Holly Bleep!!

scottburrow

Fractal Fanatic
I just got my AXE II, wow is all I can say. the way that the amp breaths is what is blowing me away. when it needs to be spongy it is, when your looking for soulful, it's there in spades. As others have said this is totally a different animal then its predecessor. So my opinion is that when Cliff created the Gen 1 he created the sound and when he created the gen 2 he created the feeling of the amp. Thanks Cliff, I am off to never-never land. By the way I know now why I haven't seen the regulars as much, they are way to busy playing guitar...
 
Scott, I totally agree, big difference between II and Ultra/Standard. I did my first couple of gigs with the Axe II/MFC combination and I was just overjoyed at times with how great the amps sounded AND felt. As you note, the sponginess and dynamic relation of pick attack and subtle volume changes to drive and grind that result are fantastic. I'm a fairly clean player on the spectrum of Axe users. With my Ultra, I was generally quite happy with the kind of drive sounds I could get, but sometimes the clean into slight drive sounds weren't quite as alive as I wanted. That is not the case with the II. The Vox AC30 model is just blowing me away among others. That amp has sparkle and chime and grind and sings when you run a pedal into it.

There were a bunch of other musicians at the gigs I played this weekend and I got a lot of really positive comments about my sound. That was nice, but the best thing was how the Axe II made ME feel. I felt like I had a rig that gave me a palette of consistent sounds that allowed me to express how I hear music in a way that I've only rarely experienced in years of playing great tube amps. And it felt like just the beginning. Not every patch was how I wanted it to be in the context of a gig, but there were a couple that were fantastic.

Happy days.
 
We had a gig Friday night.. outdoors, hot and humid, on the lake.
First gig with our new front man, so we had a few adjustments to make to the monitor mix. Understandable as we don't rehearse with the full PA.
So after the first 3 songs, he lets our sound guy know that he wants some of my guitar in the mix. As a sound guy, I generally advise against adding instruments in the monitor mix as the more you add - vocals, keys, guitar, acoustic, etc - the muddier it gets and the harder it is to get the clarity/separation and prevent feedback. It adds to the slugfest!

I normally monitor my sound via OUT2 to stage monitor and send OUT1 to FOH.
We have 3 monitor mixes going so sound guy folds back my FOH tones into front monitors (mix 1 - shared with frontman) and OMG!!!
For the first time I'm actually hearing what the audience is REALLY hearing !!
There was enough in the monitors to "blanket" my stage monitor volume so I played most of my gig listening to myself via the monitors!
What a huge difference.. really let me appreciate the time I put into setting up my FOH presets - and they sounded great!
Those Axe-II tones are INCREDIBLE and hearing myself that way was a real treat.. :)
Think I'm going to go that way for next gig and see about leaving the stage monitor at home in future, or at a minimum.. hooked up, but not active :)

Going to have to rethink our monitor strategy.. LOL
 
We had a gig Friday night.. outdoors, hot and humid, on the lake.
First gig with our new front man, so we had a few adjustments to make to the monitor mix. Understandable as we don't rehearse with the full PA.
So after the first 3 songs, he lets our sound guy know that he wants some of my guitar in the mix. As a sound guy, I generally advise against adding instruments in the monitor mix as the more you add - vocals, keys, guitar, acoustic, etc - the muddier it gets and the harder it is to get the clarity/separation and prevent feedback. It adds to the slugfest!

I normally monitor my sound via OUT2 to stage monitor and send OUT1 to FOH.
We have 3 monitor mixes going so sound guy folds back my FOH tones into front monitors (mix 1 - shared with frontman) and OMG!!!
For the first time I'm actually hearing what the audience is REALLY hearing !!
There was enough in the monitors to "blanket" my stage monitor volume so I played most of my gig listening to myself via the monitors!
What a huge difference.. really let me appreciate the time I put into setting up my FOH presets - and they sounded great!
Those Axe-II tones are INCREDIBLE and hearing myself that way was a real treat.. :)
Think I'm going to go that way for next gig and see about leaving the stage monitor at home in future, or at a minimum.. hooked up, but not active :)

Going to have to rethink our monitor strategy.. LOL

Would you care to share a couple of your FOH presets? I'm battling with the direct sound. I LOVE the sound of my Axe II through my tube amp and cab but I'm still battling with the FOH/Direct sound.
Thanks. And great feedback too!
Patrick
 
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