mnemonic
Experienced
I've had an Axe FX II for about a week and a half now (backordered since June) and... wow. I knew it was going to be a great unit, but by hour two of day one, I was making tones that blow away anything else I've used before. I've been into modelers almost exclusively since the PodXT came out, and I've been primarily using a Toneport for the last few years (same amp models as PodXT). What a step up!
I'm primarily a metal player, and I will admit I was underwhelmed when I first plugged it in, since I don't think the stock metal presets are very good, and I was used to getting artificially tight distortion sounds with no effort at all (the main problem with the Pod is its hard to get rid of the tightness), so it was a bit of a learning curve, figuring out how to make a patch sound how I want. Everything past the main drive/amp/cab controls is also way over my head. The front panel is full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I will never understand... thank god for axe edit. Lucky for me, I don't really need to change anything except the basic EQ to get a killer tone :lol:.
My main thoughts so far:
-The Recto2 Red Modern is heavy as hell, and already my favorite amp
-The Thordendal Modern can get pretty damn heavy, holy shit. Initially though, I did feel like I was being trolled. Without a boost and with the wrong impulse, the amp is woofy, loose and dark, basically the opposite of Meshuggah tones. But with a few tweaks and an 808 upfront, it sounds tight and aggressive and awesome. I assume its based on some modified Recto?
-Ow, my finger callouses have never been so hard
-Finding the right impulse is difficult; I'm used to having 10 cabs to choose from where 9 sound terrible... having over 100 cabs + thousands of 3rd party impulses that all sound good in their own way is a bit of an information overload, I hardly know where to start. At the moment most of my patches use a 50/50 blend of the 4x12 German V30 and one of Clark Kent's TEH Mesa oversized 4x12 impulses.
-This is the first amp sim where I'm actually really happy playing through headphones without making major concessions on the sound I'm after (I play probably 50% on headphones for various reasons)
The forum has also been a great resource. Just reading through people's thoughts, listening to recordings and searching through old threads provides tons of information. Hopefully I'll have something to contribute soon!
I'm primarily a metal player, and I will admit I was underwhelmed when I first plugged it in, since I don't think the stock metal presets are very good, and I was used to getting artificially tight distortion sounds with no effort at all (the main problem with the Pod is its hard to get rid of the tightness), so it was a bit of a learning curve, figuring out how to make a patch sound how I want. Everything past the main drive/amp/cab controls is also way over my head. The front panel is full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I will never understand... thank god for axe edit. Lucky for me, I don't really need to change anything except the basic EQ to get a killer tone :lol:.
My main thoughts so far:
-The Recto2 Red Modern is heavy as hell, and already my favorite amp
-The Thordendal Modern can get pretty damn heavy, holy shit. Initially though, I did feel like I was being trolled. Without a boost and with the wrong impulse, the amp is woofy, loose and dark, basically the opposite of Meshuggah tones. But with a few tweaks and an 808 upfront, it sounds tight and aggressive and awesome. I assume its based on some modified Recto?
-Ow, my finger callouses have never been so hard
-Finding the right impulse is difficult; I'm used to having 10 cabs to choose from where 9 sound terrible... having over 100 cabs + thousands of 3rd party impulses that all sound good in their own way is a bit of an information overload, I hardly know where to start. At the moment most of my patches use a 50/50 blend of the 4x12 German V30 and one of Clark Kent's TEH Mesa oversized 4x12 impulses.
-This is the first amp sim where I'm actually really happy playing through headphones without making major concessions on the sound I'm after (I play probably 50% on headphones for various reasons)
The forum has also been a great resource. Just reading through people's thoughts, listening to recordings and searching through old threads provides tons of information. Hopefully I'll have something to contribute soon!