What does a real KF Trainwreck Airbrake Look Like?

M Fowler · Post by **M Fowler** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:54 am

Glen,

This is the original TW airbrake?

geetarpicker · Post by **geetarpicker** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:09 am

A couple three years ago a well known local guitarist passed away in NJ. He went by "B.B." and his band was "B.B. and the Stingers". He had owned two original Liverpools and his family was selling off his amps, one of which later ended up with Brad Paisley. If I recall correctly I picked up this "Air Brake" pic from the ebay ad with the two original Liverpools. You can barely make out the gold sticker that was Ken's "Trainwreck Circuits" return address label. I have a friend back in VA with a Ken Fischer built one similar to this, but I don't think it has the line out on it but not sure. No doubt in my mind that is the real deal, though not sure if they all looked similar back then or whatever Ken felt like doing that day with his label maker. So long story short I'm 99% sure this is an offical KF built Air Brake, and it seems all the others were built by others with license arrangements. I've never owned an KF built one, though for years had a Dr. Z one though it's now sold. Not really a fan of the circuit with my Express, too shrill and I definately prefer a Hotplate actually. Even KF told me he didn't really like his attenuator with his own Trainwreck amps but liked it on other types of amps. I have my order in on a Phaustine Phantom, keeping my fingers crossed. More info than you asked for!

M Fowler · Post by **M Fowler** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:27 am

Glen,

Always a pleasure reading your posts keep them long, meduim or short but keep them coming.

Very interesting history for us. Thank you.

Mark

Here is a link to that Kendrick AB

http://www.speedyshare.com/130845309.html

angelodp · Post by **angelodp** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:32 am

Glen, can you tell us a bit more about this new attenuator. I have been over to the site and read up, but.... why are you so jazzed about this item, What's under the hood.

ange

geetarpicker · Post by **geetarpicker** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:00 am

In the last 10 years or so I've been using either a Dr. Z Air Brake, Hotplate, or UA. The Airbrake has nice tightly spaced settings that can be tweaked internally, but sadly I found it to be shrill in the high end. The Hotplates tend to be a little darker than fully bypassed, which to me is better than brighter and shrill. To me the Hotplate sounds pretty good @ -4, or -8. but at -12 starts to get fizzy, and then the reostat settings are really fizzy. Luckily these days at most gigs -4 or -8 usually works fine, but for guitar clinics and around the house I'd love to even go lower. The UA actually sounds the best to me when you are cranking the amp into distortion, and it retains the same tone all the way down. However in time I noticed one major issue with it as a TW amp didn't "clean up" as well from the guitar with it. I almost had to back the guitar down another full number or two to find the clean sweet spot, but by then the net volume was too quiet in a live setting. I think the 30 ohm load on the UA is perhaps the issue, as that in turn changes the loading on the output tubes. I did try modding my UA for a 15 ohm load, but it still wasn't quite there. Maybe there is more to it than that.

Ok, all that to say I've listened to Pete Thorn's clips of the Phantom and it sounds very promising. He records his clips well with pro audio gear. If anything it sounds just a tad darker when first clicked in like a THD (which is fine for me) but then it seems quite even the rest of the way down and doesn't seem to get fizzy down in the lower ranges. Another person on Youtube also posted normalized audio clips showing the Phantom in it's very lowest settings and it still sounded good and didn't appear to pick up any fizz. I'll be happy with it if it sounds at least as good as a Hotplate does in it's first couple clicks, but hopefully the Phantom will also retain that tone all the way down. Another nice detail about the Phantom is it's impedance selectable so that should help with the Wreck, and the click positions are much less coarse with 2db steps. We'll see, as it's quite expensive but judging from how folks are begging for them I see it as safe money if it doesn't work out.

angelodp · Post by **angelodp** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:17 am

Ok ... Glen, good luck with that new unit, hope it works out for you. We will be hoping for a report.
Anyone have a bead on construction of the Phantom attenuator. How far from the Airbrake can it be??

geetarpicker · Post by **geetarpicker** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:11 pm

I've seen a gut shots. It's VERY different and appears to be a VERY labor intensive build. Their new site has several gut shot pics in the "media" section>

http://www.faustineamps.com/phantom.html

Structo · Post by **Structo** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:24 pm

They aren't kidding when they say they are a labor intensive build.

[img:448:336]http://www.faustineamps.com/images/prod ... assy13.jpg[/img]

[img:448:336]http://www.faustineamps.com/images/prod ... assy20.jpg[/img]

Structo · Post by **Structo** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:32 pm

Checked out Pete's demo and the Phantom sounds great!

$750 is a lot of money though.

paulster · Post by **paulster** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:26 am

Check out Lance Keltner's demo with the Grease Monkey down at conversation levels too, and his Bludo-Drive playing slide at similar levels.

Hopefully mine will be here very soon.

2tone · Post by **2tone** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:55 pm

I have a couple original airbrakes, and they look like this one from Geetarpicker's post. Some had names, of course. Mine are Rabid Ronda, and Candy Crotchfire, Ken's humor at work. One of mine is equipped with a tremolo bar attached!!. It says "with trem" on the labels. Another KF ploy, but I actually fooled some people playing and wiggling the trem(while stealthily pressing on my floating strat bridge at the same time!) and they thought it was for real! I have an early Alessandro made Trainwreck licensed that sounds pretty much like Ken's. Ken said the soldering can make a big difference on the sound, and I believe it. I had an early Dr Z airbrake that had lost a little transparency on btpass, and it turned out to be the jacks. After he changed the brand of jacks it was OK. By the way, I use my originals with an Express and Liverpool and there is not any increased shrillness in the sound. Never have heard that with any of mine. If anything there is the expected high end attenuation which can be nice with these amps, since they have plenty of upper mids..

2tone · Post by **2tone** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:58 pm

I got to hear the Faustine built in attenuator in some of his amps at Tone Mechants and I thought they were about the best sounding attenuators I have heard yet..

angelodp · Post by **angelodp** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:12 am

Tom, great gut shots, where did you find them. That is quite different. Know of any one doing a DIY version.

Bruciep07 · Post by **Bruciep07** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:50 am

What's that "magic black box" in the middle? That is by far the most labor intensive att. I've ever seen, could probably build another express in the time it takes to put one of those together...

Structo · Post by **Structo** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:56 am

Ange, I found the pictures on Faustine's site, under media, picture gallery.

The black box is interesting.
I can't tell if it has something to do with the rheostat or maybe it is an inductor.
It has two heavy duty terminals on the backside.

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What does a real KF Trainwreck Airbrake Look Like?

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Faustine Phantom

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Phantom

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airbrakes

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very different

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