It's been an interesting run

To each his own, especially in something as subjective as sound. No one can tell you what you want to hear, and there is more in play than circuitry. Use what you want. For me, I have found a use for both, and still have a wall of amps, and two Fractal units. The world doesn't have to be either/or, although there isn't a thing wrong with picking one and being done with it. The guy I share the stage front with is a dedicated amp/pedal board guy and that's just fine with me. We both get a good sound, and it sounds good together.

Best of luck on your choice!
 
A single two/three channel Amp is fully sufficient for pretty much anyone. Just find the favourite one that makes you happy, and make music...
However, the weight and the convenience stops me from switching to real amps at the moment. :)
Also, I can run two instruments at the same time on the axe FX! That's awesome.
As soon as an Axe FX developer solves the Amp block X/Y switching audio gap, I am definitely doing that!
 
Oh yeah. There are many totally valid and purposeful reasons for the axe fx and I get why people use it. No matter what way you go it's an amazing time to be a musician. Especially a guitarist.
 
Full props to you in the way you've handled this thread.

One thing that I think we all need to recognise is that no matter how much we'd like to think otherwise, the real thing will always be better.

If the 5150 sound is the thing which gives you a chubby, then running an AFX over a 5150 is a bit of an odd choice when we have things like the power station which make recording with the real amp, just as easy as recording with the AFX.

At the risk of a shameless "plug", the Tubescreamer thread I posted recently was kinda eye-opening to me. With a fair bit of digging and tweaking, it was possible to get the FAS Boost (but not the TS808?) to sound like a real TS808. However, even when it sounded the same, it most certainly did not feel the same.

Would you notice a difference when playing live through a PA with other instruments at an ear-shattering volume? Probably not. Do you notice at home when jamming or recording songs? Absolutely.

I don't feel like that's a slight against Fractal because the real thing will always be better.

Long story short: If you've got a piece of kit which gives you the exact sound you want that causes you to feel funny in your pants, then that's the bit of gear you should rock the fuck out on. When you look at it from a "make-my-genitals-tingle" perspective, everything is important. The tone, the feel, the atmosphere in the room, the smell of tubes, hell even the way things look contribute to making your junk happy. It's purely an emotional response and some twit going: "Dude, but it sounds EXACTLY the same" is entirely irrelevant.

I'm sure your grandma can't tell the difference between a JCM800 and a 5150, but to you it's night and day right?

What I'm trying to say is that when he said:
I've found, in the several years of being part of this forum, that doing so would only lead to arguing, people saying I should have done this or that to achieve the same sound, some people saying the Axe sounds better, that I screwed something up with the Axe-fx, etc. I don't really want to go there at this point.
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I get it.

If you feel good, you play good. We play music because it makes us feel good. Whatever makes you feel even gooder-er is what you should use.

Rock the fuck out of your awesome new amp man.
 
The tone, the feel, the atmosphere in the room, the smell of tubes, hell even the way things look contribute to making your junk happy.
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Can tottaly agree.
The axe fx, to me, lacks a lot in these aspects...
 
@Speculum Speculorum good luck with your amp and fx-8. when you get it let us know how it works with your 5150 compared to the axe fx. I have a friend that loves real amps(owns many) and is very interested in the FX-8 but we have put my AX-8 up with his real amps and he is a little undecided. As far as the "the real thing will always be better" quotes, I think this is totally the users opinion. There are many choices for a reason, we are all different, we all are trying to find "our tone"
 
feelsgood.jpg
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
Been there done that. First with a Dual Rectifier back in Gen1 days. The second and third time around I was wiser and didn't get rid of the Axe-Fx. I always came back no matter what. I will give you 6 months max. :) Oh and one of the amps I had was a 50-watt EVH also. When I compared the Axe-Fx sims with the real thing they were identical. IDENTICAL!
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I agree. I have compared the Bogner Shiva model to my real Shiva and they are 99.5% identical.

If it was a financial decision in order to get a real amp i understand selling the Axe FX, but if not it's just silly to sell it at all, just like selling your real amps once you get the Axe FX. There will be months where you just want to play the real deal and others where you will swear the Axe FX is the amp slayer, it's a game your brain loves to play, and a win win situation for you.
 
BrickGlass said:
Last person ever huh? Well you've succeed in creating a really awkward vibe in your last thread before leaving.
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Mikko (Clark Kent) has left a bad taste in some people's mouth on this forum and another forum, as well. It's mainly the people who have been here for the longest. I used to be one of them. However, I believe in second chances and Mikko has tamed down over the years. I don't know what Spec's beef with Mikko is because he didn't answer my question. So, who knows.
 
Speculum Speculorum said:
No I won't be going back, and frankly the last person I'll ever take tone advice from is you. Good try though.
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All the best man, hope your journey only improves! No offense intended, but, I've made these kind of statements in the past , and wound up eating crow, never could like it mo matter how much mustard and salt I put on it :)
 
RDH said:
All the best man, hope your journey only improves! No offense intended, but, I've made these kind of statements in the past , and wound up eating crow, never could like it mo matter how much mustard and salt I put on it :)
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I'm failry utilitarian when it comes to music with guitar, but I have a specific notion of what I'm after. Everybody said "Why do you tune down to a flat isn't b enough?" And I'm like "it's in my vocal range". When I took all the tone pots out of my guitars people were like "Why would you do that what if you want it later?" and I never went back. I took my bass pickups and preamp out and replaced them with passive pickups that get the sound I need. I haven't worried about it since because it sounds how I want it to sound.

So when I say I won't be buying another axe-fx II because I've found what I'm looking for right here in my hot little hands... I mean it.

Look - as I've pointed out repeatedly now in this thread: horses for courses. Just because a guy (me) doesn't get along with the modeler doesn't mean you can't. But also - just because you think it's wonderful, doesn't mean it works for every single person in the world. I don't know what it is about people on this forum particularly, but some people just don't seem to get that. It's like if I said "every sound in the world can be gotten with a Fender Twin Reverb and anybody who says otherwise just doesn't know what they're talking about." Ridiculous, right? Yes, it is.

I've used the thing for five damn years. If you knew me very well and talked to me about music on a daily basis (like a few people on here do), you would know for a fact that I've had misgivings about my interaction with this piece of kit for quite some time now. It's not like I woke up one day and proclaimed "Ooh gee willy. Guess I'll just throw my axe out the front door. Whoop dee doo!". If I haven't, with my numerous years of using the thing every single day been satisfied, there's not going to be some trick or technique that's suddenly going to make it better for me. Honestly.

That said, I respect people who want to use and enjoy the Axe-fx II. It's a great piece of gear. It's just not my cup of tea.
 
kgk said:
This sounds like fantastic news to me!

I always felt that the true raison d'être of the Axe FX was to support those (a) unsure of their desired tone, or (b) playing in a cover band, and it doesn't sound like either one of these cases applies to you.

I assume that the Axe FX does a "pretty good" job of matching most of what it attempts to model, and given that my ears are not very demanding, for somebody like me it's pretty awesome, particularly as I suffer from (a). But one day I should try a real Mesa-Boogie, I often end up playing on models based on their hardware.
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Keep in mind "the search" is a very complex process, especially when it comes to amps. I had a Single Rectifier Solo come up for a KILLER deal about a week before I found the 5150. I went to the shop it was located in. It was in great condition considering it's age. I had heard some really great tones from these amps and I was almost certain I'd pull the trigger on it when I went in (heck it was listed at $495).

Plugged in, started fiddling. Nothing. It just wasn't a very good representation of the amp series. The cleans were decent. The pushed clean was nothing to write home about. The distortion was saturated WAY too early. It just wasn't what I wanted in an amp.

I took a gamble on the 5150 and it paid off big time. I knew the minute I played it that I found what I was looking for in this particular type of amp. It's a very good example of the amp and I'm lucky it only took me one good try at it.
 
I think there is something to the Amps heads and combos with everything integrated.

I remember Bogner was going to do power amps he had mock protos one Namm and it never happened the reason was simply he felt that a rack system be it tube pre /.modelling pre in a separate tube power amp , never sounded quite right and some of the magic that was in the all in one preamp/poweramp head was lost when using a component rack system.
I thought I was intresting .it was interview and that was his exact quote why Bogner doesn't do many racks anymore ,it doesn't sound the same and he didn't know why just one of those things
 
Best of luck dude. I feel like most people here and with FAS just want you to be happy.

It's just gear. Have fun out there.
 
I have no quarrel with your views. I like and use the amp sims in the AxeFx, some good sounds are there when you dig in and craft the tones. However, that does not mean my tube amps are for sale. I use reactive digital load boxes with my tube amps because they have their own sounds that I also like and use. My problem is that I also prefer to use the AxeFx effects with my tube amps. I now have to buy more AxeFxs just for the effect loops in my tube amps, it's getting to be very costly using my preferred effects generator (AxeFx) with my tube amps and have one available at the same time for the amp sims in the AxeFX. But being able to pull up a fender amp sim or any number of other sims and mix it with my tube amp sounds out of the Torpedo Studios is very satisfying.
 
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