Pulled the trigger on my AF2 !

trb

Experienced
hi all

here we are, juste ordered my AF2 to G66.:D
This is the end of my purchase process after spending about 2 months across this great forum, utube, etc.
I'm a tube guy, " home studio meat & potatoes hardrocker" if it makes sense !... but who love tweaking gears ...:lol

The reasons for my choice are:

1 - the awesome box the AF2 is, specially with FW10, with great amps, effects and the ability to tweak for years... and I heard AF2 patches sound i am after for years, that my Diezel Einstein head can't deliver, as good as it is, but just not all the sounds i would like...
2 - the Fractal team with its wonderfull dynamic to make the AF2 evolve so much, reaching our player requirements => a real customer-oriented company
3 - the very active community of this great forum and all the people (chris, scott, LVC, Yek, fremen, etc. just to name a few, but many others ! :encouragement:) that provide me a huge amount of information, initiating my "AF2 learing curve" through their very accurate and smart posts or wiki contributions

So now i wait for the box to be delivered at home (next week) and I just have to choose the right amplification way. To start I'll use my Prodipe near field studio monitors (a pair of Pro8 and Pro10s Sub) and test the power section of my Einstein with AF2 (amp sim on / cab sim off) and my large 2*12 guitar cab (Tube Town T Rex Pro with Eminence Gov and Wizard). Hope not to colouring the AF2: to be checked.

My ideas is to move to full FRFR directly connected to the AF2 to exploit the best of it, of course.
- the matrix way GT1000 + Q12 is a bit expensive
- 2 dedicated monitors right in the back of AF2: though about equator D5
- a FRFR speaker like Yamaha DXR 12 or the new EV ZLX 12... to test, don't know... 1 or 2 ? would like to try one at least.

well , nothing else than very good thinks and a lot of pleasure time, in my home studio !

see you to exchange on the forum...:mrgreen
Bruno
 
Hi all

some news for my 3 weeks practices with AF2, FW10.05
to summarize: great, great and great !!!! the best buy i ever did, as i saw on other posts !!! can't be more satisfied....
as you understood I'm more than happy :lol :mrgreen

I use it with my entry level-not so bad nearfields monitors (Prodipe) and headphones, depending. under discussions with Matt for the GM50 (Matt is very kind, BTW) to push my 2*12 guitar cab (eminence), and next a FRFR cab.

I'm moving around all the factory presets, tweak with AE 1.9 (find it really reliable, regarding to comments I read on the forum; better with FW10.05 for sure).
I love all these presets with very few tweaking, they sound awesome (blues, rock, hard rock to heavy, not really metal player). One I prefer ??? no love all and jump for one to another :eagerness:

all the videos and advises from YEK, Chris KK, Fremen and others are really of great value to understand all the details making each session a pleasure with the AF2: i think about adjustinf levels for instance to make it sound as it should be on the monitors. very simple things, but should be mandatory to read and practice for each new user. can insist enough on that.

Well as a conclusion my Diezel Einstein head is for sale. Period.
I have so much more sound diversity, fun and capabilities with the AF2 for my home studio usage. Just tweaking a little with the amp blocks, I can cover more than I can imagine, just with a reverb and a delay for lead... no pedals need so far, comparing to my actual head.
To reach sounds i like, i needed to use with the head 5 drive pedals EP booster, BBPreamp, HT dual, MI AUDIO Crunch box, blues pro, neo fuzz (plus in FX loop: MXR carbon copy, TC El Fame rev, MXR 10 bands, Sonic maximizer).

I plan to keepp my pedals, coz love them for their quality and certainly play them with my home-made fender pre-amp and the future GM50, just to vary pleasures ..

With the AF2, just mess around with simple presets for my AF2 learing curve, "amp block-centric". just try a little with drive block and found the xotic RC & AC to make wonders (very little drive, no more than 1). it pushes the amp just like my ep booster with the actual head.
I would say for a very quick drive block overview, they are awesome to push an already distorted amp. Quiet/pretty good on a clean amp, with fuzz and disto. But again, first tests, so need to explore more. May be some improvemenst to be done on fuzz pedals modeling, comparing to the actual gear i have. or a question of tweaking ...?? as we can push any kind of sounds with the Axe, just have to find the one you love !

Otherwise all other time-fx are really great, even if I don't have them all explored, for sure.


I have 4 guitars (sg, strat HSS passive, strat HSS active, lp) and the presets (marshall, fender, mesa, -ish, ...) make all these sound with their differences, with all the nuances (according to my sloppy playing !). Example with my active LAG jet 1000 with SD Blackout (HSS), I had 3 electronic pots from EMG: for gain-boost, SPC and mid variable control . Well I found the mid control variation to be more sensitive/effective with the AF2 (hard rock tone with FAS lead and uberkab presets) than with my actual head ! and that's great coz I can find easily some sound textures just from my guitar.

As i spent hours and hours reading information from all these great guys on the FAS forums, i'm pleased to give back my small experience, starting with AF2.

and just to notice: thanks again to FAS team for their work and very customer-oriented attitude :encouragement:
I'll continue to exchange on the threads...

keep rockin' with AF2 !!
Bruno
 
yes I saw these DXRs and they were in my top-list for active cab FRFR. But i want to push my 2*12 guitar cab too. So I'm more on matrix power amp... but the DXRs appear to be definitively great.
 
@Algrenadine: merci à toi c'est tres sympa.
@clark : yes !! fortunalety i'm not the only one !!
 
I've been to France many times and.. you know... the people are dicks but now that I'm in Australia my best friends are all from southern France and the best guys I know. Weird!! Changed my experience of the French 100%.
 
hi all

so some news on my home studi rig...
I purchase a Matrix GM50 to mush my guitar cab 2*12 eminence and a new FR cab, very affordable (135E) from Thomann web site with 12"boomer and 1" tweeter, eminence loaded (PA 302).
As a conclusion the GM50 is exactly as expected: great feeling and dynamic added to AF2 presets: no difference comparing to a tube amp for cleansn crunch higain... really pleased with it.

With my guitar cab, at first the sound was really edgy in hights: needs a strong correction with global eq: 16k at -12db, 8K at -6db, raised a little for 125 & 250. and so very good. Depending on high gain presets, need some more eq'ing (too much high) to fit my taste .
With the FR cab, and this is where I want to have my main use to benefit from the IR richness: I'm very surprised from the low cost PA 302 cab. Even not break-in, the presets are really nice, with all nuances, tight and deep bottom end, great and accurate mids, and not too much aggressive highs (to check after break-in): a great companion to the Matrix GM50. I guess a matrix Q12, xitone or CLR would be better, but back to the price, really good solution that I can recommend to give a try.

As I have a spare cab (1*12, home-built) i'm tempted to test it with Eminence coax BETA 12CX combo (with ASD1001, DBX2K5 filter) - as Xitone cab. And make a stereo rig, with may be a GT1000...
Even with AF2, there are still some remaining GAS !
 
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