My previous rig consists of a Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 head, a Mesa Boogie 2X12 Rectifier vertical cab and a pedalboard full of high end pedals. Main guitar: Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty Monarchy. I had a great tone with this rig, but it felt limited, as I play many different styles of music. I had debated the idea of switching over to modeling gear for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. Didn't want to wait for the III, so I bought an Axe Fx2. At first, I just used it in the fx loop of the Mesa head. It sounded great, but I knew I wanted to explore the power amp sims, so I bought a Matrix GT1000. Once I got that, I took the advice of many on here and started by creating my own patch. Got a good sound, but not great. The low end was flubby and the high end thin and bright sounding. Researched other users experiencing this problem and the majority of answers pointed to the speaker page of the amp block. Tweaked about every possible combination you could imagine on that page and still couldn't get the tone I was seeking. About a week ago, just as I was about to call it a night from my tone search, I noticed I had the Master Volume on my amp block set at at 7.5 (Friedman HBE V1), so I decided to turn that down to 3-3.5 and holyyyyy! That did it! That instantly fixed the flubby low end and the high end as well. Last night, the wife decided to take the dog on a walk, so I decided it was time to shake the walls a bit and take the Axe Fx on a high volume test. Oh my God! The most amazing tones I've ever had! Best gear purchase I've ever made...easily. The best part is having all these different amp tones and effects all in one box...and the tones are very, very high quality. Eventually, I'll get a III, but the days of large pedalboards, power supply, patch cables and tube heads are gone for me. I'm getting tones I've previously only dreamed about and the Axe Fx is like having a huge, high end store filled with amps and effects, right at your fingertips. A huge thanks to Cliff for creating this monster in a box and a huge thanks to everyone on this board for sharing a wealth of information.
