Triaxis - Lead 1 Red not working

[Monsta-Tone]

Hey guys,
I got to spend a little bit of time this morning with the Triaxis.
I love the low to medium gain sounds this thing can make! I have a Rivera K-Tre, and it can get as brutal as any amp I have ever played, but it just can't get medium gain tones to save it's life.

I noticed a couple of things that I thought were odd about the Triaxis this morning.

1. Lead 1 Red has no output. The preamp is dead silent when in this mode.

2. Everything hums! I tried the ground lift, no effect on the tone. I'll try an isolation transformer (Ebtech HE-2) in a little while.

3. Mode Button - When I am in a preset (so far, I've only messed with factory presets), if I push the Mode Button, there is no effect on the sound. The gain and tone stays exactly the same through all modes. With the exception of Lead 1 Red, which has no output (or hum for that matter) on any preset.

4. Stock tubes - The tubes are Mesa Russian II. Not sure if they are original, but they look brand new. No discoloration on the pins or glass. Labeling looks brand new with no heat discoloration.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I was really looking forward to Recto and Mark tones in the same package!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I changed V3. Now I can get sound out of Lead 1 Red, but it is very low output unless I crank the gain and both drives.
Then, it just turns to sludgy mud. No articulation, no sustain, just ca-ca sound.

I'll swap all of the tubes and see if that helps.

 

[Triaxstasy]

Could be the ribbon cables/connectors (known issue adressed a couple times in here....)

Unplug an straighten them, clean the connections with DeOxit, plug em back in. Did the trick with mine a couple of times.....

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks! I'll give it a try. I opened it up the other day to see what version I had. All of the connections seemed good, but I'll check them more thoroughly.

I was just reading about LDR16 and LDR17 failing in another thread. http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=63067
I'm guessing the ribbon cables are more likely since the Mode Button has no effect on individual presets.

Also: Have you had any problems with LED's? Lead 1 Yellow LED is not working. Are these prone to failure or bad solder joints?


Signal Path is:
Guitar --> Triaxis Input --> Triaxis Output --> Rivera S120 (stereo combo amp) Effects Returns A & B
Guitar cable is Mogami, Output cables are George L's. All cables test good.

 

[Triaxstasy]

The "old"/colored flat ribbon cables are known to be an issue....
From TX5 onwards MB also used different ones (can be seen in the pic with the TX5 board)
I'll eventually swap my old ones for new ones the next time I have my Trix opened up on the bench

LEDs were no issue so far. For pure cosmetics I swapped the LEDs to ultra-bright ones and also used different colors for the Switch LEDs to match them with the different ones I put in my 2:90.

I you're already DeOx'ing the ribbon cable connectors, check the concentric vol-pot and give it some care as well. These might also be prone to crap out after some years......

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Well......
I cleaned the ribbon cable connections. That didn't help.

I decided that I was having a stressful day at work so I should change LDR's 16 and 17.
I ended up taking the side panel off to reach them. Pucker factor of 11!

I installed 2 brand new Vactec VTL5c9 LDR's.
Still no Lead 1 Red.

I called Mesa, but had to leave a voicemail. Hopefully they will get back to me tomorrow.

One thing that I noticed after going through quite a few presets.
If Lead 2 Drive is at 0.0, the volume is almost non existent, no matter what mode I'm in.
Is this normal?
I crank the Master to 10 and still not much happening. Then, if I turn Lead 2 Drive to 1.0, the thing comes to life.

I did the Factory Recall on the first 10 presets. The Lead 2 Drive thing still happens with factory presets.
Preset 10 was not reset for some reason........

Also, if the output volume is turned below 2, there is some serious warbling. Almost like a Blackface Fender's Vibrato.

I'll swap the rest of the old tubes tomorrow (already swapped V1 and V3) and see if that helps.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

All new tubes and a new LDR 15.

Lead 1 Red is very faint and sounds like crap when I crank the gains and volume.

Plus....now the warble in the tone is really prevalent.

I got an RA from Rich Duvall in the Service Dept. Guess I'll mail the thing out tomorrow. Kinda bummed I couldn't fix it myself.
It should be screaming once I get it back though!
New JJ high gain 12AX7's really warmed up the cleans!

 

[Triaxstasy]

IIRC you have to do a re-calibration after replacing the LDRs....

Check this thread: http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=2840

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Thanks for the link! I just read the last few pages of the Tech Service Bulletin.
I might try to attack this over the weekend. It would definitely save me $400! The repair quote was $250-$300, plus shipping both ways from Hawaii to California.

That warbling tone is weird though. It comes and goes, but is very prevalent once the TA has been on for about 30 minutes.
Different tubes seemed to make a difference in the warbling, but only for a short period of time.

It's not the repair cost that is bugging me as much as the turn around time. There is only one guy working on them and he's booked solid! It's good to be in demand though!

 

[LuizPauloDT]

Hello everyone,

Although my issue is a bit different than the reported by this topic, I'd like to use the same one to hopefully get some assistance on the issues I've found in my TriAxis.

I've just got a second hand one, serial number T-51**, which i confirmed to be a V2.0 non phat mode version.
Issues I've found so far:

1 - Gain Control is not working for any of the 8 modes. It sounds like the gain is stuck somewhere beetween 7-9 (based on my feeling with another TriAxis I had in the past)

2 - Lead I Red mode sounds like it has a built in noise gate. It is very annoying because when the sound signal goes down it completely "closes the gate" then returns after 1 second. So if I'm palm muting hard the sound kinda keeps cutting like if I was playing staccatos.

What I've tried so far:

- Changed all the tubes by brand new ones
- Tried contact cleaner on the boards and tube sockets

Sending the unit back to MESA to repair is quite unfeasible to me right now.

I really hope that someone can give me some thoughts and help me to sort this out!

Thanks in advance,
Luiz

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Sorry, I have no words of wisdom.

My Triaxis is shipping to Mesa today unfortunately.
Now all of my Mode LED's (except Lead 1 Yellow) stay on or cycle or flash, depending on the mood of the TA.
Mode button stopped working.

I attempted to calibrate the LDR's, but some of them were so far out of spec that I gave up.

 

[Old BF Shred]

Sorry I did not catch your post sooner...
You may have already shipped to Mesa....but...

I know those ribbons can be a pain, esp. the older ones that Triaxstasy described.
Deoxit was not effective on mine. I removed the crimp on connectors (tricky, but doable) and moved the conn. up the cable about 2mm and re-crimped them. Then used an Xacto blade to trim off the excess.
This got things working normal again until I could get the newer style ribbons from Mesa.

Now I am not saying this would cure your symptoms, as I had audio quality issues with mine. But if you still have the Tri, or for anyone wanting to at least eliminate ribbons as a possible cause, this could save you some grief.

Good luck with yours and please let us know what they find.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I shipped it out yesterday afternoon.
Should get to Mesa by Friday or Saturday. Not sure how deliveries are handled when they are closed.

I will definitely post the results when I get them. I found a ton of threads, but very few solutions.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Hey guys,
I got the TA back from Mesa yesterday! Haven't had time to check it out though......
Thank you Rich Duvall and John Marshall!!!!!

The service invoice says:
Found 3 shorted mode switch caps, changed all 4 as a precaution
Found 9 more damaged IC's, replaced all
Unit was way out of calibration
Replaced output pot
Full bench test and calibration

Labor and parts $252
Return freight $68 to Hawaii

The calibration was my fault. I read the tech service bulletin and tried to calibrate it. Some of the LDR's were way out, others were not able to be calibrated, so I gave up about 1/2 way through the procedure.
I'm guessing that some of the IC's or mode switch caps were throwing them out to start with.
I probably should not have even attempted the calibration, but I wanted to avoid sending it in. Shipping alone cost me over $150!

I'll give it a thorough test drive tonight!!!!

 

[ryjan]

Give us a full report and review.