Lightningboy
Experienced
Matrix and myself recently attended the Newcastle Guitar Show, one of a range of shows throughout the UK for retailers and manufacturers to attend and show their wares to the
wider public. Also a day out for guitarists and muso's to drool over gear and grab a bargain!
Thought I'd write a quick review of how the Axe II performed on the day and the feedback from the people we talked to.
So to preface this. I got the Axe FX II on Friday along with some extra bits and bobs from Matrix to take to the show. I'd got a recording session booked on Friday and was swamped so
that really only left Saturday to tweak and set things up. Knowing how long it took to get patches set up on my old Ultra for live use, I was nervous to say the least.
First step was to get Axe edit up and running. Sorted on the 2nd try...phew!
It's at this point I must thank the Fractal community and particularly Mark Day and Yek for their excellent patches which I downloaded and thus saved me a lot of time setting up patches from scratch.
Managed to get patches built for regular guitar cab, FRFR and also built a W/D/W rig at home as well which sounded great. The patches built up by myself, I noticed that these were far easier and quicker to build on the II than the Ultra. These along with Mark's and Yek's along with the stock patches gave me plenty to demo and eased my concerns.
So to the day.
We set up in a private room. In the Rack are a Matrix GT800FX and Axe FXII. Output 1 is running to 2 FRFR wedge monitors being powered by the new Matrix GM50 amp module which are
either side of a 5150 guitar cab powered by the GT800 on output 2. Probably about 1000 people at the show in total and around 300 people visited the room throughout the day.
Some were aware of Fractal Audio and visited with the sole intention of hearing an Axe II "in the flesh", most were not.
BUT THEY ARE NOW!
That's been the mission of this show and the last. Not particularly to hard sell Matrix but to educate people that modelling has come on leaps and bounds since the early days and
that solutions are there to amplify and get that sound out of the box and the bedroom and onto a stage. Like missionaries, preaching the gospel of modelling to the heathen tube
masses! lol
Not one person thought it sounded digital or un-tube like. Zero. Nada. Zilch
Showing them how the sound cleaned up like a tube amp and reacted to playing softer or rolling the volume back produced appreciative nods and raised eyebrows. Obviously our community has known about this for a while but it amazes me how many guitarists out there are only aware of what their local music shop stocks. Even the expected price objections when people asked "how much is the Axe FXII?" quickly went out the window when we asked them how much did their last amp
cost? Oh, and how much were the FX you use? People started realising that although expensive compared to the modelling stuff in the shops, this was no different in price from a alot of the stuff they were already playing amp & FX wise. And more importantly no difference in sound. Just with loads more amps and FX and options. The Axe FX II really did change a lot of perceptions I think that day.
Demo'ing the FRFR system we had just sounded as good as the 4x12 we had was great. The 1987x sim sounded great for the guys wanting to hear a raw Plexi style tone. With the FRFR next to the 4x12 even I got confused a couple of times as to which speaker we were running through! Easily the best FRFR rig I've run through so far. Mark Day's HBE patches sounded massive! The star of the show though was probably the w/d/w rig in full with the 4x12 as the dry cab and FRFR cabs as the wet cabs with cab sims on. Soldano based amp sim with tri-chorus, delay and reverb. Stadium size huge sound and I think this will be making it on stage with me in the very near future it was that good! The GM50's powering the wedges stayed cool and performed excellently even after 7 or so hours switched on.
There were lots of comments as to how awesome it all sounded and to be fair when they asked if it was just the amp (GT800& GM50) doing that we had to defer to the Axe II and say that was where the magic was coming from, we're just the delivery boys to get it to the speakers!
So, there you have it, a review not just from one guy but from the 300 or so people that heard the Axe FX II on the day.
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View attachment 10209
wider public. Also a day out for guitarists and muso's to drool over gear and grab a bargain!
Thought I'd write a quick review of how the Axe II performed on the day and the feedback from the people we talked to.
So to preface this. I got the Axe FX II on Friday along with some extra bits and bobs from Matrix to take to the show. I'd got a recording session booked on Friday and was swamped so
that really only left Saturday to tweak and set things up. Knowing how long it took to get patches set up on my old Ultra for live use, I was nervous to say the least.
First step was to get Axe edit up and running. Sorted on the 2nd try...phew!
It's at this point I must thank the Fractal community and particularly Mark Day and Yek for their excellent patches which I downloaded and thus saved me a lot of time setting up patches from scratch.
Managed to get patches built for regular guitar cab, FRFR and also built a W/D/W rig at home as well which sounded great. The patches built up by myself, I noticed that these were far easier and quicker to build on the II than the Ultra. These along with Mark's and Yek's along with the stock patches gave me plenty to demo and eased my concerns.
So to the day.
We set up in a private room. In the Rack are a Matrix GT800FX and Axe FXII. Output 1 is running to 2 FRFR wedge monitors being powered by the new Matrix GM50 amp module which are
either side of a 5150 guitar cab powered by the GT800 on output 2. Probably about 1000 people at the show in total and around 300 people visited the room throughout the day.
Some were aware of Fractal Audio and visited with the sole intention of hearing an Axe II "in the flesh", most were not.
BUT THEY ARE NOW!
That's been the mission of this show and the last. Not particularly to hard sell Matrix but to educate people that modelling has come on leaps and bounds since the early days and
that solutions are there to amplify and get that sound out of the box and the bedroom and onto a stage. Like missionaries, preaching the gospel of modelling to the heathen tube
masses! lol
Not one person thought it sounded digital or un-tube like. Zero. Nada. Zilch
Showing them how the sound cleaned up like a tube amp and reacted to playing softer or rolling the volume back produced appreciative nods and raised eyebrows. Obviously our community has known about this for a while but it amazes me how many guitarists out there are only aware of what their local music shop stocks. Even the expected price objections when people asked "how much is the Axe FXII?" quickly went out the window when we asked them how much did their last amp
cost? Oh, and how much were the FX you use? People started realising that although expensive compared to the modelling stuff in the shops, this was no different in price from a alot of the stuff they were already playing amp & FX wise. And more importantly no difference in sound. Just with loads more amps and FX and options. The Axe FX II really did change a lot of perceptions I think that day.
Demo'ing the FRFR system we had just sounded as good as the 4x12 we had was great. The 1987x sim sounded great for the guys wanting to hear a raw Plexi style tone. With the FRFR next to the 4x12 even I got confused a couple of times as to which speaker we were running through! Easily the best FRFR rig I've run through so far. Mark Day's HBE patches sounded massive! The star of the show though was probably the w/d/w rig in full with the 4x12 as the dry cab and FRFR cabs as the wet cabs with cab sims on. Soldano based amp sim with tri-chorus, delay and reverb. Stadium size huge sound and I think this will be making it on stage with me in the very near future it was that good! The GM50's powering the wedges stayed cool and performed excellently even after 7 or so hours switched on.
There were lots of comments as to how awesome it all sounded and to be fair when they asked if it was just the amp (GT800& GM50) doing that we had to defer to the Axe II and say that was where the magic was coming from, we're just the delivery boys to get it to the speakers!
So, there you have it, a review not just from one guy but from the 300 or so people that heard the Axe FX II on the day.
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Hideous Carpet! Apologies!
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