Help, my AX8 has developed a sound issue...

C

Cyguitar

Member
The last week or two my AX8 has started, randomly sounding strange. I will be playing on a patch, and it sounds fine. Then, randomly, it loses bass and get all distorted. Almost like I have a fuzz pedal on. The remedy seems to be, to step on the Scene 2 button, then back to Scene 1. I use Scene 1 as my main rhythm sound on my patches. Has anybody experienced this? How do I solve it? It almost reminds me of a bad pre-amp tube. I run it direct, not in front of a power amp, tube or otherwise.
 
Hard to say what the problem might be if it is happening on different presets. Although probably already checked:

Bad guitar cable? (I have had this issue before.)
Bad guitar jack?
What is your signal from AX8? Bad power amp? FOH mixer channel?
 
Habuman said:
Hard to say what the problem might be if it is happening on different presets. Although probably already checked:

Bad guitar cable? (I have had this issue before.)
Bad guitar jack?
What is your signal from AX8? Bad power amp? FOH mixer channel?
Click to expand...
It has happened with a cable, as well as my wireless. Because it clears up when I switch scenes and then back, I don't think it will be cable or the jack. My signal from the AX8 is, for practice...I run direct into one of our main speakers (QSC K12 powered speaker). For gigs, I run direct into our mixer (Behringer X-32). It has happened both at practice, and gigs. I hope it's not something I may have to send in to be fixed. I don't have another AX8 as a backup. I have a Tech 21 Fly Rig. It's very basic. It will give me a clean sound, a crunch sound, a boost, a bit of echo, and reverb. I am in a cover band, and we cover a huge variety of artists. Which is why one of the reasons why I like to have an amp modeler. I use different amps for all of the different artists we cover. We cover everything from Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis, to White Zombie and Rival Sons, with A Taste of Honey and The Jackson 5, to Led Zeppelin and Night Ranger to The Monkees and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds. Def Leppard to Steely Dan. We cover a lot of ground.
 
I haven't tried backing it up, etc. I used it last night at practice for almost three hours. It worked fine, with no issues. I will keep an eye on it.
 
Cyguitar said:
The last week or two my AX8 has started, randomly sounding strange. I will be playing on a patch, and it sounds fine. Then, randomly, it loses bass and get all distorted. Almost like I have a fuzz pedal on. The remedy seems to be, to step on the Scene 2 button, then back to Scene 1. I use Scene 1 as my main rhythm sound on my patches. Has anybody experienced this? How do I solve it? It almost reminds me of a bad pre-amp tube. I run it direct, not in front of a power amp, tube or otherwise.
Click to expand...
I've had something similar happen randomly then it solved itself. My ambient shimmer sounds would not come on with scene 1 , so I switched to scene 2 then back to scene 1 and then they would come on. First I thought I just needed to adjust my expression pedal position but nope it made no difference until I switched scenes. Here's the funny thing, the problem got fixed on its own. When I stop using my ax8 for a long time like 1 month+ I always get issues... It's as if this beast needs to be run all the time to ensure proper working order.

The same thing happens with my AC10. It's 6 months old. If I don't use it for 2 months and turn it on it sometimes gets noisy or too loud at the same volume. At first I thought it was my hearing. But I figure these beasts like the AC10 and AX8 are for pros. Pros practice daily. So you gotta work em in.

Compare that to my boss pedals which I have stored for 20 years without turning them on. They still work every bit as good 20 years later.
Dsouza
 
dsouza said:
I've had something similar happen randomly then it solved itself. My ambient shimmer sounds would not come on with scene 1 , so I switched to scene 2 then back to scene 1 and then they would come on. First I thought I just needed to adjust my expression pedal position but nope it made no difference until I switched scenes. Here's the funny thing, the problem got fixed on its own. When I stop using my ax8 for a long time like 1 month+ I always get issues... It's as if this beast needs to be run all the time to ensure proper working order.

The same thing happens with my AC10. It's 6 months old. If I don't use it for 2 months and turn it on it sometimes gets noisy or too loud at the same volume. At first I thought it was my hearing. But I figure these beasts like the AC10 and AX8 are for pros. Pros practice daily. So you gotta work em in.

Compare that to my boss pedals which I have stored for 20 years without turning them on. They still work every bit as good 20 years later.
Dsouza
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I’ve been looking at buying an ax8. How do you find it holds up in 2022? I don’t like the form factor of fm3 so I won’t buy it. Fm9 I would buy but it’s too damn expensive and hard to find. I’ve had my eye on the ax8. Thanks!
 
I do think as well that the AX8 still slays and covers a lot of ground. What speaks against it is the diminishing community activity. As long as you can create your own presets you should be good. Just don't expect a lot more presets to be shared here and on AxeExchange.
 
Well if one is a SERIOUS musician the lack of preset sharing is not an issue for the AX8. One can always buy custom preset solutions.
 
Cyguitar said:
The last week or two my AX8 has started, randomly sounding strange. I will be playing on a patch, and it sounds fine. Then, randomly, it loses bass and get all distorted. Almost like I have a fuzz pedal on. The remedy seems to be, to step on the Scene 2 button, then back to Scene 1. I use Scene 1 as my main rhythm sound on my patches. Has anybody experienced this? How do I solve it? It almost reminds me of a bad pre-amp tube. I run it direct, not in front of a power amp, tube or otherwise.
Click to expand...
Contact Fractal Support. They are great at walking you through the troubleshooting process. If it turns out to be something simple that you can fix, they'll walk you through that process as well.
 
The issue is happening still. I thought it had stopped, but at the last two practices and the last concert I played. It has popped up again. It almost sounds like I have a fuzz pedal on, but I don't. The only way to get it to sound normal, is to step on the scene 2 button, then back to scene 1. I should probably send it in. I will contact support.
 
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