angelspade
RT Kimg
My understanding is that James is fairly adamant about playing through his personal amps (Mesa, Mod Marshall, Diezel and Wizard) when recording.
Techdeth
RESIDENT ROCK PROFESSOR
James did mostly use his amps . Especially the triaxis then , but sometimes bob got him to blend some other things . But for most triaxis was king on load with his 2C++
RaceU4her
Well-known member
I used to want a triaxis so bad when I was a kid, now there’s barely any talk of them anywhere. I might have to grab one at some point just cause
angelspade
RT Kimg
Always wanted to try one as well.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Triaxis is not a power amp; it's a preamp only and has no power amp section.
I believe for awhile some of their racks had more than one of these.
Pretty sure they were using Mesa power amps too - this might have led to comments being misinterpreted...
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Triaxis is an amazing animal. And the eight modes change more than just the EQ between the tube stages.
It uses relays to rearrange sections of the circuit into different preamps.
Some modes have the tone stack after tube gain, others have it in front.
I'm pretty sure the Recto board's Mids control is actually at a different place in the circuit than the Bass & Treble controls.
One weird thing that takes getting used to is that the Presence control in a Tri is dynamically responsive.
Sounds great, right? But it can be very counterintuitive since doesn't behave at all like the Presence knob in amps.
Setting the Presence higher makes it darker to begin with, and then it gets brighter the harder you play.
Turning the Presence low actually makes the tone brighter except when you pick harder.
I think this caused many who tried one out back in the day to decide it's freaky and hard to control.
Still, it's very handy once you get the hang of it.
IMO Mesa shouldn't have called this a Presence control in the first place. It's too different.
They should've labeled it 'Dynamic Voice,' and labeled the graphic-presets control what it is, EQ.
There is one hardware weakness in these, too: the front panel membrane controls have been known to wear out on some units.
But it's been the heart of my tone for four decades, and the only annoying issue I had was a persistent ticking sound.
Turned out that was caused by having a WiFi router too close to it.
I've got some basic pedalboard-&-amp rigs too, originally for pickup gigs, the odd jam, or sessions where I wouldn't be using the rack.
More recently I've been going old school; haven't actually gigged the rack rig in several years now.
I still love the Triaxis, of course.
But these days I mostly use one of the pedalboards into my Friedman (or sometimes into a blackface Fender, depending).
It's an easy - and lightweight - way to go.
Has me doing the pedal dance again, though. And I'm not as light on my feet as I was in the 20th century.
Got spoiled running MIDI presets for all those years...
It uses relays to rearrange sections of the circuit into different preamps.
Some modes have the tone stack after tube gain, others have it in front.
I'm pretty sure the Recto board's Mids control is actually at a different place in the circuit than the Bass & Treble controls.
One weird thing that takes getting used to is that the Presence control in a Tri is dynamically responsive.
Sounds great, right? But it can be very counterintuitive since doesn't behave at all like the Presence knob in amps.
Setting the Presence higher makes it darker to begin with, and then it gets brighter the harder you play.
Turning the Presence low actually makes the tone brighter except when you pick harder.
I think this caused many who tried one out back in the day to decide it's freaky and hard to control.
Still, it's very handy once you get the hang of it.
IMO Mesa shouldn't have called this a Presence control in the first place. It's too different.
They should've labeled it 'Dynamic Voice,' and labeled the graphic-presets control what it is, EQ.
There is one hardware weakness in these, too: the front panel membrane controls have been known to wear out on some units.
But it's been the heart of my tone for four decades, and the only annoying issue I had was a persistent ticking sound.
Turned out that was caused by having a WiFi router too close to it.
I've got some basic pedalboard-&-amp rigs too, originally for pickup gigs, the odd jam, or sessions where I wouldn't be using the rack.
More recently I've been going old school; haven't actually gigged the rack rig in several years now.
I still love the Triaxis, of course.
But these days I mostly use one of the pedalboards into my Friedman (or sometimes into a blackface Fender, depending).
It's an easy - and lightweight - way to go.
Has me doing the pedal dance again, though. And I'm not as light on my feet as I was in the 20th century.
Got spoiled running MIDI presets for all those years...
Motorboat McCooter
Active member
I can picture the early version of 2 x 4 with a working title of 2 x 3 (2C++ by Triaxis)
I can't hear ya Bob, you talking to me?
I can't hear ya, time to meet my load
I can't hear ya, talk to, talk to 2 by 3!
I can't hear ya Bob, you talking to me?
I can't hear ya, time to meet my load
I can't hear ya, talk to, talk to 2 by 3!
Last edited:
Motorboat McCooter
Active member
Probably some big decisions regarding lyrics for the final version.
Ultradeaf
Member
Thank you for correcting me- it's been a while since I have thought about 1990s Metallica tone!
The power amp I meant to note was the Mesa Strategy 500. Paired with other hot preamps; and then the classic Roland Chorus for the cleans. Popular power amp in the late 90s/early 2000s.