Can I sell my boutique overdrives when I buy an AxeFX 2?

W

Wildwind

Experienced
As I don't care for the internal HD500 overdrives (which sounded fine until I started messing with boutique overdrives...), I now run my HD as only amp/cab, volume, tuner, delays, and one or two modulation FX. Compression and overdrive are handled by these:

CMAT Mods Deluxe Signa Comp
Lovepedal Amp 11
Lovepedal Eternity Fuse
Timmy
Wampler Ecstasy
Fulltone Fat Boost

All of these do different things and are often stacked - Amp 11 plus Ecstasy or Timmy plus Eternity - or whatever hits me at the moment. Fat Boost is just to put some more meat on the bones, an effort to "analog-ize" the HD's amps.

You may know that the HD500 (and frankly all the PODs and maybe all the other modelers) don't produce stellar overdrive tones using just the amp settings. Standard wisdom is to combine amp gain/drive with an overdrive/distortion/fuzz. I eventually tired of the lack of transparency and touch sensitivity. Using these pedals (which obviously cost at least twice the HD5000) helps that. But it's a band-aid, IMO.

I have heard clips that make it appear that I can find Holy Grail-class tones in the AxeFX 2 using only the amps, properly tweaked, right?

But if the overdrives come into play, are they clearly superior to the HD's as well?

Transparency, expressiveness, and touch sensitivity are what I'm looking for. I'm very much a touch player - fairly light-handed, but I use a variety of pick pressure, skin, and angle.

Am I making any sense? I just don't know what I'm hearing with these clips and I can't judge them on those three criteria.

Any insight for me? Thanks again for the great responses to my first thread.

Greg
 
luke said:
Only you can decide this after having the unit for a few months.
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What Luke says is exactly what I say.

I advise the same thing. Keep all your gear you love. Get the Axe-FX in-house and then work with it to see if you can either replicate what you like or find new flavors you like more. There is no other way to know than to try it in your own space, with your own gear, with your own ears.
 
I have lots of great drive pedals I don't use any more. I used to use them with tube amps and other modelers, but I don't find much need now. I agree that you should keep them for a while if you can and see if the Axe alone can do what you want. The Axe is very touch sensitive.
 
I did, was using mad professor shod, lgw, freakshow #9, and blend mod Ross comp for different favors of grit, I use the amps with front end boosts in the axe, love the response, but like any great amp, your pedals will work well out front of the axe as well. The advice of the other posters is great, keep them until you know you don't need/want them anymore.
 
I respect all the answers here, but I'll tell you what I did and it works for me:
I ended up selling all my pedals except my expression pedals. I sold a Vintage TS808, a Fulltone Drive II, a Butler Tube Driver and a few more.

I thought that the Axe drives handled the need really well, but in the end, the amps are SO GOOD, that I rarely use the drives, except for the Fuzz Face, because no amp sounds like that, and the Octave Fuzz, for the same reason. But with over 80 amps in the arsenal, just about everything is covered. No mess with cables, no noise, no batteries running flat, no setting sounding different tonight - no mess.

That's my opinion. YMMV
 
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I don't use amp models or cabs for that matter in live applications but do use them for practicing with headphonees. For live I use it as an all in one pedal board. Although the drives in the axe are pretty god and flexible as well, I wish the axe had more drive models such as some of the ones you mentioned and a few more.
 
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Patzag said:
I thought that the Axe drives handled the need really well, but in the end, the amps are SO GOOD, that I rarely use the drives, except for the Fuzz Face, because no amp sounds like that, and the Octave Fuzz, for the same reason. But with over 80 amps in the arsenal, just about everything is covered. No mess with cables, no noise, no batteries running flat, no setting sounding different tonight - no mess.

That's my opinion. YMMV
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I agree with you. IMHO V6 has changed the game here.

To OP: See if you still use your pedals after getting the AXE then decide.
Since v6, I have decided to get rid of most of them but keep a few that I really like for "souvenirs".
 
I've had my Axe for just over a week now, (and been waitin since last September) and all I can say is Dont Sell Anything! I sold a lot of gear leading up this purchase (lots of pedals and 2 amps and a cab) and apart from the fact that I cruelly needed that money to pay for the axe I wish I hadn't. Not cos the axe is amazing, it is! But I'm my mind its turning out not to be a replacement but just a different option with all it's own pluses and drawbacks.

If u can afford it, my advice is to not sell anything till uve had this thing enough time to see if it does what u want it to do. But long term, nothing will replace the real thing. Just cos u got a copy of a Neve 1073 plugin, u wouldnt sell ur actual Neve pre if u didn't have to. The plug may sound amazing and be way more convenient and u may be able to use that plug on evey track at the same time instead of just one, but it will never be the same as the real thing.

Everything has its place. My axe compliments my rig, doesn't totally replace it. Every gig is different!

I'm done.
 
In the end the only items I've kept are my T Rex Michael Angelo distortion pedal, my deluxe Fulltone Clyde wah and my vintage Boss OC-2.

For the longest time I had considered incorporating the T Rex and Boss pedals via the FX loop but never did.
 
Great answers - many thanks. No doubt there is much wisdom in hanging onto what I have before making a choice. I don't need to sell these to finance the purchase.

And I appreciate the hint - I know Cliff is aggressive in his pursuits and no doubt savvy as to the marketplace concerning pedals. In truth, there is only one pedal I don't think I could part with. I think the others could be replaced by the AFX amp and pedal models. But I have sold and re-bought too many things due to rash behavior, don't plan on doing that again if I can help it.
 
jb70 said:
what you really need to do once you get your axe fx is send those pedals to cliff so he can model them and include them in the next firmware update! ;)
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or to me... I'd sell them and buy a second Axe-II :mrgreen
 
The only thing I feel is a bit lacking is the drive blocks. I just don't find them as desirable as the amp blocks. As others have pointed out, with 80 different amp types available who needs drive blocks? But, in many cases they are integral in obtaining that perfect tone that the amp block can't provide by itself. But the other side of the coin is this; are we just so used to using drive pedals, that we can't break away from them? The thing I've been struggling with is I'm used to setting up a slightly over driven amp (like a Deluxe) and using several (about 5) boost pedals to create different flavors of OD with different combinations of stacking. But, the AXE doesn't really work that way. You can set up 2 Drive blocks and they don't quite interact the same as analog pedals. So, you have to set up several different patches (or X/Y combos) to get that same menu of flavors. This is the part I struggle with the most. Also, I like to select the different pedals depending on my mood and such, but the AXE has to be pre-programmed so you have to sort of predict all your different "mood" combinations and try to remember what is what.... I think the end result can be the same, but just a different path to get there.
 
Interesting, getting some insights here. This is messing up my "delayed gratification" plans, you know. Must be strong...
 
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