What Prompted You To Buy A Fractal?

"Picture it, 1966, Sicily..."

  • leave touring band of 5 years
  • liquidate gear to pay band debts
  • no desire to lift anything for the foreseeable future (chuckles in 212's in 2022)
  • knowing it's going to be mostly headphones in the near-ish future
*line6 LT and power cab purchased for reasonable prices - does 8/10 of what I want, can't coax doom
  • axe3 Mk1 purchased, "band run" road trip ensues
  • years of happiness

I had prior experience with a friend's Ultra? years ago and remember being surprised by it's ability next to a 2ch recto. Leon's 11-minute doom tone video solidified the purchase but I was already planning to make it.

I also had an artist relationship with Fractal during the last bit of my touring tenure, happily owning and praising my FX8.
 
For me it was Dweezil Zappa. He had posted about why he was using a Fractal now as it made international travel so much easier, and cheaper, so I looked into them and ordered a Standard back in 2009. Much to my surprise, I got an email the next day asking if I wanted to come pick up the unit in person (I used to live in NH), and save on the shipping $. I had no idea where Fractal was located, so I automatically thought I was getting scammed, but low and behold it was real. I went to Plaistow to pick up my unit, it was when FAS worked out the basement of an office building and there were 2 people working there. Cliff let me try a unit first, and showed me who had just bought a unit before me, Steve Vai! Here we are nearly 14 years later, and I've used Fractal on over 3,000 gigs and I don't miss anything about lugging around a head and 4x12 cab. Ended up selling everything else I had as I never used it anymore!
 
When I heard that The Edge was using Fractal gear I jumped in. I'm not even a big Edge fan but he relies on effects so much if he's using Fractal then it must be great. Bought an FX8 to use with my Bogner Ecstasy, then bought a Suhr PT15IR. At that point I was already going direct with the Suhr so I picked up a III. Then my name came up on the FM9 list and now I'm knee deep in Fractal gear!

Anybody wanna buy a Bogner? lol
 
Back in late 2006, the idea of marrying eventide level effects with amp modeling was very intriguing as it hadn’t been done before- read and found everything I could - Cliff gave us the manual and I listened to every clip I could find. I Pulled the trigger on the first AxeFx in 2007 which arrived with version 2 firmware. Then later upgraded to the Ultra.
 
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I was always intrigued by the fractal videos but seeing as these were pricey units and you were unable to demo them at the nearby music store, I was hesitant to take that leap of faith. I was away in Houston and had the chance to sit in on a song with a band at the house of blues. The guitarist was one cool dude and gracious enough to let me use his rig. He had a fractal and….that was it for me. I was completely floored. It sounded incredible and was beyond a joy to play through. Granted my first time was one that spoiled me….I got to wail through the incredible house system at this venue an I was wrecked. Lol.
 
I got into Fractal because of word of mouth on sevenstring dot org. I picked up an Axe-FX II XL back in 2015 and never looked back. I had been using modelers as a preamp since about 2005. They never seemed to sound quite as good as a tube amp, but they were much more practical for church and small gigs. I used a Digitech GNX4 for a lot of years, but I usually played it through a tube power amp for club gigs. The Axe II was so much better that I switched to SS power amps. The Axe III was a no brainer when it came out. Fractal supports their products way better than any tech company that I've ever bought from, which is also a real bonus.
 
Joined the forum in 2013. Lurked until 2017 when I bought an AX8 and it's been one of the most valued purchases I've ever made. I'm including upgrading to a AxeFx III in the total cost, along with the monitors.

For most of my life I wanted the sound and dynamics of a cranked amp at a volume that is reasonable. I got that and in the process became educated on the inner workings of amps and EQ-ing in general. I now play almost every day even if it's for only 15 minutes.
 
A combination of the following:
  • Seeing my 2 of favourite bands who are known for having good sonic quality use Fractal products (Metallica & Synyster Gates of A7X) + many other well respected artists.
  • Having a few years under my belt with an analogue pedal switching rig (Boss ES-8) and learning the pros and cons of that set up.
  • The FM3 being at a much more affordable price point compared to previous Fractal products.
  • Having more time early on in the pandemic to commit to giving the Fractal eco system a fair trial period.
  • Leon Todd's videos teaching me how to work the unit.
Even though I only bought the FM3 with the intention of using it in 4CB method... it turns out the amp modelling sounded better than my own amps, so I sold the FM3 + most of my amps & pedal to swing an Axe FX III MKII. I've been a happy Axe owner now for 2 years! Feels weird to say that... doesn't feel like I've had it that long o_O
 
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I have played so many great amps in my life and traveled with refrigerator sized racks and 6 4x12 cabs (80s and early 90smetal days). I started using modelers with the zoom on my strap in the late 80s early 90s. Mostly used the zoom with a 4 track and drum machine in the hotel rooms for my solo stuff while touring with Animosity. The zoom was very fuzzy sounding but an Aphex de-esser fixed that well enough to do some good stuff with it.

Then I got my rack in 91 and put a palmer in it for FOH and have a mic'd cab. I found it great for recording demos at the hotel as well.

Then I got a digitech GSP tube all in one rack for some demo stuff and recording tracks. That didn't last long as it sounded vey fake like everything was in a metal box. Still had the rack and palmer which stayed for a very long time. I grabbed an eleven rack when it came out and used it with Pro Tools as an Amp and used irs / the palmer.

Then the Kemper came out and I jumped on that and profiled my rack setup and took it to replace my rack. My TC 2290 was getting harder to fix as parts got tougher to find. After profiling my whole setup with a number of patches in the Kemper it did well in a live setting, but when I would record there was this odd thing going on in the midrange that you could not dial out and was not in my rack/cab setup when comparing them. No refining would ever correct it. I know I am not the only one who found that in the Kemper.
I had that for 8 years before getting the Axe FX III and it has been able to get my same tones from the 80s up to what I have developed into now. All with very little effort or tweaking. A little MB comp after the cab and some delay for leads a pair of amps done in separate profiles on each side and I call it done.

I grabbed the AX3 because I watched all of Leon Todd's videos on it and found it exactly what I was looking for.
 
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Wasn't influencers for me...it was playing through a Headrush MX5, being disappointed, not with the form factor or UI, but tone and knowing I wasn't going for a Quad Cortex or Line 6 product.

Also, my fiancé was tired of hearing about it and just told me to get one.
 
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 ?
 
My friend at the time (now bandmate) who is a worship leader said they use Helix. I didn’t know anything about modelers at the time and was looking for something other than my Fender HotRod Deville that I couldn’t put past 2 on the master before annoying neighbors. So I looked into the Helix, read the forums and then also saw that there is a product from Fractal. What sold me was the fact that Jimmy Eat World uses the AFX. I watched the behind-the-scenes interview prior to one of their gigs where Jim Atkins demoed his unit and praised it. That was all I needed to know and I was sold 100%. After that, I watched a bunch of Leon Todd’s videos which even reinforced that decision and then I made my purchase and will never look back. I’m eternally grateful to Cliff, everyone at Fractal and the whole community.
 
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