Thinking about going to the dark side

[Shask]

I love my Axe II. It basically does everything. When I think there is nothing else I would need, they update it with something I didn't know I needed, lol. Like the Mesa Mark graphic EQ added yesterday.

I had an older Axe and a POD HD. I don't care what YouTube videos show, the Axe II is FAR beyond the POD.

 

[shgshg]

While I love the tones I just can't handle the Axe-FX interface. It's like Fractal blew the product development budget on tonal features and then had to throw together the user interface on the cheap. A front panel of buttons and a knob - a computer with a physical KNOB, in the 21st century! - and a cheap LCD that looks like a scientific calculator from the eighties, it's hideous.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Just bring less stuff with you to the gig. I spent some time with the Axe and while I thought it was a cool unit, I tweaked more than I played and I went in thinking I wouldn't, and I did anyway. I tried the Kemper when my friend owned one......Meh, wasn't crazy about it.

If you're traveling far or have to fly to a gig then sure, bring an Axe or kemper. But otherwise, isn't lugging shit and setting up part of the fun?

 

[Badronald]

Why take so much stuff.
I've got two guitars, board, one head, 2x12 and a Crate Powerblock in the car.

If your amp is too loud for the sound guy put a rectangle guitar case in front of your cab.

I bring two heads because one is a backup for either myself or my brother. I use a 2x12 combo amp for cleans because I like the way it sounds and it's easier to use an a/b switch than some expensive complicated switching system on one amp. The pedalboard isn't that large just weighs a ton.

Where did I say anything about an expensive, complicated switching system? I use a single channel Plexi. Simple as it gets.
The answers are right in this thread. You can choose to ignore them.

 

[thiswaythatway]

Modelers are great. At FOH or recorded direct, I can't tell them apart from the real thing. I just don't enjoy playing them. I end up in a rabbit hole going tweak tweak tweak.

For what it's worth, I was very underwhelmed by the Axe FX II as of Version 6. Not a tremendous leap from cheaper modelers (if any leap at all) IMHO.

Version 10 was the MAJOR breakthrough. Especially now with 10.12.

And version 11 will sound more realer than a real amp. And version 12 will crush all others, and 13 will obsolete all others, and 14 will totally decimate all, and 15 will raise the bar to a new level of realism. Version 16 will self destruct the universe.

 

[MajorTom]

I don't have a ton of experience. But I'd do it. I've played live with a few bands and lugged gear around. If I could get something that sounded good in a venue and sounded good when recording, I'd do it. Plus, with the right pedal board and some tweaking, you'd have every sound you could want in one small setup. Go for it, man. Tube amps are great, but why cling to them when you can get what you want out of an Axe-FX II?

 

[shgshg]

Guitar gear is discovering Moore's Law. Simple version: computers double in power every 2 years.

When your guitar amp is a computer performing audio-signal manipulation in software, your $2000 mindblowing amp will be a $500 OK amp within 2 years of its release.

Next year's valve amp will not be significantly better than last year's valve amp. But next year's modeller will make last year's modeller look like shit.

 

[supersonic]

I sold my SLO to found an Axe II, best decision I ever made, still have two valve heads I tinker on. I often fire up my valve heads as a reference.
I say grab an Axe. From what you describe, you NEED to try one for yourself. There is so much crammed into that little box you'll be amazed. Trick is start out simple with one or two amp models, slowly build from there. If nothing else you will learn more about EQ and tone building, and get to try out some sounds you've never auditioned before. I actually use a quad for back line and FRFR as a fold back, I get massive volume onstage without giving the first five rows a blow wave all in stereo.

 

[zuel69]

This is exactly where I'm at with that stuff... I agree that using a tube power amp section does help..

I've ridden this merry-go-round several times and I wound NEVER sell any tube amps to fund a digital unit ever again..... let alone go solely all digital unless I couldn't afford anything else or lived somewhere where it was impossible to play an amp at volume.

 

[racerevlon]

For medium club gigs I'm down to a tube head (maybe only a 20-watt) and a 2x12. My backup rig all fits into a BOSS BCB-60 PEDAL Case and contains:

HT-6 POLYPHONIC TUNER
BOSS ST-2 POWER STACK
MXR NOISE CLAMP
BOSS BF-2 FLANGER
MXR CARBON COPY
EH 44 Magnum
Hughes & Kettner Red Box D.I.

In a pinch, the 44 Magnum get the speaker cable, input goes to the board, and I'm back up and running in 5 seconds. The D.I. Is for those times I'm going direct, like with the JCA24S+ and that just requires one more cable switch. The 2x12 is for stage volume only at that point.

What I'm struggling with is how is that backup rig different from using a modeler? If I just use the Red Box there's no power amp involved other than the P.A. The 44 Magnum is a class D power amp, so same as using any other rack SS power. My old backup rig is:

Furman power center (1U)
Rocktron VooDu Valve Online (1U)
Marshall EL84 20 / 20 (1U)

A 3U rack case with a MIDI controller and a 2x12. Serious flexibility, no tap dancing, and can go direct as well as run any cab.

 

[Michi]

Don't do it - we have cookies!

But I was told the Dark Side doesn't have Mondays. At all

 

[wIsEbLooD]

I made the switch in december still loving it. Did not sell any of my amps but do not think i will be needing them.

 

[lessthan12]

Guitar gear is discovering Moore's Law. Simple version: computers double in power every 2 years.

When your guitar amp is a computer performing audio-signal manipulation in software, your $2000 mindblowing amp will be a $500 OK amp within 2 years of its release.

Next year's valve amp will not be significantly better than last year's valve amp. But next year's modeller will make last year's modeller look like shit.

Have you seen the prices of the used ultras? The ultra was released over 4 years ago and they still get between 1400 and 1600. The axe fx has seen the smallest amount of depreciation I've seen in an electronic device.

 

[shgshg]

Yeah, but it's not going to stay that way. It's only going to accelerate. Until the oil crash hits and western civilization hits the wall I mean

 

[electrophonic.tonic]

ooops double post

 

[rp108]

Why take so much stuff.
I've got two guitars, board, one head, 2x12 and a Crate Powerblock in the car.

If your amp is too loud for the sound guy put a rectangle guitar case in front of your cab.

I bring two heads because one is a backup for either myself or my brother. I use a 2x12 combo amp for cleans because I like the way it sounds and it's easier to use an a/b switch than some expensive complicated switching system on one amp. The pedalboard isn't that large just weighs a ton.

Where did I say anything about an expensive, complicated switching system? I use a single channel Plexi. Simple as it gets.
The answers are right in this thread. You can choose to ignore them.

Continue to ignore my rig and keep looking at yours. As I already said in a earlier post, you try switching to your clean channel at the same time turning off an overdrive pedal, turning off a noise suppressor, turning on the effects loop, turning on a reverb pedal, turning on a delay pedal, and then reversing it going back to the high gain channel. That's just one example, it could be any combination of effects on or off including channel switch and effects loop switch. Your plexi doesn't even have an effects loop. I have no idea how you can compare that to my rig.

Running effects in front of the amp and in the loop with channel switching the alternative to using two amps is to have a switching system. Again, as I said in a earlier post I used to have a GCX and GCP which made switching easier but the rack was more of a pain in the ass than a 2x12 combo.

 

[Shask]

Yeah, but it's not going to stay that way. It's only going to accelerate. Until the oil crash hits and western civilization hits the wall I mean

It is happening to all gear tube included. Mesa Rectifiers used to cost $1200 and go for $900 used. Now they cost $2300 and go for $900 used. That % is not much different than any high end digital gear.

 

[shgshg]

Yeah but that's marketing. Most of the $$$ of a new Mesa Rectifier is the value of the Mesa logo on the front. On the inside a 2013 Dual Rectifier isn't significantly different from a 1993 Dual Rectifier. But a 2013 computer makes a 1993 computer look like a museum piece. That's the rollercoaster guitar gear is getting on, because a modeller like an Axe-FX isn't an amp - it's a COMPUTER.

Off the topic of Moore's Law for a sec, the biggest change that computers have undergone in the past twenty years isn't horsepower or features, it's usability. Compare a 386 running DOS in 1993 with an iPad today.

The Axe-FX is that 386 running DOS. I'd rather stab myself in the face than press buttons and turn a knob while looking at a chunky black-on-green monochrome LCD. When a modelling company takes the Axe-FX audio technology and puts a friendly interface on it, then I'll be interested.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's far more likely that someone will just write a better modelling app for the iPad and we'll start seeing iPads in XLR-equipped docking stations sitting on top of power amps.

 

[Badronald]

Why take so much stuff.
I've got two guitars, board, one head, 2x12 and a Crate Powerblock in the car.

If your amp is too loud for the sound guy put a rectangle guitar case in front of your cab.

I bring two heads because one is a backup for either myself or my brother. I use a 2x12 combo amp for cleans because I like the way it sounds and it's easier to use an a/b switch than some expensive complicated switching system on one amp. The pedalboard isn't that large just weighs a ton.

Where did I say anything about an expensive, complicated switching system? I use a single channel Plexi. Simple as it gets.
The answers are right in this thread. You can choose to ignore them.

Continue to ignore my rig and keep looking at yours. As I already said in a earlier post, you try switching to your clean channel at the same time turning off an overdrive pedal, turning off a noise suppressor, turning on the effects loop, turning on a reverb pedal, turning on a delay pedal, and then reversing it going back to the high gain channel. That's just one example, it could be any combination of effects on or off including channel switch and effects loop switch. Your plexi doesn't even have an effects loop. I have no idea how you can compare that to my rig.

Running effects in front of the amp and in the loop with channel switching the alternative to using two amps is to have a switching system. Again, as I said in a earlier post I used to have a GCX and GCP which made switching easier but the rack was more of a pain in the ass than a 2x12 combo.

Why do people have to make things so complicated? Sounds like you need a midi pedal of some sort.

Ill stick with my volume knob.

Good luck.

 

[Ventura]

Buy a Fryette UL or D60.