trinityamps.com

Since I built my Tramp I am constantly amazed at how much clean boost the Tweed setting will tolerate without turning to mush. I always run my amp on the Tweed setting and push about 20dB of clean boost into the front end and with the amp set to full on the Master Vol and 6-7 on the Volume and Max on the VRM, I have lovely Robert Cray type cleans that easily hang with our drummer and bass player, seriously loud, in fact I still dial my Strat Volume knob back a touch to 9 just to take some bright edge off the tone, and I'm still right there with the rest of the band, just like you'd expect from a much bigger amp.

Now if I try this with ANY of my other amps I have to dial back the boosted signal level a LOT or it just pummels the front end of the amp and turns to distorted mush. How does the Tramp manage to handle this level of signal?

Is there some way to mod the Tweed channel to pull this level of clean volume out of the amp without the boost pedal?

It's obvious the potential is in there.

Did you ever notice the extra hole for a future tube socket? You could just add a tube boost.

The tweed side is intended to be quite clean. That was a design goal. But, as it is a little quiet, maybe some rework to push it a bit, but retain most of the cleans, might be in order. Then you won't need your pedal.
Or just put in another gain stage and switch that boost in. Or lift the tone stack.

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

Hi Stephen, yeah, that's what I'm getting at, the amp is still clean the way I'm running it with the boost pedal (like Robert Cray clean) just a heck of a lot louder, so I can see the amp itself is capable of producing much, much louder clean sound, which I think is a very desirable asset for the clean channel.

If you haven't already done so, try it sometime with an MXR Micro Amp or similar loud, pure clean boost (not an overdrive pedal) and I think you will be amazed at how much boost the Tramp will take and the resulting clean volume she can produce, I am sure you will be scratching your head in wonder, because I often do.

I wouldn't know how to add another preamp stage or boost unless I was guided through it, but I wondered whether there is a lot of potential in there that isn't being tapped that maybe you guys could tweak out and make it part of the Tramp.


Snowy

The issue with modifying the amp for more volume in Tweed mode instead of using a boost pedal is that you will also get more volume (gain) in Tude mode. This may not be a bad thing depending on your style. More dirt, saturation and possibly less definition.

Try increasing one of the plate resistors. Probably the one on the second triode to 330K.

_________________
http://pdfelectronics.com

Yes, you might want to switch it out for the tude mode. Or switch it into unity gain.

If a larger plate resistor worked, it might be able to be switched in/out.

Worth experimenting with - given a little time!

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

Yeah that's true and I think the behaviour that kurtlives mentions can actually be demonstrated even while using the pedal, because in 'Tude mode it behaves exactly as my other amps when hit with such a large boost, ie, it turns to mush, but flip back in Tweed and it laps it up and stays clean and just as loud as 'Tude. So if the resistor value increase could be switched in as the Tweed mode is selected and switched back out to the current stock value when 'Tude is engaged, that just might be the answer.

Is this the 220K Carbon Comp resistor to pin 6 we are talking about here, or the other 220k to pin 1?

Snowy

You could try swapping either, one resistor is for the first gain stage the other is for the second gain stage.

I'd try both.

_________________
http://pdfelectronics.com

I'd try the second one on pin 6 first. Then maybe the first one if its not enough.

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

Snowy: Thanks for bringing this up. I know you have mentioned this before as one of the cool features--that being the clean headroom of the Tramp in Tweed mode. For me, this is part of what makes the wide tonal palate on the Tramp so great. I have been wanting to post something about this and your thread is just the incentive. For the last few weeks I have been using TWO clean boasts in pedal form when using my Tramp. I put an EQ pedal with it set to flat, but with a few decibel boast. This makes the clean Tweed just sound even better. For just a little more, I put a Blues Driver with a modified circuit next behind the EQ pedal and have it set with not drive, but a more decibel boost; this is not 100% clean as the Blues Drive even with no Drive still gives just the smallest amount of overdrive, but it is wonderful, abosolutely delightful in the signal chain. This push the amp just enough for Blues tones in the Tweed mode, and it gives some gain staging with the use of one or two pedals.

I tried it with my Boss OD2 overdrive pedal, and my Guyatone OD pedal, but they color the sound a little more. Yet, I find that if I use the EQ Boost and the OD2, the Tramp in Tweed mode gets dirty in a very good way. The EQ boost with the OD2 pedal with some Drive is just the perfect Blues overdriven tone for my Godin SD strat.

I like it so much that I have three pedals in chain now: EQ + Blues Driver + OD2. In Tweed mode, the successive adding of these pedals moves me from pure clean sparkle, to pushed clean, to bluesy clean, to ovedriven. I love that the Tramp has this headroom.

I have played with it using this chain of pedals for weeks in Tweed mode. Then one day, I said, I wonder what it will sound like in Tude mode with these pedals. So, I backed the Tude mode down to "6", and WOW. When the EQ and the OD2 are engaged this Tude became so close to a VOX with such a sweet saturated Chime tone. Now this may also be because I am using a Bull Dog Ceramic that is 15W. When pushed it has such sweet breakup, and when the TUDE mode is overdriven with the two pedals, the results is not bad distortion, but a wonderful Vox like saturation.

So thanks for bring this topic up again. I love the head room as it provides such a great tonal palete. I had feared that this Tramp might not take pedals well, but boy was I wrong. This Tramp loves pedals. BTW, I also run a TC Electronics Reverb pedal as the Tramp could benefit from a touch of Reverb.

Do report back on what happens if you swap out that resistor. If it could be on a switch I might find that an option for expanding its natural tonal palete, but I would not want to take away too much variety, well not on my Tramp. Again, please report back on your mod.

Just my 2 cents.

Yeah the Tramp is a great pedal platform for sure. For my Reverb (and Boost actually) I'm using the Dr Scientist Reverberator, it has great sounding Reverbs and gives up to 20dB clean boost as well, so the one pedal goes great with the Tramp. if you dial the Mix knob back it will just give a great clean boosted dry signal using the Level knob and then you just dial in the Reverb to taste by bringing up the Mix level. It also has a pretty cool sounding Rotating Speaker sim that works great on songs like Cold Shot.




Snowy

When we tested the Tramp in the studio, they brought out two pails of pedals and it ate them for lunch!! We knew we had a pedal friendly amp then!!

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

It surely loves my pedals. Like I said, the headroom is nice and having several gain staging pedals allows me to quickly switch between different levels of Tweed and overdrive. And the Tude loves them as well. That is what was such a surprise. i expected the Tweed to like them, but for the Tude to have its own kind of head room was a bonus. This little amp is really a tone monster!

Yeah Snowy--I know you had recommended the Reverberator before; I just never found one on sale cheap. I happened to have found the TC Electronics Reverb for a bargain on a local craigslist; so I have it at the end of my pedal chain. If I find a Reverberator used and affordable I will probably grab it as it would give that 20dB of clean boost and make that EQ pedal (flat) boost redundant and thus let me take one pedal out of the chain. Again, thank you for bringing up this topic again. Even though I know you are trying to tweak that resistor so that you internally boost the Tweed, this topic is something that others should know about because there is serious headroom in both the Tweed and the Tude modes.

I'll have to spend more time playing in 'Tude, I usually go straight to Tweed and live there, I just love that big, round clean(ish) tone, and I didn't actually expect to get it with the Tramp so I was super excited when I discovered that big, clean Tweed sound was in there using the Boost. At build time I initially thought the Tramp was going to be my single-ended one tube practice rig but it's become my band amp since I discovered it could do that big clean sound, and you're right, the amp is a total tone monster, no doubt. It's very cool just having the one power tube to maintain too.

I do like the TC Electronics Reverbs, they do great Reverbs, I have their "Hall of Fame" pedal and it sounds great, especially since you can run two amps in stereo with it, now there's an idea...two Tramps, one on 'Tude, one on Tweed and blended in stereo!

Yeah, the Dr Scientist isn't a cheap pedal and I'd normally cringe at the price but I figured it was a "three in one" type deal (Reverb, Boost, Rotary) and would help keep my rig simpler since I need those all sounds.

Snowy

What kind of guitars are you guys using with your Tramps?

I remember when I had my strat I could run the volume maxed on Tweed mode without breakup. I always thought that was pretty cool, like you say, the headroom is there.

I have since sold my strat and got a ES-335, so humbuckers obviously. I haven't had a chance to try it out with the Tramp yet but I am now curious to see if I still get the headroom even with hotter output pickups.

_________________
http://pdfelectronics.com

Mine are Strats, one with 57/62 pickups, one with Texas Specials, and one with the Kinman Blues set.

With the 20dB boost running into my Tramp, the Tweed mode is clean to about 7 on the amp's Volume (Master Vol and VRM maxed) that seems about the sweet spot for me when I just start to get some breakup on hard hit big chords, or roll the Strat Volume back a touch and it's dead clean again. Push that front end a bit further with an overdrive like a typical Tubescreamer set clean (Drive down/Level up) to just tip it past that edge, and it's Heaven!

It feels right to me to just start getting some breakup at around two thirds on the dial, and I feel it allows me to extract more of a range of tones from the Tweed channel, because I think the basic tone of that channel is a Gold Mine.

These aren't play at home settings though, I'm most probably not using the Tramp as most people would, I'm running it into a relatively large cabinet and a 12" speaker with 102dB Senstivity/Efficiency, at that point it's gig level loud and will challenge even an obnoxiously loud/un-dynamic drummer!

Snowy

Kurtlives, I'll give it try like this on the weekend, I guess I just had a mental block about running my amp 100% flat dimed on both volumes and VRM for a whole 3 set gig, it seems like a tough little amp though.


Snowy