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I was very pleased with what I experienced after installing the VRM this evening.

I wanted to scale down the ooutput of my 5E3, both for practice at home (the volume controls are pretty abrupt a lower settings), and also for stage use. I originally expected the 5E3 to run out of steam on loud stages, but I've actually had more problems with the breakup coming a little late for some of the quieter settings I play in.

Mission accomplished, as the first twist of the knob dropped the output of the amp by a significant amount, with almost no tonal change at all. The impact on picking dynamics was minimal as well, which was a relief, as that's a major feature of this amp.

Still, ome of the most interesting (and unexpected) effects
came as I dug a little deeper into the VRM control. There seems to be three distinct ranges to this mod:

At a certain point, the bass response started to go away, imaking the amp sound more like a tweed Champ than a Deluxe. Noise levels were unchanged, and I could see this being a very useful setting for recording.

A little further on, the amp started to run out of headroom altogether, causing a marked increase in the amount of distortion.

To my surprise, the effect was quite musical. With a little tweaking of the tone control, I was able to play my Warmoth/Kinman strat at table radio levels, with a sweet, burnished quality caused by a barely audible, touch-sensitive distortion.

This stage was definitely not a rock and roll sound. It felt more like playing through an old Magnatone. Very nice for soft, slow-tempo blues lines, and shimmering rhytm parts. I found it quite addictive.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Stephen, and all the other folks on the forum who contributed to this mod. You've just brought a whole new level of usefulness to my favourite amp.

Great News. Thanks for the feedback. Lots of great expereince there.

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

I'd like to post some pics of the VRM installation. If you send therm, I will post them

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

Where did you locate the control pot? and how did you run the wires? A pic would be great!

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

Hi,

I would also like to know where and how you placed the vrm board and control pot.

I´m just starting a Trinity Tweed Deluxe build (in a Canadian Maple cabinet from Trinity that MUST be the most beautiful cab I have ever seen), and have been talking to Stephen about this already.

Right now I have the control pot in the second speaker jack hole, and plan on mounting the vrm board at the hole for the power ground. My chassis has an extra hole near the power ground more towards the power tubes. This Is where I will relocate the power ground.

I haven´t wired it up yet, as I am not sure if the pot and board will be too close to the heater wires, and if the leads from the vrm board to the pot will be too long.

I have routed the heater wires from the pilot light along the right side of the power transformer, down to the first power tube; and from there according the layout along the edge of the chassis from tube to tube.

Any thoughts on how to make this work as best as possible are greatly appreciated.

btw: Thanks again to Stephen and Trinity for supplying me with a great kit and cab. I am eager to start this build. It´s my first so I will be taking it slow. I have been reading up on this board for a couple of months already, so many of you already helped me out getting a good idea on a lot of things. Thanks for that.

I´m sure there will be more questions from me though...sorry

I'm not much help in this area. My pot is currently hanging out in space behind the amp, while I wait for the opportunity to order a switched pot. My plan is to put a small knob on it (sadly, not a chicken head), and put it in the standby switch hole.

Also, I'm not sure how the location I used for the circuit board will relate to other 5E3's. I used a Hoffman turret board, and originally had a choke squeezed in between the PT and the board. Since I ended up not using the choke, that left me with lots of room between the board and the PT. That's where I decided to mount the VRM board, nice and close to the standby switch.

Pot locations I considered (and why I rejected them):

1.One of the input jack holes
- Noise considerations. I'm running the Hoffman layout, shielded input wiring, etc., because I wanted the quietest 5E3 possible. Why ruin a good thing by bringing the B+ so close to those little input signals?
- Area too crowded, wiring run back to the filter caps too long, nowhere to mount the circuit board.

2. Under the chassis, near the PT.
- Too close to the hot rectifier. Ouch!
- Too hard to access when making adjustments.

3. Speaker Jack
- As per under the chassis
- Also, too far away from the ideal mounting spot for the VRM board.

Others I briefly considered and rejected, included using the existing holes for the pilot light or the tone control. In the end, the idea of relocating all those components just made me tired...

Here's a link to photos of my original build and the subsequent power transformer upgrade, to get my voltages under control:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 79d7e04e0e

I sure wish I had known about Trinity back then. It could have saved me some $$ and headaches on my build, and I would have had a Heyboer OT as well. I'm still making do with the Mojo OT that came with my Marsh kit.

Anyway, I will shoot some pics of the VRM install, and post them ASAP.

Sorry for the delay, been busy with other things the last few weeks.

Here are pics of my finished setup:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... 53764e3a3c

Looking for VRM / Tweed feedback here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2161

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