Therapy vs. Trainwreck!
Jul 17, 2014 5:09:28 GMT -7
JASON (aka jgleaton), Lonny Caughron, and 8 more like this
Post by Phil (aka Phil) on Jul 17, 2014 5:09:28 GMT -7
I've been thinking about the Therapy, my review and other player’s reviews of it, and how it fits it to the Z lineup. I was going to address this in my (hopefully) upcoming post on gain staging inside of an amplifier. Eddie asking how the Therapy compares to the Route 66 spurred this post.
I was thinking about how I called the Therapy an “American voiced Trainwreck”. I kind of forget that while there’s a lot of very experienced guys on this forum, there’s probably many players who have never plugged into a real Trainwreck. There’s also a fair number of players who have never played the “next best thing”, the Z-Wreck. There really is a huge difference in a “Trainwreck style amp” and, well, nearly every other amp.
I got these quotes by the late Ken Fischer from Trainwreck.com. He said:
“I want an amp to be fast and dynamic.
I want to hear the note with
multiple layers of harmonic complexity,
giving a fat, euphonic, and lyrical tone.
I like an amp to have an awesome clean sound,
yet rock my world when I dig in.”
He also said:
“ …I decided to come up with a blueprint of the goals for what an ultimate amp would be to suit my personal tastes. There were so many styles of amps already out there, I wanted to try to break through the limits of those designs. I knew that one channel was the way I’d go. When you had the typical two or three channel amp of the sixties, I found that the mixing circuits caused a compromise in the sound, response, and general feel of the amp. Also I noticed many amps were slow to respond to pick attack and lacked a proper response to changes in touch. I also found that master volume circuits did not give the response of power tubes. Master volumes are fine for some. There are styles of music that require them. I dislike spring reverb myself. For me
it’s a cover-up for an amp that’s flat and dry sounding.”
Back in the day we had non master volume amps like Fender, Vox, and Marshall. Those amps when set correctly had a degree of touch sensitivity and player interaction but were not really high gain. Later amps with lots of cascaded gain (preamp distortion) like Boogies have lots of gain or distortion but have even less touch sensitivity.
While Dumbles offered a greater degree of touch at higher gain than many amps, it’s really the Trainwreck amps that stood above all others in this area. Ken Fischer did exactly what he set out to do…he designed the most harmonically rich, most touch sensitive amp the world had ever seen.
He figured out how to balance preamp and power amp overdrive to maximize all aspects of a player's experience.
Ken’s genius lied not only in the design of his circuits but also in his ability to select exactly the right tube, capacitor, potentionmeters, transformers, etc. to bring the sound in his head to life. That’s why no one will ever “clone” a Trainwreck as following the schematic and building something with the same electrical values will only get you so close.
..which is to say not close enough.
This brings us to the Z’s. Doc’s earlier designs like the SRZ (hot rodded/modified JCM 800), Carmen Ghia and Route 66 all offer a greater degree of player interaction and harmonic richness than many amps. However the first one I heard that was really close to that Trainwreck feel that Ken described was the “original” Prescription. It has many of the same characteristics: very high harmonic complexity, touch sensitivity, clarity, and (the subject I was going to expound upon in the gain staging article) a volume that seems to be much louder than its wattage rating would suggest compared to conventional amps.
This may seem backwards to the non-tube amp designer but even though one of the hallmarks of a Trainwreck-style amp is a very low component count these types of amps are actually harder to create and build than a "conventional" amp design that uses many more components. If you don't "get it exactly right" all kinds of bad things can happen. They're kind of "right on the bleeding edge" like an F-16 fighter. You're always balancing ultra-high performance with stability. Also since the circuit is so revealing this makes component selection and quality an even higher priority. The phrase that comes to mind is "If it was easy everyone would do it." The alleged Trainwreck schematics are all over the 'net and there are many clones but very few amps have the "greater than the sum of it's components" sound and feel of a real 'Wreck.
Doc has gone on to make many fantastic "conventional" amps like the EZG-50, the MAZ’s, the Remedy just to name a few. However along the way he has also made a few more amps based on Ken’s philosophy but with his own design and sound, namely the RxES, the Z-Wreck, the Mazerati GT and now the Therapy...all of which nail that tone and feel Ken described. In my mind there’s a clear difference in tone and feel in these type of amps and “everything else”. You really do have to play one of these types of amps for yourself. If you’re coming from a background of “traditional” amps they may take some time to get used to…or they may not be your cup of tea at all. I have a few friends who grew up playing the traditional Fenders and Marshalls who do not like the ‘Wreck style amps at all. They like a more even, compressed right hand attack or feel. It’s very much a personal preference. If you’re a player who likes to have an almost infinite variety of tones literally at your fingertips there’s nothing like a ‘Wreck type amp. They aren't magic though and require a degree of control and right hand technique to get the most out of them.
They can make you feel very naked.
So to answer Eddie’s question….the logical progression of the 66 is not the Therapy. While many amps share some characteristics with others, and the Therapy and 66 are no exception, they really are very different animals. As I said above the only thing you can really compare a ‘Wreck style amp with is another similar amp.
Even though they achieve very different designs to get to a similar end result, I think the Therapy reminds me very much of a Trainwreck Express. The feel and general sound of the Express amps in this video very much remind me of the Therapy. These ‘Wrecks feature EL34’s and the Therapy uses 6L6’s but the dynamics, complexity, and sensitivity are VERY similar:
It used to be that to get this kind of experience you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a real Trainwreck on the used market. Now with amps like the Z-Wreck and Therapy we can enjoy this type of performance for less than the cost of many other "conventional" amps. It's a great time to be a guitar player.
Also...dig the AWESOME older wood front Dr. Z Rx in the background! A few guys on the forum own Rx's like this and they'll tell you that they're incredible...truly world class and deserving to be in that room hangin' with the 'Wrecks.
I was thinking about how I called the Therapy an “American voiced Trainwreck”. I kind of forget that while there’s a lot of very experienced guys on this forum, there’s probably many players who have never plugged into a real Trainwreck. There’s also a fair number of players who have never played the “next best thing”, the Z-Wreck. There really is a huge difference in a “Trainwreck style amp” and, well, nearly every other amp.
I got these quotes by the late Ken Fischer from Trainwreck.com. He said:
“I want an amp to be fast and dynamic.
I want to hear the note with
multiple layers of harmonic complexity,
giving a fat, euphonic, and lyrical tone.
I like an amp to have an awesome clean sound,
yet rock my world when I dig in.”
He also said:
“ …I decided to come up with a blueprint of the goals for what an ultimate amp would be to suit my personal tastes. There were so many styles of amps already out there, I wanted to try to break through the limits of those designs. I knew that one channel was the way I’d go. When you had the typical two or three channel amp of the sixties, I found that the mixing circuits caused a compromise in the sound, response, and general feel of the amp. Also I noticed many amps were slow to respond to pick attack and lacked a proper response to changes in touch. I also found that master volume circuits did not give the response of power tubes. Master volumes are fine for some. There are styles of music that require them. I dislike spring reverb myself. For me
it’s a cover-up for an amp that’s flat and dry sounding.”
Back in the day we had non master volume amps like Fender, Vox, and Marshall. Those amps when set correctly had a degree of touch sensitivity and player interaction but were not really high gain. Later amps with lots of cascaded gain (preamp distortion) like Boogies have lots of gain or distortion but have even less touch sensitivity.
While Dumbles offered a greater degree of touch at higher gain than many amps, it’s really the Trainwreck amps that stood above all others in this area. Ken Fischer did exactly what he set out to do…he designed the most harmonically rich, most touch sensitive amp the world had ever seen.
He figured out how to balance preamp and power amp overdrive to maximize all aspects of a player's experience.
Ken’s genius lied not only in the design of his circuits but also in his ability to select exactly the right tube, capacitor, potentionmeters, transformers, etc. to bring the sound in his head to life. That’s why no one will ever “clone” a Trainwreck as following the schematic and building something with the same electrical values will only get you so close.
..which is to say not close enough.
This brings us to the Z’s. Doc’s earlier designs like the SRZ (hot rodded/modified JCM 800), Carmen Ghia and Route 66 all offer a greater degree of player interaction and harmonic richness than many amps. However the first one I heard that was really close to that Trainwreck feel that Ken described was the “original” Prescription. It has many of the same characteristics: very high harmonic complexity, touch sensitivity, clarity, and (the subject I was going to expound upon in the gain staging article) a volume that seems to be much louder than its wattage rating would suggest compared to conventional amps.
This may seem backwards to the non-tube amp designer but even though one of the hallmarks of a Trainwreck-style amp is a very low component count these types of amps are actually harder to create and build than a "conventional" amp design that uses many more components. If you don't "get it exactly right" all kinds of bad things can happen. They're kind of "right on the bleeding edge" like an F-16 fighter. You're always balancing ultra-high performance with stability. Also since the circuit is so revealing this makes component selection and quality an even higher priority. The phrase that comes to mind is "If it was easy everyone would do it." The alleged Trainwreck schematics are all over the 'net and there are many clones but very few amps have the "greater than the sum of it's components" sound and feel of a real 'Wreck.
Doc has gone on to make many fantastic "conventional" amps like the EZG-50, the MAZ’s, the Remedy just to name a few. However along the way he has also made a few more amps based on Ken’s philosophy but with his own design and sound, namely the RxES, the Z-Wreck, the Mazerati GT and now the Therapy...all of which nail that tone and feel Ken described. In my mind there’s a clear difference in tone and feel in these type of amps and “everything else”. You really do have to play one of these types of amps for yourself. If you’re coming from a background of “traditional” amps they may take some time to get used to…or they may not be your cup of tea at all. I have a few friends who grew up playing the traditional Fenders and Marshalls who do not like the ‘Wreck style amps at all. They like a more even, compressed right hand attack or feel. It’s very much a personal preference. If you’re a player who likes to have an almost infinite variety of tones literally at your fingertips there’s nothing like a ‘Wreck type amp. They aren't magic though and require a degree of control and right hand technique to get the most out of them.
They can make you feel very naked.
So to answer Eddie’s question….the logical progression of the 66 is not the Therapy. While many amps share some characteristics with others, and the Therapy and 66 are no exception, they really are very different animals. As I said above the only thing you can really compare a ‘Wreck style amp with is another similar amp.
Even though they achieve very different designs to get to a similar end result, I think the Therapy reminds me very much of a Trainwreck Express. The feel and general sound of the Express amps in this video very much remind me of the Therapy. These ‘Wrecks feature EL34’s and the Therapy uses 6L6’s but the dynamics, complexity, and sensitivity are VERY similar:
It used to be that to get this kind of experience you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a real Trainwreck on the used market. Now with amps like the Z-Wreck and Therapy we can enjoy this type of performance for less than the cost of many other "conventional" amps. It's a great time to be a guitar player.
Also...dig the AWESOME older wood front Dr. Z Rx in the background! A few guys on the forum own Rx's like this and they'll tell you that they're incredible...truly world class and deserving to be in that room hangin' with the 'Wrecks.