A few things to keep in mind while listening to the clips below regarding the question, “What am I hearing?” While the intent here is to give you some sort of audible sense of the tonal qualities of Trainwreck amp heads, you are listening to so many other things: Whatever device you are playing the music through, the microphones and assorted recording apparatus, different speaker cabinets, etc.
Most importantly you are listening to guitarists who can make bad gear sound good. From these sound clips the one thing you absolutely know for sure is that these exceptional guitarists rely on the deep, complex harmonic richness and superior touch response of Trainwreck amps to realize their visceral relationships to the electric guitar.
Trainwreck liverpool with ampeg V4 with pre rola 75hz 25w greenbacks and a 1961 fender strat
Trainwreck rocket JM built, 1961 Strat, Ampeg V4 cabinet, iphone camera
Jamming on Jeff Beck’s version of the Steve Wonder song “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”. This is a rehearsal recording with no overdubs or studio trickery. The group’s 1st attempt to record into a laptop with an 8 channel preamp.
A Fender Stratocaster into a Trainwreck Express. No pedals.
A ’69 Fender Stratocaster into a Trainwreck Rocket. This is a jam session recorded with a stereo hand held recorder. “What you hear is what you get”.
1962 Gibson Les Paul (SG) Standard with “Ebony Block” Vibrola. 100% original with PAF pickups, these were made for just a few months in this configuration. A 1985 Trainwreck Express Amplifier and Marshall 4×12. NO pedals used but a touch of reverb was added during mixdown.
With Erin Conley on drums/percussion performing “New Mexico” from Glen Kuykendall’s instrumental guitar CD “Can You Hear It Ring?” Gretsch Silver Jet. Original 1989 Trainwreck Express amp with all knobs on 1/2, and the guitar backed way down for a nice clean tone.
