Our Trainwreck Express Clone Gets An Upgrade!

[@dancunningham7268]

Thank you Driftwood guitars for your hospitality. David and I had a blast visiting and demoing amps. You guys are the best!

[@LookatmyHandle353]

How do I get one of these amps??

[@magnusberger6762]

Sounds great! Those harmonics are crazy.

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you!

[@IainHC1]

What a talented man!! SO switched on and passionate about his skills and art!! :-)

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you!

[@kylevanvleet6108]

Killer amp for sure! I appreciate the attention to detail he put into it from the research to honoring ken’s design approach. You can tell he’s passionate about it! And a generous guy too!

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you for the kind words. It means a lot to me. Thank you.

[@soapboxearth2]

Sweet. If you ever need a badge , ive got one!

[@brentstewart59]

What a sweet creation. Man that's a monster and I think Ken would be happy with your treatment of his design

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you, From what I have heard from his friends, he was a great friend to them. I am attempting to carry on that spirit as much as I can.

[@bldallas]

Very cool amp; thanks for bringing its builder, David, on to talk about it. I had never heard of Train Wreck amps, but hearing his explanation peaked my interest. I also just finished watching the 5 Watt World video on the history of the original amps. Wow, fascinating stuff; and considering Fischer’s old hand built amps are now selling for 10s of thousands of dollars, what an awesome amp to”clone” and better yet, to receive as a gift. So cool. Great job to David, as well.

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you, If you have any questions let me know.

[@Super_Nope_13]

"y'all rubbed this cabinet before? ... get in line and rub this amp cabinet!" haha, love y'all

[@Super_Nope_13]

touch it... touch yours

[@thestereoclub6735]

David at 4:15... "you build one". Very true about amps, guitars, pedals, vintage hifi... If you can't build one from scratch, take one apart and make it better.

[@davidedwards7172]

Very true, I would say that's how most people get started. A lot of amp builders started as repairmen, and later starter modding amps to make them better.

[@14djfunk]

Someone needs to make an alarm with the Trainwreck's driven harmonic feedback. Electric guitarists dream about such things and I, for one, wouldn't mind waking up to it every morning...

[@davidedwards7172]

Agreed, It does it in a very musical way.

[@stratplayer4562]

Damn you guys! Thats the tone i want! Aaaaaagghh! Ever need an artist down there( your inlay is incredible) give me a hollar You guys are doing what i want to do. It bothers me. God bless and rock on. Jesus just left Chicago........

[@fiddlix]

I was lucky enough to play through an original Trainwreck Express and your clone does all the tricks and sounds extremely close without using the 412 cabinet Kenny recommended.

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you. Years ago I was looking for one of those Ampeg v4 cabs. They are a very hard find. I am sure that was a memorable experience for you.

[@kapstersmusic]

Hopefully the impedance on the attenuator also matches your Stewmac amp kit when you finish it! All the over-driven, buttery, saturated power tube tone, but none of the hearing damage or annoyed neighbors. I got a top grade attenuation unit last year and won't ever look back. I was using the recording line out of my Mesa Boogie into my mixer before that but it cut the power tube section out of the signal chain entirely. Even my 5 watt modded Valve junior is too loud when I push it to overdrive. But does is have alignment dowels is my question?

[@davidedwards7172]

That design can be used with any impedence. As long as you can match the amp to the speaker. So the Deluxe is set to 8ohm and as long as it's an 8ohm speaker, it'll work just fine. It has alignment clips, does that count? =)

[@kapstersmusic]

@@davidedwards7172 Nice! Impedance matching for any amp was a must when I purchased my attenuator. I got one that will even match amps with any impedance speaker cab. Yeah just kidding about the dowels. After watching Chris' last video on gluing the top onto the 3000 year old guitar I was thinking "everything in life should have alignment dowels things would go so much easier"!

[@michaelbanach9972]

@@davidedwards7172 how can I send you a personal message? didn't see a way via your KZbin page. Cheers

[@martincampbell1990]

You gotta make a custom pedal board to go in the ammo can attenuator!

[@davidedwards7172]

Something like cut the bottom of the ammo can and use the bottom of the ammo as the pedalboard? Would be a cool thing to see.

[@martincampbell1990]

@@davidedwards7172 was thinking more like a mini wooden board with fold out sides to angle it for when in use, it would be stored in the ammo can, and use mostly small/mini format pedals, ie electro harmonics, mooer, ibanez.

[@davidedwards7172]

@@martincampbell1990 very possible, it’s a very large ammo can, used for 40mm rounds. I know Matt O Ree only has a way and tube screamer on his. That’s all you really need with a wreck maybe a tape delay

[@andrewmiller2868]

Hey guys, I’m guessing someone has already suggested this but I’ll still say it anyway, it seems to me that David is a guy who knows his way around a tube circuit or two and I reckon he would be a wellspring of help and information for your amp build Matt. Thank you Chris and Matt for creating and developing an educational, informative and entertaining channel for all us guitar and amp geeks out here 👍👍👍

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you, don’t worry I’m on standby if they ever have questions about amplifiers. While I was there I passed on some of my knowledge to them. It’s all about the open exchange of ideas an experiences, that helps us grow.

[@sammyrothrock6981]

Actually it has little to do with aluminum conducting better it actually has to due with magnetic flux fields from the output transformer and noise I studied Ken Fisher and Dumble extensively I have build many Dumble Clones . Ken would actually go through 20 output transformers to find 5 good sounding ones! The ferro magnetic flux field would be lower if output transformer was mounted on steel which would equate to magnetic coupling.

[@davidedwards7172]

You are correct. Wanted to keep things at a very high level.

[@GIBKEL]

Cathode or fixed? Off the shelf transformers or custom wound?

[@davidedwards7172]

The Express were all fixed bias. One awesome thing about them is that if the bias is set correctly you can swap between EL34's and 6V6's without rebiasing the amp. The transformers were bought off the shelf, but they are what was used in later Wrecks.

[@JasonClute]

Tolerance in electronic components can for sure be a pain. Even in the guitar when you think you have a 500k pot loading your humbucker, but its really 350k and its sounded dull as can be. The other difficult issue can be measuring the correct value. Decent multimeters aren't bad for resistive things but capacitors can be tough to measure without proper instruments. Using something like a LCR meter and the 4 wire method can help reduce errors of lead resistance and parasitic capacitance is better. But those can cost $1k and more! Of course, if you are just interested in relative differences between a handful of capacitors then a decent multimeter is ok

[@davidedwards7172]

Agreed, one of the things I learned when chasing the Robben Ford tone was the bass pot needed to be around 400k, important when the preamp boost is on. After ordering 10 different pots I finally put a resistor in parallel to get the correct value. Another good tone trick is a strat with a ~300k volume pot IE Eric Johnson. A good meter and knowing how to use it are important. Don't have it set on AC when checking for safety in the amp caps hold DC.

[@msPaulaA1]

OKAY OKAY...I'm sold how much? David do you make and sell boutique amps, if not why not?

[@davidedwards7172]

I am currently not. I have medical issues that prevent me from doing a lot of things that I used to do. I am just having to do different things to find the sweetness in life.

[@msPaulaA1]

@@davidedwards7172 Im sorry if it seems like I’m prying didn’t mean any offense. I understand completely as I am in the same situation. My body is getting in the way of what my brain wants to do. My hands only let me play for about 20minutes and then I have to take a day off before the next set. Hang in there.

[@davidedwards7172]

@@msPaulaA1 None taken, done worry. Sorry if I gave you the impression I was offended. I am about the same as you when it comes to my hands. That attenuator took two weeks to build when most people would of been a few hours. I am pretty open to talking about my health issues. I have Ehlers Danlos, basically the connective tissue in my body isn’t made correctly. So I get subluxations very easily. Keep up the playing, keep finding the joy in life.

[@russellesimonetta9071]

Trainwrecks inspire you to play Mississippi queen!

[@davidedwards7172]

I'll be around to answer questions if need be in the comments.

[@14djfunk]

It seems like the attenuator is a voltage divider circuit (with high frequency bleed capacitors). I looked up other circuits that use rotary potentiometers in lieu of fixed positions you're using. Is there an advantage over a fully variable rotary potentiometer? Maybe easier to tune consistent resistance values with bleed capacitors?

[@davidedwards7172]

@@14djfunk In this one there are no capacitors. The two big brown and gold items are resistors. There are schematics that use a high-wattage potentiometer with a bright cap. In fact, there is a version of this type of attenuator that has a "Bedroom Level" that uses such. But the "Bedroom" potentiometer is wired as a variable resistor. One advantage of this type is that different speaker resistances can be used, 4/8/16ohm. If you were using the large potentiometer only you would be stuck with only one resistance.

[@14djfunk]

@@davidedwards7172 Thanks for the explanation!

[@davidedwards7172]

@@14djfunk Your welcome anytime.

[@youssefkasim7556]

Man.. your work is amazing. Keep it up, you’re a genius.

[@ralphmuller6040]

Am I the only one who noticed the typo in the sign at the introduction - "No Stairway, Freebird, or *WoUnderwall* ?

[@DaveEdwardsDesigns]

You are

[@bobdillon1138]

They are great for lead but a bit too loose and wooly for overdriven rhythm ideal would be this for lead and a Marshall for rhythm.

[@davidedwards7172]

Matt O'Ree using an express for lead and a Rocket for rhythm work.

[@ratiugjr]

Thank you for posting this. I've studied these things for years and they are such a very cool amp. The hardest thing in using them is managing the absurd volume they produce. The attenuator is a great tool but because of the way our hearing works nothing seems to sound as good as loud. Nice job on that amp build, it has a Wreck vibe for sure. rj

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you, I see you a lot on forums. You've done a lot of great work on studying wrecks.

[@gabrielpascoli1612]

This is awesome

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you.

[@rickya3877]

Fantastic job...even through KZbin I can hear those Trainwreck characteristics...I spoke to Ken a couple of times on the phone many years ago (he sounded a bit like Saul Rosenberg from the Jerky Boys lol)...he would talk amps for as long as you wanted...great guy and very generous with his knowledge...wish I would've bought one of his amps back then!

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you for the kind words. I feel like so many great people were taken too early, Ken was one of them.

[@jennifer6833]

What brand is that amp? I remember Rhett playing it and making it sound sick! It has really good tone from what I remember, as well as having a positive build quality.

[@davidedwards7172]

It was built by me. It's a clone of an Express amp.

[@jennifer6833]

@@davidedwards7172 do you make models to order?

[@davidedwards7172]

Not at this time. Due to medical issues, I’ve had to refocus myself. Sorry

[@gabrielpascoli1612]

You gotta put a Strat on that too

[@davidedwards7172]

Yes, what surprises a lot of people is how well single-coil pickups sound through this type of amp.

[@dancunningham7268]

I agree. That amp sounds KILLER with a strat. So many toys...so little time....

[@roosky203]

That thing is MEAN son

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you

[@russellesimonetta3835]

Uhh trainwreaks weren't heavy metal or hair band amps. They are super touch sensitive vox based rock and blues amps!

[@davidedwards7172]

I would generally agree with you on that statement. Their Liverpool and Rocket amp are more R/B in that Vox realm. The Express amps were a little different. Not as open sounding, more gain, and compression. When I think of Express amp tones, Bon Jovi and George Lynch come to my mind mostly.

[@vgs3740]

What type of cab is this? Boogie Thiele or?

[@davidedwards7172]

Its a MKIII extension cab. With the back boarded up.

[@scottdunn2178]

Only Ken Fischer could build a Trainwreck...

[@alvanchipster]

that is so true

[@Mark70609]

So what was the upgrade?

[@davidedwards7172]

It was the attenuator I build for use with the amp, to help keep the volume down. When I originally gave them this amp it only included the amp and a loaded speaker cab.

[@johnvcougar]

NO Stairway! Denied!

[@davidedwards7172]

You got it 😀

[@robpags]

Nice gloves

[@davidedwards7172]

Thank you, good protecting for when I need to use a wheelchair, and helps me grip things.

[@chrisquinn9104]

The Trainwreck I built does not like attenuation, or non 25 watt Celestion Sacrificing so much tone

[@davidedwards7172]

The speaker in the cab, is a Mesa Black Shadow, basically a classic 80 that can handle an additional 10 watts.

[@chrisquinn9104]

Nice

[@micoklokoc654]

Trainwreck is a registered trademark. That is not a Trainwreck

[@DriftwoodGuitars]

Well no shit man. We never said it was.

[@qddk9545]

You don´t know what ´clone´ means ?????

[@ronjinks8932]

A resistive load will suck all of the treble out and kill the dynamics rendering your sound dull and lifeless and will NOT do that amp justice. On the other hand , a modern REACTIVE load attenuator would sound great!

[@noel3422]

Zero disrespect intended just a personal opinion but this amp does not sound like a $20,000 dollar amp with a 4 year waiting period. Ken Fisher was an icon in amp design but I have yet to hear an original spewing out the "this amp was designed with everything on the edge of being out of control" tone.

[@davidedwards7172]

None taken, I got as close as I could. Wrecks are not for everyone. Its hard to beat the legends like Howard and Ken. I wish I could of talked with them before they passed on, not to find the tone secrets but just to talk with them about their life experiences.

[@samp3413]

@@davidedwards7172 Wondering how close the 'current' Trainwreck builds compare to Ken's original builds and if they're any better than some of the high end clones out there? I built my clone for less than $1500 with some upgrades.

[@davidedwards7172]

@@samp3413 Matt o’ree did a comparison between an original and a JM version. There is a difference, but there was a difference between every amp he made.