Real TrainWreck mojo!

[leadfootdriver]

TTT

Great read.

[Mick Bailey]

Has anyone heard/taken a look inside a Z-wreck?

[finom1]

Could you post this schematic again?

[finom1]

Any updates on the schematics, wire routing & voltage/component values?

[bob p]

Brad Paisley owns one now. You can tell when he's using it because it sounds like crap! Definitely not an amp that had seen Ken's touch in a long while. And Brad, of course, has an amp tech. Who probably got it up and running in top form... Minus the special sauce!?!

I'm not a fan of BP or that genre, though I did catch one of his performances on Austin City Limits a couple of evenings ago. I noticed that he had a Trainwreck amp sitting on top of a few Mike Zaite heads. I think he played through the Z for the whole set and switched to the Wreck for one song. I remember being surprised that he had a Wreck, and being even more amazed at how crappy it sounded. IMO his tone was kind of lousy all through the night ... never heard Z amps sound so uninspiring, and never heard a Wreck sound like ass before. Maybe it was just a bad mix but I think you're right -- there was definitely some crappy tone coming out of that Holy Grail amp. I wonder if his tech tried to "fix" that Wreck and ruined it, it or if the amp just lost it's magic somewhere along the way because Ken Fisher is no longer around to anoint his amps with Holy Oil. My take home lesson was just like yours -- I thought BP's Wreck sounded especially lame.

[FalderGuitars]

I haven't read the Dave Hunter book. I'll look into it.

Hi,

I'm only a few years late, might have missed the party

I'm not personally that interested in Trainwreck amps (or I wasn't, until I read this thread!), but I've coincidentally just re-read Dave Hunter's excellent 'Guitar Amp Handbook'. Did you ever get around to reading it?

The interview with Ken Fischer is very interesting, he has a lot to say in particular on wire and chassis materials. If there's any interest, I can scan the interview and make it available. It's probably information that you already have, but it might be nice to hear it from the 'horse's mouth', if you haven't already

Matt.

[Chuck H]

I appreciate the time consuming and generous offer. I'm not one to tax people with that sort of thing though. I get to these things in my own time and having someone go to any trouble and then just sitting on it is something I would consider disrespectful. So many irons, so little fire

[bob p]

if he scans it for me, then you might as well read it, Chuck.

[Tom Phillips]

If it is posted...I will read it.
Then save it.
Then read it again ...
T

[FalderGuitars]

I appreciate the time consuming and generous offer. I'm not one to tax people with that sort of thing though. I get to these things in my own time and having someone go to any trouble and then just sitting on it is something I would consider disrespectful. So many irons, so little fire

Hi,

While that sounds like a polite refusal, tough luck, I've scanned it anyway Only took 10 minutes and I've a quiet morning, so it's no trouble. Looks like a few others are interested too - even if you've no time to read it there's enough interest to make it worthwhile. I hope you do find the time though, it's an enlightening read.

Matt.

[FalderGuitars]

Part two...

[bob p]

interesting read. some of the things he says remind me of voodoo guruism. for example, i can't agree with his assertions that the skinning effect is relevant at audio frequencies. i think people who use solid wire choose to use solid wire because it stays where you put it. wire insulation pigment effecting tone? oh, please.

[Chuck H]

Indeed! I've tried to focus on what Ken got right rather than wrong. When your amps start selling on the collector market for 15x value one is apt to think they're onto something even when their beliefs are unusual. And perhaps even say some shit out loud. The trouble is that other people might start to believe it too. I remember in the Weber books, one of Ken's tips if you want to add presence to BF fender amps was to simply put the cursory .1uf cap across the 47r feedback load. Similar to the Bassman/Marshall circuit with the presence on 10... Except that the circuit impedance for the BF feedback loop is such that only frequencies above about 15k are affected by the .1uf value here!?! Obviously the .1uf value was chosen arbitrarily because if it's provenance in the most popular presence circuits since a value 100 times greater would be necessary in the BF type circuit if you want to affect the same frequencies as the presence in a Bassman/Marshall circuit. Putting this solidly in the category of just thinking out loud and allowing it to be printed. This is unfortunate clumsiness for a guy that made really good sounding amps.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Putting this solidly in the category of just thinking out loud and allowing it to be printed. This is unfortunate clumsiness for a guy that made really good sounding amps.

Ya think Ken might have been feeding Gerald baloney on purpose, to see whether he'd accept it and print it? Mr. Weber claims he has the technical chops, so why didn't he "do the math" and question Ken further? From all I've learned about Gerald Weber, don't trust anything he has to say, and that goes for anything he quotes too.

[FalderGuitars]

I have to admit to cracking a smile at the idea that the colour of the insulation affects the tone - didn't Van Halen allegedly prefer a certain colour of cable? 'The red ones sound better, man!'

That said, is it definitely nonsense? Perhaps part of the reason his amps are so desireable is that, whilst we're all laughing at the idea of tuning an amp using the colour of the wire, he actually tried it and got results? They all laughed at Christopher Colombus...

Aside from that, I'm inclined to lend the rest of what he says a cautious creedence, although I suspect few of us will have the time or resources to experiment in any great depth. I'm usually happy to have enough wire in the drawer to finish the build, without having to worry what it's made of!