Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I thought I'd make a small post about this because I haven't seen much discussed on these boards about this little foot pedal.

I had wanted one ever since seeing Andy Timmons' YouTube video about it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiW22O914Cg).

So, I went out and bought one last week and I have to say it's absolutely incredible. I am using it with a Mesa Boogie Triaxix and 2:90 power amp.

I have always loved the Mesa Boogie tones, but Mesa amps just don't seem to have the sustain that some other amps have. The BB Preamp has all the sustain I could ever want. It's tight, controlled, fluid... Great stuff.

Anyway - if anyone has been wondering whether these pedals were worth a damn, I'd say absolutely. I am hoping to put up some audio in a couple weeks. But really, the Timmons video does it justice.

I have always loved the Mesa Boogie tones, but Mesa amps just don't seem to have the sustain that some other amps have. The BB Preamp has all the sustain I could ever want. It's tight, controlled, fluid... Great stuff.

CF, Mesas are capable of having great sustain. But what you generally don't find is that they're not as "tight" as a lot of other amps. Most I've run across have a sense of drag with a deep rich tone. But they do have enough gain to sustain into next year.

The best way to get sustain out of a Mesa is by using carefully selected NOS 12ax7s. Mesas are some of the most transparent and heavily effected amps to tube changes. It can be a costly thing for a Triaxis though. You actually most likely saved a bundle by getting a pedal in this case.

If you ever want any info on NOS tubes let me know. Possibly before your next tube change is in order. I'm very well versed in preamp tubes, and the Traixis is an amp that I would consider to be one of the best amps ever made. It's very hard to beat a Traxis loaded with NOS tubes.

I replaced my Triaxis tubes last year. I did a hoard of research beforehand. There were some pretty useful sites, like TubeFreak's Triaxis page (http://www.tubefreak.com/triaxis.htm). I'm no tube expert, by any stretch - pretty ignorant really - but I feel pretty good about how it all worked out. I liked the way my amp sounded after replacing the tubes (gotta do the 2:90 power amp someday, but that's going to involve biasing, and I think I'll leave that to a professional tech).

The Triaxis (as you know) has the eight separate modes, and depending on which mode you're using, certain tube(s) dominates the tone. I play mostly three of the eight channels (Rhythm Green, Lead 1 Green, Lead 1 Red, occasionally I hit Lead 2 Yellow for a lead tone). So I focused on getting the right tubes for those modes since I use them the most. I was particularly focused on the V2 tube, since it's the gain for Lead 1.

I'd have to look at the tube boxes to see what I ended up buying (I did save them, though). I bought five different tubes based on a lot of user reviews and people's suggestions (mostly folks who actually had a Triaxis as well).

I replaced the tubes one by one to hear the differences in the tone. I was pleasantly surprised every step of the way. The tube I ended up getting for the V2 was the one I researched the most and I really like the tone. As far as sustain goes - I get about the same sustain I got before I put the new tubes in; maybe a bit more, but it's not monster sustain by any means.

For leads, I tend use Lead 1 Red and put the gain at 10 and the drive around 4.0 or 4.5, with a pretty high Dynamic Voice setting as well. And I get what I would consider average to sub-par sustain. A couple seconds and then it decays rapidly.

That might have something to do with the levels I play at though; typically bedroom level for practice sessions. I don't crank my 2:90 very often. I just recently bought a 4x12 Mesa cab and that seemed to make some difference in the sustain, because I was able to crank the 2:90 a lot more and push it like it should be played. But it was still nothing compared to the BB Preamp. That thing is the bomb.

Yea, you know I used to be kind of an advocate against using Dist. pedals, but I'm using Fenders now, and the dist channels really arent that great. So I bought a Tech-21 Tri-OD, and I know what you mean. It's all I use for my dist leads now. I learned a great lesson myself in that tubes don't solve every problem. There's only so far it goes with Fender Amps.

I had a Mesa DR that I had to sell last year to save my house. And I could literally manipulate that amp to do anything I wanted it to. Even put it to the test against VHT, Soldano, and Rivera, and it killed.. But one day I re-tubed a Triaxis in a recording studio and it ate my DR for lunch. So I do know what they are capable of. Same exact setup you have with a 2:90.

I remember it being an extremely complicated venture though with the way a Triaxis is designed. I felt like a damn rocket scientist choosing the tubes to use for each slot. I wish I'd written down what finally ended up being used. But I think If I saw a schematic of the preamp and the tube functions again, I'd remember.

In case you didn't know, I'm one of the top preamp tube advisors on the Mesa Boogie Board. I have a pretty good reputation over there. I used to sell them to people on there and on ebay as well. But after this whole economy crash, I had to give it up. I had to sell most of my tubes and not re-stock. And sell my Mesa as well. I needed the money.

Anyway.. I'd definitely be interested in knowing what you ended up using for your Triaxis. Fill me in.

A couple of my old tube packages I used to sell:

Classic Rock Package


Metal Package


My old Mesa *RIP*

I can also vouch for the BB - I run it through a Mesa Boogie Lonestar - Instant Andy Timmons Lead sound! I have also been amazed at how quiet it is too. Another fave OD pedal of mine is the Blackstar HT Dual - going into the clean channel, you can make some convincing Marshall sounds too. The big advantage of using this with the Mesa is using the lead volume boost - so with the BB and the Blackstar and the Mesa I have a huge range of clean and overdriven sounds