Triaxis: Usable gain from 1-10? Versatile? HC reviews blow.

[JT_Marshmallow]

I am going to be able to afford a used Triaxis soon but have no way of trying one out as I live 2700 miles from Mesa Boogie HQ. I usually go through the reviews on Harmony Central when I'm interested in a piece of gear, but unfortunately 95% of the Triaxis reviews on there are people who just unboxed it 10 minutes before they wrote the review and only need it for a scooped high gain sound.

What I love about the Mark series is that those amps specialize in providing a usable range of gain, containing so many great sounds at all gain levels. This is particularly a quality of my Studio Preamp. I can get brown sounds, Fender cleans, Fender raunch, creamy jazz fusion lead, and more just by playing with the gain structure on the Studio Pre. Does this versatility hold true for the Triaxis? I know it only contains one sound from each amp it models, rather than containing all the channels of each amp. Do the lead modes have an "aggressive" sound to them, or can you get a lot of vintage-like tones out of it?

 

[BenjiR]

Oh yeah, all Lead 1 section is ment to simulate Mark I-II series. Very nice mid-overdrive, classic rock and blues sounds. You can even chunk your Green Rhythm to pretty nice crunch with powerful humbuckers. Very versatile stuff, I use to own one, but it transcended to another dimension (burned data plate).

 

[crane]

The TA is very versatil. You can't believe all the sound you can pull out of this little thing. Every range of gain is usable.
The only negative point (or I should say "the only non totally positive point") is that this unit give pretty compresssed sounds, but with a few tube swap you can reduce it to a very acceptable point.

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

I like what I'm hearing. I understand that its sound is a bit compressed and I'm ok with that.

I just found some awesome sound demos of all 8 modes of the Triaxis here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=triaxis+chatreeo&search_type=&aq=f

The narration is not in English unfortunately, but its a thorough demo of each mode at various gain levels, all with great sound quality. This guy has a killer sound. If this is what a Triaxis sounds like, then I'm sold. Even the Rhy Green and Yellow sound incredible, since I play a lot of Jazz and Fusion.

BenjiR, I'm sorry to hear that your unit cooked itself. Should I hunt down a newer one so I am sure to get some years out of it? I'm sure there's a bunch out there being sold that are almost 20 years old. (Triaxis and 2:90 debuted in 1990!)

Crane, I see in your sig that you also own a Quad. Is there something that the Quad does well that the Triaxis doesn't? Just curious since I own a Studio Pre.

 

[Danimal]

If this is what a Triaxis sounds like, then I'm sold.

That is indeed what it sounds like, and so much more. It's got tons of tones in it.

Should I hunt down a newer one so I am sure to get some years out of it? I'm sure there's a bunch out there being sold that are almost 20 years old. (Triaxis and 2:90 debuted in 1990!)

The drawback to a newer one is that it won't have the Recto board on it. Lead 1 Red is something like "Classic Boogie Lead" and is voiced after the Mark IV I believe. If you don't want the Recto board, no need to worry about it.

 

[vitor gracie]

The most amazing thing to me about the Triaxis is the way they (Mesa) gives you controll of the gain structure. All the distortion modes have 2 gain controlls in different places of the gain stage. Your first gain "knob" is in the front of the gain stage before the tone controls. The second occurs after EQ and there are appropriate levels for the different modes. 3 use the first post EQ gain control and the other 3 use the 2nd. So, to clarify, if you look at a Mark series amp you'll see the same thing. An "INPUT" gain and then a "post" distortion knob. This is HUGE as far as sound goes and types of gain when dialing in your tone.

For example, I have some lower gain settings on mine that have higher input gain and lower post gain settings so that they overdrive like a tube screamer drives the front of your amp's input. It sounds very bluesy and soulful because I can get all the "not-so-clean" pick dynamics when playing. If I hit the strings hard it drives, if I play lightly is REALLY REALLY clean because of the way I set up the gain.

Next, I have settings that mid way on both the input gain and the post gain control giving me overdrive tones that are tight and articulate but distorted enough to where I can't really dial back my volume on my guitar to make a passable clean sound without the guitar being really quite. This is great for chording for me.

Lastly, I have very saturated sounds with lots of mids that I wouldn't call "high gain". I have the Mark IIC mode with the input gain very high and the post gain high as well, but the way I EQ makes it sound fluid and "sustainy" instead of scooped and tight. You can't do anything percussive because the input gain is so high but you CAN get miles of sustain and your solos really sing out.

Of course I have chunky Recto-ish tones, but that stuff is boring.... lol

To me, the Triaxis is THE most versatile piece of equipment I have ever owned. Does it do what a Roadster does? Hell no. But if you need versatility and want an amp that can do more Mark tones and gritty soulful sounds as opposed to all the Recto modern high-gain stuff, then yeah.... a Triaxis is what you want.

 

[BenjiR]

BenjiR, I'm sorry to hear that your unit cooked itself. Should I hunt down a newer one so I am sure to get some years out of it? I'm sure there's a bunch out there being sold that are almost 20 years old. (Triaxis and 2:90 debuted in 1990!)

I have an amp built in 1969. Still works good.

 

[JT_Marshmallow]

Thanks for the info, fellas.

S
E
V
E
R
E

G
A
S

 

[crane]

Crane, I see in your sig that you also own a Quad. Is there something that the Quad does well that the Triaxis doesn't? Just curious since I own a Studio Pre.

Strange, I was sure to already have answered this point.... think I forgot to press "submit".
So, the quad has very good cleans, blackface and all. The are more "open" than the TA.
The dirty channels are cool, not as much gain as the TA of course, but like Metallica old school sound, I like it. And the great "+" is that you can use 2 channels at a time, and turn the graphic EQ on-off wih the footswitch.
I have mine for a few month and still haven't got enough time to check every possibilities.

 

[LTE]

Triaxis and 50/50 has been on my GAS list forever

 

[Turumbar82]

I have some serious GAS too but I blame it on fried foods.

And I really want a Triaxis. There was one at the GC when I was living in West Palm Beach and I always plugged into it and it was fantastic sounding. So many variations of clean, crunch, and heavy

 

[MesaGod666]

Just posted some cool pics of my rig in the Rigs and Tones forum...BEWARE: TRIAXIS PORN

 

[masque]

yes the triaixis is extremely versatile. i've had mine for about ten years now and I do all kinds of rock songs.....you can click the links below and you can check out several songs I have recorded where the triaxis was primarily used.


http://www.musicexe.com/sketches/


out of these tunes "my surprise" will show you some clean during the verses, classic rock dirt during the chorus and david gimour cream during the solo.

"driving with my ghost" will show you kind of an andy summers clean but with less effect.

"sinner" will show farily high gain during the chorus and high gain with effects for the solo.

"itchy trigger" is pretty much high gain for the entire song.

the others tunes possess a combination of different sounds.