Did you sell your "REAL" rig in favor of the Axe?

Morbid said:
I've grown to think that perhaps the Axe has reached the point where tubes truly are no longer necessary.

So how about you guys? How many of you sold your "real" rigs in favor of the Axe-FX, and, do you ever miss having a real tube amp?
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The last time I sold my real rig and bought an Axe (this isn't my first, second, or even third rodeo), it was because my rig was partly damaged in an accident along with my back and I needed something more modular and lighter. The Axe was the only thing that would fit the bill, tonally and practically.

I firmly believe that tubes aren't necessary and haven't been for quite some time now because of the Axe. Yesterday at rehearsal, we listened to a playback from the board and neither I nor the other guitarist could get over how spot on my tone was. I was playing slide on a Strat into a RC Booster, AC30TB, and greenback cab models. A little delay and reverb on the end of it. Sounded exactly like the recording of the original song. Nobody listening would ever mistake it for a modeler. And I doubt anyone playing blindfolded could tell it wasn't an amp.

I've since bought a couple of tube amps again because I can, and because gear is cool. But not because I miss playing through them. The same models in the Axe are spot on.
 
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Yes, sold it all !!!! Well, with the exception of a 4x12 marshall cab. Haven't missed them once!
 
I seem to be the opposite. Since December 2011, when I bought my Axe, I've BOUGHT a Mesa 5:25+ Head, a 65 Princeton Reverb ReIssue, and a 1*12 Celestion Gold, a 1*10 Celestion Gold and 2 1*12 Celestion Blue with Home made cabs. I still have the 2 Mesa 5:25 1*10 combos I got in 2008. I still have my old bass amps.

Live I use one of the tube amps(depending on my mood), and 6 pedals, including a tuner. Every venue we play in has a house PA so the small amps are nice.

I've never tried my Axe with the band, just in my home studio
 
I had a Mesa Mark IV and Bogner Shiva as my live rig. For practicing and warm-up, I used a Mesa DC-3. Not to mention a huge rack with rack-mounted Cry-Baby, TC Electronic stuff, Voodoo Lab GCX, pedal drawers, ect. ect.

Bought the Axe-Fx Standard as a trial to see what the fuss was about. Years later...all of that is gone and an Axe-Fx II remains.

Yes. It's that good.
 
I have .had marshall and vox tube combo's, a Vox time lab, several distortions, choruses, delays (even a strymon), a TC g force.

All are gone now and no looking back. I scavenge axe change & the forum for strymony presets, that's all. Simeon and javajunkie cured my strymon nostalgia instantly.
 
Sold my Bogner in 2009.

I have a Fryette GP/DI on order, because it seemed like a good idea to have a very small versatile tube amp around.
However, it seems like that amp will never be delivered.
 
Yes, I did. I have daily access to 'real' amps at the shop where I work, and I don't feel I'm missing anything.


Jan
 
I still can't bring myself to sell my '66 Super Reverb, and likely never will. Haven't gigged with it in over 2 years, but I'm sentimentally attached. It's also a beautiful piece of guitar history. I certainly can't imagine myself buying another "real" amp though.
 
metal190 said:
TexasChris - is there an amp model you're using to specifically get your old Archon tones, or are you just satisfied covering that ground with different tones?
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Honestly, the archon never got me to my destination, It was close but I had to roll off volume on guitar to get the tightness I wanted in the heavies, which of course also means you take a hit in the heavies. I did however find a setup using the Ax that delivered in spades all the heavies and all the tights I could ever want. I'm down to share the preset if you're interested, there is an archon'y thing happening with it. Thing about the Axe though (and you kind of hinted at it) is it lead me into tone territory that I would never have covered with tube amps and really opened me up to hearing things differently....not to mention the ability to shape tone on damn near a molecular level...which means you can really capitalize on the things you want while seriously mitigating the sacrifices that sometimes come with that.

It seems like every day I find a new way to get to a heavy that's just another variation on the awesome I hear in my head. The herbie, CameronCCV and the godfather: The triptik. I'd start with those if you want to go on your own tone journey. PM me if you want to really get into the nuts and bolts.
 
Knuckles said:
What makes something "real"?? Perception is reality and the fractal makes the perfect case for that statement.
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The Axe-FX is a modeler that imitates amplifiers that existed before it. The Axe-FX may be very real, which is why I put real in quotations, but at the end of the day, it's an imitation of something that existed first.

That's not a bad thing mind you, and certainly isn't meant in a negative way. I've seen instances of 'fake' microphones that turned out to be better than the real deal. It was just my way of saying 'the original'. :)


Loving all these replies by the way! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to do so.

TexasChris said:
I'm down to share the preset if you're interested, there is an archon'y thing happening with it.
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I don't wanna sound greedy, but *raises hand* can I try too? :D lol
 
rackclose.jpg


novation zeroSL on the top (still use it)
mesa 20/20
mesa triaxis
tc g-force
eventide eclipse
tc d2
looperlative lp-1
behringer mixer
lexicon mpx-1
electrix repeater

loads of pedals and four marshall 1x12 cabs

amazing rig...took me 25 years of buying and selling with a few quid saved here and there to get it together. sounded absolutely amazing. i do all my looping in a laptop now and the axe covers everything else. the only thing i might possibly buy again is an eventide eclipse, just to offload some of the processing from the axe and i love eventide stuff anyway. also wish i hadn't sold the electrix. lovely bit of kit, especially with the v2 software

you can see some of it in action here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XYtg-RASvs&index=4&list=PL68000BA2A4BD79F5
 
I sold almost every piece of gear (anything of real value anyway) and I couldn't be happier I love my fractal, I seriously believe that it has made me a better guitar player I practice way more (my wife says she's a fractal widow) I understand way more about dialing in amps, cabs, effects, ect I could go on all day but I am gong to go play my guitar instead:)
 
Still using my modified MesaBoogie StudioPreamp, the Lexicon PCM70, my rusty old Marshall 8008 with a Custom Audio 2x12" Cabinet. This is a dream rig with a huge sound. I'll never sell this rig.....never ever!

11737801_400623246791454_7385777870045526083_n.jpg


Example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100561953/MesaWooly.m4v - that kind of sustain even on lower volume is unbeatable....!!!

The AxeFx II is part of my recording setup, it does a great job....but I never would take it over my own amps. Sorry folks.....
 
Sold my whole collection of tube amps(Fender, Vox, Marshal, DB13) and pedals. Too much $, too much space, too much weight, too much set up time, too much inconsistency, too much maintenance, too much volume, too little flexibility, too hard to mod, ...
 
Morbid said:
Hello Gents,

Just a friendly discussion that I imagine has happened here time and time again, but with the release of the Quantum Firmware, I wanted to bring it up again to get some new opinions.

First, a little backstory.
I can only imagine many people shared the same view at one point, but I was once against digital modelers entirely. I'd played with and listened to just about every modeler I could get my hands on, and all of them left me wanting. Lack of warmth, no lushness, no smooth grit...it always sounded fake. So I spent a few years putting together my rig, finding the best deals I could, and eventually my Mesa Boogie Mark IV rig was born. All 300 lbs of it, lol. A rig I can't move by myself, but can't help but get weak in the knees when I hear it.

A couple of years ago though, my Mark IV started acting up. After about 20 minutes of play time, the sound would change in a very undesirable way. I could put it on standby, flip it back on and be good for a little while, but it'd always come back. In the midst of all this, I'd been searching for a light weight good sounding solution to an Open Mic Night rig that didn't require a cabinet but was still enjoyable to play (why bring the entire rig for 3 songs?). In comes the Marshall JMP-1. It sounded good, but wasn't really what I was after tonally. Then a deal on the Axe-FX pops up that I couldn't resist, so I grabbed it. It sounded better than any modeler I'd heard, but still took me a few weeks to get a sound I really loved...one that compared to my Mark IV. But with each FW update, things have gotten better and better.


Fast forward some time, and I haven't touched my Mark IV rig, in part because of the sound issue, and in part because I moved. Having moved my old rig recently from one house to another, I'm reminded of how incredibly heavy it is, and how difficult it is to move even with 2 people, and at this point I'm now considering selling it. I'll be plugging it in at some point within the next few days to give it a listen, just to remind myself of what the real tube tone sounds like, but based on all I've heard and seen about Quantum (waiting for some of the bugs to be patched before I upgrade), I've grown to think that perhaps the Axe has reached the point where tubes truly are no longer necessary.

So how about you guys? How many of you sold your "real" rigs in favor of the Axe-FX, and, do you ever miss having a real tube amp?
I already recognize how much more versatile the Axe-FX is than a normal one trick pony rig, so no need to focus on that part of the discussion. It's mainly the tone/feeling/reaction of playing that I'm interested in hearing about :)

Give me some details if you would. We have a pretty large community of both seasoned and professional players, so I want to hear it all.
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I literally JUST finished this whole process! [emoji4] I had an AC30 and about $3k worth of pedals and sold all of it for the Axe! I fortunately knew someone who had an axe so I could try it and knew beforehand what I was getting into

I have had the axe for about two weeks and it's been amazing!! I take it to my first gig this next week. And I just got my MFC two days ago.

It's definitely tough for me going from a full pedal set up to the Axe set up. It's not tough because of sound and finding the right tone, that's easy [emoji6] what's tough is making decisions like "how many blocks do I NEED??" "Should I route them in series or parallel" Lol and making sure levels are set correctly so there's no clipping or large jumps in volume. (Those aren't complaints, jsyk)

I've gotten a bit of pushback from my peers in this decision, but after spending two weeks with the axe I am quite confident and content with my decision [emoji4]

I would still rather deal with any of those things than to deal with the heavy load of a "real rig" [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I sometimed play a little with my band mate MK5:25 and thinking maybe i will buy one but than i play the Axe and I forget it [emoji1]
 
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