axe-fx position compared to your playing position

GuitarDojo said:
@mworkman
I see you keep all your boxes.
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:lol:

Yes, and I like to keep that little plastic film that covers the LCD screens on as long as it will stay. It is still on the Axe-FX LCD screen and maybe its been 2 years. I got the G-System before the Axe-FX and it still has the plastic film over the display. And the G-Force even before that and that still has the plastic film.

I keep the boxes just in case I need those pieces anywhere. I need to put them in the garage and there are some other items in there I need to clear out. Right now it is a hybrid man cave, music room, work room, and storage room.
 
bluesdoc said:
I had mine propped up on an Ultimate amp stand.
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Same setup here. I have a different stand, but same Gator bag and tilt. I actually copied the idea from somebody off the board here. Greatest. Idea. Ever.

Standing or sitting I can easily edit the axe with the tilt.
 
For me, as I guess it is for most of us, it's critical to be able to tweak the Axe on the fly without too much bending over and/or squinting.

If I'm playing while seated, at home or on a small jazz gig, I simply put my 6-space rack on top of my 1 X 12" speaker cab which sits on the floor.

When playing standing up with my old Triaxis rig, since I like to get the cab off the ground too when I'm standing, what I would do is to have a milk crate with my rack on top of it and my cabinet on top of that. That puts the centre of the speaker a few inches above my navel. On gigs where it's real hard to hear myself clearly I'll angle the cab up a bit with a roll of duct tape stuck under it.
Down in the rack, the Triaxis was easier and faster to tweak on the fly from an angle like that than the Axe is. It was always a pain, but not a big pain. The Axe is a big pain down there.

I did a theatre show recently with the Axe and a cheap FRFR keyboard amp/wedge, a Traynor K1; and it worked out nicely with 2 milk crates under the K1 with my rack on top of the K1. Even though I was sitting down, on this gig it made sense to elevate the K1 almost to ear level.

I haven't done many gigs with the Axe yet where I've had to play standing up. On the few that I have done, and have used my old Triaxis rig method, it was a drag tweaking the Axe. So I guess I'll probably have to go with something really silly looking with 2 milk crates, my cabinet, and with the rack on top of the cabinet.
But I like that idea that someone up-thread had of using an amp stand on the floor for the rack, not the amp.
I suppose I could use 2 amp stands too, one for the rack and one for the amp.
But typically my floor space is extremely limited on the gigs I tend to get, and I don't think there'd be room for this, especially when factoring in my pedal-board and music stand as needed.

The tower with the 2 milk crates might look silly but it takes up the minimal amount of floor space.
Only problem will be that I'll be unable to tilt the cabinet when needed, because the rack will be on top of it.
I actually bought this sort of cool 1 X 12 cab with a tilted baffle board that sort of solves this problem. But I've ended up not using it because it seems to have a few weird resonances. Could have been cool though.

I'm open to suggestions too btw.
 
I hate to bring extra stuff, so either :
1) on top of my verve12ma
2) on top of a bar keg
3) on top of a bar stool
Most of the places I play have either 2 or 3 above.
Never on the floor.
 
Mine it directly to my right as I sit in my computer chair. I'm using a slim black next-to-the-couch end table - type thing with shelves. It put the Axe-Fx and my whole rack at the perfect height.
 
Are you guys finding that you need to tweak directly from the Axe-FX a lot at gigs? If so, Why?

I guess, as far back as I can remember, I'm in the party that never touches his gear by the time I'm on stage, so when I'm live I don't care where my gear is, as long as the cabs are where I can hear myself, so I know what I'm playing.

And that's with every piece of gear I have ever used live, my old tube rig, my Vetta, that old AX2 I use to use, you name it, when it goes live I don't touch it anymore.

I might tweak a little before a show to get the levels and mix right, but when that first song starts, my gear is off limits to everyone including me.

I guess it's just my own personal OCD. :D
 
Live I rarely tweak anything. I just can fit that and performing in to my head -- I have a one track mind I guess.

But in rehearsals I'm constantly playing with my patches and trying to work out what sounds best. Easy access in rehearsals is what I'd like.

I'm think I'll order up one of those Ultimate Amp stands -- then I'll put the Axe-Fx in front of my R1 controller, hovering almost over top of it. That looks like a sweet way to roll.
 
anyone willing to provide a link to the stand? I want to get one, but I want to make sure I get the right thing!
 
Anyone tried a mixer stand?

I saw one at one of the local music store in my area that looked like it would work perfectly for a little 4 space rack. I didn't see how much it cost, but given the cheapness of that stores regular stock it couldn't have been that much, but it had an adjustable height and angle, and was pretty sturdy looking (I didn't actually get to touch it, as it was in a display, and they are pretty weird about those kind of things at that store.)
 
mworkman said:
PlaysARobin said:
Do I Spot a Robin Savoy case tucked away in that pic?


Nice setup man, Real nice. I'm sure the Axe sounds huge through those QSCs. Thats the type of setup I'd love to use for tweaking. Push plenty of air and get the whole range of sound.
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Give the man a prize! That's my Robin, looks like this...

Robin.Savoy.Dolphin.Classic.Full.15.jpg


I'd love to get an Avalon to go with it. This has been a $0 budget year for gear. I am trying to get the rest of the house finished so I can turn that room that was in the previous picture into a nice music room that isn't just sub-flooring and busted up drywall. But before the wife lets me work on that I have to finish everything else.
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Beautiful Savoy ! I love the color scheme too. As my username suggests I'm a sucker for a good Robin. How close does that thing get to those good old original 335 tones? Gibson has gone psychotic with their pricing so a real 335 outside of someone who doesn't know what they have is out of the question. Never had the pleasure of playing the Savoy model.
I actually had a neck-thru machete as my second real guitar (right after the ol' squire) but I sold it off back in december to fund the axe. Since I had an Anderson on the way I didn't need another dual humbucker guitar (for now) and I really wanted the AxeFX then. I'll forever miss that Machete but I think the trade off was good if not great.

The Avalon is what I'll end up buying eventually as well. The few that I've played at Rockin Robin in Houston have been nothing short of fantastic. And I while I haven't played many LP clones I do particularly like that one. No new guitars or gear anytime soon for myself as well. Got a house to buy.

Nevertheless, Always nice to see another Robin Fan.
 
Tweaking during a live show? I did a LITTLE at my first show, so the reverb was more audible, but after that I never needed to touch any settings.
 
Guitar-Tiz said:
Are you guys finding that you need to tweak directly from the Axe-FX a lot at gigs? If so, Why?
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It shouldn't be necessary to tweak "a lot" at gigs, once you're familiar using your gear on a lot of different gigs.
But that period when you're working a new piece of gear into your rig is crucial.
Things *never* sound the same at home as they do on a gig.
And *every* venue you play in will also sound different.

If you're a freelancer like me, and you're not in any one particular band, then every band you work with will probably require that you taper your tones at least a little bit to the music you have to play then and there.

But once I've got things dialed in so that I know what it's going to sound like on most gigs, in most venues, with most bands, I then have to do very little tweaking on the gig.
I used the same 5 preamp presets, essentially, on my Triaxis for 15 years. But getting those 5 presets tweaked so that they could cover all the bases that I needed them to cover took a lot of gigging.

But then again, every once in a while on a gig you might feel like trying something different.
Remember when you could just lean over your amp and turn up the Treble knob in the middle of a tune?
 
I tweak VERY little on the gig, if at all.

Usually just output levels. I run straight to FOH, so making it right 'in the room' I leave to the fine folks at FOH. I already have it dialed down TIGHT going into any gig I play.

I've had one experience with having to massively troubleshoot and tweak a preset on the gig in the 2 years, 2 months I've been Axe-FX'd. I updating firmware before a gig and did not check my presets; I had nothing but an empty slot for my acoustic preset... on an acoustic gig. Uh oh. Something went amiss with that preset, (this was the most recent firmware) but I had 10 minutes before soundcheck. I plugged my acoustic from return 1 to the input 2 on the back of the Axe-FX. I copied one of my other electric guitar presets over to that slot (I use the same effects and signal routing, though I do optimize them for the preset and the gig). I changed the amp and cab into shunts and did a quickie reset on the fly on the multi-band compressor I use to set it for my acoustic guitar. Quickie run through on the effects to make sure they worked for this gig and inside of 3 minutes I was back up and ready for soundcheck with 5-7 minutes to spare. The singers were not even in the building yet. Whew.
 
PlaysARobin said:
Beautiful Savoy ! I love the color scheme too. As my username suggests I'm a sucker for a good Robin. How close does that thing get to those good old original 335 tones? Gibson has gone psychotic with their pricing so a real 335 outside of someone who doesn't know what they have is out of the question. Never had the pleasure of playing the Savoy model.
I actually had a neck-thru machete as my second real guitar (right after the ol' squire) but I sold it off back in december to fund the axe. Since I had an Anderson on the way I didn't need another dual humbucker guitar (for now) and I really wanted the AxeFX then. I'll forever miss that Machete but I think the trade off was good if not great.

The Avalon is what I'll end up buying eventually as well. The few that I've played at Rockin Robin in Houston have been nothing short of fantastic. And I while I haven't played many LP clones I do particularly like that one. No new guitars or gear anytime soon for myself as well. Got a house to buy.

Nevertheless, Always nice to see another Robin Fan.
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I don't have a lot of experience with a 335 so I'd hesitate to say. What I can tell you is the guy that I take lessons from played a 335 and played music ranging from things like Billy Cobham's "Stratus" to SRV to ZZ Top to Zeppelin to Jethro Tull to some other fusion based originals. I was amazed at the versatility of the 335 and the tones he could get out of it. He has also played those other genre's of music with a Savoy and at a minimum the Savoy sounded just a good as the 335.

After watching him play I thought I'd like to add a 335 to my small collection but I don't really care for the body shape of the 335 so I went with the Savoy and have never looked back.
 
You guys reminded me of why I still use a 4x12. It provides a good stand for the Axe-Fx at a nice height to view the display and tweak.

That being said, I also pretty much never tweak at gigs, but need to look at the screen to see the tuner. All of my tweaking is done at rehearsal or at home (when I had it at home) where it is kept on the 4x12.

Granted, I also like the sound of the 4x12 and it looks great on stage for our purposes. The only drawback for me is that it doesn't fit in my car. If I need to play somewhere and can only transport my rig in my car, I have to use my Mark IV combo.
 
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