Let's show some love! What is the thing about the Axe3 that made you grin recently?

Two things:
1) When I think about how much I have learned by experimenting with different amps/amp settings. I could never have had the opportunity to try so many different things without a warehouse full of amps and crates full of parts.
2) every time I fire it up, I have MY tone. Not possible with any other piece of gear!

Thank you so much, Cliff!
 
Every single time when I switch my AXE III on!
Honestly, after touring with amps, after countless gigs and recording sessions the AXE is still my best investment I have ever made!

Actually I‘m enjoying the Plexis and Plexi style amps so much, together with Leon Todd’s Greasy Style pitch blocks, I’m just amazed every time when I fire that thing up!
 
I have been revisiting some presets I made earlier and tweaking them with a broader and deeper understanding that I now have of the AxeFx3.

That increased understanding comes partly from experience with my AxeFx3 and partly from following many discussions on this forum.

It also comes from having Dyna-cabs. Auditioning a bunch of IRs to find the right sound was tedious for me and offered less opportunity to learn. With dynacabs I learn as I experiment with mic placement and I seem to find what I want more quickly and consistently.

Revisiting the initial presets I created over a year ago has shown me how much I have learned about what sounds I want and how to get them.

I bought a Fractal product hoping two things would happen. First that I would be happy with the sounds I get from it and second that I would learn more about amps, cabs, mics, and effects. Both of these things have happened beyond my expectations and that makes me grin.
 
Love this idea!

There have been so, so many “AXE-FX III Grin” moments (and FM3 Grin moments) over the last 4 years that I could probably write a small book on the matter but I’ll mention three from the last 48hrs.

First - I had an itch to go back down the “Bonamassa Blues Rig” route again recently.
Last time this happened it cost me about £5,000-£6,000 and nearly six months of gear gathering and problem solving and the result was somewhat compromised due to volume, space and cost.
With the AXE-FX III, I fired it up and got the tone I had in my mind within about 10mins and wailed away for hours with a big grin.

Second - I went to put together a little pedal board to mess around with, pulled about 6 pedals out of the collection then stopped. I didn’t even bother assembling the board when I realised I could get to playing and tweaking faster with a bigger collection of sounds using the AXE-FX III. Picked up some large storage boxes today and packed up the entire 80+ pedal collection and put them in storage.

Third - I found a screenshot I took when I was reorganising some presets a few months back.
I tend to build a rig around and an amp, name it as the amps true name and revisit them when the musical situation requires. There were about 40 presets in a group that were reshuffled and it read like every guitar rig I fantasised about since starting to play guitar some 28 years ago.
 
knwlnd said:
Love this idea!

There have been so, so many “AXE-FX III Grin” moments (and FM3 Grin moments) over the last 4 years that I could probably write a small book on the matter but I’ll mention three from the last 48hrs.

First - I had an itch to go back down the “Bonamassa Blues Rig” route again recently.
Last time this happened it cost me about £5,000-£6,000 and nearly six months of gear gathering and problem solving and the result was somewhat compromised due to volume, space and cost.
With the AXE-FX III, I fired it up and got the tone I had in my mind within about 10mins and wailed away for hours with a big grin.

Second - I went to put together a little pedal board to mess around with, pulled about 6 pedals out of the collection then stopped. I didn’t even bother assembling the board when I realised I could get to playing and tweaking faster with a bigger collection of sounds using the AXE-FX III. Picked up some large storage boxes today and packed up the entire 80+ pedal collection and put them in storage.

Third - I found a screenshot I took when I was reorganising some presets a few months back.
I tend to build a rig around and an amp, name it as the amps true name and revisit them when the musical situation requires. There were about 40 presets in a group that were reshuffled and it read like every guitar rig I fantasised about since starting to play guitar some 28 years ago.
Click to expand...
Any chance of you putting your Bonamassa Blues Rig up on AxChange, or posting it here?
Thanks.
 
Every time I watch a "gear review" of another "modeler" on YT...
I was not raised to think I was ever superior to anyone else regardless of race, religion, creed, etc...but mom and dad never said anything about consumers of music gear...."those people"
 
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I love how easy it is to get useable tones. Makes my workflow so fast and efficient. On other platforms you often have to tweak a lot to get the high end right but everything on Fractal just sounds right out of the box with no tweaking.

Made this quick video awhile back bc I was inspired by this solo tone:

 
Honestly, just powering this thing on makes me grin. The consistency and dependability of this thing for almost 5 years is just awesome. Also, the new reverbs are simply in a class of their own. Although not AxeFXIII specific, I'm enjoying CabLab 4.
 
stephenclark1 said:
Every time I watch a "gear review" of another "modeler" on YT...
I was not raised to think I was ever superior to anyone else regardless of race, religion, creed, etc...but mom and dad never said anything about consumers of music gear...."those people"
Click to expand...
same here :)
 
I'll play along with this one! Every show when I do sound check and hear my guitar through the PA that first time, in my mind I pretty much say "That's right MF'ers!" Because I love it so much. I think back to all the years of hauling amps and relying on the sound guys to hopefully give me good EQ on whatever mic they were using and a lot of times being bummed that what I wanted to hear wasn't there.

Haven't had that since I got the AX8, and certainly not with the III!

AMAZING product!
 
I was thinking today after reading some of the less gracious posts on here regarding new firmwares etc. I realised that I had bought my Axe FX 3 back in 2019 when it was running ARES firmware, which is now years ago since we arrived at Cygnus. Since then I'm now running v24.03 where I have extra amps, cabs, functions, features, effects, countless bug fixes among the various upgrades to what we already have. Since my original purchase, all those additions have not cost me a penny. They have all been given to me for free from Fractal Audio (they actually aren't obliged to do this in any way) and not only that, they have provided superb quality of service, a forum where I can get hints, tips, videos and help and a direct line to the company if I really need support.

You can't really beat that can you.

That made me grin today.
 
The new EVH Stealth Model , and Marshall JCM800 were great additions.
And I always wanted to try a Morning Glory so that was another unexpected gift.

But moreso overall just the constant upgrades to current stuff, and tireless efforts to make the unit as perfect as can be by the team is really what makes me happy to own Fractal Gear
 
The thought of how many tens of thousands of euros I have spent on tube amps and boutique pedals... and now I only have Axe FX 3 and it has all those amps and pedals in one box and sounds amazing 😌 Not to mention that you don't need to carry heavy amps and cabs to reharsals and gigs and mic them... and you can have awesome sounds straight to a daw in your computer 😁 Axe is literally all in one package 💪
 
The ‘things’ I like most (having owned the 3 generations of the Axe) is that now my sounds are so realistic in both tone and dynamics, more than ever before. Plus the very large inventory of amps and effects we have to choose from.

I didn’t think it would get so much better several years ago…. I was happily wrong.
 
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