TrainWreck and Thunderfunk

Trainwreck is an amp you have either never heard of or know them notoriously.  Trainwreck has become the only challenger in recent memory to the highly sought after "Dumble" amps in the 30-50,000 dollar amp range.  So what are Trainwreck amps and why are they so rare?

Trainwreck was a series of amps put together by Ken Fischer, an amp tech out of New Jersey.  From the very beginning Ken had a lot of health problems, culminating in a life cut short in 2006 and a production line cut short at only a little over 100 amps.  Ken's designs are exercises in simplicity.  When you look at modern Marshalls or newer Dumbles, you will see vast arrays of electronics, wired with many filters, creating these crazy complex marvels of modern technology.  Ken's designs were the opposite of that.  When you look at a Trainwreck on paper, you may go "that's it?".  Just like baking, sometimes its the care and thought that goes in to a work, instead of the amount of ingredients.  Ken's designs were unique, new, and while some say influenced by Vox, were his own.  The "purity" of the signal path leads to touch dynamics and a "quickness" to the amps that other designs lack.  I am generally a "new tech or you're a cave man" type of person, but there is this word called "elegance" and if you can put elegance in your simplistic designs, there's art there that I appreciate.

How does this get to Dave Funk's spin on the A.M.P. 420, the Thunderfunk?  Well Dave was an amp tech, one of only two amp repair workers approved by Ken to work on the Trainwrecks.  In fact, when Ken was at his worst physically, he asked Dave to make two amps that were sold as Trainwreck amps, which are well documented, and verified due to the low numbers of Trainwrecks in existence.  Ken named each of his amps a girl's name instead of using a serial number, and so it is easy to track and keep records.

When I hear people compliment a Trainwreck on youtube or in a print review, I hear so many familiar things.  I hear about how fast the signal goes from playing on the guitar to hearing through the amp, and how it changes how you can play.  I have had the same thing happen with my Thunderfunk.  After playing it for months I got out the old Trace Elliot while I was demoing some compression pedals a friend let me barrow.  There was lag in the signal, the Trace Elliot, a tone machine of the rock gods, was "slow", and I never expected this to happen.  So when I read about the Trainwrecks, the lightbulb in my head went off.  Quite recently I was reading the forum on Freedom Stompboxes, and someone in another country wanted to make a Thunderfunk clone since they could not import one.  Several people said "wow, that looks really simple, should be no problem if you know what you're doing".  Again, the same thing said about Ken's Trainwrecks.

I find Dave's work really awesome, and the whole story behind all his pedigrees to be interesting to read.  The whole Aoucstic 360 story, the entire drama filled life of the Amp BH420 legacy, to the birth of the Thunderfunk as a sort of very complex yet very simplified amp making it among the top bass amps in existence.

Thanks to Dave's own website, http://www.thunderfunk.com/, the Trainwreck Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainwreck_Circuits, and Talkbass.com for all the info.

ACDC: The Mutt Lange Albums

Here we come at last, after over a month of listening to ACDC albums, in order, repeatedly, I get to the end of the Mutt Lange produced albums.  Three albums, 2 singers, and enough classic hits to fill a best of album release themselves.  Some of the most iconic rock songs of all time on are this list:

Back in Black
Highway to Hell
For Those About to Rock
Shook Me All Night Long
Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

Those Five songs alone would be enough to make a rock band millionaires for life and immortals in glory.  This is only the tip of the ice berg of this era.

Looked at sequentially, I think you can see the influence of Lange in the band quite well.  The first album they did had much more of the original ACDC feel to it, and not just because Bon Scott was still with them.  There's some genuine rock and roll mixed in with the pioneering Hard Rock sound coming through.  It is with Back in Black and Brian Johnson's introduction that we leave a lot of the Rock and Roll behind, and are full in to Hard Rock that will exemplify the successful albums and songs from here on out.  If there is a low point, we see it in the 3rd and last album, which is still a great selling, and overall good album.

Let's talk about that 3rd album, as its the one I have heard the least of.  I read that they went to France and had troubles with the technical side of their first chosen recording space.  That kind of things leads to tension and resentment in most cases.  They ended up scrapping things and heading to a place outside Paris.  I think the band was feeling the strain, and it probably lead to them parting ways with Lange.  Lange, himself, was a very busy man at this time.  The #1 album before and after "Those About to Rock"'s #1 stint was produced by Lange as well.  He was establishing what would be almost as huge a stint with Def Leppard, and would produce The Car's hit album: Heartbeat City.

Then, after the release, the band embarked on this huge, multi-million dollar stadium tour of the United States.  The stage had the now famous canons, the Hell's Bell, and enough pyro to wage a war.  It was a hard, fast, and physically draining tour.  After all of this ACDC decided they needed a change, and did a few stripped down, less successful, albums in the manner of their earlier career(of which I have not really listened to them yet, and I'm actually excited to be doing that soon).

For Those About To Rock has really great songs, but its hard to follow up the greatest selling rock album of all time.  I think what was most missing was some Angus solos.  Almost all the songs are pounding, head banging, driven songs, but they lack the "break" in the energy for a Angus soaked solo that is memorable.  The production is there... in a big way.  There's lots of overdubbing, lots of backtracks with chorus and echo effects, Lange is probably the strongest sound in the band outside of Brian Johnson with this album.  If Giving the Dog a Bone from Back in Black, or Touch Too Much from Highway To Hell were among your favorites, then you have an entire album of these kinds of songs in For Those About to Rock.

It is one of the greatest stints in music between a band and a producer, and it was one of the greatest eras of rock that influenced the genre's most popular albums for a decade after, and home guitarists for decades since, and it was great to listen to.  I feel like I hit a peak, but I know there are several hits that I have not gotten to yet, and I know the newest album as of this writing was freakin' awesome.

 So on I go through the albums.

Hand Wired Amps: Convincing myself

There are several trends which are very hot right now in the Guitar amp world(much different than the bass amp world, believe me).  The big names are scrambling to make cost effective versions of both of these trends.  One of the trends is the "lunch box" tube amp.  Lunch box amps are very small compared to what people think of when they think of tube amps.  They are also low wattage designs meant to sound like their big brothers at much lower volumes.  People realized you do not need 100 watts... like ever, unless you're pro-touring venues without PA support.  This is not the trend this post is about. (pictured: a lunch box amp compared to its big brother, with almost 50 pounds weight difference)

Hand wired is another trend.  It has been around longer, though a lot of it was due to boutique snobbery.  A lot players rejected it because it is SO cost prohibitive.  Nowadays  though, with the realization that you can live fine with sub-30 watt guitar amps, some more cost effective hand wired amps are coming to market, putting in reach of people that are reasonable, and not gear-snobs themselves.  Let's start with the easiest way to explain what they are; Visually.

That is a printed circuit board, a marvel of 20th century tech.  It is clean, easily mass produced, and works really well.  Its the familiar green board you see on almost all electronics these days, from the cheap 2 dollar radio to the expensive $1000 smart phone.  What could possibly suck about it?  As you can see, those components are TINY.  Also, they are linked by the printed circuits.  If something burns out, you have a risk of it burning parts of the board out, severing more connections and generally making a mess of things.  Also, you need someone familiar with the workings of circuit boards to get any repairs done, and that's a more rare kind of specialist.  Many times you scrap the whole board and start over with a fresh new one, which is not cheap compared to how cheap the manufacture cost is.

That is a hand wired 18 watt Marshall clone.  Look at it for a bit.  Notice how things are connected with mostly wires and how things are larger, and you can tell individual parts from one another.  The cost to manufacture this sort of hardware is at the higher end of amp manufacturing spectrums.  You need someone that knows what they are doing, and they have to do each piece by hand.  The benefit to consumers is that you do not need a degree in electrical engineering to work on them.  This is hobby level stuff and there are many "do it yourself" home kits for these kinds of amps.  Many vacuum cleaner repairment would know enough about electrical work to be able to work on these amps.

That is the benefit that is starting to convince me that I may want to go this route.  I despise having to send something in for repair work.  I hate negotiating prices, I hate the moving target that is an estimate, and I hate that I can't really tell the quality of the workmanship.  Hand wired amps allow for all of that to be in the open.  Whatever they use to fix the thing can be readily bought online, and easily price matched.  Its the same components that go into anything electronic of this type.  Also, it is not inconceivable that I would be able to do the repair work myself eventually.

The reality check is that its not 100% positives.

While Hand Wired is said to be more reliable, what they mean is that an amp tech can have it repaired and fixed faster.  If you're going to be moving around with the amp, chances are a PCB amp will be more reliable due to literally less wiring.  Hand wired amps are typically heavier too, while being less complex.  You can get certain bells and whistles added that more "modern" designs have, but it will cost you.  Cost is another one.  For what is "basic" in today's amp world, you will be paying over $1000, and that's just a head; no speakers.  I have gotten used to digital reverb in my amp head.  I could use a pedal, sure, but that means I would want an effects loop now too.  Those are all cost added luxuries to hand wired amps.

I can see why people like hand wired amps, and I can also see why they are way more expensive.  In the end though, since I'm not keen on owning a million different amplifiers, I think I need something a bit more modern.  Its just a bonus that means it also comes out cheaper.  I may be spoiled, but I want my emulated lines out, I want my built in digital reverb, and an effects loop is almost mandatory.  I have never been one for being a "60's cave man".  On the bass side of things I tend to stay top of tech in the class.  The guitarist of me has given in to the fact that I need tubes, but the bassist in me won't let me give up what I'm used to.