Trinity has done such wonderful things with the Tramp. I enjoyed building the Tramp 7 years ago or so and spent many years with it as my only amp. Lately, I was looking for a revitalisation. Not that I think it needed changing, but wanted to learn more about the inner workings and make it less bright.
A disclaimer - I do not recommend changing any values from what Trinity includes in their kit and working with tube amps can KILL you. This being said, I thought I would share with you my “Atomic catatoniC” mods that work for me and for educational purposes only.
Basically, I wanted it all; a Blackface Fender, Dumble, Marshall and Fender Tweed amp tone in a low watt amp. I used Duncan’s TSC to determine tone stack parameters + EQ’ing and amp books calculators for additional parameters. Currently my amp is loaded with a Celestion Blue 12”, lower gain 12ax7 (85 gain factor) and Tungsol 6v6. See below for description of the Mods and recommended EQ’ing to get the tones based on all the changes.
The tone stack was tweaked to mimic Fender blackface but still can easily get Marshall and Dumble tones (in a SE flavor – yum) and Tweed tones. These changes lead to the smoothest low to medium gain tones I have ever heard, especially when combined with 6v6 power tube overdrive. The power amp section has been left unchanged and serve as an amazing platform for low watt, low hum, and potential to handle lots of bass (Not NU-Metal but can easily pass for “big” 80’s and smoother thick overdrives) when a 6v6 is used. The bass never gets flabby and with the frequency sweeps you can easily control center frequency and flavor. [I must add that I usually do not turn the bass past 7 or 8 but seems to handle 11 - bass heavy. Thank you to Trinity for including such a beefy transformer!]
For a "Full Boost" I did a Fat switch mod that has been reconfigured as a broad frequency gain boost and sounds like a standard Fender overdrive when overdriven or more clean headroom when not engaged.
The Tude switch mod makes for a full frequency boost but by keeping the lowest of the lows out of the gain boost for a thick, full bodied boost with more compression / sustain like Dumble, while maintaining a Marshall feel too when overdriven. Keeping things in the Dumble vein and my like enjoyment of the move The Big Lebowski, this is the "Dude" mod". When the Dude is not engaged more headroom is available and a great platform for the Full boost for fender overdrive tones.
Added a foot-switchable "Purity Boost" that does several things; 1) Adds a solo boost that is more mid focused that can be dialed in as required. 2) Fakes a 2 channel amp for a variation in tone in a song on the fly that the guitar pickup(s) tone controls cant cover. (Pickup volume control is still important for balance and tone controls for flavor). 3) Have an amp profile similar to the old school tweeds. 4) Blend blackface with tweedy tones. 5) Simply have more flexibility for a 1 amp solution for recording, practice and small gigs.
Below are the details: R1 33k (optional mod) C3 removed Full Boost C4 25 uF (broad frequency gain boost on PULL) off has more clean headroom C2 0.033 uF Dude Boost: C5 5 uF Dude Boost: R8 5k Tone stack: C9 0.044 uF Tone stack: C10 0.022 uF Tone stack: R12 5K Tone stack: R13 5K Purity Boost: added a foot switchable 250K A pot. Lower settings have an easy to dial in mild mid boost (and add a Dumble-esque mid hump) and sound like a tweed at higher settings.
Below is my EQ Chart for amp settings based on the above changes and their corresponding amp profile style. 1 is lowest setting, 11 highest. Tweak the tone controls slightly to your preference but this guide matches the corresponding amp profile with all tone knobs set at noon. Please keep in mind small adjustments go a long way and can easily mimic favorite setting for each amp profile. Throughout the eq range of guitar, 80 Hz to 2-3 kHz (the highend sparkle) the below setting match Fender blackface, Marshall and Fender tweed +/- 0.75 db throughout the guitar spectrum. I guess this is a tube profiling amp with real tube tone...
Just thought I would post this as a guide since someone else has done the work, and dial gain, volume and power level as required.
Amp / EQ, Tone Setting, Full Boost, Dude, Purity Boost
Marshall, , Treb 4.3, Bass 2.5 ON, ON, OFF Fender, Treb 6.2, Bass 4.3,OFF- Clean or ON - Dirty, OFF, OFF Dumble, Treb 6.2, Bass 4.3,Off - Clean or ON - Dirty, ON, ON (~10-15%)
Tweed - Jazz Adjust Purity Boost to suit (when engaged the tone controls are less effective, but tweed flavor comes forward) , OFF, OFF, ON (40-50%) Tweed - blues Adjust Purity Boost to suit (when engaged the tone controls are less effective, but tweed flavor comes forward), ON, OFF - more dynamics or ON (smoother drive + comp), ON (50-100%)
After all these changes, I get big-boy sounds in small flexible grab-n-go amp.
I will play with some larger power amp glass later.
Cheers!
Last edited by woodsyowl on Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
|