Tech21 TRI-AC Preamp stomp box

Discussion in 'Guitar Gear Talk Forum' started by alpha1, May 9, 2006.

  1. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Got this thing box yest.
    Had to stay out yest night, so couldn't mess around much.

    Woke up today and started playing around with it.
    Got late.
    HEH, no regrets though.






    The TRI-AC models three amps of yesteryears that made the rock n roll scene:
    1. Fender Tweed
    2. Marshall Plexi
    3. Mesa/Boogie Mark I or II (Dunno - not heard em that much)


    The pedal has 5 controls:
    1. Drive - controls the gain / overdrive / distortion (call it whatever)
    2. Bass - controls the 125 Hz spectrum
    3. Mids - controls the 500 Hz spectrum
    4. Treble - controls the 3.5 kHz spectrum
    5. Level - controls the output signal level
     
  2. sridhar11_2

    sridhar11_2 Instrumental guitarist

    Dude give a review of the sound. Maybe even a sound clip.
     
  3. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Now for some more personal "feel" realted info:

    1. The EQs are active - and very strong. Tweak them more and the tone gets wrecked.
    2. The Tweed channel is trebly. I guess thats good and expected. It makes great, clear, bright, sparkling tone.
    Slightly overdriven.

    If you raise the gain very high, the overdrive gives way to slight fuzz, which is good in a way. :)

    Think Blues
    Think SRV.

    3. The Mesa/Boogie channel is dark sounding. Less treble, more inherent bass and higher mids. This one makes it perfect for well ..... Mesa/Boogie ofcourse. I was expecting slightly more gain out of this, however, the Tech21 ppl clarified that they have not modelled Moogie Rectifer, its only the ealry Mark series.

    Infact it sounded a bit like AMT Fatal Tube when I scooped the mids suitably. :p:

    Think John Petrucci's old tone
    Think Carlos Santana's tone

    3. Marshall Plexi channel. :nw:
    *drool*
    Need I say more?
    It sounds like the real thing. :rock:
    It sounds bright, trebly, and insanely crunchy.
    The best part is that the drive also controls EQ subtly (supposed to emulate real Plexi).

    Increasing teh gain causes the tone to become thick, decreasing causes thinning of tone.

    Think AC/DC
    Think Van Halen
    Think Jimi Hendrix
    Think Jimmy Page
    Think Lynyrd Skynyrd
    Think Hair Metal
    :)

    By far, my personal Favorite has to be this channel.

    4. All channels are super responisive to pikcing and volume pot on guitar.
    Plexi happens to outshine others though.

    5. All the channels sound fabulous thourghout their drive range. i.e. Keep the drive 0 or full, it will sound nice n cool.

    6. Yet to check the line-in / cabinet emulation of this pedal.
     
  4. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Will record some clips tonight.
    Just promise that you wont pay attention to what I play.
    ;)
     
  5. sridhar11_2

    sridhar11_2 Instrumental guitarist

    Good to hear that you like your pedal.
     
  6. sridhar11_2

    sridhar11_2 Instrumental guitarist

    Everyone seems to be getting new pedals man. First Ronnie, then you, now i'm also gonna get a Marshall Echohead in 2 or 3 weeks.
     
  7. Double Click

    Double Click New Member

    Hmmmmmm, I'm guessin u'r playin it through your MG15.

    Is it as noisy as some of the reviews claimed or is it bearable?

    How's it for those screamin lead sounds...think Gary Moore meets Slash meets Santana..(weird combo I know, but i dont know how else to describe what I have in mind)
     
  8. nebuchadnezzar

    nebuchadnezzar G34r G33k

    :ptime::beer::band:
     
  9. dennis

    dennis The Bhangra King

    excellent buy!!, ab bas thode clip suna de.
     
  10. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Ok check these out (very small files < 1MB)

    I used some presets suggested on the User Manual, and hence the name of the files.
    https://www.sendspace.com/file/vfzt9c - responsiveness to picking

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/2d4vx6 - reponsiveness to volume pot on guitar

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/u1nptc - slight tweaking done to get close to ac/dc - anway its teh gain and dynamics rather than EQ worth a listen

    https://multiterra.mooload.com/file.php?file=files/090506/1147195758/voxy.mp3 - Vox ish sounding tone

    https://www.megaupload.com/?d=0PXF9Y67 - heavy tone on Plexi channel

    https://rapidshare.de/files/20035881/Calif-heavee.mp3.html - super heavy tone on Mesa/Boogie Channel. I wanted to increase the gain further, increase the bass and treble further and scoop the mids further, however teh soundcard started clipping, so had to settle for this one

    All the clips were recorded straight into soundcard of the computer.
    Companding was done to increase the perceived volume. (However I dont think it will lead to any change in tone)
    No other effect was placed.

    No hiss or noise reduction was done on the tracks.

    My apologies for not recording more of Mesa/Boogie and Tweed channels.
    All except super-heavy use Marshal channel.



    This pedal needs heavy + very carefull tweaking.
    The treble is slightly on higher side. Bu I guess that has been inbuilt because of the direct recording feature to compensate for guitar amp micing. (Usually all the guitar amps have scooped mid voicing, with treble boosted)

    Yeah, so comgin back to point: doesn't matter coz it has wonderful EQ. and very powerfull too. I got a good scooped metallic tone by keeping:
    Bass: 1 o clock
    Mids: 10 o clock
    Treble: 2 o clock
    LOL.

    Cons of this pedal are:
    1. The gain is not very high. Twed and Marshall anyway dont need higher than given, but it would've been more versatile had the Mesa/Boogie channel had higher gain than given in the pedal.
    2. The pedal sounds open. Actually I guess this may be a pro/good point, but coming from digital world of Processors, I am more used to super compressed tones.
    LOL
    Openness causes slight mistakes to be highlighted.
    And it also causes your pedal to be super responsive.

    HAHA guess it is more like a double edged sword.



    Anyway am in love with this devil.
     
  11. sridhar11_2

    sridhar11_2 Instrumental guitarist

    Ok i'll be honest with you, the sounds were just ok for me nothing like i was expecting though. This is probably cause you have'nt tweaked the pedal much and cause of the soundcard. Maybe after you play with it for a while you'll get good sounding settings for it.
     
  12. ronnieanand

    ronnieanand n00bier th@n th0u

    Dude,
    It an awesome pedal...EQing it properly will really make it sound awesome. Actually it shows great quality and your poor tweaking shows off here. But I can see a lot of good things hiding. It's an awesome pedal.
     
  13. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    K I will try to tweaking and checking the tone.
    Actually yest I was playing thru large speakers + sub woofer, it sounded pretty OK so i decided to play with suggested presets.

    It does sound little harsh with earphones/headphones.

    Sridhar: I dunno man, even after tweaking etc, the characteristics of pedal will remain the same. ummm ..... what was the expectation?

    I was actually looking for an overdrive that could go from weak (cleanish) to strong (almost like distortion), with programmability like a Rack (3 channels, are here)
     
  14. sridhar11_2

    sridhar11_2 Instrumental guitarist

    I was complaining bout the harshness in the sound. If you put the pedal in front of a real amp you know that the sound is kinda less harsh and more refined but the soundclips i heard were harsh cause of the direst recording thing. I was'nt complaining of the tone though.
    Take any pedal and play it with your comp speakers (except digital processors) and then with an amp and you'll know what i'm talking bout.
     
  15. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Hmmm, K lemme record stuff with less treble too.
    But personally I like to keep treble higher than bass n mids to give more edge to twangy guitar sound.


    But direct recroding wise this thing is miles apart from ax100.
    My ax100 was sounding honky with direct recording as compared to this one.
     
  16. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

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