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OK, probably not too many 18 watters guys will recognize my name. That's because I have been praising my T15 and TC15 amps (which I gig and practice with pretty much all the time).

But, the Trinity sIII was my first amp build, and just over two years ago when I finished it it was what got me going with high quality, all tube tone.

I havent played my 18 in a long time... close to a year (sorry! but its that T15, remember???) but soemthing posessed me to get the 18 head out and play it.

WOW!!! I completely forgot what a great amp it is as well! A great clean tone in its own right, and responds to me various OD's very well. I think I need to start using both amps again, and the Tone Bone head switcher I bought originally, in order to gig both amps with one cab.

Its a real treat to rediscover a great friend, isnt it??

AJC

17 guitars and how many amps??

It's nice to pull an amp out and rediscover. I agree.

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

I'm with ya, I switch between my fender hot rod, my tc-15 and my 18w every three or four months.. I've noticed that whichever one I'm using is always my favorite amp.

I don't think i'll be going back to the hot-rod for a long time or the TC-15 for that matter it's funny after having this 18w for over a year I'm still finding new ways to dial it in. Anyway i think i've got that golden tone right now so i forsee my other amps sitting on the sidelines for a few months. After seeing joey's milspec wiring on his 18w I'm gathering the stuff to completely rebuild the TC-15, going to use thicker wire and pay much more attention to lead dress.

Anyone have any tricks for mass-delsoldering? Or do i just need to get an extra reel of braid and go in for the long haul?

Get a good solder sucker of the spring-loaded piston type. Desoldering braid and rubber-bulb type solder suckers won't make it. Once you start using a spring-loaded solder sucker, you'll wonder how you used anything else.

Clean??? Marshall 18W amps have awesome overdriven distortion tones with fantastic definition, which is what's made them famous. Don't waste that amp playing it clean. Your distortion pedals will end up gathering dust, just like mine are now.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

OMG, don't do it! You have a great working amp, so why mess with success??!! Look at the originals coming out of the factories built by the so-called real amp builders. With the exception of the Hiwatt gear, the builds of the day were like snowflakes. Each one a work of art, each one with it's own character (and sound in most cases). You could sell off the amp and build yourself another, but why bother? Enjoy what you have and chalk it up as a learning experience. Now go order yourself a Triwatt right now (How was that Stephen?)

Joe G

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Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

When I play a gig we do covers of all sorts and I need to have about 3 or 4 various degrees of "dirt" from clean to very heavy OD. I cant get that with one amp set to one voicing. Hence the pedals.

My 18 is a great amp - but also, to get the real heavy tone I need to turn it way up, past what I can do in the smaller bars we play in.

Hey, everyone is different... Thats why I have 6 different amps!

Also, I am also going to rewire some of my 18. Now that I have more experience I think I better clean her up in the wiring dept. It works fine, but its a personal thing

AJC

Haha I'm with you. But this thing needs work, it's loud and i'm not completely happy with the way it sounds - always searching for that tone.. Theres no way i'll match your lead dress, but I can do much better.

I understand. I really meant more in terms of how would play it for your own enjoyment. The breakup of an 18W amp is real special IMO, with great pick sensitivity and dynamics. So for live playing I often like to use the Normal channel set to about half volume, then control how clean or dirty the tone is from the guitar end, by how hard I pick and also using a passive volume pedal on the floor. If necessary I use an attenuator on the amp's output, if it's too loud for the venue. I find I can play a whole variety of stuff from blues or countryish through to AC/DC without needing pedals. I'm not playing metal though. I would need some kind of pedal for that. I sometimes use my homemade Germanium Rangemaster pedal to boost solos, but I don't honestly really need it.

Maybe try some different brands of tubes? There's probably also one or two things, like cap or resistor values, that can be tweaked to shape the tone more like what you're looking for.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Holy crap! I re did some of the wiring in my 18 sIII today when I changed it from one cab to the new cab I got from Trinity (to match my new 2x12 cab).

I did a brutal job of wiring in the transformers! I should be ashamed of myself... but at the time, being my first amp, I didnt know you were to trim the leads and twist them, etc.

WHat a rats nest! But it always worked well. Says a lot to the design. I also found two cold solder joints...

AJC

I'm going to rewire it and im looking for a NOS EF-86 tube. It's my fault not the designs. Like I said the thing is just damn sloppy inside. My biggest issue with my TC is that i love my 18w so much its hard to get motivated to even go look at the 15 to open it up for work.

I hear ya bro! I recently re-wired my sIII for the same reason. I also converted it to a V6 while I was in there.

My first go at wiring was a bit of a mess too. It's much tider now. I learn more with every build. Plus it gave me an excuse to dig into something while I was waiting for Fortis to send his TC-15 kit my way & for the Triwatt kit to roll.