Trey Anastasio on stage, 1995, playing the Languedoc hollowbody guitar
Trey Anastasio — 1995 tour  ·  Languedoc hollowbody  ·  Languedoc 2×12 cabinets visible behind
95
Era 03 — Beyond the Boogie

← The Year of 1995 →

The Mesa Boogie Mark III era came to an end. 1995 saw Trey move to a modular preamp/power amp architecture for the first time, adding rotating speaker textures, tremolo, and univibe to a rig that was rapidly maturing into something entirely his own.

Preamp CAE SE 3+ Preamp
Power Amp Groove Tubes Dual 75
Guitar Languedoc MarMar (unchanged)
New This Year MTI Rotophaser · CAE Tremolo · CAE Black Cat Vibe
Guitar Tech Steve Dikun
🌀
Major rig change Trey left behind the Mesa Boogie Mark III — his amp for the entire history of Phish to this point — in favour of a modular preamp/power amp setup. The CAE SE 3+ and Groove Tubes Dual 75 gave him a fundamentally different tonal palette, and three new rack effects expanded his texture options considerably.
01

Amplification

⚡
Preamp New '95
Custom Audio Electronics SE 3+
Three fully independent preamp channels in a single rack unit, each voiced differently in gain structure and frequency response. Powered by seven 12AX7 tubes on DC-regulated heaters through a low-stray-field toroid transformer. An active tube post-EQ section provides up to 17dB of cut or boost in the punch and presence ranges, plus an 8dB output level trim — useful for compensating for the character of the paired power amp. Per-channel Bright switches grow more pronounced at lower gain settings, and all channels respond dynamically to guitar volume and picking attack. Channel 1 is the clean default; channels 2 and 3 are out of phase with each other and cannot be run simultaneously. Designed by Bob Bradshaw's Custom Audio Electronics in North Hollywood, CA — built from the ground up to drive line-level rack gear at +4dB.
Power Amp New '95
Groove Tubes Dual 75
A stereo rack power amp with two fully independent channels, each accepting a selectable power tube type: 6L6 (60W, hard and clean with a smooth breakup), EL34 (65W, compressed and raspy British character), 6550 (70W, tight and powerful, late to overdrive), or KT88 (75W, full-range with a softer, more musical overdrive). The driver/phase inverter tube is also swappable per channel — a 12AT7 for a cleaner, tighter response or a 12AX7 for a fatter, more gain-forward character. Each channel has independent Volume and Presence controls; impedance is selectable at 4, 8, or 16 ohms. Can run in true stereo or mono A/B mode. In Trey's rig, the Dual 75 received the output of the CAE SE 3+ and drove the two Languedoc-built 2×12 cabinets — completing the modular pre/power system that replaced the integrated Mesa Boogie.
Speaker Cabinets ×2 Unchanged
Custom Languedoc 2×12 ×2
Both Languedoc-built plywood cabinets continued in use, both loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s — now driven by the Groove Tubes Dual 75 power amp rather than the Mesa Boogie heads.
Tube selection — confirmed Trey confirmed in Guitar Shop magazine (August 1996) that neither the Groove Tubes Dual 75 nor the CAE SE 3+ preamp ran new production tubes. Tech Steve Dikun sourced old new-in-the-box stock and loaded both units with them. Trey specifically called out old RCA tubes in the CAE 3-channel preamp: "I'm using this Bradshaw, 3-channel preamp now, and even that has old RCA tubes." The Dual 75 was similarly loaded with vintage old-stock tubes collected by Dikun. The precise tube types (6L6, EL34, 6550, KT88) remain unspecified in the article, but the use of NOS RCA stock is confirmed.
Debut uncertainty It is not confirmed whether this new amp configuration debuted at the 5/16/95 Lowell Memorial Auditorium show or at the first show of the Summer 1995 tour on 6/7/95. No photos from either show have ever surfaced, leaving the exact debut date unresolved.
End of the Mesa Boogie era The Mesa Boogie Mark III had been Trey's amp for the entire history of Phish up to this point — from the earliest Vermont basement shows through the full Bradshaw rack build of 1994. Moving to the CAE/Groove Tubes modular system in 1995 was the most significant tonal shift of his career to date.
02

Guitar

🎸
Unchanged through end of year Trey's primary guitar remained the original Languedoc hollowbody — the MarMar — through all of 1995. The European curly maple top / padauk back-and-sides instrument with the mother-of-pearl Marley headstock inlay continued to be his main voice on stage.
Guitar Shop — August 1996 The August 1996 Guitar Shop cover feature provides the definitive published account of the MarMar's electronics and pickup configuration history. Full details are documented on the 1980s–1993 page.

Acoustic Guitar Use — 1995

I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome — acoustic anchor of Fall '95 The Bill Monroe / Hank Williams bluegrass standard became the most consistently acoustic song of 1995. Its presence in dozens of Fall tour setlists made acoustic guitar a reliable mid-show fixture throughout the run.
03

Rack System

🖥

The two-rack Bradshaw MIDI system from 1994 remained in place, but both racks saw changes. Rack A was trimmed — the Small Stone phaser and DOD 680 analog delay were removed. Rack B was significantly expanded, gaining the new amp system and three new effect units alongside the three Alesis Microverbs. Guitar Shop (August 1996) confirms four CAE 4×4 Audio Controllers total — two per rack — and identifies a Peavey Valverb as a fourth reverb unit alongside the three Alesis MicroVerbs, previously undocumented. The MTI Rotophaser sat physically on top of the first rack, surrounded by four microphones for quadraphonic feed.

Rack A — Effects Lower right, within reach
1U Korg ToneWorks DTR-2 Rack Tuner Carried
1U Ibanez DM2000 Digital Delay Carried
1U Ibanez TS-9 Overdrive Carried
1U Ibanez TS-10 Overdrive Carried
1U Ross Compressor Always-on compressor Carried
2U CAE 4×4 Audio Controller ×2 Loop Switcher Carried
— EHX Small Stone Removed Phase Shifter
— DOD 680 Analog Delay Removed Analog Delay
Rack B — Amp & Effects 16U road case · behind stage
1U CAE SE 3+ Preamp Preamp New
2U Groove Tubes Dual 75 Power Amp New
1U CAE Super Tremolo Tremolo New
1U CAE Black Cat Vibe Univibe New
1U MTI Rotophaser Rotary New
1U Alesis Microverb — "Reverse" Reverb Carried
1U Alesis Microverb — "Vast" Reverb Carried
1U Alesis Microverb — "Full" Reverb Carried
2U CAE 4×4 Audio Controller ×2 Loop Switcher Carried
1U Peavey Valverb Tube Spring Reverb New '95
New road case — Rack B The custom wooden rack used in 1994 was replaced this year with a proper road case. Based on available evidence it appears to be a 16U case with 2" foam shock mounting — a significant upgrade in durability and road-worthiness for a rig that was now touring extensively. The manufacturer of the case is not yet confirmed.
04

New Effects — 1995

🎛
Rotary Speaker New '95
MTI Rotophaser
A "chopped Leslie" — essentially the top rotor section of a full Leslie speaker cabinet, designed specifically for guitar rigs. The Rotophaser gave Trey a genuine rotating speaker texture without the size and complexity of a full Leslie. Critically, the MTI Rotophaser has no built-in amplifier — it is a passive speaker cabinet only, requiring an external power amp to drive it. Controlled via a dedicated floor pedal with Mute, Speed, and Stop switches.
Tremolo New '95
CAE Super Tremolo
A rack-mounted tremolo unit from Custom Audio Electronics. The rate was controllable via a dedicated floor pedal, allowing Trey to dial in tremolo speed in real time from his pedalboard without reaching into the rack.
Univibe New '95
CAE Black Cat Vibe
Custom Audio Electronics' take on the classic Uni-Vibe effect — a phaser/chorus hybrid that simulates a rotating speaker in a different way to the Rotophaser. The Black Cat Vibe added a warmer, more organic modulation texture to Trey's palette alongside the MTI unit. Trey spoke highly of it in Guitar Shop (August 1996): "Bob Bradshaw recreated the UniVibe with quality parts, so it's not so noisy. It's silent and sounds great — I love that thing!"
Tube Spring Reverb New '95
Peavey Valverb
A 1U rackmount tube-driven Spring reverb unit — "Valverb" being a contraction of Valve and Verb. The Valverb uses a 12AX7 preamp tube to drive a genuine Spring reverb tank, producing warm, organic reverb character fundamentally different from the Alesis MicroVerbs' digital algorithms. Its addition to the 1995 rig makes perfect sense: the Mesa Boogie Mark III that Trey retired had a built-in Spring reverb tank he'd relied on for years. Switching to the CAE SE 3+ preamp — which has no onboard reverb — meant he lost that warm tube-Spring sound. The Peavey Valverb was the natural replacement, restoring a tube-based Spring reverb to the signal chain alongside the three digital MicroVerbs. Confirmed in the rig by Guitar Shop (August 1996).
Sampler Confirmed Fall '95
Roland MS-1 Digital Sampler
A compact rack-mount digital sampler visible in rack photographs published in Guitar Shop (August 1996). Those shots were taken at Bearsville Studios in Spring 1996 during the Billy Breathes recording sessions. We are confident the unit was in Trey's rack by Fall 1995 and remained through those sessions. The Roland MS-1 offered single-voice sampling with up to 32 seconds of sample time. Whether it was ever used live — and if so, how it was routed in the rig — has never been confirmed. It is absent from rack photographs taken during the Europe Summer 1996 tour, suggesting it was removed at some point before or during that run.
MTI Rotophaser — floor control The Rotophaser was unique in Trey's rig for having its own dedicated multi-function floor pedal — separate from the CAE RS-10 MIDI controller — with three switches: Mute, Speed (slow/fast rotor toggle), and Stop. This gave Trey direct, real-time control over the rotary effect mid-song without relying on MIDI preset changes.
Rotophaser amplification — confirmed via rig diagram The official Guitar Shop (August 1996) rig diagram confirms that the Groove Tubes Dual 75 has three speaker outputs, driving the left Languedoc 2×12 cabinet, the right Languedoc 2×12 cabinet, and the MTI Rotophaser ("Leslie") simultaneously. The article describes the Rotophaser as "the horn and crossover unit of a Leslie rotating speaker, which sits atop the first rack, surrounded by four microphones for quadraphonic feed to house or board."

This confirms that both Languedoc cabs and the Rotophaser were all powered by the single Dual 75 — consistent with the daisy-chain approach Trey had used in the early 1990s when a single Mesa Boogie output drove both Languedoc cabs. The three-output configuration is documented fact, not inference.
05

Floor Pedalboard

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  • MIDI Controller CAE RS-10 — carried over from 1994, still the primary switching interface for all rack effect loops.
  • Volume Ernie Ball volume pedal — unchanged from previous eras.
  • Wah Dunlop Crybaby — carried over from 1994.
  • Whammy II DigiTech Whammy II pitch shifter — carried over from 1994, present on the floor pedalboard.
  • Rotophaser Control MTI Rotophaser dedicated floor pedal — three switches: Mute, Speed (slow/fast toggle), and Stop. Unique to the Rotophaser and independent of the RS-10 MIDI system.
  • Tremolo Rate Dedicated rate pedal for the CAE Super Tremolo rack unit — allowed real-time control of tremolo speed from the floor.
Floor layout note The exact arrangement of floor pedals in this era is not fully documented. The most likely configuration adds the MTI Rotophaser control pedal and the tremolo rate pedal alongside the RS-10, volume pedal, and wah from 1994 — making this Trey's most complex floor setup to date.
06

Signal Chain Overview

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Simplified signal flow — exact order not fully confirmed

Guitar
Languedoc
MarMar
→
Wah
Crybaby
Wah
→
Rack A
TS-9 /
TS-10
→
Rack A
Ross
Comp.
→
Rack A
DM2000
→
Rack B
CAE
Tremolo
→
Rack B
Black Cat
Vibe
→
Rack B
MTI
Rotophaser
→
Floor
Ernie Ball
Volume
→
Rack B
CAE SE 3+
Preamp
→
Rack B
Groove Tubes
Dual 75
→
FX Loop
Microverb
×3
→
Cabinets ×2
Languedoc
2×12 ×2
Purple border = Rack A unit  ·  Green border = Rack B unit  ·  Highlighted border = new in 1995  ·  Dashed = effects loop
Exact position of Tremolo, Black Cat Vibe, and Rotophaser within the signal chain not fully confirmed. Microverb placement in effects loop is an assumption carried from 1994.
07

Era Summary

◎

1995 is the year Trey's rig grew up. The Mesa Boogie Mark III — the amp that defined every Phish recording from the band's earliest days through the Bradshaw revolution of 1994 — was retired in favour of a modular CAE/Groove Tubes system that offered new tonal possibilities and greater flexibility.

The three new effects added in 1995 — the MTI Rotophaser, the CAE Super Tremolo, and the CAE Black Cat Vibe — pushed Trey's palette into territory it had never visited before. The Rotophaser in particular became a signature texture, its chopped-Leslie sound appearing throughout the year's most exploratory jams.

Meanwhile, Rack A was simplified — the Small Stone phaser and DOD 680 analog delay from 1994 were gone, leaving a leaner, more purposeful effects chain. The DM2000 and Tube Screamers remained as the core of the pre-amp signal path.

Late in the Fall Tour, a small percussion kit appeared on stage alongside Trey's rig for the first time. Based on available video evidence it was not present at the Shoreline show on 9/30/95, but is clearly visible in footage from Seattle Center Arena on 10/3/95 — the second night of that run. This points to the first show of the Seattle run, 10/2/95, as the most likely debut, though this has not been definitively confirmed.

The exact debut show for this configuration remains unresolved. No photos from the 5/16/95 Lowell show or the 6/7/95 Summer tour opener have ever surfaced, leaving open the question of exactly when Trey first plugged into the CAE SE 3+ on a Phish stage.

CAE SE 3+ Preamp Groove Tubes Dual 75 MTI Rotophaser CAE Super Tremolo CAE Black Cat Vibe DM2000 Whammy II Small Percussion Kit Debut Unconfirmed Languedoc MarMar Languedoc 2×12 ×2
08

Listen on LivePhish

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1995 is the year the Bradshaw rack reached full maturity — the Mesa Boogie was retired, the CAE SE 3+ and Groove Tubes debuted, and the Black Cat Vibe and Motion Sound Pro 3 arrived. Live Phish Vol. 1 (12/14/95 Binghamton) is the most celebrated single document of the era. The Halloween Quadrophenia show and NYE at MSG round out the year.

Dec 14, 1995
Live Phish Vol. 1 — Binghamton
Broome County Arena, Binghamton, NY
The show that became the first official Live Phish release. Tweezer > Timber > Keyboard Army in set two is one of the most revered jams of the era — the CAE/Groove Tubes rig at full rip.
Stream or download →
Oct 31, 1995
Live Phish Vol. 14 — Halloween: Quadrophenia
Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, IL
The Who's Quadrophenia as musical costume, performed with a full horn section. The new CAE preamp and Groove Tubes power amp system less than a year old, running full force into the Languedoc cabinets.
Stream or download →
Dec 31, 1995
New Year's Eve — Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Phish's first NYE at MSG — the "ball drop" gag, a stunning second set, and a three-set performance that cemented their status as the era's premier live act. The MarMar guitar's final full-time year.
Stream or download →
08

Open Research Questions

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Research needed The following items represent open questions for this era — areas where documentation is incomplete or evidence is not yet confirmed.
  • Small percussion kit — debut show Video evidence confirms the percussion kit was present at Seattle Center Arena on 10/3/95 and was not visible at Shoreline on 9/30/95. The most likely debut is the night 1 Seattle show on 10/2/95, but this has not been confirmed. The exact kit configuration — what instruments it comprised — is also unconfirmed.
  • Acoustic guitar — make/model The specific acoustic guitar used throughout 1995 for mid-show acoustic appearances (I'm Blue I'm Lonesome, My Long Journey Home, Acoustic Army, etc.) has not been confirmed. Make, model, and year of the instrument are unknown.
  • MTI Rotophaser — exact debut show The first show the MTI Rotophaser appeared in Trey's rig has not been pinpointed. It is placed as debuting in 1995 based on available evidence, but the precise date is unconfirmed.
  • Rotophaser — exact speaker impedance and load balancing Guitar Shop (August 1996) and its rig diagram confirm the Groove Tubes Dual 75 drove all three speaker loads — left Languedoc 2×12, right Languedoc 2×12, and the MTI Rotophaser — simultaneously off three speaker outputs. What remains unconfirmed is the exact impedance of each output tap used and precisely how the total speaker load was distributed across the amp's two channels.
  • CAE Black Cat Vibe — addition date The exact date the CAE Black Cat Vibe was added to the rig in 1995 has not been confirmed from available sources.
  • Rack A vs Rack B — unit placement The precise distribution of units between Rack A and Rack B across the 1995 touring year has not been fully confirmed. Guitar Shop (August 1996) describes the rack layout as of mid-1996; whether it exactly matches the 1995 configuration has not been verified.
  • Roland MS-1 — live use unconfirmed The Roland MS-1 Digital Sampler is confidently placed in Trey's rack by Fall 1995, visible in rack photographs taken at Bearsville Studios (Spring 1996, during the Billy Breathes sessions) and published in Guitar Shop (August 1996). Whether it was ever actually used live — and if so, how it was patched into the rig — has never been confirmed from available sources. It disappears from rack photos taken during the Europe Summer 1996 tour and its removal date is unknown. An open research question.
  • Peavey Valverb — exact debut show The Peavey Valverb is confirmed in the rig by Guitar Shop (August 1996) and is placed as a 1995 addition based on Trey's switch to the CAE SE 3+ preamp, which has no built-in reverb — the Valverb's tube Spring reverb replaced the Spring tank in the retired Mesa Boogie Mark III. The exact show it first appeared has not been pinpointed.
09

Photos

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Trey on stage, Summer 1995 tour
CAE SE 3+ preamp rack unit
Groove Tubes Dual 75 power amp
MTI Rotophaser unit
CAE Black Cat Vibe
CAE Super Tremolo rack unit
Rack B — full 1995 configuration
Floor pedalboard — 1995 layout

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Trey Anastasio — 1995 tour
Trey Anastasio — 1995 tour · Languedoc hollowbody · Languedoc 2×12 cabinets visible behind