Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good ?

C

chopshop777

Inspired
I have the ultra off course and a few pretty high end guitars such as Ibanez Prestige Jackson King V USA , but the other day I plugged in my 20 + year old Kramer focus 2000 and it sounded absolutely amazing through the ultra, so that makes me think , would you be able to make any guitar even $200 , $300 guitars sound good with the ultra ? Very interested and excited to hear what everyone says about this, cheers. Ed
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

chopshop777 said:
I have the ultra off course and a few pretty high end guitars such as Ibanez Prestige Jackson King V USA , but the other day I plugged in my 20 + year old Kramer focus 2000 and it sounded absolutely amazing through the ultra, so that makes me think , would you be able to make any guitar even $200 , $300 guitars sound good with the ultra ? Very interested and excited to hear what everyone says about this, cheers. Ed
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i'm positive that ANY good amp can make a less good guitar sound quite good.
the opposite is a little harder to happen.
imho, of course.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

I think the Ultra can help, but ultimately the best "tone improver" is the player.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

I've got a less than impressive guitar collection, which includes a low end Ibanez 335 clone and a Mexi Strat. These guitars don't exactly suck, but if the question is whether they can sound good with the Axe, the answer is yes. The range of good tones is narrower than that of my better guitars though.

The Axe is very sensitive to the difference in your guitars. Dial a patch up on one guitar, and there is no guarantee it'll work on another without some tweaking. In particular, it is very sensitive to input level. The input trim is a very nice feature.

JWW
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

In general there´s no reason why a well- built $300 guitar with decent PU´s (think e.g. Yamaha Pacifica, Fender Mexican Series etc.) shouldn´t sound good in itself.

A real crappy sounding guitar OTOH will not "improve" significantly with the Axe, so the answer is: NO.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Depends -entirely- on the guitar. I have played a lot of cheap guitars that sound great, and a lot of expensive guitars that sound like crap. And this holds true with any gear - Axe-FX or not.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

I was very unhappy with the weak sound of my music man Jp6
It sat new in the case unplayed for years. A beautiful guitar that is a joy to play until you plug it in. I tried it through a bunch of amps, pedals, and modellers and was never any good compared to other guitars. Then I plugged it into the Axe. The Axe must do something digitally to enhance sustain and tone because the guitar sounds great.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

The Axe is very sensitive to the difference in your guitars. Dial a patch up on one guitar, and there is no guarantee it'll work on another without some tweaking. In particular, it is very sensitive to input level. The input trim is a very nice feature.

JWW[/quote]


So true, even with two high end guitars that sound good through most high end amps, through the axe fx you have to have two different patches for both of them, and I am talking both on high gain and on clean.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Premise: "good sound" is subjective, so there can't be an objective answer

On one hand, the Axe-Fx gives you a plethora of tone-shaping tools, like no other hardware, so you can alter the sound of a guitar dramatically.
On the other hand, the Axe-Fx is transparent and sensitive to its input like I haven't experienced with any gear before.
So my answer is: no. A bad guitar won't sound great just because of the A-Fx.
Concessive: a great player can make almost everything sound good. :)
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Of course the Axe-FX Ultra can make any guitar sound good. I sold my PRS, Gibson, Ibanez, and EBMM guitars and now rock out on these instead:

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I saved a ton of cash and it sounds better than even the highest end customs played through a Diezel or Dumble.

Ask a silly question...

BTW, I had a Kramer Focus 2000. It already sounded pretty good.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

rickboot said:
Of course the Axe-FX Ultra can make any guitar sound good. I sold my PRS, Gibson, Ibanez, and EBMM guitars and now rock out on these instead:

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I saved a ton of cash and it sounds better than even the highest end customs played through a Diezel or Dumble.

Ask a silly question...

BTW, I had a Kramer Focus 2000. It already sounded pretty good.
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right on buddy.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

I would say NO The axe FX cannot make "ANY" guitar sound good, especially the sponge bob flying V :lol: .
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

chopshop777 said:
BTW, I had a Kramer Focus 2000. It already sounded pretty good.
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right on buddy.[/quote]

That Kramer was my first guitar. I really regret trading her in, but I got a great first generation Ibanez S540 out of the deal.

I do have some guitars that I don't like the sound of. They sound like crap through my Ultra too. ;)
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

First Act pile of crap guitar (not mine) + $100 bass + Axe-Fx Ultra = Acceptable?...
http://www.mitchbrody.com/axefx/LastAct.mp3

I don't know if the Axe-Fx will make any guitar sound good, but I will say that it's way more important to me than any particular guitar. Then again, I'm no gear snob and don't even own any guitars worth more than about $1k.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Ive always felt that my old Pod Xt made all my guitars sound the same. None of the characteristics of my guitars or their electronics came through - no personality what so ever. My Ultra lets the personality shine through, just as any of my good tube amps have in the past.

So, my answer is...NO, the Ultra cannot make any guitar sound good.

Shit in, shit out... unless I plug into my old pod xt or zoom unit.

****Disclaimer****
I dont own any guitars that I would consider sounding anything less than good. lol.
Owned a Kramer Focus 6000 brand new in 1986, got it home, started feeding back through my amp & immediately went back to Guitar City (centerville, UT) and bought a hot rails, hot stack & JB to solve that problem. Lost track of the original pickups. Im betting I didnt miss much.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

one additional thought, and I'm sure others experience this, is that I have to tweak each patch for the guitar I'm using. My EJ Strat can handle really overdriven sustained tones and retain clarity, but I have to back up a bit for my LP and my Charvel Frankenstrat. This is just the single/hum difference mostly but it's one of the fundamental qualities of the axe that it responds to the guitar/player so much. I haven't gone to the trouble yet, but I will eventually start organizing my patches by the guitar. I'm still waiting for an ordered Suhr that has a neck single and bridge hum so that may motivate me to reorganize entirely.
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Same here. Some of my patches work with several guitars, but sound very different from instrument to instrument.
Other patches sound great with the guitar they were created for and sound bad with another guitar, because the
guitars sound very different by themselves (far beyond pickup type and output).
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

supersecretjim said:
Ive always felt that my old Pod Xt made all my guitars sound the same. None of the characteristics of my guitars or their electronics came through - no personality what so ever. My Ultra lets the personality shine through, just as any of my good tube amps have in the past.

So, my answer is...NO, the Ultra cannot make any guitar sound good.

Shit in, shit out... unless I plug into my old pod xt or zoom unit.

****Disclaimer****
I dont own any guitars that I would consider sounding anything less than good. lol.
Owned a Kramer Focus 6000 brand new in 1986, got it home, started feeding back through my amp & immediately went back to Guitar City (centerville, UT) and bought a hot rails, hot stack & JB to solve that problem. Lost track of the original pickups. Im betting I didnt miss much.
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What?????????????? you might as well have been speaking Chinese my friend, at first I thought you were gonna say that your pod xt made all your guitars sound like shit and Axe fx made all your guitars sound good , then you said no axe fx doesn't make all your guitars sound good unless you plug your pod xt in !?!?!?!?!?!? Cheers man. have a good one
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

Thats what I get for posting at 2am with my GF nagging me to get into bed...

Simple.

As a good tube amp reveals character of a guitar (good or bad), so does the Axe-Fx.

If you want all your guitars to sound the same (or, at least very similar, IMO) Pod is your game! It made great sounding guitars sound...Meh, and some cheapo guitars with bad pickups sound...Meh.

Use translator program for Chinese version. Or have your neighbors five year old kid explain this post to you... :lol:
 
Re: Would you say the Ultra can make "ANY" guitar sound good

supersecretjim said:
Thats what I get for posting at 2am with my GF nagging me to get into bed...
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Your post made perfect sense to me!

No, the AxeFX will not make any guitar sound good, it will highlight the inherent tone of that instrument, for better or for worse (which for me is the biggest plus point of the AxeFX), unlike a POD which will just sound like a POD.
 
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