paulmapp8306
Fractal Fanatic
Well, I still think Im the only person in Northern Ireland to own an Axe FX.
Last week I went into a local shop (low end guitar stuff really, with pianos, brass etc as well - a true all round music shop) and got talking to the guy on the desk. Really nice young guy who had heard of the Axe. A friend of his had mentioned he wanted to try one.
Well I offered to bring mine in so they could try it - and yesterday it happened.
I brought in my rack (standard Axe + vht 2:50:2) with my Rocktron All Access. He brought in his cabs (2 blackstar 1x12s) and guitar - a strat loaded with EMGs. Both him and his mate were there and we had the top floor of the shop all top ourselves. We only had 2 hours though (which wasnt going to scratch the surface really).
Powered it up and showed him a couple of presets and a couple of my patches (I played) along with how the all access controls my set-up. The patches sounded OK - but the cleans were being driven my the EMGs, and the sounds wernt all there through his cabs. Still pretty decent though.
So, then I handed him the guitar, showed him the grid and what blocks were available and how to create a patch. I showed him the basic and advanced pages from a couple of FX blocks so he got the idea.
We then made an pure amp patch to his taste. It was SRV ish using the delux verb. Even on stock a smile appeared. I cranked the master to nearly full and reduced the gain to under 2. Trebble went up a bit as did presence, mid was cut a little. I also raised the deep to around 2 and it sounded really sweet.
I ran through the advanced parameters along with the 2nd basic page, changing all values from default to min to max back to default so he got a feel for what each did. Without gain some had very little effect some more so.
Next we went through the drive blocks in front of the amp, trying them all. some with more luck. The 808 mod, tape drive and Full OD worked best - but all had their own flavour. the Tape was a revelation even to me. not much gain, but just kind of furred up the notes when he really dug it. Fantastic sound !!!
So - next we went searching for a high gain smooth lead tone. He wanted a recto sound, but the SLO, Fryette High and Corncob amps sounded better to both of us with his rig. I reaslised at this point Id left the master up full and gain low !!!! still sounded really nice and smooth.
I lowered the master to under half and raised the gain. Different amps came to the for. The Das Metal and rectos sounded really nice now for high gain rhythm, and the Buttery had a really nice AC/DC type crunch going on.
we added a couple of default FX to the Buttery. A Delay, reverb, chorus and rotary. Initially one at a time then added them all just to see how it all worked together.
anyway - 2 hours had FLOWN by. By now we had 5 other guitarists (apparently some were just passing and heard the sound, others had come in for strings and stuff - they'd asked what was being tried out as it sounded nice and were just told to go up and see!!) along with both the shop owner and manager just standing there either with mouths open or smiles all round.
At least 3 went "Oh Fu@k". Despite the cost, 2 are ordering in the next couple of weeks and the guy trying it is now trying to sell off unwanted gear to get one (he wants in mainly for recording actually so even better for him).
the shop owner (remember its a low end guitar store with traditional instruments too) wanted to know who to contact to stock them :lol:
Really enjoyed myself.
Off to the UK Mainland next weekend to demo the unit all day sunday with a couple of session players and a touring guitarist. Looking forwards to that trip !!!
Last week I went into a local shop (low end guitar stuff really, with pianos, brass etc as well - a true all round music shop) and got talking to the guy on the desk. Really nice young guy who had heard of the Axe. A friend of his had mentioned he wanted to try one.
Well I offered to bring mine in so they could try it - and yesterday it happened.
I brought in my rack (standard Axe + vht 2:50:2) with my Rocktron All Access. He brought in his cabs (2 blackstar 1x12s) and guitar - a strat loaded with EMGs. Both him and his mate were there and we had the top floor of the shop all top ourselves. We only had 2 hours though (which wasnt going to scratch the surface really).
Powered it up and showed him a couple of presets and a couple of my patches (I played) along with how the all access controls my set-up. The patches sounded OK - but the cleans were being driven my the EMGs, and the sounds wernt all there through his cabs. Still pretty decent though.
So, then I handed him the guitar, showed him the grid and what blocks were available and how to create a patch. I showed him the basic and advanced pages from a couple of FX blocks so he got the idea.
We then made an pure amp patch to his taste. It was SRV ish using the delux verb. Even on stock a smile appeared. I cranked the master to nearly full and reduced the gain to under 2. Trebble went up a bit as did presence, mid was cut a little. I also raised the deep to around 2 and it sounded really sweet.
I ran through the advanced parameters along with the 2nd basic page, changing all values from default to min to max back to default so he got a feel for what each did. Without gain some had very little effect some more so.
Next we went through the drive blocks in front of the amp, trying them all. some with more luck. The 808 mod, tape drive and Full OD worked best - but all had their own flavour. the Tape was a revelation even to me. not much gain, but just kind of furred up the notes when he really dug it. Fantastic sound !!!
So - next we went searching for a high gain smooth lead tone. He wanted a recto sound, but the SLO, Fryette High and Corncob amps sounded better to both of us with his rig. I reaslised at this point Id left the master up full and gain low !!!! still sounded really nice and smooth.
I lowered the master to under half and raised the gain. Different amps came to the for. The Das Metal and rectos sounded really nice now for high gain rhythm, and the Buttery had a really nice AC/DC type crunch going on.
we added a couple of default FX to the Buttery. A Delay, reverb, chorus and rotary. Initially one at a time then added them all just to see how it all worked together.
anyway - 2 hours had FLOWN by. By now we had 5 other guitarists (apparently some were just passing and heard the sound, others had come in for strings and stuff - they'd asked what was being tried out as it sounded nice and were just told to go up and see!!) along with both the shop owner and manager just standing there either with mouths open or smiles all round.
At least 3 went "Oh Fu@k". Despite the cost, 2 are ordering in the next couple of weeks and the guy trying it is now trying to sell off unwanted gear to get one (he wants in mainly for recording actually so even better for him).
the shop owner (remember its a low end guitar store with traditional instruments too) wanted to know who to contact to stock them :lol:
Really enjoyed myself.
Off to the UK Mainland next weekend to demo the unit all day sunday with a couple of session players and a touring guitarist. Looking forwards to that trip !!!
