Anyone nail John Sykes's tone w/ the Axe FX?

[yngzaklynch]

??????

 

[Metlupass2]

No...buy a Kemper.

 

[glip22]

No...buy a Kemper.

 

[yngzaklynch]

Why?

 

[thiswaythatway]

Just get a Mesa already.

 

[yngzaklynch]

Been there and the honeymoon never lasts. Considering the Axe FX

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Why bother? I'd sooner get a Helios or something in that vein over AXE-FX which doesn't sound as good as KEmper to my ears..

 

[fretout]

Just get a Mesa already.

This.

Or, does the Axe FX have a Mark III patch?

 

[thiswaythatway]

Just get a Mesa already.

This.

Or, does the Axe FX have a Mark III patch?

I've owned the Axe standard and the II twice. I don't care how tone matched videos anyone throws at me the Mesa tones I dialed in or the one's I downloaded from the exchange never made me think I was playing a Mesa III or IIC+ in the room. YMMV

 

[thiswaythatway]

Just get a Mesa already.

This.

Or, does the Axe FX have a Mark III patch?

I've owned the Axe standard and the II twice. I don't care how tone matched videos anyone throws at me the Mesa tones I dialed in or the one's I downloaded from the exchange never made me think I was playing a Mesa III or IIC+ in the room. YMMV

that's because you were playing a model / cab mic'd up. will never sound just like an amp in the room.. sounds like an amp mic'd up in the studio.

Yes, but I did shut off cab sims and I used it with a tube power amp section into real cabinets.

 

[yngzaklynch]

All I know is I played bstaley's rig. Signal chain was TAG into the Axe into a VHT poweramp into a Mesa 4x12. At no point did I feel like the tone was lacking. We got a killer Marshall tone and Ecstasy tone. It's been a long time but I think the only tone that was kind of hard to capture was the Boogie Mk tones. I think because of the graphic EQ. Couldn't be simulated at the time. A lot of you guys that have known me from when we all used to hang a HC know how many amps I've been through. Some more than once. I think for both my hapiness and wallet I need to give the Axe or Kemper serious consideration.


Why is dpeterson's post staying on the bottom of this thread?????????

 

[dpeterson]

Just get a Mesa already.

This.

Or, does the Axe FX have a Mark III patch?

I've owned the Axe standard and the II twice. I don't care how tone matched videos anyone throws at me the Mesa tones I dialed in or the one's I downloaded from the exchange never made me think I was playing a Mesa III or IIC+ in the room. YMMV

that's because you were playing a model / cab mic'd up. will never sound just like an amp in the room.. sounds like an amp mic'd up in the studio.

 

[cardinal]

A trick with the Mark amps in the AFX is to adjust the "input trim" or whatever it's called. I forget which was which, but the "gain" knob acted like the "lead drive" knob and the input trim acted like the "volume" knob (or it was the other way around...).

But I never bonded with the AFXII either, nor have I ever been able to dial in a Mesa Mark to my satisfaction (though I hear other people playing them and they sound awesome).

 

[yngzaklynch]

Strange how some seem very impressed with the Axe while others don't seem to like it much. Inguess its like any other piece of gear in that respect

 

[ejecta]

Strange how some seem very impressed with the Axe while others don't seem to like it much. Inguess its like any other piece of gear in that respect

Oh absolutely. It's all subjective.

I'll throw in my my worthless .02 ... of the two big dog modelers out there I found the AxeFX was better when using it into a power amp into a real cab than trying to do the same thing with the Kemper.

That said I thought the Kemper running FRFR and recording was better in the tone and feel department.

For me the only thing I'd use modeling for is recording ideas and playing at very low volume otherwise I want to play and record with a real amp. So I guess you could say I fall in the the camp that suggested you just get a Mark III

 

[shredi knight]

A trick with the Mark amps in the AFX is to adjust the "input trim" or whatever it's called. I forget which was which, but the "gain" knob acted like the "lead drive" knob and the input trim acted like the "volume" knob (or it was the other way around...).

A while back Cliff added an Overdrive control to the amp models who's real life counterparts have 2 gain controls, so now all the Mesa Mark sims ("USA Leads") have both the Lead Gain and the Lead Drive controls simulated (not to mention the 5-Band graphic eq).



I think some of the reason for the opposing views on the Axe-Fx 2 (besides good ol' human nature) is from people you have tried it earlier in it's development vs those who have more recent experience with it (probably pre/post firmware 10.00). It really has improved with the last several updates.



As for it's Mesa Mark tones, I think they are great. Here's a clip from a guy over on the Fractal board that did an "Amp-Match" (using the Tone-Match feature) of this real Mark IV:


https://soundcloud.com/user127617997/ax ... ie-mark-iv


He posted the patches (there's 3 different ones) on the forum and they are the best user patches I have ever tried (the 2 cab IR's that go with the patches are fantastic too). Here's a link to the thread:


http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii ... lcome.html



Not saying the clip sounds like Sykes, just that it sounds pretty damn good and like a Mark IV to me. I've never heard anyone come close to nailing his tone anyway, especially his lead tone. There's is some very unique about it. His single notes are impossibly thick and sweet sounding and I have always wondered if he was using some kind of effect to get that tone. There definitely seems to be something beyond "finger tone" going on.

 

[Jer]

Mark Day has 3 up on Axe Exchange; just search for Sykes, they're the only presets.