The little things I never knew I loved about the Axe-fx

lexodio

lexodio

Member
First, a little background. I play guitar for the band at my church, which is where most of my playing with others happens now. We started running everything direct except drums, so I figured I'd get the best direct box I could find (enter Axe II). The rig I had prior to this was a Budda Superdrive 18 with an Eventide Timefactor and a few distortion pedals. After adjusting to running direct instead of through a cab, I love the consistency of tone as well as the tone in general from the II...
All that being said, I recently played at a gig with a cover band (80s and 90s stuff from Goo Goo dolls to Dio). That gig was with another guitarist running some sort of Fender tube amp. I plugged my Axe-Fx straight into the board, ran one cord to my atomic, one from my guitar and a cat5 to my MFC and was ready to go, no level adjustments or fighting volume issues with the sound guy. The other guitarist, however, had the same issues that I used to dread (having to mess with levels on his pedals, dealing with a sound guy telling him to turn his amp down lower than the "2" that it was already at, etc.).
The portability of an Axe-Fx rig, the convenience of an Axe-Fx rig, and the tone of an Axe-Fx rig; individually, any of these would be reason enough to use the Axe. The fact that they are all descriptors of the same piece of gear, priceless.
 
Amen. :)

And, yeah, turning down a Fender amp is the worst. As near as I can tell, they only have two settings: Inaudible and Blow-Your-Friggin'-Head-Off. So glad I don't have to deal with that anymore. Or spotty patch cables between pedals, or a million other inconveniences.
 
JosephGarraty said:
Amen. :)

And, yeah, turning down a Fender amp is the worst. As near as I can tell, they only have two settings: Inaudible and Blow-Your-Friggin'-Head-Off. So glad I don't have to deal with that anymore. Or spotty patch cables between pedals, or a million other inconveniences.
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man, the other day I had to deal with one of them fenders onstage :/ What a NIGHTMARE!!! :eek: I was either fighting to hear myself, or when I turned up slightly, I was drowning the whole band out!!! :eek: I HATED that gig cuz of that....I was adjusting volumes every minute, and couldn't even get a decent tone out of the thing! :S And all this time I was wishing the axe was there with me :(
 
the real big benefit here is having a consistent tone...
ok so this is not just about the Axe but about multi-fx units in general..
but once you've been through the pain of setting up all your patches you'll never have to dial in your tone again..
just set up, get the volume right and maybe a little overall eq tweak if need be and you're done...
and this is one of the reasons why I could never go back to the traditional 'guitar -> stomps -> amp' config
 
lexodio said:
First, a little background. I play guitar for the band at my church, which is where most of my playing with others happens now. We started running everything direct except drums, so I figured I'd get the best direct box I could find (enter Axe II). The rig I had prior to this was a Budda Superdrive 18 with an Eventide Timefactor and a few distortion pedals. After adjusting to running direct instead of through a cab, I love the consistency of tone as well as the tone in general from the II...
All that being said, I recently played at a gig with a cover band (80s and 90s stuff from Goo Goo dolls to Dio). That gig was with another guitarist running some sort of Fender tube amp. I plugged my Axe-Fx straight into the board, ran one cord to my atomic, one from my guitar and a cat5 to my MFC and was ready to go, no level adjustments or fighting volume issues with the sound guy. The other guitarist, however, had the same issues that I used to dread (having to mess with levels on his pedals, dealing with a sound guy telling him to turn his amp down lower than the "2" that it was already at, etc.).
The portability of an Axe-Fx rig, the convenience of an Axe-Fx rig, and the tone of an Axe-Fx rig; individually, any of these would be reason enough to use the Axe. The fact that they are all descriptors of the same piece of gear, priceless.
Click to expand...

Right now I'm going into a Mosvalve MV-962 power amp into two Marshall 4x12 cabs. Are you just going into one Atomic and if so, did you previously use something else? Just wondering if I would like that setup more.
 
clarky said:
the real big benefit here is having a consistent tone...
ok so this is not just about the Axe but about multi-fx units in general..
but once you've been through the pain of setting up all your patches you'll never have to dial in your tone again..
just set up, get the volume right and maybe a little overall eq tweak if need be and you're done...
and this is one of the reasons why I could never go back to the traditional 'guitar -> stomps -> amp' config
Click to expand...

agreed overall, but for the same reasons I prefer hardware EQ, noise reduction, compression etc. when live - you reach out and grab a knob instantly. I don't miss the tap dancing one bit tho! :D
 
romanianreaper said:
Right now I'm going into a Mosvalve MV-962 power amp into two Marshall 4x12 cabs. Are you just going into one Atomic and if so, did you previously use something else? Just wondering if I would like that setup more.
Click to expand...
When I was running my Budda, I had my amp either facing in a direction where I couldn't hear it directly (or completely off stage). I had the miced amp sent back through the stage monitor. Compared to that setup, I drastically prefer the Atomic because when I create patches(usually using my krk rokit 8 monitors), they come out closer to the original tone than that previous setup.
That being said, I haven't tried a traditional cab with the Axe II, so I can't comment on the "Axe through Atomic vs Axe through cab" side of things.
 
Let's not forget the gigantic library of amps, effects, cabinets, etc. I consider each one of my patches a completely new rig. Very awesome.
 
lexodio said:
First, a little background. I play guitar for the band at my church, which is where most of my playing with others happens now. We started running everything direct except drums, so I figured I'd get the best direct box I could find (enter Axe II). The rig I had prior to this was a Budda Superdrive 18 with an Eventide Timefactor and a few distortion pedals. After adjusting to running direct instead of through a cab, I love the consistency of tone as well as the tone in general from the II...
All that being said, I recently played at a gig with a cover band (80s and 90s stuff from Goo Goo dolls to Dio). That gig was with another guitarist running some sort of Fender tube amp. I plugged my Axe-Fx straight into the board, ran one cord to my atomic, one from my guitar and a cat5 to my MFC and was ready to go, no level adjustments or fighting volume issues with the sound guy. The other guitarist, however, had the same issues that I used to dread (having to mess with levels on his pedals, dealing with a sound guy telling him to turn his amp down lower than the "2" that it was already at, etc.).
The portability of an Axe-Fx rig, the convenience of an Axe-Fx rig, and the tone of an Axe-Fx rig; individually, any of these would be reason enough to use the Axe. The fact that they are all descriptors of the same piece of gear, priceless.
Click to expand...

Gotta love it!
 
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