I think at the end of the day, everything is trade off in some shape or form. For me personally, I just feel the least trade off with the axe fx verses a “real amp” than I ever have with anything else. Still, it’s reallyyy hard for me to justify SOME of my amps at this point.
I will say, micing it up with a real cab is where it really got crazy for me. I AB’d my rev F against the recto 1 orange modern, and it was dead on. I mean dead freakin on. Not almost, not sort of. It was there. Of course, the cab is such a huge part of the sound, and alot of the factors we associate as a compromise with digital products are removed ( real power amp, cab, real speakers moving air etc). But still, even then, if I can get it that close and for real, doesn’t that justify it even more for me to use the axe? I dunno, I struggle with that one, because on one hand I think we are always questioning our own ears ( I know I do) and we also have biases. How strong those pull you depends on the individual. I for one, especially playing with the vintage amps lately like the brownface fender concerts and the 1970 plexi model, could never justify owning those amps after the tones im hearing with this thing. Leon Todd’s videos really help, and his “ pimp my plexi” video on the axe really was insane when I did those simple little tweaks myself on the plexi models… the variac and supply sag was almost jaw dropping. I mean it was THAT sound, and that really cool percussive yet squishy under the fingers thing that plexis do, it was all there.
I ( obviously) love real amps, and own them, I just have never been one to be “ im this or that” when it comes to guitar equipment. If it sounds good, AND it’s convenient, well shit, that’s awesome. The reality is, amazing guitar tones were gotten on records long before the axe fx or the kemper even existed: to assume that we haven’t gotten any better in modeling since the early days would obviously be ridiculous. So once again of course, it’s more than just the gear as we all know. And people love solid state tones from the early 90s death metal records, I know I do. Are we really gonna say the axe fx doesn’t sound as good as a Randall rg100 or a Marshall 8100? Something to think about.
I think it’s like anything, if you sit there and analyze the shit out of it for hours TRYING to find something to complain about or different than the real thing, you will. It’s human nature. But if you wanna play guitar and get seriously amazing tones quickly with very little tweaking and consistency, it’s hard to beat, and honestly that’s STILL selling it short to me of how insanely good it is. I know I’ve wanted to play guitar lately more than I ever have in a long time, and I think there’s something to be said for that too. Tones inspire us to play a certain way etc, there’s no doubt about it.
On the loadbox and amp vs the axe I will vehemently disagree personally on it being better than the axe. I do not think it is, and I know quite a few here and elsewhere that will say the same but maybe not publicly. The cab resonance is so crucial to me in how the low end sits, and I never got anything close to the axe as far as “ realness” in that are vs a loadbox and a real amp. Especially with certain amps like the recto. Like not even fucking close. I’ve tried them all. as far as I’m concerned until the technology catches up on load boxes in a way that they don’t fuck with the amp in someway ( they do, I’m convinced of it at this point after years of analyzing these things) and the response of it, the axe wins for me, easily. Just my opinions.
