Well you got one less person getting the axe fx II

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kickatch

Member
Well you got one less person getting the axe fx II to make the wait shorter....i got a axe fx ultra and though it works great for studio recording it never could make me happy playing live and I tried everything .....frfr with atomic wedges and tried qsc k10 also cab with tube power amp and solid state amp ...tube was better....stereo rig, mono rig, wdw rig and all i did for the last year is tweak, tweak and tweak and it just seemed something was missing live.....so the axe fx II comes out and i'm gonna buy one thinking it might do it better and i could maybe stop tweaking and really enjoy playing it ....well the mess with all the stuff going on far as the list and stock really started to turn me off ....first off if there is a list to me you sell to the people on the list first and there is no jumping in line for a higher price....you make a list and you go by that list ...second the way cliff posted some comments on here was way out of line far as customer service ....well to make it a short story i started to think maybe what i'm missing is real tubes.....so i took a chance and decided to buy a egnater M4 and just use the axe fx for effects .....one word WOW!!! played my first gig and it kicked ...everything that was missing was there ...did'nt feel i needed to tweak anything and i also thought the effects in axe fx sound way better with real tube amp ....before there was effects that i did'nt care for but with the tube amp they sounded the way i thought they should .....i really think the axe fx is a great box ....the best at doing a lot of things really good and recording hard to beat but in the end for amps the amp sims just don't sound near as good or have the feel of a real tube amp ....even the cleans sounded better on the tube amp ....i really have my doubts they improved the axe fx II enough to get it to feel and sound as good as real tube amp live ...so some of you guys that are on the fence might just need a real good tube amp with axe fx just for effects.....all i know is the egnater M4 blew away the amp sims and i'm so glad not to be tweaking all the time and just playing .....i know fractal got all these artist using the axe fx but if you notices most of them use it for effects not amp sims ....the amp sims are the best on the market but in the end to me a tube amp is always gonna be king when you're playing out live .....that being said i love the axe fx for most of the effects and i'm not trying to cut it down ...i'm just giving my my honest opinion about this whole axe fx II craze and why i'm not gonna buy into it ......peace out and rock on tubes forever
 
Thought it was so good you'd post it twice eh? All good the Axe just isn't for some people and it's cool you've found what makes you happy. Cheers
 
I put it in the waiting list thread first and then i decided that it might be best if it had it's own thread and I did'nt say the axe fx was'nt for me just the amp sims just don't hold up for live vs tube amp for me .....i'm using the effects and i'm not sure upgrading to a axe fx II would make the effects any better and i still doubt that amp sims would be better than a tube amp live ....i tried my hardest to get what i had with a tube amp but in the end i had to go back to a tube amp to get what was missing but i also replaced about 8 effects pedals and two switchers in my rack plus a rack harmonizer ...so in the end my rack is still lighter and i got a lot less patch cables to deal with
 
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I feel the same way ... my mesa and koch are much more alive ... and you are a step forward from me, I am still trying to solve the noticable tone loss when put ultra in fx loop of mesa boogie ... most on clean channel, on distorted sound I do not notice the tone loss ... and I can say, that I really do not like tweaking such +6db on output level, +3,11 on delay, +1,75 on chorus etc. ... someway I expect that the signal level is before and after the effect the same and I only need to set the mix level ...
 
I have been down that road many times with modelers and tube amps.

You buy something that you expect is going to satisfy your tone desires..then the struggle begins...pickups, speaker cabs, power amps, strings, tube compliments...then one day you plug in to something else and go ...WOW, this may just be it.

My problem was I could usually get one really good tone from most of my tube amps, but I would be searching for that extra bit whenever I would try and cop another sound. I ended up with a 4 amp rig switched by a Sound Sculpture Switchblade GL. Smokin' rig for sure, but I still struggled with it.

I bought the Ultra in 2008-2009 and wasn't sure at first, but it was fairly close, close enough to stick it out. I AB'ed the Axe against my KT88 Splawn Marshall, Mesa Mark III, Fender Vibroclone. and RGP 1000. I always picked the amps with the Fractal going FRFR, but if I ran it through the loop on my amps...I thought it was very close, close enough to get rid of my monster rack and gazillion cords. That was a liberating day for me, patch making and volume leveling with my old rig was very time consuming.

I still don't think the axe is perfect, but no other rig is either (for me), but I still find stuff in there that makes me say "Damn!! that sounds pretty awesome".

To bad everyone doesn't get the same satisfaction.

Good luck in your tone quest...hope the Egnater work out for you.

Bruce is a way cool person and it would suck if people didn't still love his work.
 
I have no tone lost with the egnater m4 but i had a hughes and kettner access that i loved but when i tried to use it with the axe fx a lot of noise and tone problems ....i ended up selling it ...i seen ty tabor was using the egnater m4 with the axe fx so i took a chance ....i'm glad i did ....it seems the axe fx does'nt work well with some amps in the 4 cable method and that could be your problem....i was really surprised that the effects sound so much better with the real amp then with the sims .....there was a big difference ....not sure how people can do the frfr setup either it just does'nt feel or sound right to me in a band setting
 
kickatch said:
Well you got one less person getting the axe fx II to make the wait shorter.
Click to expand...

I could only manage the opening lines of that rather lengthy paragraph, but I'd like to extend a sincere thank you for making it marginally easier for the rest of us to get this unit.

After happily playing my Standard for 3,5 years I am fairly confident the II will exceed my needs by a considerable margin and am looking forward to actually receiving one.
 
that's why i got the eganter so i could have 8 amp channels cause i like a lot of different amps ....i got a fender twin, vox ac30, hot rod marshall, rectro-soldano, and that covers everthing i need ...i am thinking about getting a modded module with brown eye and hairy brown eye mod cause i love that sound
 
back for what? ....i got a axe fx and still plan to use it just not for amp sims live ....recording i can see me using them but not live the tube amp is supreme there
 
That is great you are finding what works for you. That is really what is important. For me, the Axe-FX II is a perfect solution to find great tone. I'm different than alot of the people you see on Rig-Talk or some of these other forums who can afford 20 boutique tube amps and have a wall of 4x12s. I like the sound of a tube amp but I would want a modded Marshall and a Mesa and a Diezel, etc. It would never end. I like that the Axe-FX II can give me tones that are close enough to what those specific amps offer.

I truly think I'm done now that I have the Axe-FX II. I've been playing everything from U2 to Whitesnake over the past few days with just the turn of a knob and it sounds awesome. Definitely a huge step above LINE 6 and some of the other modelers I've used over the years. Fractal is in a league of their own.
 
Good Luck in your Tone Quest ... My
35 year quest ended when I went to meet the Wizard and picked up my Axe FX 2 .
I rewired my Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier's Parallel Effects loop to a Series Effects Loop (a really simple mod) and that solved the Tone change with the effects through the loop... All my amps are now for sale ... :)
 
I'm on the fence, the standard or maybe ultra this time around is way,way more than enough. I'm rethinking my 'paradigm' but my real concern is being locked into one or 2 amps OR getting utterly overwhelmed with options. The modular Egnater stuff has a great rep, but is Bruce going to keep that boot eek line going with the success of the lower priced stuff?Anyway, I'm sure your rig is amazing, too pricey for what I deserve or need at this time. I think my take on the II is that it will be everything I need, but honestly it might be too much. We will see.
 
Hey to each his own, good luck, honestly if I could play like Loomis, Petrucci, Ingwie, and Tony Macalpine combined I think I would be fine with a Peavey vypyr 15w, and would just plug it into the PA! Since I cant I love this thing, and get sick of to few tones
 
I too couldn't get the Axe to beat my tube gear, especially "in the room", so I too use Randall/Egnater MTS modules 4CM in the Axe's FX Loop, with the Ultra adding pre and post FX. This is a great rig IMHO, better than either alone. One thing I've done is to time/phase align my custom RM2 and the Ultra's Amp Blocks so I can use them together, and the combo of tube and modeled amp sounds works great!
 
Best of luck and congrats on the decision. If I were thinking about buying a Mesa but changed my mind and went with a Marshall, I wouldn't bother letting everyone at the Mesa forum know my decision.... Why would they care?
Unless I truly hadn't made up my mind and was really asking for someone to talk me out of it? Could that be the case? :)

Anyway, enjoy your new rig. As much as I think I'm at the end of my tone quest I know that the quest for something 'new and unique' is a never ending one. So maybe we'll see you again sometime.
 
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