Jay Mitchell said:If you want "quick and dirty" or "plug and play," the Axe-Fx is probably not the best tool for the job. If, OTOH, you can recognize the sounds you want to create when you hear them, and if you're willing to invest the required up-front time, nothing else even comes close. You will find that the learning curve ceases to be a major factor a few months into the experience, and creating new presets will take successively less time.
I don't agree with this statement any more. I tried an Axe about a year ago. I plugged it into my guitar rig and returned the Axe the next day. About a month ago I decided to give it another try but this time, I did some research and realized the Axe is designed to be used with FRFR monitors which are relatively flat (not vocal monitors which are too midrangey). When I set up the system, I spent a day going through most of the presets and found half a dozen usable patches right out of the box and within a week, I was using the system live!
I think that if you use the Axe with a suitable monitor (The FBT 12ma in stereo), you could use stock patches and still sound better than most of the guitar rigs out there.