T.C. Electronic has uploaded a slew of videos over the last day or so, and they should be keeping me busy with posts throughout the week. I figured I’d start with the big guns though and pass on the links to the gear rundowns of James and Kirk from Metallica.
Two things jumped out at me with James’ setup. First of all: damn, he’s still featuring the Mesa/Boogie Triaxis preamp in his rack? I love Mesas as much as the next guy, but I’ve never gotten one of those units to sound as good as their heads no matter what power amp was involved. I remember he briefly flirted with a Triple Rectifier years ago but I haven’t paid much attention to his setup recently so I guess he’s pretty much stayed true to the Triaxis throughout the years. I admire his dedication. And John Petrucci has also been using the Triaxis again as of late. So maybe there’s some mojo to that unit that I’ve been overlooking. Of course, that’s only half of his distortion tone. He balances it out with a Diezel VH4.
The second point of curiosity for me was that James and Kirk both use G-Major 2 processors, which got me thinking about how the G-Major line used to be T.C. Electronic’s mid-tier guitar processors but as processing power becomes cheaper more pros are choosing them over the very old G-Force units still in production.
I could rant on and on about the rest of their rigs like the Voodoo Lab Ground Control/GCX setups they share, or point out how Kirk has a custom rackmount version of his signature Cry Baby Wah, or even theorize how much James paid for the Klon Centaur that he uses as a lead boost, but why don’t we just get to the videos? And if you want some better pics of their racks, he’s a Mesa/Boogie article that will do the trick.
