Ears or no ears... that is the question

Would you pay the same 2nd hand price for a unit without rack ears as to one with?

  • Yes! Rack ears doesnt matter at all to me

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • No way! You ruin the unit

    Votes: 31 91.2%
  • Total voters
    34
MrGuitarabuse

MrGuitarabuse

Fractal Fanatic
Got my ULTRA in a rack and I getting abit (to say the least) annoyed with the rack ears. Basically feel that they are in the way... Of course this can be argued back and forth, but I just want to hear your guys opinions on if by "hacking" off the rack ears the value of the unit will also be way lower?

So here is the poll...

Would you pay as much for an used ULTRA (or standard) without rack ears as to one with rack ears?

EDIT: I dont mean really "hacked" off but as nicely done as can be done...
 
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I wouldn't buy it at all if it had hacked-off ears. FWIW, the II has removable rack ears. I'm also curious as to how the ears are "in the way" if your unit is mounted in a rack.
 
Ears? Do you mean the handles? You need the ears there to mount it in the rack. The handles are arguably optional. Thought they do help you lower the unit in to place in the rack without scratching it up.
 
Plan on keeping that puppy forever if you go this route, or at the least discounting it HEAVILY. Not worth the added convenience you mention but if you don't mind taking a hit on the value what they hell, it's a free country.
 
I think "ruin" is a bit OTT but removing the handles or ears would significantly devalue the unit. The former because you lose all protection if the rack falls face-first, the latter because you can no longer rack mount the device.
 
I like the handle on the right (Ultra) because I can wrap my cord around it to prevent it from being pulled out by accident.
 
You'll lose a little money maybe ($100 bucks?), there's someone out there who'll be looking for a bargain. You don't need a poll, you just need one sucker, I mean, thrifty guy.
 
lol, Ive been doinf that for 3 years - its the first thing I did when setting up the Axe rig.

As to the OP, I wouldnt buy it even at half price.

The Rack ears are needed to secure the Axe in a Rack - and most people will want that. You might get someone who only wants to use it in a home studio - so can just put it on a desk - BUT thats a much smaller market.

If its the handles - thats even worse. Without them you'd struggle to get the unit out of a rack, and if its the "home studio" guy he jas no protection should the unit slip off the desk. The rack'd unit has the same issue.

personally, I cant see how either get in the way. After 3 years Ive never found it a problem. Still.
 
Exactly, if you take the mounting ears off it becomes worth exactly $0 to someone who wants to rack it, thus severely limiting your potential market. Cheers
 
cob666 said:
I like the handle on the right (Ultra) because I can wrap my cord around it to prevent it from being pulled out by accident.
Click to expand...
Decided against that. I'd rather have the cord pulled out than have the entire rack fall over or off of whatever it's standing on. With my 90 kilos (~200lbs) doing damage is not very hard.

Aren't those handles un- and rescrewable?
 
Cliff mentioned on the old forum that the handles are structural. If you decide to hack them off, it de-values the unit to pretty much zilch.
 
Dutch said:
Decided against that. I'd rather have the cord pulled out than have the entire rack fall over or off of whatever it's standing on. With my 90 kilos (~200lbs) doing damage is not very hard.

Aren't those handles un- and rescrewable?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard/seen too many horror stories that I'd rather the plug come out than have the whole rack case come tumbling down from a 4x12....

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
 
I've never seen an Axe-FX for sale that had the rack handles removed, so I'm not sure where the estimates of radical loss of value are coming from. If you hack off the handles, you've still got a fully-functioning Axe-FX. I think most of the strong reactions are caused by people wondering why you'd want to cut them off in the first place; unless you have a compelling reason to do it, it's definitely not an improvement.
 
hey and thanks for all input...

Im an idiot... I meant the handles not the actual "ears" to mount them in the rack, but you wise people understood that. And lets see if I plan to go the Axe II route, then I will not touch the unit, otherwise lets see...

Thanks again for participating in this little poll, and thanks for input...

Rock on!

/Urban
 
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