Axe fx 3 tones!!! This thing is insane!

  • Thread starter Thread starter VESmedic
  • Start date Start date
Meeotch said:
Sorry if you mentioned it already, but what power amp are you running your Axe III into? Have you tried running it into the FX return of various heads and noticed any difference in quality or clarity?

I have to admit, a few years ago I splurged on a pair of power amps (2150 and Classic XXX) with the intention of also buying an Axe to run through them...only I've gotten so distracted by how good they sound with my synergy setup that I just never got around to buying the Fractal!
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Hey man, yes I use my driftwood purple nightmare exclusively out of all my amps for this. It’s got thrb best power section of an amp I’ve ever heard personally. It’s just really great sounding. Neutral, no. But if I don’t have any other choice, it’s by far the best to me. I’m on the fence on if I want to buy the fryette LXII or the 2/90/2 for it, really having a hard time deciding. I’m jealous, the 2150 is one thing I should have bought 15-20 years ago when you could get them for 750 bucks or so!
 
Nice, I had a Purple Nightmare that I regret selling. If you are loving that power section then I say just stick with it, and it becomes a good excuse to keep the head. Also I say skip the LXII and get the 2/90/2. You'll probably end up buying the 2/50/2 as well lol.
 
VESmedic said:
Hey man, yes I use my driftwood purple nightmare exclusively out of all my amps for this. It’s got thrb best power section of an amp I’ve ever heard personally. It’s just really great sounding. Neutral, no. But if I don’t have any other choice, it’s by far the best to me. I’m on the fence on if I want to buy the fryette LXII or the 2/90/2 for it, really having a hard time deciding. I’m jealous, the 2150 is one thing I should have bought 15-20 years ago when you could get them for 750 bucks or so!
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For what it's worth, I bought a 2/90/2 new back in 2008-9 when the company still shipped them with the VHT logo on the front, and I still have it. I've had it longer than any other poweramp or head I have, and I can't say enough good things about it. Basically, like a good pair of shoes, it's invisible. You forget it's there almost instantly. You plug it in and it simply takes whatever you put into it and makes it as loud as you could possibly want, and it does so pretty much without breaking a sweat. Its master volume control works like the volume knob on a good stereo system, and the Presence and Depth controls and voicing control provide a lot of tweaking range but never make the signal too artificial or exaggerated sounding.

I'd recommend the 2/90/2 to just about anybody.
 
These sound great with the Axe-Fx III, especially if you want to take advantage of IRs

This what I use in my cover band when playing live.

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cliffc8488 said:
I've added it to the firmware for the next release. FWIW the 4x12 Brit Greenback curve is very similar.
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Cliff you rock! Thanks so much! That’s amazing that you took the time to do this, I really appreciate it, and I know Justin does too; one of his fav cabs for sure.
 
I had a Kemper from 2012 to 2020. The Kemper was awesome and still is! I loved playing with it and it was consistent every time I used it for recording and live. I switched to the Axe-FX III in mid-2020. I didn't switch because I think is one better than the other. I just wanted to try something new. I've had it for about 3 years and switched to the FM-9 a couple of months ago so I could use it live with built-in footswitches. I absolutely love the Fractal gear (the III and FM series) as well as the Kemper. I never tried the original Axe-FX or the II but I love what I have. It does everything I want and has great models. It works amazingly well for recording. I am working on getting it set up for my band later in the year. What a great time to be playing guitar with so many great tools at our disposal!
 
gibson5413 said:
I had a Kemper from 2012 to 2020. The Kemper was awesome and still is! I loved playing with it and it was consistent every time I used it for recording and live. I switched to the Axe-FX III in mid-2020. I didn't switch because I think is one better than the other. I just wanted to try something new. I've had it for about 3 years and switched to the FM-9 a couple of months ago so I could use it live with built-in footswitches. I absolutely love the Fractal gear (the III and FM series) as well as the Kemper. I never tried the original Axe-FX or the II but I love what I have. It does everything I want and has great models. It works amazingly well for recording. I am working on getting it set up for my band later in the year. What a great time to be playing guitar with so many great tools at our disposal!
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Totally agreed man. That’s the best way to look at it. I loved my kemper, I love the axe, I love real amps, I love plugins. I’ve always embraced technology or tried to.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
For what it's worth, I bought a 2/90/2 new back in 2008-9 when the company still shipped them with the VHT logo on the front, and I still have it. I've had it longer than any other poweramp or head I have, and I can't say enough good things about it. Basically, like a good pair of shoes, it's invisible. You forget it's there almost instantly. You plug it in and it simply takes whatever you put into it and makes it as loud as you could possibly want, and it does so pretty much without breaking a sweat. Its master volume control works like the volume knob on a good stereo system, and the Presence and Depth controls and voicing control provide a lot of tweaking range but never make the signal too artificial or exaggerated sounding.

I'd recommend the 2/90/2 to just about anybody.
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You aren’t helping! Hahah. I’m starting to remember why I loved mine. Should’ve never sold it. Sold it around 2013 or 14 for about 800 bucks…. What a shame. Luckily they are readily available everywhere right now online. I’ve gotta off some stuff before I do that for sure though.
 
Is the AX FX 3 that much better than the 2? Still have the 2 and I love it, but I feel like every time I dial in a tone that I like I tend to keep fucking with it. Does the 3 cut down on the tweaking part a little?
 
VESmedic said:
I don’t think I’ve ever been this impressed by a piece of gear. This thing is giving me way better tones to me than an amp with a loadbox. Completely blown away by this thing, and I feel like im hearing my IR’s for the first time, they sound so much better with the axe than they do with a loadbox. I have no idea why, but it’s night and day. A few others I’ve talked to said they same thing.

Anyways here is the recto 1 orange modern mode with a titan audio IR, Marshall BV cab 57/421. There’s not much on this at all, and I can’t wait to dive more into this thing. Unreal sounding so far to me.




One more in lower tuning with creamback 65s

https://on.soundcloud.com/WgK5wjhviq9Xszo3A

Added: Cameron atomica

https://on.soundcloud.com/XG9kuXGHYcunaRFG9
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Nice into to funeral hymn on the second one
 
MetalThrasher said:
Is the AX FX 3 that much better than the 2? Still have the 2 and I love it, but I feel like every time I dial in a tone that I like I tend to keep fucking with it. Does the 3 cut down on the tweaking part a little?
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The Axe-Fx 2 is great and can still get great tones, but yeah the Axe-Fx 3 is really something special. Some of the models (at least some of the models of the amps I own and can directly compare) really are so close that even that amp's biggest fans might not be able to tell a difference in tone or even feel in a blind A/B test, and other models are very, very slightly less accurate in that they still sound like the same tube amp model but directly compared with the real thing you might just think there are two different instances of that amp, each having parts made with slight variance in manufacturing tolerances, and you can hear a slight difference if you A/B back and fourth, but if somebody blindly plugged you into one of them after not listening to either after a short break, you probably couldn't tell which was which.

Besides how good the modeling is, one of the biggest improvements from previous Axe-Fx versions is usability. The interface is better, the grid has more horizontal and vertical spots for blocks so the routing options are better, each preset can hold a significant amount more than previous models so you can do a lot more with single patches, there's more amp models, etc. Also, something else to consider is that the effects are better by a country mile, and more numerous with additional selectable types of just about all of them. And, like has been said in the thread already, you just don't have to tweak nearly as much to get the same quality of tones. It's really as simple as popping the standard blocks onto the grid (input -> amp -> cab -> output), linking them up, and maybe tweaking the amp's gain and tonestack, maybe the master volume, like you normally would... and that's really all it takes.
 
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I never owned a II, but have had my III for about 4 years now and just in that time the need to tweak has dropped considerably.

When I first got it I was putting a PEQ and/or multi-band comp after the amp or cab blocks on almost everything, the Cygnus update removed the need for those but I’d still find myself tweaking some deeper parameters on occasion, whether or not it was just for shits and giggles I can’t really remember but at this point my presets look like a regular rig signal chain of running some pedals in front of the amp and some rack gear in the loop. No additional EQ, no multi-band comps.

The new Dynacabs seemed to have removed the final thing that could take a while, searching for the right IR. It takes seconds to find the sweet spot on the Dynacabs instead of spending 10-15 minutes looking for a great IR.
 
My old set up was a JMP-1 EL84 20/20 big heavy valve rack. Had a G-Major 2 in there too with MIDI patch changing using a MIDI pedal. Would mic up a 2x12 on stage in stereo.

Then I moved to Fractal with a smaller MIDI pedal and just hand the direct feeds to the sound guy. Then I've got a Palmer 402 power amp and 2x12 on stage for some air.

Since the change my back is no longer sore, I get 100x the compliments on my tone, the sound guys are happier, more room on stage, less to carry, consistent sound every night etc etc.
 
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