From a series of questions that day I felt that what Ken ultimately wants you to do is to connect with the art of amp building and look at it like cooking. EVERYTHING matters! Sure, there is a general schematic and a most-bang-for-your-buck methodology but that is only going to get you so far. And with this limited approach you will miss the finer point of cooking. Riding the edge if instability makes things highly sensitive. What are you looking for? What guitar do you play? What kind of music should it be tuned for? That sort of thing. This connectedness with the amp tuning is the cooking part of it and what we could refer to as the Trainwreck Experience or Trainwreck Spirit of things. Maybe that is cheesy, but you get my point. Just like cooking there are many ways to influence the outcome and there are a variety of ways to influence a meal. This is where Ken wants you to go.
Would Ken just give you gut shots of his amplifer? I don't think so. He would help you all day long...but in a "turn it back on you with a heavy dash of help and insight"... manner. He seems like he is promoting the experience of amp building, with heavy on the personal experimentation, and not passing you out a quick and ready answer. Maybe some people don't like that, but that is how he seemed. Nice and helpful, just not the final answer. It was an interesting and colorful conversation. I'm not trying to debate who's property it is after he sells it and how long is OK to do these things. I am just trying to paint in a little bit of the picture of who Ken is.
I pointed out the Bassman similarity and he retorted that it is completely different. "When you look close you will see that they are completely different." And as he talked I listened. He brought he on a journey through ideas that I hadn't thought of before. It was mostly just a MUCH closer look at things. Cursory is NOT the word here.
Maybe that seems smoke-and-mirrors to some people. I don't know. He didn't seem that way. He wasn't in to giving you his schematic and showing you the guts. He was in to talking together and learning from each other. When I reported these conversations before I believe some people apparently felt he was "just being evasive". That is left for each person to determine. Wanting to see the pictures is a way to avoid the time and effort of personal growth and the effort that goes with it...and the EXPERIENCE that goes with it, and just get straight to the answer. Maybe it is a sign of our times...the quick answer. Maybe it has nothing to do with it. In this sense of personal growth and creativity, ultimately, I don't think he minds THAT much having people see his pictures. He probable woudn't have done it himself though. Like he said...he doesn't mind you making a Trainwreck's for yourself (this is the spirit of cooking).
Keep in mind, if Ken could be making amps right now he would be. He has had CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome) for many years now and does not get around much. He said that he still makes maybe one or two a year and he has a list of hundreds (thousands?) of people on a "waiting list" that he will probably never get to. He mentioned that in the community when the Wrecks sell the owners often send him some money from the sale. He doesn't ask for this. Also, it is his touch that people want...still today. Here is cooking, again. "Make this taste better for me, Ken." When I was talking to him he was working on Richie Sambora and Mark Knopfler's Komet. I think Mark used it on his new album on many tracks. I haven't heard it. My point is that even with these circuits...he is still giving them a once over...whatever that may be...if anything. Why didn't Richie and Mark just use the stock Komet? They wanted Ken to give it a once over. Call him "golden ears". Call him a "medicine man". How about just calling him a man that has done an amazing amount of detailed analysis of the "off the beaten path" elements of amp building and has a large history of design, fixing exposure to amplifiers. He grew up with them.
I write and I realize that there is a variability in components and everything you do building an amp. Everyone will be a little bit different. Then it up to you to make it what you want. Ken has supposedly said when building a wreck "let's see who she wants to be". This summarizes the approach rather well.
Anyways, enough rambling. I know I appreciated the pictures even though I have mixed feelings about them. I just wanted to make a different statement about my experience with him because of the apparent respect for Ken. Don't forget the connection with the craft and the elements of cooking in your life. In the end you want to be able to approach your creations and tweaks from the heart and mind and not from the canned recipe. I think this is the basic message. Pass the pepper!
Hope this helps some,
Ross
. The clear pictures provided so generously by HeeBee and Allynmey removed alot of the smoke and mirrors that the individuals I'm talking about relied on to further their high priest status in the wacky trainwreck cult. At the end of the day, it's just an amp for God sakes. All of the circuits have been done before. The only magic involved here is KF's ability to tweak the amp for the desired result.