trinityamps.com

This sounds great! I was thinking of a 36w version of my sIII(still my #1 amp), because I have had a couple of occasions where 18 watts was not enough,and I have have several Hiwatts over the years(all of which I regret selling of course!they were always a bit too loud for me to use they way they were intended)This seems like a happy medium with benefits!Would you say the headroom is closer to a 36 watter?Why am I never happy with what I have?!!!!

I guess what everyone isn't understanding is, will the MV handle bedroom levels?
Or is the VRM needed?

I'm not sure about bedroom level - but it will be fine for playing at home with the MV turned down, and if possible with speakers that aren't super efficient. The MV is actually designed into Hiwatt/Triwatt amps and isn't an afterthought. I assume you probably don't have room for a 4X12 in your bedroom or basement anyway. Having said that, we will VVR-ise the design, once the regular version is in production, to give some additional flexibility.

I think it is indeed closer to a "Marshall" 36W when you turn it up. Remember Hiwatts are about loud cleans - especially with the two tweaks we did at Brent's studio. And it helps if you use efficient speakers. Cranked up through the Tone Tubby Alnico 2X12, it was so loud, it was starting to hurt.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Yeah, I am looking for a bit more of that thump you get in your chest with a 50 watter and a 4X12 without all the crazy volume and a big cab to carry around! I am getting old, and besides, I don't play many coliseums these days,LOL. I get pretty close with the sIII and my 2X12 THD style cabs, but getting back to Townsend tone would be a hoot!!!I need a new build project as well to feed the addiction.....

Brent I want to thank you for the time in your studio, which was a blast! And in more ways than one! It was an invaluable opportunity to prove the amp, and get some fantastic feedback from you. And you managed to get a bunch of tones out of the amp I never new it had! It was great to have Rob there as well, playing all the different styles. He's a real cool guy. I have to say it was one of the most fun days I'd had in a long time. And thanks for that awesome report.

BTW, my favourite speaker setup was the vintage Marshall 4X12 with the Greenbacks. It had a nice mellow tone to it, although you're right it start to lose control of the low end at times. Hendrix used the Greenback's bigger brother, Celestion G12H-30s, in his 4X12 cabs. They hold the low end way better. I liked the Hiwatt/ Fane 4X12 a lot too.

My own observation was that with the capacitor snipped out of the Normal channel, you also got more detail. This comes as little surprise, since this small change (which makes the Normal preamp like the one in your DR), has the effect of leveling the frequency response across the whole frequency spectrum. The 12AX7 tube in the 4th position in your amp, actually makes it non-stock for that particular model. When we tried the 12AX7 in the Triwatt's 4th position, to my ears, it immediately made the Triwatt louder and added more clean "slam". Overall, I really liked the effect, which gave the Triwatt more of what I usually think of as the signature Hiwatt sound. It would also have been an interesting experiment to put a 12AT7 in your Hiwatt, to see what it would have sounded like in its stock form. One of those things you don't think about til after it's too late.... grrr....

Or how about some slam to go with that thump?

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

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Hey Phil, the pleasure was all mine. I really enjoyed the day, and it was exciting for a guy like me to be able to wish for a design tweak, have guys that know what to do and how to do it, and within five minutes be listening to "new and improved"!!! There are SO many tones in that amp... I know there's years of discovery in there. Glad you liked a few that we pulled out in a couple of hours! Very intuitive design though - easy to connect with the Triwatt in a very short period of time... Yeah Rob's awesome - really enthusiastic about guitars and playing and a big fan of all things Trinity (at least what's in my studio!!). As for the report, well you can always count on me to have too much to say!!!!

I loved the tone of the Greens, nice and smooth... and generally speaking I'm a huge fan of the sound of those speakers overloading. In this case though it was just happening too fast for me, but perhaps once the Partridge clone and the upgraded PT are in there, maybe it'll react a bit differently? Anyway, that would be GREAT because I agree with you, the tone was amazing... Yeah, the G12H-30s and Blues are the only essential Celestions I'm missing. I intend to have Stephen build me a couple more cabs specifically for those speakers... but I keep getting sidetracked by cool new amps!!!! Yeah, the Fanes just have that Hiwatt "thing" - it's a cool cab for other amps too, but with the Hiwatt it just sounds "right".

Well, it sounds like we're going to have one more listening date with the new transformers, so we'll have the opportunity to try the 12AT7 in my DR103. I could also bring it on the 10th...

G-Log you're gonna LOVE this thing!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Guess that depends on how big your bedroom is!! I agree with Phil, that it'll sound fine at low volumes with the MV down. I wouldn't recommend the TT's though for this application - my Trinity cab with 2 TTA's was SIGNIFICANTLY louder than both my 4x12 Hiwatt cab with Fanes and my 4x12 Marshall with Greenbacks. Actually, based on what I heard Tue afternoon I think the Greenbacks would be the ticket in this situation.

For the low volume guys I think the VRM would be a great thing to have, but IMO it's not a deal-breaker without it...

And even though we didn't address it specifically, my DR103 running at 50W (two power tubes pulled) was WAY, like WAAAAAAY louder than the Triwatt... like 2x or 3x as loud, so I think for perspective, when we say the Triwatt is loud, we're really saying that in relation to something like the TC-15. Compared to the majority of 50W amps in my studio, the Triwatt is relatively quiet...

Hope this helps.

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Hmmm...Concidentally I spent a few hours playing this girl through my newly modded Valve Junior today. I'm thinking she may get a new best friend if the Triwatt becomes available in kit form...

The SG & TRIWATT make up a classic rig. Save up your sheckles!

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

I'll sell blood or organs if necessary...not necessarily my own..

Emohawk... we collectively promise that cherry beauty will absolutely KILL through the Triwatt... my much less beautiful black SG sure did!!!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

SG lovers unite!!

That's gorgeous man! Now I'm embarrassed to post mine...

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Cherry SG's make my wallet hurt! Actually, that Special is my only cherry/red one at the moment (well, I do have an old cherry Epi G400). I also have an Ebony Standard with a set of Jon Moore's pickups.

The one in the pic has P90 clones in it. Just installed them about a week or so ago. That should make it even more vintage Pete with the Triwatt.

Do you think this will sound good? It isn't an SG, but it has some P90's in it(It's kind of old though 1953 )

Nice looking Gibby What model? And isn't natural supposed to be very rare?

Triwatt question:

What tubes did you use? New production or NOS??

If you used new production, any chance of you trying out some NOS at the next "development meeting"?

For the studio we went with new tubes and NOS RCA PI but when we exchanged the PI tube, the only one we had was a Mullard so we went with that.

So in the end at the Tone Testing we had 3 JJ 12AX7, 1 Mullard PI AX7 and 2 JJ 6V6.

Phil did try a collection of NOS in it and it was a bit better. I'll let him describe the differences.

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

I'm jealous of that SG jrmintz! I had that exact model in a factory natural brown finish color, like the new so-called "worn" brown models but glossy. I've never seen another brown one since. Getting rid of that SG and a beautiful natural Ric I had were my two greatest mistakes

Joe G

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Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Let's not talk about the ones that got away - it's too painful. I had a Gretsch Tennessean (sniff) and a few others. I'm looking forward to hearing this guitar with a Triwatt.