Trainwreck Climax 112 Combo

Built in 1998. I bought this used from Guitar Center. Basic features. Simplicity is sometimes better. Clean channel and Gain channel. Footswitch included for reverb on clean channel. Most of these amps were black tolex covered or Canary wood. Mine had a very cool orange tolex covering. Wood control panel and brown grill cloth. Very cool looking vintage looking amp. About the size of a Fender Twin. Has a very nice Jensen P12N speaker with the bell cap. Most of these amps from what I could tell on the internet are 2x10 Fane speakers. I personally prefer the Jensen P12N speaker.

When I played this at the store it sounded absolutely beautiful. It had the fullest warm clean sound I have ever heard. I did notice some humming but didn't think it was a problem. Actually did not even try out the gain channel. My wife loved the sound of this wife and a week later surprised me by presenting it to me as an anniversay present. I was a little concerned at first because even though it was used it was still very expensive. I plugged the amp in and was surprised at how loud the humming had become. I dropped it off a a local music store for repair. The amp tech called me to let me know that he was concerned how loud this amp hummed. He checked all of the tubes and a variety of other places within the amp. He also called Kendrick to ask for their advice. He said that they weren't the friendliest people to deal with. They did give him some hints what might be wrong with the amp and then he called me to let me know what would be changed and how much. He estimated between $150-$175 in repairs. Maybe even more. He could have made money off of me but instead was kind enough to offer his personal advice. The amp price used was $2295 (these amps were $5000 new). Add on the cost of repairs and there are alot of other amps to choose from. It's difficult to place a number rating on sound. Like I said earlier this amp has a beautiful warm clean sound. Probably due to the Jensen P12N and a few 12ax7's were swapped with 12au7's by the previous owner. Worth the price of the amp if it is working properly. The hum (part of the sound) would knock off a few points. Without the hum this amp would easily be a 10.

I have a feeling that the original owner sold it because he knew it was starting to have problems.

Did not deal with Kendrick personally. My amp tech did contact Kendrick and though he wasn't impressed by their customer service (friendliness) they did offer advice on what to look for in fixing this amp.

After owning it for about a month I returned the amp to Guitar Center for a full refund. I felt fortunate that they were willing to take it back. It was alot of money and frustration. If I had money to burn I would have kept this amp and poured money into it to get it working correctly. I based my decision to sell it due to the overall cost and the advice of the amp tech. I thought it would be cool to have an amp designed by Ken Fisher (of Trainwreck fame). Ken Fisher's Trainwreck amp heads on eBay go for $10,000 plus. I really wanted this amp. Just wasn't meant to be for me.

I have read all of the negative comments, and let's just say that the amp has Trainwreck circuit design, and is built by Gerald Weber at Kendrick. People bought these for the "trainwreck" heritage and sound, and a lot of them were disappointed by the second channel, which is useless. The first channel is on the fender side of things and is really nice.The reason that I would rate this amp so high for its "features" is explained below, by its versatility with both guitars and pedals (which it loves)

We have 2 Trainwrecks in our band. The design magic of Trainwreck is evident by what this amp is capable of. First of all the amp loves pedals. We have tried a '59 Historic/ a '57 Historic goldtop, several Andersons, strats, a couple Gretsch's, Ricky 360/12, and have come to the conclusion that the amp is really flexible, it always sits right in the mix and hard to explain, but it is very sensitive to things that we do with the guitar (rolling off tone controls/adding a compressor or fatboost) unlike ANY amp I've ever played, if you split a pickup in a "live-mix", when you watch or listen to the video or tape, you can hear the subtle change that you wanted when you did it. The second best attribute is that the amp ALWAYS sounds the same. We were frustrated always struggling to get the same sounds out of our amps. Seemed like every week you either sounded good or struggled all night. I can play it live on stage, in the studio, in someones garage or wherever, with just very minor volume changes and have never needed to touch the tone controls.....yes even live. Next, the amp is loud...more than enough for stage, and yet it sounds great when you turn it down to in house volume...or in between. I just can't say enough about how happy that I am with using a non-channel switching amp, that is versatile (only with pedals), and really works performs with all of the little things that make me like an amp. I like to be sensitive without being fussy or picky, sound, touch and tone. It is lightweight and easy to haul around, and more than loud enough. We have played in fairly large outdoor venues, even without mic's and I have never felt that I needed more power. If you like hi-gain, or channel switching...don't look here. It is all about 1 good sound, think warm Fender '65 Deluxe reverb, and expand from there. With good pedals and guitars, this amp rocks, and if it makes any sense-it has tones/sounds that are very versatile enough with the pedals that you don't get tired and worn down with 1 guitar sound, and yes-we do throw different guitar sounds out there. If you played a 3 hour gig with one guitar sound only.....ugh, just doesn't wear well, at this the Climax is simply stellar.

I have replaced 1 tube (a jj/tesla) that went out, and the other player had to fix a noisy reverb internal wiring problem. He said when his tech opened the amp up it was well constructed, but a couple corners had been cut (some kind of capacitor or something that was a "knockoff" of a major brand), other than that we use them regularly and I would never have an amp that I felt I needed a backup for, that is ridiculous.

I have spoken to Gerald Weber at kendrick (via email) several times. He was very nice, took a lot of time answering my emails, and his staff was very helpful, even though I bought mine used (from a fellow bandmember, who had bought 2 of them)

I was fortunate. A friend and fellow bandmember got his first Climax and within a week ordered a second one. I tried the second one he brought one night at the studio and simply had to buy it, not order one...I wanted that one. It has a nice "big" and warm sound for a 1x12 combo, and simply blew away everything else that I personally have tried or heard. We always get compliments on our sound, and believe me the audience doesn't know a Trainwreck from anything else, they are truly judging tone/sound/mix....and they don't want to listen to 30 songs or so that sound the same, you'de better have something that covers pretty well.I would have rated this a 10 (and do) however the rating box said "fantastic value", the amp was over-priced.....probably a bit high at $3200, and way too high in the $5K mode.