What has the axe brought to your rig, convience and (or) creative options?

bleedthefreak

bleedthefreak

Inspired
Hey all,

I am getting better with understanding and using my axe. I wanted to see what you guys have done that was not possible before or not as easy.
Besides making your rig much easier to set up and move around by leaving behind the 4x12s, tube heads and pedal boards, what else has changed?
The Axefx has given us multiple tonal options and configurations it seems endless what you can do.

Something simple for me is controlling my boost, gain, master volume, and delay with one pedal. I tied the master volume, gain, verb and delay all to one expression pedal for solos. So simple but no more tap dancing.

I'd love to hear creative ideas and their uses.:D
 
Mine is even simpler than that. The Axe-fx II has given me the ability to record high, high quality sounding music in my apartment without anybody calling the freaking cops on me. Heck, most my neighbors don't even know I'm a musician.
 
The axe fx/MFC combo has given me freedom from a world of power supply's and has stopped me from having to do a riverdance to get my effects on at the same time. The sound is phenomenal obviously, but the ease of scenes and a totally customizable midi controller is a step beyond for me. It makes all of the tones that are in the axe very accessible while your playing.

Also, I have 4 expression pedals hooked up that will control almost anything in signal chain! You can do all sorts of amazing things with almost no work that would be pretty much impossible with even the most advanced pedal boards. My two main exp pedals control volume and wah, but the other two change for each of my presets. Sometimes its chorus/delay mix, other times ill use it to control a separate send volume to other outputs so that I can have them show up on other tracks in protools that have various delay or reverb plugins setup. I like doing it that way so I dont have to track with the delay on constantly. If I want to change it later I can just make adjustments to the delay plugin rather than having to reamp everytime.

Magic black box :)
 
Speculum Speculorum said:
Mine is even simpler than that. The Axe-fx II has given me the ability to record high, high quality sounding music in my apartment without anybody calling the freaking cops on me. Heck, most my neighbors don't even know I'm a musician.
Click to expand...

This too. Actually, thats the most important thing for me as well. Its become so easy now to jam until 4am that I just dont even notice it anymore.
 
For me, it's all of the above. It's convenient to walk into rehearsal or a gig with my guitars and a four-space rack, packing every tone I could want and way more. Then smile as people ask me where my amp is and where all that sound is coming from! Having a stellar recording option is icing on the cake. I love it.
 
I should also point out the effects issue too. Before hand I was looking at getting a couple of Carl Martin Octaswitch pedal boards so that I could have a better control over the litany of effects that I like to use for both subtle and really washy texture stuff. Fortunately for me I found out about the Axe-fx II before I really went gang busters on beefing up the pedal board. Now all I am holding onto is my MXR stereo chorus, and my Boss DD-7 (I'll probably keep the MXR but I really need to sell the DD-7). I was unsatisfied with any reverb pedal I tried. Now, with scenes and the extent of control I have over the effects with the Axe, I just smile. I really must eventually pick up a MFC, but it's not absolutely necessary for me at the time being, and considering that I can get Slate VCC, Waves API collection, and the Lexicon PCM bundle and still be south of the MFC... well... priorities I guess.
 
The ability to use the Axe-FX II as a soundcard has been awesome. I pull up backing tracks on my computer and jam along with headphones on, and have a blast!!
 
The biggest thing for me was being able to use my "A rig" for everything from silent practice (through headphones) to gig-level volume. Being able to rehearse my patch changes and expression manipulation as well as my parts is tremendously useful. An AxeFx might not make you a better musician by virtue of its ownership but it can enable/inspire one to do things to become a better musician.
 
Both... Plus my back has been saved. It replaced a 20+ space shock-mounted rack that weighed 200 + pounds !
 
Both... Plus my back has been saved. It replaced a 20+ space shock-mounted rack that weighed 200 + pounds !
Click to expand...

This is by far one of the top convinces of being an AFX owner. I don't miss lugging around two heads and a 4x12.

I read in a post that someone had tone matched their acoustic and no longer needed to bring it along to the gigs. I haven't got to that point yet, however it does sound like a great feature to have.
In this instance I've been using the Acoustic preset on Axe exchange using a PRS and sounds good enough for me.

Also read someone was using the pitch shifter to give them the lower tunings and eliminate the other guitars they drag along. Cool stuff.
 
Well, I no longer have GAS for one. I'm also never getting those "well this sounds good but it would be perfect if x was more y and z a little bit more something else" - now I can just tweak those things in if I feel like it. I also no longer need to crank amps or play with attenuators or mic cabs if I want to record something.

Compared to some my use of the Axe is fairly limited actually. My signal chain is pretty traditional and I'm not big on cramming in all kinds of crazy blocks.
 
I play in a cover band, need a lot of presets and alternate tuning (D, C, B etc).
Besides getting rid of the big rack and a lot of programing of pre amps and multi FX not to mention all the cabling and the monster weight due to the 2:90 in it, I no longer carry 3-4 guitars everywhere.
Just 2, one as a main one and another as backup, that’s it!
+ im now nailing the original sounds much better.
 
Yes, as a user since November much of the enjoyment so far is exploring a few different great-sounding basic amp models. My patches more or less still match the fairly minimal set-ups I used with tube amps. The fact I can record so easily direct, play at any volume, complete lack of unwanted hum and fizz, the low weight of the Axe-+Matrix, the ability of sell of all my old school gear and free up a bunch of space - so even barely scratching the surface of the unit there's already massive advantages to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom