Gearhead's head full of this peace of gear...

Gearhead

Okay so I got the Triaxis.

Yeah 8)

It's fairly easy to get lotsa different sounds out of it. Sounding good. BUT:

Now the whole programming thing starts all over, only squared.... So many presets available on the net to try out, so many switching possibilities with four switched throughputs on the thing, so many tweaks you can do on a given preset, let alone with effects on it, and the combinations with different Studio King settings, and with different guitars, and now also speakers to choose from, WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO? I thought I would feel like a kid in a candy store, but I'm feeling more like the same kid after a mielie eating contest.

So what do you guys do with your GR3/4 or similar? Just try whatever or work in a certain order? What order? Copy some guy's setup and research his settings, or tweak until you get close?

AlanRatcliffe

Congrats!

Scroll through any presets first, see if any stick. Rare, but occasionally you'll find something worth tweaking or really interesting from a "how did they do that?" perspective.

Then start from scratch to build a few basic amp-only sounds that can be used as the basis for more complex patches. Keep it simple at first - all the FX in the world don't mean anything if you don't know how to get good basic sounds out of it.

Then gradually start adding in an effect at a time and learning how to get the best from each before you move on to the next.

Manfred-Klose

Wow congrats.

That is exactly what i felt like when i recieved your mesa pre amp, ok its not that complicated, but it still takes time to get use to what each button does.

Search for patches that you like, try and edit them until you like them even more.
Play around for 2 weeks until you are really comfortable with how the unit works, and then start programming your own sounds from scratch up.

Over excited can sometimes be a bugger............

andrewjbryson

The Generation of the Pre amp boys...

Congrats... apparently the Tri Axis is the best pre amp out there.

Are you planning on eventually adding an effect module (TC electronics / Lexicon) in a rack / flight case?

Or do you already have a designated unit for FX send/return?

I'm planning on going the G-major route.

Gearhead

andrewjbryson wrote: Are you planning on eventually adding an effect module (TC electronics / Lexicon) in a rack / flight case?
Or do you already have a designated unit for FX send/return?

At the moment I'm doing:
guitar - Triaxis - Roland GP8 - Triaxis - Studio King (limited switching)

but I am planning and building for:
guitar - talk box - Triaxis - TCE G-Force - Triaxis - 2x Studio King (midi) with each a different speaker (Jensen/Celestion).
To be finished by mid this year, hopefully.

The thing is that I don't want to buy the G-Force at a relatively high price, the difference between a good deal and a quick deal is roughly two pups. And, I have little hope that the GP8 will fetch what it's worth...

Meanwhile: thanks for the strategy tips. I guess I'll take the GP8 out the loop for a while, until I get to grips with the rest.
On other forums people are emphasizing one should read the Triaxis manual between sessions to build up understanding of what does what. To make life more complicated Mesa have decided to make the effect of each setting different in each mode. And there's eight modes...

Gearhead

Fixed the earth problem in Studio King I and played through the Triaxis for a while.
Lesson 1: presets are almost useless, other people don't have your guitar and they don't have your amp
Lesson 2: will need different preset banks for different guitars
First impression is that the thing wants new tubes. Also think that the complexity is not all that bad. Maybe the frequencies aren't the same between channels, bass still is bass, treble is still treble and you still set them by ear.
Interestingly there is a 'dynamic voice' setting that does exactly what I used to do on the Studio: V equalisation. In the Triaxis you don't have the 5-band eq, they give you a fixed V-pattern that you can make as deep as you want. I still need to figure out the combination with 'presence' but that will come in time.

Gearhead

Lesson 3: If you have two or three channels, you stick with what sounds good / middle of the road because you need it. If you have more than 100, you can indulge in extremes some more, store, come back, tweak etc.: It lets loose the experimenting artist in you. Good stuff ?

Gearhead

Yeeehaaarrrrr, got the G-Force! Now how to get it from Holland to SA... :'(