You make it sound as if the MI industry is like Game of Thrones or something. It's not. A bunch of us at Line 6 are fans of Fractal, and a couple of us own an AxeFX. Cliff makes a great box, and as long as his creations inspire people to play more guitar (instead of pressing space bars), we all win.The interesting part for me was, Line6, DigiTech and the other large companies will have seen this coming, and watched it appear and sail right by them, totally incapable of doing anything about it.
In large businesses / corporations, they often get to the stage where they are so busy resting on their laurels, and their management are literally terrified of taking a punt on something daring and new, the risk seems so much greater when your feet are under the table and there is potentially more to lose if it fails. Ultimately you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Line6 didn't and well, they ended up getting sold off. Digitech lost the plot and went back to making pedals again.
You make it sound as if the MI industry is like Game of Thrones or something. It's not. A bunch of us at Line 6 are fans of Fractal, and a couple of us own an AxeFX. Cliff makes a great box, and as long as his creations inspire people to play more guitar (instead of pressing space bars), we all win.
I'll freely admit a $2500 box with dual TigerSHARCs is certainly daring and new, but it's obviously not in Line 6's wheelhouse. Our business models are very different, and one isn't empirically better than the other.
Oh, and we weren't "sold off" to Yamaha, because no one owned us before. Yamaha loved our people, technology, and corporate culture, and they offered to make us a wholly owned subsidiary. We looked at the numbers, and an agreement was made. Thus far, very business as usual.
Happy Anniversary, Cliff! Here's to another 10. 8)
Good grief!
I first read about the Axe in the Line 6 forums, then read the Cliff interview where he said that you can't have too many cats ; but a year later, it was that "This thing is a monster" thread that was the deciding factor for me too, even in the Axe seemed out of i reach - I had to sell a tube combo, a DigiTech GSP1101 and a Variax 300 to get a used Standard from a guy in France. Best decision ever.It was Scott's "This thing is a monster" thread on TGP that hipped me to Fractal and...well...changed my guitar-playing life. Good times indeed.
I first read about the Axe in the Line 6 forums, then read the Cliff interview where he said that you can't have too many cats ; but a year later, it was that "This thing is a monster" thread that was the deciding factor for me too, even in the Axe seemed out of i reach - I had to sell a tube combo, a DigiTech GSP1101 and a Variax 300 to get a used Standard from a guy in France. Best decision ever.
I was on the wait list for an Ultra of the first batch made. got on it right the minute it was announced (which was more of a post somewhere on a forum, that a bigger unit would maybe come out and Standards also had a waitlist anyway). took almost a year until the first units showed up and finally I received mine. seemed like a lifetime, but same as Scott, playing the "Eruption" preset made it very clear from the beginning that this was gonna be it.I felt it was really out of reach and I wasn't that far away, geographically, in Canada -- I can only imagine what it'd be like to get one shipped to Mauritius!
That was for the II ; I asked a friend in the USA to buy me one and I send him the money. For the used Standard, I had to take a 10 000 km flight to France - fortunately I get my air tickets at 10 % the price. I did the same for the CLRs, I took a plane to Paris and backI felt it was really out of reach and I wasn't that far away, geographically, in Canada -- I can only imagine what it'd be like to get one shipped to Mauritius!
Certainly not No.1 but I'm pretty confident that my Ultra was the first to hit Australian soil... At that time, Fractal wasn't shipping to Australia so i had a friend receive it in the US and post it on to me here in Oz. I remember doing a gig at Adelaide Convention centre soon after and at sound check the sound guy was like "oh, where's your amp?" to which i pointed to my black box followed by him scoffing, shaking his head and mumbling something under his breath. Towards the end of the last set i see the guy side of stage waving at me frantically, so i sidled over to see what was wrong to which he said "I just wanted to tell you how great your guitar sounds through that thing!" I just smiled and said, "yeah, it's pretty cool right".who possesses "no. 1" ? It should be in the Smithsonian.
For the used Standard, I had to take a 10 000 km flight to France