I've realized I need my amps to be happy just as much as I need my Axe to be happy. Sometimes I enjoy my amps, sometimes I enjoy the Axe, sometimes I hate both of them when I can't figure out how to get to the tone I'm after. One thing's for certain, though: at this point the Axe is every bit as good as an amp is.
I mentioned in another thread, having said for years that I don't really need my real amps anymore, one easily forgets if you don't have the right monitoring or FOH available to you, the Axe FX is massively compromised. My only gig this year ended up being a little stressful in rehearsal, as my 2 x Red Sound MF.10 stereo setup was plenty too loud for me, but due to having such an even spread of sound, just wasn't loud enough for the drummer over the other side of the room.
So while I was cheerfully thinking how amazingly accurately the Axe FX was reproducing the sound of my 100 watt Marshall 1/2 stack, the drummer was missing having that tone projected at him. More importantly, we didn't know much about the FOH setup for the gig itself, and we both then started to worry whether I'd be heard out front at the gig. For the last rehearsal (a 7 hour drive from home, I am committed!) I got the 1/2 stack loaded in my van. When I eventually got there, I set up using the Axe FX for effects only, and ran it into the 100 watt Marshall. The drummer was immensely cheered by this, because to him, I immediately sounded like "me", 20+ years ago.
When the gig came, of course it turned out there were no proper monitors aside from vocals (we've not yet caught up with the concept of IEM), so the drummer barely heard a note I was playing when he was hitting skins. I couldn't hear him very well either. But at least we were both confident I could be heard properly out front and vice versa. Had I used the MF.10s I would have heard even less of him, and I don't think I'd have been all that audible out front without running an output to the PA, which was kind of on the small side for an outdoor gig.
Long story short(ish):
1. There are few scenarios where you really need a 100 watt Marshall tube amp and 4x12. However, when you meet one of those scenarios, there isn't really any substitute. It's an extreme case, but the same must be true to an extent for all amps. In most cases the Axe FX III can be a really good substitute with more advantages than limitations.
2. The Axe FX III can do pretty much anything, but it's not a power amp or a speaker system, even though it can replicate the tone and feel of either amazingly well at "pre-amp" level. Real amps do have something that modellers can't replicate, but that's only because they have some electrical and physical attributes that modellers cannot address themselves. They are dependent on power amps and speakers.
3. I definitely don't need any effects pedals anymore. I had about 10 of them on my last pedal board as best I remember, lots of them vintage and desirable, and maybe another 40 that drifted in and out of regular use. I used a switching system on that pedal board, with MIDI into at least one of the pedals usually. The Axe FX III does all that could do and much more, and replicates my old effects unbelievably well. (Can we have a Boss BD-2 please?
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4. This turned out to be a slippery slope, because since then I spent a small fortune on the best sounding original 1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb I have ever heard. I've sold more amps than I've bought since I got my first Axe FX, but it turns out real amps do actually have some genuine merits that I can exploit occasionally. If the right classic Marshall head or speaker shows up...
5. Given that it turns out I need real amps as well as an Axe FX III, I'm considering whether I need a VP4. The Axe FX and FC12 are amazing at replicating the enormous pedalboard I used to lug around, but at that gig it was awkward knowing where to put the Axe FX rack. Hard to believe that a VP4 and a single expression pedal might just do it all when I'm using a real amp, but I honestly think it might.
Liam
" the same presets in both devices and I use them depending on stage space.
