Triaxis or Mark III blue stripe

Haha!

I am in a dilemma - do I buy a nice Mark III blue stripe combo or a Triaxis? I have a rack with a few preamps - always wanted a Triaxis - but I also enjoy a nice tube amp to use with my pedalboard. What are the pros and cons of each one?

I have a lead on one of each.

Cheers,
Jim

Hi Jim,

How much of a concern is price?
Do you want to play out with it, or just at your house? Do you need the versatility of the TriAxis, or are the shared tone controls on the Mark III enough?
I haven't played a Mark III, but if it sounds like the mark IV and you dont need 3 sounds footswitchable, I would choose the mark III. If you need all kinds of different sounds and aren't scared by the MIDI, the Tri is awesome. It kind of has it's own thing going on, but is squarely in the mark camp.
What kind of power amp would you run the Tri through?

Hi Mate!

Thanks for your quick reply.

I play out quite a lot but have a few amps and a big rack with other preamps. I am a midi guru as well!

The issue is that I have the cash ready to buy one or the other but not both. Can you get a good MkIII type sound from the Triaxis? I like the flexibility of having mor ethan 1 boogie sound in the preamp. The combo may be a little restricted for me.......... Arghhhh!

That's quite a predicament! Likely, no matter which one you buy, you will wonder if the other was better.

Lead 2 red on the TriAxis is supposedly a searing mark III sound. It's probably close. I find lead 2 red to be the most open sounding.

I love my mark IV head. I'm not sure I would feel the same way if it was a combo.

Why can't you use your pedalboard with your preamps?

I had a Mark III and it sounded great but the shared tone controls for me anyway made it so I could only really dial in one channel the way I wanted it. I decided that my quad could do everything my Mark III would and more so I sold the Mark III. I would have kept it just for an extra amp to have around if I had had more space and cash at the time though.

I would go for the triaxis and try to integrate your pedals into your rack gear somehow. If you can get a switcher eventually you could have one super rig with all your preamps.

You can use a pedalboard with a preamp, however you still need a power amp, and with the TriAxis you will likely need a MIDI footswitch as well. But with a TriAxis, you would probably only need a boost, plus modulation and delay. I prefer rackmounted mod and delay though.

Hi again guys,

Yes, I can use my pedalboard with the preamp but I also have a rack shelf with pedals in my rack, which I control with a GCP Pro.

Here is my current rack. The pedals are not cabled in yet.

Beautiful!
I'm almost finished with my rack(s). Just need some cabling and an eventide unit.
Will the TriAxis replace the JMP-1?