Actually, yes! I have... quite a bit lately. It's killer... and that's all I can say. Clark, call it what you want, but there have been significant changes in recent Axe-II firmware - tone matching, scenes and now the upcoming v10 - that are evident to many that have the II and something you may have missed out on.
But back to the original topic - No regrets here either.. I spent way more time tweaking with my Ultra and REALLY liked my presets, but can get the same/better from the Axe-II faster, and tone is really NOT my forte. I love the extra control, pick dynamics, vol control etc that are far more responsive and "obvious" than the Ultra. I'd still play the Ultra if I didn't have the II tho' as its still a killer device.
There is no denial that the Standard and Ultra are still phenomenal. No I have not tried Firmware 10 but I have heard it from the players demoing it. I was an Ultra guy and didn't get the Fractal until Firmware 4.0. To my ears there has always been a change in all firmwares but it started getting really audible from Firmware 7 to 9,and 10 sounds a lot more open,has a lot more hair,has this rawness to it that was mostly eradicated in firmware 9,but now it has gone to a whole different stage. Fractal has started to react more like those big vintage amps,not that it couldn't in the past but now it doesn't take much of an effort to get that feel and 10 seems to really display that. Before the Fractal was a sound engineers best friend now it's a guitar player's best friend and yet can equally satisfy the engineer if needed. The gap has been closed in my honest opinion,that's the way I hear it and I genuinely don't regret selling the Ultra. If you still love the Ultra that's great,I love it too but I did hear a lot of changes on the II along the way. It's not even about hype if that were the case I wouldn't have made the shift when firmware 4 came out. I didn't care about the II at all until then,now it takes less time to get better tones,and now they have come to the point where comparison with the real thing is baseless. I couldn't be happier making the shift.... ..... Have you tried it?
I think there's so much of it that is hype. After every firmware everyone's saying how it's a million times better. Still using the same IR on my Ultra and the Axe-II on FW9 sounded exactly the same. The feel was different. Not better or worse. Different. Sure you can scientifically zoom in and prove that Axe-II is higher quality but let's face it. We all were happy with the Standard Axe-Fx and dialed in our tones and got pissed after firmware updates changed our patches and we had to do it all over again. And it's not like anyone on the forum ever bashed the Ultra or Standard because they didn't sound good.
But that's my opinion, you don't have to agree.
I misunderstood your initial post then.. I took it to mean you "heard" the Axe-II being played by the bandmate, while you used the Ultra.Like I said, I play with an Axe-II every week. Today I'll be recording with one. Personally I'm mostly missing the extra custom IR slots. Maybe the new amp models would be cool also. And I've been "tone matching" like a year before the Axe-II got that feature.
IMHO guitar tone is mostly about the cabinet and in this case IR. That's why I'm always making new ones. Same amazing IR can sound very similar on just about any amp sim. After that it's really hard to tell a the difference between GEN1 and GEN2 modeling. Here's a clip if you don't believe me.
Everytime I get new equipment, I try to make it sound the way the old sounded. EVERYTIME.
Exactly for me the II was never about getting it because of double the power,sure that is a great selling point but to me I feel benefited in terms of work flowWe are definitely creatures of habit aren't we? We spend countless hours trying to dial in tones that are (ironically) rooted in obsolete technologies, just because that is what we know, or grew up with, or are comfortable with. (Back then they were all cutting edge - tubes, transisters, paper cones, precision-built transformers, etc, etc.)
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My two cents if the sky is parting... stick with what you love... i.e. your Ultra. It was great then, and it's still great now. Life is good my friend!
I realized my main point was very unclear. My point was that the Axe-Fx (both gen1 and gen2) are tools to create good tones. Getting either of the units will not guarantee you a good tone. It's up to you to find a way to get the full potential out of the unit. So if we compare:
A) Person with Axe-II but no tweaking skills
B) Person with Axe-II but weak playing technique
C) Person with Axe-II but wrong IR
D) Person with gen1 Axe-Fx and great tweaking skills, great technique and great IRs.
The D person will most likely kill all the above. Ofcourse there's a person E) with Axe-II and great tweaking skills, great technique and great IRs. However I do feel like if you know how to tweak you can make both sound equally good. And although many people say that it was easier to tweak a patch on the II, I must say it's all about how well you know the unit. F.ex. I believe I can create an "impressive" Axe-Fx Ultra patch in under 2 minutes.
There is also F and G and H
F) Person with gen1 Axe-Fx but no tweaking skills
G) Person with gen1 Axe-Fx but weak playing technique
H) Person with gen1 Axe-Fx but wrong IR
I class myself as A,B and C at the moment but everyone has to start somewhere, that said there are also people with earlier models who will be in the same boat.
I've been planning to make a YouTube tutorial on all the details and tips I've got since there are quite many requests.