Your primary use of the III - creating or "copying"?

Creating new tones or copying old ones?

  • Total voters
    75
Budda

Budda

Axe-Master
I hope this question is straightforward. Are you trying to create a new (to you at least) guitar tone using your III, or are you enjoying recreating famous tones and sounds from past rigs? If you're doing both, vote for which one you've spent more time doing.

This is just a curiosity thing - use your gear however you'd like :).

My journey with the III starts with creating tones I know I like, so that I can get straight to playing. As time goes on and inspiration hits, I would like to explore the capabilities and see if I find something new (at least to me).
 
My holy grail is EJ's AVM lead tone. I’ve found that thick top end of his lead tone unobtainable in the past, even though I was able to get the mid and low end of the “violin tone” with my Ultra. With my brief time with the III I’ve gotten a lot closer than I’ve ever gotten before.

That being said, I'm one of those “I sound like myself no matter what I’m playing through” guys. Fortunately the III is letting me sound more like myself than ever before.
 
I'm mainly after getting great guitar tones, and the III is laying that on in spades, but if cornered I'd have to say I definitely lean towards the '80s hard rock / hair band sounds. It's in my soul.
 
I’m trying to merge both. A classic amp sound merging jazz tones with Extreme effects and otherworldly clashing of futuristic dystopian harmonic convergence. The Axe Fx III gets me there.
 
I'm chasing the tone in my head... Some days I love it and others I think it sucks :)

The fault is all mine, no lack of capability in the Axe Fx III!

That said, it's a combination of things I love about the tone of some of my heroes plus my own ideas. A big dose of Eric Johnson, some Satch and Vai, Holdsworth, Andy Summers, plenty of others...
 
JWDubois said:
My holy grail is EJ's AVM lead tone. I’ve found that thick top end of his lead tone unobtainable in the past, even though I was able to get the mid and low end of the “violin tone” with my Ultra. With my brief time with the III I’ve gotten a lot closer than I’ve ever gotten before.

That being said, I'm one of those “I sound like myself no matter what I’m playing through” guys. Fortunately the III is letting me sound more like myself than ever before.
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Much the same boat, although I find that EJs lead tone is not all that versatile if you hear it outside the context of his stuff.

That "thick top end" is the one that's been hard for me. I find most of the time the level of gain I would like makes the top very thin... Certain amp models work much better for me.

I'm not trying to get his tones, but something in a similar vein. For much of the last year that has been using the Shiver Clean with the MV fairly high plus a Drive block with the Zen Master or (I think) the Timothy model.

My cleans are much less clean than EJ... But that's what I like ;)

Edit:

I also set the Speaker Impedance Curve to be the 2x12 Lonestar and use some ML g12H30 IRs
 
I do both, but since I play in a cover band, I'd say with the majority of my presets I'm trying to capture the essence of the tones in the songs I'm covering. I don't really care about authenticity (I don't research to see what the original signal chain was, for example), but I try to get things to sound close to the recording.
 
I play covers almost exclusively, but I never chase the sound of the records - I lean towards those sounds, but the base ingredient in the sound is always me and the way, I want things to sound. Lots of the stuff we play are originally played with Fender amps - I use Marshally or Voxy sounding amps exclusively.
 
I don't have to sound exactly like anybody, but the axe is so much more versitile and usable than a typical amp it allows me to get near enough so that learning the song works. Prior to the Axe I had a tube combo with some stomp boxes. The simple lack of a noise gate made trying to learn anything with high gain a slog. I also had zero modulation and an amp that sounds good but only has a few sweet spots and needed to be played loud. Now I can do that with headphones on. It's the ultimate practice tool that can also be used to play stadiums. I think if I were to chase tones and try to get them perfectly I'd lose my mind. A lot of it comes from technique and a range of guitars that I can't afford.

What I'm saying is, Ideally I use it to get close enough tones that I can enjoy learning whatever I want. In practice though I just dial in whatever sounds good and noodle until my fingers hurt. Buying one just before the quarentine was a very good move.
 
I wiped my III's factory presets and just build what I want from scratch. I've never been a "preset" guy, there's always something not quite right with whatever preset I try.
 
Mostly trying to get my sound, which is rooted mostly in '70s and earlier stuff, so kinda both.

Big influences for my style are the classic rock players I remember from when I was little, and the blues players I discovered as I got older, with a sprinkling of other influences such as old country, grunge, '80s, etc.
 
I am mostly recreating in a convenient roadfriendly package what I've created in the studio with various pedals and amps

It's a mix of 60s psych, 70s prog, 80s rock and goth and a generous pinch of Fripp all over it.

Getting the sounds of Breathe/Time is also a mandatory exercise with new gear.
 
Both are fun. I played with Tone Match a lot when I first got into Fractal. It’s such a kick to match a classic sound. My first ever tone match was Heartbreaker and I had a blast riffing on that.

It’s fun to play around with the classics as well. The other week for instance I decided to learn the Smoke on the Water solo, found an isolated guitar track, and in a few minutes had a really fun tone. I exported the TM to a cab and then made more scenes using other amps with that cab. The USA C++ sounded quite cool with that cab.

I’m also always tinkering with a big crunch sound. Right now I’m focused on the Friedman C45 and pair it with all sorts of cab combinations.

Being stuck at home right now and able to work at home I am so grateful to have this wonderful device to play around with.
 
iaresee said:
Doesn't really matter. I sound like me no matter if I set out to create or copy. Stupid input-dictating-output truism.
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I only ever sound like myself as well. That said, the versions of myself may change if it's a fuzzed out JCM800/plexi or a 5150 or a clean Twin haha.

I do recall listening to a protest the hero album (volition? scurrilous?) and wondering how they got their guitars to sound the way they did. IIRC my brother said it was axe fx II at the time.

The sculpting that FAS has developed really lets you take your core tone and dice it up to a distorted image of itself. Pretty sweet.
 
Love creating my own presets. I mainly play at home but do play live a few times a year. Tone is an evil mistress … and I love a variety of tones. 80s hair bands (VH, Def Leppard, Ratt, Dokken etc.), and Prog and Metal (Metallica, Dream Theater, Tremonti/Alter Bridge etc.) are some of my main influences. The Brit Pre, CCV2A and Atomica are the one that gets me in the ballpark for the 80s style and the Recto, 2C++, Mesa TriAxess and Skull Crusher are my main go-to amps for the prog and metal styles. Fractal products (Ax8 and AxeFX III) have helped me achieve the best tones I've had.
 
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I'm another one of those that's always trying to cop my sounds, and not someone elses. Thay said, we all have influences in our roots, so mine started with EVH Brown sound of the early stuff, was influenced by Metallica in the 80s, then some of the deeper heavy modern sounds. And can't forget Hendrix, Page, and that era.

Right now I'm very happy with my core tones, and starting to try to experiment with more creative use of effects. In fact, I just dropped a couple hits of acid and I need to get out to the studio to start playing before I start peaking and can't turn the right knobs any more. (Kidding about that, but I am trying to go in a bit of a psychedelic direction with some of the sounds lately.)
 
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