Fractal Audio AMP models: Wrecker Liverpool (Trainwreck Liverpool)

yek

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* EDIT: Up-to-date information is available in Yek's Guide to the Fractal Audio Amplifier Models *
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Wrecker Liverpool: based on Trainwreck Liverool

Trainwreck Circuits amps are the most expensive guitar amplifiers, after Dumble. These boutique amps (heads only) with their remarkable wooden enclosures were designed by (the late) Ken Fischer. More about Ken Fischer.

Trainwreck.com:
“What makes Trainwreck amps so good?
To start, they are so responsive. You can set up a Trainwreck so that you can control the amount of distortion in your sound with the volume knob but, depending on how much overdrive you like, you can go from gorgeous clean to gorgeous crunch by merely altering your touch.
The tone of these amps is incredible but if you don’t have tone in your fingers, don’t expect a ‘wreck to make you sound good. Remember, they are totally responsive. If you have a bad sounding guitar or you put bad sounding tubes in the amp, don’t expect it to sound great.
The unprecedented clarity of these amps makes it possible to hear the tonal differences created by your guitar cable, your speaker cable, removing your pick-guard, or whatever. A Trainwreck head will allow you to distinguish the quality of every link in your signal chain. Clarity also means that when the amp is distorting, you can still hear all the nuances of your playing. That Ken made amps with this degree of clarity that still sounded beautiful, even under distortion, was his unique genius. As a result of the incredibly nuanced high-end of a Trainwreck head, the guitar tends to cut through the overall mix of the band.
Trainwreck amps are also built incredibly well, built to last. They very rarely need servicing.”​

Cliff owns a Trainwreck. AFAIK the exact model is unknown.

This model is a fuson between the Express (preamp) and Rocket (poweramp), discussed previously. In other words: Marshall meets Vox. Go here for more Trainwreck info and discussion.

The Liverpool has EL84 power tubes.

Like all Trainwreck amps, the Liverpool is a simple amp. Its controls are: Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence and Bright switch. Because there’s no Master the Volume control not only sets the volume level but gain as well.

Cliff:
"The secret to a Trainwreck is the output transformer. The impedance ratio is about twice that of other amps. I.e. typical 50W Marshall has a primary impedance of about 3200 ohms. A Trainwreck is about 6500 ohms. The causes the power tubes to clip much sooner."​

I prefer to use the model with IRs of G12M (greenback) and/or AlNiCo speakers.









 
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Yek, if counts don't fail me we've reached the end of the (current) list, I see you updated the USA IIC+ topic to add the new C++...tremendous effort you have taken and thank you once again!
 
If this model has a rocket (class A) power amp, should the negative feedback be set to 0 like the rocket and all the other class A amps? Seems odd that negative feedback is maxed by default for this model. A bug maybe?
 
We need to add this to the collection of sound clips


He also adds some insight about the amp topology, but PT is not an amp tech, so he might have got some of it wrong.

Sounds freakin' AWESOME
 
Yeah - I must admit, I have been playing with this amp in the box since yesterday. I found some nice ML Soundlab Black Back 57 and 160 captures amongst the factory cabs, and from there, it is just playing with the amp settings. I also use the gain enhancer quite a bit to get close to the sustain and harmonics he mentions in the video. So far, I am only using headphones, so I do not get the juicy feedback he has. Also, all my humbucker guitars are in storage for the holidays, so it is strat only.
 
Add gain enhancer at 3.5, and the sun plate at stock settings, and you're off to the races :D
TW Liverpool.png

I also add a bit of room ambience, some treble, and some transformer preamp saturation in the amp block.
 
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