trinityamps.com

OK, so I have back in my possession the new and improved Tramp with tweaked 'Tude mode (and a 6L6, same Jensen speaker). Only had a short opportunity to check it out tonight on a session for a record I'm making, but I LOVE it... WAY better than before. The Tramp made it onto the song we were tracking in the verse - used it for 2 verse parts, one rhythm part with my PRS Mira, and then a pretty lead part using my Ric 360. I'll post an instrumental of the rough tracks tomorrow for you to hear - it certainly won't demonstrate the range of 'Tude, but it'll show how nice the amp can work in the context of a track...

I'm also tracking an improvised guitar record - jazz for lack of a better term - this weekend and I expect it'll see some action on that (that I can probably post here), and I've got 2 or 3 players also that have been waiting to check it out, so I'm certain those sessions will yield some clips!

Anyway, bottom line is I wanted to share that in the first version of the amp I thought 'Tude was somewhat redundant... in this version I think it's amazing and takes the amp to another level.

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Thanks for the late breaking news. The 'tude was under a lot of scrutiny after it left you the last time, but I really think it's pretty well dialed in now. I also just put in a carbon comp resistors on the plates of the 12AX7 for some extra Mojo!

Looking forward to the clips and more!

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Here's the song from yesterday... the song is called "Chemical" and it's from an upcoming full-length release from a Pop/Rock artist named Paul Guillemette...

http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/ ... rinity.mp3

These are the raw tracks from the session - no editing/eq/compression... nothing... just a "faders up" bounce from Pro Tools with a limiter on the 2-mix to prevent "overs"... and obviously there are still vocals to come on this one!!

The Tramp is used in the verse - on the left side we used the PRS Mira (bridge humbucker) into an EHX Holy Grail pedal (spring rvb) into the Tramp - 'Tude, Skinny, Gain 4.5, Bass 6, Treble 5, Volume 8.5, Power 8. On the right side is my Rickenbacker 360 (bridge toaster) into a Roland SDE-2500 rackmount digital delay into the EHX Holy Grail again (hall rvb) into the Tramp - same settings but switched to Fat. Mics were an SM57 and a Beta 57 into a Vintech Neve-clone preamp, with about 1dB of compression coming from a Drawmer DL241 into Pro Tools...

If anyone's interested in the chorus guitar tones - on the left is PRS Custom 24 into Peavey 5150 into Mesa Recto 412, and on the right is PRS Mira into Marshall JCM900 into Mesa Recto 412... and then it's just drums, bass, piano, Hammond and gang vocals!!

Enjoy!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Hey, this is great news! Love the clip too!

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

It was great to hear the Tramp in the context of a piece of music. It fills in nicely.
The tune has started to grow on me. Looking forward to the final work and MORE rockin' , 'tude clips!

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I agree...it sounds really sweet in the clip. You should give Brent a cut...his clips certainly don't hurt sales!

(Note: for suggesting he get a cut, I claim a cut of that cut. Kind of like a double-cut. Why do I suddenly want another guitar?)

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SG + Brit tube head = Nirvana

Oooo...I quite like the sound of that.

Very nice definition and overtones.

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http://pdfelectronics.com

PRS Mira into a Skinny Tramp and Ricky into a Fat tramp for the Guitar Verse. On the Guitar Chorus he used a Peavey 5150 and JCM900. It is a nice combination of tones. Little Amp - Big Amp kinda thing happening there.

Further Comments Brent?

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

When I fired up the Tramp, I immediately went to 'Tude to see what was different from last time... a lot! It was a pretty different sounding circuit to me (accounting for the 6V6 to 6L6 as well). Anyway, as I always do I cranked it up - nice - but as I spun the gain around I noticed a really nice harmonic haze that didn't seem as prevalent in the last rev. I didn't have loads of time (since this was mid-session) so after my quick audition, I decided we would use it for the verse (we had already tracked the chorus, and were really happy with the size of those tones). Anyway, Paul had the Mira in his hand so we went with it since it was sounding good - It was already on skinny so I left it. We tried it dry first, but it didn't sit in the track as well as I had hoped, so I plugged in the Grail... voila... Then Paul's buddy Jason was going to cut his lead bit - We wanted it to be jangly/chimey so the Ric was the obvious choice, coupled with the glowing harmonic stuff 'Tude was giving... left the Grail in line, but switched to the hall setting and turned it up a bit so there would be a little spatial separation. Initially we tried my EHX Memory Man for delay (which is GORGEOUS) but at maximum the delay time was just a little too fast. So, I yanked my Roland SDE-2500 (also VERY cool - 80's!!) out of the rack and plugged it in - perfect. Then I decided it could be just a little warmer so flipped it over to fat, and there it was.

Obviously this track won't be everyone's taste (although it makes more sense with vocals!) - Paul's a big fan of radio rock bands like 3 Doors Down, Mariana's Trench, Three Days Grace, Nickleback, Finger Eleven, etc... so what we're going for here is that modern rock thing (which these days has a little bit of the 80's thing happening) mixed in with a little bit of the Fray and Train which he also likes (hence the piano/organ). So, the chorus tones were totally in line with the sounds on those records, and in the verse we wanted a little contrast while keeping true to the genre (U2-ish basically). Anyway, Paul LOVED all the sounds - it was exactly what he was going for, and I was delighted that the little Tramp sounds big in the context of those chorus tones that were BIG... I haven't met a lot of little amps that can live in a track with big amps happily. The other thing I was intrigued by is that 'Tude sounded SO good with clean tones (all about that harmonic stuff) - I expected I would use for dirt, but it actually gives the amp a different flavour of clean also which I love... reminds me a little of the Triwatt in this way...

I've invited a bunch of other guys over to the studio to check it out, and of course I'll document those sessions... I've heard back from Rob and he's dying to check it out again so that should happen top of the week. I've also got this "jazz" session this weekend, so assuming Percy likes the amp (I know he will - he has a blackface Champ!) we'll probably get it on that record as well... Anyway, as soon as I have more for you to hear, I'll post it!!!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

ha ha Emo! I ALWAYS want another guitar... I've got the jones on for a Gretsch Nashville 6120 right now... but unfortunately it ain't in the cards for the near future...

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Yeah - I'm teased by a lot of hollows & semi-hollows lately. There's a 339 at the L&M here that wants to move in with me hardcore...thus I'm avoiding L&M at the moment. I'm kind of in the market for a nice LP clone too, even though I'm not really a LP fan at all. Can't quite figure that one out!

But, having already bought 2 guitars this year (a Mexi Tele & a Mockingbird ST) I don't think I can justify another. I did sell 2 amps so another build may be on the horizon! Can't have the guitar count surpassing the amps! Yes - the Tramp is on the potential list...

I really do like how the Tramp sits in this mix. It sounds very alive & organic. I've always felt that a bit of delay or reverb really brings a clean tone to life. It may sound good dry, and the Tramp appears to have that character, but it's much more vibrant when a bit wet. I also like the complexity. So many clean tones are so-so amps hiding behind subtle chorus. It's nice that the Tramp's tone has a complexity that makes that unnecessary. The Rick sounds AMAZING! That's a tone that'll give any guitarist a chub...

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SG + Brit tube head = Nirvana

Took a break from mixing to try to gain a little more insight into the "new" Tramp...

'Tude is AMAZING... SO amazing... it's actually hard for me to believe that this is derived from the other 'Tude circuit - TOTALLY different...

Cranked up it's raw and edgy but still under control, and smooth but in an aggressive way - not like before where the "tone" ended 3/4 of the way up the dial - now there's TONE right to the top. Fat, skinny doesn't matter - it holds together but in a really primal raw "teeth gritting" way... with my P-90 Les Paul I felt like Neil Young - it rocks in that way... Bass dimed, bass at zero doesn't matter - it still holds together... And sort of in the spirit of my initial reaction to the Tramp with ALL the controls acting as tone controls of sorts, I had A LOT of fun in 'Tude with "Power Level" the VRM knob. With the gain all the way up Power acts sort of like a "presence" control - not in a "top end" sort of way, but more in a "brings the tone out of the speaker" kind of way - a bit like the presence control on the Triwatt, but in a wider, more comprehensive way. Because the tone is fairly compressed with gain cranked, moving power from 10 to 5 doesn't really make it quieter per se, just darker and warmer, but still with all the beef. Then messing with bass takes it from raw and thick (bass up) to dark and focused (bass down). As you move the power level up, the tone comes forward with highs and high mids becoming more prominent. At full power and bass down, you can get that real edgy, ringy, I call it "transistory" kind of tone, and as you roll the bass up, Neil Young and his very large "tonal balls" show up!!! Can I say that in here?!?!? And yes, for those that want to know, with power below 5 the tone gets quieter, but still has all the rage...

The harmonic haze is what it's all about in the clean parts of 'Tude - gorgeous! Just a little hair on the tone for presence with all these overtones swirling around it and a nice solid foundation. This tone will make it on to A LOT of the records I make.

The only thing that was slightly quirky about 'Tude was that I found the gain range between clean and cranked to NEED the power level full up. If the VRM was down and I was in these middle gain ranges, I found the tone was a little lacking in energy ie was missing the rawness of full gain, and also missing some of the harmonic sparkle of the cleaner tones... Cranking the power level solved the problem in spades - AWESOME mid gain tones... but I'm inclined to think that bedroom players that are planning to use the power level to keep things quiet at home may prefer Tweed mode for the mid gain stuff...

So after my exploration of 'Tude, I started to wonder if my impression of Tweed would have changed... So I flipped back to Tweed... nothing to worry about - Tweed is every bit as amazing as I first reported...

As for 6L6 vs. 6V6, I think overall I prefer the 6L6, even though I think the tonal signature of the amp is intact with either tube. Just something about the "size" of the tone with the 6L6 that I think I like better. And I'll reiterate that I think that Jensen in there is the bee's knees!! I'd LOVE to hear the Tramp with it's 10 going plugged into a 212 with a couple of these Jensen 12's going at the same time... as a matter of fact, that's how I'm going to order mine! Now if I can talk Stephen into building a replica of my Bassman 212 the best vintage cab ever...

Bottom line - the new Tramp rocks... ummm, ROCKS!! Tweed's as awesome as ever, and the tweaked 'Tude mode ups the ante one more notch. EVERYONE will love this amp - it's not a "special flavour" kind of thing like some amps. This thing will excel in pretty much every context I'd have for it... it's getting more difficult to justify having anything other than Trinity amps - between the Tramp, Deluxe, 18W and JTM, TC-15, and Triwatt, there's not a whole lot left to be covered... other than maybe a bass amp!!!

You can consider this my official order of a Tramp with matching 212... Jensen's all around!

More to come...

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Thanks Emo... "alive" is a GREAT word for this amp. Yeah, I've been loving delay and reverb lately... been working with all these indie bands that have everything drowning in reverb and I think it's rubbed off on me... Thanks on the Ric tone - truth be told that guitar is SO amazing it ALWAYS sounds good... but the Tramp certainly doesn't hurt!! And forget the tone, just looking at that guitar gives me a chub!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Thanks for checking it out kurt!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Well, I don't know about "drowning" in it, but I do like a bit to air it out. With that said, I love the over-the-top reverb on the BFDR I just built. It's either subtle, or different stages of ridiculous. I really should mod it to tame it a bit, but it's just too much fun as is.

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SG + Brit tube head = Nirvana

Is it OK if I say Thanks to Brent for his excellent review? I dont know how you do it - but you can put into words what you are hearing. I'm really very, very pleased that you like the "The new and improved Tramp" and Thanks for taking the time to do it.

You know I wanted the Clean & Dirty thing goin' on and it sure seems to have hit the head of the proverbial nail. All this with just two tubes.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

It's OK to me!! My pleasure Stephen, the amp is AMAZING, and when fantastic tones come out of an amp my job is a lot easier and A LOT more fun!! And yes, you DEFINITELY "hit the head of the proverbial nail..."

So I started a 3-day session today with a very cool guitar player named Percy Adler. For those children of the 70's and 80's, Percy worked with "Nash The Slash" back in the day. Working with Percy is a lot of fun and very challenging because all of his music is 100% improvised, and he somewhat relies on the tones to inspire his improvisations... The gear and tones we use are VERY important...

We did our first 3-day session a couple of weeks ago. Percy's setup is quite comprehensive - he's got a pile of guitars - the main voices are an Eastman hollowbody, Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean, '52 Tele with Kinman pickups, Fender Jazzmaster, and a Fender Baritone. Guitar goes into a DI which goes directly to hard disk to leave us the option of "reamping" if necessary, then into an A/B box. One line from the A/B box goes into a Holy Grail reverb (and sometimes some other fun fx) and then into the "dry" amp. The other line goes into Percy's Boss ME-50 pedal effect unit and then a stereo out from the ME-50 goes into 2 amps for stereo "effects"... We're also recording the room in stereo...

After spending some time auditioning a lot of the amps in my studio, for the "dry" amps we settled on my Trinity JTM-45, Fender Prosonic, blackface Fender Bassman, and Percy's modded blackface Fender Champ. The cabs we chose were my vintage Fender 212 with Celestion CL80's, and my Marshall/Trinity 410 with TTC's. The stereo "effect" amps were Trinity TC-15 into Trinity 212 with TTA's, and my Fender Blues Deluxe...

So the first 3-day session went amazingly well with a pile of opulent clean tones coming from the JTM. I told Percy that we'd have the "new and improved Tramp" for session 2 and he seemed pretty excited about that - he even left his Champ at home!! So, today while I was patching and micing things up Percy fired up the Tramp to check it out... I'm sure he'll chime in here at some point, but I think it was fair to say he was BLOWN AWAY. He kept talking about how amazing the amp sounded, how special it was, and how it was ALL THERE in the Tramp! He indicated before we even started recording that he thought we should spend the entire day in the Tramp since it had so much range...

Well, 8 hours into the session and we hadn't left the Tramp!!!!! Considering the other amps we had set up and ready to go, that's pretty impressive!! Anyway, I'm bouncing the tracks from today overnight tonight - we recorded nearly 3 hours of material so I'll post some clips tomorrow. The music isn't exactly "classic rock", but Percy is a huge fan of King Crimson and Cream so that should give you a frame of reference... he also loves a lot of cool modern bands as well as jazz greats like Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, etc. and guitar players like Bill Frisell. Tonally what we've been doing is VERY adventurous - the clips'll show how a real "meat and potatoes" amp like the Tramp can be used in very creative contexts...

I've invited Percy to this thread so hopefully he'll have something to contribute at some point... Anyway, REALLY fun day... be back tomorrow with some audio treats!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

This is awesome feedback! The main reason I hadn't responded earlier was because I was so blown away by what you said, I just didn't know what to say. I'm right over the moon you like the amp so much!


It's actually exactly the same 'Tude circuit. The problem was that the power amp section wasn't coping well with what the preamp was throwing at it in 'Tude mode. So we had to tighten up the power amp some more. I think the 6L6 also helps improve definition and lets some of those harmonics get heard better.


And that's exactly what I was aiming for there, in my quest to take the very basic simple 2-tube amp concept out to the furthest limits possible. Then in Tweed mode we're recreating the vintage tones of the 3F series Tweed Champ/Princeton amps, so popular in recording studios. Having only two tubes also means that what you get out of the amp is also very much dictated by the kind of guitar you put into it. You're going to get a totally different vibe between a Strat and an ESP, say, with the Tramp.


An EL34 will also sound real juicy in this amp, with something of a Plexi-ish vibe. One of my favourite combinations. The reason it has a 6L6 in it right now, is that when I was last working on the amp, I had to get it ready for a Sonic Deli Band gig that night, and I wanted to put something in quickly that would give the guys a bit more stage volume. So it ended up with one of these cheap and much-maligned Sovtek 5881/6L6GCs, as they're real rugged tubes, and I happened to have one on my bench at the time.


Actually that track hits my musical tastes right on the button! It sounds great even without the vocals. Love it!


Hey, now that really is cool. Two of my favourites, just right there. I can't wait to hear what these recordings are going to sound like!


+1

Brent, you have an amazing way of painting pictures with your words.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Ha ha Phil, that's great man! Thanks for saying that... well, I'm over the moon that the amp is SO DAMN GOOD!

Regardless of whether the changes were made to the 'Tude circuit or elsewhere, the net result is that what I'm hearing is TOTALLY different than before... and a hell of A LOT better. I love the 6L6. I'd be into hearing it with an EL34, but I'm not sure I'd want it to be more Marshall-esque... I love that this thing rocks like a Brit-inspired amp, but still sounds "American"... I would like to hear another 6L6 like a Winged C or something in there... but I did notice there's a Mullard 12AX7 in there now...

I'm glad you like Paul's track! I love it too, but realize not everyone likes that big modern rock/doubled saturated guitar/power chord chorus thing...

Gonna do up some Percy clips right now... the bounces were <ahem> agressively compressed <tired engineer, ahem> but the tones are still all there...

Thanks! Nice to know that my ramblings actually make sense to some people...

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

So, Day 2 of Percy's session was pretty darn fun! We started the day with the Tramp again... this time we lasted 2 hours straight in there, but unfortunately had to switch to something else 'cause that poor little prototype had taken a beating and we were starting to get some rattles and extraneous noises! Where were Stephen and Phil when we needed them the most!!! LOL! Anyway, we spent a good part of the rest of the day in my Trinity JTM so all was good...

Here are some clips from the last couple of days. These are just short excerpts from much longer improvisations - I left the effect tracks in, as well as the room mics, but they're balanced Tramp-heavy so you can hear what the amp was doing. Probably half were in Tweed, the other half in 'Tude. Most of these were in Fat mode, but a few were in skinny. Sorry I don't have detailed notes - we've been working pretty fast! And as I mentioned above I was tired when I started the bounce and didn't notice how much I was compressing the mix, so these could be a little hot level-wise. They're working on my laptop, but if they're blowing up speakers everywhere else, let me know and I can prep some quieter ones!

Anyway, Percy's record wouldn't be turning out the same without the Tramp! Hope y'all enjoy some of these tones and Percy's very cool creative playing!!

http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP1.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP2.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP3.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP4.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP5.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP6.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP7.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP8.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP9.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP10.mp3
http://www.trinityamps.com/clips/tramp/PercyTRAMP11.mp3

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com