Buyers Remorse Anyone?

K

kippiejr

Inspired
I play 80% Judas Priest (all years) and 10% Queensryche (all years) as a working/paying hobby and 10% noodling and original stuff. I have used the ULTRA since concept and have spent countess hours dialing it in and it sounds amazing and love it. I use it with a midi mate in controller mode 5 presets and 5 I/A. FOH
I went to the AXF II and MFC and took the time to translate the Ultra patches to AFX II. They sound great but i keep going back to my ULTRA because they translate better and sound amazing for the style I am in.

I use to use my ENGL SE 670....and went back and forth between it and the ULTRA..
Finally after dialing it in, which took a while, i have not looked back....
Now the AFX II is haunting me and the ULTRA is telling me how can you get better than me?
I know it took me months of dialing in the ULTRA and in the back of my mine I keep telling myself the AFX II will take time as the ULTRA did.
But why.. I am 99% in love with my ULTRA. This coming from someone who has been playing guitar for 34 years, has 25 top notch axes, has 2 full (refrigerator) rack gear,(1 Marshall,1 Mesa) A Silver Jubilee head and Cab, Mesa Mark V head and cab and the latest ENGL SE 670 and cab.

I played a set last night with the ENGL set up and It sounded good and I was OK with it. Shut it down and turned on the ULTRA for the second set and.....The skies parted......

So now what....
 
These are just tools and instruments- if the Ultra completely satisfies, then don't worry about it, and be happy! The Axe II has more horsepower, but again, if the Ultra is doing it for you, then you've got it made, and don't look back.
 
Zero remorse here. Spent a year with a standard model and was able to quickly snag the II when it came out. Was worth it to me. If anything, I have a Kemper that is resting in it's box not being used that I kinda feel bad about.
 
in the beginning with the AXE II I struggled abit to get my marshall and mesa presets sound as good as I remember them from my Ultra. but as I learned the unit and FW developed I have way past Ultra now and very happy about it... and of course as everybody else, extremely hyped about FW10 thats due.... ahem... soon...

FWIW, I play pretty much same stuff as you, rock, blues, old school 70-80´s rock and metal
 
I'm surprised to hear that you spent so much time dialing in the II. With the tone matching feature that should take minutes to get the tone your after and the rest should be just adding the effects needed for the song in question.
 
There's nothing wrong with feeling this way. I was planning on buying an Axe-II also (I own an Ultra). Then my band's other guitarist got the Axe-II so we play side by side weekly. I do think that the II is kind of like higher definition but the difference is not big enough for me to buy a II. There's nothing in the II that I can't do with the Ultra. Basically I'd be buying it for the custom IR slots.

Best amp sims are still in the Ultra also: Shiver Clean, Das Metall, Solo 100, JCM800... Rectifiers.

Tone matching is great but the tests we did were smoothened a lot so me and my bandmate (who owns the II) are both still using Ozone for tone matching. But tone matching and profiling are so 2012 anyways. :D
 
If the Ultra
completely satisfies you then stick with it.
I personally don't regret selling it.
The new firmwares on the II and specially the upcoming one will open a whole new
world. The Ultra is a beast in itself. Tell you what don't sell the Ultra,have the II work along with it
until you are comfortable with it. Once you have found that you can do the things you did with the Ultra,then consider
selling the Ultra.
 
No remorse here. You have already purchased the Axe II, so you're invested and going to suffer a loss if you sell it (insert face slap). Seriously, having said that, I would think you could dial the Axe II in to sound exactly like the Ultra (if you wanted). Given that the Axe II has more capability (USB I/O, tone matching...), seems the thing to do would be to get your Ultra sounds dialed in on the Axe II and send the Ultra off to a new owner, you'll be happy :). Just my 2 cents.
 
Last edited:
The only remorse I have is I did not get on the Axe bandwagon earlier. I could have saved literally thousands! The Ultra is still a fine unit so if it does what you want then by all means keep it. The II is much more versatile and the FW upgrades are awesome.
 
I had the AFX std before I got my AFX II and have never looked back as the II is streets ahead in every way. Never had a second of remorse about getting the II.

As a side note I still playing the POD Pro X3 regularly when I had the STD as I felt more comfortable with the X3 tones even though they were thinner than the AFX Std. The other night I turned on the X3 just for fun and it sounded almost toy-like compared to the II. The amp models in the POD are fairly lifeless and wooden and need drenching in FX.
 
I have both in my house. I think the II is easier to dial in, but the Ultra is still amazing. For bass, my wife much prefers the tone we have dialed in on the Ultra and I could not get it to sound the same on the II (likely due to inexperience and/or time spent). They're both amazing tools and it's a bit like comparing a Ferrari to a Lamborghini.
 
kippiejr - I have very much the same amount and type of gear you have (Mark V, ENGL SE, rack, multiple guitars) and 30+ years of playing (back in the "guitar straight into SuperReverb on 10" days), and continue to go back and forth. How do you use the AXE - with a power amp/speaks, power speaks, just wondering. Sometimes, too many choices is a problem, eh? Sounds like you've made some kind of peace...
 
hussamd said:
The only remorse I have is I did not get on the Axe bandwagon earlier. I could have saved literally thousands! The Ultra is still a fine unit so if it does what you want then by all means keep it. The II is much more versatile and the FW upgrades are awesome.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one. Lol. We both could have saved a ton. If only I knew about the axe earlier. I didn't get on board until the end of the ultra. But for me there's not much of a comparison between the ultra and axe II. The feel and tone of the two is so far past the ultra I don't think I could ever go back.
 
immortal_soloist said:
The new firmwares on the II and specially the upcoming one will open a whole new
world.
Click to expand...

;) .... ..... Have you tried it? :D

I think there's so much of it that is hype. After every firmware everyone's saying how it's a million times better. Still using the same IR on my Ultra and the Axe-II on FW9 sounded exactly the same. The feel was different. Not better or worse. Different. Sure you can scientifically zoom in and prove that Axe-II is higher quality but let's face it. We all were happy with the Standard Axe-Fx and dialed in our tones and got pissed after firmware updates changed our patches and we had to do it all over again. :) And it's not like anyone on the forum ever bashed the Ultra or Standard because they didn't sound good.

But that's my opinion, you don't have to agree. :)
 
The only buyers remorse I have is not buying an MFC101 when I bought the axe-II, but I will get one on order this week.
 
I have several friends who have Ultras , bought II's and got rid of them. Some people like (gel) better with the Ultra.
they use them specifically for recording , no live use, they feel they record high gain tones tighter than the II does
with less fizz and can dial them in easier than they could the II.
I could go either way , but I got a II and now that OH has let these Live n Loud Ir's out of the bag I am really in love with
using this thing for jamming, they have added an "ummph" and a 'bounce" that I find missing from "recording" IR's.
I can't wait for V10 and the new FAS IR's, this stuff is getting real good now. :)
 
Clark Kent said:
;) .... ..... Have you tried it? :D
I think there's so much of it that is hype. After every firmware everyone's saying how it's a million times better.
Click to expand...
Actually, yes! I have... quite a bit lately. It's killer... and that's all I can say. Clark, call it what you want, but there have been significant changes in recent Axe-II firmware - tone matching, scenes and now the upcoming v10 - that are evident to many that have the II and something you may have missed out on.

But back to the original topic - No regrets here either.. I spent way more time tweaking with my Ultra and REALLY liked my presets, but can get the same/better from the Axe-II faster, and tone is really NOT my forte. I love the extra control, pick dynamics, vol control etc that are far more responsive and "obvious" than the Ultra. I'd still play the Ultra if I didn't have the II tho' as its still a killer device.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom