Kendrick Trainwreck/Climax 212 Cabinet

Built in late 90s after a very complicated developement supervised by both Gerald Weber at Kendrick and Ken Fischer of Trainwreck amps. The prototype was described by Fischer as the best amp he'd ever heard. There's a lot of confusion if the production amp turned out the way he'd hoped, however it appears that at least some were produced with parts that were less than sterling. Mine is the 36th (numbered 100) and according to Gerald and the sales staff is the best sounding one.

The amp has two channels, with external switching (AB box like Matchless DC30s), reverb on the first channel, 212 Fane speakers. The channels are NOT clean/distortion, they're both non-master volume channels voiced as American/British. The American side is Blackface fender with reverb, it has a control that increases the gain and decreases headroom (texas tea) for a more tweed sound. The British side is more Vox/Marshall territory, less headroom, more edgy sound, but not more gain (in fact, highest gain is the first channel with texas tea cranked up. The amp allows external, independed biasing of tubes, so you can use any octal power tube and adjust to taste-very cool idea that should be standard on high end amps. It might lose a few points with some people due to the non-master volume character, but 2/3 of my amps are NMV, no problem for me.

I play folk, worship songs, classic rock. I have a number of guitars with high and low output singles and humbuckers. I have yet to find a guitar that this amp sounds bad with. Perhaps switching to Telefunken preamp tubes has helped the sound. I haven't experimented with different output tubes yet, but it's very good sounding as it is. It does the blackface fender sound as well as my 68 Super, better than my Holland Lil Jimi (which is now for sale). This is surprising as the speakers are Fanes (Celestion like). The Marshall sounds are a little cleaner than my 70s SLP but definitely different from the Fender (which very few amps do, IMHO-lots have low and high gain sides, but few actually sound like a Fender OR a Marshall without changing speakers or tubes).

This amp has the most dominant first harmonic I've ever heard. When it feeds back, it smoothly goes from the fundamental to the first octave. This gives the notes a round, bell-like tone. Very cool and not something I've experienced with other high buck amps. The reverb is as good as most, not something I use a lot.

No idea, no plans to gig with it, too expensive and pretty. Great amp for the studio and the basement. Why do the caps snap and pop so much when you switch it on, though?

They've been helpful in the past when they've done work for me.

I've been playing 20 years, have owned >100 amps including several Matchless, vintage and modern Fender, Marshall, Vox and boutique amps. I'd say this is the best NMV amp I've played, right up there with Matchless in terms of tone, sensitivity to input etc. A defeatable master volume for quieter playing sometimes would be nice. I'd be ticked if I'd paid 5000 for it, and it came with Sovtek tubes, but at this price point, it's very appropriate and I don't regret the purchase at all...