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Brother, I get goose bumps just THINKING about playing on my AxeFX!! The unit is absolutely glorious, Cliff is an endlessly driven visionary beyond Earthly comprehension, and this community has been as welcoming, helpful, and friendly as I've ever seen. The whole package is greater than the sum of its parts, and in 40+ years of playing I've never been as excited by anything as the AxeFx platform.
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I love that some others are feeling so much excitement over it all. I have ended up feeling slightly crushed by the responsibility of reproducing, or using alternatively, the endless possibilities in a positive light. That's more to do with me than the Axe FX.
All of my personal frailties aside, the Axe FX's and me have so far made it to the end of every gig without me dashing out to buy, beg, borrow or steal an alternative rig. It puts it right up there with Marshall tube amps from the late '70s, early '80s, a Hiwatt DR103, and some '70s Fender combos so far for me. And of course it imitates any and all of them quite magnificently, at any relative volume in any size room, which is just amazing.
I've had a couple of '60s Vox AC30s over the years that nearly made it, but I couldn't really afford to maintain them at the time, and they really did need careful maintenance. Between Fractal and Mikko Lofgren IRs, I have those too, but without them blowing up mid-gig.
Most other amps just didn't sound that great, and on a couple of occasions, I had to dash home between sets or after soundcheck at great pace to grab a Marshall head to save my sanity.
So yes, glorious, from Axe FX II to Axe FX III for me. I'm still little star-struck by the awe of the possibilities, and maybe a little disappointed in myself for using it mainly to recreate what already feels comfortable. But it does all that incredibly well...
In short, the only thing not to love, for me, is finding time to investigate the endless possibilities and play guitar with them confidently. Re-creation of my favourite rigs has been a slam dunk for some time now, but I need to start doing some new things too.
Liam