Considering an Ultra but have questions

cryogenic419

New Member
Considering an Ultra but had some questions and was hoping those in the know may be able to answer them.

I have a few different guitars, widely varying pickups going from a stock Tele single coil to a super high output active humbucking Duncan. Through an amp there is definately major tonal differences between them all. Through a POD XT the differences diminish significantly, basically comes down to I can tell a single coil from humbucker but thats about it. Does the Axe let the true character of a guitar through or do they all pretty much sound the same?

I currently have a Midi Mate controller and am actually quite happy with it. My plans would be just to change patches, not to switch effects on and off. I would like to eventually throw an expression pedal in the mix so I can control wah. Is this going to be a fairly simple affair?

How well does the Axe do with electric/acoustic guitars?

I currently have a Peterson Stroborack tuner which I would like to continue using rather than the internal tuner. I do not see a tuner out on the Axe and I'd really prefer to keep the tuner out of the signal path. Anybody running a similiar setup and able to pull this off?
 
cryogenic419 said:
Considering an Ultra but had some questions and was hoping those in the know may be able to answer them.

I have a few different guitars, widely varying pickups going from a stock Tele single coil to a super high output active humbucking Duncan. Through an amp there is definately major tonal differences between them all. Through a POD XT the differences diminish significantly, basically comes down to I can tell a single coil from humbucker but thats about it. Does the Axe let the true character of a guitar through or do they all pretty much sound the same?
The Axe-Fx absolutely preserves, and in many cases highlights the individual voice and tone of each guitar. The accuracy is very, very good.


I currently have a Midi Mate controller and am actually quite happy with it. My plans would be just to change patches, not to switch effects on and off. I would like to eventually throw an expression pedal in the mix so I can control wah. Is this going to be a fairly simple affair?
I guess you'd have to say, "Simple, compared to what?" :) From the viewpoint of a player who is already familiar with MIDI, it's trivial to connect a MIDI Mate to the Axe-Fx for doing preset changes. On the other hand, if the player is comfortable only with plugging a guitar direct into a tube amplifier, and the player is prone to look with suspicion upon stomp-boxes in general, then approaching a MIDI controller may require additional time. :lol:


How well does the Axe do with electric/acoustic guitars?
In my opinion, the Axe-Fx is equally excellent, with or without an AMP block in the signal chain. For my acoustics (L'arrivée D10-E, Breedlove XII), I use Compressor, PEQ, Tube Pre and Reverb blocks, with the occasional addition of other blocks for FX (chorus, etc.). Sounds phenomenal, DI to the board.

I currently have a Peterson Stroborack tuner which I would like to continue using rather than the internal tuner. I do not see a tuner out on the Axe and I'd really prefer to keep the tuner out of the signal path. Anybody running a similiar setup and able to pull this off?
I don't use an external tuner any more. The built-in tuner works great. However, it's great having that fat strobe display. You'll have no problems fronting the Axe-Fx with the Peterson unit, assuming it has a true-bypass circuit. If not, you can use the Axe-Fx's FX loop function to split the signal out to the tuner using OUTPUT2.
 
The Axe is extremely transparent to different pickups and guitars. You will definitely hear the differences.

It's so sensitive that I am able to constructively use the difference between picks as a tone shaper.

JWW
 
I think this question deserves some additional detail:

There are amps out there (particularly in high-gain land) that can put a pretty big sonic signature on guitars if you use extreme settings. If you play through a dual rectal fryer on 11, you are going to have big-bottom stompasaurus tone pretty much no matter what you plug into it. As you put it, you can tell the difference between a single coill and a hummer, and probably not much else. You can absolutely dial in the same thing on the axe. But you have to go there intentionally. You can just as easily set up settings that highlight every nuance of your guitars. On most of my settings, even high-gain, I can instantly tell the difference between my Fender strat (hard ash/dimarzios, my avatar), my Melancon pro artist (swamp ash, Kinmans) and my Grosh bent top(mahogany/maple, Fralins) for example. Likewise for my hummer guitars; my LP, SG, PRS's, and McInturff all retain their recognizeable voices. The only exceptions are some pretty over-the-top patches that I program intentionally to take over the sound and give me a more consistent tone across different guitars. Typically those patches are higher gain, bigger bottom type patches with some effects on them.

I also use it for acoustic with outstanding results, just use tube preamp instead of an amp block. It sounds decent thru a guitar cab that way, and incredibly good thru the board.

I don't turn effects on and off within a patch for the most part except the harmonizer and the wah. I use a controller to fade things in and out sometimes, but mostly I switch patches. Instantaneous program changes, and (this is a big deal to me) delay and reverb spillover that really works.
 
I use the midi mate with my Ultra. It is extremely easy. Connect it with a midi cable & your set. I don't use the midi mate to turn any of the effects on or off either. I program different patches for a lead boost, or if I want to add delay etc. It has always seemed easier to me that way & with nearly 400 patches on the Ultra it is pretty hard to run out.
 
There are 2 stereo outs [IOW 4 'channels'] and a stereo FX loop out. you could use any of them to drive the tuner.

One of my (cheapish) guitars I used to like, sounds pretty shitty and hissy through the Axe, so maybe the Axe is more transparant than anything :mrgreen: No worries there!!
 
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