Trainwreck Express videos

[PeteRH]

I would like to stop by when you're not home to "borrow" the Trainwreck, Callaham, and of course the Les Paul.

Bill Callaham sould be sending you a check in the mail!! You can't buy that sort of endorsement/publicity. The Callie sounds great and is in the distinguished company of a 20K wreck and a 200K Les Paul!!

[Dai H.]

this is a real Trainwreck? I've only heard the blues one w/the Les Paul, but my impression was that this is one of the best sounding 'wreck clips I've heard so far (besides that one w/"Ann Wilson" somebody posted on another board sometime back). I was kind of "iffy" about the ones on the Komet site but I liked that one. For some reason though had trouble playing it w/windoz media player (sound cut out at a certain point). The most troublefree playback so far (also tried the free VLC media player) was in Irfanview, which is mainly a picture viewer...

[doctord02]

This is a real Wreck, and is actually the same one as that clip thats sounds like it has Ann Wilson singing on it (it's not her, BTW). Same guitarplayer too; it's his amp.

[Dai H.]

ahh thanks! I knew it wasn't actually the Heart singer, but I just remember everybody joking about that after the soundclip was heard. Sounds good...

[geetarpicker]

Yep it's a real wreck. '89 Express "Orphan Annie".

Back "in the day" I walked into Angela instruments in Maryland and there was Steve's Express. He used it for cutting sandwiches on! Well I was a plexi 100 guy at the time and asked about the wierd looking amp. He said it was a good amp to "control with your guitar". I said very cool, that's what I like in an amp but it's hard to find. Steve actually offered for me to take it home for a week and check it out. Timing was good as I had a couple gigs that week so I used it on stage. I was hooked. So I got "on the list".

About 3 months later I heard Ken had built an Express with some issues that he was selling at a cut rate so I jumped on it...

Got it for "a deal" since he had some issues with it at first. A crackling sound that took a while to pinpoint. Sounded alot like a bad preamp resistor or something, and was intermitent. He thought he had fixed it, so he sold it to me for $850. Normal price at the time was $1200. Mine has a "2" stamped in it! Got the amp, and it sounded great but within a week or so the weird noise came back, but by that time Ken figured out what the deal was. His first batch of new trannys (black pacifics? is that who made them?) had some bad solder connections internally. On my amp the bad connections were on the heater windings. Well, I got a second tranny from Ken and put it in myself. POOOF! Hmmm. Ken had gotten some new trannys built with "improved" soldering, and he went ahead and also had them upgrade the wire to a bigger gauge. It backfired though. On my second tranny the big wires apparently didn't fit under the end bells too well and were actually pinched and shorted internally. So that's why that one went POOOF immediately. SO, Ken then orders some new trannys with the improved solder connections, larger wires, AND bigger end bells to accomodate the bigger gauge wires. That did it. Got the 3rd tranny in the amp and all has been 100% ever since. Ken and I worked together on the fix. I would rather solder in the new trannys myself than ship the amp back and forth. So anyway, my amp has been perfect ever since we got the tranny situation sorted out. The only remaining ghost of all this is some of the board connections have a little extra solder on some of the preamp board terminals. Ken had been pulling components on the board in a few places trying to trace the problem, and things aren't exactly as clean as virgin solder connections. Still very clean though. Glad I got the amp no doubt. At the time it wasn't a big deal to trouble shoot the amp. Ken did warn me the amp might still have some issues, but it worked out. Luckily we got the amp fixed 100%, and also Ken found out that he had some bad batches of trannys that I guess went back to the manufacture.

Just goes to show building these things isn't easy.

Oh yeah, "Ann Wilson" was my ex-wife who could sing that style very well.

Yep, Bill Callaham is a funny guy. I think my Strat is one of his first 10 strats he built. Got it before he really had a waiting list. It was on display at a guitar show he did when he first started out. Took it home that day, gift c/o an (ex) girlfriend that was with me back then.

I know, way too much information. Cheers, G

[gnugear]

Those sound great! I'm inspired to start working on mine again. You're original clips are what got me interested in the TW thing a couple years ago.

[Chris G]

It's been 15 years since I really got into comparing the difference in tone in the cab backs. Don't even remember my findings. I do know that my particular slant sounded better than an identical era BW straight I had at the same time. And I even tried moving the same speakers into the straight. Then I tried them in a stripped bare wood early 70s straight with plastic handles. No go. Put the 25s back in the slant. For some reason, my set of 25s have better low end and overall tone in this particular BW slant cab. Maybe it's a tuning thing. The wood?


Recently I found a great sounding straight cab of the same era. It is a hodge podge internally. One prerola G12H 30 watter, and x3 25 watters a green, a grey, and a black. Sounds killer though, very similar to the slant in my clips. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

My feeling is that some of the old boxes sound different, just because of the wood. I have a friend with 6 basketweave cabs (3 slants, 3 straights), and he feels the same way. You got to find the right speakers and the right boxes that work together. Interestingly, my friend is also of the feeling that his best cabs are a couple of his slants. That is quite opposing to the common view that the straights sound better.

Hi Glen,
Here is a picture of my 71 slant!!!

[Necrovore]

Man.. Im mising out. I get video just no audio.

[dobbhill]

I still can't get the videos to play. I loaded the codecs that PeteRH posted but still no-go. Help!!??
d

[dobbhill]

Geetarpicker
Is this the same Celestion speaker you have in your box?
This is from '74. I'm pretty un-educated in Celestion lore.
D

[geetarpicker]

My 25s are green, but yes are G12M 25s with 75hz designations. Mine say Rola and have green backs. The green backs W/ rola on the stickers probably date them just after the change of factories. I guess the prerola ones are even more sought after. Maybe these are just as good. I like them. That said they came out of a '71 cab, then I stuck them in my '68 BW slant that's in the video. When I got my BW slant it didn't have the original speakers at all, but I found these and have stuck with them ever since.

I just checked, and I had this written in my Palm Pilot about the speakers:

G12M 25w75c/s 102-3cone

July 1971
GD16XT1221

Date code interpretted should mean: 16th day of July, 1971

[chimeboss]

geetarpicker- Your codes are correct and your clips just plain smoke. Thanks for sharing

I have a bunch of old Celestions.
I can take some pics of the identifiers on different types if anybody is interested.

CB

[dobbhill]

I for one would love a vintage Celestion lesson. I keep hearing about green/black label, pre- and not-pre Rola, and cone types. Is there a site or reference area that I could access to do some homework? I love my '74 slant front Marshall cabinet, but know nothing about what makes it special. I know that my TW clone attempts sound better through it than through my Altec 417's or my 2x12" RH Music Man with alnico eminence drivers (1977) (a wonderful box and highly under rated, but don't tell anyone!!).
dobb

[gnugear]

I have a '68 straight basketweav with 55hz G12M black backs and it sounds fabulous.

[PeteRH]

Man.. Im mising out. I get video just no audio.

That is exactly what I had. You can see that Wreck, you can see that Burst but no sound and I know how frustrating that is!!

Sorry I cant step you through the process...but I recall looking up the properties (maybe right mouse click) in Media Player while the clip was running and it came up with a missing codec number. I did a search on the number found out in my case it was an AC3 dolby codec and googled again for a download.