My Axe-FX II Review

Phostenix

Phostenix

Power User
I've been reading this forum on & off for about 2 1/2 years. I now realize that it created unrealistic expectations for the Axe-FX II in my mind. And I blame you. :)

Back story:
After my parents died a few years ago, I decided to simplify my life (clean out your parents' house of 40 years & you'll understand). Digital modeling was starting to get "close enough" & I decided to get rid of my amps (Fender Vibro Champ & Ampeg VL-503 w/EVL-12) and all of my pedals & try to get a simple box w/foot controller setup.

After some reading here, I guessed that there would be a 2nd generation Axe coming, so I bought a used Boss GT-Pro to see if I could make the digital transition, and wait to see what happened with the Axe.

I ended up selling both amps and all but a few pedals. I loved the GT-Pro. I only kept 2 pedals connected to it - an Electro Harmonix Q Tron and a Korg G4 Leslie sim (the GT-Pro's leslie sim paled in comparison). I don't really use the Q Tron except for fun, but I couldn't live without the G4. Once I heard that in stereo, I wasn't going back. :) The other handful of pedals that I kept (just in case) have stayed in a cabinet for 2 years. I bought a set of powered PA speakers (Mackie Thump TH-15s) & put them up on stands.

BTW, I now prefer the sound of single coil pickups into a great clean amp sound. This means that I'm now officially old.

So, I finally got my new Axe II this last Monday. Due to years of Fractal forum consumption, I expected this magical box to be so amazing that I couldn't describe how incredible it was. I fully expected to be blown away. I moved my input cable, output cables, & midi foot controller cable from the GT-Pro to the axe & fired it up.

I wasn't blown away. It sounded like an amp, not a magical immersive enveloping experience that transported me to another dimension of reality. I went through the first 115 or so patches looking for a great clean tone. I heard a lot of midrange heavy, delay laden patches, but no chimey, bell-like Fender clean that I envisioned. Another thing I was looking for was a smooth, creamy distortion sound like you hear on recordings - the finished processed product, not the raw amp sound. I heard some things that intrigued me, but nothing that floored me. My ears fatigued after about an hour and a half, so I was done for the night, disappointed.

I was supposed to take Thursday & Friday off from work to spend time with the Axe, but a conflict on Thursday meant I talked my boss into letting me have Tuesday off. I had really *hoped* that I would find so many good patches out of the box that it would be a few days before I really had to start tweaking. I spent the day tweaking instead of playing & enjoying.

I was also *hoping* that I wouldn't have to immediately connect the computer & start doing firmware updates & fighting with USB connection issues. I started trying to modify existing patches, then went off to the forum & the wiki and started downloading patches. The computer connection (Windows 7 64-bit laptop) went without issue & I was glad that I did it. Axe-Edit was so much better to work from than the front panel & having the ability to audition other people's patches without actually loading them into the box is phenomenal.

When I got to Smilefan's patches, that's when I turned the corner. Here were those sounds I was expecting!


So, after 2 full days with the Axe now, here are my thoughts:

Although I've really enjoyed my GT-Pro, now that I've A/B'ed them a couple of times, the Axe is much more dynamic & punchy (clean) - much more like a real amp in the room. I've now got a great Fender clean sound that feels & sounds like a real amp.

The versatility (and complexity) of the Axe is mind boggling.

Although I was frustrated out of the box, I'm fully confident that I will get all of the sounds out of the Axe that I want, it's just going to take more time & effort than I had hoped it would.

The manual & wiki & forum are great tools to understand this box. Almost all of my questions have been answered through these 3.

The Wrecker amp model into a Leslie sim could keep me busy for hours.

Having the ability to use this unit as a 4 channel mixer on top of everything else sealed the deal for me. Remember, I'm all about simplicity now. :)


So, I'm not giving it a gushing, teenage crush review. But, I will say that I have no regrets about finally making the purchase & I'm sure that once I get it dialed in more, I'll never look back.


Thanks to Cliff, FAS, and this community for all you've done!
 
Refreshingly honest And balanced review, and a happy conclusion to boot - thanks for posting this! :)
 
great fair review, still wait mine till the end of the month, id like your concept with "simple"
 
I used the Axe live for the first time yesterday. I only used one patch - the front input into a clean Twin and the rear input for the piezo output into the tube pre with a Fishman Aura IR for the speaker cab. I connected my Roland guitar synth into Input 2 (stereo). Using the Axe as a mixer allowed me to use my in-ears for the first time in a long time, which was really nice. I've got a long way to go to get the Axe "there", but I'm totally commited to it. I really feel like I can get everything I want out of it.

I've spent a ton of time trying to get the acoustic guitar sound right, but I'm still working on it.

I've now got a patch using the Train Wreck amp that should work well for me as a clean to crunch tone. I never understood the big deal about the Train Wreck amps - even after watcing the YouTube videos. You really have to feel it yourself to appreciate it. I love it now. :)

Last night, I found the Ambient Guitar and Round Lead patches in the factory Bank C patches. I think Ambient is going to give me a great alternative to using the synth strings. I hate to overuse those. Now I have another option. I'm very excited about that.

I don't know if I'll use Round Lead much live, but I love it. I'm sure I'll find a place for it. :)
 
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Phostenix, I'd love to hear a youtube demo of your one patch (fender twin, piezo-Aura, and roland synth) I've thought about doing the same thing. Curious how it all sounds!
 
Congrats on your purchase. I'm sorry this forum led you to believe there was actual magic going on in the black box. But there are numerous accounts of people not finding what they want right off the bat. So I put some of the blame back on your selective consciousness. ;)



But, you are right that the first encounter with the Axe can be a "OMG. What have I done..."-experience. but usually after a few hours the notion of the possibilities and quality of the unit start to shine through. As you can now attest.


I was lucky. I came from a line6 Vetta, so direct sounds from the Axe were miles beyond what I was used to. but still it took me some time to really get what I wanted.

Hint: cab selection is key.


Have a great time with it!
 
claxor said:
Phostenix, I'd love to hear a youtube demo of your one patch (fender twin, piezo-Aura, and roland synth) I've thought about doing the same thing. Curious how it all sounds!
Click to expand...

I plan to do that down the road a bit. I still want to work on the EQ of the Aura IR some more.
 
Yes , spot on . I did the same plugging in with some expectations of greatness only to feel the presets didn't have those tones I had in my head from you tube vids etc. I think the quest for great tone is as much about the journey as the destination . that is the BIG difference with the AXEFX the journey is ongoing and you never know what you might find.

Want some great cleans ? Try # 137 Mr. Morgan . I just turned on saturate and boom ,balanced and sparkly just a hint of breakup so I wrote a song . I was supposed to be working on the songs for my next gig accompanying a Jazz singer, but no I'm goofin off . that's the kind of stuff that happens all the time with this thing .

well back to work
Cheers , Leigh
 
I am a week into this but only a few hours to play. What do you guys mean by using the AFX II as a MIXER????? How do you do that? Why do you do that?

Just a simple explanation is fine for now and I will research myself.
 
Phostenix said:
I used the Axe live for the first time yesterday. I only used one patch - the front input into a clean Twin and the rear input for the piezo output into the tube pre with a Fishman Aura IR for the speaker cab. I connected my Roland guitar synth into Input 2 (stereo). Using the Axe as a mixer allowed me to use my in-ears for the first time in a long time, which was really nice. I've got a long way to go to get the Axe "there", but I'm totally commited to it. I really feel like I can get everything I want out of it.

I've spent a ton of time trying to get the acoustic guitar sound right, but I'm still working on it.

I've now got a patch using the Train Wreck amp that should work well for me as a clean to crunch tone. I never understood the big deal about the Train Wreck amps - even after watcing the YouTube videos. You really have to feel it yourself to appreciate it. I love it now. :)

Last night, I found the Ambient Guitar and Round Lead patches in the factory Bank C patches. I think Ambient is going to give me a great alternative to using the synth strings. I hate to overuse those. Now I have another option. I'm very excited about that.

I don't know if I'll use Round Lead much live, but I love it. I'm sure I'll find a place for it. :)
Click to expand...

Nice! I have one of those - a G-707 into a GR300 - and will have to experiment with mixing both as well. Thanks for the tip! :)
 
VeryBadMan said:
Yes , spot on . I did the same plugging in with some expectations of greatness only to feel the presets didn't have those tones I had in my head from you tube vids etc. I think the quest for great tone is as much about the journey as the destination . that is the BIG difference with the AXEFX the journey is ongoing and you never know what you might find.

Want some great cleans ? Try # 137 Mr. Morgan . I just turned on saturate and boom ,balanced and sparkly just a hint of breakup so I wrote a song . I was supposed to be working on the songs for my next gig accompanying a Jazz singer, but no I'm goofin off . that's the kind of stuff that happens all the time with this thing .

well back to work
Cheers , Leigh
Click to expand...

That amp wasn't even in the Axe when I wrote this review. :lol

IIRC, I started on FW 5.04. I think the Axe is considerably easier to use now. I don't do much tweaking of advanced presets anymore. I might change transformer match or dynamic presence. The producer mix IRs have really helped me to simplify preset building.
 
Phostenix said:
That amp wasn't even in the Axe when I wrote this review. :lol

IIRC, I started on FW 5.04. I think the Axe is considerably easier to use now. I don't do much tweaking of advanced presets anymore. I might change transformer match or dynamic presence. The producer mix IRs have really helped me to simplify preset building.
Click to expand...

:welcoming: Simplify? How so? :geek
 
TexasAxeSlinger said:
I am a week into this but only a few hours to play. What do you guys mean by using the AFX II as a MIXER????? How do you do that? Why do you do that?

Just a simple explanation is fine for now and I will research myself.
Click to expand...

When I was first using the AXE (this thread is over a year old), I was using a guitar with piezo saddles for acoustic sounds along with a GR-20 guitar synth. I was putting a mixer block at the end of my chain to mix the main blocks (magnetic pickups into the front input), the acoustic blocks (piezo pickups into the right rear input 1), and the synth FX block (rear left & right input 2). IIRC, I had to put a Volume block at the beginning of the chain to make the front input the left channel & the rear input (1) the right channel to split the electric & acoustic sounds to separate chains. The synth output came in stereo through the FX loop. The mixer block at the end of the chain allowed me to mix the 3 different signals down to a stereo mix out of the AXE & balance the levels between them.

I've have since ditched the piezo setup & now use a Strat with a GK pickup and a Roland GR-55 synth. The GR-55 models the acoustic sounds, so I no longer use the AXE to process piezo pickups.

I do still use a MIXER block at the end of my chain to mix the main electric guitar chain & the FX loop block that brings in the output of the synth through input 2 on the back (left & right).
 
smcrosby said:
:welcoming: Simplify? How so? :geek
Click to expand...

I look for a producer mix cab that is similar to what a particular amp would use. If there's a match, I just use that as my cab. If there isn't a match, I usually try the Marshall TV Cab. I trust the work that the producers who mixed the IR's have done & move on. Comparing IRs of different mics in various positions is incredibly time consuming. I don't bother with that anymore.
 
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