Just got banned from the Dr. Z forum...

[Brad737]

I'm not saying the current Ghias are exactly the same. I'm saying the very early ones that he built his reputation on are Hammonds. Google it. There are tons of pictures floating around of them.

The very early Carmen Ghias were literally even still on the Hammond chassis, and screwed into a tiny head cabinet with a Z on it. You're quite right though. It wasn't just a lift of the Hammond circuit. It was literally the Hammond circuit and hardware, still on the Hammond chassis.

I'm not a buddy of Z, I don't play his amps, and I haven't eaten his pizza or drank of his coolaid.

The Carmen Ghia is NOT a straightup AO-35 in a new box. The circuit is modified. If you look at an unadulterated AO-35 - I have a couple on my bench - you'll see the differences.

"Similar"? You bet.

"Share components, iron, and chassis"? No contest.

"Same"? No.

If you hate the guy, face up to it. That's OK if that's what you need. Please let's not spread the "net wisdom" mistruths.

[CaseyJones]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOPIAdyRmls

[Structo]

I'm glad the lyrics were printed there, I would never have guessed what he is saying.

[CaseyJones]

"Banned from the Roxy... O.K.
I never much liked playing there anyway."

Banned from the Z forum... same thing.

[Zippy]

I'm not saying the current Ghias are exactly the same. I'm saying the very early ones that he built his reputation on are Hammonds. Google it. There are tons of pictures floating around of them.

I have seen "early" Ghias and - comparing to my original AO-35s, they are not the same. Please show me the links to which you refer.

Have you compared them to the schematic? Have you seen an original AO-35?

[M Fowler]

The early Ghia built using the Hammond AO-35 were rebuilt with Mike's own circuit not just repackaged.

[Brad737]

I've only played one early Ghia, but it sure looked like the Hammond to me. The only schematics I've seen are for the late model Ghia. I'm banned now, so I don't have access to the forum, and I'm not going to waste anymore time on Zaite.

My point was that Zaite hates everybody on the Amp Garage and calls us thieves and scumbags for "profiting from Ken Fischer's designs", which is exactly what he's been doing. When I called him on it for selling the Z Wreck, I got kicked off his forum.

"Hello, Pot? This is Kettle...You're black"!

[M Fowler]

Yeah unless Dr Z knows differently Ken F. gave us his blessing to build TW amps and encouraged us to go beyond what he did. He must have given the same blessing to Mike Zaite.

Now hear we go again 99.9% of us are building for our own enjoyment and a few do make some type of monetary profit for building and selling TW type amps.

But how come if you watch the Guitar show and amp show videos on youtube and Premier Guitar you can see many different Kats are selling TW type of amps and not all of those builders are members here.

I haven't had a chance to talk to Mike Zaite but would love to learn more about that Zwreck. Oh and I need some of his chassis too, I'm getting tired of drill all those holes and got a few amps to build.

[azatplayer]

Ive owned a few new Z's and one used one. My dealings with the brand have been great. All his amps ive owned were likewise. They are good buying in the booteek world of overpriced amps.
The forum is an incredible marketing tool, and ive made some great friends on there. Full of info relating to the products. I think hes quite unique in the market place, and has a cool spin on his products. And i LOVE red!
I have watched a few guys hurt and leave or asked to. Gonna happen where theres people im afraid. And theres a LOT of folk over there. Some are PIA's, some are brilliant. Bit like church..

[joe tone]

Whatever. I really don't care. At this point, I just think it's funny. Guitar playing is a hobby of mine, and not a source of stress. I just think it's funny how some of Z's zealots think that only a Z amp sounds good, and every other amp sucks. They think Zaite's their buddy, just because he throws them a pizza party in June.

I do agree that it's lame how Z attacks other builders. He'll post calls-to-arms when someone asks people to compare a Z to something else on TGP. His forum is just a sales tool, and most of the folks there are just too dimwitted to see it. Like I said, I think it's kinda funny.

You know, I've had many of his amps (had being the keyword) and they were ok until you a/b'd them with another. When I got my rote 66 my buddies and I were just so wowed with it that we pulled out my JTM45 reissue to see how much better the Z sounded. Well the next thing you know everybody's lookin at their feet so I say it. "the reissue 45 sounds way better, doesn't it?" It actually did. My 65 amps london sounds light years better than any of the 3 Maz18's I had (I just kept thinkin it must be me or I musta got a bad one). I'll stick with my London and My Ceriatone OTS as they meet my giging needs and make me smile. I got an email from Duncan today saying something about a new pickup that Slash uses. Not to throw rocks but am I the only one who thinks that many serious players won't really care? Well I never got throw out of a forum so congrats. I did get banned from a lot of music stores in NJ when i was a teenager tho. Seems they didn't actually want you to plug in and turn up.

[tonalvision]

[quote][quote="Brad737"]Well, Dr. Z is going to start selling the Z-Wreck. I just expressed my surprise because I no-kidding asked him to build me one after I found out that Brad Paisley had started playing one. Zaite said he couldn't build just one of them because it would be too expensive. So I said, if you don't want to build just one, would you build me 10? So he says he couldn't bear to make money off of his dear friend Ken's name. Anyway, I expressed my surprise that he was going to start selling the Z Wreck because of what he'd told me, and a bunch of morons freaked out because they love Zaite so much.



Funny how people get upset when talking about KF and his designs. Remember how Nik at Ceriatone actually stopped selling the TW clones after catching so much flak about it? He re-thought it and started again.I asked a guy who builds amps on the east coast, who was friends with KF, (builder will go nameless here) if he would build me a TW clone. He had a kneejerk reaction similar to one in above quote. He said that he would not exploit KF's intellectual property, that he was friends with the guy, etc. Are we supposed to bury all of KF's ideas with him? I did not know KF personally but it seems that he would not want the TW concept to just stop in its tracks or to have the ones that he built be the the very last ones available.
The amusing thing is... later on I saw the same builder (must have had a change of heart) was offering to build amps similar to TW on craiglist or some other website he was posting on.
Its almost as if the guys that knew KF feel as though they now are custodians of his stuff and can do whatever they want with it .
I respect the legacy and from what I have heard you couldn't meet a nicer guy than Ken. I don't get the reactionary behavior when his name or circuits are brought up with some people as with Brad and the Good Dr.

[Structo]

I think it is the old story of the pot and kettle.

Now I didn't read it anywhere but here but the guys here claim, and I have no reason to doubt them, that Ken gave his blessing to this group of hobbyists for making a Wreck for personal use.
He did not want companies making a profit from his designs.
Apparently he didn't feel a handful of tube heads (gear heads) were a major threat to him because he didn't think anybody but him could build the amps to the standard he was capable of.
Could be, but then we would be stepping on egos.

I don't think he has any patents on the circuitry, as most of it is borrowed from Ampeg, Vox and Marshall, but he did combine the bits and pieces in a unique fashion.
One is easily lead to believe when viewing the schematic of an Express that it is a simple amp.
But if you spend any time reading the threads here you will see a lot of guys that don't have a lot of experience under their belts get into trouble pretty quickly because they don't understand the interaction of components and signals and how to avoid trouble.

I do think it is shallow to put a Trainwreck logo on any amp not built by Ken.

[WesKuhnley]

The Z-Wreck isn't shown on the Z website. Are we sure that Mike intends to sell them? Is it sort of a custom run, or a commercial product?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Z-fan...just sayin' is all.

[Brad737]

Wes, Zaite is raffling off the first one on the Z Forum as we speak. Supposedly, the proceeds will go to charity. Although Zaite hasn't named a charity yet. :-p

The Z-Wreck isn't shown on the Z website. Are we sure that Mike intends to sell them? Is it sort of a custom run, or a commercial product?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Z-fan...just sayin' is all.

[M Fowler]

I'm a Z fan and I sent my gift to win that Zwreck sure hope it comes home with me.

Mark