[Tymon]

Fractal Audio Axe-FX. Bought it a few months back and love it!

[Zepp88]

I've heard a lot of good things about the Axe-FX, but damn they're expensive.

Is the wait time any better on those?

[-Cetanu-]

Originally Posted by Zepp88

Is the wait time any better on those?

Yeah it's going faster now.

[Ishan]

Any thought on the Rocktron Gainiac 2? My good old Engl e620 just died on me (it was old )

[7 Dying Trees]

Originally Posted by Jerich

Tri axis is Noisy!!!

Yep, it is just about the noisiest thing I've used, and I had to get an ISP decimator to control it (the rack one), but, it is worth it, i love the sound out of it

[7 Dying Trees]

Originally Posted by zimbloth

The Triaxis w/ a 2:90 is my personal favorite. My favorite Mesa ever. It's dead quiet as long as you use a Noise Supressor. Just about all tube amps with a lot of pre-amp gain are noisy without one.

although the 2:90 did colour the triaxis a lot, it's still a good combination.

[The Trooper]

Originally Posted by Zepp88

Bumping this thread for a question about the TriAxis

I've seen mention of a "Phat Mod" TriAxis, as I understand it the mod makes the TriAxis do Recto tones? Is this correct?

I also read that they're getting hard to find...

The "Phat Mod" doesn't affect the entire Triaxis, just Lead 1 RED. The Triaxis has went through a few different versions on Lead 1 RED. It started off on Version 1, which was a "High Gain Brit Mode." After that, it went to Version 2 which was the "Recto" mode. This was mostly akin to the Recto "Vintage" mode and had it's own separate board inside. People complained it didn't quie nail the Recto sound, so Mesa then tweaked it with what is now known as the "Phat Mod."

The Phat Mod only affects Lead 1 RED and it rolled off some of the high end and gave it a little more bass/thickness to try and get it closer to the Recto sound. Hence, the "Verison 2 Phat Mod" was born. The Triaxis with the Phat Mod were around the 5200 - 8280 (-ish) range. However, removing the Phat Mod (and setting it back to original V2 specs) is relatively simple, so when buying...be sure to ask if it has the Phat Mod or not (if you care) since you can't rely on serial number alone. The Recto Mode in general doesn't sound exactly like a Recto. But, if you pair it up with a Mesa 2:90 or 2:100 on the "Modern Voicing," it will get you in the ballpark and about 80% there.

Mesa no longer has the parts to do the Phat Mod, so instead of discontinuing the Triaxis, they now reverted back to a circuit extremely similar to Version 1, the "IIC+ Higher Gain" or "High Gain Brit Mode." There's no official name for the latest version, so call it what you want...Version 2.1, Version 3, etc.

So you basically have 4 different variations of the Triaxis:

Version 1 (w/"High Gain Brit Mode")
Version 2 (w/"Recto Vintage Mode")
Version 2 Phat Mod (w/"Modified Recto Vintage Mode")
Version 2.1 or 3.0 (w/"High Gain Brit Mode" ala V1)

Anyone who tells you one is "better" than another is full of shit... They're just different, and it's all subjective.

[Zepp88]

Thanks a ton for that explanation man!

On my Recto I always use the "Modern" mode I never dug the "Vintage" mode. But from the description I think I'd dig the Version 2 "Phat Mod" more.

[Op3a]

Guys, i recently bought an Marshall 9005 and sell my peavey classic 50/50 . I have a engl e530 for now. There is any preamp that sound better than the engl throught the marshall 9005? My styles are metal (like this - Moonspell, they're portuguese and they're great!) and a little of vai and satch. It have to be low cost like the engl. I was thinking in the MP-1 or the JMP-1 . What you think?

[metalmonster]

MP-1 sounds warmer , lots of gain too , and damn heavy ... ENGL is different

JMP-1 rocks but it gots less gain , less bass and needs a marshall or mesa poweramp to sound good , in a peavey it will sound a bit sterile , afriend of mine tried this and that wasn't really awesome ... on the other hand , in a cranked marshall poweramp it slays . (lots of band use it from deftones to maiden ... you can do a lot of mods on it like replacing OP-amps and some other components to give a better sound)