Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: mresistor on May 21, 2012, 07:47:28 pm
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There's an auction on ebay right now for "Ingrid" . With pics of her insides. I'd never seen inside one before.
Wow!
Ingrid (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Train-Wreck-Express-Amplifier-Amp-Named-Ingrid-Born-1992-Ken-Fischer-/200762247117?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebe5cc7cd)
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Add to Cart !!!!
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When I saw this and looked at the pics, a few things struck me. The chassis.... corners not welded, might he of made this himself? Looks like he used good parts, I see some Vishay Dale resistors and the Orange Drops and elytics look high quality. Tubes are nice, and good tube sockets. Looks like mil spec pots. Can't believe he used what looks like Radio Shack breadboard for the circuit boards. What I''d like to know is how was the cabinet joined? Biscuits or ??? Not a lot in there considering the price tag. But I bet it sounds like a million bucks! If it sounds anywhere near or better than a Komet then it does for sure.
Add to cart indeed! LOL I actually have a couple of Suhr singles that supposedly were Micheal Landaus from this seller.
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That's awesome but 37k no way man thats crazy. On the other hand
if I was a rockstar I'd buy it for shits and giggles...
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I sold my last amp for 1/100th that price. Literally a penny on the dollar.
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When Ken was building and selling these amps.They were very reasnobaly priced.
He typicaly used Bud chassis.They were fairly flimsy.Hence the dowel between the transformers.Not sure about that paticualar cab but most them had tenon fitting into a rabbet then mitered trim glued onto the front.Some of them were mitered all the way across not sure how thise were reinforced.
coupling caps were Mallory pvc series.
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It would be neat to own from a historical or collectable standpoint if one's budget permitted. Not sure about the investment potential at that price. I probably would never play it. I've seen videos of guys demoing these using 100 foot guitar cables to tone down the treble and hearing protectors like those baggage dudes wear on airport tarmacs. Not the most terribly useful instrument I've ever seen if that's required and really the tone of those things never spoke to me. At least now I don't feel so guilty about dropping 6.75% of that price on my early Goodsell Super 17 (s/n #03) and my one off Splawn modded Mig 60 together.
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That's insanity - esp in this market. Sweet nostalgia, though. I like KF's handwritten letter.
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Add to Cart !!!!
HEY, LC, I think that's a great idea!
But, I"m a little short this month :w2:
Do you think you could lend me the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Brad :l2:
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Do they offer financing? Nice but out of my league
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It didn't sell... for that kind of money, I'd want to personally audition it. My guess is that it will sell off eBay for a little less money...
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Too easy to build one just like it (with a better chassis) and not spend that kind of dough. I never bought into the Fischer magic ear thing either.
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I'd rather buy a nice SUV, drive to Doug's place, buy a box of parts, spend a week in Sapphire Valley, come on home and build the amp. All for about the same price! :wink:
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I'd rather buy a nice SUV, drive to Doug's place, buy a box of parts, spend a week in Sapphire Valley, come on home and build the amp. All for about the same price! :wink:
Ain't that the truth.
This whole (some) "amp builders are God's with extraterrestrial abilities" has really gotten old.
With a handful of parts, some patience, effort, and a few trips to a forum such as this one.......
Best
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I'm still waiting for Loose Change to lend me the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ so I can add to cart!
Hey you still out there buddy?
Brad :laugh:
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Too easy to build one just like it (with a better chassis) and not spend that kind of dough. I never bought into the Fischer magic ear thing either.
It's one of those amps, like Dumble, that you've heard about but probably never seen. In fact, I know I've seen/heard more Dumbles on stage or on recording that I have Trainwrecks.
And since you only know what you know because others have written about it, you're free to imagine it being as wonderful as you'd like. :icon_biggrin:
Ready for the (maybe) secret?
I was looking at a schematic for the Express, and noticed a resistor/cap combo that the drafter marked as the point where the amp was voiced. It was a coupling cap and a resistor to ground between stages 2 and 3. The resistor was awfully small for a grid reference, generally 56k in most schematics floating around.
It occurred to me that this is a heavy load for the previous stage, and rotates the a.c. loadline to be more vertical. That really means that if you apply a big enough input, the previous stage runs out of steam and distorts with a relatively small output swing compared to a larger reference resistor (like 470k-1M).
My guess is that if you tune the amp right, you can get the output tubes, phase inverter and some of the preamp stages to break up about the same time, leading to good touch sensitivity. Regardless, without newer complications like power scalling/VVR, that window of touch senstivity will still be at a single (loud) volume level.
Anyway, these things resold around $10k back around the mid-90's. My guess is that Ken sold them for quite a bit less than that, and what the buyer mostly paid for was personal voicing and interaction with the builder.
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I've heard that Liverpools sold for around $1800 new.
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Paid $1600 for my Liverpool in March 1992. They were around $1100-1200 when I first wrote Ken for information a few years earlier and $1800 at a later point. Don"t know what the last ones sold for. A friend of mine owned Ingrid and Roxy (a Liverpool) both which he received in 1993. He also had two Hoffman amplifiers.