First experience with the AX8 (plus a song video with it)

Brian Wahl

Member
A good friend here on the forums loaned me his AX8 for a bit to play around with. Here's a song play through/cover of 'Who You Say I Am' by Hillsong Worship.



I run a YouTube channel with about 415,000 subscribers. The channel provides training and resources (and hopefully entertainment, ha) for worship leaders and church musicians, mostly focussed on leadership and guitar stuff. My buddy Bradford and I do a lot of gear content there, and we're actually both big Helix (me) and Kemper (Brad) users. Most of our content for electric guitar is Helix based.

I've had a lot of people ask me to cover some Fractal stuff, and I've always been very curious to try Axe FX or an AX8. My first impression is a good one - I'm super impressed with the tones in this thing. For this video I used the Matchless Chieftain amp model.

I'm planning to cover some more content with it in the future (and hopefully get my hands on one to keep). The praise and worship community seems to really be focussed on Helix and Kemper, but I think they're missing out with Fractal big time. Maybe I can help change that :).

If you're not familiar with modern praise and worship music, it's basically like a mash up of U2 and Coldplay, and it tends to lean heavy toward ambient type tones.
 
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I play at church but not a doing the modern PW tones. This clip has been one of the more enjoyable (to me) PW tones I have heard
 
Hi Brian I see you shared the preset of you AC30 and Chieftan on Facebook but the forum guys would really appreciate it here too they are great!
 
I've been using my AX8 for praise and worship for a few months now. I love it!

Welcome Brian!
 
A good friend here on the forums loaned me his AX8 for a bit to play around with. Here's a song play through/cover of 'Who You Say I Am' by Hillsong Worship.



I run a YouTube channel with about 415,000 subscribers. The channel provides training and resources (and hopefully entertainment, ha) for worship leaders and church musicians, mostly focussed on leadership and guitar stuff. My buddy Bradford and I do a lot of gear content there, and we're actually both big Helix (me) and Kemper (Brad) users. Most of our content for electric guitar is Helix based.

I've had a lot of people ask me to cover some Fractal stuff, and I've always been very curious to try Axe FX or an AX8. My first impression is a good one - I'm super impressed with the tones in this thing. For this video I used the Matchless Chieftain amp model.

I'm planning to cover some more content with it in the future (and hopefully get my hands on one to keep). The praise and worship community seems to really be focussed on Helix and Kemper, but I think they're missing out with Fractal big time. Maybe I can help change that :).

If you're not familiar with modern praise and worship music, it's basically like a mash up of U2 and Coldplay, and it tends to lean heavy toward ambient type tones.




Welcome

theres no turning back now .
 
The praise and worship community seems to really be focussed on Helix and Kemper, but I think they're missing out with Fractal big time. Maybe I can help change that :).

My worship leader and I both use the AX8, but I'll admit of the people in the area that do use modeling, we're definitely in the minority. And of the worship guitarists in the area, MODELING is STILL the minority.

We were just talking today about sacrifices we've made like going IEM, no amps on stage, etc, and we both agreed that the AX8 more than made up for any of that.

Looking forward to more Fractal content from you! Welcome!
 
Hey man! Enjoyed the video. I've been using AX8 for P/W at church since I got in in 2016 (I think 2016... I've slept since then and it all runs together...) It's an amazing tool, I hope to see more of you around here- with AX8 in hand!
 
Thanks for all the replies, guys!

So this AX8 I'm using belongs to @jamn4jc, but I was able to find a deal on a used one and I pulled the trigger :). So more AX8 content to come.

I think I'm probably going to stick with Helix as my main platform on Sundays (I've used it day in and day out for 3+ years), but I'm very impressed with Fractal. In raw amp tone (and drives, too), I think it has the edge. Plus the reverbs in it are beautiful.
 
I think I'm probably going to stick with Helix as my main platform on Sundays (I've used it day in and day out for 3+ years), but I'm very impressed with Fractal. In raw amp tone (and drives, too), I think it has the edge. Plus the reverbs in it are beautiful.

I'm a firm believer in both units. Every now and again I'll switch over to the Helix for a few weeks. Both work great for this genre.
 
Hi Brian W.
I am not on FB but I had my wife search for this preset or the AC30 and Chieftan that @thegrizman mentioned
but we can't find that content.
Would you share that AX8 preset for Who You Say I Am?
I think a lot of guys would really appreciate it.
Thanks!
 
Welcome Brian. I agree with what Karl said above about both units. I have been doing church and band gigs as far back as Axe Fx Standard and now have Axe Fx 2 as well as Helix. They are both fantastic units, the Helix sounds great, but takes great impulses and a great ear/time to get there. Or you can just buy Brian and Bradford’s presets like I do lol.
 
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