Where to find Trainwreck Logos?

[RockinRocket]

Yes those photos were on Dave funks website maybe thunderfunk.com but cant seem to find it. Dave was a authorized Trainwreck repair shop and after ken passed Dave decided to spill the beans that he had built Trainwrecks for ken. Would send ken the chassis and ken would tweak them, serial them, headshell and logo them if they had been good enough. Those three photos were on funks web page and were confusing. Head shell of a Rocket but liverpool guts. My guess is those were just examples of what Funk had been involved with.

[dblgun]

Interesting that Funk would have been involved in the Liverpool with the extra cap and 10 turn variable resistor. I wonder which amp that is and whether it is one of the more known or not. Also wonder if there was just a great deal of Mil-spec pots in stock for the Mids or if there was something about them that Ken preferred. Certainly required the modification of the buss wire routing which is interesting. These are really interesting topics.

[Mark]

Malou is a very interesting example. The pots themselves are a great source of consideration for me as they each appear to have been selected for a reason. Either that or they were just sourced from a box of various pots! I know that Marshall used the "hot shield" regularly in their cascaded amps in that specific era to combat oscillation. I've used it some but found that a small ceramic 7-8pf 1kv cap works well too.

The parts were given to Dave Funk to build the amp up. I don’t know if the pots were chosen for their value and taper, or if certain pots had specific designated positions in the amp. There are three one meg pots in a Liverpool/Express. I can see taper being a big deal for the volume and treble control, but I don’t know if something had a particular position.

[Mark]

Interesting that Funk would have been involved in the Liverpool with the extra cap and 10 turn variable resistor. I wonder which amp that is and whether it is one of the more known or not. Also wonder if there was just a great deal of Mil-spec pots in stock for the Mids or if there was something about them that Ken preferred. Certainly required the modification of the buss wire routing which is interesting. These are really interesting topics.

Dave told me that mod was for high output pickups. I found experimenting with one of Dave Ahola’s circuits where a 0.002uF cap was across the plate resistor and the coupling cap was 0.001uF. I suspected the output of the stage would be decimated. What I heard was a bit lower output with more bass response than normal from the 0.001uF cap.

[Mark]

Yes those photos were on Dave funks website maybe thunderfunk.com but cant seem to find it. Dave was a authorized Trainwreck repair shop and after ken passed Dave decided to spill the beans that he had built Trainwrecks for ken. Would send ken the chassis and ken would tweak them, serial them, headshell and logo them if they had been good enough. Those three photos were on funks web page and were confusing. Head shell of a Rocket but liverpool guts. My guess is those were just examples of what Funk had been involved with.

Dave was building the amps from the ground up. He told me so. I don’t know if Ken tweaked them as Dave never said so.

[dblgun]

Malou is a very interesting example. The pots themselves are a great source of consideration for me as they each appear to have been selected for a reason. Either that or they were just sourced from a box of various pots! I know that Marshall used the "hot shield" regularly in their cascaded amps in that specific era to combat oscillation. I've used it some but found that a small ceramic 7-8pf 1kv cap works well too.

The parts were given to Dave Funk to build the amp up. I don’t know if the pots were chosen for their value and taper, or if certain pots had specific designated positions in the amp. There are three one meg pots in a Liverpool/Express. I can see taper being a big deal for the volume and treble control, but I don’t know if something had a particular position.

Yeah, no way of knowing for certain but I do think that there was something to it. It looks to me like Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

[Mark]

Malou is a very interesting example. The pots themselves are a great source of consideration for me as they each appear to have been selected for a reason. Either that or they were just sourced from a box of various pots! I know that Marshall used the "hot shield" regularly in their cascaded amps in that specific era to combat oscillation. I've used it some but found that a small ceramic 7-8pf 1kv cap works well too.

The parts were given to Dave Funk to build the amp up. I don’t know if the pots were chosen for their value and taper, or if certain pots had specific designated positions in the amp. There are three one meg pots in a Liverpool/Express. I can see taper being a big deal for the volume and treble control, but I don’t know if something had a particular position.

Yeah, no way of knowing for certain but I do think that there was something to it. It looks to me like Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

The thing to do is find out what you personally find meaningful. Generally, I prefer a 30% taper on the treble pot, but in the case of the Rocket I built I found a linear pot to be quite satisfactory. I used a pot with a steep taper for the volume control as I was chiefly after clean tones.

I didn’t know that 1.5M volume pots were preferred in Marshall amps. Thanks for the advice.

[Roe]

[Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

Pots on old marshalls typically read about 30% high due to use presumably. the volume pot matters far less than the eq pots.

Could it be that Ken simply used what he had lying around and that sounded ok?

[Mark]

[Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

Pots on old marshalls typically read about 30% high due to use presumably. the volume pot matters far less than the eq pots.

Could it be that Ken simply used what he had lying around and that sounded ok?

Thanks all possible. Though I would have thought the pots may have been long replaced on an old Marshall. I don’t know which would go first the filter caps or the volume pots.

[Roe]

[Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

Pots on old marshalls typically read about 30% high due to use presumably. the volume pot matters far less than the eq pots.

Could it be that Ken simply used what he had lying around and that sounded ok?

Thanks all possible. Though I would have thought the pots may have been long replaced on an old Marshall. I don’t know which would go first the filter caps or the volume pots.

The original pots tend to last a long time and are rarely replaced. more recent marshalls, by contrast, often need new pots.

The filter caps do age - esp. at the mains - but many of the original (RS, Daly, Erie, LCR etc) caps last several decades before they need to be replaced.

[RockinRocket]

Yeah, no way of knowing for certain but I do think that there was something to it. It looks to me like Franchesca (Express "85") had Clarostat PC style pots throughout where both Ingrid (Express "92") and the Liverpool from Funks images have a mix of Clarostat, PEC and Mil-spec AB's but in similar layouts. The 1megs used for volume appear different than those used for treble etc. I would be interesting to know what they actually measure and the taper. I know that much has been discussed in many circles (vintage Marshalls for instance) that volume pots in the 1.5 meg range were preferred. I'm always on the lookout for different makes/models of pots that I can run through my test amp but am still far from any reasonable opinion. I think there was likely something to it though.

I don't think those early pots are clarostat as in Franchesca. This is the closest I could find that looks similar but clearly are not right. The dish in the back has 2 indents for the wipper end stops while the early Trainwrecks have a single indent like CTS.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195266096670?i ... R6Sw7fjZYw

Ingrid and Maloo have Vol pot early unknown brand. CTS treble. Allen Bradly mil spec middle. CTS Bass pot. Clarostat mill spec presence in Maloo and early type in Ingrid.

[dblgun]

Nic, you're right those pots are a bit unique and likely not Clarostat/Honeywell. They have some characteristics of a Clarostat and Stackpole but it is very hard to say. Again, I wonder why the unknown 1 meg pot was used for volume than treble and bass in these examples. The pot industry tends to be a somewhat incestuous, especially when it comes to mil-specs,but others as well. I have Ohmites, AB's and Clarostat that are identical. I'm hoping we can figure out who produced the pots, if for no other reason but to find the answer to how they may have differed from others used in the other parts of the amps.

[RockinRocket]

My guess was he liked the taper of the 1M for the vol control, stock was getting low so he saved them for vol pots.
I've only seen 10 maybe 12 Trainwrecks so who knows if there were any other amps with other pots there.

[dblgun]

My guess was he liked the taper of the 1M for the vol control, stock was getting low so he saved them for vol pots.
I've only seen 10 maybe 12 Trainwrecks so who knows if there were any other amps with other pots there.

Makes as much sense as any other potential explanation.