I had been eyeing this Trident on Reverb for quite some time when I finally decided to take the plunge and made an offer. I’ve really wanted to try a Stiletto but really hated the standard headshell’s reptile-skin look, so this beautiful wine red tolex and weave front grille unit really appealed to me.
Sadly, yet another UPS shipping debacle came about with this amp as it was carelessly dropped from so far that it shattered several of the power tubes and all 3 rectifier tubes, as well as cracking the headshell on the bottom side. Talk about a BIG let down!
Luckily Reverb came in and set things straight with a partial refund to cover the damages, but it’s really a shame UPS isn’t being held more accountable. I know I move a lot of gear around but it’s astounding to me just how much of it is damaged! That said, I would’ve packed this amp a little differently than it arrived - I pack my outgoing gear with the assumption that IT WILL be dropped, instead of hoping it won’t be.
Now the issue is waiting for Mesa to make a new headshell - when I called, they weren’t even taking new orders because they are so behind on custom cabinet orders and materials. For the time being, I’ve clamped and glued the box pretty well and at least made it workable, although I’m not sure I’d trust it out on the road - fine for my studio use though.
As for the tones, it’s quite good as expected, with that core Rectifier type DNA to the tone but with a little more attack in the palm mutes. I haven’t had much time to sit with it since I was basically holding it waiting to see if I’d need to mail it back to Reverb - but now that things are all set straight I’ll get to dive in more soon. A part of me expected to hear some similarities to my Triple Crown but it’s really quite different so far - definitely less “British” than that amp. Of course, I still need to order a lot of tubes - with 6 power tubes and 3 rectifier tubes, it’s going to be a very expensive retube job!