Are there any well known Christian music artists using the axe fx II?

W

webe123

Inspired
I was just wondering this. Most from what I have seen are either country or rock artists.

I know Lincoln Brewster used an Axe Fx Ultra a couple years back but then switched to a pod HD 500? (Never did understand that! He said he did it so he could play something his fans could afford. But I am a "fan" of Joe Walsh....yet I doubt I could "afford" the gear HE has! But so what? Not going to make me any less of a fan.)

Anyway, are there other christian artists besides Lincoln Brewster that use an Axe Fx??
 
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Well, there's the Scotts... Peterson and Burrows... ;D


I read Brewster went back to the HD500 because of form factor. Sheer portability. And apparently it works well enough. Who could argue? With his fingers, it does work well enough.

Otherwise I don't even know any guitarists in the Christian field, let alone if they use the Axe-Fx or not. I don't know if he's still playing Chr nowadays, but Dann Huff is a Kemperite. Or was that 11R-ite?...
 
Lincoln flies to most of his dates. The HD500s (he travels with two) are more practical for that. And yeah, with his fingers... Plus he's a master tweaker, a studio rat who knows how to function outside of that environment. Most enviable.

Someone who goes to his church says he uses an Axe-FX II in the studio now, don't know if that's true or not. But his Ultra tones on Best Days are what convinced me to stop "hating" the Axe-FX and give it a chance. We do a lot of his songs, plus I have similar guitars and tone preferences - formula for influence.
 
Not that I'm aware of, most still use pedalboards - and I don't blame them really. I use a pedalboard at the church I play at because it's way easier for that application (in my opinion) and makes transit a breeze. I could bring a guitar, the AxeFX II, a MIDI footswitch, more cables and an extension chord/power bar... or I could bring my guitar and pedalboard and go straight through a DI and it sounds excellent. Plus I think you'd be hard pressed to find any Christian musician wanting to spend that kind of money on the unit, knowing how hard it is to make any money doing so.

I also think it's a practicality thing... with worship music there's a large amount of it that is improvised, in a way. You need to pay attention to the congregation and work based on their reactions. If you've got everything pre-programmed in your AxeFX II for your set list and one thing changes, you could be in quite an unfortunate situation. Maybe they just aren't feeling that new song you want to try, so you make a last minute decision to play it half time and more chill, to allow people to enter into worship more. But the patch you had in mind has lots of overdrive and a really prominent delay! With the AxeFX II you'd have to go back over to the unit and tweak all your settings, or find a patch that fits what you want... if you're lucky enough to have made the one you want already. With a pedalboard you turn the gain down on your overdrive, and the mix down on your delay and you're good to go!

Another scenario would be if you've played a lot of slow songs back to back and you can feel people getting bored - you decide to keep with the set list as planned, but bump up the next song and create some motion. So instead of that ambient pad sound you had in mind, you go with a straight overdrive sound with a bit of reverb and decide to do some steady 8ths to keep the movement in the song, and keep it pushing forward. Again, maybe you have an AxeFX patch for this already, maybe you don't. With a pedalboard it's all right there and takes much less time to make these quick decisions on the fly, or even just experiment with sounds if you want to. It's all RIGHT THERE. This makes it easy if you're not the one leading either, and the worship leader notices the crowd and tells you "Do some pads in the bridge!" 8 bars before the bridge.

That being said I would still recommend using it for worship music, it would certainly get the job done and sound awesome using it. Just because no one else is doing it, doesn't mean you shouldn't. Nothing wrong with being different, in fact I would encourage it! I just wanted to point out why some people (myself included) would not see it as the ideal system for what is required.
 
ConnorGilks said:
Not that I'm aware of, most still use pedalboards - and I don't blame them really. I use a pedalboard at the church I play at because it's way easier for that application (in my opinion) and makes transit a breeze. I could bring a guitar, the AxeFX II, a MIDI footswitch, more cables and an extension chord/power bar... or I could bring my guitar and pedalboard and go straight through a DI and it sounds excellent. Plus I think you'd be hard pressed to find any Christian musician wanting to spend that kind of money on the unit, knowing how hard it is to make any money doing so.

I also think it's a practicality thing... with worship music there's a large amount of it that is improvised, in a way. You need to pay attention to the congregation and work based on their reactions. If you've got everything pre-programmed in your AxeFX II for your set list and one thing changes, you could be in quite an unfortunate situation. Maybe they just aren't feeling that new song you want to try, so you make a last minute decision to play it half time and more chill, to allow people to enter into worship more. But the patch you had in mind has lots of overdrive and a really prominent delay! With the AxeFX II you'd have to go back over to the unit and tweak all your settings, or find a patch that fits what you want... if you're lucky enough to have made the one you want already. With a pedalboard you turn the gain down on your overdrive, and the mix down on your delay and you're good to go!

Another scenario would be if you've played a lot of slow songs back to back and you can feel people getting bored - you decide to keep with the set list as planned, but bump up the next song and create some motion. So instead of that ambient pad sound you had in mind, you go with a straight overdrive sound with a bit of reverb and decide to do some steady 8ths to keep the movement in the song, and keep it pushing forward. Again, maybe you have an AxeFX patch for this already, maybe you don't. With a pedalboard it's all right there and takes much less time to make these quick decisions on the fly, or even just experiment with sounds if you want to. It's all RIGHT THERE. This makes it easy if you're not the one leading either, and the worship leader notices the crowd and tells you "Do some pads in the bridge!" 8 bars before the bridge.

That being said I would still recommend using it for worship music, it would certainly get the job done and sound awesome using it. Just because no one else is doing it, doesn't mean you shouldn't. Nothing wrong with being different, in fact I would encourage it! I just wanted to point out why some people (myself included) would not see it as the ideal system for what is required.
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I do not think you understand...I AM an axe fx II owner!

I was just wondering if there were pro christian artists using one.

But I think you are wrong on the whole using it for church services thing. I use mine exclusively in church after using various other modelers like those from line 6 and there is no comparison to the sound you get...and you do NOT have to use a pedalboard with an axe fx...that is more of a preference.

To me, it is WAY easier to have an axe fx and FRFR setup than a whole rig with a tube amp and pedals. Plus it going direct and sounding great is the reason I went with it in the first place.

As far as being able to switch on the fly? I have a favorite set of presets I use... that if a new song comes up, they are already dialed in and volumes are set. You would have to do exaclty the same thing if you were using a line 6 setup! So no difference there.

Clark Kent said:
lol I thought thought talking about religion was against forum rules. But seriously... only Americans would ask this question. :D I'm sure there are more atheist users than Christians so maybe it's safer to just play an acoustic guitar. :) J/K!
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This is not talking about religion, but using an axe fx II in a pro christian venue. Big difference!

And NO I am sure there are more than Americans using an axe for worship!
 
webe123 said:
I do not think you understand...I AM an axe fx II owner!

I was just wondering if there were pro christian artists using one.

But I think you are wrong on the whole using it for church services thing. I use mine exclusively in church after using various other modelers like those from line 6 and there is no comparison to the sound you get...and you do NOT have to use a pedalboard with an axe fx...that is more of a preference.

To me, it is WAY easier to have an axe fx and FRFR setup than a whole rig with a tube amp and pedals. Plus it going direct and sounding great is the reason I went with it in the first place.

As far as being able to switch on the fly? I have a favorite set of presets I use... that if a new song comes up, they are already dialed in and volumes are set. You would have to do exaclty the same thing if you were using a line 6 setup! So no difference there.
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And now you misunderstand, I am too! And I have used mine in church before too and it was awesome. :D

I wasn't talking about compared to other modelers, I was talking about REAL pedals on a pedalboard. In which case you wouldn't have to do exactly the same thing as an AxeFX II to tweak your tones. I wasn't saying you need a MIDI controller with the AxeFX II either, I was just saying if you want to do all the things I want to do with my pedalboard, I would also need a MIDI controller for the AxeFX II. That is MY preference. I was in no way saying the AxeFX II is incapable, I was just saying it is my preference to use a standard pedalboard for worship music as it's much easier to tweak on the fly FOR ME. Most worship musicians I know feel the same way, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the AxeFX II, and it doesn't mean it won't work in that context. It works for you clearly, so obviously it works in that context. My point was simply that in my experience most people worship musicians prefer real pedals on a pedalboard for the reasons listed above.

For switching on the fly that's fine, you've got what you need in your presets and that's great, but some of us aren't happy with just having presets when something new comes up. Some of us need that ability to quickly change the delay time right then and there without any extra button pushes or walking back to our rig. Clearly you don't have that issue and that's cool.
 
ConnorGilks said:
And now you misunderstand, I am too! And I have used mine in church before too and it was awesome. :D

I wasn't talking about compared to other modelers, I was talking about REAL pedals on a pedalboard. In which case you wouldn't have to do exactly the same thing as an AxeFX II to tweak your tones. I wasn't saying you need a MIDI controller with the AxeFX II either, I was just saying if you want to do all the things I want to do with my pedalboard, I would also need a MIDI controller for the AxeFX II. That is MY preference. I was in no way saying the AxeFX II is incapable, I was just saying it is my preference to use a standard pedalboard for worship music as it's much easier to tweak on the fly FOR ME. Most worship musicians I know feel the same way, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the AxeFX II, and it doesn't mean it won't work in that context. It works for you clearly, so obviously it works in that context. My point was simply that in my experience most people worship musicians prefer real pedals on a pedalboard for the reasons listed above.

For switching on the fly that's fine, you've got what you need in your presets and that's great, but some of us aren't happy with just having presets when something new comes up. Some of us need that ability to quickly change the delay time right then and there without any extra button pushes or walking back to our rig. Clearly you don't have that issue and that's cool.
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I think the style of worship also plays into this issue. For the more charismatic/Pentecostal worship bands I've played in, flexibility is a must (though I would argue the Axe Fx and MFC can be almost as flexible as pedals if set up with that in mind). For the other worship bands that are more "play it straight through" you don't need flexibility. I personally try to have a dotted eighth delay available via IA on every preset, along with a dirty and clean scene, a wah, plus IAs for adding dirt and reverb if required. With that there isn't much I can't cover. But the most flexible thing I can add - and the most difficult to get some guitarists to use - is silence.
 
I recently saw an episode of Guitar Center Sessions w/Switchfoot and the had 3 (count 'em 3) Axe II's on the stage. It was a pretty good watch, looked like they are running them into amps. I also learned that G sus is the Holiest of chords!
 
ConnorGilks said:
And now you misunderstand, I am too! And I have used mine in church before too and it was awesome. :D

I wasn't talking about compared to other modelers, I was talking about REAL pedals on a pedalboard. In which case you wouldn't have to do exactly the same thing as an AxeFX II to tweak your tones. I wasn't saying you need a MIDI controller with the AxeFX II either, I was just saying if you want to do all the things I want to do with my pedalboard, I would also need a MIDI controller for the AxeFX II. That is MY preference. I was in no way saying the AxeFX II is incapable, I was just saying it is my preference to use a standard pedalboard for worship music as it's much easier to tweak on the fly FOR ME. Most worship musicians I know feel the same way, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the AxeFX II, and it doesn't mean it won't work in that context. It works for you clearly, so obviously it works in that context. My point was simply that in my experience most people worship musicians prefer real pedals on a pedalboard for the reasons listed above.

For switching on the fly that's fine, you've got what you need in your presets and that's great, but some of us aren't happy with just having presets when something new comes up. Some of us need that ability to quickly change the delay time right then and there without any extra button pushes or walking back to our rig. Clearly you don't have that issue and that's cool.
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Well I am glad that you have what works for you. So do I.

But I think making the jump that a lot of people may or may not prefer presets when something comes up is a stretch.

If they had an axe fx and learned to use it correctly, I would NOT think that even creating a new patch on the fly would be a problem with a new song. Even if they did not have a pedalboard...as I said that is simply a preference.

Though I am planning on getting a MFC 101 eventually.
 
webe123 said:
Well I am glad that you have what works for you. So do I.

But I think making the jump that a lot of people may or may not prefer presets when something comes up is a stretch.

If they had an axe fx and learned to use it correctly, I would NOT think that even creating a new patch on the fly would be a problem with a new song. Even if they did not have a pedalboard...as I said that is simply a preference.

Though I am planning on getting a MFC 101 eventually.
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You're totally right, but the reality is it's just quicker with a real pedalboard. Even if you know the AxeFX II it's still quicker, even if not by much - but in this scenario it can be a big deal to shave 10 seconds off of changing that delay time.

If they had an AxeFX II and knew how to used it then no, they would have no problem at all... but that wasn't my point. My point is having an AxeFX II and using presets isn't for everyone, and that's just the facts. I just find that - in my experience - this genre seems to demonstrate this more so than others. Not everyone prefers the AxeFX II over every other option.
 
Connor, I don't get your comments on ease of use? I'll bet you could build 1 preset in the axe that with an MFC and IA's could do the same if not more than your pedalboard.
As for not sticking to a setlist and making changes on the fly, that's probably no different to any performing guitarist not just worship types. I do it twice a week every week, we get requests, change song orders as we go, we have a different setlist for each gig. So I don't use song mode, just a combination of scenes, IA's and presets. I can cover any style, nuance etc at the flick of a switch.
So I'm really not understanding some of your posts here?.
 
Dutch said:
Well, there's the Scotts... Peterson and Burrows... ;D


I read Brewster went back to the HD500 because of form factor. Sheer portability. And apparently it works well enough. Who could argue? With his fingers, it does work well enough.

Otherwise I don't even know any guitarists in the Christian field, let alone if they use the Axe-Fx or not. I don't know if he's still playing Chr nowadays, but Dann Huff is a Kemperite. Or was that 11R-ite?...
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Hmmm, I don't really know anybody famous or semi famous using one (Yet), except maybe switch foot.
 
Mike Phillips

semi pro (I guess)

Fasedown, Deliverance, The Sacrificed.

I have known Mike for 20 years or so. I believe he uses the Axe II for all his tones now....(although I am not 100% sure)

The Sacrificed's new album "Sacrificed III" got White Throne album of the year.
 
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