Disco Cat
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- Dec 16, 2009
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I'm looking for feedback about the state of these two Triaxis.
I got my first Triaxis, a V2 with the phat mod (the phat mod only affects L1R Red, I believe), maybe a year and a half ago. A friend shared their Triaxis presets with me, but they didn't give the same result - my sounds had way more gain. And I had a very hard time dialing in any clean sound with the amp.
I talked to Mesa about it, who had serviced the Triaxis immediately before I bought it from the previous owner, because I thought something was wrong with the amp despite that it was supposed to be in top shape. Based on what I explained, they thought something might have been overlooked when it was serviced. I more recently opened an RMA case with Mesa for that Triaxis, but I didn't end up sending it to Mesa for repair yet. Instead, I decided to wait to get another Triaxis first, and then compare them side-by-side. I have duplicate racks and wanted a backup Triaxis anyway, so getting one and then comparing them before paying a huge amount to ship and have my first Triaxis repaired made sense to me.
I've just gotten another Triaxis, a pre phat mod V2, from somebody who owned two and said their two Triaxis sounded pretty much identical to them. So, this one should be verified to be sounding normal.
Running it side-by-side with my first Triaxis, what I suspected is seemingly confirmed - my first Triaxis has way more gain and volume than the other Triaxis. I'm thinking something might be off with the first Triaxis. And not only does it have more gain and loudness (which could just be from having more gain), but it also sounds fuller, which is actually kinda nice in some settings but bloated in others, and makes getting a nice clean sound difficult.
I tried swapping the tubes between the two Triaxis to see if the difference could be coming from there. But each Triaxis sounded the same as it did before the tube swap.
And, very unfortunately, my second Triaxis, which I've just bought, also has an issue of its own. The treble control doesn't usually work correctly when specifically in Lead 1 Red mode (the recto board). Usually, when powering it up, the treble control does nothing when the preamp is in that mode. Sometimes, after powering the Triaxis up, increasing the treble control in that mode seems to decrease the treble. And, so far just once, after powering up, the treble control behaved normally while in that mode. But since the one time it worked, I've powered-off and powered-on the Triaxis many times, and each time the treble control again didn't work in Lead 1 Red.
The inconsistent and intermittent issue seems to be with only the treble control and only while in Lead 1 Red (which is its own PCB apart from the other modes' circuits).
Here are some videos showing how the first Triaxis compares to the one I just got. The first one, the V2 with phat mod, is the Triaxis on the bottom.
Triaxis with too much gain - clean channel (the bottom Triaxis Lead 1 channel gain is set 0.5 higher than the top Triaxis, but that control is bypassed while the Triaxis is in the Rhythm / clean channel)
https://youtu.be/_uJJ8nWG3HY
Triaxis with too much gain - dist channel
https://youtu.be/KnE__ngDSnE
Matching the two Triaxis in gain, tone, and volume
https://youtu.be/5bzgkOJNYJw
Any idea where the problem lies, if there is one? The Triaxis sound pretty different, in tone shape, gain, and loudness. But with some heavy calibration adjustment, as seen in the third video (look at how differently the gain is set), they can be made to sound very similar.
3rd video settings:
pre phat mod V2 Triaxis:
mode - Lead 2 Red
gain - 7.5
treble - 3.5
mids - 5.5
bass - 4.0
lead 2 drive - 6.5
master - 4.0
presence - 7.5
dynamic voice - 6.0
V2 Triaxis with phat mod:
mode - Lead 2 Red
gain - 4.0
treble - 5.5
mids - 4.5
bass - 4.0
lead 2 drive - 6.5
master - 3.5
presence - 6.5
dynamic voice - 6.0
I got my first Triaxis, a V2 with the phat mod (the phat mod only affects L1R Red, I believe), maybe a year and a half ago. A friend shared their Triaxis presets with me, but they didn't give the same result - my sounds had way more gain. And I had a very hard time dialing in any clean sound with the amp.
I talked to Mesa about it, who had serviced the Triaxis immediately before I bought it from the previous owner, because I thought something was wrong with the amp despite that it was supposed to be in top shape. Based on what I explained, they thought something might have been overlooked when it was serviced. I more recently opened an RMA case with Mesa for that Triaxis, but I didn't end up sending it to Mesa for repair yet. Instead, I decided to wait to get another Triaxis first, and then compare them side-by-side. I have duplicate racks and wanted a backup Triaxis anyway, so getting one and then comparing them before paying a huge amount to ship and have my first Triaxis repaired made sense to me.
I've just gotten another Triaxis, a pre phat mod V2, from somebody who owned two and said their two Triaxis sounded pretty much identical to them. So, this one should be verified to be sounding normal.
Running it side-by-side with my first Triaxis, what I suspected is seemingly confirmed - my first Triaxis has way more gain and volume than the other Triaxis. I'm thinking something might be off with the first Triaxis. And not only does it have more gain and loudness (which could just be from having more gain), but it also sounds fuller, which is actually kinda nice in some settings but bloated in others, and makes getting a nice clean sound difficult.
I tried swapping the tubes between the two Triaxis to see if the difference could be coming from there. But each Triaxis sounded the same as it did before the tube swap.
And, very unfortunately, my second Triaxis, which I've just bought, also has an issue of its own. The treble control doesn't usually work correctly when specifically in Lead 1 Red mode (the recto board). Usually, when powering it up, the treble control does nothing when the preamp is in that mode. Sometimes, after powering the Triaxis up, increasing the treble control in that mode seems to decrease the treble. And, so far just once, after powering up, the treble control behaved normally while in that mode. But since the one time it worked, I've powered-off and powered-on the Triaxis many times, and each time the treble control again didn't work in Lead 1 Red.
The inconsistent and intermittent issue seems to be with only the treble control and only while in Lead 1 Red (which is its own PCB apart from the other modes' circuits).
Here are some videos showing how the first Triaxis compares to the one I just got. The first one, the V2 with phat mod, is the Triaxis on the bottom.
Triaxis with too much gain - clean channel (the bottom Triaxis Lead 1 channel gain is set 0.5 higher than the top Triaxis, but that control is bypassed while the Triaxis is in the Rhythm / clean channel)
https://youtu.be/_uJJ8nWG3HY
Triaxis with too much gain - dist channel
https://youtu.be/KnE__ngDSnE
Matching the two Triaxis in gain, tone, and volume
https://youtu.be/5bzgkOJNYJw
Any idea where the problem lies, if there is one? The Triaxis sound pretty different, in tone shape, gain, and loudness. But with some heavy calibration adjustment, as seen in the third video (look at how differently the gain is set), they can be made to sound very similar.
3rd video settings:
pre phat mod V2 Triaxis:
mode - Lead 2 Red
gain - 7.5
treble - 3.5
mids - 5.5
bass - 4.0
lead 2 drive - 6.5
master - 4.0
presence - 7.5
dynamic voice - 6.0
V2 Triaxis with phat mod:
mode - Lead 2 Red
gain - 4.0
treble - 5.5
mids - 4.5
bass - 4.0
lead 2 drive - 6.5
master - 3.5
presence - 6.5
dynamic voice - 6.0
