Ken to make the Kendrick Climax more like a Trainwreck I Think. It led to a whole different approach. A .68 cap can make a lot of difference in midrange, slanting more towards marshall vibe..What's cool is the science of modding and building Ken's circuits has led people down many nice paths to their own sound.

[Mark]

Did you have the Rocket with the switch mod in it. I did that mod to my Rocket clone, it's subtle but is good when switching between a Fender and a Gibson.

As far as more gain from an Express goes, bypassing the 10K cathode resistor will yield a LOT more gain. Not recommended though, as the amp gets a lot noisier.

[2tone]

yes that' what I thought too about it. I usually kept it in the regular mode tho..The Katie mods were not bypassing the 10k tho, but there are many ways to increase gain. The amount of gain increase would not be noticeable to most people playing Katie. It's still got the same focus and harmonic emphasis of a standard Express...

[RockinRocket]

yes that' what I thought too about it. I usually kept it in the regular mode tho..The Katie mods were not bypassing the 10k tho, but there are many ways to increase gain. The amount of gain increase would not be noticeable to most people playing Katie. It's still got the same focus and harmonic emphasis of a standard Express...

Your killing us here! Just tell us already

[2tone]

Ha You'll have to buy it to find out!

[RockinRocket]

Your amp is on consignment I knew it!

The only folks buying these amps at this point in time are celebrities. And even then they don't all ways keep them. You got his friends selling his amps. Funk taking credit for building amps under Kens name after his passing. The 40k price tag is all ways going o be the asking price. I don't see the harm in paying tribute to Ken by examining his work especially after the ones closest to him do it for their own profit/glory.

[2tone]

I didn't buy the amp with the intention of selling it and making a profit. I bought the amps when they were under 2000. It wasn't me that jacked the prices up. At some point in your life, everything you own will be sold or handed down to someone else. I didn't get 40k for the amp either. I'm drawing retirement,(SS), and am selling lots of gear to be able to stay afloat..Lots of Trainwreck owners, and ken's closest friends have sold their Trainwrecks, lots have re acquired another amp too.

[RockinRocket]

The point I was trying to make was whats the harm in sharing the details of these amps? The folks buying these amps now days are rich and the common amp garage builder will never get his chance at owning a original. Most folks that bought these amps like you bought them when they were cheap from a relatively new builder. It just baffles me that folks that have hung on to these amps all these years don't want to share much information but might participate or take the relatively small amount of free information from this forum. Why the secrecy? Im sure you have pictures of your old amps but are very selective of the information you will give. I just don't get it. The 2k amp that was bought 20 years ago folks are afraid the 40k value will drop? It shouldn't be about that. This is a place knowledge of Trainwrecks. It seems stupid to me that its suggested you would have to buy the amp to see how it works. Just my opinion and have no intention of upsetting you or anyone. Thanks for the Information you have brought to this forum

[2tone]

The amp is not mine now. Ask the new owner. I have shared a bunch of Trainwreck stuff on this forum, but as a matter of principle, don't post Ken's mods . He always kept a few secrets from people, and wouldn't want something like this given out. However eventually it may come out from the new owner. You have to ask whoever owns it now. I don't know who that may be...I don't care what the value of original Trainwrecks is. I never sold the amp for anything near 40k anyway. That's all I'm going to say on the topic

[Littlewyan]

The value of original Trainwrecks will never drop because no one can match the originals. Sure the new ones are great but they weren't made by Ken, hence why they don't fetch as much second hand. Its about preserving Ken's research and hard work. He spent a lot of time tinkering with amps to get them to sound the way they do and to be fair to him he did share a lot of info with people in articles he wrote. He also, I believe, shared info with people that were willing to do their own research and come up with original designs. Not just copy other people's.

So yeah, not many of us will be able to afford an original Trainwreck to then open it up and see whats going on inside, but we can tinker and come up with our own modifications. Who knows, your own modification might sound better than Ken's. At the end of the day its all subjective.

[RockinRocket]

Its about preserving Ken's research and hard work. He spent a lot of time tinkering with amps to get them to sound the way..

I don't know if I would agree with that. A bunch of folks on this forum have lots more Trainwreck information/photos ect than me/you that are handed around selectively with the agreement of keeping it between themselves. But for what? These amps are already being cloned, sold for profit, by members of this forum, friends family like JM and Hogy all going against Kens will. The worst part of it is these guys were a lot closer to Ken than most or all of the folks on this fourm. Now you got Funk taking credit for building authentic Ken built amps. All after he has passed.

If one person didn't share information or a gut pic. This forum would never have a Trainwreck category. I feel as sharing information is great. His legacy will stay alive with folks building clones of a amp that many would never even have a chance to play but now they can experience it. I see sharing kens mods/information being positive to paying tribute to the brilliant man. Not as a insult or a ploy for someone to make money like his "friends" mentioned above. "Preserving his work" Only the rich will get to experience his work unfortunately.

[2tone]

This is NOT going against Ken's will. Show me the facts where Ken would want all of his mods etc posted.. I've never seen that. He was generous with his info, but that didn't include all of his research and special mods. He never gave away that when he was alive. he shared enough so that people could build their own type of clone. He didn't provide transformer info and other esoteric stuff. Remember, JM is the official Trainwreck builder now, so I am respecting this kind of info on his behalf too. JM does not share his own takes and mods on Trainwreck amps. Enough of this. There are lots and lots of TW schematics, chassis pics etc so that each guy can build his own. Beyond that, it's up to you to create your own tweaks and mods. Use your own ear...

[rooster]

Hm. Funny thing is, I've watched those videos on Premier Guitar with the real deal TWs in the hands of a novice and they sound like shite. I seriously doubt Billy Gibbons couldn't get any Express equipped with good NOS tubes and biased properly to sound identical to the next one. Sure, it might feel a little different to him but I doubt the recording mic would show that.

BTW, when audio guys speak of 'opening up' an instrument's tone, it's typically the midrange that gets scooped somewhere along the frequency range.

Is there an audio file of this amp?

[RockinRocket]

I know we have a differing point of view and that's ok . I only see the three "friends" I mentioned above who don't give a rats ass about Kens will nor his family for that matter. At this point I don't understand holding back tweaks or Kens ideas to be used for the community. There will always be the greedy ones that will sell clones and in a sense Im ok with it because these amps arnt obtainable and not everyone knows how to build a amp. If Ken was still building amps I would most certainly be on his list for an Express. But its not the case.. cant happen unfortunately. And I don't want a Jm Trainwreck and could care less about his clones or his tweaks. I want to know how and why Ken did what. Im not really interested in moding a Diy because I frankly don't know how I would even know where to star/look for or if a 5% tolerance would make any difference to me. You owned the amp and wanted to know how the circuit was tweaked. By your logic im not even sure you should have been digging for Kens mod. The community would be enlightened to see Kens tweak for modern tubes. But unfortunately no one will know what Ken thought was the appropriate tweak. I wouldn't be surprised the least have you shared thisinformation in the past. I see no harm. Its out of respect and Ken should be flattered to say the least.