Well I thought that since it's been a few weeks now that I'd probably give a proper review. I don't want to rehash all the stuff that's already been said a million times, I mean for the most part if you own one and take the time to post a review you are digging it. What I wanted to do was to kind of talk about where I was coming from gear wise, what my expectations/goals were and what was met and what was a surprise. That's the intent, we'll see how far off course I end up.
So I started off many years ago using modelling gear (the original Roland VG8, which I still have). I've gone through a ton of software apps, been a beta tester for a bunch, bought a bunch, borrowed friend's computers who owned something I didn't and have spent years and years trying to nail down something that was missing. The worst part is that I didn't know what 'it' was. So a few years ago I bought an Ultra. I loved it. I mean I really loved it. I sold it when I heard about the AxeFXII and it sucked to pack it up. What sucked worse was waiting for the coupon code. But what really sucked was that I had bought an 11R for the interim and while I survived and actually had some fun occasionally, it wasn't on par with the Ultra (and I barely got to touch v11 firmware which was a huge breakthru), but I also started to second guess my decision to basically take a proven platform and basically go out on a limb for what I thought was a few extra features.
So my expectations and goals were to have the conveniences that the II offered that the Ultra didn't. And as silly as it sounds the user IR library and management was the key selling point for me. It had gotten to the point that I didn't even bother loading cabs anymore because I just couldn't keep track of what I had in what slot that would ruin what preset if I changed it and if I had to reload it I didn't know what the damn thing was to begin with. I could live with it if there had never been another modelling rig made, but the II was out there and did what I was wanting from that perspective. To be honest I wasn't really overwhelmed with the difference in sound between the Ultra and the II based on clips I had heard. I mean occasionally I would pick up something and nod to myself, but nothing that blew me away; I mean the Ultra was and is amazing.
There were a few other improvements here and there, but the IR's were the first thing on the must have list. The second of course was the chance to continue the ride with Cliff at the wheel. What I mean is that the Ultra was like getting a new piece of gear (or many depending on how you look at it) with each firmware upgrade. The Ultra had pretty much become what we rarely see in today's world which was something that had lived up to the hype, met it's potential and just couldn't be improved upon as is. He couldn't make it better and it was a completed product. I wanted to see what he was going to do next with all of the things he had learned up to this point. Plus it always seems like firmware updates come at times when I could use a little something to make me smile.
I get the coupon, think about it, order it, kind of cringe at the thought of spending $2200 and really wonder if I had done the right thing. I'm serious here, I did well on the sale of the Ultra, but I was going to take a loss on the 11R and knew it, plus for all the grief I give the 11R, it does work and makes a few nice sounds. I had just dialed in a few really good patches as well and wasn't really dying for anything beyond that anymore. I guess I had kind of come to a point of acceptance.
A few days later it arrives. I'm not even sure if I'm going to keep it at this point. I mean this is a hobby for me. I go ahead and slap it on top of my rack and plug it in deciding that I'm going to do a quick A/B test to see if I'm going to flip it on e-Bay at this point. I get my best preset on the 11R and give it a whirl. It's a Fender amp of some sort with a little drive in front of it and some reverb; sounds a bit like something Joe Walsh would play. I then load up my AC30 patch. The AC30 on the 11R was what kept me from sending it back on the spot when i got it. Sounds really good.
Next I plug into the AxeFXII and figure that I'll probably have to spend an hour or so remembering how to get around in order to dial in a good patch to compete with basically my best efforts from the last nine months. I was off by a bit, it took about 10 seconds on the first factory patch to get the stupid grin back on my face that had been missing. I think that it was a bassman patch and I was just in awe at how the notes exploded off the fretboard. The seperation between notes, even when chorded was just something I don't recall from the Ultra. Needless to say the 11R was on e-Bay the next morning at work (I wasn't going to waste playing time at home with setting up an auction).
But the thing that just absolutely kills me is that this was on firmware 4. I mean it was great. But v5.01 just took everything that was great about it and made it more. Seriously, this was the most significant improvement to anything I've ever heard since v11 of the Ultra and that was amazing.
Things that stand out to me include just how easy it is to dial in a patch. Sure it's kind of old hat for me at this point, but I remember scratching my head for a minute trying to remember where I was going to have to put the PEQ's and what gloabl EQ settings I was going to need. I have yet to need either. I haven't gone beyond a little bit of reverb and a touch of a dirt pedal for a lead tone on any patch yet (well I did make one with some delay settings just to see if I could do it). The less stuff going on in there, the better it sounds to me. That's not a knock against the effects and stuff, they're great, but I don't want anything taking away from the tone of the amps.
The single biggest shock though was the Fender and Vox models. I was a huge Trainwreck fan with the Ultra, but I could never get a good Fender or Vox sound out of it without a ton of editing and even then it was never exactly how I wanted it. If it was too clean it sounded lifeless, it got boomy on me sometimes and as soon as I started to fix it I'd ruin the preset. I won't lie to you, if the bassman was the only amp this thing had it would be worth the price. The Vox...holy crap....what a sound. That's the two best amps in the 11R, the two that I had the biggest issues with in the Ultra and the two that I've just fallen completely in love with in the AxeFXII. I can't believe how deep and alive it sounds clean or just barely on the virge of breaking up. I get chills when I play it sometimes. The plexi's and all the other stuff is just as ridiculous as it was in the Ultra, but with that added 'something' that I really didn't think was possible in a modelling device. The dynamics and spreaker drive stuff really put the icing on the cake.
One last funny note is that I expected to just wipe most of Bank A out so that I would have a clean slate to go to town editing. Well at this point I'm having trouble picking presets to delete. I'll get around to it, but where as with the 11R I had to get right into building to make it sell itself to me I'm having trouble bringing myself to getting through all the presets because I'll get caught up on one for hours at a time.
If you're on the fence about making the move from the Ultra or standard I can't push you over the edge. I can only tell you that having had to go without my Fractal fix for nine months was a lot harder in retrospect than it was in reality because I just played a lot less and found other things to occupy that time with. But having this thing in the house now for a few weeks and I'm just asking myself "how the hell did you survive without this?"
