trinityamps.com

Hello all -
I thought I'd share a few pictures, as I go, of my first amp build. It's a Trinity kit TMB combo build (non sIII). Eventually it's going into my bluesbreaker looking combo cabinet, along with a G12H-30.

I'm hoping to be able to get gritty, Jimi/SRV-esque strat tones at lower gain while also getting some higher-gain hard rock humbucker tones.

Jimmy James, Axe_34 and others have done a great job documenting their sIII builds, and their pics have been a big help to me. So, without further ado, I humbly submit the following pictures for your consideration.

(see next message for the picture- your first post can't have a URL, apparently)

-Rich

My first pic below is just a shot of the finished board. I'm installing hardware and will add some more pictures when I get the wiring done for the tube sockets, inputs, etc.

Sorry this one is a little big - I'll scale it down for later pics.

-Richard

Make sure those ground connections to the buss are well soldered. They look like they could use a little more heat. Components look like they're in the right places.

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

Yeah, I was a little nervous about those connections too. They're conducting now, but after a few months of guitar goodness, who knows? I did the buss bar and connections with an old soldering iron and it shows. I'll definitely reflow those junctions with my new iron. Thanks.

I feel like I'm making some headway. It won't be too long now!

I'm through with the heater wiring and most of the high voltage wiring side. Here are a few updated shots. I do still have the neon light and neutral mains to do.

Next up are the inputs, tubes, and the pots.







Novice question: When I was testing my heater wiring for continuity, I noticed that I had continuity between the apparently separate red and black wires, rather than just between different points on the red or black wires. Is there a connection inside the transformer to account for this?

Edited till I check my docs

AG

Checked em...

Ok, now I am all confused! I originally posted that it looked like you had your heater wire polarity reversed on V1, V2 and V3. On my build, the black wire stays at pin 4 and five and the red wire goes to pin 9, the opposite of yours. My documents, which I downloaded from this site, confirm this arrangement. But just to be sure, I checked the documents page today and the layout is different, looking like yours where the black wire goes up to pin 9. Therefore it seems that Stephen has changed the docs in the last week or so. Now my amp definitely works, so maybe the polarity doesn't matter that much, or maybe I am going to blow up at any minute! So I guess I will wait for Stephen to chime in before I give you any more advice

I was also going to say that the pictures look great and will really help out others in future builds!

Good Luck!

AG

Polarity neds to remain the same i.e. consistent for the preamp tube sets and for the power tube sets. From the pics you posted, yours looks like it is wired properly .

Yes, I did update the pics.

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

It's hard to see V1-V3 on the picture, but I do indeed have black wired to pin 9. I'll post a better shot of the tubes when I get them wired up.

I'm busy fussing with the input wiring now - striping coaxial cable, twisting and pulling shielding, contorting resistor leads into unnatural positions, etc.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post on Monday of a nearly complete TMB combo.

Here are the latest shots. It's pretty much done, and I'm hoping to fire it up over the weekend. I've got to restrain myself at least until I've given it a thorough QC check.

It's probably not the prettiest build, but since it's my first, I'll settle for functional . The next one will be pretty.

In the shots below, I've tried to highlight those parts that are different on the TMB compared to the sIII TMB version (V2, the normal channel).



v1-v2 close up (note the tag strip for V2. The resistor and coaxial connects to the far left tag, the shielding twist connects to the grounded center tag)


v1-v5


rectifier, output jack, impedance selector, etc.
[img]http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll44/richbonn/rect-jack-impweb.jpg
normal channel side


tmb channel side

Yeah, I strongly recommend a good check over. I found two mistakes on mine before I powered it up Don't forget to put in the fuse and hook up the speakers ;P Looks good though and, if yours is like mine, it should sound awesome!

AG

Yes, agree. Build looks neat enough. I see you reversed the TMB V2 coax ground connection . It will still work though.

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

I did do the V2 tag strip a little differently than the photo in the build guide. I seem to have room for the whole tag strip - though it's pretty tight against the mounting point. Thanks for confirming that should work that way. I was figuring that as long as I still have the coax shielding grounded and the center cable conducting joining the resistor on pin 2, I'm okay.

I'm still checking through as time allows. I'm really hoping to get it right the first time. I don't think I'm going to give it the full "Paul Ruby" (especially since everything is already soldered in), but I'm being pretty thorough.

I'm looking forward to hearing this bad boy, but building and learning has been half the fun. I've been following along in Dave Hunter's "Guitar Amp Handbook" as I've been building. I would recommend it for practical information on what the circuits and components (resistors, caps, etc.) "do" from a guitarist's perspective - rather than an engineer's. Maybe look elsewhere if you're looking for a more technical take, but good for everything else.

Sorry for the cliché, but...

It's ALIVE!!!!

I fired it up tonight, tested a few voltages, and took it out for a quiet test run. Wow. Even at painfully low volume (sleeping kids) and with a brand new speaker that hasn't been broken in, it sounded great. No squeals, no hums, no crackles - just great, responsive tone.

Thanks to Stephen for providing a great kit. Also, the instructions were clear enough that apparently even I could not go astray.

I'll post a picture soon of the finished combo.

Woo-hoo!

Congratulations. First time is always nice! Obviously, you practice safe construction.
You'll really know today when you crank it up if there are any squeals etc. It's not unheard of for a TMB to squeal at max Gain/Vol & max Vol/Master Vol but precautions were taken in our layout design

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

nice work rich, did you install the sozo's with any concern for the direction of the outside foil? do the indtructions mention this?

Foil orientation can theoretically make a minor impact on the noise floor. While we have not noticed an improvement, For reference, see this post:

viewtopic.php?t=760&highlight=aiken

It wouldn't hurt to include this in the manual for those who want to, but it's currently not.

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

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the foil and didn't pay much attention to the orientation of the sozos. I think I started installing them on the turret board with them all in one direction, and switched direction for no apparent reason about halfway across the board.

Here are two pictures of my finished combo, along with my 87' American Standard leaning into the shot for a photo op.

Looks excellent! I wired the Sozos in such a way that the values showed up for the pictures! That cabinet looks great, congratulations! Nice Strat, too. Did it originally come with Lace Sensors or are those the stock pickups?

AG

I'm happy with the cabinet, though I can't claim to have had any role in it's creation (it's a Mojotone). And it's nothing like that work of art head cabinet you've put together.

The strat pickups aren't stock, they're Seymour Duncan single coil "vintage staggered" I believe. I'm thinking of replacing them with Texas Specials. I should really rewire the strat now that my soldering skills are better. I'm sure it's a horror show under that pickguard!

I've had a chance to crank the TMB up a bit with both channels. The tones are great, I love the normal channel side - but I'm not getting quite as much gain as I was expecting from the TMB side. I'd say I'm probably not as "gainy" as the sIII boosted clips I've heard. Strange...

I'm thinking I'll probably follow the instructions on the schematic to add gain and remove R8 from the V2 grid. Still, I'm wondering if I didn't mix up a resistor somewhere that's resulting in lower gain. Anybody have suggestions for places to look or other mods to try?

I'm also thinking I might just convert the amp to an sIII, at least on the TMB side and add the boost. Maybe the smell of burning flux really is addictive?