An upgraders diary

Roland

Experienced
It started with a chance posting on another forum. An Axe FX II was for sale, close to where I would be at the weekend. Why should I upgrade from an Ultra? The chance to get a better acoustic sound is part of the story. Running out of memory is another. The incremental cost over a two or three years is far less than I spend on other pleasures in life, like alcohol or coffee. So Andy and I arranged to meet.

Mistake 1: Whilst Andy was counting the cash I played his PRS SC through the 59BassGuy pre-set. Now, I hadn’t played a PRS since before the Single Cut was first made. There is no doubt that the Bassman through headphones contributed to its outstanding sound. All the same, I’m now GASsing for a wide thin Custom 22 or 24.

A weekend with friends can be very relaxing. There are few household chores to distract you. I planned out how I was going to configure the II, and compiled a list of Decisions to be made:
• How to use XY – I still haven’t decided
• Whether to use Scenes – Not yet
• Whether to re-programme my FCB1010 midi configuration to match the II’s defaults, or change the II – Changing the II is less work.
• This time around I’m going to link a volume pedal to the Cab block, instead of the Amp block.
and Actions:
• Download the latest firmware and software tools
• Load my favourite Ownhammer cabs (Shiva and Blackbird 2x12s)
• Tone Match my Parker Fly to my Taylor 414 – Easy, and I’m very pleased with the result.
• Tone Match my Les Paul – Less successful. The voice of a Les Paul comes from more than tone matching.
• Take a quick run through the amps, and choose no more than three to work with – Mistake 2:there is no such thing as a quick run through the pre-sets.
• Create a base patch with my normal routings and effects.

My final choice of Amps for the Ultra were the ODS 100 and the Shiva. They worked well with the brightness of the Parker, and sounded authoritative in the band mix. For clean sounds I spent a long time auditioning the 59 and 65 BassGuys, various AC30s and Fenders, and the Shiva clean. In the end I settled on: ODS clean; ODS lead, toned down to almost clean; and the Bludojai Lead pre-set, which is a very close match to the ODS lead tone that I’ve been using on the Ultra.

Cabs were a revelation. Ownhammer IRs brought a lot of clarity to the Ultra. I’d settled on the Jenson P12N with M200 for the ODS, and the Jenson Alnico Blackbird when I used the Shiva Lead amp, both in Shiva 2x12 cabinets. The II is so clear that I actually need a fatter, warmer cab, and the default stereo cab from Fractal’s recording session is ideal. I can understand why some people say that the II is brighter than the Ultra, and the later firmware is brighter than earlier versions. Well it might be, but it’s also more articulate.

The rest of my settings I’ve transcribed from the Ultra, using the front panel. I’m still using Scott Peterson’s trick of a PEQ to cut frequencies below 125Hz and above 6.5Khz, and because I like a touch of mid-range honk. Some people have said that Gen 2 modelling doesn’t need as much EQing. In my case it’s more to do with compensating for the speakers. I use an SRM450 for monitoring, and our PA for FOH. Now I know there are better sounding FRFR monitors than the SRMs, but we don’t have a soundman, and if I’m EQing for FOH I’m better off hearing what I’m doing through a similar quality monitor. There’s also a foot-switchable peaking filter to add 5db at about 725Kh if I need to cut through the mix for a fill without stopping playing.

I’m going to add a 600ms delay on solos now that I’ve got the memory to do it. Studio Comp, Wah, Fat Rat, Quad Chorus and a touch of Reverb make up the rest of the picture.

So, after eight hours work, and four happy hours auditioning amps, my five base pre-sets are ready for Monday’s rehearsal, and my Ultra is ready for sale. I'm really happy with the acoustic pre-set, and the clarity which I'm getting from the electrics. Next step is to get the pre-set volumes balanced, and for that I need an empty house.

Should I keep the Ultra for back-up? Will this be Mistake 3?
 
I still have my Standard and it's been just over 6 months since I got my II. I am having a hard time adjusting to the difference the II makes in a band setting but in the studio I prefer it over the Standard. I still gig with the Standard but I bring the II into rehearsal every so often to try it out with firmware upgrades, tweaks, IR's etc, and while it's certainly good, I must just be used to how things react in the old gen models and seem to prefer it for some situations/material. I am planning on loading up some presets this weekend from other users to see if I can up my game in the II.
 
You know how it is. I've tinkered some more. Cleaned up the "crunch" patch a bit by turning on the Bright switch, and lowering the drive, and then raising the amp volume to compensate. To get more "bite" into the lead sound I've added an Ownhammer Cab in parallel with the original Dumble. This is probably a temporary measure. I'll see how it goes at rehearsal.

Delay sounds good on some solo sounds. Ultra memory limitations prevented me from using it before. The spill over really pleases me. I copied a block from another pre-set. Analog tape at about 350ms

Then I started to play with the Rotary ...
 
Ultimately I think that depends on your wallet. Your Ultra is already there and paid for. If I was a professional musician, I'd certainly consider keeping my Ultra as a backup unit. Or maybe as a primary gigging unit if I wanted to keep my II safe in my studio.

Should I keep the Ultra for back-up? Will this be Mistake 3?
 
Ultimately I think that depends on your wallet. Your Ultra is already there and paid for. If I was a professional musician, I'd certainly consider keeping my Ultra as a backup unit. Or maybe as a primary gigging unit if I wanted to keep my II safe in my studio.

That's my advice as well; I've got a II on the way finally after debating for some time whether or not to upgrade as my Ultra has been a happy addition since early 2011........the final push: we had a near fiasco at a private gig last week: We lost a main speaker cab the week before that was due to be swapped out (it wasn't) the sound guy 'forgot' to bring a backup to last weeks gig and the turn around on the repair/replacement would not be in hand by this weekend's three gigs.....on top of that, our bass player's powered monitor died the night before at some karaoke event he loaned it to, and my reactor wedge didn't produce any sound for back-fill/stage volume for the first time ever which I'm still trouble shooting (thanks to Tom at Atomic for being there and extremely helpful) In-ears covered me and our lead singer/rhythm guitar player, but we had no guitars via any monitors as we needed the only spare for mains....we got through it, great gig, but certainly a wake up call for all of us....I usually have a spare sans amp or rig I can go to, but the rest of the boys learned a valuable lesson......talk about raining when it f#$ing pours.....point is that you should always have a backup for everything you can that is practical.

We now have backup mains/mons (k12a's; along with a backup board), backup this, backup that. I think it was all a sign from above to get our butts covered this way.
 
I’ve had fun with my Acoustic patch. First I produced two acoustic IRs, taken by matching my Parker piezos to Tommy Emmanuel’s Merrill guitar. Conveniently, on the cover of Endless Road, he names the guitar on every track, and I was able to grab both a strummed and a flat picked section from the same guitar. The results are much better than the IR I achieved with my Taylor. This isn’t surprising because I bought the Taylor for finger picking, and I want these IRs for strumming.

The other big advance comes from putting a PEQ block after the Cab, boosting hard above 15kHz, peaking around 3.5kHz, and dipping around 660Hz.

Going into next week’s rehearsal I have three sounds I want to try out at volume in a band mix:
• strummed IR,
• picked IR,
• a blend of the two IRs using a stereo Cab with both channels panned centre.

In my view the ability to use Tone Matching to produce an acoustic patch has justified the upgrade.
 
Hi Roland,

Sell the Ultra and create a special fund for the new guitar to go with your Axe-Fx II!
 
Thanks for the moral support. I'm going to pick up a McCarthy next week. It will be very different to the Parker, and will need a different set of patches. In preparation I’ve been auditioning amps and cabs to go with it, using a Les Paul copy as a sound source. If I gel with the PRS, and decide to keep it, then I'll probably fit a piezo bridge so that I can use it for acoustic simulation too.
 
Maybe. Let's see how I get on with the McCarty. I used to like warm guitars before my Parker phase, so I went for that rather than something brighter like a Custom. If the guitar works for me then I might fit a Graphtech compensated stoptail with piezos.
 
Getting back on topic. Bad news, I've managed to erase my Tommy IRs with Axe Manage. Not sure how it happened, but will need to be more careful next time. I'll re-make the Tommy IRs over the weekend. Good news, Simeon set me an IR which blends well with my Taylor IR, which gives me another option to try at rehearsal.
 
The plan was to audition my acoustic IRs at this evening's rehearsal. It didn't happen. It was so much fun playing my new McCarty through Bassman and Two Rock patches that the Parker never came out of its case. Maybe next week.
 
Well it's been a while.

Over the last two months I've adjusted the patch volumes at home, in rehearsal, and live. For my clean sound I've now changed to the Fender Bandmaster. Everything else is pretty much the same. I've also played with more amps and cabs, especially the Trip Tik, and James Santiago's Altec, but haven't introduced them into "live" patches yet. I can understand why so many guitarists stick with what they know: changing is difficult, and I just don't have enough time to experiment.

The solution to the acoustic IR was a 60:40 blend of my Tommy Emmanuel tone match and a tone match of my Parker Fly to my Taylor 414, with the low end rolled of from 125Hz.

I'm still using the SRM450s. Yes I know they are not perfect, and I've been speculating about buying something better. Then at a gig earlier this month one of our PA speakers failed, and we put one of the 450s up in its place and carried on. That sort of resilience is invaluable. I guess I'll stick with them for now.
 
Roland, slightly off topic, but I just got my AFX II last week. Getting some Studio Monitors (have some, a pair went back (Adams A7x), and have Equator D5's in route from a forum member). Anyway I play AT HOME and also have a pair of Powerred Mackie SRM 450 V2 PA Speakers like You mentioned.

I haven't tried the AFX-II yet through them, but in lieu of a FRFR speaker solution (at this exact moment), does the AFX-II Sound good through the Mackie's??? I was contemplating throwing them on the ground facing u;p at me and running them in stero and just curious if they are nice sounding to you, or not so good? Do you ever play out of them at home?

Thanks

Tex
 
Hey Tex, in the time it took to read all of these posts and then write your post, you could have plugged in your Mackies and heard them for yourself..........lol...........sorry brother i could't resist.:encouragement:

Don't wonder,........do it......If YOU like it, then YOU like it...if YOU don't, then YOU don't...

B.T.W. I have the Equator D5's, and for the money and their size, they sound great.
 
Tex - The Mackies aren't particularly good: they have a top end which some people call "glassy", and others "metallic". I use them both live and at home, which means that the difference between home and gig-level sound is only due to Fletcher Munsen, and not speaker differences. As I said in the first post, we are using similar quality speakers for FOH, so if I EQ patches for the Mackies then they will work for FOH without a soundman. Last week's PA problem is added justification.

Moke - it's valid question. We don't all have the opportunity to turn the volume up at home, and hear the result in a band mix. I guess that many of us don't trust our own ears. I've been playing valve amps since the 70s, but have only owned one at a time. I know that I've become much more discerning since getting an Ultra three ears ago, and having the ability to audition amps and speakers side by side over an extended period.
 
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