trinityamps.com

Hi!

I've been reading a bit on these forums but haven't posted much as of yet! I've received my 18W Plexi kit last wednesday and thought I would post pics of my progress so far. Sorry for the mediocre cell phone picture quality and keep in mind this is my first build (...probably won't be my last!!). If you see anything missing or something I should have done differently let me know!

Now I have V1, V2 and the inputs left to wire up, can't wait to fire it up!!

Looks fairly tidy to me.

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Well I've finished the wiring yesterday, all I need now is to pick up some tubes check voltages and start making some noise!

Looks neat & tidy. Time to double check the connections!

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

After failing miserably at finding some tubes locally for my amp... I decided to order them online. It seems shops around here carry 12ax7 in astronomical quantities but good luck finding EL84s or.. god forbid... EZ81s!!

So I got my tubes today and fired up the amp for the first time. all voltages seem to be within spec, the normal channel works great. The TMB channel though has a hum problem... it gets worse when I turn the volume or gain up but goes away when I touch the chassis. I'm suspecting a faulty ground somewhere in the input jacks.

haven't had much of a chance to try it out properly... it was getting late and the lady next door probably would not have appreciated! can't wait to get that hum sorted out and play it through a good 2x12 or 4x12 cabinet!

Hmm if it goes away when you touch the chassis it might not be the amp? Have you ever had hum problems with that guitar? When you touch the chassis you're grounding all the noise your body is picking up, usually touching the strings should have the same effect (if your guitar and amp are wired properly). Do you have the chassis open near a TV, fridge, computer, wifi, etc...?

as soon as I plug a cable in either inputs on the TMB channel I get hum, normal channel is dead silent (and sounds awesome btw!!). I tried two of my guitars and the result is the same... a Godin LG signature with Humbuckers and a Deluxe Strat with the samarium cobalt noiseless pickups. Never had hum issues with either guitar. hum goes away when I touch the strings (or any metallic part on the guitar) and the chassis of the amp at the same time.

I have found the culprit!! I have the ground for the inputs of both channels wired like on the layout... a wire from the "ring" lug of the TMB ch. high input that goes to the lug on the normal ch. volume pot and from there back to the "ring" lug of the normal ch. high input and finally back to ground. It was a tight spot to solder the connections while the jacks were installed in the chassis and the ground connection must have moved. my TMB channel was therefore not properly grounded!

Next time I think I'm going to fabricate some sort of Jig to have the components laid out like in the chassis and still be able to solder from any angle/direction. Basically just the faceplate of the chassis...

I usually mount the jacks in the chassis holes but facing outward (i.e. the nuts inside, the body of the jack outside the chassis) and pre-wire them. Then just remove them & install inside the chassis. Naturally I don't wire them to the socket(s) until after flipping them to the inside.

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SG + Brit tube head = Nirvana

That'll do it! Good job finding it. You're going to love the amp.

@Emohawk, location: Da Rock....Sudbury

I always build these jacks out of the amp and then install and then connect them up.

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

Perhaps you have heard of Terry Kilgore alias Tubetramp/sargent overdrive! If you want some great tubes at a good price I highly recommend him. I'm sure others on here would concur. Lemme know if you want his contact info.
Stew

Yes it would be nice to have his contact info as I might want to pick up different preamp or power tubes eventually to swap around. At the moment I am happy with my Tung-Sol gold 12AX7's, NOS Teslovk EL84 and RFT EZ81 I purchased from thetubestore.com. And my priority right now is getting a decent cab... I'm currently plugging in the 10" speaker from my Epiphone 30Watt bass amp. this is like taking a Porsche for a test drive on a dirt road...

Tube tramp
terry_kilgore2003@yahoo.com
Tell him about the amp,what you play.the sound you're after ect. and he'll probably come back with some options and prices. Then you can decipher what he's written. Terry doesn't use punctuation
Stew
PS He tends to be busy at times so be patient.

Thank you for the info! I'll drop him a line when I need new tubes!

I took my amp to my local guitar shop to try out some speaker cabinets. turns out they didn't have much in stock so I could only play through a Marshall 1922 cab (small 2X12" with 2 Celestion G12T-75's). The amp sounds amazing... at home I couldn't crank it much more than 2... past 4 is where the fun starts. Still cleans up nicely with the guitar's volume control. I saw an ad for a 2x12 Avatar cabinet loaded with Eminence Legends... I just need to find out exactly which model of Legend and I might pick it up! it's the "traditional" style cab with black tolex and wheat grille so it would fit nicely with the old school Marshall look.

and here's my finished 18W Plexi head!

Nice! I can't wait to get my cab. I don't know why I ordered it seperately