Axefx Ultra after 2 hours of plugging in...

[Hellbat]

I traded mine about a month ago for several reasons:

1. Missed the ability to tweak tones on the fly during a gig.

This surprises me a little and was something I didn't know about the axe-fx. The Digi 11 rack excels at being able to quickly and easily tweak things using front panel controls. It's one of the things I love about it that I can set up patches fairly quickly and pain free without a computer.

[emperor_black]

The "quickest" way to tweak the axe fx's tone are the Global equalizers. And there are two of them. but yeah, if you're looking for a better "feel" or some complicated effect, it can take a lot of tweaking. My patches are mostly dry and a delay effect is the only one I use for leads. Its fairly simple to get great tones for me.

Sorry it didn;t work out for you Rupe.

[Jack Napalm]

I generally don't tweak much anymore at a gig or rehearsal. It seemed I was always doing that with the Lynch Box. Now it just works and sounds the same every time I call up the patch. With the LB I was always messing with it. I don't spend any more time with the Axe than I did with the LB/M13 combo either. I probably spend less time in some cases. Since I have collected settings for each effect that I like I just call them up in the editor and its in the patch. I'll use the global EQ a bit depending on what the room is like. Mainly for my K12 but to FOH I let our sound person worry about it.

My biggest tweaking session was setting up my pedalboard. I am using an old ART X-15 with it and it took me a good day to get it the way I wanted and all the patches setup for it. Most of that was trying different ideas and finally settling on something that worked for me.

The Axe isn't for everyone and I won't profess that it will replace your favorite amp. But calling it a modeler and lumping it in with everything else out there is an injustice. It stands on its own just like any amp should. There is a great article out there somewhere where the inventor talks about what he did in the creation of this thing. He talks about the differences between his unit and other units. Its a good read and gives insight into what this thing can do. I'll see if I can't find the link.

The one thing that this unit does not do is try to model all the different effects. It gives you a delay with a ton of options so you can re-create just about any delay effect out there. This can be hard if you don't know what you are doing or how an effect gets its character. I surely didn't know but I learned a lot along the way about effects. It does model dist/od pedals and amps. Cabs are IR's with mic modeling, basically and EQ curve for the mic.

Dave Friedman of Rack Systems worked/partnered, I don't know the exact relationship, with Fractal to get the Marsha amp he makes into the Axe. It sounds damn good and has become my stock amp.

[hippietim]

It's interesting to hear about tweaking complaints. I don't spend any time tweaking at all - I just play. I have been using the same 4 main patches for nearly 2 years on steady gigs. The only time I tweaked my patches was when I went from the 7 to the 9 firmware - that was just some level adjustments. With tube amps and pedals I was never satisfied and I was always swapping shit out.

Having said that, the band has a down period for gigs after this coming weekend and I plan on upgrading the firmware to version 10 and switching to the Fractal MIDI pedal. Our other guitar player is leaving the band so I'm going to need to fill more space I'm going to experiment with dual amp patches and running stereo.

[Rupe]

I wouldn't go as far as to say that it didn't work out for me...I simply found something that wasn't ideal about it. The "tweaking" issue rose its head during a gig when I just felt like I needed more mids for my heavy rhythm tone. It was the same tone that I'd used dozens of times before but the first time in this particular room and it just wasn't cutting it for me. With some time, I'm sure I could preprogram some eq curves that would fix the issue but it just so happened the the aforementioned deal presented itself so I went for it (in part because I found myself using the Marsha amp models for my dirty tones so I thought I'd try the real thing).
I'll most likely grab another Axe-Fx though...it's simply amazing at what it does.

[Jack Napalm]

This is an older interview with Cliff, the AxeFx inventor, but is a very good read.

http://musicgearsource.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-cliff-chase-from-fractal.html

[jgcable]

It makes incredible good sense for you to get one. I know you are a tweaker and can get the max use out of it.

Me? I'm happy with a POD 2.3 1A setting I'm not much of a tone tweaker. I was back in the day, I tweaked more than played. Now, I just want to plug in and play without much tweaking.

I will say it does sound tempting to get an AxeFX Ultra and dump all the tubes and tube amps I've collected over the years, but there's a lot of fear in dumping that much dough into something without trying it firsthand. And that's probably not a good idea either for me. The only amps that I was "love at first hear" were the Marshall 25/50 and the Laney AOR30 Combo. It took a long time for my DSL100 to "age" and become my #1, and my Laney AOR 50 head sat for an even longer time before it became #2.

I just picked up the AOR30 about a month ago. The seller told me it was an AOR50 but when I got it home and swapped the tubes I found out its a 30. What an incredible 1 x 12 combo. Maybe one of the best 1 x 12 tube combo's I have ever heard or owned. I have 2 amps on my must haves before I die but they are a stretch..
Matchless Spitfire and a Cornford anything.

[javert]

This is an older interview with Cliff, the AxeFx inventor, but is a very good read.

http://musicgearsource.blogspot.com/...m-fractal.html

Thanks for the link, very interesting. I've been thinking of doing some projects with amp modeling, but there's hardly any information out there (which Cliff also confirms in the interview).

[emperor_black]

One thing to keep in mind with this unit is that its sensitive like SHIT to pickups, guitar, strings, etc. To avoid spending too much time tweaking, label presets with some indication which guitar was used to create that preset. Or else you go into a never-ending tweaking loop trying to make each preset sounding good with a different guitar.

[Robert Burns]

Update....after 2 years with the Ultra...i have that Skid row tone... and i couldnt be happier ! I still havent even mastered 1/2 of what this thing
can do, but the audio quality even through VHT 4/12 is super! If i were to go high end FR/FR monitors...im sure from what ive heard the audio
would be 40% better...which i doubt i could survive! LOL... Another cool thing, is that for 25 years ive spent whatever on electronic processors
for guitar, and within 2 years they were worth 1/5th of what i paid... Not the Fractal stuff... I paid $2071.00 for the Ultra, and i can still sell
it for $1450.00 easily. That in itself is amazing. I wont though..i will be able to update its software to the most recent AxeFx II update...so
it will always be the "latest greatest"... :-)) ** I know i sounded like a little fanboy when i first posted about this unit...reading
the next year of posts from pros like you guys... Validation is nice! Its the best $2K you will EVER spend on your tone... do it!(and now
you can occationally find an "Ultra" for $1500.00 or less, so its even more of a best buy!

[chrisolson]

So how do you update an Axe Ultra to the latest Axe II software? Un-possible. :think:

The Axe Ultra is killer though, but I'd spend the extra for the II any day. It is a big step up. Love mine!

[nateb]

You an update the firmware using axe-edit. Not sure what the status of that is when using an ultra, but you cannot use the axe-II firmware on the ultra unless you kick about 2199.00 at it =)

-Nate

[Robert Burns]

Might have been a bit too much eggnog today! What i meant was the 2 or 3 updates that Cliff has done for the Ultra... if i ever get my
lazy ass to figure it out! LOL... Im sure in 2 years, the latest "Ultra" update is killer too.. Hi Nate!

[MOSHWITZ]

What vers. is your Ultra at now?

MOSHON
DAVE

[Robert Burns]

Shit... i just saw that its "Nov 2009' version 9.00 Yet i ordered it in Oct. 2010 ! Whats up with that? Or did maybe cliff update, and my
screen is just wrong?