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I'll start by introducing myself. New member here at the Trinity forum as my Tweed Deluxe kit just arrived today.
This is my first amp kit. I have limited electronics experience, so I'll definitely be here seeking assistance.
I read through all the instructions today, and took an inventory of all my parts.
I have a few questions after reading though the literature:

1. My schematic is B&W. Are colour schematics available, especially on the net? Update May 11. Yes a colour schematic is available.
It is on the main forum in the resources section, Tweed Deluxe thread.
2.Is There any rhyme or reason to colour co-ordinating the wires? The kit comes with several colours of solid core wire. Am I supposed to
use yellow for certain components, say the tone stack, or green for other components? I did not see any instruction on choosing wire colour.
3. I don't recall seeing any coax wire in the parts. Supposed to go from V2 pin 2 to the volume pot. Is the black shielded cable actually coax?
4.When mounting the power transformer do I remove the 4 nuts that came on the 4 mounting posts, seat it in the chassis, then re-use the standard nuts to secure it? Or should I be removing the 4 nuts then secure it in place with 4 #8 star lock nuts that came in the kit? Or leave the standard nuts in place, seat it in the chassis? If I do this the transformer will not sit flush against the chassis. The nuts standard nuts will be between the chassis and the transformer.

Thanks. Keith

Hi Keith. It was a happy day when my 5E3 kit came. It was a happier day when I first plugged it in! I'm no expert, but I can help a bit.



I got a b/w plan and a coloured plan. I looked at the wires, looked at the coloured plan, and put the coloured plan away.

Then - I went through the schematic, and very, very carefully traced the "signal", as I was able to understand it, through the various resistors, through the gain stages and capacitors, and made my own colour scheme, one that made sense to me. Got out the pencil crayons and coloured the b/w plan myself. It's my bloody amp, I want to understand it as well as I can. (I'm still working on that, even though I finished a while ago now and it worked perfectly at first start-up.) I think I used purple for "bright" and orange for "normal", as long as that made sense, then a different colour once the signal got past the phase inverter; green for ground, until I ran out of green, and then I used white; you get the idea.

It's a great idea to use two different colours for the "filament" or "heater" wire, so you don't get the +/- turned around. I think you got a black and red wire, twisted together, with the kit? Traditionally, green is used for the heater wire, and some vintage snobs will give you a tease about that - but it's not their amp, is it?



The black shielded cable is coax, and it needs to run as you've said. I was advised that the shield is only connected at the volume pot - it is not to be connected at the other end. Trim the shielding off square, and insulate the trimmed shielding with a length of heat-shrink.



I think I used the nuts that were on the transformer, but the star lock nuts would probably work well - I do think you want direct contact between the transformer and the chassis, so there is continuity - but hopefully you'll get better advice on this point from another.

Good luck! I loved building mine - I want to make another one!

q.

Thanks!
Is there a trick to mounting the indicator light to the chassis securely? Tightening the nut makes the whole assembly spin. Tried holding different parts but no luck yet getting that nut as tight as I'd like it.
Keith

I use a little drop of silicone caulk on the lightbase inside the chassis. Tape the light from the outside then silicone inside. If the power cord seems loose I also hit that point with silicone caulk, same thing with layout board nuts. The silcone is easy to remove if you have to, but holds and is heatproof and nom conductive.

_________________
Fantasy Noise is what my shop of dreams is called and was the only way to beat my addiction, like many here I suffer from G.A.S.


Tele's make the best noise

I am progressing through my first build, the Trinity Tweed Deluxe. I started a thread over at TDPRI, and at the Canadian Guitar forum. I post regular updates with photos. The TDPRI thread should give great USA exposure to Stephen here at Trinity Amps. So far so good, the project is coming along quite nicely and I am very happy. I am taking my time, triple checking everything and often come here to reference photos of builds that others have posted. This way too much fun and I am already trying to figure out how to convince my wife that I need to build more.
If you want to see some detailed photos here is open access to my Picasa web album. There are several photos there. Thanks, Keith.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kbarron2679/TrinityAmpKit?authkey=Gv1sRgCOObj_jOp_LMaQ&feat=directlink

Here's one photo as a teaser:

Soldering and assembly of the chassis completed. I plugged it in tonight for testing and no smoke of fireworks, just a nice bright red jewel lamp. I need to pick up a new multimeter tomorrow to test the voltages before I install any tubes.

Does it look reasonable? First time for me. The final transformer hook up had me stumped for a while, but I think I got it. Tweed cab should be arriving this week.