
Dale B
Well-known member
I’ve played through 1, and I owned a clone made by some dude that everyone in the amp building forums looks at as God of cloning these things. They were both Express models. One guy in an earlier post mentions that you have to learn to control your guitar, and that’s true. You also have to control feedback. The Kuykendal guy does that very well. I bought my old clone about 14 or 15 years ago.
They are very loud amps at 35 watts. The circuit isn’t that complicated. It uses a big resistor instead of a choke. It goes from pretty damn high gain to a great clean by rolling off the volume, yet the amp is still loud as hell.
Do I believe all of the stuff about the wire colors and any extra magic that Ken threw in? No! My clone was about 3 months old, and his real one had been played hard by him for a solid 10 years. The guy’s real Express I played sounded and behaved pretty much the same. I had the tubes that Ken recommended for them.
At the end of the day, it was nice to experience a real one and see what they’re all about. I like other amps a lot better.
They are very loud amps at 35 watts. The circuit isn’t that complicated. It uses a big resistor instead of a choke. It goes from pretty damn high gain to a great clean by rolling off the volume, yet the amp is still loud as hell.
Do I believe all of the stuff about the wire colors and any extra magic that Ken threw in? No! My clone was about 3 months old, and his real one had been played hard by him for a solid 10 years. The guy’s real Express I played sounded and behaved pretty much the same. I had the tubes that Ken recommended for them.
At the end of the day, it was nice to experience a real one and see what they’re all about. I like other amps a lot better.