What the hell is wrong with Mesa Boogie Triaxis?

[JMWS]

Hello!

I´m asking if anyone has had similar problems or has any clue what is causing this particular problem... OK, here we go:

Studioday 1. We mic up a Mesacab with SM7 going through Tube-tech MEC1A with Triaxis / Simul-Class 2:90. We get a killer metalsound! Great, ready to record.

Day 2. The sound has changed littlebit, littlebit highs missing. I´m pissed, ´cause a guitar track wasn´t finished so now the sound is changing in the middle of the song. But not a biggy yet, let´s contiune recordings... (also this day we compared a second triaxis unit with the exact same adjustments, the sound in that one was worse and less level.)

Day 3. The sound has changed a lot. Littlebit nasality and a lot highs missing, little lows missing, kinda middle 1-2k sound. (At this point = blood temperature high). We change the tubes to a new ones (also the ones we had were almost new), the sound stays the same nasal sound. With bad feelings we contiune the recordings with the new tubes, thinking maybe some EQ will save us in the mix.

Day 4. The sound has changed AGAIN, even worse. Now we compared the sound to the first days sound and the difference was night and day. First days sound "balsy/healthy with mojo", fourth days sound a 1-2k nasal sound with no higs or balsy lows and also less level. This pretty much ruined our sessions, thanks to the professional quality of mesaboogie! dfegad

I know the problem is in Triaxis, ´cause I´ve been battling with this problem a long time (over a year). This is actually my 3rd Triaxis, and this problem has stayed. I know this ´cause I´ve recorded at home with the line out, and sometimes the next day when I contiune the recordings, the sound has changed a little, usually for worse.
Nothing wrong with the Tubetech or SM7. And I think the Simul-Class is fine too. Because of the Triaxis line out I can tell for sure the problem is in Triaxis.
One time my localshop even sent my older (first) Triaxis to the Mesa Boogie factory and they did all their tests and said it was fine. Also mailed them about this, but no answer.

This thing is a mystery, I´ve asked with my localshop and many people, but no one knows what´s causing this. My humble guess is electricity, cause I ve had another problem with the halfmode of Triaxis/Simul-Class that was caused by electricity, but I won´t get into that one now, I just want to solve this and GET MY SOUND BACK! Now we are ordering a Furman power conditioner, so hopefully that one will help, but I wouldn´t bet on it. These are pretty desperate times for my band, cause I really like the sound of this preamp (the first days sound), but what can you do if the sound exists only one day.

Any advice or knowledge about this would be appreciated! Thanks!

[Ziggy!!]

Mesa Boogie has probably the best quality of any production amp company out there... That being said every valve amp requires maintenance otherwise it will turn to ugly.

Do you let your gear warm up before using it? Even the tubetech? The sound will change as it slowly climbs to its correct operating temperature.

Power will definately mess with the sound of guitar amps. A cheap furman won't fix that... you will need something pretty substancial like a high end furman regulated unit or an equi=tech supply. If you are living in an old part of town or are in a large, shared building chances are your main voltage fluctuates day to day if not hour to hour. It happens even in new buildings but old buildings and apartment blocks seem more prone to this problem. If that is the cause, it has absolutely nothing to do with the triaxis' physical condition. If buying a regulated power conditioner solves the problem chances the power is also affecting your other gears performance too.

[Kiwiburger]

Are you sure it's the amp that's changing? Maybe you've rooted your speaker drivers?

[JMWS]

Thanks for the advices!

We have always let the tubes warm up over half and hour to a full hour (Tube-tech too). So it perhaps has to do something with electricity, I´ve just never heard anyone having such problem. We also had ENGL E580 and recorded one song with it (wanted a softer sound for the song). Maybe we should have tried out if the ENGLs sound would have stayed the same the next day...

Anyway what power regulator would you recommend? I was checking this one out:
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw3_furman_...0464d0f4d0f482

I don´t know much about Furmans. I was first checking out the FURMAN POWER FACTOR PRO RACK E and FURMAN PL-8E II. But a regulator would do the trick? The voltage would stay the same? Can you adjust the voltage? I mean if we want more volts for the GOOD SOUND.

[WEAPON_X]

really, check that you feed controlled and stable power current to the equipment, this is so much a difference that when you fist fire up your regulated rigs up you wont believe how much difference there is.

secondly, mesa is top notch and reliable. i highly doubt that the mesa rig is doing it, unless you have a defective unit. did you check the batteries inside that power the permanent preset storings? when this is low, the seems to be some strange things but this is common to all devices with internal storing.

[tmarra]

The Triaxis is one complicated preamp. Not to mention all the other stuff in your chain. I'd try to start MINIMIZING the chain to see what is changing and what is staying constant. There are probably 100 different things that could cause that problem giving what your telling us.

-Tony

[Matej]

If it's older unit you might need to change the tubes. Funky tubes can cause all sorts of audio deviations. It's a kickass preamp, I'd love to have one in my studio!

[Peter M]

Hi, I realise that this is an old poster but did you ever work out why the Triaxis sounds so nasal?
I've just bought an older unit which I re-tubed with JJs and run through a VHT classic power amp into a tweed 1960a cabinet. I've tried the Hetfield presets, reinstalled factory pres, and tweaked away for a week but I think that my JMP1 and Engl530 sound better. The Triaxis sounds muddy and nasal and without body. The overdrive is fairly harsh too. The cleans sound good, the lead one circuit fairly useless, Lead two is o.k. but pretty hard on the ears. I was hoping for nice harmonic content and Boogie style punch, but I 'm not finding it at the moment. Sounds like you've been there before. Did you find the answer?
Thanks,
Peter

[Soundsgoodtome]

I also get a changing sound and I always reamp the entire song for that reason,also sometimes the mic gets moved by accident.But I can't say for sure the sound is worse or better just different.I tought this was normal with lamps but now I'm concerned about power fluctuations...
I've also freshly re-lamped my tri-axis with JJ's.According to my repare guy,I have a very good sounding tri-axis compared to some he repared before plus my 50\50 is supposedly the best one mesaboogie did(second issue I beleive).
I've been trying to re-amped my amp for 12 hours before I get something 'usable' but not satisfying to my taste.I just abandonned and decided to fix it in the mix,will had a lot of guitar rig!
It really helped the sound when I cranked the poweramp to maximum power!(noob mistake I guess)!!
The chain goes:Steinberg MR816x-reamped track(J48\x-amp)-triaxis-50\50-rectifier cab and SM57 plugued into a solo610 and into a Mofet76 compressor(-3db+fast attack and release).I find it very hard to find a good extremely heavy sound.Often,I open my booth's door to ear the sounds wich is amazing,sounds very good but mic placement is killing the sound somehow.I'm planning on trying(buying)with md421 or Royer...The md421 I tried before,rented it for a weekend but I miked a Mark4 plugued into a homemade Krank cab.Both me and my friend immediatly liked the sound it gave us by just throwing the mic in front of the speaker and in a poor sounding room.Maybe we got lucky,but I know from some sound ingeneer that the mark4 is also hard to set for recording...just a tought.
SM7 wich I tried briefly and it seemed pretty much the same problem than the 57 so I said might as well go for a classic.
These are my very first tests I have a lot to learn but still I figured it would be easier.
Alternatively,finding a awsome lead sound is easy as 1-2-3.Almost every preset or homemade sounds are just amazing!
A suggestion that comes back often for this kind of high gain pre-amp is adding a disto pedal to it.I know Chris Donaldson(Cryptopsy) is doing it on his triaxis.It supposedly helps modulate the sounds,also I figure a very good EQ could be usefull...
Always seemed like cheating to me though adding an EQ or pedal,never tried it...but there's no rules...it's on my agenda now.

[aclarson]

I have a Triaxis/ Mesa 50/50 rig ran into custom modded Marshall cab (sounds way better than stock). I have a custom matched set of JJ ECC83 preamp tubes (from Eurotubes) in the Triaxis and the same with the pre and power tubes in the 50/50. My main guitar is a PRS CE22, mostly standard and drop D tuning, if that matters.

My rig is very consistent, and I think my tone slays. I've heard it next to Marshall TSL, Dual Rec, Orange, 5150, and a few others, and I still like mine the best. If something is changing that much, it is likely due to some sort of problem. I'd be inclined to think there's a cabling or tube issue somewhere since they're the most vulnerable components. A crappy line voltage certainly has the potential to make it suck as well, you may want to invest in an UPS/line conditioner type thing.

But as far as tweaking sounds...

If you've thoroughly digested the Triaxis manual, you'll know that it has a wider range or control than your average preamp. Because of this, it's very easy to dial in a BAD sound with it. The gain control is critical, and I tend to keep it about 6 most of the time. As they explain in the manual, this is usually a fixed resistor in most pres, so it gives you all sorts of ways to shoot yourself in the foot.

The tone controls (treb/mid/bass) have different functions on different modes, so make sure your operating in the ideal zone for a given mode, the manual is very detailed about this, lots of ways to bad here as well.

I personally think the presence and dynamic voice controls are to be used in EXTREME moderation, I actually somewhat disagree with the manual on the best use of these. I usually have presence at a max of 1 or 2 on anything. DV I don't really care for much, it's at '0' on my high-gain tones, though I've played with the lower settings on some clean tones. Read the full descriptions of these in the manual as well, it's very thorough in explaining the operation and what it's doing to the sound.

If you're very accustomed to a specific Marshall tone from the JMP1, you may not be able to duplicate it exactly on the Triaxis. But the Lead 1 Red mode (based on Dual Rec Vintage Orange channel) is definitely in the ballpark. I used to own a Marshall TSL60 head, and the Lead 1 Red mode satisfied that tone for me very well.

Given the range of tones available, it naturally takes a long time to tweak it just right.

For the guy who's reamping, what DI/pre and reamp box did you use? I've used my Radial ProDI and ProRMP, and it's ok, but now I'm thinking of just trying to do it old-school again; I think I'm taking too big of a tone hit. I wanna try it with a couple active boxes to see if I can live with it.

[Soundsgoodtome]

(J48\x-amp)-

That would be Radial.
I tried a hundred of presets from tony's page plus a good 20 tweaked sounds from me.Moved the mic 40+ different spot:dead center,off axis,on the side,10 inchs away,close to the grill,etc.
Like I said,I had amazing sounds coming from the amp but did'nt like my recorded sound.Maybe I'm just trying to have'the BIG sound'with just one take...
I also have JJ's in pre and poweramp.
I tried to plug the SM57 straight in the soundcard,it was obvious that the sound was way better into the solo610+Mofet76!!

What mic and preamp are you using Aclarson?