Sold My AX8, Bought a Mark V

Texhex

Inspired
I sold my AX8 earlier this week and bought a mint 2012 Mark V on Reverb.com for $1500 (phenomenal deal, couldn’t pass it up) . I really love the AX8 and still regret selling it but after all the tweaking I only ever ended up using a Fender clean tone and whenever I would start dialing in a metal tone I always ended up on the IIC+ and a 5 band EQ.

I figure the Mark V is the best of all worlds for my needs. Paired with a Captor it seems like it could be an increadible monster capable of dialing up many, many different sounds.

Fractal makes the absolute best modeling solution on the market IMO, total package with the hardware, software and company support can’t be compared to, really. I think people with other modelers don’t fully understand the software capabilities in the editor of what Fractal provides and how it works with the hardware, it really is the best in the industry.

Also the support from members on this forum is like nowhere else. I’ve seen posts on here from new people who are not computer savvy but are who long time musicians that would have been ROASTED on other boards for not knowing what they were doing with the hardware/software/speaker setup and people here help without deriding the poster at all, not once. I’ve read other places that the Fractal forums and users can sometimes be a little elitist but that hasn’t been my experience here ever.

Anyway, I’m just going to try something different for awhile, maybe it won’t do what I think it will but I’m going to give it a shot. When the AX8 replacement starts shipping I’m pretty confident I can get my money back out of this if I want to but until then I’m rolling with a tube amp. Fingers crossed.
 
What is "best" is always up to user experience. If it wasn't, we'd all tend to have the same tone and music would not be nearly as interesting.

For sure, there is a difference between using a real amp in a room and my AX8. Although I must say, running it through a power amp and a conventional guitar cab solves this problem for me.

Play what you got to play and let your freak flag fly. That's the only rule.

Good luck!
 
What makes the tone you want is always the best choice. Good luck with it! The great thing is that you got a good deal and can always come back to Fractal, or anything else for that matter, if it doesn't work out for you. It's a good time to be a guitarist.
 
Congrats on a great deal on the Mark V.

I have a Mark IV combo as well as an Axe-Fx and think you will be very happy with the V. Personally, I will often switch between the two depending on my mood, as otherwise they are both great. When gigging, I used the Axe-Fx because the clean and lead on the Mark IV were great, but I also wanted the effects, the crunch of the Plexi and some other tones the Mark IV couldn't create (the rhythm channel was close, but I didn't like it as much as the Plexi). When jamming somewhere other than home, I use the Mark IV mainly because it takes up less luggage space and has less setup, when compared to the Axe-Fx, controller, and FRFR amp/speaker, although it is pretty heavy at 83 lbs. This may change now that I've ordered an AX8, but I plan on never getting rid of the Mark IV.

Enjoy the Mark V!
 
Excellent, I'd love a Mark V but I'm holding out for a MIDI'd up version. I still use amps, but when it comes to loading the car up, the AX8 usually gets to go; it's just so convenient and every time I use it I'm amazed just how good it sounds.
 
I had a Mark IV for many years and bought a Mark V about a year before I bought my first Fractal product. I love Mesa tube amps and played them for over 20 years. My issue with real tube amps is the inconsistency of tone from venue to venue. My band does about 50 gigs a year mostly in small venues. If the power in the room was underpowered or spiking it really affects the tone. I tried every power conditioner but power conditioners can’t help when the room is slightly underpowered. The reason I love the Fractal is no matter the room it always sounds consistently great. No sqwacks or pops or other annoying underpowered amp misbehavior. Also, Mesa amps are friggin heavy. If the Mesa delivers the tone you need then rock on. Fractal will always be there getting better every day.
 
Will be curious to see how you like it over time.

If money and volume were no object, I'd love to try a hybrid rig with something like a Friedman Runt and an FX8. Not sure how different the amp tone would be though.
 
Mark V is a great amp. Lots of tubes. What's not to love? I find the AX8 gets a lot of the Mark experience just dead on. If I were in a band where my primary tone was a more modern, more heavy distorted tone then I'd have one of those again as a primary amp. They do high gain like nobody's business.
 
Did something similar a few months ago. Sold my Axe Fx Ultra and bought a Victory VX Kraken and a Torpedo Captor. The Kraken sounds immense, but I'm moving to another country in a few months and I'll do a lot of back and forth through airplane, so I definitely need a quality fly rig. I'll probably come back to the Fractal family with the AX8 soon. It's just too good to pass. A friend bought one recently and I was blown away, plus it has way more than I'll ever need.
 
Good on ya...

What ever works is all good. No need to justify your decisions.

I've had a Mark IV and V ( and a lot of other amps ).

While I loved the sound when it 'worked', I hated the night after night of different sounding situations and hoping it would sound the same.

I've stayed in the Fractal world - if there was a difference it is is me rather than amp. With the Mark series for me it was hit or miss with no one touching the dials on the amp and a Furman AR15 (guaranteeing the voltage to the amp).

I've kept an Engl Screamer 50 amp combo for when I need a live amp with an FX8 in front for effects.

I had a AxeFX III but sold it since I was not playing out live enough to justify keeping it. For now an AX8 works for what I need.

I've moved on to Friedman tones for the most part on the AX8, but if what you have works for you - crank and enjoy!
 
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Awesome deal - I own both the AX8 and a Mark V - for the Mark V i have a different pedal board (H9, Comp, Wah etc).
The Mark V is a serious beast once you dial it in. It is a little fussy about pedals in the loop and it has a sweet spot on the Main Output at around 10 or 11 o clock.
I love the AX8 but with the big clean tone of Channel 1 and the searing roar of Channel 3 it is hard to beat.

Enjoy !
 
Love my tube amps, but don't miss dealing with dying or dead tubes. The AX8 gets all the gigs and most of the studio time around here.

This. Also I don't miss dealing with effects in the effect loop, effects in the front and channel switching.
In metal passing from a clean + chorus + reverb to boost + distorted and boost + distorted + delay is like the basic tone to play every song.
To do this with valve amps requires

A valve amp
Three pedals or a multi fx
4cm
a midi switcher
a midi pedalboard


This means that to start playing you have to connect a lot of cables, whether you are in your room or in the rehearsal space. I'm not doing this anymore. If I'll ever buy a Mesa again I will stick the AX8 in the return loop :)
 
I posted this over on the Marshall forums but though I’d share it here as well.


I finally got this thing home and got a good look at it. After turning it on it was making a ton of noise on every Channel and every Mode. I ended up replacing the V1 and V3 12AX7s with new ones. Yea tube amps! Learned a little in the process.

One of these in V3
http://mesaboogie.com/tubes/pre-amp-tubes/12AX7.html

And one of these in V1
http://mesaboogie.com/tubes/pre-amp-tubes/SPAX7.html

Quieted it right down.

This amp is a little noisy. It's got a cooling fan inside that makes a little noise, you can turn it off which is fine but it's just a little annoying. The built in Spring reverb is pretty killer. I get a little hum from it on Channel 1 when I turn the reverb volume up but I'm finding out that is pretty common. I went through and tube swapped all the preamp tubes one by one with a new tube trying to stop that hum but none of them stopped it. I emailed Mesa and they said it happens sometimes, the tech I spoke with said his amp does the same thing, weird.

Channel 1 is a clean machine. Fantastic!

Channel 2 I can't get to sound right. I'm guessing it will take some time to play with that one to get it sounding like I think it can.

Channel 3 is a friggin BEAST. I love it! The 5 band EQ does exactly what it should and foot switching it in is really fun.

One of the best features on this amp, at least for me is the Mute function. There is a button that you can pull out (or one on the foot switch) that cuts off all sound from the amp to the speakers and sends a signal out through an output in the back labeled Tuner. This is so you can connect a tuner to that output and mute the sound from the amp and tune up without anyone hearing you.

I'm running out from this Tuner output and into my DI and then into Reaper and then Helix Native VST. I add an Impluse Response and post gain effects (reverb, delay, etc.) and it sounds fantastic! All the controls on the amp still work through this signal (Bass, Mid, Treb, Gain, EQ, everything) and coming into my DI it works perfectly.

This is exactly what I wanted, a way to play this amp silently through my DI and Helix Native effects or let it rip through the cabinets.

It's a totally different amp from my DSL100H obviously, but I still really love the sound of the DSL. I've only had the Mark V a few days but I can't get it to sound anything like the DSL. The DSL just ROARS, the Mark V is powerful sounding but it a totally different way.

Anyway, highly I recommend trying one of these out if you get a chance.

Pics galore:



Micing a real cab and getting a good recording proved to be a little difficult. Somehow it’s clipping a little in these. Live and learn.

American Std. with a Pearly Gates in the bridge. V30 from the cab using a professional mic stand. Went out and bought a $30 Boss SD-1 (very nice BTW) and a TC Elec. Sentry Noise Gate. Using actual pedals is a blast!


Channel 3 with just a noise gate and the volume rolled back. I’m not sure how it was clipping but it was, my meters weren’t in the red either, very weird maybe my mic.



For reference here's the raw audio captured from the Tuner output of the Mark V into Reaper/Helix Native with a V30 IR. No EQ no nothing, sounds pretty bad but could be made better.



Channel 2 with a SD1 demonstrating the difference. SD1 Level 10, Drive 0. What a difference a boost makes in Channel 2. I love it now.



Reference audio from Mark V output.


Real amp vs modeler is a whole different kind of thing for me but having the AX8 actually helped me with dialing in the physical amp. Maybe not in these recordings but it’s not as hard to get a good tone out of a Mark V as you may be led to believe.

Anyway, I’ll be trying out the real amp, cab, pedals, etc. until the next iteration of the AX8 is released. I can already see why people go back and forth at different times between the two configurations. They both have their pros and cons. I can appreciate even more now what Fractal has done and the exceptionally strong platform the present.


 
I have a MK V and fire it up from time to time (ironically on channel 2), because I can’t quite nail the medium gain tone I like on my AxeFX 2. But in the end I just go back to AxeFX after a few days. It’s way less work to get consistent, good tone out of it, and I’m not limited to 3 tones at a time. For recording it’s even more of a no-brainer.

That having been said, it’s important to enjoy the gear, and life in general. If tubes hit the spot at this point in time, by all means, enjoy!
 
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