Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

PSA: TRAINWRECK FS


Recommended Posts

Why are these so expensive?

TRAINWRECK, 1983, "Ginger"

#1 this is the first Trainwreck that Ken Fisher built,

and arguably the most famous, it's a "Liverpool"

built for Caspar McCloud and named "Ginger" , after his wife. and was finished

in Jan 1983, well documented-, this is the one you want if you want a Trainwreck,

comes in the cabinet pictured ( Ken put this cab with it several years ago)

as well as the primitive oak cabinet that originally housed it,

rare with rich harmonics, simply the best, exc...........$42,500

Big Image.

Another Big Image.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Why are these so expensive?

Because people with too much money are morons or bored.

Or poseurs.

I'll bet the guy who buys this owns one of Hendrix's actual Strats, but has to buy a 68-70 Lefty just to stand in front of the mirror to hear the tone coming out of that Trainwreck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For your viewing and listening enjoyment...

Don't take this in a bad way, but what exactly does that video prove? The tones that he's getting out of that guitar and amp are nice but, I'm sure there are a ton of amps that can sound just as good, if not better, at a fraction of the cost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'd think for that kind of money they'd include numbers by the knobs.

I guess that costed extra - sucks to be on a budget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone on The Geigh Page (TGP) will scoop that up. Between the Little Penis Forum (LPF) and that one, I'm convinced there's a small group of collectors who conspire to up prices of things they collect or like (ie, "Timbuckers") by specifically hyping them to their cohorts. Thus we have $42,500 "amps" and $700 "pickups" made by some guy in his garage with a waiting list. Not too mention side businesses removing the "truss rod condoms" in current LP Historics to enhance the tone.

I call bullshit....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not making excuses for the price or any of that sort of thing, just an FYI.

Ken Fischer was the guy who, in large part, started the small-production boo-teek amp phenomenon. He made a fairly large number of very good amps, at one point taking on some employees to help with assembly (at least some of his missives to the world suggested that that was in the works, IIRC). It was pretty much a basement/garage kind of operation, though. Health issues forced him to cut back and eventually stop building amps. They were very good and very expensive. He died recently, I believe.

Meanwhile the boutique amp craze, especially the lower wattage single channel type thing was catching fire. At the time, the amp against which all others were measured was the Trainwreck. At least one builder set about making unabashed copies of the three-knob Trainwreck (whatever it was called). That was Alessandro. At that time, the corksniffers were all about "does it sound as good as a Trainwreck?" So, for better or worse, it really did set some sort of standard for supremegodlytonalexcellence.

Anyway, with that "benchmark" status and the fact that it was the first one built, I could see how it would attain "Holy Grail" status for some folks. It would kind of be like getting your mitts on Randall Smith's prank of putting and Altec 12 and a hot-rodded Bassman with cascading channels into Barry Melton's Princeton, thus creating the first Boogie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why are these so expensive?

Why are vintage strats and LP's so expensive? Hell, why are 4-digit Standards so expensive? I wouldn't buy any of that stuff at current prices unless I had more money than I know what to do with, but apparently there are plenty of people who have exactly that kind of money and if they want to spend it on that, well they're no dumber than anyone else spending money on what is IMO stupid bullshit (and the list of stuff that falls in that category is virtually limitless :ph34r:).

-Austin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not advocating those prices but I've got a good friend who has a Trainwreck and it does sound killer!

On top of that the guy who built those is a great guy to talk to. When my friend bought his he contacted the him and the guy talk to him for several hours over several days about the amp and even helped him with some replacement parts. The stories he told were great to listen to and you could tell he was a down to earth guy that just happened upon the business.

Just my opinion.

Todd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For your viewing and listening enjoyment...

Don't take this in a bad way, but what exactly does that video prove? The tones that he's getting out of that guitar and amp are nice but, I'm sure there are a ton of amps that can sound just as good, if not better, at a fraction of the cost.

I think even a hack like myself would sound pretty good playing through $400,000 worth of gear!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, unless you can actually PLAY, it doesn't matter how good an amp sounds. Bashing out "Smoke On The Water" on you Stevens. PS or Soloway through a Trainwreck or Dumble will still sound like a three-year-old with a broken hand on a Mickey Mouse guitar. I wish I could have recorded some of the conversations going on at the lunch table behind me at the Experience PRS gathering last fall between a pair of (alleged) Dumble owners. That would be primo YouTube fodder!

Sorry, but this thing called "Reality" doesn't get through to everybody.

Of course, it's not about how things sound, it's about how cool you look/sound to the guys you want to impress, right?

:ph34r:

On the other hand, a top-line studio may be able to use it, but the price may be prohibitive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For your viewing and listening enjoyment...

Don't take this in a bad way, but what exactly does that video prove? The tones that he's getting out of that guitar and amp are nice but, I'm sure there are a ton of amps that can sound just as good, if not better, at a fraction of the cost.

It wasn't meant to prove anything, bro-seph... ;)

After reading this thread I researched the amp because I knew next to nothing about them.

In the process I found the entertaining video clip and just thought I would share it with everyone.

That's all there was to it. You're absolutely right, great tone can be had for a lot less investment... :ph34r:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...