HELP! Axe-Fx II owners in the SF Bay Area

V

vbrilon

Member
Hi guys,

I have a gig Saturday night (January 11th) and tonight at rehearsal my Fractal froze and wouldn't come back to life when I tried to reboot it. I had to reboot it into emergency mode and reflashed the firmware and now everything sounds wrong -- even the built in patches (most of them but not all) are giving me weird sounds or no sounds at all.

Is there anyone here that would be willing to lend me their Axe-Fx II for one day and let me load my patches on it for the gig? Happy to pay for the use of your device and leave cash as a security deposit, etc. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
 
Sorry, just saw this. Did you get sorted?

This is my fear, and I wonder if I shouldn't have a second AXE unit in my rack in case.
 
I see a lot of guys on stage with a backup unit now days if I gigged enough I would wan't a backup. The price of a used 2 is not too bad now or even may be good justification to buy a 3 and only have to 2 for backup. The 2 won't do the same as a 3 but in a fix it will sound close enough.

Hope you got through your gig.
 
It’s standard practice for high level artists to have a backup rig. This isn’t a sign that the axe fails often. It’s a sign of smart gear use. People would have duplicate real amp rigs which is way crazier to me, yet necessary.

It’s always good to have a backup. I take 2 guitars in a double bag, and most of my gigs fortunately allow me to just plug straight in if my axe goes down, as it’s primarily acoustic. But I’ve never had any issues in 10+ years with any FAS gear.

to the OP, sorry this is happening :(
 
Hi guys, sorry for the late response -- been a crazy few days this week. I definitely hear you loud and clear on a backup unit, but given my gig schedule these days it's just not worth the investment now.

Short version of what happened: Fractal wouldn't boot up at sound check the night before, LCD was all pixelated. I got it into emergency boot mode and reflashed the latest Ares on it but it was super glitchy. Some patches sounded fine. Some had no output. And there was no consistency as to what was behaving how. I ended up opening the unit, checked for loose connections, bad caps, etc -- everything looked good. I pulled the battery from the motherboard and metered it out. It was a 2.8V, and it's a 3V nominal charge. On a whim I put a new battery in, rebooted the Fractal, reset everything could find in the menu, and then reloaded the firmware and reloaded my patches. At this point it was almost 3 am, but at least the gig wasn't till the following day.

I think the new battery fixed it, but it's hard to be sure. Gonna keep an eye on it and if it appears flaky at all, I guess I have an excuse to buy a III :)

As an addendum, this is not a slam on Fractal. This is my second unit that I've owned (I previously had an Ultra that I sold to get the II) and it's been a beast of a workhorse. 7-8 years without a hiccup at all. Shit happens, I am not stressed out about it, just crap timing on this one. But in the end I got through the gig with flying colors.

Thanks to all who responded!
 
I'm so glad you got through your gig! I deal with weird glitches from software and hardware and its not a fun feeling. Hopefully the battery was the issue - and I'm impressed you recognized it in a timely manner and (apparently) took just the right steps.
 
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