Trinity Amps SIII 18 TMB-MV Head

I purchased my Trinity sIII head as a kit. It's just as descibed - a Marshall-esq 18 watt TMB with a gain and volume on the TMB channel. Volume and Tone on the other. Although there are no tone robbing "features" on this amp, it's very versitile. It has an impeadance selector for matching your ext cabs, and a boost switch for the TMB chan. Also, I'd like to add that Trinity didn't ask nor do they know I'm writing this review. I just feel compelled to support a great product. See customer support, below.

The sound is best described as amazing. I play classic rock and blues and this little wonder delivers. I'm not one to take the time to write reviews, but after having a great experience dealing with Stephen and the SUPERB tone of this little monster, I felt compelled to write. If you're curious, visit Trinity's web site and check out the sound samples for the sIII; they're spot on!

I've built several amps - this is point to point hand wired and it's built on a turret board. Very reliable and easy to mod if needed. It doesn't get any better this this. The head cabinet that Stephen built is rugged and beautiful.

Stephen at Trinity could be no kinder or professional to deal with. He promptly answered my numerous questions via e-mail and was most accomadating when I decided at the last moment to change tolex colors. He's an absolute pleasure to deal with and when I need aother kit, it will be from Trinity!

I can't say enough about the quality of the kit. Solid, well made chassis and turret board. All components are first class. The assembly was as described in Trinity's assembly book, which incidently, answers a multitude of other questions for those not overly familiar with tube amp construction.

If you're considering a low powered amp, visit their web site and check out Trinity's products. You won't be disapointed.

I bought my 18-watt SIII head as a kit from Trinity. Decided that I wanted to build it myself. I completed my build in February of 2006, and have been playing it for over a year and a half now. I also built a 2x12 cabinet with one Tone Tubby Hempcone Alnico, and one Ceramic. My speaker cabinet has 3 inputs so I can use either the alnico, the ceramic, or both at the same time. Which is nice for recording situations. Don't let the 7 on features fool you. Less is more when it comes to features on a hand-wired tube amp. In my opinion, a 7 is THE perfect score in this regard. No bells and whistles. Just like the 1960s 18-watt Marshall bluesbreaker it's based on. Beauty in simplicity.

The TMB channel (treb/mid/bass) has 5 knobs: Bass, mids, Treble, Volume and Master. The second channel has 2 knobs: tone and volume. Both channels have a high and a low input. I use an A/B/Y pedal to bounce between the two channels. Lead sounds on the TMB, and rhythm on the other. I use it in my basement studio and at local venues with my band. 18-watts is the perfect wattage. Its low enough to nicely overdrive the tubes without destroying your hearing, and high enough to cut through the mix with your band. If you need more, your entire band should probably bring it down a notch. Especially since most respectable venues mic your amp anyways!

If you are looking into buying an 18-watt, its because you want a Marshall Plexi sound at reasonable volumes. A noble pursuit! And this amp delivers IN SPADES. I play a 1968 Gibson ES335. With my volume knob(s) up all the way, there is not alot of clean headroom to be had. The volume range from 0-2 is a nice, bright, warm clean sound. 2-4 is rhythm guitar crunch from heaven. Anything over 4 gets into grinding, full-bore Marshall plexi territory... searing lead tones. The best part?? When I drop my volume down to ~4-5, it cleans up beautifully. What more could you possibly want?? When plugged into the low output jack, the sound is basically the same, but quieter, and my guitar cleans-up ~7.

The TMB channel is slightly more flexible tonewise, and allows you to dial in more dirt. Which is why I use this for lead tones. I like to crank up the master volume and vary the volume pot. This gives it a fatter, thicker tone than cranking the volume and varying the master. Again, you can get sweet, bright sounding cleans, but only at relatively low volumes. But that's not a bad thing! You buy an 18-watt because you want crunchy, overdriven sounds at lower volumes! If you need lots of clean headroom, look for 30watts+.

Like I said, I've been playing this amp very regularly for over a year and a half. I have had absolutely not a single problem with this amp. I built it myself, so I know it is ruggedly built and would easily withstand the road (if I was ever to actually tour!)

My band plays local gigs mainly. I don't gig with a backup, but if I was in a touring band, I'd love to have a back-up! But as with most hand-wired point-to-point amps, there really isn't much that can go wrong. I'm glad I built it myself, because in a bind, I could probably go in there with a soldering iron and fix it myself! I highly recommend building your amp. This was my first build and I don't have a strong background in electronics. If you need advice, the 18watt.com forum is very useful. As is Trinity Amps (see below)

This is the first Harmony Central review I have written. And I am writing it mainly for this section. Stephen Cohrs is the guy behind Trinity Amps. I read TONS about amp building before deciding on an 18-watter. Then I read tons more, and decided to go with Trinity. And it was the best decision I could have possibly made. Stephen is the most stand-up guy in the business. I honestly can't say enough good about him. He makes incredible amps, has VERY reasonable prices, and he stands behind his amps 110%.

I ordered my transformers from a U.S. supplier (the same supplier Stephen buys from). Mine never showed up. Either they got lost in the mail, or the guy genuinely forgot to send them. Stephen loaned me a pair of his transformers at NO CHARGE until things got worked out! He barely knew me and I walked out of his house with $150 worth of transformers on my own recogniscence!!

Then... during my build I was getting some noise and buzz (on account of MY poor wiring skills!), Stephen had me over to his home operation and spent at least an hour going over my amp at no-charge. He fixed up a few cold solder joints and gave me a ton of suggestions. I left there with no noise/buzz and a killer sounding amp. An amp that has sounded incredible since that day a year and a half ago.

And most recently... I had a gig this past thursday. At some point on the way home after the gig, my amp must have shifted in the van. The impedence selector switch must have got bumped hard, because it basically broke open leaving my amp out of commission. I emailed Stephen to ask if I could buy a switch from him. He invited me to his home that evening, sold me the switch for next to nothing, and installed it for me in less than 10 minutes. All this on his own time! And at no charge! If I took the amp in somewhere, I'm sure they would have charged me at least an hour of labour + parts + markup.

I've never had customer service like this ever. Stephen runs a top-notch operation and clearly loves making amps. In a perfect world, every instrument and amp company would operate like this. A 10-rating is simply not high enough.

I have been playing 13 years. I own my Trinity SIII, a 60-watt Fender Deville, a 1968 Gibson ES335, a Gibson Les Paul Jr. Lite Special, and a Takamine acoustic. My SIII is tied with my 335 as my favorite piece of gear. If it was lost or stolen, I'd put a bounty on the guy's head, then I would buy another within the hour. Actually, I would seriously consider one of Stephen's new builds (TC-15) which is a 15-watter voiced along the lines of a Matchless DC30/Vox AC30. I just tried one out and it sounds killer (!)

Bottom line. You will NOT be disapointed if you go with Trinity.

2 channels
TMB channel: bass, middle, treble, volume, master
Normal channel: tone, volume
Clean boost switch on the back
impedence selector

I do not know where to begin here, this amp blew me out of the water in 2.5 seconds flat! The amp is an s3 head with plexi mods... it's a plexi that does not blow your head off....
very touch sensitive.. i play it cranked pretty dirty and use the volume control on my guitar to control the juice and it's extremely versatile like that...

LOUD 18 WATTS!!!!

In a nutshell, this amp does: ACDC, Aerosmith, ZZ TOP, Van Halen.. blues-rock-hard rock!!!

The sustain is out of this world.... What I like the best is jumping the 2 channels...

I find the normal channel with the plexi mods has so much low end growl and the tmb channel is aggressive, more trebly and adds a nice bite/edge.. JUmping them and playing with the EQ on each channel gives a ridiculous plexi tone!!! Way more than I expected..

When I started looking for an 18 watt/low power amp, I hadn't heard about Trinity...
I played the 65 amps Londaon and it did not have the dynamic response and full-bodied tone I wanted, and for $3.000 price tag, it's an insult to people to even put a price tag like that for a piece of garbage! The SUHR badger flat-out sucked, can I day that again?!?!? SUCKED! I played it for 30 seconds and wanted to go back to my $300 marshall valvestate... Tried my friend's ceriatone 18 watt tmb and the sound was horrible. Weak attack, poor dynamics and cheap parts... the small amount of money he saved was a big mistake...

Good clean headroom until 12:00... breaks-up gradually and smooth...

This amp is the best 18 watter I've ever played. I'd pay $2k for this amp no questions asked!

Top quality parts, building and looks amazing. Never had a problem

Stephen is the most professional, honest and passionate person I've done business with in music equipment. He called me long distance 4 times and we spoke on the phone about different configurations/models until we came to the decision. He followed up several times and sent me pics while the amp was being built. I've already ordered my second Trinity amp and I'm thinking of which is next!!!

TOP TOP QUALITY, makes me feel bad for having other "big name" amps and spending thousands on so called "boutique" amps that don't measure up to this amp.

I bought my 18-watt SIII head as a kit from Trinity. Decided that I wanted to build it myself. I completed my build in February of 2006, and have been playing it for over a year and a half now. I also built a 2x12 cabinet with one Tone Tubby Hempcone Alnico, and one Ceramic. The speaker cab has 3 inputs so I can use either the alnico, the ceramic, or both at the same time. Which is nice for recording situations. Don't let the 7 on features fool you. Less is more when it comes to features on a hand-wired tube amp. In my opinion, a 7 is THE perfect score in this regard. No bells and whistles. Just like the 1960s 18-watt Marshall bluesbreaker it's based on. Beauty in simplicity.

The TMB channel (treb/mid/bass) has 5 knobs: Bass, mids, Treble, Volume and Master. The second channel has 2 knobs: tone and volume. Both channels have a high and a low input. I use an A/B/Y pedal to bounce between the two. Lead sounds on the TMB, and rhythm on the 'normal' channel. I use it in my basement studio and at local venues with my band. 18-watts is the perfect wattage. Its low enough to nicely overdrive the tubes without destroying your hearing, and high enough to cut through the mix with your band. If you need more, your entire band should probably bring it down a notch. Especially since most respectable venues mic your amp anyways!

If you are looking into buying an 18-watt, its because you want a Marshall Plexi sound at reasonable volumes. A noble pursuit! And this amp delivers IN SPADES. I play a 1968 Gibson ES335. With my volume knob(s) up all the way, there is not alot of clean headroom to be had. The volume range from 0-2 is a nice, bright, warm clean sound. 2-4 is rhythm guitar crunch from heaven. Anything over 4 gets into grinding, full-bore Marshall plexi territory... searing lead tones. The best part?? When I drop my volume down to ~4-5, it cleans up beautifully. What more could you possibly want?? When plugged into the low output jack, the sound is basically the same, but its quieter, and cleans-up ~7 oon my guitar.

The TMB channel is slightly more flexible tonewise, and allows you to dial in more dirt. Which is why I use this for lead tones. I like to crank up the master volume and vary the volume pot. This gives it a fatter, thicker tone than cranking the volume and varying the master. Again, you can get sweet, bright sounding cleans, but only at relatively low volumes. But that's not a bad thing! You buy an 18-watt because you want crunchy, overdriven sounds at lower volumes! If you need lots of clean headroom, look for 30watts+.

Like I said, I've been playing this amp regularly for over a year and a half now. I have had absolutely not a single problem with this amp. I built it myself, so I know it is ruggedly built and would easily withstand the road (if I was ever to actually tour!)

My band plays local gigs mainly. I don't gig with a backup, but if I was in a touring band, I'd love to have a back-up! But as with most hand-wired point-to-point amps, there really isn't much that can go wrong. I'm glad I built it myself, because in a bind, I could probably go in there with a soldering iron and fix it myself! I highly recommend building your amp. This was my first build and I don't have a strong background in electronics. If you need advice, the 18watt.com forum is very useful. As is Trinity Amps! See the next section.

This is the first Harmony Central review I have ever written. And I am writing it mainly for this section. Stephen Cohrs is the guy behind Trinity Amps. I read TONS about amp building before deciding on an 18-watter. Then I read tons more, and decided to go with Trinity. And it was the best decision I could have possibly made. Stephen is the most stand-up guy in the business. I honestly can't say enough good about him. He makes incredible amps, has VERY reasonable prices and he stands behind his amps 110%. Examples....

I ordered my transformers from a U.S. supplier (the same supplier Stephen buys from). Mine never showed up. Either they got lost in the mail, or the guy genuinely forgot to send them. Stephen LOANED me a pair of his transformers at NO CHARGE until things got worked out! He barely knew me and I walked out of his business with $150 worth of transformers on my own recogniscence!!

Then... during my build I was getting some noise and buzz (on account of MY poor wiring skills!), Stephen had me over to his home operation and spent at least an hour going over my amp at no-charge. He fixed up a few cold solder joints and gave me a ton of suggestions. I left there with no noise/buzz and a killer sounding amp. An amp that has sounded incredible since that day a year and a half ago.

And most recently... I had a gig this past thursday. At some point on the way home after the gig, my amp must have shifted in the van. The impedence selector switch must have got bumped hard, because it basically busted open leaving my amp out of commission. I emailed Stephen to ask if I could buy a new switch from him. He invited me to his home that same evening, sold me the switch for next to nothing, and installed it in less than 10 minutes. All this on his own time! And at no charge!! If I took the amp in somewhere else, I'm sure they would have charged me at least an hour of labour + parts + markup.

I've never had customer service like this ever. Stephen runs a top-notch operation and clearly loves making amps. In a perfect world, every instrument and amp company would operate like this. A 10-rating is simply not high enough.

I have been playing 13 years. I own my Trinity SIII, a 60-watt Fender Deville, a 1968 Gibson ES335, a Gibson Les Paul Jr. Lite Special, and a Takamine acoustic. My SIII is tied with my 335 as my favorite piece of gear. If it was lost or stolen, I'd put a bounty on the guy's head, then I would buy another within the hour. Actually, I might seriously consider one of Stephen's new builds (TC-15) which is a 15-watter voiced like a Matchless DC30/Vox AC30. I just tried one out and it also sounds killer (!)

Bottom line. You will NOT be dissapointed if you go with Trinity.

This is a 2006 model sIII 18 watt head. It's basically a souped-up extension of the Marshall 18 watt concept. It's a totally hand-built tube amp, with an aluminum chassis, custom transformers, turret-board wiring, plexi panels and other good stuff.

There are two channels, each with high and low sensitivity inputs. The channels can be used together, if you wish. The normal channel is the basic Marshall/Watkins circuit, with two controls: tone and volume. The hot channel, replacing the traditional tremolo channel, features bass, mid, and treble controls, plus volume and master volume; it has more of a plexi type of sound. There is no presence control, as the amp's design does not incorporate negative feedback. I requested a switchable boost mod on the hot channel.

This is not a nu-metal amp, even with the boost mod. It goes from sparkly cleans to raging old-style Brit grind. It does not have any modern features, unless you consider a master volume control to be an especially modern invention. What it has is big tone, and a remarkable amount of muscle.

If you run it through a 1x12, it's loud; but you don't realize quite how powerful it is until you hook it up to one or more 4x12 cabs. I ran it through a 4x12 and a 2x12 together at 8 ohms. Even pushing that much speaker, it kicks like a little Hiwatt. Amazing. I did not expect this from an 18 watt amp. Matched up with the right speakers, it is easily loud enough to gig with, although the cleaner tones would not be available at gig volumes in some situations.

For what I wanted from this amp, I give it a 10; but I acknowledge that you may not regard this very simple design as "feature-laden".

I was lucky enough to hear Lawrence Bethune (sound clips on the Trinity website)demonstrate this amp in person. He is able to get a whole rainbow of sounds out of the sIII, just plugging straight in.

A strat or other single-coil equipped guitar plugged into the low sensitivity input of the normal channel will sound reasonably clean up to volume settings of 2 or 3 (which on this amp is already quite loud). Any higher, and you're into the onset of grind. One of the reasons Marshall discontinued the original 18 watt back in the late 60's was its relative lack of clean headroom. With humbuckers, unless they're low-output you may have some trouble getting much in the way of clean tones. Of course, rolling back the guitar's volume is an option.

In the normal channel's high sensitivity input, single-coils start to growl almost right away; crank it, and you get a pleasingly thick, snarling grind. The swing of the one tone control is not dramatic, but quite useful; roll it back to zero, and there's still good note definition; all the way up, and it's very bright but not prickly.

The hot channel offers more tone shaping options, and a range of interesting combinations of preamp distortion / power amp overdrive can be produced. Depending on how you set it up, you can coax the amp into musical feedback even at lower volumes. In this channel, the amp's overdriven sound (through Celestions) is predominantly plexi Marshall but with a hint of AC30 (must be partly the influence of the EL84 output tubes, I guess)

I've only had the amp a short time, so its reliability is as yet untested. Judging from the quality of the workmanship and components, however, I'd say it's probably pretty reliable.

I've found the Trinity folks to be very personable, knowledgeable, and helpful so far. You get the impression that Stephen Cohrs, the designer/builder, really loves what he does. He checks with you after you receive the amp, to see how things are going, and offers to fix/adjust things, if necessary, to get the amp just the way you like it. So far, so good. Warranty? Oops; I'm not sure. Thanks for the reminder. This thing is so well made I just never thought to ask.

I'm over 50, and I've been playing since I was 14. I've owned way too many guitars and amps (or not enough, depending on your perspective). Amp-wise, an assortment of Fender, Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt and others. I never sold an amp that I didn't miss later on.

Before buying the Trinity sIII, I spent literally months researching the whole Marshall 18 watt thing. Very interesting, and so many builders. I decided to go with the Trinity sIII because I actually got to see and hear one first. It sounded even better than the mp3's on the website (not surprising, I guess), and the build quality was clearly first-rate; it was everything the company claimed and more. The product exceeded my expectations.

This is a new 2005 model Trinity SIII 18 TMB-MV Head. No. 1. All tube. Two distinct channels, one with Master Volume. Based on the original Marshall 18 watt circuit. This is an exceptionally loud 18 watter and offers a nice pallette of Marshall style tones. It has three inputs, one on the MV channel and two on the normal channel. Channels can be jumpered with a Y cord for more gain and a different tone. Remarkably versitile considering its simplicity.

I have used this amp with a Les Paul Custom equipped with WCR Fillmores and a Strat with WCR SR pickups into an Avatar 2x12 open back Greenback loaded cab. My main style of music is vintage rock along the lines of Cream, Allman Brothers, early Jeff Beck etc... This amp can pretty much hit these tones and more.
This is a new design from Trinity Amps offering reduced gain on the MV channel, best described as a "medium gain" amp. The amp will not do metal. It is very quiet until dimed and then, noise is minimal.
The normal channel is the original 18 watt design. It has a "rounder" more subdued tone than the MV channel. While there is not enough clean headroom in this amp to gig with, the cleans at lower volumes are really sweet in both channels. The tone in either channel is very defined and responds very well to pick attack. Breakup comes quick with Humbuckers and this amp will sing in either channel. The MV channel is voiced very similiar to a Plexi. It is more aggressive with a bit or "rudeness"-- think early Zepplin (Hearbreaker). This channel nails that tone dead on.

Both channels sustain wonderfully at higher volumes offering a great "edge of feedback" tone. The tones from this amp are just astounding. Nice tight bass and singing highs. The fun factor increases as the volume is turned up- it is LOUD. Single coils offer more clean headroom and really chime. They can be a bit bright, but that is what the tone control on the guitar is for. By being interactive with the guitars volume and tone controls, a wide array of tones are possible. I was actually able to hit some of Claptons tones from "Riding With the King" and a Strat- This surpised me because Clapton uses a "Fender" based amp (Cornell) and this amp is pure "Marshall" in nature.

The amp takes pedals pretty well, even though it doesn't need them. I have used a Zendrive, CC2, and the clean boost from the Tonebone JX2 amp switcher all with positive results. The amp doesn't need pedals to get great tone though, by itself it is a real sweetheart.

Appears to be very well built. I always keep spare tubes around just in case. I do not forsee any issues based on build quality.
This one is purple with gold piping and looks great. The amp comes with a very well written manual and includes complete schematics. A great plus if there ever is a need for repair.

Stephen at Trinity is great to deal with. Customer service is over the top. It takes about 8 weeks to get this amp and I was kept informed of the build progress throughout the entire process. I was e-mailed pics of the chassis build along with soundclips (to insure the voicing was what I wanted) as well as photos of the completed amp before shipping. All e-mails were responded to quickly. Perhaps the best customer service I have ever experienced!

I have been playing for around 26 years now. I have owned various Marshalls and Fenders at one time or another and the sIII can stand with the best of them. I would highly recommend this amp to anyone looking for the 18 watt vibe with a little something special added. If it were stolen or lost I would replace it instantly. This amp has some serious mojo and sounds as good as similiar amps costing two to three times as much. This baby is in my "keeper" collection right next to my Germino Masonette.

Being a new design, a lot of effort went into this project. I want to thank everyone involved for their efforts- Stephen at Trintiy, S2 transformers, Tybone (Ibet) for the wonderful soundclips and the guys behind the scenes that I don't know about. Thank you all for a truly wonderful amp!