NGD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have long awaited this day, but it has finally come!

THE AXE-FX II

(angelic choir singing in background)

I honestly can't believe how great this thing sounds. seriously. I have a friend that has an ultra and I honestly never really liked his tone, but the Axe 2 just kills it! As a self-proclaimed corksniffing tube snob, I can confidently say that I would never be able to tell this from other tube amps in a blind test. Hopefully as I learn to tweak it, clips and pics will come.
The first thing I did was go through every factory preset, and although there were some really nice ones, I really loved creating my own sounds. The first patch I did I just through together in like 5 minutes. It was using a Recto Red and an Uberschall and ****. It. sounded. good. really chunky with just the right amount of bass so it stays full and tight without being too tubby. and the midrange has this really nice tube-like quality to the gain that you really just have to hear to appreciate. I've got a long way to go with with this unit but so far, saying that I'm impressed would be a HUGE understatement. TBH, I almost like it better than the Mark V *ducks for cover*

The best part about this is that I got to skip the entire wait list for free.
Ya, that's right.
Free.
Basically, I was a dumbass and didn't sign up for the wait list until mid-september :roll: At this point Fractal's still working on the people who signed up on the first day, so if I had to wait, I probably wouldn't have ever gotten it. BUT - my friend signed up on the wait list on the first day and got his a few weeks back, and accidentally signed up twice because he thought his first email didn't go through. So when he got the second code, he just gave it to me :mrgreen:

And to add on top of that, the very next day after the Axe 2 came, my Roadster 2x12 cab came in. So far I'm really liking it, it's got a much more lower-mid voicing than my Marshall cab. I can't wait until I can hear what the V30's sound like broken in.

Overall a great two days

Congrats man! I was never a big fan of the Ultra either, but the II had me curious. I wondered just how much more improvement the unit could see. Like you, i'm a corksniffing tube snob, and wouldnt give my amps up for anything, but couldnt fold on the FX, despite it's goodness - it just sounded too "final processed" for me. Then i'd end up seeing a ton of people with Mesa rigs using it for it's simple features like EQ, boost, delay, or anything a G-Major could do, so I must not have been too wrong either lol.

Glad its seen some improvements though, I hope Neptical sees this thread, I know he's saving for one. What power amp are you using? Also congrats on the new cab day too! It's about time for one for me too!

Cheers
Jay

I'm also interested in how you're using it. JVM410's power section, perhaps?

I LOVE hearing Axe FX success stories. Over at the JVM forum a pro dude got one and he was also very pleased with it.
I love reading posts like this because I think tube amps are great and they always will be in my book, but it's nice that there is a more than up to par alternative if you choose to use something non-tube and still want to sound good.

SonicProvocateur said:

Congrats man! I was never a big fan of the Ultra either, but the II had me curious. I wondered just how much more improvement the unit could see. Like you, i'm a corksniffing tube snob, and wouldnt give my amps up for anything, but couldnt fold on the FX, despite it's goodness - it just sounded too "final processed" for me. Then i'd end up seeing a ton of people with Mesa rigs using it for it's simple features like EQ, boost, delay, or anything a G-Major could do, so I must not have been too wrong either lol.

Glad its seen some improvements though, I hope Neptical sees this thread, I know he's saving for one. What power amp are you using? Also congrats on the new cab day too! It's about time for one for me too!

Cheers
Jay

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So far I see a huge improvement over first gen Axes. I've only played my friend's Ultra, and I really just never bonded with it. I play it almost every time I go over to his place and it just never felt right. Something was missing from the sound and the feel - honestly it sounded and felt like a pod to me. It was thin and digital sounding and none of the harmonics were there... it just felt stiff and fake IMO. On the other hand, the very first time I plugged into my other friend's axe 2 I nearly shat myself. He had just gotten it at the time so we just called up one of the high gain factory presets and I was instantly in love. It was fuller, deeper, had more harmonic content and just all around sounded (and felt) way better and way more like real tubes. I think the new G2 power amp modeling probably had a lot to do with it. There have been a few people over at the fractal forum that have said that the improvements were very minor from the Ultra to the II, but I personally couldn't disagree more.
And as a disclaimer, I'm normally one to try to make my own decisions and not to buy into hype. Before they released the II, I really wanted an Ultra until I played through it myself. Then the II came out and I figured I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did :mrgreen:

I'm using the Mark V's power amp with the cab sims on the axe disabled. I keep the power amp simulation on though as I like what it does for the tone. When I get my 6U rack + head ATA case I'll be using the Axe in the 4 cable method with the V, using my RG-16 to control the Boogie. I like what I've heard so far out of this combo. As a matter of fact, one of my power tubes blew 2 days ago in my V (picking up some new fuses today) and I was liking the tone, so if it sounded good with dying tubes I can't wait to try out the new ones . Playing the Axe through the V's power amp has also taught me that the power amp is significantly re-voiced when switching from MK IV to extreme (as I suspected). It does pretty much the same thing it does normally - it opens up the sound quite a bit, adds in a lot of bass, decompresses the mids and makes it louder. Kind of like when you switch a rack mount power amp to "modern"

Jackie said:

I'm also interested in how you're using it. JVM410's power section, perhaps?

Click to expand...

I actually did try that, and I would definitely recommend it. I noticed that the JVM's power section provided a noticeable "beefiness" to the tone. The fact that the JVM was running through a 4x12 might have had something to do with it, or the EL34's, but whatever it was, it was working. I'm really glad i have two power amps that work as well as they do with the axe