Tech 21 TriAC

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ohsojayadeva
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Tech 21 TriAC

Post by ohsojayadeva »

So, when my last full time band was playing out a lot, for a multitude of reasons, we elected to switch to Tech 21 sansamps for guitar and bass, and a half digital/half acoustic drum kit. I know it sounds crippling, but it was actually pretty cool. It lowered our on stage footprint significantly, and allowed me to have a lot more control over our live sound; we could pretty much roll up, plug everything in, and if the sound guy left all channels at unity it still pretty much sounded like us. And since Tech 21 have analog signal paths, the sound and response of our rigs was extremely close to using amps. Very easy to play and we fooled our fair share of musicians and non musicians alike with the bare stage. Most people just thought that our amps were behind or under the stage to keep volume down.

Anyone that wants to see what my ampless rig sounded like can check out these mp3s or this youtube video.

My rig revolved around the TriAC, the GT2, and a Boss Line Selector, which basically allowed me to function as if I were playing a 4 channel amp; the GT2 was my "main" distorted rhythm sound, while the TriAC provided clean, crunch, and lead sounds. I also had one of their Para-Driver pedals at the end of the chain, with the preamp turned all the way off, just to be used as an eq to tweak the overall sound from room to room.

When the band split, I flipped the TriAC, but held onto the GT2. I've been back on real amps ever since.

This weekend, I was doing some early spring cleaning and found the GT2. Remember, in my original rig I was using the Sansamps directly into the PA, which is their intended use; they work best through a full range system. I had never tried it strictly as a drive/distortion pedal. It actually sounded pretty good! I had to turn the hi end waaaay down, and use the "off axis" mic setting, which has the least high end, but once I found that combo I was pretty pleased with the results, except for some seriously :omg: feedback. Not the good kind either, the really sad, squeely, annoying kind. :mad: I'm going to try to tweak the settings some more to see if I can get a good sound without the :omg: .

The experience has got me wondering if I should have held onto the TriAC. See, I really liked the lead tone that I had when using that thing. See the youtube video, or the mp3 track "cluster" (which is the same recording) from the links above. So, good people of ILF, have you ever used the TriAC as an overdrive/distortion pedal into an amp? If so, what were your results? I'm wondering if it's worth the cost of picking up a new one. This also kind of renewed my interest in checking out the Double Drive 3x, so please share what you think about that as well! :thumb:
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