Axe-Fx III for Bass: First Impressions and Review

B

Boylston

Member
I've posted a video review with my thoughts on this hardware from the perspective of a bass player. You can find it here:



I give my thoughts on the overall platform, its use as an audio interface, and discuss the various bass amps and cabinets that ship with the unit. Overall, I'm pleased with the Axe Fx III, but it would be nice to see more amps and effects options added for bass players.

Video is heavy on me talking and going through a presentation-style review-- if you want more examples of preset building and how I approach the process, you can see them on my channel.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the kind words on my cab Ir files. You missed the SWR Workingman 12 ir file I was allowed to include in the Axe FX III though.

I would love to know your thoughts.

If you would like to try out any of my cab packs for bass for review, please PM me.

Would you mind if I linked to your video to my Facebook page and on my site?
 
Wow, Dr. Bonkers! Apologies for missing the SWR Workingman 12 IR. I'll look for it today and try it out.

Feel free to link your video to Facebook and your site. I know the production value isn't high (I'm a musician, not a video producer), but I hope some of the points resonate with folks.
 
As a tip in Fractal bass land, for a lot of the more solid state bass tones, you can use the Jazz 120 model. Since it's a solid state Roland JC-120 model and swap out tone stacks to get some usable bass tones too that will be similar to some solid state bass amps.

Your videos are certainly much better than mine. Really good job with these.
 
It kinda feels bad to be a bass player; pleading for something and then being ignored for so long. Love the Fractal stuff but I feel like bass players are invisible to FAS sometimes. I'm not expecting 50 different models over night but a few in addition to updating the old ones would be nice.
 
The reality is that the box is very powerful for bass players, even if it isn't as full featured with amp models as I would like. Again, I'm new at this as a first-time Fractal buyer. I have no idea what their history of supporting bass has been, nor what the intent of the product is long-term.

If the box is to be presented to the market as a full-featured amp and effects chain solution for guitar AND bass, then I'd say there's some work to do to get it to that point. If it's intended to be marketed as a guitar processor that can also be used on bass in a limited capacity, then I'd say they've hit that mark now. Would increased FAS transparency about which amp model and effects model improvements are planned for the future help? Almost certainly.

That said, if you can tick off multiple use cases for the unit and are OK with using a limited palette of amp and effect colors in highly creative ways, I'd absolutely recommend the unit for bass players. I'm getting wonderful use out of mine every day.
 
Boylston said:
Wow, Dr. Bonkers! Apologies for missing the SWR Workingman 12 IR. I'll look for it today and try it out.

Feel free to link your video to Facebook and your site. I know the production value isn't high (I'm a musician, not a video producer), but I hope some of the points resonate with folks.
Click to expand...

dr bonkers said:
As a tip in Fractal bass land, for a lot of the more solid state bass tones, you can use the Jazz 120 model. Since it's a solid state Roland JC-120 model and swap out tone stacks to get some usable bass tones too that will be similar to some solid state bass amps.

Your videos are certainly much better than mine. Really good job with these.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I've posted a followup video where I do a bit of a mea culpa to Dr. Bonkers, as well as try out his suggestion to use a JC-120 as a proxy for a solid state amp.

 
Thanks for the vid!
I'm a bassist first and a guitarist second and have had an Axe-FX 2 for quite a few years. I find the Axe perfect for bass in the styles of music I play(Blues, Rock and Country)

When recording most bassists I know DI to the board and do the same live in bigger venues. Amps in bigger venues are used as personal monitors! The bass models, Fender Bassmans(59 and 65), Ampeg SVT, Mesa Bass, and the Fractal cover more than enough bases for me! As for specific bass effects, I really don't use any but the few I do, I can run before the Axe, or as a loop in the axe. I do use an Eclipse for post Axe.
My experience is with the 2. The 3 is on my Christmas list!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom