My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

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My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Snoopzilla »

Finally Can cross off build an amp off the ol’ bucket list. I love this amp. Trinity was amazing to deal with. Only got sent 1 wrong resistor value and they offered to send the right one right away, but I had to order some other stuff anyways and got it faster that way. Plus they were super responsive over email to all my stupid questions I did have to drop it off at my techs because I couldn’t get it to bias for whatever reason (think I either had a bad solder joint or forgot something) Which also happened to me when I went to fire it up when I was done. Had super low volume and chopsticking, going back reflowing solder joints didn’t really result in much and right before I was about to throw in the towel and bring it back to the techs….decided to check the layout one more time and sure enough, I forgot a jumper on the board. Fired right up. I think my biggest hurdle in the build was just myself and overthinking everything. Anyways, tried bending all my wires to look nice and they did for a second then they just went all wobbly spaghetti on me. But much to my surprise, it really isn’t noisy. Probably my biggest surprise, besides I built an amp and it sounds amazing!!! Got the bug now. Starting to really dig 6v6’s now. Have a 6v6 OR120 clone, my tech built me a couple years ago and now this one. But this one is definitely louder
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Bieworm »

What type of preamp tubes are you using? Your pin 5 is unused...looks odd
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by TriodeLuvr »

There aren't many 9-pin tubes that don't use pin 5. The 5670 and 6N3P are two, but mu is low for preamp use.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

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TriodeLuvr wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 1:00 am
There aren't many 9-pin tubes that don't use pin 5. The 5670 and 6N3P are two, but mu is low for preamp use.
My thought exactly.. that's why it's puzzling me
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by geoff 1965 »

Nice build, Trinity have some cool amps and access to the schematic/layouts.which values did you use for the cold clipper?
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

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Bieworm wrote:
Sun 02/13/22 11:45 pm
What type of preamp tubes are you using? Your pin 5 is unused...looks odd
Opps my bad, this picture was taken before I corrected my wiring. I originally skipped pin 5 because the layout looked like the wire passed over pin 5 to pin 4 but on closer inspection I realized I needed to connect to pin 5 then pin 4. So yeah just 12ax7’s. Tung sol. My fave ones of new production.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

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Snoopzilla wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 12:50 pm
Bieworm wrote:
Sun 02/13/22 11:45 pm
What type of preamp tubes are you using? Your pin 5 is unused...looks odd
Opps my bad, this picture was taken before I corrected my wiring. I originally skipped pin 5 because the layout looked like the wire passed over pin 5 to pin 4 but on closer inspection I realized I needed to connect to pin 5 then pin 4. So yeah just 12ax7’s. Tung sol. My fave ones of new production.
I exclusively buy sovtek tubes these days. No problems with those.. great reliability!
Word of advice: read schematics too when building. Layouts can be deceptive..
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

Snoopzilla wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 12:50 pm
So yeah just 12ax7’s. Tung sol. My fave ones of new production.
New Tung Sols are good, I like new Mullards too.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by zaphod_phil »

I find the new production (ie fake)Tung Sol 12AX7s to be bright sounding for my tastes, although with a sweet clarity. But that can help even- up the tone of a dark sounding amp.
The new production(ie fake) Mullard 12AX7s have the same clarity, but with a perfect tonal balance- my favourite non-NOS 12AX7s of all! :D
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by zaphod_phil »

Congratulations dude!

In days past I worked as part of the Trinity team - until Trinity's HQ got moved far out of Toronto. We're still in touch and a few months ago Stephen had told me they were designing a 6V6 JCM800; and it's great to see it's worked out so well for you. :D
Snoopzilla wrote:
Sun 02/13/22 2:26 pm
Finally Can cross off build an amp off the ol’ bucket list. I love this amp. Trinity was amazing to deal with. Only got sent 1 wrong resistor value and they offered to send the right one right away, but I had to order some other stuff anyways and got it faster that way. Plus they were super responsive over email to all my stupid questions I did have to drop it off at my techs because I couldn’t get it to bias for whatever reason (think I either had a bad solder joint or forgot something) Which also happened to me when I went to fire it up when I was done. Had super low volume and chopsticking, going back reflowing solder joints didn’t really result in much and right before I was about to throw in the towel and bring it back to the techs….decided to check the layout one more time and sure enough, I forgot a jumper on the board. Fired right up. I think my biggest hurdle in the build was just myself and overthinking everything. Anyways, tried bending all my wires to look nice and they did for a second then they just went all wobbly spaghetti on me. But much to my surprise, it really isn’t noisy. Probably my biggest surprise, besides I built an amp and it sounds amazing!!! Got the bug now. Starting to really dig 6v6’s now. Have a 6v6 or120 clone my tech built me a couple years ago and now this one. But this one is definitely louder
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Snoopzilla »

zaphod_phil wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 2:35 pm
I find the new production (ie fake)Tung Sol 12AX7s to be bright sounding for my tastes, although with a sweet clarity. But that can help even- up the tone of a dark sounding amp.
The new production(ie fake) Mullard 12AX7s have the same clarity, but with a perfect tonal balance- my favourite non-NOS 12AX7s of all! :D
I was actually trying to order the mullard 12ax7 cv4004’s to try something new this time around but both places I normally order from were out of stock. I almost got stuck with just ordering JJ’s but I do not like most JJ tubes
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

Snoopzilla wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 6:59 pm
zaphod_phil wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 2:35 pm
I find the new production (ie fake)Tung Sol 12AX7s to be bright sounding for my tastes, although with a sweet clarity. But that can help even- up the tone of a dark sounding amp.
The new production(ie fake) Mullard 12AX7s have the same clarity, but with a perfect tonal balance- my favourite non-NOS 12AX7s of all! :D
I was actually trying to order the mullard 12ax7 cv4004’s to try something new this time around but both places I normally order from were out of stock. I almost got stuck with just ordering JJ’s but I do not like most JJ tubes
JJs tubes have turned into trash, I'd avoid them completely.

The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Snoopzilla »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 7:31 pm
JJs tubes have turned into trash, I'd avoid them completely.

The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.

Thanks,
Josh
Ha ha, I actually hate JJ’s so much I didn’t even use the JJ cap can that came with the kit and ordered and F&T for it.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

Snoopzilla wrote:
Tue 02/15/22 12:56 pm
JMPGuitars wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 7:31 pm
JJs tubes have turned into trash, I'd avoid them completely.

The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.

Thanks,
Josh
Ha ha, I actually hate JJ’s so much I didn’t even use the JJ cap can that came with the kit and ordered and F&T for it.
lol, that is funny. I've never had any issue with the JJ cap cans...though I may or may not have similarly switched to ordering F&T cap cans instead. If I had a JJ can, I'd use it. But I did stop ordering them for the most part. Look at it this way- I dunno if they make any of the stuff, but whoever is making the cap cans is almost certainly not the same as whoever is actually making the tubes.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

Bieworm wrote: OK, tough to admit this, but... to 'my ears' the tremolo TMB sounds best with a JJ ECC83S in V1 position.. it really does. But you know I hate the JJ tubes too
LMAO!! Looks like a recently promoted mod pressed EDIT instead of QUOTE.

Hahahahahahahahaah

Try a Mullard CV4004 in there. They're awesome.
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by zaphod_phil »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 7:31 pm
The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.
I suspect all "new production" Mullard and Tung Sol tubes are actually Sovteks, relabeled by New Sensor, who bought out the rights to those brand names. But if they sound that good, who really cares! :mrgreen:
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

zaphod_phil wrote:
Thu 02/17/22 6:51 pm
JMPGuitars wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 7:31 pm
The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.
I suspect all "new production" Mullard and Tung Sol tubes are actually Sovteks, relabeled by New Sensor, who bought out the rights to those brand names. But if they sound that good, who really cares! :mrgreen:
Probably! It's funny that they manage to keep the brand names / lines separated. I like some of the Sovtek WA and WB / 7025s, but the Mullard labeled tubes are nicer. ;)
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Bieworm »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Thu 02/17/22 8:25 pm
zaphod_phil wrote:
Thu 02/17/22 6:51 pm
JMPGuitars wrote:
Mon 02/14/22 7:31 pm
The new production Mullard CV4004s are great. I'm using them for most of my preamp tubes these days. I think my most recent Tremolo TMB demo videos have them.
I suspect all "new production" Mullard and Tung Sol tubes are actually Sovteks, relabeled by New Sensor, who bought out the rights to those brand names. But if they sound that good, who really cares! :mrgreen:
Probably! It's funny that they manage to keep the brand names / lines separated. I like some of the Sovtek WA and WB / 7025s, but the Mullard labeled tubes are nicer. ;)
IME nothing like a reliable and well priced Sovtek when it comes to current production tubes. The rest is just too blurry for me in what is what these days.
I think the whole Mullard thing is rather psychological to get it as Marshall/British as possible.. snake oil comes to mind 😀
I've had the CV4004 before.. they're not less noisy, like they claim to be. For me it's the Soviet 12AX7WA and WC these days...
And I really dig the NOS Sovtek 6BQ5 too.. very sturdy.
The most important aspect of noise and sound is a proper build and a well selected speaker👍
The latter is even the most important component of an amp IMO
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by JMPGuitars »

Bieworm wrote:
Fri 02/18/22 1:12 am
IME nothing like a reliable and well priced Sovtek when it comes to current production tubes. The rest is just too blurry for me in what is what these days.
I think the whole Mullard thing is rather psychological to get it as Marshall/British as possible.. snake oil comes to mind 😀
I've had the CV4004 before.. they're not less noisy, like they claim to be. For me it's the Soviet 12AX7WA and WC these days...
And I really dig the NOS Sovtek 6BQ5 too.. very sturdy.
The most important aspect of noise and sound is a proper build and a well selected speaker👍
The latter is even the most important component of an amp IMO
I'm not a snake oil kinda guy, brand labels and brand loyalty mean nothing to me. My choices are based on how the tubes sound/feel to me in an amp. I don't know if the CV4004 is less noisy or not because I don't have noise issues with either. I do know that even though I like the 12AX7WA, I like the CV4004 better. For me there's only a couple dollar difference between the tubes, but I still wouldn't pay the extra $$ if I didn't like the sound.

IME, I agree with Phil's assessment. TungSol, Mullard, Sovtek all sound good. TungSol is brighter, Mullard has the better mids, and to me, the Sovtek sounded relatively flat (in a good way). These being subjective choices since one isn't actually better than the other, choose what sounds good to you and be happy.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: My first amp build works!!! Trinity amps Thor kit 18w JCM 800

Post by Snoopzilla »

Well I scored this peavey 212-6 cab from guitar center (took my 20% coupon for it ) peavey wasn’t even on my radar but a greenback loaded cab for $470 after tax seemed like a good deal to me. Sounds awesome with the amp. Though I think I actually prefer it open back vs closed back (its convertible and can run stereo too). I find the closed back a little boxy sounding, not too bad though. Maybe I just have to get used to it as I’ve always had open back combo amps. Solid 18mm plywood constructed too
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