First gig with my AX8

D20

Power User
Just thought i would share:

I recently traded my Axe Fx II XL plus cash for an AX8. In my very honest opinion it was so worth it!!! I absolutely love the AX8! It is somewhat limited compared to the XL, but most of my patches are pretty simple and i like it that way. I also love the AX8 since it is basically a pedal board as well as an amp modeler all in one. I recently test my AX8 at church. We play contemporary P&W and play pretty loud as well. It's a lot fun for me. I mainly play more hard rock/funk rock music so I find it a good step away from my "comfort zone type music". It also pushes me to play differently and think differently musically. Most of the other guys there were pretty skeptical about the AX8 when they heard i was going to use it as they all have a like $3000 on a pedal board and run stereo Matchless amps in isolation. Needless to say the AX8 performed amazingly well! Some of the comments i got were...dude i couldn't tell that you weren't running into an amp/your tone sounded like a well mastered song's guitar tone/you having this on stage really makes me rethink carrying a huge pedal board+amp+cab around. I sent one of the guitarists a direct recording of the tone i was gonna use on stage and he swore i just sent him the guitar only track from the song. hahaha!

I'm currently writing and recording a lot for a more Breaking Benjaming-ish type band and i can't wait to use the AX8 with that project live.

All this to say I'm super happy with the AX8 and i think the only time i would consider upgrading is if Fractal makes an Axe Fx III version of the AX8! If anyone is on the fence about gettting an AX8 I highly recommend getting one! It has squashed my desires for any other amp/effects pedal. The only thing i am thinking of purchasing now is more expression pedals.

Big thanks to Fractal Audio for making tone sound so great with so little!!!
 
Very cool!

I'm always curious, are you basically running an amp with pedals all the time in your gig, or do you switch amps like a multi-channel head? How are you planning to run it with the heavier rock band?
 
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At church i basically run the Matchless DC30 amp in my AX8 into...I can't remember off the top of my head which cab, but it was one of the 1X12 cabs i remember. I use delay and reverb 95% of the time, so those are always one effects. It just depends on the song as to how much in the mix i run them. I like the Jazz 120 for cleans, so sometimes i will set that up as the X/Y amp to the Matchless. Most songs however i don't need to change amps. When i ran pedals i used an old early RAT model in front of the amp, so i do the same in the AX8 as my drive. Other than that i may run a pitch block and set it up similar to the Micro Pog and get a tone similar. Again it all depends on the song we are doing, but for the most part this is my setup. Simple. I'll set the drive and pitch blocks usually as foot switches so i can turn them on and off if i need to. From song to song I'll just build the patch to taste and then run them in order as different presets.

I'm still working on my patches with my heavier band, but most of the rhythms are Recto Red1 into a Mesa 4X12 IR. I have most of the tones i use to record with, but i just need to arrange them by song. I'm going to try using scenes as well which may help with changing effects on and off with my heavier band as well. Still very much a work in progress there, but for church and playing P&W...I'm set!!!
 
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