Hi guys ! My trip is over I’m back home. During my stay in New York (two weeks) and Paris (one week), I had the pleasure to meet some Axe Fx users and I want to share these special moments. I wish I could have met more users, like my buddy Pete Lyall in Colorado, Sidivan in North Dakota, GuitarMan86 in providence or others in San Francisco or LA, but that was out of my budget for this time… Anyway I met not less than 8 Axe users in NY and Paris, and here’s some stories under the theme
Axe Fx II : connecting people 
So, first, on the 10th September, I got to jam with
wknight2's band,
Exit Row Band, in New Jersey. Ed (wknight2) was a wonderful host, and the gear I got to play on was top notch. He let me load my own presets on his Axe II, while he played on a H&K amp himself. That was the first time I played on a PRS, a very beautiful one, but also on a CLR – a nice surprise for me, as I had planned to try one at Atomic headquarters a few days later (more on that below).
I won’t give a detailed review of the CLR here, as I didn't gave it a full test, but here’s some impressions. But first, a side story. Recently, I received a pair of Equator D5 studio monitors, to replace the hifi speakers I’ve been using for 25 years. The Equators are very popular in their price range, and for mixing/mastering, which I do a lot for local bands, they obviously slay my hifi speakers. But, I admit that for playing guitar, or programming my presets, I just HATE them – too dry sounding, like my low mids are gone, not enough warmth. I then told myself, if I don’t like playing on a monitor which is meant to be flat (of course that’s a relative statement…), then maybe I won’t like the sound of a CLR either.
I couldn’t be more wrong : not only did the CLR made me feel at home with my sounds (
which has never been the case with other powered monitors labelled “FRFR” or any other monitoring solution I used in gigs, power amp + Beyma or Eminence speakers in a 2x12 cab, poweramp + Marshall cabs, keyboard amps…), but I enjoyed the experience to a point I couldn’t imagine. My presets sounded like I know them, but magnified, with a punch I wasn’t anticipating. The crunch and hi gain were awesome, and the cleans even more impressive - like I was playing on a very good Fender or Vox amp, not on a FRFR setup. Those who uses my presets may have noticed that I use a lot of compression on clean sounds ; that’s because I usually plays at low volume at home, and compression helps to emulate the percussive effect of a clean amp pushed – the ooomph you feel as much as you hear. With the CLR, even at low volume (before the rest of the band came in), I could bypass the compressor in my clean presets and still enjoy the punch. And at band practice volume (which was much louder that what I'm used to)… Oh yes !
So, back on the jam/rehearsal with Exit Row Band. We played some songs I already cover/have covered with my own bands, some I never learned but that I have heard quite a few times, and some I never heard, which is always an interesting challenge. Here’s some videos of that session, recorded with my smartphone. I overdubbed the sound with Ed’s recordings, made with one of those Zoom Qxxx stereo recorders (or another brand, I’m not sure). I’m sometimes a little low on the mix but as I wasn’t used to hear me that loud, I was lowering my volume – and still I was hearing me very clearly. Many time, even if I felt I was too loud, Ed asked me to raise my level for the other musicians
Also, Ed's recorder was behind the female singer, on the bar, so quite away from my amp.
Little wing :
Gold dust woman (I never heard that song before) :
Last, I edited 4 songs into one video :
Ed : Thanks again for your hospitality, the pizza, the beers, letting me play with your bands and take pictures with your guitars – not mentioning the tour in your awesome neighbourhood, with those incredible houses, and let's not forget the deers too ! For those interested, check MyCoolGuitars on Facebook for pictures of Ed's guitar collection.
A few days later, I got to meet another user, Dave (
Dave Z on this forum). We went to Sam Ash to try some Suhr guitars, on a PRS amp. I didn't had the opportunity to go to Dave's house to try his guitars, but we had a nice chat about gear, among other things. The Suhr testing is featured in the beginning of this video :
Dave : thanks for waiting for me in front of Sam Ash even if I was almost an hour late (and I stressed because I hate being late), after losing myself in the streets of Chinatown earlier
And thanks for the pleasant, but too short, meeting
Dave's YouTube channel :
guitardave123's channel - YouTube
On Monday 16th September, two days before leaving New York and going to Paris, I had the pleasure to meet
Tom King, of Atomic Amps. Initially, I planned on visiting his factory to test the CLR, but as I had already used one at Ed's rehearsal room, we agreed on meeting in a club with live music instead, so I could have another taste of New York. What a night it was ! My gf and I were just back from another sightseeing day, with no time to go back were we lived to change clothes, so as we arrived in front of the Canal Room, seeing all those models and artists on the red carpet being interviewed for television, we wondered if with our Angry Birds t-shirts, we would even be allowed in the club. Then Tom arrived, I recognized him immediately with his Atomic Amps t-shirt, and after a quick chat, he told us that he was waiting for someone named Andy, who would help us get inside. Picture my surprise when I discovered, when he arrived, that Andy was in fact Andee – yes,
Andee Blacksugar himself (who is also an Axe II user) ! As I'm a fan of what he do, I downloaded many videos he uploaded on YouTube or songs he put on SoundCloud, so meeting him was kind of surreal.
So here we are in the Canal Room, for a special night, the 10th anniversary of the club, with a 80s cover band named
Jessie's Girl. Here I met briefly with the guitar player,
Eric Presti, an Axe Ultra user (a few days later, we had a chat on facebook about the II). I also got to take a picture with one of the singers, Constantine Maroulis, having absolutely no idea that he was a well known American Idol ex-candidate. Jessie's Girl was fun, entertaining, very professional, and I learned a trick or two about stage presence and giving a good show
Here's a pic of one of Andee's friend, Andee himself, Tom and me, taken after leaving the Canal Room. Yes, that's my face after some beers
Tom : thanks again for that awesome night, we had great fun ! I wish we had the opportunity to play together, that would eventually be for next year... And say hello to Andee for me
A few days later, I was in Paris, where I met three more Axe II users. First, I went to a studio for a short session with
Dominique, the guitar player of a band called
Coverplay : Axe II plugged in the poweramp of a Marshall JVM 410, American Stratocaster, Les Paul Studio, Ibanez JS1000... Even if it's not recommended, we left both the poweramp sim and cabs "on" in the Axe - and it still worked. Of course it wasn't transparent but the ooomph and presence was definitively there. The goal was not to program perfect presets for that setup - for that I would have removed the cab and poweramp sim - but to exchange tips between Axe II users, talk about gear, share experiences etc. I did test three nice guitars, with an amazingly low action but no fret buzz - although I do like an higher action, specially for controlling the bends
We used mostly stock presets and two or three of mines, without my user cabs. I raised the AIR parameter in the cab block for some of the stock presets. At some point in the video, what you hear is the Marshall with a Rocktron Intellifex, would you recognize where ?
Here's a video, recorded on a cellphone ; at 5:32, Dominique is testing a Vox AC30 preset I tweaked for his setup :
Dominique : merci encore pour la rencontre chaleureuse et conviviale, préviens-moi si tu upload des vidéos de Coverplay, j'ai bien envie de voir les covers de chansons pop à la sauce Van Halen ou autre
My last encounter of the Axe II kind was with two more users,
Philippe Delanghe, who is registered here as
pdelanghe, and
Antoine "RACA" Rachlin, one of the most respected Axe II users in France, and also a beta tester. Antoine and I have been in touch for some years, but never met before, even if I come to Paris every year. After a very nice dinner and an interesting conversation covering various topics including nutrition, of which our host Philippe is a specialist (French people, see his blog here :
Paleo, Running, Bio (logie), Techno … | De nos origines paléolithiques à aujourd'hui … ), we went to the studio, where Antoine tried a JTV Variax, and myself, a VGS with Evertune bridge and a custom PRS. The Evertune concept amazed me, although it's a little disorienting at first, like the guitar is somewhat "fighting" the bends and vibratos. The equal temperament frets is another thing I never experienced before, but in fact once I started playing I almost forgot them. That guitar sounded awesome, as did the PRS too. The Axe was plugged in a stereo mini PA. Here's a video, courtesy of Antoine's digital camera :
Philippe et Antoine : merci encore pour la soirée, on garde contact et on se reverra certainement !
Last but not least, thanks to iaresee for the Air BnB suggestion. We were at a very nice place in Bronxville - and our host was a personal friend of Christopher MacAlpine, Tony MacAlpine's older brother, who also is an incredible guitar/keyboards player, so I got to talk music there too
