20/20 or 2:90 with Triaxis?

[Supreeth]

Hey Everyone,

I just got me a used Triaxis and am looking for a power amp to pair it with. The 20/20 s very appealing since it is lightweight and I like my back My goal is to be able to get good John Petrucci like tones from my Tri/power amp and am wondering if the 20/20 will do it (or even come close). I also live in an apartment so lower volumes are a good thing. I know the 2:90 and Triaxis are supposed to be "soul mates" but if the 20/20 even comes close to 75% of what can be done with a 2:90, then that's the amp for me. If not I'll go for a 2:90 or 2:Fifty I guess. Please chime in with your opinions.

Please PM me if you have a 20/20 or 2:90 for sale.

Thanks for your time,
Supreeth

 

[Bobby Marshall]

Hey Everyone,

I just got me a used Triaxis and am looking for a power amp to pair it with. The 20/20 s very appealing since it is lightweight and I like my back My goal is to be able to get good John Petrucci like tones from my Tri/power amp and am wondering if the 20/20 will do it (or even come close). I also live in an apartment so lower volumes are a good thing. I know the 2:90 and Triaxis are supposed to be "soul mates" but if the 20/20 even comes close to 75% of what can be done with a 2:90, then that's the amp for me. If not I'll go for a 2:90 or 2:Fifty I guess. Please chime in with your opinions.

Please PM me if you have a 20/20 or 2:90 for sale.

Thanks for your time,
Supreeth

Get the 2:90 and an attenuator so you can get some sweet power tube saturation but still keep the volume on the low side.

I may be wrong but you might be able to plug headphones into an attenuator so that your neighbors won't hear. Just don't put it so loud that you damage your ears, then you won't hear either. :wink:

If you use the attenuator on one side you can plug your cab into the other side so the output has a dummy load. It is very important with stereo power amps to make sure both sides are loaded.

You could also just run your Triaxis into headphones (I imagine anyway). Try it. If you are not going to be playing at clubs or venues, and can't turn it up very much, at 2:90 is a waste. A 90 watt amp is not even twice as loud as a 20 watt amp. So the 20/20 will be plenty loud.

Go to this link that talks about how loud amps really are.

http://amptone.com/#lowwattamps

I have three power amps that have 50W or higher per side and they are super loud. I was playing big clubs and outside gigs so I had a use for them. Another option would be to get a small combo (20w or less) with an effects loop and plug the Triaxis into the return on the effect loop.

Lots of options. Get some ideas and figure out the best option before spending the cash.

Good luck.

Bobby

 

[Supreeth]

Thanks for the very detailed post and the link, Bobby. It was fascinating to read about how loud tube amps really are. Your comment about a low wattage combo amp got my interest. I have a Mesa 5:25 1x12 combo. I could probably plug the Triaxis into the FX return of the express (I still don't have the Triaxis, waiting on UPS to deliver). Since the express does not have an overall "output" knob I'll have to control the volume with the Triaxis. I never thought about using the express this way but it seems like a solution. So a power amp purchase may not be necessary since I'm looking at this mainly for home recording and playing with buddies (w/o a drummer).

For direct recording I'm thinking I can connect the speaker out of the express into a Groove Tubes speaker emulator which comes with a built in dummy load and feed it into my recording interface. So my setup would probably look like

Guitar->Triaxis->Gmajor in FX loop of Triaxis->Out to FX return of express

I'll also have a foot controller for the Triaxis into the MIDI in. I guess I'll wait for the Triaxis to arrive and mess around with what I have before thinking about a power amp!

Thanks!
Supreeth

 

[Bobby Marshall]

No problem. Glad I could help a fellow Mesa/Boogie player. 8)

I killed my first practice amp (solid state Dean Markley) by trying to use it with a drummer. It blew out quick!!! :lol:

Make sure to get a high quality preamp tube for the V1 position if she doesn't have one already. The V1 is the most critical tube for the voicing of any preamp or preamp section (or so I have read on some forum :wink: ). If you want to know what constitutes a high quality preamp tube just go to the tubes section on this forum. Lots of posts about what works best in that position and why. Some people also swear by using all of the same type or a certain mix of brands in the V2, V3, V4, etc. but it seems almost everyone agrees on the V1 as the position where a great tube is a necessity. Made a big difference in my Studio Pre.

Have fun with the Triaxis. :twisted:

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

:wink:

 

[CoG]

Hey Supreeth,

I used to own a 20/20 and used it with my Rec Pre.

It's a great-sounding power amp for lead work with really thick, articulate distorted sounds and has beautiful cleans (really, just amazing) at lower volumes.

I ran each side through a separate 1x12 and found that setup wasn't really loud enough for me in a band situation (but my band is pretty loud.) After about noon on the volume it just stopped getting louder and started compressing more and more-- sweet fat tone, but I couldn't keep up volume-wise.

At almost any volume the 20/20 is still too loud for an apartment, however.

Through bigger cabs the overall volume was better but it lacked headroom for clean tones; it starts to break up after about 9:30.

The 20/20 really lacks the bottom end to do "modern metal" types of rhythm tones, though. That's just the nature of EL84s.

If money's not really a problem I highly recommend looking into the Palmer speaker simulators along with a power amp. I use a PDI-04 and it's great; I got mine used but would pay full price for it now that I know how good it is! It's not good for practice if you're a beginning-to-sorta-intermediate guitarist because the feel is a little weird and can mislead you, but for recording it's amazing.

 

[Bobby Marshall]

Hey Supreeth, how's the Triaxis sounding through your combo amp?

BTW - make sure you read the section on amptone.com about power attenuators and getting power amp tube distortion with an attenuator while keeping the volume out of the speakers reasonable. It even mentions using an attenuator with a combo amp.

Good info on that site. Lots to consider.

 

[Razor]

Hey Everyone,
Another option would be to get a small combo (20w or less) with an effects loop and plug the Triaxis into the return on the effect loop.

This sounds interesting to me as well. I have a quad, but no poweramp and speakers, and then I mean TUBE poweramp. Which combo would be best suited here?

 

[Supreeth]

Hey Everyone,
Another option would be to get a small combo (20w or less) with an effects loop and plug the Triaxis into the return on the effect loop.

This sounds interesting to me as well. I have a quad, but no poweramp and speakers, and then I mean TUBE poweramp. Which combo would be best suited here?

I haven't gotten my Triaxis from UPS yet, but the Mesa Express 5:25 in the 25 watt mode should come very very close to the 20/20 since both use similar power amp circuitry with EL-84 tubes and they both have the Dyna Watt technology. I will know for sure once I plug the Triaxis in hopefully tomorrow!

 

[Supreeth]

Hey Supreeth, how's the Triaxis sounding through your combo amp?

BTW - make sure you read the section on amptone.com about power attenuators and getting power amp tube distortion with an attenuator while keeping the volume out of the speakers reasonable. It even mentions using an attenuator with a combo amp.

Good info on that site. Lots to consider.

Bobby,

Thanks for asking. My Triaxis is still en-route. It should be here hopefully tomorrow. I have been looking into Attenuators and am settling on either a used Palmer PGA-04 or the Groove tubes speaker emulator. Thanks much for pointing me to amptone. That site just rocks!

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[Supreeth]

Hey Supreeth,

I used to own a 20/20 and used it with my Rec Pre.

It's a great-sounding power amp for lead work with really thick, articulate distorted sounds and has beautiful cleans (really, just amazing) at lower volumes.

I ran each side through a separate 1x12 and found that setup wasn't really loud enough for me in a band situation (but my band is pretty loud.) After about noon on the volume it just stopped getting louder and started compressing more and more-- sweet fat tone, but I couldn't keep up volume-wise.

At almost any volume the 20/20 is still too loud for an apartment, however.

Through bigger cabs the overall volume was better but it lacked headroom for clean tones; it starts to break up after about 9:30.

The 20/20 really lacks the bottom end to do "modern metal" types of rhythm tones, though. That's just the nature of EL84s.

If money's not really a problem I highly recommend looking into the Palmer speaker simulators along with a power amp. I use a PDI-04 and it's great; I got mine used but would pay full price for it now that I know how good it is! It's not good for practice if you're a beginning-to-sorta-intermediate guitarist because the feel is a little weird and can mislead you, but for recording it's amazing.

Thanks CoG. I will be looking into the GT speaker emulator II or the palmer PGA-04 for direct recording purposes. For now I will just be using my Express 5:25 as a power amp for the Tri. The 20/20 would be too loud for my apartment for sure and I'm staying off from buying a power amp for now. I'll get one if I suddenly find myself in a full band situation with a loud drummer! For now it's all me sitting at home after work and practicing and writing songs. So the PGA-04 or SEII will come in very handy indeed and keep my neighbors (and my ears) happy

 

[Razor]

I haven't gotten my Triaxis from UPS yet, but the Mesa Express 5:25 in the 25 watt mode should come very very close to the 20/20 since both use similar power amp circuitry with EL-84 tubes and they both have the Dyna Watt technology. I will know for sure once I plug the Triaxis in hopefully tomorrow!

Any other amps preferably with 6L6 tubes that could be used instead?

 

[Supreeth]

Any other amps preferably with 6L6 tubes that could be used instead?

I'm not the biggest expert on tube amps, but if you're looking for a 6L6 based amp, those are usually high wattage amps. If low wattage combo is desired using 6L6, I guess the Lonestar Classic's 10W mode should do the trick, but I'm not sure.

I'd welcome other opinions on this since I would like to learn more on this as well. Thanks,

 

[mainly]

the 2:90 is probably the best power amp out there imo. you proably wont get that tone from a triaxis though. i had 2 of em, and sold them, the tone just isnt pure enough, sorry.

my ultimate suggestion: get out of the rack setup and get a MKIV head. the greatest amp on the planet.

but if you want to stay with the rack scenerio, sell your tri and get a voodoo lab pre, and put it through a 2:90 - it destroys the tri in every way and every other pre ive ever tried, and its true ALL TUBE .

im telling you this pre is very underated, i used it for several gigs and i have the voodoo lab pre split three ways(midi switched) with the pre of the mark iv and a marshall jmp-1. the voodoo lab pre just has this sparkle that has to be heard (and felt) the bottom end is absolutly massive) of course im going into the return of the mark iv in simulclass mode.

anyway just my opinion. good luck.