So I was reading across my feeds for today and I saw this guy selling his Axe-FX Ultra for 1400 eur. Funny, as last week I found out that the Axe-FX II is coming out and already in pre-order for slightly more than what the Axe-FX Ultra was selling for new.
In fact if you go to Fractal audio's website, the old Axe-FX is not even there. I assume it has been plain and simple discontinued.
I couldn't help thinking that nobody would give away an Axe-FX Ultra for less than some good 1800 eur, but now that the new one is on sale for around 2200 eur new, the price of the old ones go down quite a bit, and may go down even more.
Also may this serve as a "warning" for the guys that suddenly see a cheap Axe-FX Ultra, go for it and a few days later find out that version II is out and they then regret not having gone for that instead. :roll:
So I guess the Axe-FX does behave like a tech gadget / software in the end... if a new model comes out, the previous one loses market value. In a few years the sim technology will have gone leaps and bounds so the Axe-FX Ultra will be worth even less. Unlike your good quality boutique amp
But well I can't talk much as I own a mere Pod X3 lol!
Guess I can blame my neighbours for it...
You mean, sell the boutique amps and buy an Ultra or an Axe-FX II? That's probably what I would do if I had to choose. No question, the mk II will probably sound "better" (whatever that is) due to more power. The Ultra will still sound as good as it did a month ago.
Totally, the Axe-FX Ultra will still sound as good as 1 month ago. But if you want to have the latest toy, then it's not going to be good enough . On the other hand a good old amplifier will not lose it's market value. Look at a the Mesa Mark series for example. You don't get a good Mark IV for less than 2000 eur.
And another thing. This is basically a computer packed inside a rack chassis. Most computers don't last very long. Well built amps on the other hand can go on forever with occasional tube and cap swap.
I'm very interested in finding out what that RJ-45 connector in the back will do aside from the "expansion" feature. It seems to me that the AXE FXII will work quite nicely with the Roland FC-300 board using a Cat 5 cable.
"The Axe-Fx II features a all-new dedicated control port for connecting an MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller via that unit's EXPANSION port. Readily available CAT5 (Ethernet) cable provides bi-directional communications over lengths of 100 meters or more, PLUS phantom power from the built-in power supply of the Axe-Fx II. (Traditional 5 or 7-pin MIDI and power are still supported for Luddites and 3rd party pedalboards.)"
If what I'm reading is true, then I might be selling my GT-Pro and buying an Axe FX II.
mindwalker, you have the x3 pro rackmount? that is something i was looking at getting. i have the original pod pro rack. what do you think of the tones in the x3?
Hey mate, I have the X3 live. But it should crank out the same tones as the x3 rackmount.
As for the tones.. to be honest I play mostly the modern amps. When doing so, I can't tell much difference between a guitar with V8, Ibz/DiMrz or Real Dimarzios. It just sounds the same to me through some headphone studio monitors. But I think for playing around at home, or being in a cover band it's pretty versatile. But then a lot of it is due to the hands of the player... I've seen great tones coming out even from the Pod XT (previous model) whereas I couldn't get them on my X3 live.
To me, and especially for vintage tones, I find the X3 doesn't react so well to volume changes and dynamics... using a modern amplifier model and rolling back the volume, I can't get this creamy slightly over driven top tone. (think Andy Timmons, electric gipsy). But maybe it's my fault though.
But the POX X3 isn't for sale anymore so I'd recommend you to look at the POD HD, however it has no rack mount version. But if you have a friend with an X3, you can check the tones yourself... the rackmount should sound the same and then you just need to snag one off eBay.
mindwalker, that helped quite a bit thanks! my thoughts are to get the x3 rack to my mesa fifty fifty, or sell the mesa and get the line 6 / bogner head. i heard great things. thanks again! i may get that pod hd to noodle around with as i will be bringing my guitar to work for practice during lunch. rumor has it there will be a line 6 hd rack to replace the x3...wish i knew when
One other option might be to pick up that HD500 and the new Line6 DT50 amp. Just another option to consider....
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