Has FAS answered the question regarding upgrading existing Axe FX III Mark II units?

joe1871

joe1871

Inspired
Hey All,

I have been away for a couple of weeks and I was just wondering if FAS has answered the question about whether existing Mark II units can be upgraded to Turbo? I bought my Axe about 5 months ago. I would absolutely LOVE to get it upgraded. I was just wondering if there will be a program - I would pay up to $500 to have my existing unit upgraded. It could be a great revenue stream for FAS and really satisfy a lot of people in my situation - fairly new but out of the 15 day swap out period.

FAS? Anyone? Answers most appreciated. Thanks Folks.

Joe
 
joe1871 said:
Hey All,

I have been away for a couple of weeks and I was just wondering if FAS has answered the question about whether existing Mark II units can be upgraded to Turbo? I bought my Axe about 5 months ago. I would absolutely LOVE to get it upgraded. I was just wondering if there will be a program - I would pay up to $500 to have my existing unit upgraded. It could be a great revenue stream for FAS and really satisfy a lot of people in my situation - fairly new but out of the 15 day swap out period.

FAS? Anyone? Answers most appreciated. Thanks Folks.

Joe
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There'd be no "upgrade", it'd be a purchase of a new board.

And, at that point, what are they, or you, going to do with the old board? It's better to sell the existing unit to someone who wants it, and then purchase the entire FX3 Turbo.
 
Yep, depending on how fast you want to sell the non turbo you'll probably lose not much more than what you proposed for an upgrade had it been possible.

I just sold my MkIi. I may never even need the extra horsepower myself but the opportunity cost was worth the upgrade to me.
 
Try closer to $900 difference.
Using a mean state sales tax of 7%, + $60 shipping, means the Turbo cost you $2735. Using a sold price of $1850 (isn't that what you just sold yours for William?) = $885. Now if you happen to live in MT, OR, DE, or NH, then you're lucky, but you're still looking at over $700. But if you live in any of the 14 states that have more than 8% sales tax, it'll be over $900.
Reduce those amounts by however much more than $1850 you get for your unit, but add to them if you have to eat some online sellers fees.

If I really wanted that extra DSP, I'd find a used FM3 instead, and string that together with the Axe, plus, it could be used as a backup unit for playing live.

I can imagine what the threads are gonna look like if Fractal introduces an Axe IV next year.
Edit: I used tax rate data that includes local taxes which some states have. I'm not sure exactly how they work, but still.
 
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TSJMajesty said:
Try closer to $900 difference.
Using a mean state sales tax of 7%, + $60 shipping, means the Turbo cost you $2735. Using a sold price of $1850 (isn't that what you just sold yours for William?) = $885. Now if you happen to live in MT, OR, DE, or NH, then you're lucky, but you're still looking at over $700. But if you live in any of the 14 states that have more than 8% sales tax, it'll be over $900.
Reduce those amounts by however much more than $1850 you get for your unit, but add to them if you have to eat some online sellers fees.

If I really wanted that extra DSP, I'd find a used FM3 instead, and string that together with the Axe, plus, it could be used as a backup unit for playing live.

I can imagine what the threads are gonna look like if Fractal introduces an Axe IV next year.
Click to expand...
I didn't try to get a couple hundred more out of mine either. And it will just boil down to how bad each person wants the upgrade ultimately.
 
If I was an Axe-Fx 3 Mk1/2 owner I would definitely question if I need the Turbo in the first place. There's probably a very small subset of users who have patches so complex that it would be worth upgrading to it. Everyone else just wants "the best" just to have it rather than needing it. FOMO probably plays into it. But hey, if you want to spend a lot more money for a slight spec bump then you are of course free to do it if that makes you happy.

At the time of writing there are no "Turbo only" features in the Axe-Fx 3 and for most users it would make more sense to stick with what you have. Maybe consider it again if Fractal releases a feature that is only possible on the Turbo.
 
My wish for the turbo is only driven by the fact that my preset template was already pushing the limit on my MkI, and now there is FullRes, which I would really like to add to everything. That takes up 25 CPU percentage points which is exactly what you get with the turbo
 
I don't get the need to put so many blocks in a single preset that you're taxing the DSP. Other than sheer convenience, it seems to me the only reason you need presets with many blocks is in a live setting, and for just one song, since you can go to a different preset for a different song.
Even Fremen's Drones of Arrakis only hits 65%, and that's a pretty complex preset.
This is just my opinion, but I think if you max out the DSP with your presets, you're going to continue doing so, not matter what processor is in the box. Like that reptile that grows to the size of his aquarium. Give him a bigger one, he grows to that size.
 
I have the MKII and always have fear of missing out when something new is released. But I will never need that much power - check out Cooper Carters vids on the subject.
 
There are undoubtedly some users who will benefit from the Turbo's extra horsepower, though in my case, it wouldn't generally benefit me. Yes, I've created a few presets over the years that have hit 80%+ but it's rare, and I've never actually hit the CPU limit. Now, if I were creating kitchen sink presets that utilized FullRes IR's, the extra DSP would be a necessity. But in my case, I'm not missing out on anything.
 
TSJMajesty said:
I don't get the need to put so many blocks in a single preset that you're taxing the DSP. Other than sheer convenience, it seems to me the only reason you need presets with many blocks is in a live setting, and for just one song, since you can go to a different preset for a different song.
Even Fremen's Drones of Arrakis only hits 65%, and that's a pretty complex preset.
This is just my opinion, but I think if you max out the DSP with your presets, you're going to continue doing so, not matter what processor is in the box. Like that reptile that grows to the size of his aquarium. Give him a bigger one, he grows to that size.
Click to expand...
My philosophy is that my template should include everything I might need, so I just have to remove the blocks I don't need for a specific song. It is the best workflow for me.
 
TSJMajesty said:
Try closer to $900 difference.
Using a mean state sales tax of 7%, + $60 shipping, means the Turbo cost you $2735. Using a sold price of $1850 (isn't that what you just sold yours for William?) = $885. Now if you happen to live in MT, OR, DE, or NH, then you're lucky, but you're still looking at over $700. But if you live in any of the 14 states that have more than 8% sales tax, it'll be over $900.
Reduce those amounts by however much more than $1850 you get for your unit, but add to them if you have to eat some online sellers fees.

If I really wanted that extra DSP, I'd find a used FM3 instead, and string that together with the Axe, plus, it could be used as a backup unit for playing live.

I can imagine what the threads are gonna look like if Fractal introduces an Axe IV next year.
Edit: I used tax rate data that includes local taxes which some states have. I'm not sure exactly how they work, but still.
Click to expand...
I mean will there actually be an Axe Fx IV? Idk what more could be done honestly that warrants a whole new model. The amp modeling and effects are probably as close as you can humanly get and there's only a few mainstream amps that haven't been modeled yet like the Randall RG100, maybe a Rockman and some other iterations of Friedman and Suhr amps. I think a better question is how many more new models effects can the III MKI hold because most users have that model.
 
rrhoads17 said:
I mean will there actually be an Axe Fx IV? Idk what more could be done honestly that warrants a whole new model. The amp modeling and effects are probably as close as you can humanly get and there's only a few mainstream amps that haven't been modeled yet like the Randall RG100, maybe a Rockman and some other iterations of Friedman and Suhr amps. I think a better question is how many more new models effects can the III MKI hold because most users have that model.
Click to expand...
The first thing that comes to mind would be gapless amp block channel switching. Like if you had 4 amp models running at the same time then you could switch between them instantly instead of getting a gap when the Axe has to reload different amp parameters. That would be crazy. Currently that kind of thing requires 2 amp blocks and you can only do it with 2 amp channels IIRC.
 
deathbyguitar said:
The first thing that comes to mind would be gapless amp block channel switching. Like if you had 4 amp models running at the same time then you could switch between them instantly instead of getting a gap when the Axe has to reload different amp parameters. That would be crazy. Currently that kind of thing requires 2 amp blocks and you can only do it with 2 amp channels IIRC.
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Do you get lag when you switch amp channels? I switch via Midi and there's virtually no lag.
 
TSJMajesty said:
Try closer to $900 difference.
Using a mean state sales tax of 7%, + $60 shipping, means the Turbo cost you $2735. Using a sold price of $1850 (isn't that what you just sold yours for William?) = $885. Now if you happen to live in MT, OR, DE, or NH, then you're lucky, but you're still looking at over $700. But if you live in any of the 14 states that have more than 8% sales tax, it'll be over $900.
Reduce those amounts by however much more than $1850 you get for your unit, but add to them if you have to eat some online sellers fees.

If I really wanted that extra DSP, I'd find a used FM3 instead, and string that together with the Axe, plus, it could be used as a backup unit for playing live.

I can imagine what the threads are gonna look like if Fractal introduces an Axe IV next year.
Edit: I used tax rate data that includes local taxes which some states have. I'm not sure exactly how they work, but still.
Click to expand...
Your good at Math, I'd like to see you custom patches🤘🏼😂
 
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