Tech 21 Tri-A.C.

Update with a heads up for how I stumbled upon great clean Marshall tones whilst sampling some tone caps for me axe with SC's. I settled on a 223J 100V. This cap allowed a useful 7/8 range then would kill volume.
Just before drop out is the sweet spot for excellent clean tone out of
fairly high gain British and California settings. If switched to a clean or bypass setting there's no sound.
The tone pot works like a vintage Tweed tube amps single tone pot.
Turn clockwise and the gain just grinds harder.

B4, I could not get a non-shrill clean tone out of the Brit mode, especially with SC's. Prior to this, decent verge of break-up tones, but I'd bypass for un-colored cleans to hear my gits tone. I couldn't get true cleans. That's history now.
This stands true running through my Fender AmpCan! That's just crazy.
I'm talking rich and full jangle, spank, and grind-age.

Maybe I am experiencing what this unit sounds like through a P.A. or
Power Engine. But I'm getting it via git voiced FDR AmpCan w/6" cone!

What may be unique is I use saturated settings to get crystal clear cleans. This thing is acting like a good tube amp! Less the sustain.

Anyway, my approach for settings now is...OK, good balls-to-the-wall setting and save. Roll back the tone knob for jazz, twang, alternative and blues. You get the idea.

Very simple. Took me a few minutes to get used to the flashing leds (they flash at a varying rate when you turn the nobs from the currently stored value).
I am in no way connect with Tech 21, and I think this is an excellent product.

It comes with 3 decent factory presets - the Tweed and California settings were excellent. I'm not such a fan of the British setting - too toppy, but that's just my taste. The sounds are excellent - I pretty much took the 1st and 3rd factory setting (clean and scooped lead), tweeked them slightly and stored them. The other one I set on California, with a slight overdrive, trying to get the 80's Scofield sound.
The sounds are excellent, but as another reviewer rightly pointed out, it's for plugging into a PA or recording console. It will not sound good with an amp. I had the original "Classic" Sansamp, used it with a (cheap) amp and never got a good sound from it. Then I bought a PA system and used it with that and it sounded great. I use the Tri-A.C. with said P.A.
The driven sounds sound like a hard driven amp, not a fuzz box, which is just what I wanted. Clean up well when the guitar volume is lowered. Excellent dynamic response. No extraneous noise.

I haven't had the Tri A.C. long, but I've had the Classic Sansamp since the early 90's and it still works fine, so I'll rate it based on that.
It certainly looks very sturdy.

Not needed them.

I'm a fusion jazz wannabee, and wanted a clean jazz tone, a thicker sustained tone, and a nasty but natural sounding, overdriven Mesa-Boogie amp sound. The Tri-A.C. performed admirably in all these categories.

It's very easy to use it,you turn right or left the knobs, after you have choosen the preamp you like,till you hear your sound and then you double click and it's saved...

it's not for use infront of the amp,one more time it's not for use infront of the amp ,one more time it's not for use infront of the amp... when i first bought i plugged it in the input of my amp(this is the way i use the classic sansamp that i also own)and the sound was awful. Oh my god i said to myself ''what the ...is this... why did they destroy the sansamp's sound...how can the classic pedal be so great and the triac soundw so awful.''then t used it in the return loop of my amp and what a relief...a great sound came out of it....it's a fanatstic pedal which it should be used only in the return of your amp...i feel pitty for those who didn't try it this way...used it as a distortion pedal... and wrote terrible things about triac. They don't have an idea about how wanderful thiw preamp sounds.if only they could here my samples then they would have hit their heads on a wall because they sold it....
and used it as a distortion pedal...

i have the classic for over 7 years and nothing bad or any malfunction ever happened ,i thing it's the same with the triac

excellent...once i ask them for further information the next day they replied to me ...

i give this preamp a 9!!!!!!!!!!!!! keep up the good work tech21

This is a pretty straight-up piece of gear. One "in" jack and one "out" jack. Three big switches. Some knobs.

Mine didn't come with a manual but I figured out the essentials in sort order. I give this a seven because some useful features aren't labeled on the unit itself. Some examples:
1. If you change a setting, the selected LED will flash. The slower it flashes, the farther it is from the "saved" setting. This is really helpful if you want to know how far you've deviated from what you had before.
2. If you hit one of the foot switches twice while changing settings, the settings will be saved under that switch.
3. If you hit a switch twice while *not* changing settings, you will bypass the effect.

I can't get over what this pedal has done for my franken-strat! It makes me want to play more guitar, which is saying something since I'm primarily a bassist and drummer. I mostly use the TriAC for recording at home. Previously I had two usable sounds: one non-descript clean tone (straight) and one barely-tolerable non-clean tone (using a Rat distortion). Nothing warm. Nothing exciting. Just "eh". I put the SansAmp into the signal chain and WOW! All *sorts* of usable sounds. Now even the most bizarre pickup settings are usable (I added phase flip and series/parallel switches to the strat last year). I LOVE what the bridge pickup sounds like.

Most reviews I've read here say nice things about the clean Tweed setting and the overdriven Cali setting and I concur. I haven't found too much use for the Brit setting yet, but I haven't needed to look that far for tones I like. I find that most sounds tend to be louder than the straight sound, even clean. While there is some noise generated from the distortion sounds, it is at a more-than-acceptable level.

FWIW, I've heard this played side-by-side with a Digitech modeling unit and a real Marshal combo and they all sounded equally good in an echo-y basement. A guitarist friend, who plays considerably better than yours truly, plugged in to my Tri AC and was blown away. He *almost* regretted getting the modeler he purchased because he felt mine sounded a little more "real".

This thing has the hallmarks of good quality: Robust jacks, heavey-duty foot switches, and thick metal chassis. I don't worry when tossing this into a gig bag.

No need thus far.

I got this particular model to fill two needs:
1. Recording at home. I am overjoyed. Everything from fat cleans, to overdriven rhythms, to sweet leads. Makes me sound good, even if I'm not especially.
2. As an amp substitute for jamming. The tri ac shines at this because it sounds really good and has three easily-customizable sounds at your disposal. Three tone settings is all you need live. Really.

There are a few features missing on this unit, namely the on/off axis and the "mod" switches. After trying the SansAmp GT2 in the store (which has these features), I decided that they weren't essential and went with the Tri AC. Live you probably wouldn't notice them and for recording you can compensate with EQ.

If you want spaceship sounds, or even chorus and reverbs, you might consider some of the modeling units out there that will run you $30 to $50 more. I wasn't too concerned about that since I typically add effects later in the recording process.

Easy to use but you do have to tailor the sounds to mach your guitar.

Very Very Good!

Tried with Power Engine 60 - Excellent

also

>>> Mackie Onyx Satellite >>> Logic Audio >>>> Yamaha MSP speakers.... fantastic sound.

Been playing 30 years and have owned all the amps that this box emulates. I've also owned POPOD, ZOOM, Roland and got rid of them all.

THIS IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED IN THE FRONT END OF A STANDARD GUITAR COMBO. There are people giving this low ratings because they do not understand that this is a pre-amp. Run a good pre-amp through the input of a toppy guitar amp and it will sound s**t.

A BRILLIANT recording tool and all amp sounds sound good with tweaking. Add reverb, delay and FX and you will not turn this baby off!

I'm giving it a full 10 as opposed to 9 because of those who have given it low ratings because they don't understand this unit is a preamp not a distortion pedal.

Had for 4 years... rock solid. Super long battery life.

Very good, I lost manual and got PDF very quick.

Better pre than POD, Zoom, Boss, Roland.

Piece-O-cake to use, but good sound? hmmm Okay sound yes.

I do not have the manual. No response from Tech 21. doh

BTW, I'll abstain from ratings as it's new to me and I only have tried it thru. the front of my current available SS amp..

1st things 1st, I run thru an old SS Peavey Pacer. My tubers('56 Deluxe Tweed Clone, '62 Ampeg Reverberocket) are too loud for Apt., besides repairs are needed. I planned to get a full-range 12" speaker. The axes have P-90's, overwound and underwound, which typically make anything sound its best.

I've flatened the amps EQ and have tweaked away, but all I've gotten are livable clean Tweed, clean Boogie and dist. Boogie. The Marshall is at it's best with EQ maxed, if not maxed, bad shyte pops out in certain frequencies. The Marshall does not find a home on any channel as yet. From what I read, I was certain the Boogie wouldn't.

I got it used and it seems healthy.

2 weeks, no response per my Manual request via email.

I noodle mostly with blues or rock. Goin' on 3 decades of playing. I hate tone loss from effects, so I just use a little. No, I wouldn't buy again. So far, it's toy like. Maybe it would be better if I buy a BBE Sonic pedal or a this and a that?

I am tortured a bit by tone. I tweak and tweak and try to make the best of what I gotts. Previously, J-Station thru. tubes and Zoom thru. RealTube Tube Works pedal into SS amp. seemed to offer more natural dynamics. Going thru. the RealTube using a low-gain tube didn't help this unit.
So, can't find natural tones or dynamics. Wait... nope, just checked again. Actually, I just bypassed and adjusted amp settings to normal and presto, natural, clear dynamics. Just no classic amp tones.

Looks like a sick little micro wattage pure tube circuit is in my future.

This is a follow-up of my previous review. I'm on my second tri-ac and while I've contemplated selling it a couple of times, I always find something useful for it. Here's a few thoughts since my last review...

Try it with a speaker simulation for direct recording or direct-to-PA use. It fizzes like a direct box until you do that. Even the Behringer Ultra-G is an interesting mate, as is a POD with the amp models disabled. I don't care what "they" say- it needs something to tame the fizz. You can pick out the fizz in the demo recordings on their site.

While it seems to have plenty of high end, it doesn't have the same presence or clarity in the high end that a real tube amp has. Heck, some real tube amps don't have it but the good ones do. This may sound like I'm in conflict with myself on the fizz issue, but its not the same thing.

It works great for bass! Great direct bass tracks!

It works great as a backup for your amp at a show.

It works lousy as a distortion pedal in front of an amp. Try it in the effects loop instead.

Built to last. The switch mechanism is very rugged in design. You can't stomp this hard enough to break the switch- it is physically impossible. You'd have to crush the rugged metal box to break the electronic portion of the switch. Brilliant solution and they claim it is properly buffered to prevent loading or other unpleasant tonal issues.

And oh yeah, I'm not selling it. I'm keeping it. Did I mention "Try a speaker sim?"

Very easy to use.

Well, this must be my third review of Tri AC and it's getting better all the time. I have had time to compare this to digital and other analog devices and there's just nothing that comes even close. I've tried Hughes & Kettner Tubeman, Yamaha DG-Stomp etc. but Tri AC is still the winner. And that is mostly because of the super good British channel. Overdrive sound or distortion sound, it's always the British channel. I recently found out that the California channel though not very good for distortion makes an incredibly good clean sound. Far better, in my opinion, than the Tweed channel. During recordings I use all the channels, but live I now only use the British channel (od and dist) and the California channel (clean).

Yes, I would use this without backup. I play this through a tube amp, but the Tri AC is also my backup. If something happens to my amp, I just play throug the PA system.

I think this is as close to perfect as it gets. There is something about the British channel sound that I can't explain. It's so good I could play for hours and it would still sound excellent. I don't know if it's really that much like Marshall sound, but it's an outstanding sound and very much rock'n roll!

I give this an 8 because it's a thinking musicians pedal. "Well I jsut wanna rock!" OK, well the manual is only like 6 pages, read it and you'll know how to twaek this thing till infinity. Still very intuative. Double clicking to save settings is so ingenious.

I may write a proper review later but I just wanted to respond to some comments about the amp modeling:

"You cannot get metal tone out of it simply because none of those amps are meant for metal tones."

Really? Mesas and Marshalls aren't meant for metal?
There were also several reviews suggesting this pedal doesn't have enough gain...?! Well what kind of pickups are you using? I use this pedal mainly *for* it's metal capabilities ( I bypass it for my amp's clean sound, which I could never get sick of.. Sovtek mig 50). I have a Samick PRS rip-off with an EMG 85/81 set and it's got gain to spare. In fact I use it to record direct and have no problem saturating the tape with a high level. Also, a lot of metal players choose something based on a practice volume level... well, fizzy and super saturated isn't going to work well in a big room with a full band(metal zone.. ugh). But for recording this thing can DUMP so much distortion, especially on bass that it sounds terrifying!

Ok, maybe the Tweed amp won't break up as much as you need, but both British and Cali can be pushed way over the top... in fact, sometimes I gotta remember to roll off a tad bit of gain and just tweak the mids to get more 'edge'.

A friend of mine borrowed it for awhile but refused to read the manual. He plays different stuff than me: indie-rock, blues rock, lead stuff like Dinosaur Jr. and he complained it sounded artificial. Well, when it says "set your amp flat and no brite switch" they mean this! Like any tool/pedal/gear it will sound awfull you don't use it as intended! That being said, if you know how to use it, THEN you can abuse it. :) I have used this pedal to get crushing sounds out of keyboards, and on vocal tracks(hint: double track a screamy part and then run one tack thru the Cali channel with lots of gain).

Anyhow I can't say enough about this pedal. I really don't like to endorse stuff because obviouslly everyone has a different sound they are going for, but I was always unhappy with the Boss/Digitech/DOD sounds... this was super affordable for something that sounds boutique but is programable and super flexible. If you own this pedal and are a little unhappy with the sounds just keep toying with it.. it took me about 6 months to find the sweet spots but now I use it on EVERYTHING and for so many things it's not made for.. I've yet to run drums thru it mixing but I bet that would crush too.

Some mp3's featuring it: www.myspace.com/sentinelgrind

Hope this review helps!:)

Built like a tank. Switches are sturdy but I can even switch em easy by hand(for mixing). True bypass or not (I dunno) no unwanted signal gets thru for me.

dead easy to use...3 footswitch, 5 knob, no manual necessary.

it's supposed to simulate fender tweed, marshall and boogie sound. close enough, but a little muddy, and compare to sansamp gt2 it seems lack of gain. maybe an overdrive in front of it help a little to achieve heavier sound.

solidly built

this is a versatile pedal... we can use it as a stompbox distortion or use it as a preamp.