How is Axe-FX 3 Used

W

wmartin714

Member
I'll start by saying that I'm an old-school player, and in the past, I've used walls of Marshall stacks and rack-mounted signal processing gear like the TC-2290 when playing live gigs. I've now spent many hours watching videos and hearing the awesome tone being produced by the Axe-FX, but no one explains how to hook one of these things up.

So, my question is, how do you hook one of these things up? What is the signal chain? Is the Axe-FX like a Marshall 100 Watt head that you just plug your guitar into and then take the output of the Axe-FX III into a speaker cabinet? If yes, then what is the output wattage of the Axe-FX. If not, then where does the output of the FX III go? Does it go to the input jack of a Marshall (or similar) head? Do I need to somehow bypass the preamp section of the Marshall head and insert the Axe-FX there?

Please provide a basic explanation as I'm not an audio engineer. I know about guitars and amps, but that's it. I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that you need to have a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering to understand how to play live with one of these things. Note that I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee to someone who can explain. Right now, it just seems like some kind of secret society and you have to get a membership to gain knowledge. I mean, there are plenty of videos that walk through the multitude of Axe-FX menus to adjust the parameters. However, there seems to be no information on the signal chain needed by these devices.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
I'm going to be well-intentioned here and assume you're not trying to shortcut reading the quite extensive manual that's included with your Axe-Fx III purchase. Just read it and it will answer all of your questions regarding the typical connection and signal chain scenarios with the Axe-Fx III.
Although if you just take a look at the front panel of your Axe-Fx III it say preamp/fx processor which is a good indication it's not an amp head (doesn't contain a power amplifier).
 
Thanks for the quick response. I've recently gone through various sections of the manual, but it was confusing to me. I guess I'm just not smart enough to understand it. Maybe you just need to be super smart to use one of these devices. It could be the world's way of telling me to keep using the dumb, old-school marshall and mesa heads and speaker cabs ...
 
@axes I haven't purchased an Axe-FX yet. I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to figure it out before making the purchase. At this point, I'm leaning toward not being smart enough to figure it out.
 
There are many ways to set it up. Most likely the tones you’ve heard in videos were directly recorded from the device outputs (no other hardware used).

Most people use a set of studio monitors to amplify the Axe-FX for at home and then plug it directly into the PA for live use. However, you certainly can use an external amplifier and a guitar cab if you want and many people do that as well.
 
Hi wmartin714, welcome to the forum. The question that I'd like to ask you to start with is, how would YOU like to use it? From there we can figure out how to target our responses. The Axe FX III is capable of quite a lot, so it's best to start with, what does an Axe FX III setup and fully functional look like to you?
 
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I'll spend a few more hours of research.

@Toopy14 I've seen that video. It just talks about parameter adjustment. It doesn't talk about how to get the awesome FX tone into some speaker cabinets for playing live gigs.
 
@AndrewJay Thanks for the welcome. I'd like to be able to pump the awesome tone from the Axe-FX into four 4x12 speaker cabinets.

Here's a quick question: Is the Axe-FX designed to replace the amp head or supplement the tone coming out of the amp head?
 
For playing the Axe-FX into a traditional guitar cab you can either plug it into the effects return of an amplifier or you can use an external standalone amp like a Fryette LXII or Matrix GT1000FX.
 
wmartin714 said:
@AndrewJay Thanks for the welcome. I'd like to be able to pump the awesome tone from the Axe-FX into four 4x12 speaker cabinets.

Here's a quick question: Is the Axe-FX designed to replace the amp head or supplement the tone coming out of the amp head?
Click to expand...

It can either be used as a replacement for an amp or as a supplement. Research the four cable method for more information about using it as a supplement.
 
wmartin714 said:
@AndrewJay Thanks for the welcome. I'd like to be able to pump the awesome tone from the Axe-FX into four 4x12 speaker cabinets.

Here's a quick question: Is the Axe-FX designed to replace the amp head or supplement the tone coming out of the amp head?
Click to expand...
If you would like to use the Axe FX into traditional guitar cabs, then you're going to need a power amp. Before we start talking about which power amp, the next question I'd ask is, is weight a consideration for your entire rig?
 
wmartin714 said:
@AndrewJay Thanks for the welcome. I'd like to be able to pump the awesome tone from the Axe-FX into four 4x12 speaker cabinets.

Here's a quick question: Is the Axe-FX designed to replace the amp head or supplement the tone coming out of the amp head?
Click to expand...
It can do both or neither. It is extremely flexible. It does not have its own amplification (only modeled amps). You can use it guitar-axefx-mixing board, or guitar - axefx- poweramp (solid state or tube to cab) , or use in the fx loop of an amp head, or even go guitar-axe-fx to amp out of fx loop send of amp to input 2,3,or 4 of the Axe fx, then back in to the return of the amps fx-loop( so like having a pedal board in front and a racks in the amps fx loop).

You can use the amp models or just use it for effects. You can use the Axe-fx for complete amp modeling (preamp and poweramp section) or turn off the poweramp modeling and just use it as a preamp.

That is what the diagrams are showing in the manual.
 
@AnrdrewJay I have some old power amps that I used in the past. My old setup was the following: I used to run a preamp (low-level) signal out to my effects rack, then the output of the effects rack went into some Crown power amps, and the output of the power amps went to the speaker cabs.

I'm just trying to simplify my setup and weight reduction would definitely be a benefit.
 
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