trinityamps.com

Wow! Thanks for the compliment . . . I appreciate it. Come on in . . . the water's fine!

Building your own amp is a bit of a Zen experience. You just kick back, relax, and get lost in the solder fumes Trinity's kits are pretty darn easy to build so far for me and this thing is just beautifully designed.

I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a couple of years ago. It definitely hurts to play sometimes unless I warm up really well, but I find that for hobbies it just makes me slllllooooowwwwww doooowwwwwwwnnnn. Which is good since I've always been in a huge hurry for everything. Genetics can be a real pain sometimes. Sorry to hear about yours as well though man. Good warmups can help quite a bit.

As far as the build goes- I've completely rewired the power and bias section from the previous pictures. It's much neater now.




I have to clean up a few solder joints and the power and bias is pretty much done.

A few updates . . .

I build a cardboard template to hold the input jacks for soldering. Waaaayyy easier that wiring in place.



All done . . .



Volume controls and overdrive wired up. I label everything from the back to keep from screwing up (and more than usual)



Preamp progress. The shielded cable from Stephen is great!





More work in progress today I hope. If the kids will let me

Nice work!

Just one word of warning. The leads on the zener should be left unsleeved, to allow them to dissipate heat safely. I learnt this a few years back at the cost of some burnt out zeners.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Ahhhh . . . that makes sense. Cutting off sleeving right now

How much wattage does the little guy dissipate? I might be able to rig up a little clamp on heat sink and manage to not short it out. I hope

I don't really remember how much it dissipates, and it's not that easy to work out since it's basically raw rectified AC passing through it. However under normal circumstances the zener runs only slightly warm - ie when you haven't sleeved the leads.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Finally done!

I had to get a bit more wire from Stephen due to a couple of rewires that I did. Plus my job has been maniacal lately. Anyway - she is done and pumping out pure tone!

Here are a few pics -













She fired up on the first try and didn't even need lead dress. No oscillations, squeals, or hum at all. I mean ZERO noise other than typical self noise from the tubes if the overdrive is cranked and the master is wide open.

As far as tone, it sounds like a DR103 had sex with a 12 foot tall Bassman and had a baby. It absolutely owns the room through my Marshall 1960 Classic with 25watt Greenbacks. Clean, rich, "shimmery", and very very ballsy. This amp has no tolerance for any mistakes in technique - it's almost imtimidating. Huge 3-D chords It LOVES pedals - so far I've run a Bad Monkey, a SD-1, a Triangle Big Muff, a Tube Screamer, and a custom pedal of my own design into it and they all sound freaking awesome. I can't wait to get this thing cranked up in a larger room.

I'm running 6v6s through it right now and its ungodly loud. I'm still thinking that I'm going to drop KT66s in it though. i had KT88s in a 2203 build that I did once and it was like the hammer of god. I'm ordering a pair of Gold Lions later tonight.

It seems to really amplify the differences between different 12AX7s. So far, I've settled on a complete set of RCA 7025s. They sounds great - even in the phase inverter. the 12AT7 sounded good, but the 7025 added just enough hair to make it pop a bit more. This amp rewards tube swaps and tinkering.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the amp and the build. Stephen has a Grade A winner here and I can't wait to get this thing boxed up and out tormenting my other guitar playing friends.

Thanks for everyones time and the long read. If you don't have one of these - SHUT UP AND BUY IT. IT"S THAT GOOD!

Disconnector

Disconnector, nice write up and great work on your amp. I think you should consider posting this (with a little further descriptive elaboration) on Harmony Central. Lots of musicians in the US (as you probably know) check that for equipment reviews. Your very personal, anecdotal remarks are very insightful and would prove helpful for folks considering a build of this type. Carry on, brother!

Fantastic work on that TRIWATT. Military looking build. Really glad it fired up first time. Your comments are right on and that's a good thing. The more you play it, the more yuo realize what it can do.

Thanks for the comments on the kit.

HarmonyoftheSpheres, thanks for asking for a review. Disconnector, if you get a momment, cut and paste them into HC. It wont hurt!

Excellent job! Glad you're happy with it.

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

I like that chassis holder you have there and i'd like one, or like to make one. I like the way it angle the chassis and i can see the length is adjustable. Do you have any drawings for it?

You have to check out the Resource section for plans.

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

That amp looks absolutely awesome. The teflon on all the leads blows my mind.

Newbie here making my first post. I found this place based on my search for a Marshall 18 watt kit. A few people said Trinity, so I looked.

I've built an Allen Old Flame to handle all my Blackface Fender-ish needs, but I've been looking to build a Marshall kit of some kind (selling the JVM 410H). At first, the JTM45 looked nice, but the more I look at 18 watters, the more I like them. This whole Triwatt thing is making me forget all about a Marshall clone.

That build is simply stunning.

Does anybody know just how close you can get to the classic Hiwatt EL34 tone using those 6V6 tubes? Do the KT66s get closer.


Sorry for hijacking your thread. Did I mention that amp looks beautiful?

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Go Buckeyes!

Thanks man - no hijack at all! I appreciate the compliment

With 6V6s in it it sounds a bit more scooped to my ears and have more of a Fender vibe to it. The KT66s (Shuguang) are WAY more ballsy and give it a tremendous amount of bottom end. I LOVE the KT66s. Repeat - LOVE THEM. It really sounds like a 12 foot Bassman with the "air" of a DR103 with my Greenbacks. Totally lovely sound, but not especially Marshally to my ears. It doesn't give up and grind at all - it attacks like a rabid pitbull on meth. The overdrive is pretty good, but it doesn't have the Marshall grunt.

But let me tell ya a little secret. Go buy a SansAmp GT-2, put it in front of it with a nice ballsy clean dialed in and it transforms into the baddest a$$ amps you've EVER heard. Then one click and your back to the biggest most 3D clean ever. Seriously guys - try this one.

If you want more dirt at low volume levels you may prefer 6V6s. And Made in England NOS Brimar 6V6s are said to sound very close to EL34s. The Russian made Brimars are really just 6pi6s,the same as Sovtek 6V6. They don't sound bad either. But if you want more headroom then go for the KT66s.

For the Marshall vibe you simply can't beat an 18W - the original Marshall 18W was said to be Ken Bran's favourite amp.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Well, another thing this amp is really sensitive to is speakers. I have a pair of Fane purpleback clones in my Triwatt cab and I can get very close to Townshend's tone on the "Live at Killburn" blu-ray, and that's running reissue Mullards in the pre-amp, a NOS Jan 12AT7 in the PI, and new-issue Tung-Sol 6V6's. It does have a little more bite with a 12AX7 in the PI, but I like it a little better with the 12AT7. Still has all the guts I could want, but a little more mellow overall. The amp just OWNS the room with this config. It sounds absolutely huge. I haven't even tried the KT-66's in there. It's freakin' loud, but not fatiguing at all. I suspect with a pair of 6V6's that have a more compressed character (like the JJ's for example) it would be close enough that you wouldn't care.

It also sounds fantastic running really clean. Bright, round & open. With the mids rolled back it sounds very Fendery, but with more "pop". I thing the TS 6V6's contribute a lot to that. They have a rep for being killer in tweed & BF Fenders.

With my V30 loaded cab it's a very different animal. Quite a bit hairier and seems to sound a bit more compressed (probably due to the mid spike inherent with V30's). It'll cut a little better I suppose, but it loses some of the "hi-fi" character that makes a Hiwatt really special. It still sounds great, but not what I was looking for so I'll stick with the Fane-ish drivers.

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SG + Brit tube head = Nirvana

I tried the 6V6s and I agree that they are far more compressed than the KT-66s. Both sound great, but the 6V6s sound a bit more "Fendery" while the KT-66s sound more "Hi-Watty" to my ears. Tighter low end and creamier mids to my half deaf ringing ears. My god this thing is loud - I ran it next to a DRRI and even if I used the same cab, the TriWatt simply CRUSHED it. That big iron adds up to tight bass, wicked mids and shimmering highs. While I don't think that this amp can replace a Fender (gotta have tube reverb and a mid cut at the right freqs for that) it can definitely pound one into submission.

Whats really cool is how well this amp cuts through a mix. I jam occassionally with a friend that has an ADA MP-1 running into a Marshall 100 watt EL-34 driven power amp. My 40 watt KT-66 powered TriWatt is punchier and cuts through better even though it isn't quite as loud (thank god). With a SansAmp GT-2 in front of it and my SD DejaVu delay it sounds like a rabid Marshall on steriods. He gets a bit more bass but honestly its the mids and highs that you hear from a guitar amp in a band context. I like to leave a little space for the bass player any way

I'm still running through re-issue Greenbacks though - daddy needs some Fanes to do this right.

Heh, that's what I like to hear - pounding F*nders into submission.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!