Axe Fx II vs Zoom G3

I did a month of pit band last year in a venue that had other stuff going on in the daytime, so I had to set up and break down each night. Rather than haul my AXE II, MFC-101 & pedal I bought a G3X.

With my Axe rig I could have done the whole show with one preset, eight scenes and use of some IA's. The G3X live controls are much more primitive, so I wound up using thirty presets plus the expression-pedal switch. That way I didn't have to switch modes--I just worked my way up through the presets. I duplicated some of them to avoid having to go back more than one preset at any time. It actually worked out well once I got it all organized and finished tweaking the presets, which took quite a while.

Compared directly to my Axe II I thought it sounded pretty bad, but it was acceptable for the show. In fact, I got a lot of praise from the show's producer and sound crew; the cast told me it sounded amazing through the stage monitors and the bandleader thought it was great through the Acoustic Image Corus amp I used for a local monitor.

The things I liked most were the small size that fit easily into the attache I used to carry my music, and the battery operation--I ran it off a set of Sanyo Eneloops that I put into a charger every night when I got home.

Although it did the trick for me I sold the G3X the day after the show closed and gladly went back to my Axe II.

Danny W.
 
I actually use a Line 6 X3 live for rehearsal and as a backup for live shows and it is awesome for these purposes. I actually bought 2 new right before buying my
AXE 2 and one is still in the box (I would sell if you are interested)

Thanks!!
 
Ah, what the hell, I'll chime in...if you want, easy, reasonably overall performance across the board in floor based multieffect that will keep you off the PC, I would suggest the Boss GT100 way before the L6 HD500, I currently have a Boss GT100 for sale, but regardless of that I had the L6 HD500 and just did not jive with it all all. For gigging and creating decent tones quickly, the Boss GT100 kills it in that respect. The dual screens are awesome, and the knobs turn and adjust what you expect them too as if you are working with the pedal faces and amp fronts that show up on the screens. Yeah they are still $499 new you can get better deals used. Certainly there are haters of their "aging" COSM amp modeling but IMHO across the board from clean, mid gain, crunch, high gain the Boss is better. Overall the effects quality is better as well. Each have advantages/disadvantages but the GT100 has a fuller list of PRO's than CONs in comparison.
 
Look into the Fender Mustang Floor, before you get a G3.. I have both and the Floor sounds better to me.

FWIW I also tried both the Mustang Floor and the G3 and to me the Mustang Floor was much better than the G3. The Fender software was easier to use as well and if you like having a volume pedal integrated, that's a bonus

too. The G3 could work in a pinch, but I felt like things that "should have" sounded a certain way and should have sounded good actually sounded really off and needed a lot of unnatural acts in terms of EQing to get a usable sound with the G3.

Of course the Axe spoils us, so everything pales in comparison, but the Fly Rig and Mustang Floor sounded pretty natural to me tone-wise compared to the Zoom.
 
I've tried the Zoom G5 - I didnt like it at all - just sold it this week actually. I'm currently using a VOX Tonelab LE - great cheap processor. Not sure if it fits your needs, but I'd definitely use one as a very cheap backup. Keep in mind that I had the Tonelab, was GASing for something new, tried the Zoom, and it wasn't even good enough to satisfy the GAS... I think that should say something about the Tonelab, and about the Zoom. Just my opinion.

Have you considered the Two Notes Torpedo CAB? To put it bluntly - it models the power amp section of an amp and models CABs separately. It has 3rd party IR loading capabilities. t's in the form of a stomp box. If you were patient you could find a deal on TGP or eBay for about $400. I've been watching prices of these units for the past month or so because at one point I was going to buy one. $400 is about the best you're going to do.
 
Thanks all! I appreciate the input - I discovered some units I wasn't aware of as well.

So, I decided to just try the G3. I've read a lot of favorable comments about it on various forums. Most people seem to feel it sounds better than the Mustang floor or the POD units, though that doesn't seem to be the consensus here, so who knows. We'll see what I think after using for a day or two.

I decided to give the G3 a shot first because it's the least expensive, compact, and will give me a nice variation in sound. I've heard demos on-line that sound good enough for my needs. I'm just trying to get a slightly better sound when doing demos at home, along with two different sounds to mimic my guitar and a band-mate's guitar. The POD HD500 looks cool, but it's $499, not $169, and that's getting out of the realm of what I need. Cheap, flexible, and not as horrible sounding as running direct is all I'm looking for.

Anyway, I figured I'd try it first, and if it does the trick I'll have saved some dough. If not, I'll return it and get something else.
 
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Thanks all! I appreciate the input - I discovered some units I wasn't aware of as well.

So, I decided to just try the G3. I've read a lot of favorable comments about it on various forums. Most people seem to feel it sounds better than the Mustang floor or the POD units, though that doesn't seem to be the consensus here, so who knows. We'll see what I think after using for a day or two.

I decided to give the G3 a shot first because it's the least expensive, compact, and will give me a nice variation in sound. I've heard demos on-line that sound good enough for my needs. I'm just trying to get a slightly better sound when doing demos at home, along with two different sounds to mimic my guitar and a band-mate's guitar. The POD HD500 looks cool, but it's $499, not $169, and that's getting out of the realm of what I need. Cheap, flexible, and not as horrible sounding as running direct is all I'm looking for.

Anyway, I figured I'd try it first, and if it does the trick I'll have saved some dough. If not, I'll return it and get something else.

I have used the G3X extensively live and in home studio. It's an amazing piece of gear for what you get and anyone who dismisses it really hasn't not tried it to it's full extent. If you REALLY want some VERY GOOD sounding tones you can EASILY turn off the cab simulation and either run it into a Lodigy EPSi pedal (this pedal loads SD cards that can be full of the EXACT SAME IR's in WAV format that you all know and love which are loaded into your AxeFX units from OwnHammer, Red Wirez, etc... (and can be easily recalled with a turn of a knob) - Cliff himself has mentioned how important the IR is to the realism of the guitar tone. Or, you can use the G3X with not cab and apply the cabinet using a VST plugin like Sgear, LeCab <FREE!> in your recording DAW.
The unit is also BUS Powered so you can go mobile very easily (I frequently record dry guitar tracks in the back of my Prius using my laptop + G3X) and then re-amp at home. OR you can use the G3X as your audio interface (completely dry signal) and use Scuffham SGear as a VST plugin in your DAW for fantastic studio guitar tones.
This is not to include the fact that the G3X runs on 4 AA batteries in a pinch, sound fantastic in a tube amps loop, has some really great, really EASY to dial FX.... I can go on and on... The ROI (return on investment) for the G3 is unmatched IMHO. Here is a pic of my mobile studio rig and then some clips off of our last EP which is all SGear (~$100?) VST plug in for ALL guitars. All guitar tracks were recorded dry using the G3X and then I applied SGear after the fact. I even did all of the bass lines using the G3X and used Reaper's built in ReaTune plug in to drop the lines an octave for bass :)

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Here is an old live vid of the G3X direct to FOH (no EPSi pedal unfortunately). But clearly the cleans are acceptable and cut, hang until the end when I kick in chorus and delay).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnoWYwRQH0
 

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I have used the G3X extensively live and in home studio. It's an amazing piece of gear for what you get and anyone who dismisses it really hasn't not tried it to it's full extent. If you REALLY want some VERY GOOD sounding tones you can EASILY turn off the cab simulation and either run it into a Lodigy EPSi pedal (this pedal loads SD cards that can be full of the EXACT SAME IR's in WAV format that you all know and love which are loaded into your AxeFX units from OwnHammer, Red Wirez, etc... (and can be easily recalled with a turn of a knob) - Cliff himself has mentioned how important the IR is to the realism of the guitar tone. Or, you can use the G3X with not cab and apply the cabinet using a VST plugin like Sgear, LeCab <FREE!> in your recording DAW.
The unit is also BUS Powered so you can go mobile very easily (I frequently record dry guitar tracks in the back of my Prius using my laptop + G3X) and then re-amp at home. OR you can use the G3X as your audio interface (completely dry signal) and use Scuffham SGear as a VST plugin in your DAW for fantastic studio guitar tones.
This is not to include the fact that the G3X runs on 4 AA batteries in a pinch, sound fantastic in a tube amps loop, has some really great, really EASY to dial FX.... I can go on and on... The ROI (return on investment) for the G3 is unmatched IMHO. Here is a pic of my mobile studio rig and then some clips off of our last EP which is all SGear (~$100?) VST plug in for ALL guitars. All guitar tracks were recorded dry using the G3X and then I applied SGear after the fact. I even did all of the bass lines using the G3X and used Reaper's built in ReaTune plug in to drop the lines an octave for bass :)

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Excellent! Yeah, I figured the G3 would more than adequately meet my basic needs. I've heard a number of demos where the G3 sounded great. I totally appreciated all the suggestions I got on here, but it started to get beyond the scope of what I was asking - all the way up to keeping a spare Axe at home! It seems like they get high praises on forums other than here, and I wonder if someone coming from an Axe is just expecting too much. Plugging directly into my console has been *almost* good enough for what I need for working out song ideas and rough demos, so I think the G3 aughta pass the test with flying colors. I just wanted to hear from people who'd used them, as well as similar things like the PODs, ToneLab's, etc. The more I looked into (and listened to comparisons) more the G3 stood out as a good sounding unit, with some convenient features on it. I'll report back after I've had a few days to fiddle with it.
 
Cool - let us know what you think :) honestly, the tonelab is the best processor I've played (i havent played an axe-fx yet :ambivalence: . But it's not very versatile since you can only play one type of effect at a time. You'll see what I mean if you look up some vids, but the tone is warm and very very good (for a processor).
 
So far so good. The Zoom G3 sounds great. It sounds WAY better than the Tech 21 Leeds pedal's speaker emulation, plus it gives me the ability to have a "my rig" and "my band mates rig" patch(s) to better differentiate two guitar parts as I'm working on song ideas/demos. I also find one of the effects in the Zoom, called "Air", to be really nice for dialing in some realism. It basically adds some subtle room reflections, similar to what you can do in the Cab block on the Axe. For what I was looking for, the G3 is the right fit. Not too big, not too expensive, and sounds great. I just needed a cheap and easy improvement over my previous method.

Cons:
So far my only real issue is the limited interface, but that's to be expected given the size of the unit. Having three groups of three knobs is fantastic; it makes it really fast to tweak parameters. Only having three foot switches is more limiting. You have to either reach down and hit the small buttons, or long-press one of the foot switches to change certain modes. But again, that's a function of the unit being small and not costing $500, and it's worth the trade-off given that the G3 only costs $169 (probably less as time goes on).

Unexpected pros:
-The built in drum loops, while cheesy for any real recording, are pretty handy when used as a metronome replacement. I came up with a neat little guitar part when running through the built-in rhythms and paused on a pretty cool 6/8 pattern. I can practice to a click track or metronome, but I find that substituting a real rhythmic pattern teaches a better sense of swing and musical dynamics than a metronome. ShredBoy_243 on YouTube might have perfect timing and execution, but without any swing and dynamics it's just a flurry of robotic notes.
-The built in looper; it's similarly handy for working out parts and practicing at home. Want to really feel and hear what that Ukrainian Dorian scale sounds like? You gotta jam on that thing over a chord or chord progression!
 
get the latest firmware, it gives you the ability for 6 efx at once.
Also check out some of the Ashbass (think thats right) mods.
He does some intrusive, but fairly simple hard-wiring mods that really allow for some better functionality.
 
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