Menatone's Wreck'T Preamp is a wonderfully bold and vibrant take on the larger-than-life Trainwreck Express EL34 loaded Marshall-esque amp sound

Nov 8, 202408:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

DistortionMarshall Style DistortionMenatoneOverdrive+-

Ken Fischer (1945 - 2006) is quite well known comparatively, while not as much in the public conscience as say Howard Alexander Dumble, not quite as prolific either, but is just as worthy, and also much revered as a superb Amp Engineer.

A little similar to my good friend Joe Halliday of Hello Sailor Effects fame, Ken developed his electronics engineering prowess in the US Navy (Joe is Royal Navy of course!). After the Navy he was employed by Bass Amp Maker Ampeg, but grew disillusioned with his role and left the company eventually - when Ampeg was sold to Magnavox in 1967.

This was to inspire Ken to set up his own Amp Company Trainwreck Circuits later in and around 1981-1985, where Ken became best known for his 3 early Amp Models. The business started as an amp repair shop, but Ken soon started to take on commissions from his clients.

From a ’Beatlemania’ cover band client commission / requirement (Casper McCloud I think he was called) he created his first aptly named ’Liverpool’ 4 x EL84 - Beatles-sounding sort of Vox AC30 take. A later commission then resulted in the sometimes 2 x EL34 and sometimes 6V6 Tubes - more ballzy Plexi style Trainwreck Express. And then there were some later modifications to the ’Liverpool’ Amp which resulted in the somewhat more evolved ’Rocket’ - which was closer to the Top Boosted AC30 Amp.

His most popular amp as such was the Trainwreck Express - a single channel more responsive and harmonically complex Plexi sounding amp - a little bolder, more flavourful and more full-on! Ken favoured the use of solid copper core wiring - which he was convinced carried the current better and delivered more flavour to the speakers, he also had some wonderful tricks to control his amp\s compression. The Trainwreck Express is often seen to be a somewhat hot-rodded / modded slightly more richly textured Plexi variant, albeit it had Ken’s own unique wiring, and a punchier, bassier and somewhat more vibrant output when compared to say the 1959 Super Lead 100.

My first Trainwreck Express pedal was the Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 - which is of course excellent, while Brian Mena’s Wreck’T has a little more granularity and verve to it - both sound fantastic, where the Wreck’T allows you to dial things in a little more accurately and slightly more expansively. I really love both, while I feel the Wreck’t is a little more full-on - which perfectly suits its amp inspiration.

The original Trainwreck Express Amps had a Bright Switch, and controls for Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence, a Standby Switch, and a Power Switch.

Wreck'T Controls are - Level, Drive, Gain, Mid, Bass, Treb, Hi-Cut, Presence, Internal Hi-Cut Trimmer Adjust, and Amp Match Dip-Switch.

The combination of controls on the pedal gives you extensive tone-shaping abilities - where you can really smartly dial in your perfect preferred 'Express' tones. It really is very much like a bolder and more vibrant take on that Classic Plexi style sound.

Ken only made around 70 amps overall, before his sudden passing in 2006. He gave each of his Amps a female name - including Angela, Dinah, Katie, Marisa, Nancy (Keith Urban's one), Roxy, Tiffany and Sarah (Ken Fischer's own Express model)!

Interestingly and much like Alexander Howard Dumble - each of Ken's amp sounded somewhat different, and was honed towards its commissioner. There are some very famous Trainwreck / Express Amps owners out there - which include - Billy Gibbons, George Lynch, Matt O'Ree, Keith Urban ('Nancy'), Trey Anastasio and renowned session player Glen Kuykendall.

Brian has done a fantastic job of extracting every ounce of tone and verve from his Wreck'T Preamp circuit - it truly sounds immense. And I dare say even better than the already magnificent MenaWatt that I reviewed last week!

Both of those are for sure top tier examples of their respective preamp genre. And both deserve to be in your collection - and on your board!

I'm delighted that I've managed to add both of those to my Reference Collection.

The next follow-up will be an update to the 16 Iconic Amps / Pedals article - that original inspired me to get in these pedals!

Not much in the way of demos, and what's out there doesn't quite do the pedal full justice - one of my favourites for sure!

Both the Wreck'T and MenaWatt are listed on the Menatone Webstore - while they are entirely made to order these days - so you will need to correspond direct with Brian, the MenaWatt is priced at around $209, while the Wreck'T is around $219 - both are exceptionally good value for the highest level of quality!