This is another amp I occasionally look for because I suspect it would be an amazing bang for the buck snag, especially with the current Mk 3 Triamp retailing for a whopping $4400. In contrast, Mk 2’s are hovering in the $1300 range and this old Mk 1 only ran me about $650. In particular I was waiting to find one that had either the original footswitch or the MSM-1 Midi controller installed - well I really lucked out because this particular one came with both!
It’s in pretty good condition all around, and it is a very heavy amp with a lot of tubes. These were available with either a quad EL34 or quad 6L6 power section - mine has EL34’s. The preamp contains 8x 12AX7 tubes, plus another 12AX7 phase inverter - so 13 tubes total. The only amp with more that I own are Mesa Triple Rectifiers, with 14 total tubes, though there’s a lot more in the power section there. Interestingly, the Fender Super-Sonic 100 also has 13 total tubes.
The previous owner did replace the back panel with a nicely cut piece of wood, which has the reverb tank attached to the back - this is normal for Mk1 Triamps, though the original back plate would’ve been a metal grate. I’ve never seen another amp mount the reverb tank this way, and the RCA cables go directly into the rear panel of the amp, where a master reverb control sits. I found the reverb to sound very good, although this is an aftermarket tank so I can’t comment on the factory configuration - but usually a bad reverb has to do with the circuit more than the type of tank itself in my experience. The drawback is that with a single mix control, it’s difficult to dial in reverb to your liking for cleans or light crunch tones without ending up with too much on your higher gain tones.
This is effectively a six channel amp as well, so it does make a few sacrifices in getting you there. These channels are separated into 3 “Amps,” where they have separate gain controls but shared EQ and master volume controls. I was pleasantly surprised at how closely matched the volume levels were between channels, but there are some issues especially on “Amp 1,” which is the cleaner side of things.
Amp 1’s two channels, A and B, are voiced noticeably apart. “A” is much brighter and spankier, but gets a very nice dirty tone with the gain turned up too. The drawback is that “B” is a bit darker and fuller sounding, so that shared master volume can be a problem here if you prefer two gain extremes - for example, using B as a crunch tone with the gain up and A for a very clean sound is not really workable in a live situation. With the controls near noon, they are closely volume matched though.
Amp 2’s channels follow the same basic voicing - “A” is brighter while “B” is darker and fuller. Both have similar amounts of overdrive available, and it seemed like anything but the most extreme settings kept the volume very close between them. This is definitely a British crunch inspired channel and the extra voicing/gain control is great for going from a rhythm or lead sound in that classic rock crunch realm.
Amp 3 changes things up a bit, with “A” being a bit of a “super crunch” channel (I’m hesitant to call it high gain, in the modern sense), while “B” is a much more saturated sounding high gain sound. It’s not really brighter or darker than A - maybe a little more hair on top - but a lot more gain available than A has even with A’s gain maxed out (which is still very tight feeling, impressive). Amp 3B definitely scratches my itch for instant gratification, it sounds and feels great to play, is voiced in a way that sounds great through both my V30’s and G12T75’s even with the EQ controls at noon, and gets saturated enough for classic metal tones and other heavier styles. It does not get nearly as saturated as many modern high gainers - this is no Diezel Herbert or Peavey 5150 kind of sound, it is much more polite than that. It also keeps it together a bit more, with less lows and extreme highs compared to something like a Rectifier or V-EQ’d Mark. I’d put it squarely in the more classic high gain territory and I’d prefer to use a boost on either A or B mode if I needed a more modern heavy sound. That doesn’t make it any less great sounding for what it does.
Here is the factory 7-button footswitch, which allows switching of any of the 3 “amps” and their A/B modes on the fly. The last button is for the effects loop, and this does not affect the Reverb - too bad. I figure they may as well have just done 8 switches so I could turn the Reverb off, and that single knob is a big limitation as I mentioned before. I haven’t used the MSM-1 yet, but I do wonder if the Reverb can be turned on/off via MIDI, which might solve the issue.
Interestingly, the Triamp Mk2 gives up its Reverb completely, so I figure others had the same complaints that I do about it. Personally I’d rather have the Reverb than not though, so while I haven’t played a Mk2, I’m very happy to have this Mk1. From what I’ve read, the Mk2’s main changes are related to the balance between Amp 1 A/B and Amp 2 A mode, so I wonder if that amp fixes my complaints about the volume differences when playing Amp 1 dirty. The Triamp Mk3 version solves that issue entirely by being a true 6-channel amp, where all channels/modes have separate gain, volume, and EQ controls, plus a noise gate. Apparently the Mk1 is more reliable as well, but that’s all hearsay - and judging by the very complicated looking internals of this amp, I’m sure it’d be a complicated amp to fix if something did go wrong.
Tangentially, these original Triamps came paired with a 4x12 cabinet that contained a quad of UK-made Celestion G12M25 Greenback speakers. I actually bought one of these cabinets earlier this month, but sadly the original speakers were all gone and replaced with some generic garbage so I had to return it. I’ve seen a handful of these Greenback equipped 4x12’s floating around in the $400-500 range, which these days is an absolute steal for that set of speakers, if they are still present. Eventually I’ll find one for myself, but I think it’s also worth noting that the original design of this amp was to be used with Greenbacks. I think that says a lot about why it excels so much in some of the more classic crunch and metal sounds. In contrast, the matching cabinet for the Mk2 switched to the more common V30 speaker, and the matching Mk3 cabinet is a H&K made speaker - no more celestions.
Overall, a really great sounding amp with great features.