I know this is an older topic but nonetheless...
tedsticle: I wonder why he uses Output A on one Triaxis, and the Effects Loop Send on the other Triaxis?
James has 4 Triaxis Preamps. one for cleans and one for crunch. The other 2 are backups of each.
Output A is Triaxis #1, this is for half of the Clean tone routed along with the G-major and out to a dedicated Mesa 2:90 Power Amp.
The other half of his clean tone is of course, the Roland JC-120H Jazz Chorus.
Triaxis #2 serves James' infamous "Crunchberries" tone. The Mesa Mark IIc+. The effects loop send is running a modified Studio Pre as mentioned above. The studio pre is utilizing the graphic EQ only. Looking at pictures of James' EQ it almost looks like the Studio could be running 2 Graphic EQ's in parallel or in stereo? I only say this because obviously the front of the Studio pre is completely defaced. The EQs could be under those 2 mounted transformer looking boxes, or those boxes could be something else? I'd love to know if anyone could shed some light on his EQ.
MesaGod666: I wonder what Hetfield's guitar tech means by modded Triaxis? I know that Boogie doesn't mod anything for anyone without special exception.
Again, seeing pics of James' rig, we've seen the labels on his "Crunchberries" Triaxis to say "Phase Inverted IIc+"
This mod could refer back to The Black Album days. James would use several different mics in various positions to create phasing of frequencies during recording. Basically inverting the two current sources, plus and minus. In other words, reversing the polarity of the signal between the gain stage and the output. It may give the sound more depth and enhance the upper low frequencies.
So lets look at James' Crunch settings from the guitar world youtube video.
Gain 7.5, Treb 7.0, Mid 2.0, Bass 7.0, L2 4.0, Master 5.5, Presence 10, DV 0.0
The mod would definitely allow for these unconventional settings in the Bass settings, especially allowing the presence to be maxed out. By phase inversion, the Bass and presence settings would complement each other with a nice balance of a tight attack. the DV at 0 obviously allows the Custom EQ to take over. This tone is noticed the most during the "Load" era. In 2003, James then started blending this rig with a Diezel Vh4 on channel 3. I like the sound of the blended tone, but I much prefer the tone of his triaxis rig alot better.
I love this rig because I think it captures the Garage Days re-revisited tone the best. The 2 Garage albums have the best guitar tone in my opinion.
enough rambling... :roll: