Axe-Fx III MKII Preamp/FX Processor

Sometimes you get lucky enough to find the perfect gear. And to be honest I thought I had it before. You know, the tube amp and pedalboard stacked with boutique pedal after any pedal and on and on. Well as a (as many say they are) tried and true tube amp to pedals player In search of that perfect tone (and all the frustration that follows) I’m thrilled to have sold all the pedals (not the 1965 A/B Bassman-can’t part with that) while sitting here nightly for the last two weeks with my Fractal gear! There is nothing it can’t do and for all the purists out there, please understand, I am known for my exacting standards of what I want in tone, tweakability, my expectations vs what is delivered and the Fractal gear is the best of the best. Trust me, I never thought I’d say what I’m saying but I’m in 100% and thrilled to be! I got the package that came with the FC12 and as many have also conveyed, it makes everything that much easier and fun! I am writing more than ever and constantly inspired by the myriad possibilities/options/tones/amps/effects! I can’t thank the folks at Fractal enough! I happy to be onboard!

Best amp modeler I have ever used!! I couldn't be more impressed!

My new Fractal Axe FX III Mk 2 showed up a few days ago, right on schedule and less than a week after I ordered it. Four main impressions: 1) This is a very well built piece of equipment that seems to be designed to hold up to years of heavy use. 2) There are some great modelling sounds in the box, and it's going to take some time and effort to coax them out. Aside from sorting through the demo presets, I found the Axe FX III to have so many options that it can take more time to approach my tube amps' sound than some other digital devices I've worked with. It has tons of flexibility, which results in a large solution matrix for any given problem. 3) The FX blocks in this thing sound absolutely incredible. Best I've ever worked with in a guitar device, without a doubt. 4) The software is far more intuitive than the front panel interface, at least for the first couple of hours of working with it. First I plowed through a bunch of the factory presets and played with adding FX blocks and tweaking them. Fantastic - this process was incredibly intuitive, and the FX sound just plain monstrous. Even building a harmony patch with the Diatonic pitch block was super simple and fast. Impression? A+! My first attempt at building a complete sound from scratch was to bring up the Euro Blue (Bogner XTC) to try to dial in my basic sound. I built a blank preset with amp and default cab blocks, selected Euro Blue and set the dials in the vicinity of what I use on the real thing. No dice - what I got was nowhere close, and didn't even really have what I think of as the typical Bogner character. With hundreds of cab IRs in the Axe-FX III, I decided that trying to audition them all to find what I was looking for was probably a needle-in-a-haystack problem – but there’s an easier way. My next step was to capture an IR of my existing rig and put it into the cab block. This took about 5 minutes and was incredibly easy. Immediately, I was very close to my existing rig’s sound and feel. This is impressive. I have zero doubt that the Axe-FX covers every possible FX need I can expect, and exceed my expectations for flexibility and sound quality. I foresee a good bit of short-term work to build my library of IRs and amp settings, but right now my expectation is that this thing can do a lot more than I have been able to do with even a highly versatile amp like the XTC. I think I’m hooked.

Simply amazing. The sound, the flexibility of this unit is amazing. To have had this 20 years ago when I was a touring musician would have been a dream come true.

I love this thing! Its a godsend both physically and sonically. I'm done lugging heavy cabs and amps around. This thing takes their place. It has every sound imaginable and one of my favorite features, believe it or not, is the metronome. Between the tone and that handy little gadget, I spend hours at a time practicing. Thanks team Fractal!

It's definitely the best processor I've ever used! All of my solo album guitar tones are going to be all Axe-Fx III MKII.

I am pleased with my purchases of 2 units,Love the extra 512 preset banks .Was disappointed after spending almost $4500.00 ,that there wasn't a AXE FX III tee shirt in there .

FANTASTIK!!!! I'm now able to achieve the sound I wanted. Wow! Awesome!

Recently received the unit and have been exploring and building. This thing is insane. You can build inspiring tone after inspiring tone with this baby. If you're thinking about a modeler, don't mess around, just get this one. There is no chance you won't be happy.