trinityamps.com

I'm posting a few shots of the main milestones in building this amp. Hopefully, people will find it useful....

First I fit the tube sockets and pilot lamp, then install the heater wiring. Then I solder on the various resistors and one wire link that go on the socket pins.



Next, I install the cap cans and power switch. Then I connect up the cap cans and related power supply circuitry, the grounds and the main parts of the power amp section. This is basically all true point to point construction at this stage.



Note: Later in the build the connections to the fuse holder got swapped around to provide a little extra safety factor for anyone likely to stick their finger into the fuse holder with the amp plugged into the wall AC supply. Still not much help against anyone wanting to try that trick with a paper clip.

Then I install the transformers, and connect up the primaries and secondaries. The OT secondary connection wires are braided, while the primary ones are braided up to the point where the brown lead splits off, and then twisted. Note: The red wire from the OT primary isn't going onto the bundle of AC wires, even if it looks like that in the picture. The PT's high voltage secondary is twisted. The centre tap connections of both secondaries are terminated close to where they come out of the chassis.




I assemble the board, ready to be installed in the chassis.



I still struggle with this wire to get it to lie perfectly straight the way I want... Anyway, I think it's not too bad.

Now I'm part way through wiring up the tone stack and volume pots. Stay tuned.....

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Great Pics, Thanks.

Starting up myself, so i'll be following these steps.

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www.paradisepi.com

Excellent pictorial that will definitely help!!

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

BTW I've done the power amp grounding slightly differently in this build. Instead of the power tube cathodes being grounded (via the 1 ohm resistors) at the tag strip by the octal sockets, the ground is routed back to the common power ground lugs by the filter caps. I'll see how this works out, and if I don't like it, it's easy to put back to how it's done in the official layout.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Man Im jealous of your job.

But I also suppose amp building could get a bit mundane like anything else. At least you get to rock out with every one of your creations.

Custom Amps are fun to build and the bonus is you get to rock out with some of the cool owners too!!

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

I hate every loathesome minute of this stinkin job!!!

Here's the chassis with the pots installed, components mounted and interconnections made. Just need to do the input jacks, and we're nearly ready to install the board.




The twisted purple wire coming from the overdrive pot will go to the footswitch relay board. It just carries DC to operate the relay.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Input jacks installed and wired up. Board installed. Shielded wires to tube sockets will come later, after the other connections have been done.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Power section completed, and phase invertor started. This is one of the trickiest parts of the amp, as a lot of it is point-to-point wiring in a relatively small amount of space. You have to be careful with the sequence in which the connections are made, so that you don't solder a turret which has a wire running beside it, or else the wire's insulation will melt.




The speaker jacks haven't been connected yet, as they would get in the way of soldering V3 and V4's sockets.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

A Home for Malcolm's TRIWATT

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

thank you, it's getting harder for me

Yes, there's quite a bit more complexity in a TRIWATT than a 5E3 Deluxe - and more gain too!

Here the preamp/PI tubes have been wired.




Note: A couple or so resistor leads on the board got slightly bent while I was connecting the tube sockets, which I straightened after this picture was taken.

Next, to connect the front panel controls to the board and do all the shielded wire connections.



Speaker jacks are also in place now. There's a 100k resistor temporarily soldered directly onto V2 pin 2, which the shielded wire from the Overdrive control is connected to. This allows me to test the amp with the Overdrive engaged. This resistor will be removed when the relay board is installed, as there's a 100k resistor on the board itself. The twisted purple wire will also go to the relay board.

Front panel, knobs and tubes installed.




* Note: Following questions about the tube selector switch, in this picture it's shown in the 6V6 position.

Under test, the amp has a beautiful purity and clarity of tone, just like any true Hiwatt. Yesterday I took it over to Stephen's place for the footswitch relay stuff as well as it's cab. Our tests on TRIWATT #2 with the new relay and auxilliary power supply boards also went really well.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

You do inspiring work Phil! Beautiful!

All set to go to Singapore with 5V regulated PSU for the footswitch and the relay board in place.




All sewn up. Not the traditional tolex, but pretty slick looking.

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

love your lead dress, i hope to make mine look as good as yours when i buy my kit.
How is it putting the shielded wire under the board, is their very much noise with them so close to other wires?
thanks for the good pictures.
Dave from Portland Oregon

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Love is a small Cat on your amp purring as you play

The amp is very quiet with the lead dress as is and with coax under the board. It seems to not be susceptible to extraneous noise whether above or below the board. In # 2 amp, some coax was above the board and it was quiet as well.

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

Just be real patient, and don't rush the job. My gut shots should help give you some guidelines to use as a basis for your own build, although I'm still perfecting the way I build these amps.

No, because they're shielded. The fact that they're laying close to the chassis is also a good thing for noise. In fact the non-shielded wires above the board were expected to be more of a challenge, but they seem to have turned out fine.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Yes, Ive learn patient, on my first build the TC15, having to test and re-solder the leads from under the board 3 times, the lead dress is a study in how not to wire an amp The Amp works fine now.
My next amp the V6-Dual Power I took note of how JoeG built his amp and wired it on a tag board, put the jumpers from under the board on top, the lead dress on that one looks good and no problem at startup. Ive learn to study the pictures you experienced guy post, work out the progression on how to wire in my head and the easiest way to wire so I don't cold solder or burn other wires.
Again, thanks for all your help for all us new amp builders.

Dave

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Love is a small Cat on your amp purring as you play

How can you hear a small cut purring on your amp while you're playing? In fact, what cat wouldn't leap straight off the amp and out the window on the first power chord?

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Great tones come in small glass jars!