I have had the AX8 for about a month now and am very happy with it so far. I run it through 2 QSC K10 powered monitors with XLR cables and it sounds great. I bought the Fremen presets and I use 4 different clean sounds and 4 different overdrive settings exclusively when I play and I love them. So now problem is that my Mesa Boogie Mark V25 and my BRAND NEW 1X12 rectifier cabinets (2 of them) just sit over in the corner angry at me. Believe me they are incredible sounding but when I have been playing my AX8 and then go to play my Mesa I got to say I get a little bored with the sound. I have contemplated selling the Mesa but I get a little nervous not having a "backup amp". Anybody else here going through the same thing?
I always bring a backup. Always. I had an amp crash on me at a gig many years ago and since then I ALWAYS bring one. The form has evolved quite a bit over the years, though. My current backup "amp" is a Pedaltrain Metro-20 pedalboard with an AMT Japanese Girl wah, which feeds a Tech 21 Richie Kotzen Fly Rig 5 which functions as the amp/cab, dirt, and delay, and runs into a TC Electronic Mini Corona pedal and then a Mini Turbo Tuner, which go through a Dunlop DVP4 mini volume pedal and then into a Fender micro DI, which splits out a signal into an unbalanced 1/4" to my amp (more on that in a moment) and an XLR to FOH. I power it all from an onboard Sanyo Eneloop Pedal Juice battery, and I use a little 9V to 12V converter I built to power the FR5 from the 9V of the Pedal Juice. It's small, weighs maybe 10 lbs in it's soft case, and sounds pretty darned good. Maybe not in the AX8 class, but it saved me when I had an Amplifire-based rig, which liked to crash at the wrong times. Nobody complained.
The amp is either a Yamaha DXR10 or DBR10 powered speaker (depending upon how much power I may need), a Quilter Micro Pro Mach 2 -12 combo amp with the neo speaker, or else (and which I have been using quite a lot recently) a Quilter Tone Block 200 head and a little old Lopoline 1x12 cab (configured as open back) with an Eminence Beta 12LTA wide band woofer in it, which sounds great and provides a nice amp-in-the room feel. I use it with the AX8 and it sounds great. My bandmates like it a lot, and it has PLENTY of power. One of my two bands plays really loud, and I run the Tone Block at about 40W and the AX8 at about half volume and I usually ride my volume pedal around halfway or so, and it has no problems being heard, just move the pedal up a bit for solos and back for rhythm. Gonna be using it (with the AX8) for some gigs this weekend, can't wait!
So, for backup for the AX8 and the amp/head, I bring the pedalboard and a powered speaker. Haven't had to use the backups since I bought the AX8, though. The AX8 is really robust and reliable. Like me.