trinityamps.com

Hello all

Never really introduced myself, I guess now would be a good time. My name's Chris, I am 17, from Toronto and I got into this DIY thing a year and a half ago. The DIY bug has bitten me bad. Ive built over 30 effects and this Trinity 18W will be my third amp (Vibro Champ, Deluxe Reverb, o lots of valve Jr modding and then 18W).

So I got the chassis and turret board back in the summer. Within an three hours of getting the turret board I had soldered all the components on. I then mounted all the hardware. At this point I was a bit stuck cause I couldn't really go any farther without the transformers. Couldn't wire the turret without having mounted the OT underneath.

Anyways on Thursday my transformers arrived and two days later the amp was done. Just waiting on the EZ81 retainer then I will wire the recto. Also cant decide what I am doing with the boost switch so it is empty now. Other than that it is done.

If someone could give this a little look over that would be great. I have been going through it myself but a second pair of eyes would be awesome. Also what do you think of the lead dress? I thought I did a decent job but I am curious to see if anyone thinks there will be issues.

And sorry there are a lot of pics. I was in the amp building "zone" I didnt have time for progress pics.













Thanks...Chris

Quick once over looks fine. Hard to confirm the values for some tho. Where is the pre-amp ground connected?

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

Thanks...

Ya I missed taking a pic of the pre-amp ground. It is just to the left of the normal channel's input jack. Both sets of jacks and the ground buss go to there.

So three ground wires going to that bolt in total.

What do you think of the lead dress? Any issues?

The lead dress looks fine. You might pull the leads away from the heater wires a bit if possible and make sure any cross-over wires are at 90 degrees or at least not parallel.

I don't like to put coax under the board, but you should be fine.

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

Finished it up today...

When I install just the recto and turn the power switch on the EHX EZ81 heats up.

However when I touch one probe off my DMM to ground and the other to the standby switch (B+ measuring area) I get a buzzing sound and a reading of 280V DC.

Keep it mind no speaker is installed...

Only do this with no other tubes installed.

I cant see the rectifier connections so recheck those against the layout.

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

What do you mean by this?

I have checked the recto wiring tons of times now unfortunately.

I mean test the power supply with no power tubes or pre-amps tubes installed.

Try this.

Remove the rect tube & measure the AC voltages on all the pins.

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

No need

Just for chance I flicked standby and measured the B+ on the other side of the switch. B+ is right on!

Amp works great! More to come...

Woo Hoo! Tell us more!!

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

Chris/Stephen...
Just curious... What is that extra resistor across the can cap? Is that a bleeder of some sort? I've never seen it on any of the layout drawings...

Good looking build Chris! Enjoy

Joe G

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Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Yes. 220K 2W to ground looks typical.

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

Ya just a bleeder 220K 3W. Makes me feel very safe when working. Honestly with the safety risk taken away amps just feel like big complex pedals to me.

Anyways great amp Stephen! So dynamic and ballsy.
Haven't had time for any tube swapping, bridging of channels or chop-sticking yet.

I cant really think of anything I would change on this amp!

On the Normal channel when the two input jacks aren't "too" tight my guitar lead goes in fine. When I tighten the jacks though I cant get my lead in the jack. I would really have to force it.

Its weird cause this doesn't happen on the TMB channel...

Any ideas? hahha

Maybe the ccliff jack is not positioned in the chassis hole properly. Remove the nut, reset the jack and try again.

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