Hello All,
Wanted to give my thoughts on the Axe III Mk II since I found these reviews helpful when I was deciding whether or not to purchase one for myself. I have had mine for a couple weeks and I am feeling more comfortable with it so now seems a good time. Note, there is some background here because I appreciate it when others are detailed. Feel free to skip to the end.
First, my experience with amp modelling outside of VSTs is virtually nil. I like tube amps. I like pedals. It was only over the course of the Covid pandemic that my guitar playing habits changed quite a bit from what they have been over the last couple decades. I have played in bands off and on since I was a teenager, now 40. Through that lens I was primarily after maybe a handful of tones at any given time. Whatever suited the band I was in at the time. My main tone is classic crunch, think Angus but not as good. I like to north and south(Clean/Hi-Gain) from that solid base.
I moved to Europe just before the pandemic hit. When I did, I put my Vox AC30 in storage because of the voltage situation. For nearly the last year or so I have been blending a Peavey 6505 and a Marshall JCM 2000 in stereo with a modified footswitch so I can change the channels of each amp at the same time. Those were each going into their own Torpedo Captor, then into Reaper, each with their own IRs. Out in front I've used a dozen or so pedals, half of them drives, to achieve a variety of tones. This may sound silly but having so much time to kill this last year I started playing for fun again like I did when I was a teenager. Not obsessing about writing and recording and such, instead I turned my focus to learning some classic albums and songs. So I have been doing this sort of "guitar karaoke" on a near nightly basis through some AT-M50x headphones; learning how to play old favorites inside and out. And usually being able to get comparable tones through an array of drive pedals. The wall I hit was that neither of my current heads have a great clean tone. The Marshall's is not bad but using it would mean not being able to footswitch to its "classic crunch" channel (Which in my opinion is where that head really shines). So I was considering a three channel head like Road King, or the Mark V, or even a third amp and load box... It was just getting kinda ridiculous. I've already been inside of each of my heads for repairs over the last eight months. I was pretty desperate for a more elegant solution.
I read about and watched video reviews of the top modelers and the Kemper. Kemper seemed like a cool idea but I have noticed that on average other players tend to dial in way more gain than I do. My fear was that every capture was going to be over the top and I would be left with limited control over the final tone. Not gonna work.
I gave an honest go at the Axe Fx III's most oft cited competitor. Albeit it was the software version. I spent days dialing in things as good as I was able but there was ALWAYS some weird shit going on with high end frequencies in higher gain applications. Really unnatural sounding artifacts, disharmonic fragments that would be buried inside of the tones. I am convinced that not everyone is hearing this. But I can sadly and it ruined it for me. It also gave me the impression that I was being served up audio images or frames. I don't play this kinda music too often but if for instance I did some palm muted chugga stuff, each strike would yield a new "image" the same as the last. It didn't feel fluid or real. It reminded me of a slow frame rate in a video game. After a lot of time though I got dialed in to what I thought was a pretty good approximation of the tones I was getting on my real amps. Then I A/B'd it and it was not even close. The ears lie, everything is relative. Lesson learned. About that product though, I can say I thought the cleans were really nice. I also really liked their HiWatt model at edge of breakup.
Anyway, Bought an Axe III. My customer service experience was excellent. The shipping experience was excellent.
I ordered the Axe III and the FC-12. My reasoning was that if it works as well as I hoped it would replace everything in my signal chain.
And yeah, it works damn well and offers much more than any reasonable amp/pedal collection can deliver while also being foot-switchable on the fly. I ran through things by trying to dial in the tones from records I have been learning over the past year. Records I enjoyed as a teenager. These aren't the Holy Grail or anything, just tones I always thought of as unique or at least interesting. Specifically: Hum's tones Downward is Heavenward and You'd Prefer an Astronaut, Weezer's tones on the Blue Album and Pinkerton, Tool's tone on Aenima, and Nirvana's weird-as-all-hell tone on Nevermind.
I don't go into it trying to 100% match what's on the album because if you do that you bury yourself in the mix. I try to get as close as I can and then adjust to taste so that my playing is audible without being too loud or crushing the rest of the mix; like a backing track that's pushed just above what would be agreeable for a release. The Axe absolutely slayed at this. It just took a little reading on what gear was used on those records and then pulling up those models or something close in most of these cases. Sometimes that fell short and I explored. Sometimes blending in Tone Match IRs where possible. Sometimes pulling a tone through Axe Change and Fractool and adjusting it to my ear. Sometimes I got creative and arrived at the tone I was seeking in unexpected ways. Like on the Blue Album, it's supposed/rumored that he was running primarily through a Mesa Mark I. I ended up with a USA PRE LD2 yellow and a USA Rhythm(I am addicted to stereo signals) with some slight Bender Fuzz in front. Damn, Damn close. Close enough that I think they had some kinda fuzz or op-amp circuit(whatever the fuck that is) running with the gain dialed down throughout that album. Close enough in all the above cases that I find that I am not so close as to not be able to hear a difference, but close enough that I have no clear idea on what knobs to turn to go any further. And I would likely need third party tools to analyze the differences. Fucking close enough. Close enough to where some of the between-chord harmonics, the disharmonic oscillations of a bend(Say it Ain't So chorus), are pinging the same general feelings/frequencies as what you hear on those records. Sounds I am not even targeting with the tone controls or my playing are there amidst the meat of it. That really blew me away because it was unexpected and not something I even considered until I heard it.
What's also striking about the Axe is how well it wants to sit in a mix. In my experience, my raw guitar tones always have to be cut and trimmed in mixing. I have always dialed in my amps to what sounds good when it is me and the amp, not me, the amp, and the band. The Axe feels like it doesn't want to be pushed in that direction. Like it favors being mix ready regardless of what knobs I twist. Which is nice, mostly.
My last kinda test for Axe was trying to match exactly the meat and potatoes sound I get from my above mentioned tube amp combo. I found I was able to almost exactly match the gain structure and tonality of the JCM2000's "classic crunch" channel with the Brit JVM OD1 Green and some post EQ. Boom, sold. The 6505 was way more difficult. I was trying to match its crunch channel. I pulled up the PVH 6160+ Crunch/Bright(my settings on the 6505) and couldn't get there. The gain structure was right but the low end hum wasn't. It was absent on the Fractal. Weirdly I found the 5153 Blue 50w had almost exactly the same low end hum and gain structure(This amp also does a better Angus impression than any of the Plexis I have tried, (seriously, A/B Back in Black tones against it).
It was at this point where I, a novice, got into the weeds. I'd palm mute a single note at edge of breakup levels of gain, stay on it and try to match my real 6505. I'd get it exact(EQ and those little granules of gain) to my ear but when I would shift to a different note, say up an octave, it would fall apart and differences would appear. Moreso with chords, they would woof out. That's the wall I hit with the unit but it was a pretty focused test and absolutely could be a result of my ignorance of not knowing how to dial the Fractal further (I was just moving low end sliders in post EQ). Moreover, I was trying to dial it towards something that would almost certainly be removed in a mix.
Alright, wrapping up. This thing is amazing. Blows the competition out of the water. I will be selling my amps and most pedals. Does it sound like exactly like a tube amp? Nope. I can hear the differences. There is a smoothness tube amps achieve across the EQ range that the Axe doesn't. But it is damn, damn close to my ear. And it also outperforms my amps in clarity and mix readiness. Close enough that the benefits presently outweigh using tube amps FOR ME. In an ideal situation with someone else's budget I would still use the real deal for recording purposes. But that is very much a corner case scenario.
The bottom line for me is that I can go from running a Matchless and an AC-30 in stereo, sounding a hell of a lot like Joy Division/New order and then with the flick of switch run a Diezel VH4 channel 3 and a Marshall Super Lead in stereo, sounding a hell of a lot like Tool. And that is after just a couple weeks with the unit on 15.01. I am massively looking forward to exploring the sounds packed in this device on their own merits now. Not comparing it against my amps or records I think are important. That was a hell of a lot words but I still suspect I missed some details I would have liked to communicate to you. So it goes.
Wanted to give my thoughts on the Axe III Mk II since I found these reviews helpful when I was deciding whether or not to purchase one for myself. I have had mine for a couple weeks and I am feeling more comfortable with it so now seems a good time. Note, there is some background here because I appreciate it when others are detailed. Feel free to skip to the end.
First, my experience with amp modelling outside of VSTs is virtually nil. I like tube amps. I like pedals. It was only over the course of the Covid pandemic that my guitar playing habits changed quite a bit from what they have been over the last couple decades. I have played in bands off and on since I was a teenager, now 40. Through that lens I was primarily after maybe a handful of tones at any given time. Whatever suited the band I was in at the time. My main tone is classic crunch, think Angus but not as good. I like to north and south(Clean/Hi-Gain) from that solid base.
I moved to Europe just before the pandemic hit. When I did, I put my Vox AC30 in storage because of the voltage situation. For nearly the last year or so I have been blending a Peavey 6505 and a Marshall JCM 2000 in stereo with a modified footswitch so I can change the channels of each amp at the same time. Those were each going into their own Torpedo Captor, then into Reaper, each with their own IRs. Out in front I've used a dozen or so pedals, half of them drives, to achieve a variety of tones. This may sound silly but having so much time to kill this last year I started playing for fun again like I did when I was a teenager. Not obsessing about writing and recording and such, instead I turned my focus to learning some classic albums and songs. So I have been doing this sort of "guitar karaoke" on a near nightly basis through some AT-M50x headphones; learning how to play old favorites inside and out. And usually being able to get comparable tones through an array of drive pedals. The wall I hit was that neither of my current heads have a great clean tone. The Marshall's is not bad but using it would mean not being able to footswitch to its "classic crunch" channel (Which in my opinion is where that head really shines). So I was considering a three channel head like Road King, or the Mark V, or even a third amp and load box... It was just getting kinda ridiculous. I've already been inside of each of my heads for repairs over the last eight months. I was pretty desperate for a more elegant solution.
I read about and watched video reviews of the top modelers and the Kemper. Kemper seemed like a cool idea but I have noticed that on average other players tend to dial in way more gain than I do. My fear was that every capture was going to be over the top and I would be left with limited control over the final tone. Not gonna work.
I gave an honest go at the Axe Fx III's most oft cited competitor. Albeit it was the software version. I spent days dialing in things as good as I was able but there was ALWAYS some weird shit going on with high end frequencies in higher gain applications. Really unnatural sounding artifacts, disharmonic fragments that would be buried inside of the tones. I am convinced that not everyone is hearing this. But I can sadly and it ruined it for me. It also gave me the impression that I was being served up audio images or frames. I don't play this kinda music too often but if for instance I did some palm muted chugga stuff, each strike would yield a new "image" the same as the last. It didn't feel fluid or real. It reminded me of a slow frame rate in a video game. After a lot of time though I got dialed in to what I thought was a pretty good approximation of the tones I was getting on my real amps. Then I A/B'd it and it was not even close. The ears lie, everything is relative. Lesson learned. About that product though, I can say I thought the cleans were really nice. I also really liked their HiWatt model at edge of breakup.
Anyway, Bought an Axe III. My customer service experience was excellent. The shipping experience was excellent.
I ordered the Axe III and the FC-12. My reasoning was that if it works as well as I hoped it would replace everything in my signal chain.
And yeah, it works damn well and offers much more than any reasonable amp/pedal collection can deliver while also being foot-switchable on the fly. I ran through things by trying to dial in the tones from records I have been learning over the past year. Records I enjoyed as a teenager. These aren't the Holy Grail or anything, just tones I always thought of as unique or at least interesting. Specifically: Hum's tones Downward is Heavenward and You'd Prefer an Astronaut, Weezer's tones on the Blue Album and Pinkerton, Tool's tone on Aenima, and Nirvana's weird-as-all-hell tone on Nevermind.
I don't go into it trying to 100% match what's on the album because if you do that you bury yourself in the mix. I try to get as close as I can and then adjust to taste so that my playing is audible without being too loud or crushing the rest of the mix; like a backing track that's pushed just above what would be agreeable for a release. The Axe absolutely slayed at this. It just took a little reading on what gear was used on those records and then pulling up those models or something close in most of these cases. Sometimes that fell short and I explored. Sometimes blending in Tone Match IRs where possible. Sometimes pulling a tone through Axe Change and Fractool and adjusting it to my ear. Sometimes I got creative and arrived at the tone I was seeking in unexpected ways. Like on the Blue Album, it's supposed/rumored that he was running primarily through a Mesa Mark I. I ended up with a USA PRE LD2 yellow and a USA Rhythm(I am addicted to stereo signals) with some slight Bender Fuzz in front. Damn, Damn close. Close enough that I think they had some kinda fuzz or op-amp circuit(whatever the fuck that is) running with the gain dialed down throughout that album. Close enough in all the above cases that I find that I am not so close as to not be able to hear a difference, but close enough that I have no clear idea on what knobs to turn to go any further. And I would likely need third party tools to analyze the differences. Fucking close enough. Close enough to where some of the between-chord harmonics, the disharmonic oscillations of a bend(Say it Ain't So chorus), are pinging the same general feelings/frequencies as what you hear on those records. Sounds I am not even targeting with the tone controls or my playing are there amidst the meat of it. That really blew me away because it was unexpected and not something I even considered until I heard it.
What's also striking about the Axe is how well it wants to sit in a mix. In my experience, my raw guitar tones always have to be cut and trimmed in mixing. I have always dialed in my amps to what sounds good when it is me and the amp, not me, the amp, and the band. The Axe feels like it doesn't want to be pushed in that direction. Like it favors being mix ready regardless of what knobs I twist. Which is nice, mostly.
My last kinda test for Axe was trying to match exactly the meat and potatoes sound I get from my above mentioned tube amp combo. I found I was able to almost exactly match the gain structure and tonality of the JCM2000's "classic crunch" channel with the Brit JVM OD1 Green and some post EQ. Boom, sold. The 6505 was way more difficult. I was trying to match its crunch channel. I pulled up the PVH 6160+ Crunch/Bright(my settings on the 6505) and couldn't get there. The gain structure was right but the low end hum wasn't. It was absent on the Fractal. Weirdly I found the 5153 Blue 50w had almost exactly the same low end hum and gain structure(This amp also does a better Angus impression than any of the Plexis I have tried, (seriously, A/B Back in Black tones against it).
It was at this point where I, a novice, got into the weeds. I'd palm mute a single note at edge of breakup levels of gain, stay on it and try to match my real 6505. I'd get it exact(EQ and those little granules of gain) to my ear but when I would shift to a different note, say up an octave, it would fall apart and differences would appear. Moreso with chords, they would woof out. That's the wall I hit with the unit but it was a pretty focused test and absolutely could be a result of my ignorance of not knowing how to dial the Fractal further (I was just moving low end sliders in post EQ). Moreover, I was trying to dial it towards something that would almost certainly be removed in a mix.
Alright, wrapping up. This thing is amazing. Blows the competition out of the water. I will be selling my amps and most pedals. Does it sound like exactly like a tube amp? Nope. I can hear the differences. There is a smoothness tube amps achieve across the EQ range that the Axe doesn't. But it is damn, damn close to my ear. And it also outperforms my amps in clarity and mix readiness. Close enough that the benefits presently outweigh using tube amps FOR ME. In an ideal situation with someone else's budget I would still use the real deal for recording purposes. But that is very much a corner case scenario.
The bottom line for me is that I can go from running a Matchless and an AC-30 in stereo, sounding a hell of a lot like Joy Division/New order and then with the flick of switch run a Diezel VH4 channel 3 and a Marshall Super Lead in stereo, sounding a hell of a lot like Tool. And that is after just a couple weeks with the unit on 15.01. I am massively looking forward to exploring the sounds packed in this device on their own merits now. Not comparing it against my amps or records I think are important. That was a hell of a lot words but I still suspect I missed some details I would have liked to communicate to you. So it goes.
Cliff Chase and his team did it.