Sold the Mark V 25... Ax8 incoming!!!!

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jinch0

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Ok so I sold the Mesa and pulled the trigger on a AX8. I'll be running it with a peavey 60 watts poweramp not sure on the cab yet. Any tips would be appreciated thanks.
By the way I'm pretty exited :rock: :rock:
 
Hey man congrats. Awesome, Awesome piece of gear.

My advise, ditch the power amp and get a true FRFR powered monitor.
 
See...just the opposite here. Keep the power amp and cab. To me, it just sounds "right". IR/FRFR are fun and all that, but it just doesn't give me the same feel.
 
To each their own, but I've tried just about every route. I currently use the Mission Engineering Gimini 2 and it is an amazing setup to me. Using the IR's of various cabs is worth it to me, the Ohnhammer stuff and the cab packs on the fractal site are amazing. With the Axe, I would definitely recommend trying the FRFR route.

The Gimini 2 is a 2x12 powered FRFR cab. It is powerful enough and large enough to have that "in the room" sound and feel of an amp and cab. It is pricey though....but there are a lot of good ones out there.
 
Welcome to the dark side. I've been gigging with mine almost a year now and I'm never going back. I went power amp and cab initially thinking I wouldn't gel with FRFR but I was wrong. I still have my Matrix amp in case I want to go amp and cab but I'm good with my FRFR setups. Friedman ASM-12 at rehearsal, Atomic CLR's at home and I gig with XiTone's.
 
I agree with the FRFR setup. I run my Ax Fx2 with a powered Mackie PA speaker and it sounds great! You just need to get a speaker stand so you can get it off the ground.
 
Chris O":1el6jyp5 said:
See...just the opposite here. Keep the power amp and cab. To me, it just sounds "right". IR/FRFR are fun and all that, but it just doesn't give me the same feel.
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Same here. I prefer it with a power amp with guitar cab.
 
I agree that an FRFR setup doesn't give you that chest pounding amp in the room sound but…. they do cut it and I think it sounds great.
 
I'm going to go with the cab and poweramp for now but I'm going to try FRFR as soon as I know how to use the AX8 .
 
victim5150":3iaxvvd7 said:
Welcome to the dark side. I've been gigging with mine almost a year now and I'm never going back. I went power amp and cab initially thinking I wouldn't gel with FRFR but I was wrong. I still have my Matrix amp in case I want to go amp and cab but I'm good with my FRFR setups. Friedman ASM-12 at rehearsal, Atomic CLR's at home and I gig with XiTone's.
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Which one is your favorite?
 
jinch0":27y6ftw3 said:
victim5150":27y6ftw3 said:
Welcome to the dark side. I've been gigging with mine almost a year now and I'm never going back. I went power amp and cab initially thinking I wouldn't gel with FRFR but I was wrong. I still have my Matrix amp in case I want to go amp and cab but I'm good with my FRFR setups. Friedman ASM-12 at rehearsal, Atomic CLR's at home and I gig with XiTone's.
Click to expand...


Which one is your favorite?
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Difficult to answer. I use them all for different purposes. My favorite is probably the XiTone's. They sound fantastic, give a good cab thump and are very light at 38lbs. and the Line X coating on them make them ideal for the rigors of gigging which is why I use them live. The Atomic's are super flat which make them ideal for creating your presets on and having them translate well to PA systems. The Friedman is killer. Probably the most cab like sounding FRFR out there IMO. But it is extremely heavy and awkward to carry so it stays at my rehearsal room. I had a buddy just do a FRFR shootout at his studio. He had friends bring in all the big names. Atomic, Mission, Matrix, Friedman and my XiTone. The XiTone one in his opinion. They all sound great but overall he liked the XiTone and placed an order with them.
 
victim5150":12zalu5d said:
jinch0":12zalu5d said:
victim5150":12zalu5d said:
Welcome to the dark side. I've been gigging with mine almost a year now and I'm never going back. I went power amp and cab initially thinking I wouldn't gel with FRFR but I was wrong. I still have my Matrix amp in case I want to go amp and cab but I'm good with my FRFR setups. Friedman ASM-12 at rehearsal, Atomic CLR's at home and I gig with XiTone's.
Click to expand...


Which one is your favorite?
Click to expand...
Difficult to answer. I use them all for different purposes. My favorite is probably the XiTone's. They sound fantastic, give a good cab thump and are very light at 38lbs. and the Line X coating on them make them ideal for the rigors of gigging which is why I use them live. The Atomic's are super flat which make them ideal for creating your presets on and having them translate well to PA systems. The Friedman is killer. Probably the most cab like sounding FRFR out there IMO. But it is extremely heavy and awkward to carry so it stays at my rehearsal room. I had a buddy just do a FRFR shootout at his studio. He had friends bring in all the big names. Atomic, Mission, Matrix, Friedman and my XiTone. The XiTone one in his opinion. They all sound great but overall he liked the XiTone and placed an order with them.
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A lot of people say the Friedman is heavy and awkward. Would it be heavy and awkward to someone used to lugging a 2x12 or 4x12?How is it compared to say a Mesa 2x12?
 
I am in my late 40's and have a Friedman ASM-12 that sounds so great, I'll never need Viagra. :)

Seriously though, I think the Fractal stuff sounds great with real cab, FRFR, whichever.

The ASM-12 is 53 lbs and doesn't have the most ideal location for a handle I guess but it is not bulky so I think it is easier to carry it like you are holding a bag of mulch, up near your shoulder. If I was still gigging, I would use a little handcart and would be fine. The tones make it all worth it. :)
 
The new ASM is designed like a guitar cab and not a wedge. I am looking into either that or the Mission Gemini 1x12. The new Xitone Michael Britt one looks cool too.

I used the Power Station and my Splawn cabs for 2 years with he Kemper. The last few months of having it I switched to the Quilter 101 and a 1x12. Sounded just as good but it's still too much to connect and disconnect when gigging for me. Also more shit to pack up. I am liking the FRFR idea more as it's quicker to set up/tear down.
 
I friend loaned me an avatar 2x12 with Celestions 75's until I get a cab so let's see how it sounds.
 
BrokenFusion":1d3dkz5d said:
A lot of people say the Friedman is heavy and awkward. Would it be heavy and awkward to someone used to lugging a 2x12 or 4x12?How is it compared to say a Mesa 2x12?
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Compared to most other FRFR speakers it is awkward and heavy. Compared to my Mesa Recto 2x12 cab it is not as heavy but still awkward. They placed the carry handle in a weird spot. Makes it awkward to carry. Not a deal breaker just annoying. I've seen the new Friedman cab FRFR. Might be a better solution for some users.
 
One of the things that was always a quirk was missing that live, in the room vibe that a Cab gives. The Axe is a full rig, mixed entirely inside so it's the final mic'd sound. So can sound polished and with some FRFR systems it just sounds different than the cabs live in the room. I found that the Mission Eng Gimini 2 remedied that for me. It's loud as hell, 2x12 speakers, the same size as a 2x12 cab, full stereo. In the Axe, if I remove the mic'd part and use no mic's, it brings back that live, in the room cab feel.

I'm sure most of these FRFR systems mentioned here can do the same. But just wanted to point out that by removing the mic'd up section in the Axe and with a beefy FRFR speaker system, it can get that live, raw, in the room feel.
 
So I got the ax8 and so far I don't like it . But I think one of my cables is broken so tomorrow I'm buying new ones. If that's not the problem I'm going to return it.
 
Whats wrong with it specifically? What are you playing it through?
 
BrokenFusion":1rbz731e said:
Whats wrong with it specifically? What are you playing it through?
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It feels like doesn't enough gain.
I've seen a lot of demos of this thing sounding amazing so I know something is wrong. If I can't figure out what's wrong I'm going back to tube amps.
 
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