Review of a Trinity 15 Custom Head Built for Lawrence
Bethune,
Brampton, ON. Canada
Last Impression
Stephen,
I have safely arrived home with my new Trinity 15. I took it down
to the studio and plugged it in and I must stay the amp sounds
very good. I only had the Gibson SG out so I plugged it in. Even
though the guitar is a little bit midrange heavy the Trinity 15
was able to dial in mucho sparkle. I played for about 20 minutes
with the car half unloaded in the driveway (with the doors open).
I am quite impressed at the ample bottom end from the amp. There
is more than enough for humbuckers and it is just perfect for single
coils.
The SG really responded differently to inputs 1 and 2. Input 2
delivered slightly lower gain which yielded higher bandwidth. The
response to pick attack was quite good giving me the ability to
dial in various amounts of growl when I picked hard, yet still
yielding sparkly cleans when I picked softly. Great Stuff. Very
smooth even order stuff when you want. However, I still think there
is some plexi tone in there with the right eq setting and speakers....but
I digress.
Input 1 seems to be configured for more gain (and less bandwidth
as a result). The sound is a little more compressed than the same
settings while using the other input. It sounds like it is driving
the first stage a little harder. This is good with single coils
BTW. This channel is where the overdriven tones really came into
there one. Great string definitions. You have to mind every one
lest you get a bum note ringing in with the others. You can hear
every string individually. If you are really good you can get one
string (or group of strings) to sound overdriven while the melody
note you are playing rings out clean. This is very unique amongst
the high end amps I have played to date. Only the Two Rock and
the Kendrick 2410 come close to that kind of note response and
they need to be almost full up for clean/dirty thing to happen.
Come to think of it the so does the Trinity 15 but, since you are
driving a pair of EL84's you are able to get the crazy ass cranked
tone without excessive stage volume.
As for the wood working and finish, it did not escape me that
you used a single piece of Tolex to cover the whole cab (save the
front and back). I wondered why I have never noticed seams like
that before. I appreciate that. You are certainly a full spectrum
guy doing the finger jointed head cab, massively clean tolex job
and piping, AND putting such a beautiful finish on the Birdseye
Maple! You are right. It looks way better in person than it does
in the pictures. That fact that it is put together like a tank
is just a bonus.
All in all, I am quite pleased with the sound of the box. (And
the smell!) The Mallory caps seem to have made a difference. The
tubes you selected just rock. There is quite a bit of gain in this
little package. The active tone controls really let you dial in
the frequencies you want to distort and when they start to go!
You need a kinda sensitive right hand to realize the really cool
Carlton like stiff but it is in there for sure.
I will try and get some sound clips going. This is a versatile
amp that will take quite some time to document on tape. It will
be fun though.
Cheers and Thanks
Lawrence Bethune
Second Impression
Hey Stephen, I think you have a winner here. I had no problems
with volume at yesterday's rehearsal. In fact I didn't hardly get
to open her up at all! I only needed to keep the master at about
9 to 10 o'clock!
Because the master was low there was little power tube distortion
if any. I was, however, running with the preamp volume cranked
full. It sounded sweet and chimey. I used the Bogner 1x12 cab.
I will have to see if the 2x12 will fit in the car.
I had pretty good clean headroom for such a small amp. I think
that has to do with what I said about the distortion coming in
so smoothly. There is almost no perceivable transition point where
you can say this is very clean and oh, now this is crunchy! It
is kind of both at the same time (if you know what I mean). For
me, this manifests itself as overdriven/distorted tones that sound
like there are clean ones. The country guys are good at getting
these types of tones.
For the gig I will be using some kind of distortion for leads.
TS9 or maybe a sparkle drive something. This is because I had to
throttle back the master volume so much at rehearsal that I could
not get a great lead tone. I expect the club volume to be comparable.
As for the geeky stuff, no pops no crackles no hum. No noticeable
hot spots or anything like that. The handle is a dream. The head
fist just perfectly on top of the Bogner cab. I can understand
why the v30 was used in some of the matchless style amps.
My sound, tone, volume and distortion was very controllable and
easily cut through the mix because of the way the amp is voiced.
I wouldn't call it bright exactly but it does have a crispness
to it that I believe is the a result of the lack of negative feedback.
The lower wattage of the amp really proved to be an advantage.
It was a little easier to hit the sweet spot.
Larry
First Impression
Oh Stephen, You should hear the flipping amp through the 2x12.
The Les Paul hasn't sounded so good for a long time.
Touch response is very high. None of my amps were so immediately
and clearly touch sensitive to small increments of picking force
etc...
The range of tone control is huge. It can go from bright and chimey
to full bore Les Paul creamy lead tone very easily. One of the
really cool things is that when you roll back the volume from say
9-10 to 5-6, this sound still has sparkle and top end. Typically
the top end frequencies are lost when you do that.
The amp seemed to come to life with the 2x12 closed back with
1 Celestion G12H30 and 1 Weber Alnico Silver Bell. I did not get
the undertones this time.....but I didn't get a chance to crank
it for long.
The master volume works very well. You can get very responsive
and convincing distortion tones at bedroom levels.
Lastly The amp is dead quiet in my basement. When I plugged in
the poorly shielded Les Paul with a 20ft cord there was only a
marginal increase in noise. I was easily able to run the first
volume control up full with no problems with hum squeal etc.
I think this one is a keeper.
Cheers for Now
Larry
<< Back
|
