Multiple Axe-Fxs in a rig?

Christopher Sire

Christopher Sire

Member
Hi everybody,

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

I would like to get some opinions on something I saw yesterday.

I sometimes like to watch the Rig Rundown series put on by Premier Guitar magazine (I think it's through them?) Yesterday evening I watched the rig rundown for The Edge of U2.

They didn't cover his effects racks as much as I was hoping for but they did pass over his equipment very quickly. He uses at least 5 mic'd amps live, has backups, etc. When they showed his collection of rack gear I saw that he had at least 4 or 5 Axe-FX II units in his rig all stacked upon each other (which knocked me out of my chair lol).

I was wondering what could somebody possibly do with that many Axe-FX units? Is he using them all in series? Or is he switching them up from song to song, only using one at a time? Is he blending them together, say one per amp, and then mixing them? I just don't understand how this amount of processing could be required... and he had other racks present as well: some Line6 units and other ones I couldn't quite make out.

Perhaps some are simply backups? Each one had a different label attached to it, like "shimmer", etc. This must mean he is using one or two at a time for a specific purpose (?)

Any thoughts? Guesses?
 
I'm sure someone will point you to the thread, but there was one that described what he used to have before the Axe Fx II units. It was at least 3-4 more racks full of gear. Some are backups, some are to allow for seamless changes, some are for additional processing power.
 
unix-guy said:
I'm sure someone will point you to the thread, but there was one that described what he used to have before the Axe Fx II units. It was at least 3-4 more racks full of gear. Some are backups, some are to allow for seamless changes, some are for additional processing power.
Click to expand...

I've seen those pre-Axe-FX racks... just couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure it was in "It Might Get Loud".

The part about seamless changes makes sense. Thanks for your response.

It's fun imagining a rack full of Axe-Fx III units (to take it even further). I guess it's not that big of a deal when you're playing for 50,000+ people twice a week during a global tour. I watched the Def Leopard video on the Axe-Fx III section of FAS.com and those guys have multiple Axe-Fx IIIs in a single rack but there is more than one guitarist (if I'm not mistaken).
 
Edge always carries backups, it's part of the rigors of a touring musician. Doesn't matter how reliable your gear is, Murphy will find a way to f*** up and make you experience a Spinal Tap moment. In which case its good to have backups. There are bootlegs out there where you can hear Edge experience technical difficulties. And I'm sure that for every technical breakdown we know that happened there might have been even more instances where we didn't know they happened but Dallas was freaking out in order to solve them backstage.

I love Edge's pre Axe-FX rig. It saddened me greatly that for 360 he moved it downstairs into the guitar backstage. His Twin Towers of Sonic 19" Doom always looked spectacular just from a visual POV. I also sometimes wondered that he kinda underutilized that massive stack of effects units. If Tom Morello could squeeze a million weird sounds out of 5 pedals, surely Edge could do a lot more out of his His Twin Towers of Sonic 19" Doom.
 
Thanks for your response. I guess the backup units are the most important part of any rig as long as the frontline units are functioning as expected.

The 360 Tour was fantastic! That stage, which was incredible, had no gear on it.

That's a great point about Tom Morello. He is quite inventive with the gear he uses.
 
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