WOW! OK... Wow. I mean, Wow... like REALLY Wow...
As some of you know, I've got the Triwatt prototype this week in my studio for testing the new iron, and to record some clips! Wow. I'm blown away by how different the new transformers make this thing sound. Like blown away in a good way... actually GREAT way...
I only had a chance to play through it for about 20 min. today, but here are my first impressions - the iron has upped the "toughness" ante in a MONDO Hiwatt way. If there was any possibility the Triwatt would have been mistaken for something other than a rock amp, it definitely won't now... With the new iron, the tone has more authority, is bigger, and seems to have more headroom - not clean headroom, just headroom in a general sense... kind of like if you replace your underpowered PA amplifier with a higher powered good one - the sound is just A LOT "higher quality". Same thing here. I would quantify this as now the amp sounds A LOT more "expensive".
A couple of other quickie first impressions - the iron seems to have changed the voicing of the amp a bit too. There seemed to be more cleans before when running it hot. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing... all of the gain is infinitely usable, and I found that running the master lower definitely cleaned things up a bit. The sound was still present and huge, just cleaner. So the new iron seems to have given the MV a lot more utility than I would normally encounter on an amp. And I hereby declare that IMO the VRM is a waste of time on this amp. The MV basically is a tone-shaping-VRM as it is!
I like the bright input more now - less about bright and more about balls... but in a bright way... The "magic setting" (first gain stage "starved" and overdrived engaged and way up!) sounds cooler than before too - before it had a rawness, now it's a little creamier a la a big ass Marshall tone. I actually think there'll be a lot of Marshalls collecting dust with this new kid in town!! This setting combined with the Hiwatt toughness, makes this thing sound like a hot-rodded Marshall... and we're talking a big Marshall here!
Anyway, the key words for today are "expensive", and "big amp tone" from the 22W little guy.

Oh, and I almost forgot one - "exciting". That's maybe the best one 'cause that's really how it sounds...
Working on a few players for the clips - I think I can get a couple of short clip sessions in this week, and if the amp is allowed to live with me for a bit next week too, I can probably get another session in next week... Can't wait for you guys to hear this thing.

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter
www.slyfichapel.com