My triaxis is WEAK. lacks distortion and crunch. Help!

[hardrokr11]

So i recently got a Triaxis (and 2:90) after trying out dual and triple rectifiers and absolutely loving them, but hearing that you can easily get the same and more with the triaxis and after hearing nothing but glowing reviews about how awesome it is. However, when i plugged in it found it doesnt have jack **** for distortion. Nothing like i had hoped for, and trust me, im not some death metal junkie, not at all. I just like a good strong rectified sound, maybe like metallica or something. The first thing i had to do was crank the gain, and drive up to 10 in both lead red modes. The manual said that there is almost no way in hell you will need to push it to 10 in order to get a good crunch, with prescence and dynamic voice maxed too. I had to do it right off the bat and i was like, wtf? thats IT?! its sounds like a fender amp on half distortion, nothing like the triple or dual rectifier sound that i was hoping for. So then i cranked the prescence on the 2:90. It got a little bit better. I tried three or four different sets of tubes from different manufacturers, finally settling on some direct from mesa. Still, when i listen to people on youtube, even when i copy the EXACT settings they are using, it sounds SOOO crumby. Its sucks so much bc they sound amazing and here i am with the exact same settings and im not even in the same ballpark. There is no comparison in their distortion and drive and mine. Like i said, they sound like disturbed and i sound like john mayer on a really drunk night. I am playing thru 4x12 marshall 30W celestion speakers, so i dont think it is my cab. Its an older version 2 without the phat mod. Please please help and thanks so much.

 

[Atomic.Sheep]

I'm no expert on the triaxis or amps by a country mile but what volume are you playing at? I played on the dual rectifier in a music store and I had it set at a volume where I was going deaf yet the distortion was just kicking in. I could hear it's potential but hell, 100 watts is a lot for a little room. Same goes for your 2:90, you gotta crank it pretty **** loud to get to the distortion you are after. I don't know where you use it, but if you play at home, your neighbors will be pretty pissed off in a matter of minutes if you crank it to a volume where the distortion that you are after resides.

 

[hardrokr11]

Thanks for your reply! while i do have the output to the triaxis maxed, i have to keep the 2:90 level mildly low. Still, i know that there is such a difference in the distortion level it cant be the volume. I hear other people on here talking about how they cant take the 'brutality' out of their sound.... my sound has almost no such brutality. Other people are putting lower gain tubes in the Tri's so that they take some gain out of their LD2 Red, and i have my LD2 red gain and drive maxed. its sooo frustrating.

 

[hardrokr11]

ok everyone, i think i actually may have narrowed it down. I managed to plug my Tri into another amp and it sounds MUCH better. I think the problem may be with my 2:90. im going to change the tubes in it and see how it goes. Once again, thanks for the help and for reading! much love.

 

[pokerrules47]

did you try lowering the output on the triaxis and upping the output on the power amp?

 

[Geiri]

You could also check the tubes in the traxis. I swapped the jj in V1 in my mk4 for a tung sol and it cut 30 % of the gain. I'm putting a jj back in there.

 

[ando]

Never judge a used amp before you have put new tubes in it. You have no idea what state they are in. The Triaxis has heaps of distortion - in fact about the same as a rectifier has but with a smoother Mark series tone. The Lead 1 Red mode has a brutal rectifier tone - if that isn't enough distortion for you, the problem is you. not the amp! (that's if you have Version 2.0 of the Triaxis, of course, Which has LD1 Red as Recto, no Phat Mod.). Even so, all the lead modes are capable of very heavy distortion. I typically have my Gain at around 6-7 and Lead Drive around 6, and even that is heavy enough for me.

 

[Danimal]

(that's if you have Version 2.0 of the Triaxis, of course, Which has LD1 Red as Recto, no Phat Mod.).

While that is almost entirely correct, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that being V2.0 has nothing to do with having the Recto board, only the CC software. Outside of that, yes, it must have a Recto board and it MUST be non-fat mod to sound like a Rectifier.

 

[ando]

(that's if you have Version 2.0 of the Triaxis, of course, Which has LD1 Red as Recto, no Phat Mod.).

While that is almost entirely correct, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that being V2.0 has nothing to do with having the Recto board, only the CC software. Outside of that, yes, it must have a Recto board and it MUST be non-fat mod to sound like a Rectifier.

Yes, that's right. I was just trying to keep it simple because the vast majority of V2.0 Tris were second generation with the Recto board, as long as it's non-phat mod. The new ones don't have the recto board (all Mark series) andare V3.0, I believe. But you are correct in saying that Versions refer specifically to the software changes - it's just that certain software changes corresponded with certain hardware changes in the Tri. If you suspect the software has been changed, I guess you'd have to locate a list of models based on serial numbers to work out if you have a recto board. Many have been modded on top of that - no wonder it's confusing for newbies!