Will AxeFX improve my quality of life?

Phil - I do mostly corporate and wedding gigs so cover a fair bit of ground as far as styles go (and the Axe covers all of this very nicely!). Even looking at the guys that I know of locally that use the AxeFx there's a fair variety of players and styles being covered.

Can't help much with the drop-D stuff though... but there's a number of guys here who I think have worked on those sounds. The pre and post eq trick with the bass frequencies still applies to some extent though - that's an old Mesa trick too.

Chris
 
Deltones said:
you probably know that the Magical Wolf T-Shirt already makes the ladies drop on you like bees drunk on nectar.
Mr Deltones, thank you for your kind concern about improving my trouser action status. Since I am happily married, do you offer a Magical FLOW T-shirt that keeps them away?
 
Thanks Chris. Verstality is what I'm after, so that sounds good. Also easy set-up/break down.

Ok, the conclusions I've reached so far is that much better guitarists than me think the AxeFX is fantastic. Which tells me it will be more than good enough for me. I should avoid cab sims at this early stage, use my guitar cabs and look at FR speakers further down the track. From what I can tell, I should be able to ditch the Mesa 20/20 and instead use a SS power amp. Next stage after than would be to go FR spkrs. I've been perplexed by the acronym FRFR - I assume that just means stereo fullrange speakers.

In the very short term I'll abandon trying to use the 4-cable method with the GT and just put it in front of the amps. Although time based effects won't be as good as they should be, at least I can bypass the GT for tones where I don't need FX. Also I'll try using some of the GT distortion modes with very little EQ - before a tube pre-amp and power amp, I'm hoping some of them will be usable if I get most of the gain from the tube pre-amp. I should be able to avoid level matching issues that way. My pre-amp clean are pretty dark, but maybe some EQ from the GT will help.

That is the stopgap solution, but I think I'm still going to buy an AxeFX. Especially since the Australian dolla is so strong against the greenback and that could change any time.

I have a couple of further questions. I should probably ask these in another thread but I'll do it here first since I have such kindly respondents :D

Will any good stereo hi-fi power amplifier do the job? It seems to me that if the tone leaving the AxeFX is the finished article, then they should be. I ask because I might have access to some low priced hi-fi gear. Is there some fundamental difference between gear designed for listening to music and gear for guitar?
If OK, any problem with going from a hi-fi amplifier to guitar cabs? Or should I try to move to FR speakers at the same time?
Why are SS power amp ratings (seemingly) so much higher than tube? Is it for more headroom before nasty SS clipping? I'd never dream of getting a 200W tube amp, or even a 100W. But plenty of AxeFX users are using the 200W power amps. Would these paople have previously used a 200W tube amp? I don't need massive volume, my 20/20 is more than I need. I have a single 30W Celestion V30 in one of my cabs. Does that mean with a SS power amp I'd have to get something no more than 30W per side?
 
fearlessflier said:
Jay Mitchell said:
This says it all about the Axe-Fx:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Txqmgr1k0Y

:lol:

STEP RIGHT UP! Made me smile, thanks! You're not from marketing department are you? :D
Ahhh! Forum noob! Don't worry, you'll get to know Jay soon enough.

You're on his good side already if you admit to not knowing much. It's the people that think they know a lot that he chops up into little pieces and feeds to his cat on his lunch break. Great fun as long as you're not the one being chopped up. Jay owns a company that builds very high end PA speaker systems and has forgotten more about audio amplification than most of us ever know.
 
Re amplification... I'd be inclined to see what places like CC's Light and Sound have in stock (i.e. as far as 2nd hand pro audio power amps go). I'm not sure on the merits of using hi-fi gear... maybe ok at home at low/moderate volumes but at band volumes may (or will) struggle. Pro audio gear is also more likely to be tolerant of the wear and tear of transport. As for the sonic/technical differences I'm not sure.

Wattage-wise, something around 150-200+ watts in a SS power amp should be ok. My only experience with this in the past is in going from a 2x60W valve power amp to a 2x150W SS power amp at one stage and this was plenty of power. Make sure you've got a line level signal running in though.

Chris
 
Heya Fearlessflier,

Or for amplification, you could go to independent music in Brisbane and buy yourself an Atomic FRFR like I just did. Its being delivered today to Queanbeyan (near Canberra). I bought two of them.

TimmyM
 
TimmyM said:
Heya Fearlessflier,

Or for amplification, you could go to independent music in Brisbane and buy yourself an Atomic FRFR like I just did. Its being delivered today to Queanbeyan (near Canberra). I bought two of them.

TimmyM

What did they set you back?
 
fearlessflier said:
TimmyM said:
Heya Fearlessflier,

Or for amplification, you could go to independent music in Brisbane and buy yourself an Atomic FRFR like I just did. Its being delivered today to Queanbeyan (near Canberra). I bought two of them.

TimmyM

What did they set you back?

About $1200 each. I must say they are worth it. I am selling my Sherlock Fat Head and Achillies cabs now.

TimmyM
 
Re: Will AxeFX improve my quality of life?

You will not sleep, you will be digging the sounds and programming.
You will not eat, you will be digging the sounds and programming.
You will have no sex, because your wife will be asleep by the time you emerge from the garage.
You will have no sex, because of numbness and shrinkage after being in the garage till 2am in the winter.
You will have no sex, because once you have time again, your wife will be irreversibly mad or will have left with the kids and most of your paycheck, presuming you haven't lost your job.

Start writing that love song. If you hit the wall, maybe someone here can help you out. Big stars pay for the right to say they wrote someone else's song all the time.
 
jojo said:
Re: Will AxeFX improve my quality of life?

You will not sleep, you will be digging the sounds and programming.
You will not eat, you will be digging the sounds and programming.
You will have no sex, because your wife will be asleep by the time you emerge from the garage.
You will have no sex, because of numbness and shrinkage after being in the garage till 2am in the winter.
You will have no sex, because once you have time again, your wife will be irreversibly mad or will have left with the kids and most of your paycheck, presuming you haven't lost your job.

Start writing that love song. If you hit the wall, maybe someone here can help you out. Big stars pay for the right to say they wrote someone else's song all the time.

You were right. Damn.
 
fearlessflier said:
Will AxeFX improve my quality of life?
It sure as sh*t did mine... amazing to think back now to when I actually suffered from G.A.S. Haven't felt a tinge of it in over two years. Sold most of my amp/fx gear since then, never missed any of it one bit. Never got better sounds in my life.

...it's great.
 
Yes, your life will improve. You can't wait to wake up at 5am to rage on your Axe everyday all day long until 3am!

Also, It is NO DIFFERENT than having 40 amp heads, 40 speaker cabs and 400 effects boxes, all turned on and warmed up , with a programmable patchbay in front of you to switch these combinations at will every minute. MAN, NOT HAVING TO DO THAT ANYMORE IS A REAL TIME AND ELECTRICITY SAVER.
 
Yes, your life will improve. You can't wait to wake up at 5am to rage on your Axe everyday all day long until 3am!

Also, It is NO DIFFERENT than having 40 amp heads, 40 speaker cabs and 400 effects boxes, all turned on and warmed up , with a programmed patchbay in front of you to switch these combinations at will every minute. MAN, NOT HAVING TO DO THAT ANYMORE IS A REAL TIME AND ELECTRICITY SAVER.
 
relaxo said:
Yes, your life will improve. You can't wait to wake up at 5am to rage on your Axe everyday all day long until 3am!

Also, It is NO DIFFERENT than having 40 amp heads, 40 speaker cabs and 400 effects boxes, all turned on and warmed up , with a programmed patchbay in front of you to switch these combinations at will every minute. MAN, NOT HAVING TO DO THAT ANYMORE IS A REAL TIME AND ELECTRICITY SAVER.

I should have remarked earlier that since starting this post, I did go ahead and buy one.

And everybody here is right!
 
RESISTANCE WAS FUTILE. YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIMILATED.

LocutusOfBorg.jpg
 
It will indeed change your life. No longer is recording a complicated affair. Where it would take you 10 min to set up a tone, that would be a pain in the but to reproduce exactly, now you can have it at the push of a button and have it again and again... forever.

On top of that if you are like me, when you record you like recording ideas and parts as they come to you. And with the tradional mic'd setup you cant always do that because you have to tear down one set of gear, set up another, mic it up and rinse and repeat if you have something different in mind. With the axe its instantaneous.

Want to rock ouot for 15 min? It only takes 3 seconds to get going. You can use headphones can crank as loud as you want.
The family doesnt have to be quiet when you record.
If you get all obsessive like me, the axe finally cures your gas, where you start collecting amps that are so similar they might as well be the same amp. (why do i own a valveking head and a Peavey ranger?)
~mx~
 
Beefcake said:
fearlessflier said:
Will AxeFX improve my quality of life?
It sure as sh*t did mine... amazing to think back now to when I actually suffered from G.A.S. Haven't felt a tinge of it in over two years. Sold most of my amp/fx gear since then, never missed any of it one bit. Never got better sounds in my life.

...it's great.


But what about G.A.S. for new guitars? :shock: :D
 
Full disclosure: My guitar GAS had calmed down for a long time.... replaced by rig GAS (RAS?). But since getting the axe, it's re-ignited and I've gone through a few new ones. What's worse, I'm now yearning for stuff I'd never thought about before. Example, I was watching a Brian Setzer video on youtube awhile back and my wife said 'that's a cool guitar, what is that?". I repeat, my WIFE said that. We all know what that means guys..... the golden road to guitar mogambo has just been laid out. One does not ignore such an obvious opening. (Sort of like the raised eyebrow followed by, "the kids are all out of the house....". You young guys don't get that one but you will...). I would have never seriously considered a Gretsch. I can't play rockabilly to save my life. I certainly wouldn't mind expanding my skills.... but of course I never had a rockabillly-approved amp... but ...now I do! Catch my drift? Never had a Rick 12-string either....
 
porieux said:
But what about G.A.S. for new guitars? :shock: :D
That's really almost gone, too. I mostly only play the three in my sig and can't imagine being happier with the sound, feel or versatility of my gear. So... it's all great.
 
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