Am I alone in keeping the Ultra????

vintageguitarz said:
My only concerns are people selling their ultras at rediculosly low prices (Ebay has a ton of them for sale suddenly after not in stock at Fractal) to get the II and then screwing everyone else who owns the Ultra today.
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Why would someone selling something of theirs effect the playability of something of yours?
 
Yep, just don't get it. I just picked up an Ultra for a great deal. How does that affect anyone else? The value of your unit is only what you are willing to part with it for. If you can't find a buyer at your price then its still worth X dollars to you. If you decide to sell it for less than that's on you and not anyone else.

Even if the Axe II hadn't come out and Super Secret Guitar company releases the next biggest thing that beats the Axe this situation would happen.
 
You get it for the $900 you were offering? hehe

Jack Napalm said:
Yep, just don't get it. I just picked up an Ultra for a great deal. How does that affect anyone else? The value of your unit is only what you are willing to part with it for. If you can't find a buyer at your price then its still worth X dollars to you. If you decide to sell it for less than that's on you and not anyone else.

Even if the Axe II hadn't come out and Super Secret Guitar company releases the next biggest thing that beats the Axe this situation would happen.
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WannaRock said:
So my question is with the release of the ll are any of you still totally happy with the ultra and will you be hanging on to it for a while?
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You are not alone. I'll be using my Axe-Fx Ultra for the foreseeable future.
 
rhequiem said:
Nice. It's a good time to be a buyer right now. Desperation + Panic = opportunity
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I wouldn't characterize the seller as being desperate. More 'fed up' with other buyers shenanigans and generally piss poor attitudes. But that is me. He may feel different.
 
I have mixed feelings, I was expecting more from the AXE-FX II.
- No dynamic cabs?
- 50 user IR's... great.... but why not 2000 IR's... I mean in the grand scheme of things how much does extra memory cost for holding 2K IR's?
How about an SD slot so you can load your own memory? How many IR's can I put on a 64 Gig card?
(about 32 million BTW)
Great for backups too.

:p
 
AndrewSimon said:
I have mixed feelings, I was expecting more from the AXE-FX II.
- No dynamic cabs?
- 50 user IR's... great.... but why not 2000 IR's... I mean in the grand scheme of things how much does extra memory cost for holding 2K IR's?
How about an SD slot so you can load your own memory? How many IR's can I put on a 64 Gig card?
(about 32 million BTW)
Great for backups too.

:p
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That will be in the next version so we can go through another round of melodrama.
 
I will definately be keeping my Ultra! I just got it a couple of days ago and only just played around with it today and wow! Tonal heaven for me! Best tone I ever had and I haven't even updated to fw 11 yet! It's still a great unit, old and outdated as it may be :) I am actually also on G66's waiting list so now I have to find out if I can afford the axe II as well... Well, I'm off to sell some gear now...
 
I am mixed.

I am also one of those who suffers from the need to own the next greatest thing when it comes to gear. I have already started parting with gear that has been collecting dust (not my ultra obviously). And I absolutely intend to buy an Axe II.

However here is my thinking (DISCLAIMER: I reserve the right to change my mind at any time with no advanced notice).

I play mostly old school classic rock and 80's type stuff, not real big on these rotary effects and all that crap. I have zero interest in making my guitar sound like a violin, synth or any other non-guitar amp tone.

In the end, the Axe-Fx (for me) is a modeler. At it's best (again for me), it would simply sound identical to the amps it is modeling.

Right now, in a dry mix of guitar only, I would have a real hard time telling the difference between the ultra and the amp it is modeling. And there is a good chance I would not be able to tell the difference or tell you which was which.

In the mix, no chance I could tell you.

Given what I use it for, I have a hard time logically justifying moving to the Axe II (Even though I fully intend to pick one up). The clips I have heard sound good, but they did not jump out at me as sounding better then anything I have heard for the past year on this forum.

Clearly it must be better, and I have no doubt it is. But I guess my real question is from a raw tone perspective how much better could it possibly be? Understanding again that from my point of view, it can only sound as good as the amps it is modeling. So for someone to say that from a raw tone perspective it blows the ultra away, that can only be possible if the real amps themselves blew the ultra away. And we all know that is not the case.

Also understand that I am saying this at the same time I am saving up for an Axe II and have not decided 100% if I am going to sell my Ultra to get it.

I know there will be some guys who get the II who owned the Ultra who will say stuff like "there not even close", and "just blows the ultra away". Some of these people will be the same people who swore the ultra modeled the originals perfectly. Not trying to put down these people, we all get excited with new gear. I get it. But you read this type of stuff an gear forums all the time.

Anyway, I'm just sitting here enjoying a newly modified jcm800 patch a created. Firmware 11.0 really made the bass easier to tame on this.
 
Clearly it must be better, and I have no doubt it is. But I guess my real question is from a raw tone perspective how much better could it possibly be? Understanding again that from my point of view, it can only sound as good as the amps it is modeling. So for someone to say that from a raw tone perspective it blows the ultra away, that can only be possible if the real amps themselves blew the ultra away. And we all know that is not the case
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Amen.

I'm just sitting here enjoying a newly modified jcm800 patch a created. Firmware 11.0 really made the bass easier to tame on this
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Before 11, I honestly thought the 800 model was one of the low-points of the box. Marsha, Plexi 1&2, Brit Pre are *my* Marshall tones. now I have a basic 800 patch that at least "works"...

FWIW Sarge, you were right on all counts about the AXE, and I thank you publicly for your insights prior to my purchase....

P.S. Like you no doubt, that big-@ss Axe FX II picture on the home page mocks me....and I havent even really heard it. The II Clips I have heard arent any better than Ultra clips (that I can discern at least)- so you know it has to be the feel....
 
Laskyman said:
FWIW Sarge, you were right on all counts about the AXE, and I thank you publicly for your insights prior to my purchase....
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Yeah, I felt bad when the announcement was made knowing you had just purchased not a few weeks earlier. Especially considering I was championing it and helped talk you into it.

But regardless, Axe II or not the Ultra still sounds incredible. I am on it every single day.

Even though the announcement was a bit of a buzzkill, it was nice that Fractal went ahead and gave us firmware 11. There is a lot of fun to be had with that release.

This firmware 11 release gave me a reason to redo my patches and I am having a lot of fun with that. Ditto on the 800. Prior to the 11 there were a couple sims I felt did not do as good a job as others at replicating the originals. The Orange and JCM 800 to be specific. But through following Scott Petersons setting on the JCM 800 I was able to get where it needed to be. I did a lot of tweaking on my own with the Advanced settings for the Orange and got that where I felt it needed to be as well. With 11 I think the JCM 800 is pretty spot on right out of the box now. The Orange still required some tweaking but not as much.

Maybe the Axe II will be my Xmas present to me come December (if I can hold off my OCD till then). My "guitar gear" fund is about halfway there. My only fear is I am going to see someone selling an all single coil Suhr S2 in the meantime for 1500 or there abouts and say "who needs the Axe II" :p

As far as resale value of the Ultra's, I have been following Ebay and while obviously you can no longer get full price (or more) if you sell your ultra, it appears the price drop simply brings the ultra resale value closer inline to the rest of the used guitar gear Market.

Most amps you spend 2K on will maybe net you 14 to 15K on resale if you are lucky. I am still seeing ultra's go for more then that.
 
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My thoughts...

I guess I'll be keeping mine since I can't afford the new Axe II. However-

1) I doubt the amp modeling/effects are *that* much better in terms of quality. It would be crazy for a software developer to throw out years of development time and bug fixes to do an/extensive total rewrite of the firmware. I think there are some changes here and there to make room for growth later, but nothing that will affect the sound all that much for us "Vintage" Axe-FX owners. Other than more effects/amp cabs availiable and maybe used at one time, (and new models) I think the quality of the modeling is going to be pretty close, despite new users initial claims of night and day difference. I mean, all you ever hear is how the Axe is "Identical to my tube amp." How much more identical can it get with the new Axe? $2100 better? Doubt it.

2) I think if the older tech is being discontinued, that is actually in a way a favor for current owners. It means that instead of getting a new one from Cliff for a lesser price, owners who want a older model will have to get one used from a current owner. After the initial flood of Ebay sales, the inevitable shortage that will occur with the Axe-II, I bet resale will remain reasonably high, $1400-$1500 for ultra, $1200ish for Standard. guess though. If I do update, I bet the hit won't be too bad.

3) The Axe-FX seems very geared to Studio. Many of the hardware features are nice, but not all that relevant to me, or have workarounds (like the headphone jack, dry out, etc.)

Anyway, I don't post hear often, but that's my take on it...
Chris
 
I really only use my ultra to gig with as it's a great gigging tool. The 11.0 upgrade added quite a bit as far as I can tell, both in terms of feel and sound. I was happy with the Marshall sims on the ultra, now the Fender sims sound and feel a bit better through my QSC k10's. I don't use a lot of the effects, other than the basic delay, reverb and swirly sounds, so it's simply a tool for me. Although tools are important, making music is much more important. I know I can continue to make music, quite happily with the ultra. Will I buy an AXE II? I don't know, depends on how much I'm gigging over the next couple of years. If I stop gigging in the next year or so, then I will get rid of most everything except a very loved Rivera combo amp and the ultra. I won't need more than that for any jams that may come up.

I'm hoping that I can eventually pick up another used Axe really cheaply for backup (a standard would do quite well). I like the sounds the unit produces, like how I can easily gig with it and keep stage volumes well controlled. I like that I don't have to blow anyone out of the room to get a GOOD less paul through a marshall lead tone (i.e classic hard rock and blues oriented). People keep asking me (i.e. other guitar players and friends) where my marshall is after gigs (as they don't see the head or a 4x12 that they are hearing in the audience) so apparently it's working for all involved.
 
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