Hi all, I have my axe for a week now, but I'm following these forums for a few months now. I ordered the Axe and an FBT 12ma at the same time, since I read on these forums they are the best choice. Had the FBT two weeks befor the Axe... so used it a few times as monitor on a gig, and wow, I was blown away with the quality and loudness of it. Couldn't wait for the Axe to be shipped...
Some background: I Started and learned playing with the GT series off Boss,then I played for three years on a Vetta, so I know how to tweak. But sold it when I finally heard the growling of my first tube amp...
Now, since 6 years,I used to play (and still have) a Marshall 2555 with V30 marshall cab (with G-Major), and loved that sound, but recently was tired of lugging this beast around to every gig and rehearsal.
Now, back to the axe, it arrived on monday...
Now, I have been tweaking a lot since I have the axe (I took two weeks off at work to fully test it all, still have a week to go) and was not really satisfied with the FBT. It seems I need to use a lot off EQ to make it sound to a bit usable, to have it create a really nice crunch or clean sound with balls like my marshall did.
And I know you guys talking about the difference of miced sound vs real cab sound, but when I place my mics carefully before the Marshall stack, I also have a great
sound in the FOH... So it should also be possible with the AxeFX. With the FBT it seemed to sound always a bit to middy for the crunch sounds, and a bit too dark for the clean sounds. I could get where I wanted with a lot of EQ tweaking, but that was a little dissapointment. I don't have to tweak my Marshall with lots of post EQ changes to make it sound great, or a fender blackface , or bassman... They don't need al lot of post EQ tweaking to make it sound great so why would I have to do that with a tool that emulates(is this the right word ? sorry for my english if its not) these sounds... So little dissapointment here with the FBT..
Now,the story changes...
I have a friend who owns a Renting company. Yesterday I asked him if I could use one of his better monitors to compare against my FBT.
Plugged it in at home... WOW !! Couldnt stop playing for 3 hours !! unbelieveable.
Where I had to tweak and Eq and search different cabs and amps combinations to get a nice tone with te FBT, with this monitor it was totally different !!!
Just had to choose an amp and a cabinet, and it sounded GREAT and it sounded like that original tube combination was with me in the room.
A 4x12 sounded like a 4x12. A 2x12 blackface cab sounded like a 2x12 ...
Whether I choose a blackface, AC30, or a Brit800 or a energyball, USA, ... whatever. Every amp sounded great and every amp/cab had his own sound, but all great.
Didn't even care to add delay ,reverb or any other effect. Just amp and cab combinations made me smile... The sound was so real and nice I played hours with just amp/cab combinations. It was like being in a big music store with all great amps and cabs I could try and play with,just with the turn of a knob.
I create flightcases fo a living, and develop pedalboards etc specialized for guitar players, so I get to try a lot of amps and gear here, so I know how real tube amps sound.
Well with this monitor I could make every amp/cabinet combination in the axefx sound great and like I was playing the real deal !!(didn't try out all combinations,I would still be playing then, but I'm talking the most obvious combinations ...)
Now, the downside of this is that this monitor is out of my budget range (aprox $4500, it was a EAW NT59 ). So now I'm looking for the best I can afford. Already asked for this monitor to loan it , but in weekends they are mosly rented for big gigs and events he does and he only has 10 of them :-(
Next week, normally tuesday I have the CODA Audio AP12 here. I read in a post that someone whas pretty impressed with this one. I can have it to try out for a few days (via the same guy, who asked a demo model) and if I like it, the price would be around 1900 Euro. So I hope that this monitor can live up to the sound of the EAW. Otherwise... It will be very difficult to find a setup within my budget for the axe, since I'm spoiled now with that sound through the EAW...
So my conclusion is (until now ) that the AxeFx is WOW, great tool, and it's capable of creating great tones. But it needs great amplification to do this FRFR.
I'll keep you guys posted about my findings of the Coda...
btw, Great forum, already learned a lot fomr it !! Great to have my first post here.
Some background: I Started and learned playing with the GT series off Boss,then I played for three years on a Vetta, so I know how to tweak. But sold it when I finally heard the growling of my first tube amp...
Now, since 6 years,I used to play (and still have) a Marshall 2555 with V30 marshall cab (with G-Major), and loved that sound, but recently was tired of lugging this beast around to every gig and rehearsal.
Now, back to the axe, it arrived on monday...
Now, I have been tweaking a lot since I have the axe (I took two weeks off at work to fully test it all, still have a week to go) and was not really satisfied with the FBT. It seems I need to use a lot off EQ to make it sound to a bit usable, to have it create a really nice crunch or clean sound with balls like my marshall did.
And I know you guys talking about the difference of miced sound vs real cab sound, but when I place my mics carefully before the Marshall stack, I also have a great
sound in the FOH... So it should also be possible with the AxeFX. With the FBT it seemed to sound always a bit to middy for the crunch sounds, and a bit too dark for the clean sounds. I could get where I wanted with a lot of EQ tweaking, but that was a little dissapointment. I don't have to tweak my Marshall with lots of post EQ changes to make it sound great, or a fender blackface , or bassman... They don't need al lot of post EQ tweaking to make it sound great so why would I have to do that with a tool that emulates(is this the right word ? sorry for my english if its not) these sounds... So little dissapointment here with the FBT..
Now,the story changes...
I have a friend who owns a Renting company. Yesterday I asked him if I could use one of his better monitors to compare against my FBT.
Plugged it in at home... WOW !! Couldnt stop playing for 3 hours !! unbelieveable.
Where I had to tweak and Eq and search different cabs and amps combinations to get a nice tone with te FBT, with this monitor it was totally different !!!
Just had to choose an amp and a cabinet, and it sounded GREAT and it sounded like that original tube combination was with me in the room.
A 4x12 sounded like a 4x12. A 2x12 blackface cab sounded like a 2x12 ...
Whether I choose a blackface, AC30, or a Brit800 or a energyball, USA, ... whatever. Every amp sounded great and every amp/cab had his own sound, but all great.
Didn't even care to add delay ,reverb or any other effect. Just amp and cab combinations made me smile... The sound was so real and nice I played hours with just amp/cab combinations. It was like being in a big music store with all great amps and cabs I could try and play with,just with the turn of a knob.
I create flightcases fo a living, and develop pedalboards etc specialized for guitar players, so I get to try a lot of amps and gear here, so I know how real tube amps sound.
Well with this monitor I could make every amp/cabinet combination in the axefx sound great and like I was playing the real deal !!(didn't try out all combinations,I would still be playing then, but I'm talking the most obvious combinations ...)
Now, the downside of this is that this monitor is out of my budget range (aprox $4500, it was a EAW NT59 ). So now I'm looking for the best I can afford. Already asked for this monitor to loan it , but in weekends they are mosly rented for big gigs and events he does and he only has 10 of them :-(
Next week, normally tuesday I have the CODA Audio AP12 here. I read in a post that someone whas pretty impressed with this one. I can have it to try out for a few days (via the same guy, who asked a demo model) and if I like it, the price would be around 1900 Euro. So I hope that this monitor can live up to the sound of the EAW. Otherwise... It will be very difficult to find a setup within my budget for the axe, since I'm spoiled now with that sound through the EAW...
So my conclusion is (until now ) that the AxeFx is WOW, great tool, and it's capable of creating great tones. But it needs great amplification to do this FRFR.
I'll keep you guys posted about my findings of the Coda...
btw, Great forum, already learned a lot fomr it !! Great to have my first post here.