A piece of  History

The TRINA laboratory wa born in 1994 as a result of my great passion for vacuum tubes electronics (also known as valves) and for music. Entering musical instruments' shops I realized that amplifiers were solid state inclined always more and more. Many tube amplifiers inside were hybrid and the pure tube ones left were not satisfaing. I could see disappointed musicians coming out  from those shops too. As I am first a musician for hobby (I can play electric guitar and piano) I had the need to build a personal tube amplifier, which could sound as those of the '50s, '60s  '70s, but my electronic knowledge was still to low. At the same time I was aware of the vacuum tube skill disappearing and so decided to have a place where tube apparatus could have a new birth. So, while studying elctronic books of the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s, I was just servicing. I had the chance to service important amplifiers, which had made rock music history, I mean Marshall of the '70s, Fender of '60s (the so called "Black Face") ahe famouse VOX AC-30TB. This led me to deepen not only their electric schematics and the thinking of this factories but also their exciting story, from the beginnings. At the same time I continued to study vacuum tubes theory and their application and I was trying some little one-tube-preamplifier prototype. After some months of poor results, the EQ-1 was born, my first tube distorsion unit ( with one 12AX7WT+) including an equalizer. This launched my activity. I went on designing another tube distorsion unit (with two 6SN7) which reveled an amazing and rich of harminics sound. At this point I said: "Ok,stop preamplifiers, it's time to drive a speaker!!! So the 2Watts TRINA amplifier was born, totally vacuum tube made and with a single volume control. It mounted a 12AX7 as a preamplifier stage, a EL84 as power amplifier and a GZ34 as rectifier. I had a whim to fullfill, which was to clone one of those '50s Fender amplifier (those built for students), which resulted surprisingly brilliant (it is still my indoor amplifier). Listening to old recordings of the Bluesbrakers, Jeff Beck, I fell in love of the Marshall JTM45 sound, i.e. the first Marshall ever made. As I owned the schematic, I built for myself a head faithful to the original one. So It was born  TRINA G1T, equipped with a GZ34 rectifier tube, two 12AX7 preamplifier stage, a 12AX7 phase inverter, two legendary and rare original KT66 by Genalex and finally a 12AX7 for the oscillator tremolo stage. The sound was great! The number of people getting aknowledged of my laboratory, which was servicing tube amplifiers, was increasing at the point that in summer 1997 it was full of amplifier to be repaired. People were coming from the near cities, sometimes it also happened I had to service by phone people calling from the north of Italy. Just that year I received the first request to build a custom amplifier. That was the TRINA VS-100R. The buyer asked me an amplifier which was clean at the high volumes and loud.  According to my tube purism and to the frequency response I decided to realize also the power supply stage with tubes, using two 5U4GB tubes while for the power stage I used four EL34M tubes (able to give 100W, class AB1). This is the reason of the exaggerated dimension of the VS-100R amplifier!

In my opinion vacuum tube elctronics is not only a science but also an art. I didn't stay around amplifiers only, but I dealt also with tube radios, tube televisions, tub microphones, tube instruments. I've always looked for a friend, a partner to whom I could  pass on my knowledge, but I never found someone prepared to dedicate a part of his time. I have made many efforts and I've been always ready to give to others, to share together the pleasure of vacuum tube electronics. Time after I took an Electronic Engineer degree, turning my interests to other fields, living behind tube apparatus building for timeless.