trinityamps.com

Tonight, I'll fit the TRIWATT with KT66 and head off to Lawrence's practice for another round oftesting. We're back to Take5 design using the EZ OT.

This should be interesting!!

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

Now THAT's what I want to hear

(semi) patiently waiting

KT66s are in and ready to rumble. Biased at 40ma, 445 V on the plates. Good for about 35W.

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

Wow
I knew they were larger bottles, but---WOW


I LIKE it

KT66 Report
---------------

I took the amp to Larry's band practice tonight. Larry played a Gibson Les Paul Double cut with P90s. Here's my report.

The KT66 sound good. Meaty, more bottom end, less top end and a bit louder all as expected. Cleaner and louder. Clean solos at 3/4 vol, 5/8 OD. 5/8 vol. (Great Back in USSR loud solo that way). .047uf boost was a bit too much so the controls sat a little to the right of center tonight.

Put in JJ AX7 in PI for last set. 'Walk This Way' - very sweet solo. Generally more gainy but in a good way as it all hung together. No bad sounds, no fizz. Larry wanted a bit more treble with KT66 in this combination but .047uf was too much so he cranked treble and presence to 3/4. A Tung Sol might do it more justice in this case/position. Still sounded good and cut through the band.

Larry turned the OD off once to get some clean tones and it sounded good as well. By that time I was deaf - almost! .

With the OD back on, he was able to get a nice crunchy bluesy rhythm going and then switch to a great blues solo riff on "Women have a way with the Blues" which surprised both of us.

Great balls in the low end with this combination and the amp retained the excellent sustain as well.

At the end of the set they played 'Running on Empty', and even with the AX7 in the PI there were cleans to be found 3/4 vol 5/8 OD and almost 3/4 master with the P90s.

BTW, Good news - this amp loves The Tragically Hip.

All in all a very successful tone test. Thanks to Larry!

Bottom line is if you want more bottom end, less treble, a bit more clean volume the KT66 will do it. It's a nice option to have.

After the practice we talked and for the March 27th show, Larry's going with the 6V6 with the AX7 in the PI. He likes the bright side of this amp and plays the Bright channel with the OD on, the most.

He was playing against a Two Rock Opal and the TRIWATT certainly held it's own.

--------------
PS Transformers remained cool after 3 hours.

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

Stage Set-Up



Settings with 12AX7 PI & KT66

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

Boy - the KT's look absolutely HUGE!

Yeah, the band thought I should make a plexi glass case for it just to show them Bad Boys off!

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

Yeah, real big fat b*stards with a big fat tone.

KT66s with a 12AX7 PI and the MV turned all the way up. That's loud!!!

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

That was for the last song of the night. Some wailing Hendrix style playing! Most of the night it was about half plus way and it was all good!

I have no doubt the Tung-Sols would have notched it up a bit and made Larry a smiling dude!

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

I know I am asking a very subjective question, but what type of power (6V6 or KT66) tube seems more Hiwattish? Also would the 12AX7 or the 12AT7 do better in the PI Position.

I am about to buy some tubes, and don't want to buy 3 or 4 variations on every type needed.

If I were to call up some examples of typical Hiwatt Sounds they would be:

Gilmour - Live at Pompey
Barre - Thick as a Brick
Fripp - Red
Hackett - Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Lifeson - Farewell to Kings

Thanks

_________________
ROB

What a great mini-Who's Who of truly original players!

_________________
************
** b0b0 **
************

- This Space For Rent -

That's a lot of different players, who used their Hiwatts in a bunch of different ways. However, the way it works is this. If you want a more vintage Hiwatt sound with later breakup, you will prefer a 12AT7 in the PI, and that is what the early 70s PI in the Triwatt is designed for. However, it's interesting that some of the classic Hiwatt players, including Townshend and Gilmour, used 12AX7s in the PI, giving earlier breakup and more distortion. Again, if you want the amp to break up at lower volume levels then you should use 6V6s. If you want the amp to stay more clean then KT66s should be your choice. I'm doing some tests at the moment with 6V6s and KT66s, and the KTs also appear to be a little darker. Having said all that, the Triwatt's Overdrive stage can provide whatever level of distortion you want, even with a very clean PI and power tubes. Just check Lawrences clip of the intro from "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". Glimour would probably have used a boost and a distortion pedal, chained into the input of his Hiwatt, while Lawrence gets the same tone using the Triwatt's Overdrive stage. The signature Hiwatt tone is always there whatever volume or clean/distortion level you're playing at.

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

The more I read about these tubes (JJ 6V6) the more I like them and want to hear them in my own Triwatt. I most likely will use a 12AT7 (any recommondations) to get a little more headroom for effects.

So will the JJ 6V6 setup be 22 Watts, from what I heard they might be able to be pushed a little harder, without much of the fuss.

My JCM900 4502 can be used for most things I do on the 25 Watt Setting, and I still have enough headroom from a decent clean sound, so the 6V6 should do find, plus they run about 1/2 the price of the Chinese KT66 Tubes.

Thanks:

_________________
ROB

Depends how loud you want to go with the clean tones. Under normal circumstances you would expect to get around 20W out of a pair of 6V6s. At the higher voltages (around 440V), we can squeeze a bit more power out of the 6V6s, as well as get those signature Hiwatt tones. The amp starts to break up at around half way on the MV control, without the Overdrive stage engaged.

Opinions and tastes regarding tube brands will vary. The JJs are a little bright to my ears at these voltages, and I suspect Tung Sols may help reduce that brightness. However, Lawrence likes the amp amp with the JJ 6V6s and then runs it all the time on the Bright input. Recently I've also been testing a pair of Russian 6pi6 tubes (one Sovtek and one Brimar!) in the amp and the tone totally kills, with plenty of crisp edge, while without being over-bright. With the Overdrive stage engaged, I honestly think I'm hearing some of the best rock tones I've had out of any amp. It's just been a blast to play it. And I'd always been a total Marshall guy before this amp....

BTW I was just reading Watford Valves' 6V6 shootout from 2005, including both current production and NOS tubes. They say that they first burn-in tested all of the 6V6s at 500V, before doing the tone shoot out. So it seems that most currently available 6V6s should work happily in the Triwatt.

But if you really want lots of loud clean headroom, then KT66s are the way to go.

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

Just played the TRIWATT today at a practice, as a bass amp. Had a 12AT7 in the PI position, with KT66s. Plugged the bass guitar into the Link input. It was clean and loud - enough to be heard over the the drums and overpower everyone else. Low end response was HUGE. We had to turn the Bass control down on the amp because it was shaking everything.

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

And the Triwatt just got even more awesome. I guess I'll have to splurge on those GD KT66's after all!

And I can put my 70's SS bass amp rebuild on hold...for now...

Just bear in mind this was a practice, and not a gig, where we would have a PA and monitor speakers all over the place, and generally louder volume levels. But for studio work or practice, it makes a perfect bass amp. Hiwatts are generally known to make for great bass amps.

_________________
Great tones come in small glass jars!

And as I would only be using it in this capacity for practice or basement jams it shouldn't be an issue!