New Trainwreck Express with 1959 Les Paul VIDEO clip c/o GK

[rfgordon]

Absolute monster clip.

Useful, too. I popped over to the store today to see about some stuff (the owner, Larry, sells my amps). There was this guy in there (instantly recognized as Babius Boomerus Discretionary Incomius) waxing eloquent about how all his buddies say how great his tone is, blah blah blah, yada yada yada, from his stock Fender Blues Deluxe. Yawn.

So Larry introduces me and we talk some amp stuff. So I ask if he's familiar with Trainwrecks, saying that my inspiration for amps is mainly tweeds and Trainwrecks. He says, not really.

So we go in Larry's office and I call up Glen's clip on YouTube. I tell the guy to pay close attention to Glen's hands, noticing that he doesn't touch the amp and never stomps on anything.

The moment Glen makes the first transition from clean to scream, the guy's jaw drops open. He watched the clip about 4 times and wrote the link down.

"Can you build that?" he asks. I can come close, I says. I add, "Start saving your lunch money."

Great sales video!!

[geetarpicker]

Rich,

That was pretty funny!

Here are some tech details on the video clip. The guitar was plugged into x2 Mogami 20' cords, connected end to end with a female to female adapter then straight to the amp. The long cord helps tame the high end. The volume was on 2:00, the other knobs on 1/2. The bright switch was in the full (down) position. The preamp tubes are all old Sylvania 12AX7s, and the outputs were somewhat new Groove Tube EL34Ms. My amp runs about 407v B+ with the tubes biased at about 45ma per tube. Actually this set is getting a little out of balance with time, and now one tube runs about 39ma when the other is set for 45ma. Oh well!

The amp ran staight to the '68 Marshall cab, which has slightly newer era '71 G12M 25s with lead cones.

The guitar has original double white PAFs, and both measure right at 8k. I potted them about 20 years ago (probably a no no these days) but there is no way I could use them otherwise with the the guitar that close to the amp if they weren't potted. The original pots in the guitar have a great taper for use with this amp. Also with the 50s wiring of these guitars the tone knobs act as a mid cut in their middle settings, then they take off the highs when you roll them all the way off. You can see in the middle of the video how I get it to clean up more by backing the tones down about half way, along with the volumes of course. I've owned this guitar for 29 years so I'm quite use to working it's knobs which turn as easy as butter.

A little recording system breakdown. The audio on the video clip was recorded into a computer then synced up later to the video. I used x2 Sennheiser e906 mics up close, one centered on the speaker, and one totally out towards the edge. The I also miced the room (which is tiny at only 6' x 8', talk about earplugs!) with a Neumann tube U67 mic. That all ran into API mic pres, into a Delta 1010 interface into the computer running Sonar. I mixed the 3 mics together for a nice balance, and added a little reverb and delay with software plugins. I didn't use any EQ or compression, so the dynamics and true volume from clean to distorted are as they were in person. Then the audio had to be dumbed down to mono low res mp3 sound format for the Youtube video, but somehow the audio is pretty close to sounding like it started out as.

www.myspace.com/glenkuykendall

[fischer]

[quote="geetarpicker"]I finally put together a new video clip with decent recording gear. Hope you folks like it!

hello - i am a newbie here.
i come from the lespaulforum where i saw your post.
great playing
great guitar
great amp

brgds gerry

[Shermock]

Hey thanks for the breakdown of the geeky stuff! Much appreciated!

Cheers!

Shermock

[Jeph]

Glen, that's some great info right there, thanks for writing that up. I had my clone on the block and had requests for clips. They came out less than stellar due to my inexperience. I'll see if I can learn something from you here

Still digging your cd btw.
You guys that don't have one.. Buy It!

[Humbucker]

Now the people know why I decided to build a clone in the first hand...phenomenal.

[geetarpicker]

Sorry guys.

Too many folks thought that my darn tie dye shirt in the video looked like a you know what. Funny, I played many a gig with that shirt and no one ever said a thing. I guess it's an angle thing, and I guess in the video you can't see the sound hole of the obvious guitar on the shirt.

Anyway, I got tired of removing countless odd comments on Youtube, so after 5000 views in one week I pulled the Video.

Next time I'll wear something like a plain white T shirt, and blue jeans.

[riscado]

Just goes to show how stupid people can be, about such small things... I really enjoyed the video Glen. I feel I have to give you a milllion "thank yous" for the videos you've put online, they rally turned me on to trainwrecks, so much I'm about to try building one, since I do amps for a hobby... I love the gear (the 59 paul is amazing and so is the callaham strat, those strats have fantastic hardware by the way) and I love the sound of your express and your playing too.

By the way Glen have you ever owned a rocket? Or just an Express and liverpool?

thanks

[Robert]

Any chance you could post a link to the vid in a less public place. I missed it

[geetarpicker]

I just got tired of deleting several lude comments every day about the darn shirt.
I'll just have to redo the video, next time with better attention paid to the details.
I'll keep you all posted on the next one...thanks!

[riscado]

Glen your videos are always amazing an quite welcome... but pay no attention to people giving you crap about a t-shirt, because it doesn't even make sense!

By the way I'm on my way to purchasing your cd... and thanks for the great music too!

[benoit]

I missed the clip, is there anywhere else it can be viewed? I'd love to see it..

[drhulsey]

...darn shirt.

That's funny Yes, I do seem to remember you had a shirt ON (You Tube is probably a "No shirt, no shoes, no service" kind of place), but if you had asked me what your shirt looked like in that video, I would be at a loss
I DO, however, remember a TrainWreck amplifier. I think your talent in music and your taste in amplifiers MUST have overwhelmed my senses My eyes just couldn't compete with my EARS Wonder why anyone would notice the shirt (Mind you, I'm not dissin' your taste in shirts, at all)
See quote below

[VacuumVoodoo]

I liked the shirt. Great playing and fantastic symbiosis between player, guitar and amp. Awesome. Don't let people who have nothing but empty space between their ears bother you.

[Bear]

That was the best guitar clip I ever heard on YouTube -- hell, that was about as sweet tone as you'll here. F them.

Bear