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Hi,

I'm new here, and received a Trinity 5E3 kit for Father's Day. I'm new to amp-building, and not an electrical-engineer....

So far everything has went well in the very-early stages, however my question is regarding connecting the black-and-black/blue wiring to the white neutral. I realize I should connect the the black-black/blue wires together, then connect to the white neutral (adding the shrink-tube) but do I (a) solder these 3 wires together prior to the shrink-tube, or (b) just twist them-up and apply the shrink-tube?

Also, I can just use a cigarette lighter to shrink the tube?

Thanks in-advance for your help! Looking forward to completing this build!

-morecoffee

Nevermind....the error appears to be in my reading-comprehension....

More questions to follow...haha

Thank you, though!

I have used a lighter and also a candle to shrink heat shrinkable tubing if my heat gun isn't handy. It works. Just be careful not to get the flame too close.

Good luck with your build!

Well, so far so good, I think...

If you see any glaring errors, please let me know!

I finished it up today, but sadly when I fired it up........nothing. Tubes all get warm/hot, pilot light is on.

However, when I take it off standby, I do hear a slight hum coming from my speaker cab, but no signal is going through, guitar or otherwise.

In all likelihood I'll take it to my amp tech tomorrow, as I lack the ability to diagnose any problems. Hopefully nothing too severe....lol.

Here are some pics, for reference.

I don't have a coaxial-cable. Was one supposed to come with the kit? Is there an alternative way to wire this without the coaxial-cable? I'm all dressed up, with no place to go...

Thank you.

The build looks good!

But yes, there is supposed to be a shielded cable running from the top of the Normal volume control to pin 2 of V2. If that's missing, no wonder you don't have sound. The fact that you hear a bit of hum is a good sign that most of the amp is working, though.

You could temporarily use a piece of regular wire for the connection just to test the amp. You might get more hum with regular wire, but the amp should work. The shield on the shielded cable only connects to ground at the volume control end, so it's not necessary to pass the signal. It's just there to shield the inner conductor that runs from the pot to the tube.

If a piece of shielded cable didn't come with the kit, Stephen will send you some. But you could also cut up a regular stereo patch cord to get a piece.

Thank you Mitch, much appreciated.

I looked up some old Fender pictures of the wiring and schematics and see that it appears a standard wire was used, so I was going to try that today (same as your advice).

I think I'm also missing the 4 nuts to secure the circuit-board to the screws...although I don't think the circuit-board is going anywhere..

So early this morning, I ran a wire from the Normal Volume pot to pin-2 of v2 and the amp works like a charm, and sounds great! I played it using a LP through a 1x12 ext-cabinet with an old V30 and was enjoying every minute.

I turned on the amp a few minutes after I soldered the wire, and the amp was a bit noisy at idle, but when I shut my soldering-station off (plugged into the same circuit as the amp) the noise completely disappeared, and, all things considered, it's very quiet, and comparable to any other tube amp I've owned. That being said, how much will the coaxial-cable improve the noise levels? I'm not looking for a super quiet-recording jazz amp, but rather a traditional tweed deluxe. I don't want any "noise improvements" to make the amp too polite-sounding.

Here's a pic of the blue-wire, suspended across the top of the board (for easy removal).

Fender didn't go overboard with some of the things that could be done to reduce noise, like neat heater wiring, star grounding and using shielded cable. Trinity's 5E3 layout does, however. Sounds like running that wire "out in space" as you have done is OK as far as noise goes. But if you ran it under the board the way the layout shows, without it being shielded, it could be a different story.

Glad you got the amp working. If you are happy with the way it sounds just leave the wire as it is. It's in a sensitive part of the circuit, though, and I would replace it with a shielded one. It won't change the tone of the amp. It will just make it more immune to picking up stray hum and noise which is a good thing.

Too bad you don't have nuts to secure the board. You should be able to get some at your local hardware store. They are quite common.

Thanks for your advice, Mitch, much appreciated.

I finished up the amp this morning, after getting some nuts to secure the chassis. Sounds great! Very impressed with the Trinity Amp Kit. Hopefully, a Marshall kit will be in the near future!

I ended-up snaking that wire under the board (before you said bad idea...lol) but put the shrink-tube around it...I don't notice anymore noise that when I had the blue-wire suspended above the board. Unlikely that I'll actually gig this amp, as it will lack the headroom, but maybe it would be noisier in some of the venues we play at with poor electric and lighting...I can always change it. I would like to get the coaxial-cable sent to me, in the event it's needed in the future though. I'll try and contact Stephen. Thanks again, Mitch.

We will send you some coax wire. An omission but you got it going thanks to mitch!

_________________
Stephen
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