What Prompted You To Buy A Fractal?

I'd killed a line 6 thing I had and I wanted something more robust, so I bought an Ax8.
Fast forward a year or 2 a mate of one of my students had bought an AXE3 and couldn't get on with it, after a 2 weeks(!) Sold it to me for considerably less. Been using it ever since.
TSJMajesty said:
Idea came from @Chewie5150 over in the Gift of Tone thread where he said Mark Day's videos inspired him to enter into the Fractal world.

What was yours? Was it one of the main artists using the gear, or a video, or..., something else?

For me it was seeing @Cooper Carter demo'ing all 263 amps (at the time) with a song clip using each one. And then when I saw that John Petrucci used one as a replacement for his big 3 rack unit effects (Eventide, TC Electronic, & Lexicon), that sealed the deal and I just had to have one!
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I bought my AX8 after hearing that the Soldano SLO that had been modeled was a "snakeskin" model. The black or purple Soldano amps never sound as good to me as the snakeskin one so that sealed the deal.
 
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I was really happy with my Kemper Profiler and some buddy noticed me about the AX3 and didn't believe it really was worth it. But it was way better than my Kemper
So I sold it and bought a 2nd hand AX3
 
Michael R said:
For me, it was actually Neural DSP's inability to deliver their product (Quad Cortex) on time. I owned a Kemper at the time and thought it would be cool to have the ability to profile pedals as well. I didn't even care about the modeling. After selling some gear, I got another notice that the delivery date was extended......made me mad so, I looked into the Fractal gear and ordered an AXE FX III and cancelled the QC order. I was blown away. I sold my Kemper the next day! My amp collection has been dwindling ever since. I have been replacing amps with guitars! I believe I had 4 guitars when I first got the AF3 and now have 9! I still have 3 Marshall amps and 3 cabs. I think by this time next year I will own just one Marshall and one cab.......and maybe some more guitars?
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You saved yourself some frustration. I just sold a QC. I don't care if it does captures and has a touch screen. It's not even close to the maturity level, and the sound qualify is not on par with Fractal.
 
I saw some online vids back in the Axe Ultra days. Mark Day was one, and some other guy had a video going through all genre's (used to be posted on Fractal's site years ago). That convinced me to take a drive over the Fractal HQ, where Cliff graciously let me try an Ultra.
I bought the Ultra then and there, and have never stopped buying the next Fractal unit: Ultra, Axe 2, MFC, AX8, Axe III, FC6, FC12, FM3, LB2.....can't wait for what comes next.
 
Was doing some research on different modelers, as I was getting fed up buying tubes for my giant rack. I had previously had a H3000se for effects, and was on the fence about getting an eclipse or take a gamble with a modeler, that seemed to have all the same stuff and more, so I got in line for the AxeFX ultra. I said If it can match the sounds of the rack it's staying and i'm getting rid of that huge money sucking rack.

Went from Ultra to the II, to the III to the IIImk2. I can cover any tone I need, some with some very complicated routing that would require mixers, and tons of cables. Now that just takes seconds.
 
I was looking for a rack unit that could do great cleans as well as drive tones had all of the effects that I was using at the time. I was looking on line and found @Scott Peterson review of Fractal Audio rack unit and started looking for it. Found one used on eBay (Standard) and bought it, early 2007. Messed with it for a few months then sold it and went back to a tube rig.

I started listening to to sounds that others were posting and was OK I need to give this another shot. I joined the forum (old one) and once I understood how to use it I realized that it was actually pretty good and bought another Standard. As soon as they announced the release of the Ultra I put myself on the list the rest is history! A 15 year journey and counting by far the longest relationship with a music gear company I have ever had still with zero regrets.
 
The Tones & Cliff/FAS' techposts on the forum tbh; he is legit. Then when Cygnus came out, I caved & bought my first Fractal unit: the FM3. Probably one of the best purchases in my adult life lol
 
Ever on the hunt to expand the sonic textures of the guitar, I was impressed with the ambient clips Simeon had on the old Fractal site (back in the AxeFX II days). That, plus Cooper's run through of every preset, got me hooked. Started with the IIXL, then on to the III and an FM3. Hands down the best gear purchases I've ever made. Very happy Fractilian here.
 
A very good friend of mine told me about the FM3 months before he just brought his over one day and surprised me. I wrote 3 and a half songs in a couple of weeks, bought my own FM3 and since I have written close to 30 songs in a year and a half. Best bang for the buck audio/musical creative tool on the market!
 
It was a year before II came out when I was a poor student - I was browsing in a bookstore a mag with an interview of my fav Japanese guitarist (Shibasaki Hiroshi, from Abingdon Boys School at that time) talking about how a device called "Axe-Fx" helped their European tour. I googled the name and that's the first time I got to know about Axe-Fx.
What I liked at first is the routing capability. As one of the reason I'd been reluctant to digital was the inability of parallel wiring, Axe-Fx was an eye-opener just because of that.
When I had the chance to fly to Tokyo that year, I tried one in a guitar shop (in Japan, only a few shops in Tokyo displayed Ultra in those days), and I still remember how real one of the Plexi presets sounded. Since then, Axe has been my gear of a dream. (It took me 8 years to fund myself to get my first II, though)

Why I stick to Fractal is not only the excellence in product/services but also that I consider FAS's activity as the challenge to create a "Digital-Twin" of best amps/effects over the years. In this digital age where even automotive is developed in digital simulation, somebody has to do it to keep the legacy going and to open up new possibilities in guitar industry. In that respect, I even find social significance in FAS's endevour.
 
Knew about them from guitar-forum-hype and from some of the artist using them. I was really impressed after seeing Dweezil live with his band, unreal tones, unreal band... but I never thought I'd be able to afford anything from FAS until the AX8 was released. I think it was also Cooper Carter and Mark Day who made some killer videos with it, that convinced me in the end.

I was already experimenting a lot with Amplitube at that time for quiet late-night practicing, but while super convenient, I could never get it to sound as good as my real rig. The AX8 was a game changer for me, I sold everything from my rig except for the tube head which I just keep around because it looks cool. From selling stuff that the AX8 replaced I ended up getting enough money to get a Vigier as well, which just shows how much you end up spending on pedals and cables and power supplies and more cables and crap.

Later I sold the AX8 to get the FM3, which I then sold when the FM9 was announced, only to get a very cheap second-hand Axe-Fx III MKII instead. Couldn't be happier.
 
My friend told there’s this new modeler, AxeFX (1) that supposedly sounds better than Elevenrack. So, I searched some sound clips, and yea, those certainly sounded amazing, totally on ”omg now the promise that Line6 POD made has finally happened” and made me want one. The programming through a separate midi interface seemed a bit cumbersome though, and I didnt immediately run out and buy one. Pretty soon after that though, Axe2 came out and solved all those issues and I got into the waitlist as soon as it opened in europe.
 
I was gigging with a POD XT Live. I had a Facebook friend with an Axe-Fx and MFC-101. He'd posted some pictures and talked about how good it was, but after researching it and seeing the price, I figured there was no way I'd spend that kind of money on my guitar rig.

A few months later I saw a local band where one guitarist was using a Fractal rig and the other guy had a tube amp. Both were running into 4x12 cabs, and the tone from the Fractal side of the stage was simply better in all the ways possible. I was sold, and ordered my first AFXII shortly thereafter.
 
Gregmang said:
So I’d always been a tube guy but back in the day bought a PodXT. It was super easy to record - a huge plus - but the tones really….sucked.


However it did wet my appetite about what a modeler might be able to do someday.

And then I started seeing Mark Day videos and that blew me away. @Mark Day - weren’t you “Sam Hill” back then ?
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Yes I was SamHill :)
 
Got on the waiting list for the first version on March of 2007. Saw mention of the new gear in a guitar magazine, probably Guitar Player.

I was looking for something to replace my ADA MP2 and Cabinetulator II.

Got my first Axe-FX when my name came up on the wait list the following June.

I was NOT disappointed! My other gear was sold and I've owned every rack version of the Axe-FX since.

Best money I've spent on gear.
 
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