Glen K Transcripts

Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 10:11 PM

Mason,

Just finished doing a somewhat clinical comparison of the Vertex T*Preamp pedal vs my ‘85 Trainwreck Express, x3 clips and x6 pics attached.

I setup the T*P with a stock ‘64 Fender Deluxe (non-reverb model), vibrato channel volume 3, Bass & Treble both on 5. At that point the amp is remaining clean and not adding much coloration. It is a healthy amp with recent power supply caps and fresh tubes.

When the pedal is turned off it’s a typical clean blackface tone. Speaker is a Celestion G12M Creamback in the combo cab itself. I ran an 18’ Mogami cable before and after the pedal to the amp.

The original ‘85 Trainwreck Express (w/EL34s) was setup my typical way running it with x2 Mogami 18’ cables in series with a coupler, into my ‘68 Marshall 4x12 cabinet with similar era Celestion G12M Greenbacks.

The volume was almost on 3/4, which may seem high on an Express but the volume pot in this particular amp has such a slow taper that on 3/4 is more like my other Express (and most clones) on 1 or 2pm. Even on 3/4 the amp had a bit more to go.

Treble & Bass were both on about 1pm, mids & Presence both 12:00. The bright switch was full on. I didn’t record my other Express, an ‘89. It is perhaps even a little more mid focused than my ‘85, and has a little less clarity. That said, the extra mids in it make it real lively and sustain crazy when played near the cab in the same room. Both amps clean up as well and circuit inspections show that they are near identical, short of my ‘85 has the off the shelf transformers Ken started with where my ‘89 has the Pacific ones Ken had built for him in his later years.

I noted from my Neve preamp levels and DAW meters that the volume off each miced speaker was almost identical, being the Trainwreck was unattenuated (and loud) but going into a 4x12, and the Fender was set modestly but driving only 1x12. Point is, the Trainwreck was pushing it’s full rated power 35 watts divided into 4 speakers (about 8-9 watts per speaker) where as the Fender was kept below clipping and was probably pushing about the same wattage (8-9 watts) into it’s one speaker. Point is, speaker compression or slight cone breakup was probably about the same between the two rigs.

Guitar was my 2007 Fender Relic Strat with Lindy Fralin single coil pickups, and a Suhr hum cancelling back plate.

Both amps were miced with a Shure SM57 just off center of the speaker, using Neve 1073 mic pres and no EQ or compression was used. There was a tiny bit of Lexicon PCM60 reverb on both tracks so it doesn’t sound unnaturally dry.

I matched the input levels to within 1 db. Personally I like the fatter and smoother tone of a dynamic/ribbon two mic combination but keeping it simple here for comparison sake with just 57s.

To my ear the pedal still needs some work to be convincing.

That said, in regards to the T*Preamp here are my feeling of where the differences fall and improvement is needed for this to really impress folks. I’d personally love to have something in this department on my pedal board since my two original Express amps have mainly become studio amps and don’t see much road work due to their rarity and current value.

The Trainwreck is more mid focused, plus it has a bit more of that Marshall grind to it making it sound more forward and alive in the mids and lower trebles. The T*Preamp sounds almost too wide EQ bandwidth wise, and is almost scooped in the mids at the same time.

The Trainwreck is quite a bit tighter in the low end and much better for power chord work, the T*Preamp almost sounds a bit like a Fuzz Face in that it has a fatness that gets in the way and makes it loose sounding on lower notes. Mid range notes also sound a bit spitty, also like a Fuzz Face.

The Trainwreck has louder more audible cleans when the guitar is backed down the same amount. You can even see it in the wave form pic (attached) that there is simply more usable level going on. The pedals cleans up well enough, but once I hit a few low notes it gets a bit farted out.

It’s almost like the Trainwreck clips across the audio band at the same point, as opposed to the pedal seems to clip first in the lows...enough to make it sound and feel quite a bit looser.

The Trainwreck sounds more like a live amp, the T*Preamp sounds less convincing and more pedal like. For example the Zep stuff sounds a bit more like a live rig, where the pedal sounds more like a simulation.

The T*Preamp probably could have it’s low end rolled off a tad which might help the tightness, but the mids would still need to somehow be more lively. I also noted when I pushed the pedal with lower notes (especially on the neck pickup) it lacked clarity and the guitar’s tone was masked.

You could simply hear the guitar’s tonality better on the Express.

The T*Preamp almost needs to have more compression to level it’s volumes when working the guitar volme (clean to mean) BUT it already sounds too compressed in the lows. The trick will be too add volume leveling compression, but make it sound less compressed at the same time.

To me the Express almost sounds like an amp with a studio limiter inserted post amplifier, as it has a squishy feel to it but doesn’t ever sound too mushed out IMHO. Part of the feel however is something that you can’t quite demo in a clip, but I could feel in person quite noticeably. Point is compression feels nice when you play and makes your dynamics seem to bloom and jump out in a good way, the pedal lacks this bounce to it.

The pedal doesn’t sound or feel like a Trainwreck Express yet, though it has a good start especially that it retains clarity when you back down for cleans. Most dirt pedals fall very short in this department, though I guess many pedals are simply built for the keep the guitar full up crowd. Anyway this is my take on it at this point and hopefully I’m not too brutal!

Glen Kuykendall












Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 6:18 PM