I also posted this on TGP.
A few days ago the kind people of G66 let me hear the axe-fxII.
It was a 2,5 hour drive to Germany, but it was really worth it.
Thank you Jochen and al the people at G66 to give me this opportunity.
I'm mainly interested in clean, slightly breaking up and classic rock sounds.
Music I like is, country, early jazz, rockabilly, rock, funk, hard rock...
I'm not into metal.
I've listened through my 2 QSC K10's.
My main guitar is a Gretsch Silver Falcon. (with TV Jones classic+ in bridge position, and Supertron in neck position)
We where mainly scrolling through presets. So I know that the not so great sounding effects/amp sims, can be tweaked.
So this is what I think about the axe-fx2:
In a few words, it's great!
Is it perfect? No. (at least not yet)
What I like: Most amps sounds really impressive. The interaction between my guitar and the amp sims is also very nice.
amps: I really liked are: 59 bassman, JTM45, Trainwreck (the first trainwreck patch, the second I didn't like that much still nice though), Shiva, there were other nice ones, but I just can't remember them.
Effects, almost all effects that I heard where very impressive.
Although I would not use them all. ;-)
Amps that didn't impress me (maybe tweaking them will make 'm sound better)
Blackface fender (although the twin wasn't a bad sound), brownface, plexi.
Out of the box, I liked the plexi sound of 11R better.
A bit grainier in 11R. (but not as nice as my '66 Bandmaster)
Effects that not so good (yet)
The spring reverb.
It was impossible to get a convincing Fender outboard reverb from the axe-fx2. The reverb was to polite. We tried to create a great surf sound without succes. The spring reverb is more than long enough, but it misses the clank and drippyness (is that a word?
) of a real one.
I wich it could do that. Also 11R is closer on this one. (but not perfect)
I have an original with NOS tubes and with the correct 6K6 reverb driver instead of the 6V6 on the reissue.
The univibe sounds and rotary sounds aren't that deep.
Without tweaking that is. Maybe they can do a lot better when tweaked.
(again 11R had good ones straight out of the box)
It took 3 houres to just scroll through the presets.
I know this is way to little time. and things can and probably should be tweaked. We only tried to tweak the spring reverb.
So my verdict? The axe-fx2 is very, very nice.
Many amp sounds are better than on 11R but not all of them (to my ears that is) And if they are not spot on, then they are very close to tube amps. (with most models you could have fooled me)
Almost all effects sound impressive.
And as soon I have the money I'll buy one.
So that's it then. IMHO that is.
A few days ago the kind people of G66 let me hear the axe-fxII.
It was a 2,5 hour drive to Germany, but it was really worth it.
Thank you Jochen and al the people at G66 to give me this opportunity.
I'm mainly interested in clean, slightly breaking up and classic rock sounds.
Music I like is, country, early jazz, rockabilly, rock, funk, hard rock...
I'm not into metal.
I've listened through my 2 QSC K10's.
My main guitar is a Gretsch Silver Falcon. (with TV Jones classic+ in bridge position, and Supertron in neck position)
We where mainly scrolling through presets. So I know that the not so great sounding effects/amp sims, can be tweaked.
So this is what I think about the axe-fx2:
In a few words, it's great!
Is it perfect? No. (at least not yet)
What I like: Most amps sounds really impressive. The interaction between my guitar and the amp sims is also very nice.
amps: I really liked are: 59 bassman, JTM45, Trainwreck (the first trainwreck patch, the second I didn't like that much still nice though), Shiva, there were other nice ones, but I just can't remember them.
Effects, almost all effects that I heard where very impressive.
Although I would not use them all. ;-)
Amps that didn't impress me (maybe tweaking them will make 'm sound better)
Blackface fender (although the twin wasn't a bad sound), brownface, plexi.
Out of the box, I liked the plexi sound of 11R better.
A bit grainier in 11R. (but not as nice as my '66 Bandmaster)
Effects that not so good (yet)
The spring reverb.
It was impossible to get a convincing Fender outboard reverb from the axe-fx2. The reverb was to polite. We tried to create a great surf sound without succes. The spring reverb is more than long enough, but it misses the clank and drippyness (is that a word?
) of a real one.I wich it could do that. Also 11R is closer on this one. (but not perfect)
I have an original with NOS tubes and with the correct 6K6 reverb driver instead of the 6V6 on the reissue.
The univibe sounds and rotary sounds aren't that deep.
Without tweaking that is. Maybe they can do a lot better when tweaked.
(again 11R had good ones straight out of the box)
It took 3 houres to just scroll through the presets.
I know this is way to little time. and things can and probably should be tweaked. We only tried to tweak the spring reverb.
So my verdict? The axe-fx2 is very, very nice.
Many amp sounds are better than on 11R but not all of them (to my ears that is) And if they are not spot on, then they are very close to tube amps. (with most models you could have fooled me)
Almost all effects sound impressive.
And as soon I have the money I'll buy one.
So that's it then. IMHO that is.
