Hammond AO-35 Blues Express build

[maxkracht]

Not sure If I should post here or in the Hammond conversions sticky. I was asked to turn an AO-35 into something Trainwrecky and this is what I came up with. Tighter than I would like for anything remotely high gain, but no feedback or weirdness on the first powerup. It's my first attempt at a trainwreck style thing. Sounded good to me and It's new owner seems to dig it. Reading about the lore is kinda interesting, will have to try some others once I'm a bit more versed in the style. Faceplate drill locations and layout if anyone wants to do something similar.

express hammond face.jpg

hammond express guts.jpg

Hammong Express 35.jpg

[johnnyreece]

Thanks for sharing! I was wondering: Does the cathode biased EL84 make it a little more Liverpool than Express?

[maxkracht]

This is the farthest I’ve gotten into Traninwreck stuff, outside of reading the TW pages a long time ago and modding someones Komet, so no Idea what it’s closest to. I thumbed through some Express schematics, thought it might work with a cathodyne PI to avoid adding a tube, then found a schematic for that exact thing called a “blues express”. Every “clone” I build is a pretty loose interpretation anyway. I don’t have the attention span for doing the same thing twice…

[drew]

Enjoyed the build video. I’ll join the chorus of YouTube commenters hoping that you and the owner can get together on a demo video at some point.

[maxkracht]

Thanks. The owner of that amp has described himself as an enthusiast but not serious or a professional, which makes me believe he is very good but shy about being very good, so probably won't hear a demo on that one. I tried to be a recording engineer in a different life, so I've got the gear, just need to reassemble it and force myself to record a bit on future amps I put together. I still think gear demos are kinda silly. Can't really tell how good anything is without plugging in yourself, way too many variables...