XTC 20thA or Axe Fx3?

[DredFryer]

I think the AxeFx is pretty great unit, does everything and more. I've gone back and forth with real amps and the Axe, both are great

 

[Catthan]

Probably good news for my wallet. If you’d bought the 20th and then looked to sell it, it might have ended up at my place with your old 101B.

the 20th is up in Leeds on fb marketplace ;-)

 

[Jimty]

the 20th is up in Leads on fb marketplace ;-)

Thank God I don’t have a Facebook account!

 

[inyarak74]

I've owned the XTC 20th Anniversary with 6L6 tubes. One of my very favorite tube amps I have owned. It was a Swiss Army Knife and did it all very well. I think you would be very happy with it if you like the previous XTC versions. I have a couple of other clips but here is one I recorded about 12 years ago with this amp:



I have also owned an Axe-FX III and an FM9. Great units that sound great with lots of deep diving. I owned a Kemper toaster from 2012 to 2020 (that's when I bought the Fractal). I recently bought a Kemper Stage and it's great! The one thing I like about Kemper over the Fractal units is that I don't have to use IRs anymore. I don't have a problem with IRs at all. I always felt that whenever a new batch of IRs was released, they were always the next-gen versions, and I could never hear a difference. Again, just a me thing. Here is a clip I recorded with my FM9. I had a friend of mine sing on this cover and I recorded all of the bass and guitars. I used a Friedman Smallbox model that was created by Pete Thorn that I tweaked a bit for my needs.



All of that being said, the Fractals are great. So are the Kempers. I'm sure the QC and Helix are too. Best of luck on your search!

Two nice covers

 

[inyarak74]

@TheGreatGreen, you do make the choice harder on top of previous reasonable comments for one or the other option..

One concern with the XTC is that the Wizard will render it redundant after the honeymoon.
I felt with all 3 previous 101b I owned that the blue was great but not quite my sound- I wanted a more Marshall version of it with better note definition on the higher frets (Wizard!) and the red was a nice lead channel to noodle on, like a Boogie Mk meets Marshall, but also not quite there.
I also struggled to mix it probably due to lack of skill and re-tracked with a CAE OD100 std to finish the job ..
It’s this one, all written with and aimed for the 101b except main riff is a Gower KK+ and there is a ToV rhythm riff in the end. the rest was re-tracked with the CAE and a SD-1 at the front..



I actually Iterated between XTCs and CAEs a bit going through this loop of missing that Bogner chew but struggling to make music with it and having to go back to a CAE or recently the Wizer which has made any other amp choice hard to justify..

As for Green, I just used a Shiva instead..
So the 20th is the version I’ve always felt would be the right one for me and always in the back of my mind as the one I got to try..

OTOH the AXE FX3 is just a great ecosystem of tone meets utility that won’t hang in the current UK market where I trade and will help as a studio tool
The XTC likely will hang and financially this makes it hard to justify bargainous as it might be..

Good tune