What made you decide to go Axe FX?

Microphonic preamp tubes on back to back gigs. I decided to buy an AXE as I was poking around the back of my Mark V with a flashlight and pencil for the second night in a row. Haven't gigged with a tube amp since (14mos and counting).
 
I use a great pedalboard for when I use a loaned amp in a certain gig (top of the line pedals and a switcher/looper to make presets). I really dig how this rig translates to different clean amps, but when recording is needed, the pedalboard can become an issue. I do some work as a session guitarist for very different styles of bands (metal, classic rock, hiphop, latin folk). So I have a couple very different guitars, a Strat and a Tele; LP style guitar, a couple superstrats (floating bridges, humbuckers & more), piezo&midi equipped guitars, 7 string, fretless. Hell! A lot of them. So they all have specific needs in terms of amps and routing. Creating a great piezo sound; adding the electric signal and then adding an FXloop block to merge in the midi signal? That's something that required 1 Marshall amp, 1 Roland cube for acoustic tone and my pc monitors for the midi signal. Tons of cables and noise was inevitable.
I've always been good at research, so I started digging into the amp-modelling realm. After selling some of my old gear I finally upgraded to the AxeII. Now I can have one preset to integrate everything, and one FRFR monitor where everything converges. The flexibility to make ambient sounds, to tweak and use different EQs and filters, tonematching, making IRs, it makes the AxeII a never ending fountain of tone and sounds.


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I owned two Eventide H3000's and was using a Marshall JVM 410 with pedals. Went to see friends Heavens Fire open for Harem Scarem, both bands guitarist were using AxeFxII and sounded great.
 
Years in bands dictated a rack pre-amp and power amp...after my rockstar days were done, it became the most practical solution for apartment playing and recording. If I ever went back to the playing in a band days, I would certainly use the Axe and save a ton of time and hassle.
 
2008: I wanted the box which let me dial in the sounds I got in my head without a solder iron! Welcome AxeFx Std. :)
2013: I upgraded to an Mk2 AxeFx II unit after testing it
2015: I'm able to create the sound in my head, built my very own tube amp which has the sound, mostly the feel, sustain etc. and absolutely no noise or hum even turning up high - how? Because I can! I not even finished the prototype, but sold the first two "yet unbuild amps" and the prototype too, more to come ;-) The AxeFx stays at home and help me to get tone recorded. Still happy with the Mk2, maybe I'll check out the AX8 someday.... ;)
 
2008: I wanted the box which let me dial in the sounds I got in my head without a solder iron! Welcome AxeFx Std. :)
2013: I upgraded to an Mk2 AxeFx II unit after testing it
2015: I'm able to create the sound in my head, built my very own tube amp which has the sound, mostly the feel, sustain etc. and absolutely no noise or hum even turning up high - how? Because I can! I not even finished the prototype, but sold the first two "yet unbuild amps" and the prototype too, more to come ;-) The AxeFx stays at home and help me to get tone recorded. Still happy with the Mk2, maybe I'll check out the AX8 someday.... ;)

Exactly like my timeline. At least from 2013.
 
Owned several tube amps like Marshalls, Cornford , Engl ,Diezel , Fenders with lots of pedals , and was happy with the tones , but too much hiss for my Home studio .
 
It was back in 2012, I had built my dream rig through lots of hard work: brand new (at the time) mesa mark V head, with a 4x12 recto cab, g-major and a couple of pedals.
Loved that rig, made me happy everytime I used it, and although it was heavy AF, it was worth it.
But then I decided to move from Italy to London, so had to think of a solution.
The axe fx was getting quite popular, but nowhere near as popular as it is now. I went on G66 and ordered myself an axe fx 2, and thought 'if I really hate it, I can always send it back'.
I hadn't sold my mesa gear yet, cause I wasn't sure I'd like the axe fx.
It arrived with FW 4, I upgraded to FW 6 and was running it through Yamaha HS80 speakers.
At first I was a bit....meh....I was used to having huge amps, and the axe fx didn't sound that big, and was very disappointed with the USA Lead patch.
Then I ran it through the power amp of my mark 5 and out of the 4x12 recto cab....and oh boy did it sound good!!
So I decided to spend some time learning how it worked, and built a few patches of my own.
Finally got that USA Lead patch to sound good, and I was overall very happy with it.
Sold all my Mesa stuff and left for London.
Over the years it has improved drastically, and to me it has gotten to the point where I don't really see myself ever going back to a real amp.
The convenience of having your entire rig in such a small and light unit is amazing, and it sounds absolutely stellar with the latest firmwares.
I absolutely love what the Quantum FW has done to it, and it's the only peace of gear that has lasted me this long.
Also the convenience of it in recording is fantastic!
If it ever broke down or got stolen (touch wood), I would definitely buy another one.
I feel like I'm invested in this company, I like their ethos and love their products. The Axe Fx 2 is the smartest purchase I have ever made.
 
I originally bought an AXE FX 2 MK1 about 3-4 years ago off of eBay. I was quite intrigued at the time as it was becoming a popular unit and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I thought I'd use it with my Boogie Mark v I had at the time and use it to replace my g system. I did use it on and off for about 3 months live and at home It was so long ago I can't remember which FW was out at the time.

Anyway to cut a long story short I didn't do my homework properly and sold off the Axe and bought the G system again. I have since gone through various pedals etc and sold off the G sys to buy the FX8. The FX8 is fantastic and I love everything about it. It goes well with my boogie amps and I'm really happy with the drive sounds that I can get from it. I even sold off an analogman king of tone as I felt I didn't need it anymore. The FX8 does everything I need. Plus the firmware is updated frequently where as the G sys FW hasn't been updated since 2004 something like that anyway.

This then got me thinking about the AXE FX again. The last few gigs with my band my amp volume has been getting softer and softer due to the gigs we tend play. I am of course mic'd up thru the PA but it doesn't help sharing a monitor with my keyboard player and sharing the same monitor mix with my drummer also. They want to hear only a little of me. Well that's no good for me. So fast forward to 2015 I have now bought an axe again. This time I'm using it through my studio monitors at home and plan on getting a FFFR wedge for the band.Output 1 to the pa and output 2 just for me sorted! No boogie amp this time I'm using the amp and cab sims and it sounds awesome. I can't wait to start using this live.

I'm not sure why I didn't use the axe like this when I originally got it and I can't really remember but all that matters is I'm back in the Fractal camp again.
 
Hello to all,


I I was amazed, from the long series Evolution of Rock Guitar (the Real Guitar Heroes) of Mr. Ketil Strand, :)
;) 1 2 3 4 5 6.........

Where he is demonstrated with Axe Axe Fx Ultra & II, able to cover all musical genres 360 ° with extreme realism !
This is a great promotion, for involving all the musicians and not "only those niche".

Not content of the tube (you tube) I attended an event Mr. Scordo EDO (Today Great Guitarist of Brit Floyd), where he demonstrated the goodness of Axe Fx also in live concerts in Italy :cool: (Pink Floyd Tribute Band) !

What is most important of the FAS, the important support of the G66 and localized (translations ITA) Mr. Diego Pezzati. ;)



My wish ;), and that FAS not you forget this very important aspect of the roots of all that too indelible historic Rock !!! :rolleyes:

I hope to find more and more items and VINTAGE EFFECT in a future FW :D :D :D

Thanks FAS :)
 
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Basically, I had decided I wanted to form a progressive hard rock band upon moving to Boise area. I bought a basic live rig and got to networking and just didn't really meet the right types of people to get the job done. The one drummer I found who had the chops and rhythmic theory to play the stuff I was composing got addicted to cocaine, lost his house, and moved back to California to live with his mother. I started thinking of basically calling it quits on music and I heard about Fractal Audio when a buddy told me to check out the band Tesseract.

So long story short, as I started doing research I discovered there was all this new, very high-quality sounding audio gear that would work perfectly for home recording. Realizing that we were really on the cusp of a new age, I started researching and planning to start working on my own musical vision. So here I am now, an Axe-fx II veteran and loving every minute of it. Fractal Audio has changed my guitar playing life. And now I'm even looking at the possibility of starting a band again, but I'll be using a fractal rig. So great!
 
I had owned the standard and the II twice each. Owned a kemper toaster and a kemper rack.
Finally realized that the II is just the best for me. I felt many I the high gain amps on the kpa sounded very the same. I am having a hard time finding any bad tones now.
 
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