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 Post subject: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:49 am 
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Location: Winchester, CA
I've been researching 18 watt kits for several months and finally settled on the Trinity 18 Watt sIII kit. I've built a couple of pedals, but this will be a much larger undertaking, obviously. I've spent a number of hours here, in other forums and watching YouTube videos so that I would be prepared as much as possible to successfully complete the amp.

I received my kit about two weeks ago. Prior to it arriving, I built a caddy from plans I found on the Internet in order to have a solid base to work from. When I got the kit, the packaging was slightly damaged and I found the top cover of the power transformer was ever so slightly dented. After conferring with Stephen, I removed the cover and pushed out the dent - good as new. Everything else made it through unscathed and with the exception of a machine screw and two nuts, all present and accounted for.

As the pictures below show, I've finished the wiring of the heaters, power and output (partially) transformers and the associated components. I did run into a bit of an issue with the fuse holder as the chassis hole wasn't drilled to the correct size. It was a relatively easy fix and Stephen is aware of the issue. I finished the wiring today and did the initial power up: I got an indicator light and no smoke or sparks! All the voltages tested right where they should be (thank goodness!)

My next task over the next few days will be to assemble the turret board. All the parts for it are sorted and identified, which will hopefully mean a bit smoother construction process. When it's all built, I plan on building a head cabinet and 2x12 extension cabinet from Cherry. The speakers, Warehouse Guitar's ET-90 and Retro 30, are en route and will be here Wednesday. I will update this thread with progress as it happens.

If anyone sees any issues with my work in the photos, please let me know. This is definitely a learning process for me and I am taking it slow in the hopes that in doing so I get it right the first time.

Mark


Attachments:
File comment: My cradle and the parts.
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File comment: The rest of the parts.
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File comment: Most of the hardware installed in the chassis.
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File comment: Heaters wired.
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File comment: V1, V2 and V3 heater wiring.
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File comment: V4 and V5 heater wiring.
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File comment: Initial wiring finished, ready for the initial power on and voltage testing.
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File comment: Overall of the power transformer area. I did add a 220k 2W resistor as a bleeder for the capacitors.
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File comment: IEC, Fuse holder and V6.
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File comment: Indicator, On-Off and Standby switches.
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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:37 pm 
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Location: Shawnee, OK
Marking the pin numbers for the sockets. Simply brilliant :thumbsup: You have taught an old dog a new trick :bugeye: May you have an easy and successful build :!: :!:

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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:44 pm 
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Looking good! I second the compliment on the writing tube pin numbers on the chassis. That would have saved me a good bit of time cross referencing the layout. Very cool.

Can't wait to see the rest of the build.

-Dan


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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:40 am 
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Location: Winchester, CA
Hankules wrote:
Marking the pin numbers for the sockets. Simply brilliant :thumbsup: You have taught an old dog a new trick :bugeye: May you have an easy and successful build :!: :!:



dbharris wrote:
Looking good! I second the compliment on the writing tube pin numbers on the chassis. That would have saved me a good bit of time cross referencing the layout. Very cool.



Thank you both, but I can't take credit for the original idea. I saw it in other pictures somewhere and thought it was a good idea. When I saw how small the stamped numbers on the tube sockets are for these old eyes, I figured writing the numbers on the chassis would be a benefit and possibly prevent a mistake down the road.


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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:56 pm 
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Location: Shawnee, OK
Definitely a great idea if your dealing with octal sockets! Not much separation between 1 and 8, unlike a noval socket :hmmm:

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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 5:53 pm 
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I'm slowly making progress. Yesterday I finished installing all the components on the turret board. I installed the board in the chassis today and started on wiring everything in.

Attachment:
File comment: Components installed on the turret board.
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Attachment:
File comment: Turret board installed in the chassis and wiring has begun.
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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:40 pm 
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I was finally able to finish the amp head a few days ago. Everything worked the first time I fired it up, but I did have some pretty significant hiss at higher gain and volume settings. I've been able to eliminate most of it by swapping pre-amp tubes to different positions. The issue seems to be in V1 and I may end up changing to some metal film resistors after I get the cabinet built and shielded to see if that has any effect on things.

The next step is building the head and speaker cabinets. That might take me a few weeks but I will post pictures in this thread when it's done.

Attachment:
File comment: Output jacks and impedance selector.
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File comment: Overall.
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File comment: V1, V2 and boost switch.
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File comment: Input jack and Normal channel controls.
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File comment: TMB channel controls.
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Attachment:
File comment: The final product.
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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2021 2:31 pm 
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Dealing with the hiss has been an ongoing effort, but I think I'm on the right track. I've replaced the input resistors and the 68k resistors on V1 with metal film resistors and the hiss has been reduced by half or a little more. On the Normal channel alone, the amp can be played at full volume without the hiss overwhelming the guitar. On the TMB channel, the hiss also doesn't overwhelm the guitar until the volume or gain are past about 3/4's. All bets are off though when the Boost is engaged. Changing tubes has no effect on the amount of hiss.

I bought a full set of metal film resistors to be able to replace all of the carbon film ones. I'm going to start with the resistors for V1 and V2 areas of the board and see what effect that has before I replace them all.


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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2022 7:31 am 
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mkel2010 wrote:
Dealing with the hiss has been an ongoing effort, but I think I'm on the right track. I've replaced the input resistors and the 68k resistors on V1 with metal film resistors and the hiss has been reduced by half or a little more at dissertation writing help. On the Normal channel alone, the amp can be played at full volume without the hiss overwhelming the guitar. On the TMB channel, the hiss also doesn't overwhelm the guitar until the volume or gain are past about 3/4's. All bets are off though when the Boost is engaged. Changing tubes has no effect on the amount of hiss.

I bought a full set of metal film resistors to be able to replace all of the carbon film ones. I'm going to start with the resistors for V1 and V2 areas of the board and see what effect that has before I replace them all.

The 18W would be a better first build. Though Trinity does make their kits pretty easy to build the Triwatt is fairly advanced. The 18W makes a great first build.

I built a sIII using Trinity's chassis, xformers and cab. It is a great amp, it uses a Tone Tubby San Rafeal.

I have played the Triwatt many times, it is a great amp too. Too many amps to build, too little time.


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 Post subject: Re: 18 Watt sIII Build
PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:30 pm 
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on the hiss, one thing that helped me is replacing V1 with a lower gain tube. Dont remember what i used by it was ether 12au7 or 12ay7. Good luck, please report your findings.


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