Limitations of the Triaxis

[ando]

I can't believe that we're having this pissing contest regarding versatility. Both setups are incredibly versatile. And why all the taunting with the Crate talk? Ouch.

Both amps are incredibly versatile. There's always a question over how many of those sounds are actually usable or inspring. A JCM800 purist, for example, would say that not one of the Mark V or Triaxis tones is actually usable. So, whether it's 1 mesa sound or 1000 mesa sounds, they're all crap to them. But that's another whole discussion.

I think that the argument over versatility totally comes down to how many sounds one wants on a foot-switch. If you want lots of sounds to be foot-switchable, the Triaxis is better.

For other people (like me), flipping switches with your fingers and tweaking knobs is just fine. I got fingers and I'm gonna use them. Even if it means I have to stop playing for a second. I play with my buds, not for 10000 people. My buds can stand not hearing me play for a few seconds while I kick over to a new sound. Therefore, I don't care about foot-switchability at all...I just care about having a wide array of inspiring sounds.

Chip

Therein lies the key. If you play professionally, regardless of how many people are in attendance, you can't stop playing and flip switches. If you play professionally, you have to keep playing and stay in performance mode. Leaning over and tweaking knobs and switches is unprofessional and poor stagecraft. Pros need to stay involved in their music and their audience. If you fail to do this, you will lose them. It's too introverted and self-obsessed.

So, if you need a variety of tones as a playing professional, the Triaxis is vastly superior. If you want to record, or you only use a few sounds at a time in gigs, the Mark V would suit and have a few more variations available.

Honestly Chip, you really do make light of the stage performance aspect. As a non-pro, you don't have credibility when you downplay this aspect. It is the very reason why so many people own a Triaxis. It's that important. Anybody playing halfway adventurous music, like prog-rock or fusion, would be woefully served by a Mark V. It simply isn't flexible enough. Making snide arguments like "I got fingers and I'm gonna use them", (translated: "I'm keeping it real, dude, I don't need no complications. I'm all about the tone...") is patently ridiculous. If you are going to write things like that, you have no business pulling Danimal up on the Crate "taunting" because the way you write is no better.

Furthermore, once you start waxing lyrical about how tone is in the eye of the beholder and how one person's trash is another person's treasure, you are leaving the tone argument behind. You are saying it's all subjective anyway. If you are saying that the Triaxis doesn't sound like a Mark V, then it deserves to be judged on its own merits. To some the sounds of the Triaxis might be preferable to the Mark V, therefore the arguments about what aspects of the Mark V it doesn't recreate becomes moot. Once you take that road, the whole argument reverts to what features each amp has. They have different features so that is also a subjective matter as to which one is better for whom.

 

[MesaGod666]

The Triaxis is limitless. This threat is useless bitching. Read the user manual.

 

[ljbarbeau]

I kinda agree with mesagod. I wouldn't say limitless but I don't get what you want chipaudette. It seems you want to push the mark V on us even if we prefer the triaxis. I KNOW for a fact that the mark V is a GREAT piece of equipment but I'd choose the triaxis over the markV any day of the week. from what I've seen in this thread most of the people think the same way (no surprise its located in the rack section). But if you prefer the mark V over the Triaxis i'm really fine with it and understand you. as long as you understand that some people prefer the triaxis. If had the money Id get both, but thats not happening in a near future... they both are really versatile amps but one is midi controlled and therefore much faster in a show environment. if you don't need that speed then by all mean choose the mark V.

at the end of the day the question should be: does it sound good to MY ears?

p.s. quick question about the mark V is it a parallel or serial loop? Im actually looking for a combo amp 1x12 to gig when I don't need to bring the monster. something very portable but still sounds great. I think that would be a great choice...

 

[dbone]

Wow good thing we're not discussing religion and politics : )
The Triaxis well I like it, is it perfect no, does it do more things better overall than any amp I have tried yes.
It's a live players dream and a bedroom players too.
I went for the Triaxis system really to get my tones and FX nailed down at practice so I could enjoy playing live without doing some strange jig turning things on and off and stay focused on the show.Triaxis and Midi can really simplify these things if you set it up right and do your homework.
Do I still want a Mark V.... Hell yeah I want-em all

 

[chipaudette]

Hey Guys,

The "fingers" comment wasn't intended to be a dig. But, in retrospect, it does read that way. My apologies.

I still feel like bringing up "Crate" is like slapping someone's mother in the face. I mean, really. Ouch!



Also, I was trying to diffuse the pissing contest between Danimal and giorikas by reminding them (as Ando did again to me) of the fundamental difference in perspective that comes with needing footswitchability vs not. I'm totally on-board with this point. That's why I brought it up in both my original post and again in more depth later. It is *the* critical difference.

I think that it's also important not to forget that there are a lot of people out there (and on this board) who do not play professionally. Most players are just duffers like me. They've got different needs. Of course, most duffers don't have rack systems. I suppose that therein lies most of the conflict.

My purpose with this thread, if we return to my OP, was to discuss technical limitations of the Triaxis and to hear how people either: (1) don't feel that they are limitations, or (2) have workarounds. Is it possible to have a technical discussion without getting (amp-wise) political?

Chip

 

[chipaudette]

In Defense of Crate...sorta...

The first live guitar tone that totally inspired me was a guitarist playing a Crate. I was stupid and 17 and in high school. It was a battle of the bands (do they even have those any more?). The guitarist played with such abandon, such inspiration, such tone, and lots of flannel (it was the early 90s). He happened to be playing a Crate. Wow, it was awesome.

I later got to play that exact amp at a common friend's house. It totally sucked. That was my first lesson in "it ain't the amp, it's the fingers".

I started practicing a lot more.

OK, maybe this wasn't much of a defense of Crate...

Chip

 

[Danimal]

I was trying to diffuse the pissing contest between Danimal and giorikas

An excellent motive, except I don't do "pissing contests." Please don't equate me with hotheaded internet "champions" who squabble pointlessly over subjective nonsense. I'd really appreciate that.

 

[chipaudette]

An excellent motive, except I don't do "pissing contests."

Good call. Needlessly inflammatory on my part. Sorry.

As for me being hotheaded, I thought that my focus had been on technical issues and on furthering a discussion about pro vs non-pro players. I'm sorry if you found that to be hotheaded. I do agree that my comments (like the one above) were insulting. For that I am sorry.

Chip

 

[chipaudette]

MesaGod666, I see that you have two traxis's (how does one even pluralize "triaxis"?). Do you use them both at once? Sweet! Or do you use them in separate rack systems?

Also, I see that you have a combo as well as rack gear. When do you decide to use one over the other? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each to you?

Thanks,

Chip

 

[Danimal]

As for me being hotheaded

I wasn't actually referring to you but the endless droves of people who somehow think that debating things on the internet accomplishes anything and generally just resort to insulting one another. Nothing about you or this thread.

And I think the plural would be TriAxes? :?: :mrgreen:

 

[bzylka]

And I think the plural would be TriAxes? :?: :mrgreen:

or maybe TriAxii? :lol:

 

[ryjan]

Triaxis'
:?:

 

[chipaudette]

So are we all agreeing that the biggest limitation of the triaxis is the pluralization problem? There are just too many good choices!

Chip

 

[gummx97]

So are we all agreeing that the biggest limitation of the triaxis is the pluralization problem? There are just too many good choices!

Chip

This post takes the cake! Chip right on the money, Triaxis name being determined whether it's singular or plural, that's the limit! :lol:

 

[ando]

Wait a minute, the Mark V has an equally problematic pluralization problem. Is it Mark Vs or Marks V? :wink:

By the way, Danimal was correct, it's TriAxes. No question about it. :mrgreen:

 

[chipaudette]

If you have two Mark V, don't you have a Mark X?

Chip

 

[markwayne]

The biggest limitation to my ex-Triaxis and every Triaxis I've ever played or heard, is the lack of an inspiring clean tone and pesky peaks with most low-gain tones at gig volume. For several years I used a Triaxis, a Mark III and an old Fender head all stuffed into a single rack to cover all the sonics in a full-time cover band. The irony is that the Triaxis was purchased to replace both the Mark III and the Fender head so I could down-size my rig. Hoever, after working for weeks on replicating Fender cleans and Mark III crunch with the Triaxis, imagine my band's horror when they discovered that the Triaxis had caused my rack to grow even larger rather than shrink as planned.

Honestly, the Triaxis was the ultimate lesson that finally made me realize that nothing is going to do everything well. And for that I will always be grateful. Once I let go of the total flexibility dream and focused instead on refining a smaller number of truly great tones and just using the gear at hand for what it does best, I was a much happier musician.

 

[gummx97]

Honestly, the Triaxis was the ultimate lesson that finally made me realize that nothing is going to do everything well. And for that I will always be grateful. Once I let go of the total flexibility dream and focused instead on refining a smaller number of truly great tones and just using the gear at hand for what it does best, I was a much happier musician.

To me, this quote is wisdom. Only by going through the stages of tone quest did markwayne came full circle of realizing that nothing is going to do everything well. I also have a triaxis and mark 4, but, my main gigging amp is a fender blues deluxe and an M13. In a band setting, all that was ever really needed was a good clean sound, an overdrive (low or high) sound, and a distortion sound, plus, a way to boost your signal for solos. All the other effects, at least from what I've experienced with majority of the audience, didn't really matter. It was the groove, the feel, and the energy that entertained people, they couldn't care less whether the distortion was tube, modeling, or even solid state! Go figure! Maybe its us guitar players looking for the feel of tube amps to inspire us to make music...

 

[ando]

Honestly, the Triaxis was the ultimate lesson that finally made me realize that nothing is going to do everything well. And for that I will always be grateful. Once I let go of the total flexibility dream and focused instead on refining a smaller number of truly great tones and just using the gear at hand for what it does best, I was a much happier musician.

To me, this quote is wisdom. Only by going through the stages of tone quest did markwayne came full circle of realizing that nothing is going to do everything well. I also have a triaxis and mark 4, but, my main gigging amp is a fender blues deluxe and an M13. In a band setting, all that was ever really needed was a good clean sound, an overdrive (low or high) sound, and a distortion sound, plus, a way to boost your signal for solos. All the other effects, at least from what I've experienced with majority of the audience, didn't really matter. It was the groove, the feel, and the energy that entertained people, they couldn't care less whether the distortion was tube, modeling, or even solid state! Go figure! Maybe its us guitar players looking for the feel of tube amps to inspire us to make music...

It's true, I don't think audiences care that much about your tone. They are more reactive to the way the music gels and the sensitivity of the musicians mind and fingers. Having said that, the musician certainly requires confidence and a connection with his gear because without it, it can upset his performance and sensitivity. There is no right answer to tone. I do know that with the music I play, 3 channels doesn't make me feel comfortable for all situations and it makes me uncomfortable. For that reason I chose a Triaxis rack because I know it can give me what I need to feel comfortable and connected to my sound. Of course, it does depend on the gig. If I do a Blues gig, a 2 or 3 channel combo is just fine.

 

[NunoVanBamSteen]

One other thing I didn't see mentioned was that the dynamic voice can be modded by Mesa, I.E. you can ask them to program your own custom EQ curves into the PROM (programmable ROM). If you deem it deficient, that is truly another option.


I love mine, but am selling it to nab the Mark V.
The sheer weight of the Tri + 2:90 installed in my 8 space rack is around 90Lbs give or take, tired of feeling like my arms were 4" longer after a gig.