Alright so here goes nothing!
So it was a usual Tuesday morning at my place of work (back to school as I am a Music Tutor at various primary schools and a music shop in Warrnambool VIC), so getting out of bed at sparrow-fart was hard enough as it was.
I wasn't expecting my Axe FX II until later this week (as I had ordered same time as a friend who had paid full price and for express shipping). Then I see the delivery guy walk through the door whilst on my recess break at the shop, not thinking he would be sporting any sexy Fractal goods for me I kept on going about with my shitty routine of untangling leads or what have you. Out the corner of my eye I noticed the distinct Stripes along the sides of the box, 'COULD IT BE?!?!' I thought, I swear to god I could have compared this feeling to winning the lottery, my so-so average day turned into a day which will hence forth be known as Axe FX Day! (2). I kind of stared at the box for a little while admiring the writing (Im a bit of a loser when it comes to these things), and woke up to myself finally to slice her open!!
Inside layed thy rig ov d00m, I finally had it in my hands! Chucked it on top of a spare cabinet we had in store and just checked its arse out and EVERYTHING, and BOY was I impressed!! In terms of design and housing, Fractal have REALLY stepped up, extra weight than the Ultra, and the housing felt alot more rigid? I dont know how to explain it, everything felt secure, the Ultra felt as if I had to baby it everywhere and be really careful when touching it (not that I wont be doing that with the II!!).
I raced into the studio as calmly as possible (I was already late for my next period of lessons mind you, but this took precedence over earning money!), plugged in the monitors, turned it on...
Wow!!! The enlarged screen looks so much more vibrant, the keys on the front - so much more responsive, and everything was clear and precise! (I hadn't even plugged the damn guitar in yet :lol. So without further ado, I plugged in my Gibson Les Paul Classic (Im a metal dude so this was a nice happy medium for me!), bang straight up, the presets caught me.
Ive read in alot of other reviews that people had the experience of the notes 'jumping off the fretboard/strings', I dont know how the hell to explain this but I felt exactly this! The unit felt and sounded alive and so much more responsive than the Ultra, don't get me wrong the Ultra was phenomenal for me, but this was a whole new different level of amazing. Every note was liquidy, fluent and flowing, it responded like a real amp would.
I cycled through the patches and couldn't tear myself away from the 005 Patch A-Class 15 (from memory), This patch just absolutely broke my balls, made me sit there and stare at the unit with a proud smile and a chuckle to myself. Even when rolling the volume back on my guitar it REACTED and FELT like a real amp, less breakup more warmth, crank the volume up more breakup and saturation. Absolutely unreal, I was completely sold from there on in.
Now you've probably gathered from this review (and a very unorthodox one at that), that Im not a man of many words or going into DEEP DEEP explanation or technical jargon, so Im trying my hardest to not sound clique and boring!
Next, I cycled through the rest of the patches from 006 onward to 100-150ish, not that I was bored, but I really wanted to get to work on my own patches. So that I did - and what an experience it was. The Ultra made my studio skills go through the roof once I obtained it, but this thing was EFFORTLESS! Dialing in patches was a breeze, I knew what sort of sound I was after which made it a whole lot easier, but getting there took me literally 20 minutes of fiddling around to get probably 85-90% of the way with where I wanted my main patches to be. At this point, you could say I looked like this a little > :shock
I tried my luck with blending a Peavey 5150 with a Fryette D60 M set of amps, with cabinets with a v30 variety, a little bit of Low Pass Filtering on the end of the chain, tiny bits of EQ and, it was there!
The feature I am FROTHING over with the II, is the Amp Voicing and Saturation switch, these in my opinion bring the amps to life, literally before your ears, Its so realistic I cant put into words how amazing this product is, its worth every hard earned penny!
How does Fractal/Cliff DO IT?!?!? I have zero idea, but Im in love with one of the best products on the market today. - In conclusion, BUY THE FRIGGIN AXE FX II!!
You wont regret it
