10 years ago today I bought my first Axe-Fx!

MattBowman

FAS Social Media Advocate
February 12, 2009 I made the leap and purchased my first Axe-Fx after seeing Dweezil Zappa talk about how he was able to use this magical box to recreate all the different tones he needed for the (at the time) Zappa Plays Zappa shows. I sold off all of my old equipment(Hughes and Kettner Switchblade, Mesa Single Rectifier, various cabs etc) and got my hands on an Axe-Fx Standard and my life changed. At the time I played in cover bands in New England and it made creating tones for those gigs so much easier! 2 years later I was playing in a headline show in Las Vegas and touring all over the country and the world and I've literally played thousands of shows now with my incredible Fractal Audio gear and I can't imagine life without it! It's made my musical life so much easier from setup/teardown, traveling, recording and every other aspect of performing! So thank you to Cliff for creating this incredible game changing piece of equipment, and thanks for making it so much easier for a generation of musicians to be able to faithfully recreate their favorite tones and create new ones that would've otherwise seemed impossible without an endless budget! Can't believe it's been 10 years!!
 
Great story! I'm at the other end of the guitar playing spectrum (incompetent hobbyist) but my 10th is coming up next Christmas. That Ultra was the coolest thing I ever owned, except for all the successive Fractal gear with which I have since replaced it.
 
Great story! I'm at the other end of the guitar playing spectrum (incompetent hobbyist) but my 10th is coming up next Christmas. That Ultra was the coolest thing I ever owned, except for all the successive Fractal gear with which I have since replaced it.
I hear you there, I went on to replace the Standard with 2 Ultras, then I think I had 4 Axe-Fx II's(we had a cruise ship setup as well as in Vegas), and now I travel with the AX8 and at home I have the III. Greatest products I've ever used!
 
Think I'm close to 11+ yrs now?? :)
Profile here shows being a "member" since 2010, but that's because my acct history got lost during the migration from the yahoo forums FAS was using back then.
Been around since '07, but bought my 1st Ultra in '08? Somewhere around there :)
 
Not yet...
I saw this post on Vai website
https://www.vai.com/steve-vai-uses-the-fractal-audio-axe-fx-ultra/
It was May 31 2010

I thought, feck it!! If Vai uses it, most likely it costs USD 5000+ territory or so, never checked it out properly. It was only like a year later I bumped into @rednebb excellent videos on youtube I finally went for one... Living way off in Asia it wasnt easy, but thank god for good luck and nice Ebay people I got one and happy as a pig in shit after that had an II and now the III
 
‘Could have looked at your forum join date hehe
Mostly true, but not necessarily accurate.
When FAS moved to "privately hosted" forums (from yahoo) many of us lost our "member" history due to a migration glitch.. so while my forum join date shows "Joined: Jan 10, 2010", I was on the old forums for a couple (or 3?) yrs prior to that per Ian's comment below
I set it artificially after the fact. :) It was something earlier than that because I joined ahead of buying.
Since I don't have copies of my old posts, I can't remember exactly when my association began. I know it was at least 2 yrs before the current forum went live.
Been a GREAT journey tho' !! ;)
 
I set it artificially after the fact. :) It was something earlier than that because I joined ahead of buying.

ooh you sneaky devil haha

Mostly true, but not necessarily accurate.
When FAS moved to "privately hosted" forums (from yahoo) many of us lost our "member" history due to a migration glitch.. so while my forum join date shows "Joined: Jan 10, 2010", I was on the old forums for a couple (or 3?) yrs prior to that per Ian's comment below

Since I don't have copies of my old posts, I can't remember exactly when my association began. I know it was at least 2 yrs before the current forum went live.
Been a GREAT journey tho' !! ;)

ahh, makes sense; the ancient his-story -- new inform-ation has come to light
 
Mostly true, but not necessarily accurate.
When FAS moved to "privately hosted" forums (from yahoo) many of us lost our "member" history due to a migration glitch.. so while my forum join date shows "Joined: Jan 10, 2010", I was on the old forums for a couple (or 3?) yrs prior to that per Ian's comment below

Since I don't have copies of my old posts, I can't remember exactly when my association began. I know it was at least 2 yrs before the current forum went live.
Been a GREAT journey tho' !! ;)

The pioneer days when people sneered at our digital amps. And before we let in the riff raff :)
 
Coming up on 8 years for me. I remember reading about the Standard and almost went for the Ultra, but the tube amp gas was raging hard back then! Ended up sending an 800 to Fortin for the Cali mod, and also purchased a brand new Elmwood Modena M-60, along with an Eventide Eclipse for effects.

I played those two amps in stereo with the Eclipse for stereo effects, and although it sounded great, those babies had to be LOUD to give up the goods, and the Eclipse was a pain to program!

That’s when I heard the Axe Fx II was coming out, and Mark Day’s videos sealed the deal for me! Got a II and never looked back!
It served me well for 7 years, and is still rockn hard with it’s new owner, since I now have a III.
 
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