Planning New Rack ; Insight appreciated

[spamone]

Hello All,

I am planning on getting back into the live show game and I need a new amp. I have always loved Mesa's quality and customer service in the past. Great sound, timely and friendly, so I figure what better company to go with.

Here's the deal. I want everything in 1 rack so that I don't have to lug around a bunch of gear from practice to home to live gig. Also, I don't really have a need for a stereo rig, and I would like to keep it simple.

This is what I would like in the rack:

TriAxis
Recto 2:100 running EL34's or Perhaps a Stereo 2:50 would be loud enough seeing as I am not playing Arena's
Furman Power Conditioner
Peterson Strobe Tuner
And eventually maybe a small effects unit. I would just like to have a delay and a pitch shifter.

I would like a small footswitch that would let me switch between clean and dirty channels and one for muting for the tuner. Maybe a couple more switches for the eventual delay and pitch shifter. So something like five or six switches.

My questions are:
Is there a really small pre-made dummy load that I could put on one side of the power amp?
Do I have to put a dummy load on one of the outputs of the triaxis also?
How do I set up the tuner and footswitch so the sound is muted when I am tuning?
Recommendations on a 5 or 6 button foot controller.


Thanks for you help!!!!

 

[MesaGod666]

The 2:100 is not a good pairing choice for the Triaxis...waaaay too much headroom and pretty harsh.

Go with the 2:Ninety instead.

 

[spamone]

Thanks!

Can I put EL's in the 2:90? I didn't see it on their site.

 

[mr_fender]

I'm pretty sure the 2:90 will only take 6L6's. Mine was 6L6 only, but the newer ones might be different.

I had a Triaxis, 2:90, and a TC Electronic G-Major driving two 2x12 recto cabs. It sounded fantastic, but it was a lot of crap to lug arround. I could have done without the stereo setup. Those 8 power tubes got pretty expensive when it was time to retube. I've since switched to a Mark IV head and two thiele cabs. I use a pedalboard for effects.

As for the dummy loads, you won't need one for the Triaxis output. It's a preamp and it's output is a line level signal. It would probably be best and safest to put a dummy load on the unused channel of the power amp, but there are ways around using one. You can pull the fuse for the channel you don't want to use and then simply leave that channel's input and output disconnected. It's not the slo-blow mains fuse on the front panel, but one of the two channel fuses in the back near the power tubes. That will lift the ground connection for one of the channel's power section and the tubes are basically turned off. The heaters are still connected, so the tubes would still glow, but no signal would flow through the tubes or output transformer. If you do this, I suggest putting shorted dummy plugs in the unused channels input and output jacks, so you don't accidentally turn the amp on with the wrong channel hooked up.