VirgilGuitar
Inspired
This is very hard for me to do, write some quick comments with the new "Box" I have sitting in front of me, so I will TRY to make this short.. I am writing this to all of the great CURRENT users, who REALLY helped with all of my questions about the unit - you guys are the greatest - thanks for your honesty, and great knowledge of this unit - I am not going to mention names, becuase there are too many to list and I would hate to miss someone (Sheesh Virgil, it AINT an Academy Award) This is also for the people who are waiting for more to wind up in stock as well as those who are thinking of getting this unit.
I need to first tell you of my experience as a guitarist, because I certainly do not consider myself as an expert by any means, but I will just be honest...
I started playing guitar when I was 13 and I was in my first band at 15 - I have owned more guitars, amps, effects pedals and other assorted gear than you can shake a stick at. One of my favorite amps I owned was an old JCM 800 that I used to run through a Carvin slant cab and that was the first amp I ever recorded with an old Tascam 4 track - that was 17 years ago - since that time, I have had a Fender Princeton Chorus and the last amp I bought was the Fender Cybertwin (Around 6 years ago) I had build 3 of my own talk boxes over the last 20 years and have owned so many pedals... even the floorboards, owned a Digitech Rp20, RP10, RP250 and I started recording with the PC over 10 years ago. About 5 years ago I bought a Vox ToneLab, with the 12AX7 tube in it and was pretty satisfied with it.
I teach guitar for a living - all my spare time is spent on working on original music these days - occasionally I perform out live, but my main gig is home recording. Over the last 10 years, I spent most of my money on guitars and never really dug into processors a whole bunch.
2 months ago I saw an ad in Guitar World for the AxeFX and decided to look into it - I was looking at some other equipment as well, including Eventide processors, as well as the Eleven Rack.
I put my cd project on hold, which is even featuring a drummer who was on tour with Sebastian Bach - this CD is instrumental rock - in the style of Satch meets Pink Floyd. I am no shredder, but I can hold a groove and dig the sounds that can come out of a guitar.
The unit showed up while I was teaching, so after the students left, I got to hook it up. Hooking it up was a snap - I already knew how to use the unit, with AxeEdit - thanks to sll the info on Yeks Wiki as well as the AxeFX wiki.
VERY first impression: Wow, I am never going to be able to listen to all of these presets tonight.
Next impression - there's allot of "Stunt Sounds" in here - most of which are kiinda fun, but for me useless. I also remember reading on the forums that this is common with most people and I was a little more interested in hearing "The Goods" - I started dialing in some presets that was more along my style and started changing amps, mics, turning knobs and almost had an Axegasm (You may need a towel to wipe this up) For the first time in my life, I got to hear some tones out of my PRS Custom 22 that had me almost fall off of my chair. I was able to get some tones out of this thing that I seemed to never be able to achieve out of my own amps.
One of the biggest things I noticed was how quiet things were. No hiss, no buzz.... quiet, like being outside after a snowstorm.
I am not sure if it was the Mogami Gold XLR cables I bought especially for the unit or the Monster gold cable I bought for the guitar, but it was an experience I am not used to. Then the next feeling set in..... FEAR - yes fear. Fearful as to what sounds I am going to be able to pull out of this thing when I can sit down after the initial excitement and really start learning things about tone that I feel like I have been obviously missing. I don't know nearly as much as I would like to have at this point, because I never spent time on my tone, but now I have a feeling that I have opened Pandora's box (A good one I might add). Most of my time over the last several years has been in composing music, working on my chops, getting nice guitars and somehow I feel a bit sad that I didn't look into this sooner, but at the same time I am really excited about the new journey.
So, if anyone who is wondering whether it is worth the 2k and a long wait to get it, all I can say is stop wondering and just do it... read as much as you can first on this forum, there is more than enough unbiased opinions as to what this thing can and cannot do.
For those of you who already own the unit, I know, I know, I haven't even scratched the surface....
And those of you who already decided to order one and are waiting for them to get back in stock, well it's FINALLY my turn to say this to you: It's worth the wait
And one closing note. I will be compelled to write about more of my discoveries and try to pass on anything I figure out to those in need of help, because you all helped me, but I got to be real honest here.... I'm not sure if I will come back from the rabbit hole.
I need to first tell you of my experience as a guitarist, because I certainly do not consider myself as an expert by any means, but I will just be honest...
I started playing guitar when I was 13 and I was in my first band at 15 - I have owned more guitars, amps, effects pedals and other assorted gear than you can shake a stick at. One of my favorite amps I owned was an old JCM 800 that I used to run through a Carvin slant cab and that was the first amp I ever recorded with an old Tascam 4 track - that was 17 years ago - since that time, I have had a Fender Princeton Chorus and the last amp I bought was the Fender Cybertwin (Around 6 years ago) I had build 3 of my own talk boxes over the last 20 years and have owned so many pedals... even the floorboards, owned a Digitech Rp20, RP10, RP250 and I started recording with the PC over 10 years ago. About 5 years ago I bought a Vox ToneLab, with the 12AX7 tube in it and was pretty satisfied with it.
I teach guitar for a living - all my spare time is spent on working on original music these days - occasionally I perform out live, but my main gig is home recording. Over the last 10 years, I spent most of my money on guitars and never really dug into processors a whole bunch.
2 months ago I saw an ad in Guitar World for the AxeFX and decided to look into it - I was looking at some other equipment as well, including Eventide processors, as well as the Eleven Rack.
I put my cd project on hold, which is even featuring a drummer who was on tour with Sebastian Bach - this CD is instrumental rock - in the style of Satch meets Pink Floyd. I am no shredder, but I can hold a groove and dig the sounds that can come out of a guitar.
The unit showed up while I was teaching, so after the students left, I got to hook it up. Hooking it up was a snap - I already knew how to use the unit, with AxeEdit - thanks to sll the info on Yeks Wiki as well as the AxeFX wiki.
VERY first impression: Wow, I am never going to be able to listen to all of these presets tonight.
Next impression - there's allot of "Stunt Sounds" in here - most of which are kiinda fun, but for me useless. I also remember reading on the forums that this is common with most people and I was a little more interested in hearing "The Goods" - I started dialing in some presets that was more along my style and started changing amps, mics, turning knobs and almost had an Axegasm (You may need a towel to wipe this up) For the first time in my life, I got to hear some tones out of my PRS Custom 22 that had me almost fall off of my chair. I was able to get some tones out of this thing that I seemed to never be able to achieve out of my own amps.
One of the biggest things I noticed was how quiet things were. No hiss, no buzz.... quiet, like being outside after a snowstorm.
I am not sure if it was the Mogami Gold XLR cables I bought especially for the unit or the Monster gold cable I bought for the guitar, but it was an experience I am not used to. Then the next feeling set in..... FEAR - yes fear. Fearful as to what sounds I am going to be able to pull out of this thing when I can sit down after the initial excitement and really start learning things about tone that I feel like I have been obviously missing. I don't know nearly as much as I would like to have at this point, because I never spent time on my tone, but now I have a feeling that I have opened Pandora's box (A good one I might add). Most of my time over the last several years has been in composing music, working on my chops, getting nice guitars and somehow I feel a bit sad that I didn't look into this sooner, but at the same time I am really excited about the new journey.
So, if anyone who is wondering whether it is worth the 2k and a long wait to get it, all I can say is stop wondering and just do it... read as much as you can first on this forum, there is more than enough unbiased opinions as to what this thing can and cannot do.
For those of you who already own the unit, I know, I know, I haven't even scratched the surface....
And those of you who already decided to order one and are waiting for them to get back in stock, well it's FINALLY my turn to say this to you: It's worth the wait
And one closing note. I will be compelled to write about more of my discoveries and try to pass on anything I figure out to those in need of help, because you all helped me, but I got to be real honest here.... I'm not sure if I will come back from the rabbit hole.
