# My first kit build (Trinity 18 sIII)



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Hey folks. Here's a few pics of my first build. Just waiting on the head shell from Trinity. I'll add another pic when it arrives & I've dropped the chassis in.

It's not a pro grade wiring job, but the thing fired up on the first try and everything works perfectly. I'm very pleased! Now I'm playing around with various tubes to find that magic combination. I just dropped a pair of EH EL84's in there (had GT EL84S in there at first) and it thickened the tone quite a lot. Have to get rid of the chinese pres though. Too raspy in this amp. I've dropped a Sovtec in V1 & it's better. Still get that raspiness from the others though.

The toggle switch on the back-left is the gain boost option (and it's a pretty huge boost, might I add).

If I've said this before, it bears repeeating. The folks at Trinity kick butt! Stephen Cohrs has been very helpful and supportive, although he'll probably tell you he didn't need to provide a whole lot of input for this one. 

Kirb

P.S. Pardon the Christmas table cloth. Been there since december. Being single I don't worry about that stuff too much!


----------



## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

Good for you! I have always thought about trying that, but I am afraid my soldering skills are not the best. I would probably burn the house down! Please post a pic when you get the cab.


----------



## obstructionist (Jan 18, 2007)

Emohawk said:


> Hey folks. Here's a few pics of my first build. Just waiting on the head shell from Trinity. I'll add another pic when it arrives & I've dropped the chassis in.
> 
> It's not a pro grade wiring job, but the thing fired up on the first try and everything works perfectly. I'm very pleased! Now I'm playing around with various tubes to find that magic combination. I just dropped a pair of EH EL84's in there (had GT EL84S in there at first) and it thickened the tone quite a lot. Have to get rid of the chinese pres though. Too raspy in this amp. I've dropped a Sovtec in V1 & it's better. Still get that raspiness from the others though.
> 
> ...


So how much work was it to build the kit?


----------



## Robboman (Oct 14, 2006)

Nice work! Fantastic job for your first kit. Did you learn a lot and would you do it again?

A few years back I wanted to learn more about amps, so I tried to install a PTP board kit in my Bassman RI. All I had to do was connect the existing sockets, pots, switches and jacks to the pre-populated board. Should be easy right?

My soldering skills are OK, it's my schematic and instruction following skills that are seriously lacking! When I first fired it up I got nothing. Second try, kind of a fart sound. Third try - loud oscillating-squealing noise. Many, many hours of frustration later I finally called someone much smarter to fix my mistakes. (Keith of Clara Amps, 'Addicted to Tubes' on this forum). He got it all working in no time, and it's been a very good amp ever since.

So in the end what I really learned was that I should stick to playing guitar and forget about building amps! I have great respect for the hand builders, but I know it's not for me. All that stress and wasted time when I could have just opened my wallet and bought something like this: http://guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=3475

Cheers!


----------



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Well, thanks to Trinity's excellent 65-page builders guide which has lots of great general info along with the required info to build the thing, I actually learned quite a bit.

The build itself was surprisingly easy, thanks to the top notch layout diagram provided with the kit. It was like building a Revell model kit really. Just attach everything as shown on the layout & voila! However, I do have some limited electronics background so I did refer to the schematic on a couple of things for clarification. I don't know if an electronics newbie would be as comfortable with it. But, it was very straight-forward.

Would I do it again? Well, if I had instructions that were as good as Trinity's along with a detailed layout diagram like Trinity's I wouldn't hesitate! The problem is many of the kits on the market basically just provide a bag of parts & a schematic. I never would have gotten this done based on that alone, or it would have taken me many times longer. I put this thing together in around 12 hours or so over a weekend (I didn't actually time it...just a rough estimate).

Now if Trinity ever come up with a 2203/2204 based kit, I'll be all over that. I may try their 15 kit down the road for fun. It's kind of cool playing through an amp you built yourself...


----------



## obstructionist (Jan 18, 2007)

Emohawk said:


> Would I do it again? Well, if I had instructions that were as good as Trinity's along with a detailed layout diagram like Trinity's I wouldn't hesitate! The problem is many of the kits on the market basically just provide a bag of parts & a schematic. I never would have gotten this done based on that alone, or it would have taken me many times longer. I put this thing together in around 12 hours or so over a weekend (I didn't actually time it...just a rough estimate).


Only 12 hours? That's amazing.

Has anybody built both the Trinity and Weber kits? How do they compare in terms of sound quality and ease of construction?


----------



## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

I also recently built the Trinity sIII (had this thread running back in the end of Dec of last year).

http://guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=3467

Much like you I found the kit to be superb, dealing with Stephen was an absolutely rewarding experience and the amp sounds just amazing!

I just finished the Trinity 15 (there's a thread not too far down the list here) and its also an amazing amp. Totally different than the 18.

I have nothing to compare them too but I wouldnt hesitate to try a Trinity kit. WHen you are done you will have as good an amp as any other 18watter out there.

What speakers are you running yours through??

I am using a 2x12 with G12H-30's at 4 ohms, and a 4x12 with vintage 30s at 16 ohm. The 2x12 sounds amazing, even a little better IMO than the 4x12.

AJC


----------



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Yeah - it was actually your build thread that finally made me take the plunge! Thanks man!

I'm running an Avatar closed-back 2x12 with V30's right now. I think I may go for another 2x12 (or maybe even a 4x12) with greenbacks at some point. I think the V30's are a little too bright for this amp, especially when wound out. The clean is orgasmic on both channels though, even with the V30's. It absolutely knocked my socks off when I plugged in my Strat (loaded with Kinman AVN Woodstocks). I mean W-O-W! 

I actually like it better (at this point at least) through the original channel than through the TMB, which kind of surprised me. The orig channel just sounds so rich & full. The TMB channel is a little more edgy & "vowely", if you know what I mean. I'm gonna play around with some different pre tubes to dial it in a little more, but it does sound really good right now. My SG through the TMB is nice & snarly, and with the boost engaged...ROWR!

I have a NOS RFT rectifier in there, and I just swapped the power tubes to the newer EH EL84's (they claim close to the original Mullard character). Night & day. MUCH more full with the EH's (over the GT EL84S that I had in there). I'm gonna try the newer Tung-Sol 12AX7 in V1, and maybe a JJ. Have to put another order in at thetubestore...

I wasn't energetic enough to build my own cab. Don't have the skills for that. Stephen & the folks at Trinity built one for me. Standard Marshall style with black elephant tolex & gold piping. Can't wait to see it in person. The pic Stephen sent me looks great!

As I mentioned, I may try the Trinity 15 kit later on, and I'm interested in trying the SIII with 6V6's too. God - I hope I haven't started myself on another addiction!


----------



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

obstructionist said:


> Only 12 hours? That's amazing.
> 
> Has anybody built both the Trinity and Weber kits? How do they compare in terms of sound quality and ease of construction?


Don't be too amazed. As I noted in a previous post, this was like putting a model kit together - just follow the instructions.

However, I do have some experience with electronics. I do all my own guitar wiring and I noodled around a bit back in high school. That probably helped me a lot.

Most of the other kits don't provide the guidance the Trinity folks provide, both in the builders guide and their great customer service. That's the big difference. Without that, this would have taken me days with no guarantee it would have ever worked!


----------



## Tybone (Feb 12, 2006)

Obstructionist, Congrats on the build. I can say first hand that the Trinity stuff is all top notch in terms of sound and component quality. You wont have to replace pots or resistors or stuff. The kits comes with sozo caps too. There is also the development angle. The recent boost mods (I love the 22uf cap) and the 6v6/EL84 version are both well recieved options.

As for tone, Andrew is right, The tone with G12H30 anniveraries is stunningly good. Bold, clear classic marshall tone from days gone by. I have a pair in a bluesbreaker style cab and I was SHOCKED how good they sounded. It also sounds good with greenbacks, scumbacks, Tone tubbies, G12-65's.

Here is what mine sounds like with tone tubbies.
http://www.cohrs.ca/staged/clips/v6/RBv6.mp3


----------



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Hi all!

Just wanted to check in with an update on my Trinity build. I've been having an issue with it that's been nagging at me for a couple of weeks, but tonight I finally figured it out. I'm not sure exactly what the deal was - I've re-soldered the entire amp twice, triple & even quadruple checked grounds & whatnot. Tonight I swapped the OT leads (again) and BAM...problem solved. Must have been a combination of that & a bad connection somewhere that I finally got right. Hey - I'm not complaining! 

Anyway, the amp sounds fantastic (had a buddy of mine slobbering over it tonight ). I do want to do a couple of mods, but nothing too dramatic. Maybe a switch to change the voicing a little on the TMB channel.

A quick question for AJC...you mentioned you were running a V30 loaded cab with your sIII, correct? Did you find it a little on the bright side when driving the TMB channel hard with that cab? I do dig how mine sounds through my V30 2x12, but I'd be happier if it was a little darker.

Anyway, off to play with my toy...

Kirb


----------



## Tybone (Feb 12, 2006)

Hey Krib, I bet your amp was squealing like a pig when you cranked it. This is usually what happens when the output transformer secondary get reversed. Concerning but common issue.

As for the brightness issue, I have spoken to a number of pro players, some big names, and when they use their vintage plexi the treble is on 1 or 2. I like to live on the edge and run my treble around 5 and roll back the tone on the guitar. With a humbuckers, I have the guitar tone set to 5 about for the bridge pickup. 

This will get you the meaty tone (with the option of going brighter) on the bridge pickup and give you a brighter tone on the neck pickup.

I never setup an amp for the bridge pickup with the tone on 10. This almost guarantees that the neck pickup will sound like mud.

Hope this helps.
Cheers


----------



## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

Emohawk said:


> Hi all!
> 
> Just wanted to check in with an update on my Trinity build. I've been having an issue with it that's been nagging at me for a couple of weeks, but tonight I finally figured it out. I'm not sure exactly what the deal was - I've re-soldered the entire amp twice, triple & even quadruple checked grounds & whatnot. Tonight I swapped the OT leads (again) and BAM...problem solved. Must have been a combination of that & a bad connection somewhere that I finally got right. Hey - I'm not complaining!
> 
> ...



I like the tone with my 4x12 cab (all V30's) but do like the tone of my 2x12 with G12H-30's better. Its hard for me to describe, and I think it has something to do with the 4x12 cab being 16 ohms while my 2x12 is wired for 4 ohm (two 8's in parallel). I tried the 2x12 wired in series and running the amo for 16 ohms but the amp sounds so much fuller and meatier with the cab wired as 4 ohms and the amp selector on 4 as well.

I am actually thinking of selling my 4x12, since I have only been using (and gigging) my sIII and Trin 15 through my 2x12. I am even thinking of making a 1x12 with either another g12H-30 or maybe trying a tone tubby, for practices so I dont even have to haul the 2x12.

All I know is I love the sIII. Its got a great tone through both channels and even after near three months of using it I am still figuring it out in terms of where I like the tones vs what guitars I am using, etc.

And dont get me started on the 15 watter.. thats an awesome amp to in a very different way. You should build one next!

AJC


----------



## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

ajcoholic said:


> I like the tone with my 4x12 cab (all V30's) but do like the tone of my 2x12 with G12H-30's better. Its hard for me to describe, and I think it has something to do with the 4x12 cab being 16 ohms while my 2x12 is wired for 4 ohm (two 8's in parallel). I tried the 2x12 wired in series and running the amo for 16 ohms but the amp sounds so much fuller and meatier with the cab wired as 4 ohms and the amp selector on 4 as well.


Interesting. I tried mine with a friend's 4-ohm cab and I found EXACTLY the same thing with the different taps. In fact, I thought the 8-ohm tap sounded the worst of the three, with the 16-ohm second & the 4-ohm #1. And here I was thinking it was just me!  I'd like to try my 2x12 V30 cab in 4-ohm, but it's got 2 16's in it. Don't know how I could wire that to 4-ohm.



> And dont get me started on the 15 watter.. thats an awesome amp to in a very different way. You should build one next!


Don't get me started either! I have the kit bug now. I've been talking briefly to Scott over at axeandyoushallreceive.com about BYOC pedal kits too. If I build another amp I'm not sure if I want to try the 15 or the 6v6 version of the sIII.

I have done one minor mod to my sIII. It was totally by accident in fact. I was tracing the signal path (using jumper leads to another amp) trying to find the source of a minor artifact in the tone that was naggin at me - some harshness/buzz in the top end...and not the nice Marshall buzziness either - this was something that didn't belong there. At one point I had left the output from the PI grounded with a jumper and the artifact disappeared. I think the problem was the output stage or the PI was being overloaded slightly. This fix has dropped the gain slightly to the power stage and everything is fine. I also put some new stock Tung-Sols in it the other night & it's night & day. MUCH more alive than with the 12AX7C's I had in there. Less edgy also.

This is fun stuff!

Kirb


----------

