hi all,
Omar, congratulations and good luck with your tw site.
Out of all the choices in the files session, what would this group recommend for a first TW build?
thanks,
--mark
First timer?
Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal
Re: First timer?
Hi Mark!
I'd suggest the A1a schematic as being the one to build first, I think that one is very, very close to a real Express.
Matt
I'd suggest the A1a schematic as being the one to build first, I think that one is very, very close to a real Express.
Matt
Rocket or an Express
Dear Mark
I've recently built what I believe to be a Rocket (AC-30 with Trainwreck style power supply) which I like. I should point out that I did leave out the 220K resistor between the treble control wiper and the P.I. stage, which is shown in the circuit that Matt posted up.
This amp has good clean tones and sounds good when it is cranked up. The gain level I think is sufficent, but it isn't as high gain as an Express.
The second recommendation is an Express A1a, once again they don't have much of a clean sound, but they are bright with stacks of gain.
Your Sincerely
Mark Abbott.
I've recently built what I believe to be a Rocket (AC-30 with Trainwreck style power supply) which I like. I should point out that I did leave out the 220K resistor between the treble control wiper and the P.I. stage, which is shown in the circuit that Matt posted up.
This amp has good clean tones and sounds good when it is cranked up. The gain level I think is sufficent, but it isn't as high gain as an Express.
The second recommendation is an Express A1a, once again they don't have much of a clean sound, but they are bright with stacks of gain.
Your Sincerely
Mark Abbott.
Yours Sincerely
Mark Abbott
Mark Abbott
Re: First timer?
Mark,
I also would suggest the Express A1a schematic. I built it and really like the amp. It took a while to tame the amp, plus a bad tube had me chasing my tail for a while but I really like results. Like everyone says its bright and has lots of gain. I get my cleans by turning down the volume on my guitar and I get a really cool chimey clean.
Check out the cool layout pdf.
Omar
PS. Are you the mhuss that built the JTM-45 clone with the Swanson cabinet? I ended up ordering a Swanson head cabinet after seeing your amp for my Metro plexi clone I'm about to build.
I also would suggest the Express A1a schematic. I built it and really like the amp. It took a while to tame the amp, plus a bad tube had me chasing my tail for a while but I really like results. Like everyone says its bright and has lots of gain. I get my cleans by turning down the volume on my guitar and I get a really cool chimey clean.
Check out the cool layout pdf.
Omar
PS. Are you the mhuss that built the JTM-45 clone with the Swanson cabinet? I ended up ordering a Swanson head cabinet after seeing your amp for my Metro plexi clone I'm about to build.
Tone by misadventure
Re: First timer?
Say Omar,
You mention cool Express layout but for the life of me I can't find it in the files section. I have a copies of an Express layout and chassis layout by twreckt that I can't find in the files section. I scratchin' my head over this because I must have got them from this site, can't really remember. Anyway the file names are express_layout_rev_3.pdf and Express Chassis Layout.pdf. If you have these can you put them up on the site? If they're already posted I'll take another look for them. I'd like to discuss them with the people here. Thanks.
You mention cool Express layout but for the life of me I can't find it in the files section. I have a copies of an Express layout and chassis layout by twreckt that I can't find in the files section. I scratchin' my head over this because I must have got them from this site, can't really remember. Anyway the file names are express_layout_rev_3.pdf and Express Chassis Layout.pdf. If you have these can you put them up on the site? If they're already posted I'll take another look for them. I'd like to discuss them with the people here. Thanks.
Now you've done it!!!
Can you clarify where to DNLD the A1a schem and layout, etc?
Thx
steve
Thx
steve
Re: First timer?
Thanks, all, for the feedback.
Jeff makes beautiful cabinets, I have three (one head, two speaker) -- so far.
--mark
That would be me, if you're referring to http://mhuss.com/SmallBox/Omar wrote:Mark,
PS. Are you the mhuss that built the JTM-45 clone with the Swanson cabinet? I ended up ordering a Swanson head cabinet after seeing your amp for my Metro plexi clone I'm about to build.
Jeff makes beautiful cabinets, I have three (one head, two speaker) -- so far.
--mark
-
LeftyStrat
- Posts: 3114
- Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:58 pm
- Location: Marietta, SC, but my heart and two of my kids are in Seattle, WA
Re: Now you've done it!!!
Hi Steve,sgrass wrote:Can you clarify where to DNLD the A1a schem and layout, etc?
Thx
steve
It is the first link in the Files forum under the subject "Schematics and Layouts", "Several interpretations of the Trainwreck Express from blueguitar.org "
That PDF has around ten pages of schematics. If you go to the last page of the document it has a description of each version.
Re: First timer?
Sgrass- schematics are in the files\schematics and layouts\main schematics. These are schematics only. I can't find any complete layouts on the site but I do have a complete Express layout .pdf file that I got somewhere, it's put together by twreckt. See my previous post here.
Re: First timer?
Keep scrolling down in the Files/Schematics and Layouts and look for the post called Express Layout
Omar
Omar
Tone by misadventure
Ooops
My fault. Got it.
Re: First timer?
Hi Omar,
In the Express layout section there are two .jpg's and one pdf file. Wrecked2K4 made another pdf file(s) of the complete component layout of an Express that I'm not finding here. There are two files that I downloaded from....(?): express_layout_rev2.1.pdf and express_layout_rev3.pdf. Are these on the site, do you have these files, if not, would you like to have them to post on the site?
In the Express layout section there are two .jpg's and one pdf file. Wrecked2K4 made another pdf file(s) of the complete component layout of an Express that I'm not finding here. There are two files that I downloaded from....(?): express_layout_rev2.1.pdf and express_layout_rev3.pdf. Are these on the site, do you have these files, if not, would you like to have them to post on the site?
Re: First timer?
Hi!
I'm wrecked2k4 from the Yahoo! group, and I took those layout files down because of some accuracy problems. I've got a lot of new content that I've been slowly working on, and hopefully I'll be able to offer it up soon. I'm happy to answer any questions you have though!
Matt
I'm wrecked2k4 from the Yahoo! group, and I took those layout files down because of some accuracy problems. I've got a lot of new content that I've been slowly working on, and hopefully I'll be able to offer it up soon. I'm happy to answer any questions you have though!
Matt
Re: First timer?
Hey Wrecked,
Love the diagrams! I'll wait for the updated versions to come out before asking too many questions. I've built 3 amps so far and largely depend on layouts to assemble. Needless to say I'm far from being well versed in electronics/electrical theory but enjoy learning what I can ,assembling components and rockin' out.
I have a 'wreck clone of sorts. It was a joint effort. I found someone on ebay selling some of his work and used him to make a A1a using EL34's out of components I provided. He made up the board and put the thing together in a plexi chassis I had. It doesn't really sound like the Express mp3's I've heard here but definitely has it's own thing going. It's more clean than gain but is on "edge" and when pushed will give up the goods.
I'm thinkin' of making another but this time to your pdf layout dims and specs. Are the component values in the new layout going to reflect changes you've made to the circuit that makes it "work". I understand there is a lot of tweaking to be done to make things work right and just wondering if that is what is going to be shown in the final layout pdf.
Thanks for the great work for all to share. (This goes to all contributors to this site).
Love the diagrams! I'll wait for the updated versions to come out before asking too many questions. I've built 3 amps so far and largely depend on layouts to assemble. Needless to say I'm far from being well versed in electronics/electrical theory but enjoy learning what I can ,assembling components and rockin' out.
I have a 'wreck clone of sorts. It was a joint effort. I found someone on ebay selling some of his work and used him to make a A1a using EL34's out of components I provided. He made up the board and put the thing together in a plexi chassis I had. It doesn't really sound like the Express mp3's I've heard here but definitely has it's own thing going. It's more clean than gain but is on "edge" and when pushed will give up the goods.
I'm thinkin' of making another but this time to your pdf layout dims and specs. Are the component values in the new layout going to reflect changes you've made to the circuit that makes it "work". I understand there is a lot of tweaking to be done to make things work right and just wondering if that is what is going to be shown in the final layout pdf.
Thanks for the great work for all to share. (This goes to all contributors to this site).
Re: First timer?
Hey!
Thanks very much for your kind words! In working on figuring out the chassis dimensions, I originally used a few different graphical methods to establish where everything was located on the chassis. These techniques do work pretty well in general, and they are also fairly quick, but the accuracy isn't quite good enough to be sure on some things (maybe +-1/8"). What I ended up doing was cracking open some old linear algebra textbooks and writing an image program in MATLAB that did the transforms from paper to photo space and vice versa in a much more accurate fashion. I've applied it to Ginger, Mandolin, Ingrid, Malou and Lindsay so far and the results have suggested that there was a little bit of variation between amps but in general they're pretty close. I've got some slightly different values for a few of the chassis measurements so you might want to hold off on drilling/punching it until I can get them out, and a few changes in the design of the head cabinet as well. If anyone's already done a chassis, don't worry, it should still work just fine and I don't think the present measurements are even really outside the variance, just that the latest chassis will reflect the more consistant later models.
I've learned a lot about desktop publishing since I first started posting layouts, and since that original file was done as a raster image it was getting mighty bloated. I guess people would probably find the A1a layout the most useful, so I'll move that one to the top of the list.
It's tough to ever get the exact same tone as any clip (and FWIW Alex is a smokin' player, others who have owned and played the *same amp* have said they couldn't get it to sound like that clip either
). It doesn't have to sound even remotely like a 'wreck to be something great. Aside from some high gain issues, this circuit shouldn't be that hard to get to work compared to other NMV amps, but I do think that tweaking values really does bring out the best in this circuit (as I guess it does with any, but this one it rather sensitive to it).
Anyway, thanks again and good luck with your build!
Matt
Thanks very much for your kind words! In working on figuring out the chassis dimensions, I originally used a few different graphical methods to establish where everything was located on the chassis. These techniques do work pretty well in general, and they are also fairly quick, but the accuracy isn't quite good enough to be sure on some things (maybe +-1/8"). What I ended up doing was cracking open some old linear algebra textbooks and writing an image program in MATLAB that did the transforms from paper to photo space and vice versa in a much more accurate fashion. I've applied it to Ginger, Mandolin, Ingrid, Malou and Lindsay so far and the results have suggested that there was a little bit of variation between amps but in general they're pretty close. I've got some slightly different values for a few of the chassis measurements so you might want to hold off on drilling/punching it until I can get them out, and a few changes in the design of the head cabinet as well. If anyone's already done a chassis, don't worry, it should still work just fine and I don't think the present measurements are even really outside the variance, just that the latest chassis will reflect the more consistant later models.
I've learned a lot about desktop publishing since I first started posting layouts, and since that original file was done as a raster image it was getting mighty bloated. I guess people would probably find the A1a layout the most useful, so I'll move that one to the top of the list.
It's tough to ever get the exact same tone as any clip (and FWIW Alex is a smokin' player, others who have owned and played the *same amp* have said they couldn't get it to sound like that clip either
). It doesn't have to sound even remotely like a 'wreck to be something great. Aside from some high gain issues, this circuit shouldn't be that hard to get to work compared to other NMV amps, but I do think that tweaking values really does bring out the best in this circuit (as I guess it does with any, but this one it rather sensitive to it).Anyway, thanks again and good luck with your build!
Matt