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Building a 5e3 Tweed amp has been on my to do list for years. Thought about attending the Tramp building workshop Stephen hosted a couple of years ago but I couldn't make it happen. Recently I saw Trinity Amps featured on Kim Mitchell's "Guitar Picks" show on AUXTV; that pushed me over the edge and I placed an order. Living in the GTA made picking up my Trinity Tweed kit, Tweed cabinet and VRM kit from Stephen in Brighton, ON a relatively short drive. While I was waiting for my tweed cabinet to be built I read every Trinity Tweed related post on this forum.

I'm not an experienced amp builder. However I did assemble a David Hafler DH-101 preamp kit back in highschool; and maintained some soldering skills building Cigar Box guitars; and I know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor due to the Heathkit Junior Electronics Lab I got for Christmas when I was 11 years old. I took my time building this amp, methodically following the Trinity Builder's Guide, which was great. After completing the power up procedure in the builder's guide my amp fired up perfectly the first time. I'm totally thrilled with the end result. The amp sounds great and I have to put my head close to the speaker to hear any sort of hiss or hum.

I though I'd share my build pic's for future builders as I found the pic's posted by others on the forum so helpful (Thanks MitchM, ajmckay and Olivia)

Thanks Stephen for a great Tweed kit.

Awesome job...

Looks like you had a good time building it..

What was the thing that you found the most difficult?

And yes the 1M film really stands out...

I really like the Vrm and how it allows me to keep the overall volume down and still get some growl...



I think that i might build another one soon...

I think I need a guitar and amp in every room in the house...

Take care,
Andrew

Thanks Andrew, I did have a great time building the Tweed and it's so satisfying to hear the quality of the end result.

For every hour I spent building I probably spent another 2 or 3 hours researching how other builders had done things and planning my approach. In my opinion the VRM/Mosfet wiring is the trickiest step. When I picked up my kit Stephen gave me gave some advice on soldering the power switch/pot to the VRM board. He suggested using component lead cutoffs as connecting pins to help solder the pot to the board, and that worked out really well.

If I had a chance to do it over again I would solder the flying leads from the input jacks under the board instead of on top for a neater look.

Yes, in hindsight the 1m film resistor error stands out like a sore thumb! However when I was building it I just picked up the first 1m resistor I found and soldered it in. Thankfully the resistor leads were still long enough to install in the right location.

As closet/home guitar player I love the VRM too. My goal was to get that organic creamy touch sensitive 5e3 Fender tone at SPL levels comparable to my 50th Anniversary Marshall 1 watt heads. In my opinion the Trinity Tweed with VRM totally nails that classic sound at reasonable SPL's. I also use a wet/dry setup using a mic and small PA to add reverb/delay/tremolo; it makes your guitar sound like it came off a studio recording.

I'd love to build another amp too; but I'm not sure which one? I'm curious what the 18 watt Marshall Plexi kit with VRM sounds like, but I think I've got the Marshall sixties and seventies sound covered. Maybe something in the Fender Blackface family...

Thank you for sharing your experience with us and for your great pictures. Your wiring is neat and impressive.
I had a similar building experience with a Tramp and for me too installing the VRM was the most difficult part.
Thankfully, I found pictures of the Tramp left by other builders on the forum and that helped me a lot.
The forum is a great resource for someone with a limited electronic knowledge like me.
Have fun.

Excellent job cubbins. Neat and tidy. Always pleased to hear start up was uneventful and followed the instructions. You did send me some comments on the docs which we will incorporate.

_________________
Stephen
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