another axefx2 xl+ newbie

'Input drive' on the amp screen is generally the amount of drive you want to hear, as far as I understand (I'm still new too)...works like a a channel volume on a regular amp.

On some amps, it's best to turn the 'master volume' down a little to get more drive. But in general, set the 'input drive' higher if you want more gain, and lower for cleaner stuff.

I don't run it like you, as I'm using FRFR and really enjoy the cab simulation, so can't comment on powering 4x12 regular guitar cabs.
 
ok i have the input gain turned way down to get rid of the background noise. I think this noise is just because i am sitting pretty much right infront of my cabs and the pickups and feeding back with the cabs. i turn my guitar volume down and the noise goes down.
 
One thing about buying this stuff to learn guitar is i am going to end up with free guitar lessons. I was downtown signing up for lessons and got talking with the teacher that i chose. He asked what equipment i had to use at home so i told him and he said that he would come to my house and teach me for free if i let him play around with my axefx.. That is part of the reason i am trying to get it sounding right before he comes. lol
 
ok thanks a lot for your help jonathan. I will go down to the music room again and try the things you have mentioned and see how it works out. I really appreciate your input.
 
Neil Willford said:
One thing about buying this stuff to learn guitar is i am going to end up with free guitar lessons. I was downtown signing up for lessons and got talking with the teacher that i chose. He asked what equipment i had to use at home so i told him and he said that he would come to my house and teach me for free if i let him play around with my axefx.. That is part of the reason i am trying to get it sounding right before he comes. lol
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Holy cow, you have an Axe Fx and a whole rig setup and you're just learning guitar? Yikes. Well, if that's how you want to do it, more power to you, but I feel like all this stuff would be WAY over my head if I was just starting out. As an ex-guitar and music theory teacher, I would recommend focusing on learning the guitar first before buying a bunch of gear and new guitars. Anyone can have millions of dollars of the best gear in the world, but if they don't know how to play guitar, they will always sound like garbage.

That said...

It sounds like you need to disable the Cab Modeling from the Global settings. Since you're playing through guitar cabinets, you don't want to have the Axe FX's Cab block affecting your tone. That's like playing through one guitar cabinet and the having that sound go through a second guitar cabinet. You can deactivate Cabinet Modeling by pressing the GLOBAL button on the front of the Axe FX then using the PAGE buttons to find the right page the setting is on. (I can't remember which page exactly) Look for "Cabinet Modeling" and set it to OFF.

Setting "Cabinet Modeling" to OFF completely deactivates the CAB block on the grid, even if you have it active/un-bypassed in your preset.

I recommend reading up on the manual for some of the other questions you have about Input Gain and Input Drive and all that. The information on those two things are in the manual. Here's a link to the manual: http://www.fractalaudio.com/downloads/manuals/axe-fx-2/Axe-Fx-II-Owners-Manual.pdf

The Axe FX Wiki is also a very useful, but unofficial resource: http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Axe-Fx_II_Wiki_Home
 
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well i put away the american strat and got out the les paul and pretty much pulled all my hair out and pushed my blood pressure to the max but i finally got my sound just about exactly the same as the sound on the youtube video. i think maybe he had a little hotter (i think is the right word) pickups in his les paul but i am very happy with how close i got it.. thanks again to all who have helped me.
 
Neil Willford said:
well i put away the american strat and got out the les paul and pretty much pulled all my hair out and pushed my blood pressure to the max but i finally got my sound just about exactly the same as the sound on the youtube video. i think maybe he had a little hotter (i think is the right word) pickups in his les paul but i am very happy with how close i got it.. thanks again to all who have helped me.
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That's awesome news, mate! It takes a lot to get used to but spending time with it pays dividends, you'll love it!
 
I don't mean to be a downer here, however, what you have essentially done here is as follows.

If you are truly a beginner at guitar and bought an AXE FX you have essentially bought a commmercial jet liner and don't even have your pilots license.

I am glad you got a tone you like with your Gibson..... Take some time learning how a signal chain is put together in terms of guitar ---> Pedals ---> AMP (not always in this order) -----> speaker Cabinet ----> Tone you hear. This will help you understand how the AXE creates this in the virtual world.

As Jonathon just said above.... Take time with BASICS and it will pay dividends..... The AXE is the best piece of Guitar gear I have ever owned (Hands down) but a didn't get here until after years of trying others.... Just sayin...

Good luck and have fun!
 
Woah dude, all I can say is, if you've bought an Axe FX, Les Paul and Strat to learn guitar I am hideously jealous.

You've definitely jumped in at the deep end with regards to complexity though, you've got a lot of (fun) learning ahead!

People on here are very helpful so keep asking questions.
 
i think i have all i need now. i bought 2 peavey pvx15 frfr speakers this afternoon to hook up. Should help with the cab modelling. If anyone needs 2 4x12 guitar cabs i have 2 i am not using now. lol

time to go online and learn how to play this stuff now. maybe some scales or a song or something. See what i can find.
 
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Neil Willford said:
i think i have all i need now. i bought 2 peavey pvx15 frfr speakers this afternoon to hook up. Should help with the cab modelling. If anyone needs 2 4x12 guitar cabs i have 2 i am not using now. lol

time to go online and learn how to play this stuff now. maybe some scales or a song or something. See what i can find.
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Ha, you don't mess about to you! :)

15" speakers may be hard to tame at home, they'll give you a hell of a lot of bass. But I don't know where you're playing. 8/10/12 inch speakers would be my preference, personally, but see how you go. Just saying as you may have the opportunity to return them...worth listening out for other opinions first though, I could be wrong.

It may be worth mentioning that the 15" speakers may not help you hone in on that sound you're looking for as easily as a smaller speaker will.

"Some scales or a song or something"...what a legend! haha.
 
i am learning to play in my music room which is about 8x10 maybe or something like that.
my power amp has 100 watts per side so it seems to fill the room ok. lol
not too sure if the wife is happy with my new hobby or not. she has a hard time hearing the tv. lol
 
1) you will have too much bass best bet turn down the bass levers in global eq (I have 2 powered 12 inch speakers in a 10x20 room 1000 watt each
2) If your ever uncertain, try using headphones to check your frfr abilities/sounds. While not the same exact sound, it skips any mistakes, questions etc. of hearing anything but your guitar and axe fx.
3) my first electric ever was a les paul, a 1972 sunburst (course this was after playing 2 years on a classical and was 1980)! good luck!
 
Neil Willford said:
i am learning to play in my music room which is about 8x10 maybe or something like that.
my power amp has 100 watts per side so it seems to fill the room ok. lol
not too sure if the wife is happy with my new hobby or not. she has a hard time hearing the tv. lol
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I find this fascinating! Can't believe you're just starting out and have so much cool gear. My advice is that you should consider some smaller speakers in such a small room. If you can, get the money back for the power amp too and get some powered FRFRs or studio monitors.
 
So, think about the Axe more as a computer loaded with every piece of software you can think of...and then you, having no idea how to use a computer. That's about the only way I can equate to your situation.

To start with an Axe - at your experience level...is going to be very difficult to master in any time, because you don't know much about guitars, amps, effects, etc...or how to dial in tones on the Axe.

The Axe is infinitely capable of producing pretty much any tones you can think of...and you can browse around here to hear samples of guitarists who are playing through them. You'd be amazed. But if you don't know how to play or set it up, it'll sound like shit, guaranteed.

You're not going to get there soon, or easily.

Someone posted above that you've bought a commercial jetliner and you don't have a pilot's license. That as well puts things into perspective.

You obviously have no shortage of resources to acquire the gear...and that's a wonderful thing, but learning how to use it will be a challenge.

The Axe isn't for the faint of heart, on a good day. However, if you do overcome the challenges, you won't believe what it's capable of! It just won't do much on it's own...even with all the presets it comes with. It needs human intervention to make it sing. It took me, with 50 years of playing guitar, a good 12 months to learn how to manipulate it to get the sounds/ tones I want, and I know what I'm doing, not as well as some others, but enough to be dangerous anyway. :)

If you could go into a store, and you had an Axe and say, an EVH 5150 Combo, and you'd plug into one and the other...the EVH would sound amazing, and the Axe, like turd. Because you simply don't know how to use it. For experienced players, there is a learning curve...which gets way steeper with less experience.

The Axe can sound like a Fender Twin, or a Mesa / Marshall/ Orange stack...or pretty much anything you can dream of, but will take a lot of work and experience to get it there. It has all the effects you need, built in. It can do anything you can think of, emulate any sound you want. But you're a long way away from that, today.

When you see major artists making the switch away from analogue gear to the Axe, guys like Vai, Metallica, Satriani, Lifeson, Petrucci, Collen and a whack of other crazy players...you know this stuff is the real deal. But it is going to take you a long time and lot of effort to get there...Axe FX or not!

Find someone who knows the Axe and have them dial in the tone(s) you like. Start from there.

Good luck!
 
thanks for the reply steve. the guy was doing a comparison about the jet airliner, i did not buy one. I know what i have here in the axefx and realize that it is going to be a steep hill learning it. but that said i am very excited to learn and get better as time goes on both with my playing ability and with the operation of the axefx. I have learned one more important lesson as i have been playing with it and watching videos on the net. That is that probably 80 percent of the tone comes from the player not the equipment. I seen a guy on the net who showed several tones without changing a thing on his equipment except maybe the volume knob on his guitar.

Anyway thank you again for your reply and yes it is going to be a steep hill but a fun one.
 
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