Tech 21 Tri-O.D. Overdrive Pedal

I tried this pedal out in the shop through the Tech 21 Trademark 60. I found it relatively easy to get great sounding tones. It has three different overdrive modes, each with its own level and gain controls, and can be turned off individually. It has a speaker simulation that is perpetually on so that the pedal can be plugged straight into a mixing desk. However, as the two master tone controls are interactive, more time is needed to dial in the desired tone. Don't really need the manual.

My set-up: Various guitars -> Jim Dunlop 535 Wah -> Ibanez TS9 -> Tri-OD -> Boss EQ -> Volume pedal -> Boss Octave -> Zoom RFX 300 (for simple modulation, delay or reverb) -> power amp stage of a Fender Princeton. Sound-wise, this is a nice OD pedal to include in a portable rig. It supposedly emulates the tube amp sounds of a Fender (Tweed), a Marshall (British) and a Mesa (California). This pedal provides three different tones, while not falling into the "modelling" category, which seems to be the rage these past few years. Haven't tried this pedal with single coils, but with PAFs, this pedal produces very warm sustaining sounds in all three modes. Raising both tone controls while using the California channel gives a powerful thumping scooped death metal tone. Using the Marshall channel, I can get a Van Halen sound (5150 album) quite easily. The Fender channel is a simple clean channel, it does not quite have the crispness of a real Fender tube amp. Maybe with single coils it might.

Noise-wise, this pedal is relatively quiet unless you are playing through the Mesa channel near a CRT, which may be a problem if you are recording using a personal computer.

Haven't had any problems with it todate. Looks rugged enough.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Other than the TriOD, I also sometimes get my overdrive tones for blues and rock from my Boss GX700 rackmount, a cheap Zoom GM200 guitar amp modeller (which I must say sounds better than the amp simulation in the Boss rackmount), a Digitech RP200 or an array of various stomp boxes (Marshall Guv'nor, Danelectro Daddy-O, Boss DS1 and SD2, etc)

While this is a nice affordable alternative to lugging three amps around, personally I would have liked the following features:
- When one channel is turned off, the pedal switches between the remaining two channels plus a bypass. For example, if the Fender channel is turned off, stepping on the footswitch toggles the pedal from Mesa -> Marshall -> Bypass -> Mesa, etc. I would have preferred it to just toggle between the two remaining channels without going into bypass.
- I would have preferred the Marshall to be between the Fender and the Mesa. This would allow me to go from clean to crunch to hi-gain.
- An additional Mid tone control would have helped to expand the sonic range.
These are minor gripes though.

If it were stolen, I'll probably get another one, or the Sansamp GT2, which has a larger variation of sounds, although lacking the foot-friendly channel switching capability.

Well, the manual does go much deeper about using this pedal, but its very simple and easy to get start. Just be read about the Speaker simulator and how to use it in by pass mode.

Im using a Tagima Telecaster, and a Fender 25w, man, i must say, it really KICK the lamers ass, i mean, man with thr right settings, you cant get a really good sound. I play blues almost, and i can get a sound that, well, i dont have words :P

Simple, ajust the parameters with calm, and explore all the combinations you can do. And to get a really good sound, get a good amp to give bright to this unit sound.

Well, i dont know if i would use it in a gig without backup, i bought this unit used, and until now its working ALMOST perfectly. But sometimes when i press the pedal button, to change patches, it simple dont change. So i have to press it again.

I send a e-mail with some question abou direct recording to Tech 21, the first e-mail they answer in about 4 hours, and the second, well, lets just say im waiting for their answer for 3 days...

Well, for blues and classic rock, i can get all the sound i need. Its a really good pedal, im my opinion, the best overdrive pedal out there. If you wanna play blues, and get that Srv, Buddy guy sound, thats the pedal.

Well... what could you want more? 3 Independent channels with respective Gain and Level controls, so you can adjust a relative volume between channels. An independent Master Section with a Master Volume, Bass and Treble control. The EQ (active) is EXTREMELY efective altough you might not notice that in the first months. I own this unit since the past 4,5 years and I started messing around with the EQ only a couple months ago. I didn't 10-rate the TRI-O.D. simply because it has lots of nuances you'll only be able to get once you know this unit REAL WELL, and of course, experiment a LOT. Two things I would like to see in this unit: a Mid control would be quite usefull (but an external graph-eq would do just fine); the other one would be a balanced out! Like the one you see in the Sansamp BassDriver. That would be cool in a live situation where you could split your signal direct to the PA, and also to a stage amp, for those guitarrists who don't appreciate a live performance without an amp ragging out loud.

Hummm... I think the TRI-O.D. is very sensitive, and it's quality will vary according with the guitar you're using. I have two guitars... a PRS Standard 24, and a Washburn MG821. The way TRI-O.D. interacts with both guitars is amazingly different. I'm able to get much more dinamics and textures with the PRS guitar. And I can't say the Tweed channel is bad, or awful 'cause I don't have a single coil guitar. With humbuckers, it's just a clean sound... you can tweak a little bit but I don't think you'll be surprised. On the other and, Calif and British RULE!!!!! I can tell you that Tech21 is interested in some of my demo-mp3 featuring the pedal, and it's possible they put it on-line in their site to showcase the pedal. In one of the mp3's I recorded in my house, I tried to emulate John Petrucci's crunch, by emulating his sound of the latest album's single "Home". Believe me, it's VERY convicting. I have friends who bet their ass as the "amp" used is a Mesa Boogie. The British channel is maybe my favorite... and one curious thing I've found, is that the British channel is supposed to emulate Marshall's trademark sound, and I don't like Marshall amps at all (in fact, I hate them! LOL).

Do you believe that I performed to a 30.000 audience using:
- A guitar;
- Two cables;
- Tri-O.D.
...Yeeah, it's true! No one complained about the guitar sound ;)

The only time I dealt with them, was when I suggested them to use my mp3-samples to feature the TRI-O.D.
They're fine :)

Well... I play lots of music styles. The TRI-O.D. fits 'em all!
The TRI-O.D. happens to be the best solution for those who can't afford a GOOD AMP (and good amps are always expensive) or don't want to carry them on their backs! And the price? You can't miss this babe.

One note: I found it works at it's best for direct recording.

No bypass mode unless you turn off a channel. Drive and
volume controls per channel. Straightforward.

Sounds like a constipated duck on Prozac. Dull and gutless.
Not enough drive. That's the Tweed channel. The other two sound
the same to me. If you want distorted, unindividualistic scream,
then the British and Calif. channels are for you. I keep this unit
in the back of my closet, not in my gig bag.

Well built.

They have emailed me in response to questions.

This device may good for others, but not me. I prefer TS 9 Tube
Screamers and real Tube Overdrive. This does not sound like a tube
anything. I can hear the chips singing!

Just plug and play! Once you ajust every channel's level and get a uniform volume from one to another, you're on your way. Really easy, but needs a little tweakin'.

I use a Fender Strat Floyd Rose Classic (I changed the pickups to my personnal taste : Seymour Duncans) trough my Wah-Wha, then this unit, (no more EQ) to a TC Electronic Chorus/Flanger, then my delay and volume pedal to my Fender Ultimate Reverb; but I've tested this distortion unit with a couple of other amps (Laney, Peavy, Marshall).
Keep in mind that sound perception is relative.

At first, I didn't find any use for the British channel(Marshall), but I soon realized that it delivers a different sound than the California (Mesa Boogie). The British has more mids to it and gives a crunchier tone (it barks!) if I backoff a little on the drive. At 11 o'clock I find it to be an AC/DC sound.

The Calif is darkier and more suited for heavy distortion. I put the drive around 2 o'clock to get a "Van Halen Me Wise Magic".

As for the Tweed channel, a lot of people wrote that it is too thin but I don't think so. With the drive at 12 o'clock I find it to be perfect for blues rhytm. But I would suggest a tubescreamer to nail the Steevie Ray sound.

I don't need a compressor unit with this thing, has enough sustain goin' on. I also let go of my EQ pedal, the EQ on this one is way enough for me.

Again, those comments are based on my tastes.

Very solid. Don't need to say anything more. I don't think this unit can shit in my hands.
And to make sure, I never plug an AC adapter, this unit is DC powered.
No need for a backup here boys...

Never dealt with them, can't tell you.

Need I say more???!!!?? For the price I paid, man!!!
It worths every penny of the full price.
Of course I would buy another one if it was stolen (cause I'll never loose it for sure!!!)

Very easy to use. Three footswitchable channels and bypass. One: Tweed channel (designed to emulate Fender); two: California (designed to emulate Mesa Boogie); three: British (designed to emulate Marshall). You can turn any or all the channels off. If at least one channel is off, the footswitch goes from to the channels that are on to bypass. If all channels are off, the choices are speaker simulation and bypass. How can you go wrong?

I have two guitars. A super strat type Yamaha Pacifica equipped with two humbuckers and a single coil in the middle and a custom-made semi-hollowbody guitar with two humbuckers. I run through the Tri-O.D. through a Boss chorus pedal straight into the amp. I use whatever amp the club provides.

The Tri-O.D. has never failed to give me a great sound. I play Top 40 music for a living and distortion-wise, this baby nails it all. One minute I'll be playing Carlos Santana, the next I'll be playing EVH. Lauryn Hill one minute, Smashmouth the next. Slash to Eric Johnson. Mariah Carey to...oh, you get the idea. The Tri-O.D. never lets me down.

For my personal enjoyment, I play straight-ahead jazz and jazz fusion. The Tri-OD's got Holdsworth, Henderson, and Eric Johnson tone pegged! And it never mushes out no matter how fast I play (a problem I once head with the Boss HM-2).

One thing I hate about this unit, though --- the Fender channel sucks! Way too tinny and trebly. It has a really weird high-midrange, treble resonant peak on the first string's fifteenth fret. I bought this unit in part to get a consistent clean sound no mater what amp I run through, but soon found that this baby's tweed channel clean tone is pretty much unusable for me. (This channel's pretty good for slightly dirty bluesy soloing. SRV's tone can be approximated here.) Now I just keep that channel turned off all the time.

The California and British channels are simply killer, though. I doubt I'll ever need any other distortion/overdrive generator. I'm way too happy with this one. All the distortion I'll ever need.

This baby's built like a tank. Solid die-cast metal box with a single metal footswitch. I use it without back-up every night.

Never dealt with them.

For a living, I play Top 40, R&B and dance music. For my soul, I play jazz and jazz fusion. If I need a distorted tone, no matter what kind (high gain, low, gain, medium gain, sustainy, screaming, crunchy, thrash-y, metal-ly, bluesy, just a bit of hair ... anything!!! --- and this baby's there for me.

I wish it had a nice, fat, warm round clean tone, though. The Tweed channel is all really trebly highs and boomy lows. Very sucked mids. Sounds slightly compressed, too. If only this unit had a great clean tone, it'd be perfect.

Very easy to use, just turn the knobs until you get the tones you're looking for. But adjusting the knobs to work between each channel will take some tweaking because the Treble and Bass controls are shared between all three channels. Each channel has a Level and Gain control. Adjust those to even each channel (or relative to what they should be to each other) then use the Volume control to adjust the pedal to your other equipment. The single stomp botton takes a little getting used to but not hard to use at all.

I use various guitars (with both HBs and SCs) going into a Fender HRDeville. I pan the sound (going into both inputs of the amp) between this pedal and a Fulldrive Fulldrive II.

It does have some noise when gain is high but not a noisy as other pedals I've used. Each channel sounds like what they're suppose to... the Fender has a good overdrive, duck sound... the Boogie has a great bottom heavy crunch... and the Marshall puts out lots of mids and gain. But I find that the Boogie and Marshall are good for rhythm but not so good for solos. The Fender is the other way around, good for bluesy soloing but not so great for rhythm.

It even sounds good panning. I've tried some Boss distortion pedals and not only does this unit beat them all out (thicker, deeper sounds) but none of the Boss units sounded right when panning.

I haven't had any problems with it. It seems to be built very well. It seems very dependable.

I haven't had to use their customer support yet.

It's a good pedal and if you need a variety of sounds without paying a lot, this is a good unit to have. I think the sound fairly similar to what they're suppose to. But more importantly, they're usable. The one dumb thing about the unit is no bypass (unless you turn a channel off and that channel becomes your bypass) - I set it up to use two channels and bypass. It doesn't take up too much space on the floor, it's designed well in this respect (able to fit all the knobs and button in a small unit). I use it with a battery and it seems to last a long time.

This pedal is EXTREMELY easy to use!

I use mine in my SKB pedalboard with a BOSS Acoustic Simulator, ZOOM Volume pedal, ProCo Vintage Rat, Snarling Dogs Whine-O Wah and ZOOM 1010 (for "delay" effects only). The Tri-OD is my principal distortion effect; the Rat is used only for a little "extra" gain (not volume boost). I run though a Marshall JCM800 typically with one of my Hamers (all have at least a bridge humbucker).
The Tri-OD seems to be relatively quiet.
I run my Marshall clean but, hot (if that makes sense). Although the TWEED channel is my first choice for a clean sound, I bypass the Tri-OD and use the Marshall by itself as my clean tone. Instead, I turn up the gain on TWEED and use it for that "inbetween" distorted sound.
As to the "full fledged distotion", first of all, let me say I think there is a tendancy for there to be basically two camps as far as "crunchy" amps go: Marshall and Boogie. Obviously, I stand in the Marshall camp. I like the CALIF channel on the Tri-OD but I find it redundant if using the BRITISH channel. Therefore, I turn it off and use it as a bypass.
As to the BRITISH channel, it is quite capable of the "over-the-top" hot-wired EVH sound. However, I'm playing material that calls for that type of sound all the time. Therefore, I run the BRITISH channel hot (say like a Joe Perry) but push it "over-the-top" with the Rat only if need be. Accordingly, with this application I end up with 6 rather than 3 levels of distortion.
That said, all 3 of the Tri-OD channels are VERY good sounding. I just happen to choose to use only 2.

Very reliable so far. No complaints!

I've not had need for service, but I have communicated with the Tech 21 about some other topics. I found them very pleasant, jovial folks!! I appreciated their helpfulness and enjoyed their humor.

I use my Tri-OD playing a ridiculously WIDE range of cover material from Classic Rock to Blues to Alternative to God knows what's next. (our web site at http://home.twcny.rr.com/olivertwist/ tells all about what I play). I've been playing over 20 years and a good portion of that in performance situations. Accordingly, I DO use the Tri-OD live and highly recommend it for that application and would definitely purchase it again if need be. I've tried almost every stompbox out there and I feel it is the best product of its kind currently on the market including the other Tech 21 products. I may, however, loose the Rat and buy a Tech 21 Comptortion!
My only criticisim is I would prefer the CALIF gain control to have a little wider range. If it did, I would probably use it...but I DO NOT find this a big issue. I am VERY happy with the sounds I am afforded.

it's very easy to figure out how to use it...even with 3 kinds of drive sound....it has volume, bass treble knobs to control each kind of drive....

it has 3 kinds of drive....tweed for fender type....california for mesa/boogie type....and british for marshall type.....mostly I use tweed and british....suit my playing better....but california is good also....suitable for metal sound....you should add eq pedal for better performance...cause the output is rather weak...but it's not a big deal - really....!!....I've heard that everyone said about MT-2 has the best dist sound.....you should check this baby out....!!! TRI-O.D. is far better for me....!!!

it's made of metal....really tough....!! just like any other pedal...only need 9 volt battery....!!

never deal with it...!!

I mostly play blues and rock...that's why I only use tweed and british style....and it's perfect...!!! only thing that annoying me is...there's a slightly delay when you change the drive type....you'll find it when you notice carefully about it....that's why I give it 9.....but....still the best drive pedal I've eve used...!!! I thnik you should check another Tech 21 (Sans Amp) product...I believe they're great too....!!

This pedal is fairly easy to use, but has the following idiosycracies: 1) The pedal has a total of 5 modes: three amp emulators (Fender, Boogie, Marshall), a speaker emulator, and bypass. A single stomp switch cycles the box through two or three of these modes, depending on how many of the amp emulators you have on. The speaker emulator is unavailable if any of the three amp emulators is on. If all three emulators are on, there is no bypass. Depending on how you want to use the box, this can be either a benefit or a disadvantage.
2) The two tone controls affect all three amp emulators. Because the three channels are voiced fairly differently, this means that you have to set the tone controls for a happy medium and use your pickup selector and guitar tone pots to get a decent sound when switching from one emulator to another. Overall ratio of bass to treble is relatively close for the Fender and Marshall channels, but the Boogie channel has substantially less high end. Therefore, if you dial in a cool tone using your bridge pickup through the Marshall channel, the Boogie channel is not usable. I've settled on having all three amp emulators on: the Fender channel for clean; the Marshall channel for crunch; and the Boogie for lead. This requires setting the Tri-OD's tone pots fairly trebly, using the neck pickup for the Marshall channel, the bridge pickup for the Boogie channel, and both neck and bridge for the Fender channel. Some fooling with the tone pots is also required when switching from one emulator to another.
3) Because you only get one stomp switch, you have to be prepared to do a double stomp when going from Fender to Marshall, Boogie to Fender, or Marshall to Boogie. Turning one of the channels off doesn't reduce the number of stomps needed, because it inserts a bypass mode into the cycle. Personally, I don't find this that bothersome, but it does take some getting used to. Fortunately, the box has LED indicators to show which emulator is on at a given time.

First, let me say that this rating is relative to the real thing: I have a vintage Boogie Mk I and a Vibroverb clone. I do not own a Marshall, but I am fairly familiar with the sound some of the best of them: the JTM 45, Plexi, and small box JMP 50. In a way, it's unfair to compare a $150 stomp box to these amps, but giving this as a point of reference, here goes:
I purchased this box because I started playing with a classic rock group that plays exclusively through its PA. The idea is to dial in everyone's (yes, electro-drummer included) sound beforehand, then adjust the overall volume up or down depending on the size of the venue and how drunk the crowd is. Essentially, I was forced to find a way to go direct into the PA.
I've tried the box with a LP with humbuckers and a Strat with 3 single coil passives. It did not take long to figure out that this box was designed around humbuckers. The Boogie and Marshall emulators are, IMHO, unusable with single coil pickups. This manual says that these two channels sound better with humbuckers, and that is an understatment. Surprisingly, I struggled to get a decent sound out of the Fender emulator with my Strat, too. I finally managed to do so, but only by following the box with some serious EQ. Even then, the only usable sound was the "in-between" two pickup out-of-phase setting on the pick up selector. I had to run a TS-808 in front of the box to get a distorted tone. Fairly major suckage.
In contrast, the box comes alive with humbuckers. All three emulators sound *much* better with humbuckers, even the Fender channel. No weird upper mid-range harshness, so no EQ necessary. Does it sound as good as the real thing? No, but it comes close enough to where the audience isn't going to notice, and for $150, impressive.

I have had no problems with the box yet, but then I've only had it a couple of weeks. It does appear to be a solid little sucker, though, and the pots and switch have a quality feel to them.

I would recommend this box to those willing to play humbuckers exclusively and are barred from using a pro quality amp. I've not tried recording with the Tri-OD yet, but I think it would be pretty good for that, particularly given the hassle it is to grab a real amp's magic on tape or disk.
And there is another reason I'd recommend this box: It's small and can serve as a back-up "amp" in a pinch. I've not yet had an amp go down on me at a gig, but it's been known to happen. Now, if it did I'd just whip out my Tri-OD, plug into the board, and keep on rockin'. Cool.