Mark V vs. Triaxis

[Nazgul666]

I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a Triaxis just because I have been drooling over them since the nineties and thought I would finally treat myself.

However, what would that offer me, as far as tone, that a Mark V wouldn't?

Thanks,


Mike

 

[Chester]

It's over 5 years since I sold my Tri/2:90 rig, so forgive the memory haze

It was THE benchmark in versatility - from MKs to Recto and a host of soundscapes in between. But it was just too complex for my needs. I found my sounds, stored around 20 patches but used around 5 of them

Realising I needed to get back to basics, I now own a few heads, each with its own "signature sound" to interchange as the mood takes. The MKV is probably the one I use most

If you are a tweaker and need a many different sounds at the touch of a midi pedal, the Tri will give you a "wider" range of options than your V. I do not miss that at all. Having reverted back to a simple head format with on-board reverb, I have also ditched the excellent G-Force, which was another layer of complexity I didn't need

I do miss the Lead 1 Red mode however, which sounded awsome, but I get close enough through my Roadster / MKV ..

 

[Nazgul666]

It's over 5 years since I sold my Tri/2:90 rig, so forgive the memory haze

It was THE benchmark in versatility - from MKs to Recto and a host of soundscapes in between. But it was just too complex for my needs. I found my sounds, stored around 20 patches but used around 5 of them

Realising I needed to get back to basics, I now own a few heads, each with its own "signature sound" to interchange as the mood takes. The MKV is probably the one I use most

If you are a tweaker and need a many different sounds at the touch of a midi pedal, the Tri will give you a "wider" range of options than your V. I do not miss that at all. Having reverted back to a simple head format with on-board reverb, I have also ditched the excellent G-Force, which was another layer of complexity I didn't need

I do miss the Lead 1 Red mode however, which sounded awsome, but I get close enough through my Roadster / MKV ..

Thank you. Can the V get anything remotely close to the lossenss of a recto? For that matter, can the Triaxis?

 

[shredding]

Thank you. Can the V get anything remotely close to the lossenss of a recto? For that matter, can the Triaxis?

I don't think it does the loose sound at all. Quote a huge difference between my recto and the mark V.

 

[Nazgul666]

Thank you. Can the V get anything remotely close to the lossenss of a recto? For that matter, can the Triaxis?

I don't think it does the loose sound at all. Quote a huge difference between my recto and the mark V.

Yeah and the Triaxis has that recto board or mod or whatever, so if you were looking for a little bit of that along with the Mark sound, the Triaxis would be the way to go?

 

[masque]

man I can really speak on this subject because I owned and used a triaxis for over ten years on an almost daily basis.

then about 15 months ago I got a Mark V.

i ran my triaxis with a mesa 20/20 power amp.

I also have a friend that has used a triaxis for a decade as well with a mesa 290 power amp.


here is what I can tell you;

1) the triaxis and V are very similar beasts......when coupling the triaxis with a 20/20 power section it will sound considerably different than a V......but the triaxis with the 290 power amp gets you more in the realm with that setup sounding closer to the V.

the advantages of the triaxis are the versatility of being able to program multiple sounds and hit a foot controller and have multiple changes take place at one time.

with the V you basically have 3 choices on the fly and that's it. any other changes other than that and you have to physically stop playing and make those changes happen.

i loved my triaxis and it was great, but like most point out, you usually wind up having 2 or 3 go to sounds.....but even though my basic sounds were narrowed down to 2-3 or 3-4 sounds it was super cool to be able to program all kinds of different effects and pedals to go along with those changes.

the cool thing with the triaxis was the ability to run in true stereo.

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the advantages of the V is that what it does well it does better than the triaxis to my ears. the Mark iV mode on the amp sounds better than the Mark IV mode on the triaxis.......that could also be tied into the difference in power sections of what I used vs. what is inside the amp.

the Tweed setting on the V is unlike anything I ever heard on the Triaxis.....it's as close as you are going to get to having that creamy "about to blow apart" stressed to the max Fender amp sound without owning an actual Fender......and I could never really get that close with the Triaxis.

The Mark 1 mode on the amp is also better than the Mark 1 mode on the Triaxis by a bit.

The ability to switch wattages from 90 to 50 to 10 on the amp is a real nice extra as well as the variac switch.

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OK so what does all of that add up to?

Overall I give an edge to the Mark V mostly because it just sounds a little better to my ears.

if the V was a "10" from a sound standpoint I would give the Triaxis a "8.5"......slight edge to the V.

From a versatility ranking I would give the edge to the Triaxis .....if it is a "10" in versatility I would say the V amp is about a "7".

Now if you dont mind the process of having to go to the amp and physically switch modes and twist tone and gain knobs then you can dial in just about anything the Triaxis can do but you cant do it on the fly in a live situation and easily return to "go to sounds".....I for one dont much enjoy doing that even in the studio once I have my go to sounds dialed in.

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Lastly, I will say this, to me I miss my Triaxis rig at times but not enough to regret getting rid of it when I have the V setting in my studio. I am as pleased with the V as anything I have ever owned and the slight upgrade in tone over the loss of some versatility has been a trade off I can accept.

 

[crane]

Absolutely the same opinion than masque !

What I could just add is that to my ears the TA sound a little compressed (not in the cool way a tube rectifier amp can do), even if it could be lessered with another V3 tube (12AT7, 5751) and another OPAMP controling the dynamic voice (burr brown 2134 if I remember well instaed of the TL071)
But it lack a bit "huge thing" compared to the MkV.

 

[masque]

Absolutely the same opinion than masque !

What I could just add is that to my ears the TA sound a little compressed (not in the cool way a tube rectifier amp can do), even if it could be lessered with another V3 tube (12AT7, 5751) and another OPAMP controling the dynamic voice (burr brown 2134 if I remember well instaed of the TL071)
But it lack a bit "huge thing" compared to the MkV.

you are 100% correct.....good call! I forgot to mention that in my initial post....over the years as I used my triaxis at times I felt it was a bit too compressed but it didnt bother me too bad.....but then after I got my Mark V, I immediately noticed that the amp just seemed much more "open"....it was very refreshing for me to hear......so Crane is dead on with what he said!!!!

 

[masque]

something you may want to do is to click on the link in my signature below to take you to the soundcloud page......once you are there there will be several songs. good examples of the Mark V tone are;

the ballad of the ferryman (all mark v)
tele funk (rhythm's mark v leads triaxis)
allright (all mark v)
six feet above you (rhythm's mark v and leads with triaxis)
what I want (rhtyhm's mark v and leads triaxis)
simple simon (all mark v)

the reason you see the differences is because on those songs I had my buddy who lives out of town do some leads on these songs and then send the files to me.....in his home setup he still uses his triaxis primarily.

also if you want to hear an older song I did where all guitars were done via the triaxis then click the link directly below this sentence.
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=6507893&q=hi&newref=1

 

[Tuna141]

over the years as I used my triaxis at times I felt it was a bit too compressed but it didnt bother me too bad.

+2

I used a Triaxis (2.0 without fat mode) for several years, but after a while I got tired of the compression it had when compared to my other amplifiers and preamps. I found that the dynamics of my leads were dulled a little too much for my liking by the compression of the Triaxis. I really liked the clean tone and the distorted tones were good, but overall, I found myself using my other preamp all night instead of the Triaxis because it sounded better and less compressed. A preamp tube swap with other brands and types (NOS, etc) helped some, but in the end, I still liked the tone of my other preamp better due to it sounding less compressed so I sold the Triaxis.

I will say that I was able to get a pretty good Mesa Rectifier tone by using the EQ on a G-Major in the Traxis loop. I'm sure the compression helped with that.