axes
Experienced
... and the experience is nothing short of stellar!
I finally got the (all-tube) Fryette LX II along with a (solid state) TC BAM200 as a comparison point. The Fryette sounds much better and feels much more organic but the BAM gets closer than the price difference would suggest.
The really big thing that I had to understand with this PA + cab setup is the necessity of having (and managing) realistic expectations. I've used a 100 watt Plexi in the bedroom before without any attenuation and I knew i shouldn't even try to get it above 1 on both volumes. Instead I'd just jumper the channels, plug into the low input and use it as a pedal platform which it's also amazing for and got fantastic tones out of it. With the Axe it's very different since I can run both volumes on 6 (or even 10 for that matter) and can still set the volume to be comfortable through the PA. However I have to keep in mind when doing that that in real life the tone I get in that state is something I'd only get with BIG stage volumes and tremendous air movement. So it's a kind of skewed and unrealistic scenario I'm forcing myself into and obviously can't expect a similar boldness and richness than with the real life version.
That being said, everything I've heard so far was nothing short of amazing and truly groundbreaking. Running into the LX II and a cab is now my absolute favorite way of using my Axe because it gives me tube dynamics, sound quality and the ridiculous versatility I can get from the Axe. I'm literally selling all my tube amp heads at this point because I'm just simply more interested in expanding this setup with different PAs, cabs (more like different speakers) and a huge variety of guitars.
I finally got the (all-tube) Fryette LX II along with a (solid state) TC BAM200 as a comparison point. The Fryette sounds much better and feels much more organic but the BAM gets closer than the price difference would suggest.
The really big thing that I had to understand with this PA + cab setup is the necessity of having (and managing) realistic expectations. I've used a 100 watt Plexi in the bedroom before without any attenuation and I knew i shouldn't even try to get it above 1 on both volumes. Instead I'd just jumper the channels, plug into the low input and use it as a pedal platform which it's also amazing for and got fantastic tones out of it. With the Axe it's very different since I can run both volumes on 6 (or even 10 for that matter) and can still set the volume to be comfortable through the PA. However I have to keep in mind when doing that that in real life the tone I get in that state is something I'd only get with BIG stage volumes and tremendous air movement. So it's a kind of skewed and unrealistic scenario I'm forcing myself into and obviously can't expect a similar boldness and richness than with the real life version.
That being said, everything I've heard so far was nothing short of amazing and truly groundbreaking. Running into the LX II and a cab is now my absolute favorite way of using my Axe because it gives me tube dynamics, sound quality and the ridiculous versatility I can get from the Axe. I'm literally selling all my tube amp heads at this point because I'm just simply more interested in expanding this setup with different PAs, cabs (more like different speakers) and a huge variety of guitars.
