trinityamps.com

If it ain't broke don't fix it. However, for future builders, we ca recommend using shielded wire for that particular connection.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Yes, yes and yes, but I also like the Orange cab with V30s and I believe they are the chinese ones... I also like the V30s (both cabs) with both my Orange Heads - one has EL84's, one has 6V6's... I've heard people say that generalization before, but in my case it just doesn't apply fwiw... I just don't hear "ice-picky" from those speakers... I wasn't crazy about V30's with the Triwatt initially though, although I did eventually find a use for them with it all gained up and a pedal in front...

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Well, I wouldn't say the V30's sound "ice-picky" wih My sIII or Triwatt (or the TT I played thorugh my cab). Just that the amps sound a little too fizzy & intense for my taste. A little too edgy. That same quality works for the 2204 & Laney.

Having played the Triwatt though the V30 cab for another hour last night I can certainly see how it could be a useful tone - especially if you wanted to use the amp for a more modern high gain thing or if you have a dense mix you want to cut through. With the especially tight & bright feel of the Triwatt it's just not a tone I dig. I much prefer it with the darker Epi cab.

BTW, my V30's are the newer Chinese ones (well broken in), which seem to be a little more harsh than the old Brit ones to my ears. That may simply be hype-induced perception on my part.

Now if you wanna talk ice-picky, that's the G12T-75.

To put my comments into context you have to realise that I don't much like bright guitar/amp tones. I generally go for warmer and darker sounds. So my definition of ice-picky is probably somewhat different than yours.


I don't think it's a matter if hype so much as the fact that older well-used speakers will always sound mellower than newer ones, even ones that have been well broken in.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Well crap. Was playing through the Triwatt again tonight & the squeal is back. Brought it to the bench again and now I can NOT get rid of it. I've tried every orientation of wires I can think of.

I've completely re-wired the vols & OD pot twice now & it's no better. I re-flowed all the grounds, and I even replaced the coax in case I had burned through the inner sleeve when soldering. No luck. The only thing I haven't tried is a shielded wire between the vols & OD. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow. I've had enough for tonight.

Granted it's an unusable amount of gain when you get it up that high, but it's still bugging the crap out of me. I just gots ta know!!!

I'm open to suggestions...

I was thinking a shielded wire between the vols & OD.

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

OK - a bunch of changes & new ideas here, plus some feedback on tube selections.

This morning I rewired the board-pot connections. My wiring now looks very similar to ajc's on that end of the board. This didn't seem to help the squeal issue much, but it does look much tidier. Sorry - didn't take a pic...but it now looks like ajc's build on the pot side, and like my original pics on the socket side.

I then replaced the purple wire from the vols to the OD with a shielded wire. This helped some, and reduced the noise a bit. It sounded great though, so I decided to install it back in the cabinet & leave it be.

At this point the tubes were a Mullard re-issue in v1, TS in V2, EH in v3 & an old Ruby 12AX7 in V4. The power tubes are TS also. I found this a little too intense for my taste, especially when overdriving the heck out of the pre-amp.

Earlier this week I ordered some JJ 12AX7's & a Jan-Phillips 12AT7 to try out. I tried it with the JJ's in V1-3 & the Jan in the PI first, and I liked this MUCH better. Still very tight, but less intense. However, the pre-amp was still a little too hairy when pushed.

Then I dropped the Mullard back in V1, leaving everything else the same. YEAH BABY! Warmer, smoother, a little more detailed, and even overdriving it to Mars it still maintained clarity & definition. I'm sold.

And here's the bonus prize...with the vols & OD dimed & the master at a listenable level (9:00 or so), no squeal! Maybe the shielding I've added to the cab helped. Maybe it was a tube issue. I don't know. So, a good day so far!

Then I started playing with it some more, mostly with my Godin LG signature (just happened to be in the room...and I was too involved to try anything else!). Sweet detailed cleans - very chimey/jangly if you want or warm & thick. Spanky or growly on the edge of breakup. Warm & thick when overdriven. Sweetness!

Granted, it won't nail the warm clean of the Deluxe or the TC jangle since it's a little too "tight", but it can get pretty close. It also doesn't have the saggy feel of an old tube rectified Marshall or a Mesa running in that mode. The upside of that is it doesn't lose definition when running wide open. It is a very detailed & accurate amp even at extreme settings. That makes it very unforgiving to sloppy technique too - guess I have to practice more!

And the thing has tons of gain on tap. Phil wasn't kidding when he said this thing has as many gain stages as a Dual Rec or SLO. I retract my comment about the OD being unusable at higher gain settings. Must have been part of my squealing issue. See my next comment for elaboration.

And here's a surprise (for me) - with the vols wound out with the OD well up there, it can even do metal. I figure when you can play Slayer or early Metallica & sound convincing, you have an amp that can handle metal. I was running the vols & OD dimed, bass & treb at noon, mids at 9:00, presence as 3:00, master at 9:00 and through the Link input & it was very reminiscent of RTL & MoP era Metallica. It even has some of that sizzle that I love about the Mesa DR orange channel vintage mode (or the high gain channel on the Mark III or IV) - not "fizz" mind you...it just burns. Killer! Go to drop D and you can't help but play some Overkill. Crank up the mids a bit & you can get something similar to Slayer's "Seasons in the Abyss" album. Damn - this amp can do almost anything that I'd want. Guess I'll have to try it with the V30's again...

So, finally, I think I have the kinks worked out. This one has been a great build experience for me - I learned a lot! Killer amp people!

Now - just need to get that cabinet...

I think maybe you've hit on a golden combination there. Great review BTW.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Thanks. I really have to find time to noodle around with more of my guitars. I haven't tried my Kinman loaded Strat thorugh it yet, and none of my other guitars since getting the kinks worked out.

From what I've read, the JJ 6V6's compress harder & are "crunchier" than the TS (and a tad louder). Have you found that's the case? If true it might be an easy mod for someone who wants a little more bite in the power section.

BTW, I went middle-of-the-road with the bias on the Tung-Sols - around 18ma. Did you bias them hotter when you tried them with lbet?

Ditto on the Great review. If I recall, the bias on lbet 6V6 amp was about the same. Phil?

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

So far we've tested both the JJs and the Russian 6V6s biased around 20mA. On paper that's about right for regular 6V6GTs (ie not the old 1930s 6V6s), and should make for a good starting point. From there IMO it's a matter of letting your ears decide, and just making sure the tubes don't red plate.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Phil;
Any clue on my RCA 6V6's. They're from about 1962.

Jcny and I will be using these.
If they're sitting there, use them

We'll be using these and Mullards for the amp. It'll be interesting to see what the NEW and the OLD have in common

Thank you in advance
Cheers

Those RCAs will be the regular kind, good for 14W dissipation. The old style metal-can or coke-bottle 6V6s were only good for 12W.

I just tried out some Sovtek fake Mullard 12AX7s, and they sound *real* nice! Both clear and sweet. I like!

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Yup!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Haven't been updating much lately - been busy & haven't had a lot of time to play.

Last night I finally fired up the Triwatt again. Used my JS Moore loaded SG Standard into the closed-back V30 2x12. Amp tone controls at noon (unless otherwise stated). Here's an overview of my thoughts.

I don't know if it's just with this cab, but the Triwatt is insanely tight. Attack is instant, and so is decay - palm mutes stop DEAD. It doesn't compress a whole lot. As I've noted before, that also means the amp is merciless about flawed technique. You can't get away with anything through this puppy.

I didn't really like the link or normal inputs with the OD engaged. The bottom end gets a little too overbearing for my taste. You can roll it back on the amp but it loses some of the character that I like, and never really sounds like I want it. That would probably be good with a Strat or a P90 loaded axe, but with the JS Moore's (which are wound very hot & full across the freq range) it's just too much. It rips though the bright channel however. Well defined & I'm thinking it would be impossible to lose this thing in any live mix.

With the OD disengaged it sounds great through any of the inputs at any gain level, but I like the Link & Normal better as it fattens things up more (the very reason I didn't like those with the OD in). The definition is there regardless of the amount of gain. Dynamics are fantastic. You can get a sweet clean with the volume rolled off on the guitar. Lots of useful tones in there.

With all that said, I still feel the V30's are a little too modern/edgy for this amp. It does sound awesome, but it will blow your head clean off & the cab is a little too bright/edgy for me. I generally like my tone a little darker.

I found I had to lower the mids on the amp a bit with this guitar. As I've mentioned this is a very hot axe & Jon Moore's "Black Widow" bridge pickup is a crunch monster. It pushes mids pretty hard & that makes the Triwatt sound just a touch "honky" with the mids at noon or higher. It's killer if you roll it back to around 10-11:00.

Higher OD settings sound REALLY intense with this guitar & cab. Crushing even. It does become a mess at extreme settings...but still crazy tight.

I guess I should talk about clean tones too, huh? Sounds nice, but I like the cleans MUCH better with my other cab (somewhat darker/rounder overall). If you want a punchy/spanky clean it'll get it done for sure. Not so much it you like it a little more open & round.

Unless I get some free time over the next few days (unlikely...playing hockey tomorrow night & working on some small renovations) my next comments will be with my new Triwatt cab loaded with vintage Fane clones...

Emo, just wondering if you've tried the "magic settings" I talked about when we first started play testing the Triwatt? OD engaged and up (maybe start around 12:00 and tweak to taste) but STARVE the bright/normal gain stage (like just up from off). Unless things have changed in the most current rev (haven't had a Triwatt to play with for a while) this setting gave a nice smooth slightly compressed tone that might pair nice with the V30s...

Triwatt/Hiwatt ALWAYS tight, and the attack characteristic you describe is the very first issue we addressed in the very first play test at my studio... gotta be that fast or it ain't a Hi/Tri-watt!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Hey Brent,

I didn't think to try starving the first gain stage (I did try that with my other cab & liked it). That was one of the clips I REALLY liked from your batch too. I think my brain has become overloaded & more thoughts than usual are spilling out my ears...

The lowest I had the channel vols was clean just at the edge of breakup, so up around noon-ish. I'll try the starving trick tonight if I get a moment before going to hockey.

Yes, these are fast, tight amps thanks to the Hiwatt architecture. A lot of it comes from the huge filter caps in the power supply, as well as not having any choke. If you want to get more compression, just turn up the MV, and then ease back the preamp volumes to compensate. The power stage does compress when pushed, and at more ear-friendly levels with the Triwatt than with the big DRs.

Just FYI, when the amp's in Overdrive mode, the Normal/Bright volume knobs control the signal level going into the Overdrive stage. The Overdrive knob then controls the signal level coming out of the boost stage and hitting the rest of the preamp. So by turning down the Normal/Bright controls, you're actually starving the input of the boost stage. I just posted this, as it may help folks visualise what's actually going on.

Also if you want a bit less bass in overdrive mode, try changing the 1uF cathode cap in the preamp to a 0.68uF.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

So, sort of like a skinny dude in those big hip hop duds??!!??

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Thanks Phil.

I don't think I'd want more compression. I was just commenting that it's very different from most vintage Brit designs because it doesn't compress a whole lot even at extreme settings while most Brit designs will compress like crazy. Granted, the 6V6's probably have something do with that.

I think it's pretty cool actually. It allows the pre-amp to do more of the overdriving work giving it that DR kind of vibe that I mentioned in a previous post. I bet with a change in the mid voicing you could get very close to that tone...but MUCH tighter. Add a tube recto & a choke to get some sag and we'd be in very familiar California territory I think - but I actually like the rectos in "bold" mode with diode rectification for a little better definition & a tighter feel. But the Triwatt is WAY tigheter than that, and much more "present" in voicing.

Last night I did try the starving trick with by JS Moore loaded SG and I got some cool tones that way. Very responsive to pick dynamics, and very "rock". I also had a raging overdrive happening at bedroom levels. With the OD & channel vols wide open & the master really low is actually sounds like a 60's fuzz hammering the front end of a tube amp. Nice trick. It doesn't quite get the "octave fuzz" effect that I noticed on one of Brent's clips, but that may be a product of the guitar that was used. It's killer for some Califirnia "stoner rock". Ideal for Fu Manchu, for example - Bob Balch & Scott Hill would love this thing!