Fractal Audio Axe-Fx

Good programs to start with. The manual is appropriate and a good resource to learn how to explore all the possiblities that this little Swiss Army knife provides. Editing is very intuitive compared unlike a lot of gear on the market.

When I received my Fractal Axe-FX I was very curious about how it would sound after having heard such phenomenal reviews and buzz about these units. Tube amp sounds in a box with easy editing and real tube amp feel was what I was expecting. After stepping through all the program patches and getting quickly familiar with editing any kind of parameters, being it boosts, amps, speaker cabinets and microphone types, I recorded several tracks on ProTools.
I compared these tracks to tracks that I laid down weeks and months earlier on a particular ???up tempo shuffle??? of a three piece band mix that I always use as a reference for checking out new gear. The guitar lines that were recorded were pretty much the same that I laid down on each of the other tracks, all in all 14 different tube amp combinations. A range of distorted lead, laid back clean and swelling effects with the volume pot of a vintage Fender 65 Strat. All tracks were cut using the same 65 vintage strat. The tube amps that were used are listed below as well as the speakers and respective booster pedals:
1.Reinhardt ???The 18??? / Celestion G1265 / Lead channel
2.Reinhardt ???The 18??? / Eminence Tonespotter / Lead channel
3.Fuchs ODS 30 / Celestion G12H30 Heritage / Clean channel with Blackstone MosFET Overdrive
4.Fender 57 twin / Weber Alnicos / Blackstone MosFET Overdrive
5.Dr. Z Stingray / Celestion G1230 Anniversary/ Blackstone MosFET Overdrive
6.Divided by 13 RSA23/ Click Channel/ 4x12 closed back cabinet with Celestion G12M Heritage
7.Divided by 13 RSA23 / Click Channel / 2x12 closed back Celestion Golds
8.Top Hat Club Royale/ Celestion G1230 Anniversary/ Blackstone MosFET Boost
9.Louis Electric Mini Bluesbreaker / Celestion Gold/ Divided by 13 / BSM Ambassador Booster
10.Louis Electric KR12 / Celestion G1230 Anniversary
11.Matchless SC-30 /Celestion G12H Anniversary/ Divided by 13 Dynaranger Booster
12.Matchless Phoenix / Celestion G12H Anniversary/ Pentode channel/ Divided by 13 Dynaranger Booster
13.Matchless Phoenix / Scumback M75 HP/ Pentode channel/BSM Ambassador Booster
14.Ceriatone Overtone Special / Celestion G1265 Heritage / lead channel
All tube amps were close miked with just one Royer 121 Ribbon microphone at the same distance and at the same angle, and they sounded as you might expect all different.
I recorded several tracks with the Fractual to approximate respective sounds that I achieved previously with any of the above tube amps. After listening to the mix with each individual combination I found the Fractual Axe to be convincing only with clean sounds. The crunchy sounds were better with any of the tube amps. The distorted sounds of the Fractual were no match to any of the tube amps and sounded too harsh. Most importantly they did not deliver a convincing tube amp feel and response. I had to compensate my playing for the lack of dynamics and I felt a steady tendency to overplay and dig in too much. I feel this has to do with the lack of dynamics. Tweaking the sounds on the Fractal to make them sound warmer and more tube-like had the effect that the sounds did not cut in the mix as well anymore. All the tube amp tracks sounded warmer while sticking out noticeably better in the mix at the same time.
I did not use the Fractal AXE in combination with any of the tube amps and can???t comment on that. Playing it through my Bose L1 systems or a QSC HPR122i Powered 2-way speaker gave the same impression I had playing it through any of my studio near field monitors. On the other hand using a simple Sennheiser 409 microphone in front of my Matchless Phoenix or Matchless SC-30 miked in a separate room resulted in a much more pleasing and powerful sound through the QSC or the Bose systems. Using an inexpensive Hughes & Kettner Red Box Classic DI in addition to the microphone, set up in a true stereo panning of the two signals, I achieved a perfect and accurate amplification of any of the two amps.

I don't know. I did not keep it and send it back.

Didn't have to use the customer support, but have heard that these people are very responsive and helpful.

I play mostly classic rock, blues and jazz and owned and played a lot of different gear in my over 40 years of guitar playing experience. I worked for 25 years in the music industry as a musician, recording engineer, producer, and sales manager for a major Japanese musical instruments distributor in Europe. Besides my vintage amps that I have all sold over the years (Marshall, Fender, VOX, Selmer) I own or have owned following newer amps: Blockhead 18 Firstborn, Fuchs ODS30, Fuchs Train 45, Germino Club40 (Serial #1), Fender 57 Twin RI, Dr. Z MAZ 18 and MAZ 38, Dr. Z Stingray, Budda Twinmaster Ten, Sovtek MIG50, Boogies MK1, MK2, MK3, MK4, two Dumble ODS, Swart Atomic Tone 20, Top Hat Club Royale, Pritchard Sword of Satori, Divided by 13 RSA 23 & RSA 31, Matchless SC30, Matchless Phoenix, Louis KR12, Louis Mini Bluesbreaker, Komet Constellation, Ceriatone Overtone Special.
For me the Fractal is not convincing enough as a standalone sound solution to replace a good tube amp for live or studio work. The effects quality however is very good and rivals probably everything in this price range on the market.

I HATE MODELERS. I love the idea of a modeler. Walk into a gig with a rack, plug it into the PA and have any sound you want. I have owned a PODxt, GT-6, ToneLab SE, and a GT-10. None have measured up to what I was looking for. I realize that sound is subjective. I can only speak about what sounds good to me. To me ... this is the real deal. You do need to read the manual and look at some of the supporting websites, but when you understand the concept, it becomes easier and easier. If you are only willing to give this a couple of hours, don't waste your time or $$$. Took me about 6 hours of playing with this to understand the concept. Once that happened, dialing in something was a snap. You can keep it simple or go as deep as you want. Editing the patches gets easier all the time. Once you get the hang of it, it's no more than turning a knob on a pedal. The manual definitely does need a rewrite though. I am on firmware 5.19

Well .... where do I start? I use this with a Suhr Classic Chambered Strat. and a Suhr Tele with Fralin Blues Special pickups. I use the Axe-FX with a EV SXA 360 powered speaker. I use an X2 wireless and a Gordius Little Giant Midi Controller. The Axe-FX set up replaces a Carr Rambler with a pedal board with a Xotic RC, Barber LTD, Xotic BB, Barber Tone Press, and a Analog Mini Chorus. As you can see, I am not real big with heavy distortion or metal sounds. I go after more of the Tele Paisley and Mason sounds. The AXE-FX can nail them all. If you want pre-amp distortion or power-amp distortion, you can have it. It also has stomp boxes that can be tweaked to whatever you want. The Chorus, Delays, Flangers, etc. are all on par with Lexicon and Eventide. No Noise.

It seems to be built tough. It's a rack unit.

This is another place Fractal Audio excels. Cliff and his wife Denise have a lot of owner pride in this product and is very proud of it's quality. Firmware upgrades are constant and many of them are based on customer requests. I don't know how anyone can give this company anything other than a 10

I play "new" country music. What you hear on radio today. I have been playing guitar for about 43 years. Other than what has been mentioned already, I also own a Fender DRRI, a Gibson Custom Shop Paul Jackson Jr, a Takemine NP-18, and a Fender 52 RI. I have owned Mesa Boogies, Peavey Classics, Super Reverbs, Pro Reverbs, I even owned a Vox Super Beatle in the 60's:) If this unit were lost or stolen, I would get another without hesitation. I love the flexibilty of the unit. I A/B'd this unit with the DRRI. I was able to nail the sound in about 15 minutes. I wish it came with a dedicated floor controller. I understand it is in the works.

I am going to get into the bad things about this unit which have absolutely nothing to do with the sound quality. Fractal Audio is IMHO light years ahead of their competitors in the sound category. Yes LINE6 that means you! However, what they make up for in sound, they loose in two areas. #1. Trying to get the Editor, Midi, Firmware Updates,etc. to work properly has been a nightmare for me.
#2. There is no Fractal Audio Midi foot controller specifically made for this unit yet.

Besides having to buy a bunch of other equipment ie. midi interfaces, cables, other programs to make it work, and foot controllers, I find the instructions for installing and using all of these things are horrible. There is a forum where everyone is trying to work out the "bugs" of the beta Editor but if you are not a computer savvy person, a lot of it is Greek. This doesn't mean that they are not trying but I sincerely believe that these accessories such as a computer Editor and a dedicated midi foot switch should not be after thoughts with a processor that has a price tag of approximately $2000. The "industry standard" is to include these things or at least have them easily available with very little computer skill required to be up and running. I know the argument is going to be that the processor stands on its own and we never promised you any accessories. Well that is right, but it drops your rating in the ease of use category accordingly then and that is what we are doing here. If you don't believe me, go to the Fractal Audio site and read through the Editor/Midi threads and put yourself in the place of the poor guy who is trying to work his way through these problems. This is a real shame because the sounds of this unit are truly some of the best I have ever heard from a digital processor.

The sound quality is in a class by itself with respect to digital processors. I hate giving anything a 10 but damn, this thing really sounds great! If anything deserves a 10 in sound quality, it is this thing. I use it with a stereo tube power amp and a pair of speaker cabs with one 12" speaker in each one. You can nail just about any artist tone out there but you have to tweak it to your playing style because the unit responds like a tube amp. It is not noisy.

I probably would not gig without a backup but that doesn't mean that the unit is not built very well. The unit itself seems very dependable. It is the Editor and the support for it that doesn't make the grade.

If you include the Editor software in this section, then the support is terrible! I think the company would stand behind the processor itself if it were to break/malfunction.

Well let me first say that I would buy this again. I love the tones! I hate the frustration associated with using the Editor. I don't know what Line6 uses for their Editor format but this seems like 10 steps backwards. With Line6, you pretty much just stick the USB cable into your computer and everything syncs right up but then you have crappy digital fizz tone. With this unit and several hundred more dollars worth of accessory gear, I am still waiting for everything to sync up but when I use the unit by itself, it sounds great. For now, I will take the great tone with the extra trouble and headaches but in our present state of technology and the price of this unit, why should someone have to make that compromise?

Any unit that goes as deep as this one (the deepest) will take some work to get the hang of. But, as deep as this is, it's easy to work with. Good sounds are easy to find, excellent sounds take a bit more effort. This unit is as sensitive to the guitar and speaker system as you'd expect a high quality item to be. In response to below review: there's no way an inexperienced user could get the best out of it in 3 days. In those cases, a GT10 is indeed a much better choice. If you care to invest, get the best: currently that is the Axe-FX.

If there's anything I'd like it would be that it came in a footpedal-form. Also some direct-access tone potmeters like the Vetta has would be nice, but not required.

All of it sounds great and much better than anything I've used before. It's the unit I've been waiting for all of my life. Really wish I had more than

Any guitar I own sounds different through it. where one guitar sounds stellar, another one on the same preset sounds even bad and needs a bit of tweaking before it sounds stellar again. If you want something that sounds good with everything, get a GT10. ;)
The Axe-FX gets a 10 because it has pristine sound quality as Harmony Central calls the "10"-rating, but it appears the designer still comes up with improvements all the time. And each time when we think it can't get any better, it does. I'm really wondering what's in store for the 6.0 firmware.

It appears there were some problems with some units, but nothing I'd consider as unreliable. Any electronics manufacturer will have some faulty units that get sent out, or there would be no need for service centers or warranty forms. Mine works fine and I'm not worried.

Nothing less to be made of it. Bugs get solved sometimes within hours of getting mentioned on the user forum. Nothing like it in the world that I know of.

I've been playing for 26 years now. Different kinds of music, I like many kinds of music. Where anything I've owned previously always left me wanting, this thing gets me everywhere I want to go. I got the Ultra model, just because it's the best one. I wanted to be sure it would go the furthest it could go, also in upgradability. But it's really overkill for what I usually use. If I lost this one, I'd probably get a standard, depending on the state of affairs at that time. Will there never be any better? Sure there will. But for now, this is the best.

The Axe-FX is a rack mount computer capable of reproducing the sounds of a huge warehouse full of tube amps, stomp boxes, rack effects, and outboard gear, all hooked up with a pro level switching system. We've heard that promise before from other companies, but the Axe-FX is the first product that actually delivers. It is considerably easier to use than said warehouse full of gear. All the same, to get the maximum benefit from this tool, the user is required to learn about the gear being emulated. Luckily, in addition to the supplied documentation, there is a growing repository of information at the user supported Wiki site http://axefxwiki.guitarlogic.org and there's always the wonderful community at the Axe-FX forum. http://www.setbb.com/axefx . Thanks to these resources, you can get nearly instant answers to most Axe-FX questions. Since I've been using rack gear since 1989, I took to the Axe-FX pretty quickly. Technophobes may have a rougher ride, but it's worth the effort.

When I bought my Axe-FX Standard, it shipped with version 3.06 of the Axe-FX software. At that time, about a year ago, the Axe-FX was the best sounding amp modeler available. The amp modeling responded to touch and dynamics like a good tube amp, the effects were on par with the best rack mount multi-effects processors available at any price, and the effects routing was extremely powerful and flexible. Within a month of buying, the Axe-FX had rendered nearly all of my other guitar gear (including my tube amps--and I have some nice ones) obsolete. The Axe-FX did an outstanding job in all situations: recording direct, running though a PA, and using a power amp and 4x12s. Based on version 3.06, I had already gotten my money???s worth. Like most computers, the Axe-FX can be upgraded. Now at version 5.18, the software has advanced immensely since my purchase. For some time now, a wish list of desired features has been maintained on the Axe-FX forum. It is great sport watching it shrink as the Axe-FX improves. The best updates, however, haven???t been feature additions. The quality and realism of amp modeling has been improved several times. After each improvement I???ve told myself that it can???t possibly get any better, but it does!

My Axe-FX has worked flawlessly through long hours of daily use for as long as I've had it.

Fractal Audio provides the best customer service of any company (music related or not) I have ever seen. Cliff Chase, the genius behind the Axe-FX, has proven his generosity, integrity, and responsiveness with a consistency that borders on superhuman.

A previous reviewer suggested that positive reviews may be "hype from the people that build these products". Having watched Cliff Chase in action over the past year, I have to say that the suggestion is preposterous. If you have any doubts, head over the Axe-FX forum and talk to the working musician's who use this box every day. Still skeptical? Find one and try it. This is the best gear purchase I've made in 23 years of playing guitar. The once familiar affliction of Gear Acquisition Syndrome is a vague memory for me. I spend that previously wasted time and energy on my playing.

Given the spate of idiotic reviews here, (including obviously fake ones by people using fake names), I'm not sure why I'm wasting my time...but maybe someone will give this a bit of thought when they make their buying decision.

I'm a 50 year old guy, been playing for 35 years. I don't "shred", but I know how to play. I've bought and sold too many "classic" tube amps to even count, same with guitars...and I adopted (well, at least tried to adopt) digital technology going all the way back to my purchase of the Line6 AX212 when it was first released. Been through Pods, etc. also. Those never stuck, always back to an old fashioned amplifier and analog stomp boxes. I just offer that up as a basis for my opinion. I know my gear better than I can play, but I'm OK with that.

Ease of use? Probably pretty difficult if you've never used a rack device or a computer, or if you are dyslexic, or if your abilities are limited to twisting knobs.

But...if you've got half a brain and are willing to spend an hour with the manual and the unit (before proclaiming it "way too difficult for you")...you'll find everything very intuitive, extremely well thought out pretty simple actually. After an hour, you should be able to create a killer sound in about 60 seconds. It's as easy as you want to make it. On the flipside, it's also as deep as you want to make it. Easy as pie for the novice, deeply challenging for those who migrate to these things and want to spend the time. What more could you ask for?

LP's, strats, 12 string Ric, tele....straight into the AFX, then straight into a QSC HPR122i powered monitor. Rip your head off loud, and more thump than anybody could possibly want.

Here's the first thing to realize: a patch that sounds utterly fantastic with the LP most likely will sound like butt with the strat. Oh, you say, your GT-10 sounds good with everything? That's because it's making everything sound THE SAME! The AFX respects the differences of your guitar. You bought all those guitars because they sound different right? Well then do them a favor and create a set of patches that take advantage of the sonic signature of that particular guitar.

The amp sims in this box are fantastic. There is a connection between your fingers and the sounds coming out of your system (if you don't know what that means, you've been playing your Pod too long). Do I *love* them all? Nope. Are there more than enough great ones in here to keep me busy for the rest of my life? No doubt.

The effects are stellar, even though I don't use them a bunch....if I need to, I can recreate almost any stompbox known to man, put them in any order (pre/post/serial/parallel, etc.). Way more than any human being needs.

I could go on and on, but if you think your Pod sounds as good as this...I'd suggest you pay more attention to your high school classes because you are never going to make it as a recording engineer.

One disclaimer here...if you plug this thing into the input of a Crate guitar amp (or any other guitar amp for the most part) it's gonna sound less than stellar. You are getting about 20% of the goodness out of the unit. If that's what you want to do, go buy one of the consumer level units and wail away. You'll be happier.

It sounds good. It sounds like an amp. The effects can replace anything you currently have. Most importantly, it *feels* and *plays* like a classic tube amplifier.

Had mine 6 months, trouble free. I don't know too many people who take back up amplifiers to gigs, and I can almost guaranty you that you'll see less problems from this than a typical tube amp (even discounting routine tube replacements).

Fantastic company - direct contact with the inventor/software genius via the web forum - even though I've never had problems, I've seen others fixed, even if they are 2nd owners and the unit is out of warranty.

FREE firmware upgrades (yes upgrades! new amps, new effects, etc.) come on a routine basis.

15 day full return policy after you purchase.

All companies should be this customer friendly. I wish to heaven the employees of the company that I run were this good.

The first "modeling" device worthy of actually keeping after you buy it.

Honestly, if you play your Vox or Korg or Line6 device and you are really happy....this may not be the box for you. It's a lot of money, and you probably won't/can't tell the difference.

This box is for the guy who currently has a Twin, a Marshall, an AC30, maybe an old Tweed in the corner...because he likes the different sounds of all those amps. The guy who always *wanted* to like the Pod because it seemed so easy and convenient...but unplugged it in disgust after about 5 minutes of playing because it really wasn't anything like playing through one of your amps.

This thing sounds and most importantly (to me at least) feels like you are playing through one of those amps. I'm not gonna blow smoke up your rear and tell you that it's a perfect recreation of all those amps. But it's good enough for this old fart....and leaps and bonds ahead of anything that has come before it.

A friend of mine bought this unit and couldn't figure it out so I helped him out. I have had tons of these units (amp modelers) so I could figure it out but it's too deep for your average guitarist.

I took my newly purchased Boss GT-10 over and we did a shoot out and guess what? I could get my GT-10 to sound as good and even better than that $1800 unit he had. I showed him how much easier it is to get killer sounds out of the GT-10-next day he sent the Axe-FX back and picked up a GT-10! I'd have to give it an 8 for sounds-there are some great sounds in there but you could buy 3 Boss GT-10's for what this overpriced unit costs!

Worked fine for the 3 days he had it

Do you ever get the feeling that some of these reviews are just hype from the people that build these products? I know for a fact some of them are. And that idiot a couple posts down wouldn't know a Dumble from a Fumble. I would think that if Fractal Audio would lower the price of this piece where it's competitive with the Boss GT-10 then there would be some real reviews on this product-and they might even sell a few! My advice-Buy the Boss and save $1300 bucks!

First a little about myself....I am 30 years old and play in a cover band that plays Van Halen, Creed, Tool, Chris Issak, Billy Idol, Gavin DeGraw, ZZ Top, Pearl Jam, 80's & 90's pop, country....everything! I have played guitar for 12 years and play both Lean and Rhythm equally well as the sole guitarist in my band. I use a Mark Tremonti single cut PRS guitar with 2 stock Tremonti humbuckers. I have a home-made EVH Ernie Ball/Wolfgang with a floyd rose and 1 Tremonti PRS bridge pickup...Finally I have a home made strat with 3 Lace chrome dome single coil pickups. My current rig(until the AXE-FX came) was a Mesa Boogie Triaxis, ISP Decimator Pro Rack G, TC G Major, Mesa Boogie Power 2:90 poweramp, and a Mashall 1960 straight cab with Celestion GT-75's. This rig was fantastic except the ISP Decimator was a must have because the Triaxis was so squeally and hissy on high gain, I couldnt get great low volume cleans, the mid gain was not the best, and the effects while decent were not mind blowing.
I have owned a Vetta I combo, a Vetta II head, a Flextone III combo, a Cybertwin combo, a Pod XT Live, a Pod XT, an atomic amp, a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier(modded by VooDoo Amps), and a Marshall TSL100 head. All of these also had things I liked but ultimately gave up because of what was missing and the search continued. I also worked through college at a couple music stores that carried every kind of top dollar boutique or vintage amp you could name. While I always prefered tubes...it was really just a means to an end.....I was and have always been up to the challenge for a non tube amp that could satisfy my tone quest. Basically...I wanted one amp that could do it all and do it all well with no reservations or compromises. Enter---AXE-FX.
I got the standard and hooked it 1st up to my buddies Carver 950 watt solid state power amp....I built a patch from scratch 1st without even listening to the presets because that is the one thing with gear...presets usually suck! Started dry with cab sims off, power sims on, and was going for that EVH Van Halen II Beautiful Girls tone...after learning how to program it by just fiddling around 30 minutes...bam....got it! I added delay and reverb and instantly saw that the effects were far beter than my TC G Major. I then went on to build several other presets for 3 .5 hours. I did a lot of noodling in between and had fun...left that day with my cleans not being what I had envisioned.
Came back next morning and thought I'd try the Axe-FX with my Mesa Power 2:90 poweramp...HOLY HELL it was amazing....everything came to life...the cleans were the best I'd ever heard and all the other patches that I'd made also sounded perfect. Pristine yet warm clean, gritty shimmer, mid gain, Marshall, Mesa, boutique....anything is now possible...there are no compromises because you can tweak in or out anything because their are so many parameters! Yet it is very easy to program...very logical! I'm fine with still having one foot in the door with a tube power amp....guess it just gave me the clean head room I needed. Maybe the solid state poweramp I had used the day before wasnt good or rated as high as I thougt(borrowed that from a buddies PA and it was a Carver(not Carvin) 950???
I am able to get everything I want from this preamp, the feel of tube amps, the ease of digital, an all in 1 package, effects that all steller, and tweakability that is endless. I just sold all my gear and my new rig is the AXE-FX, Mesa Power 2:90, Mashall 1960 straight cab, GCP midi footboard, and a Ernie ball expression and Dunlop wah(which after I mess with the Axe's wah I may sell too). I told my wife my 5 year search os over...I have no need for another amp(EVER). Maybe a wireless unit and a 2/12 cab...that's it....and this chair and this remote control(sorry...had to quote some Jerk lines). If anyone has any question they can email me...I love this thing...Told my wife in explaining

I have the Standard. It takes some time to figure out, but given what it does, it's exceedinly easy to dial in the tone you like. The controls are logically laid out, so once you get a gist of it, you won't be needing the manual.

This is the finest sounding piece of gear I've ever had, and I've gone through tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear over the years. Axe-FX plugged directly into a powered PA cabinet replaces them all. I know it's hard to believe, but some of the models in this unit sound better than the real thing. You can, for example, get a cranked JCM800 tone without the fizz, at bedroom volume, with adjustable presence, density, sag and master volume (output volume remains the same - "master volume" just changes by how much the "power tubes" are overdriven). You can get the buttery tone of a cranked Fender Twin without shattering the windows. The clean tones are very lively and dynamic. High gain chording sounds great (try that on any other modeler!). Amp models react to the volume knob better than real amps they model. The dynamics are there while you play. You can upload your own impulse responses for cabinets. Modeling in this unit is really "deep" and possibilities are truly endless.

Notice that so far I was just talking about amp/cab modeling. The effects are equally impressive, easily on par with the best units from TC Electronic, Lexicon and Eventide. It's all there, down to the very Vai-esque sounding vocoder (See "Yai Yai" from Real Illusions album).

I haven't had it long enough, but it gets a 10 for initial build quality. Looks like it will last a lifetime. Thick, solid steel, built in the USA.

It's not often that you can actually talk with the chief designer of a unit on a forum and suggest features. Granted, not all suggestions get implemented (free firmware updates, too!), but Fractal Audio has a history of listening to the customers and I appreciate that a lot.

If it were stolen or lost, I would buy a new one immediately. It's a game changing device for me. I was a tube snob for decades and I had my doubts before buying Axe-FX. A week after receiving it I listed all my tube amps on eBay. Quite frankly, they don't do anything Axe-Fx can't do, except you can use them as free weights, for exercise. My only gripe is a somewhat noisy internal fan, but given how the rest of the unit performs, I won't take off any points for that.

As far as whether it helps me when I make music... Let me put it this way. It's liberating and inspiring. Say, you're learning an instrumental piece by your favorite guitar god. Wouldn't it be liberating and inspiring if you could dial in THE EXACT TONE you hear on the record? Well, now you can! Or, say, you don't want to sound like anyone else. You can do that too!

I admit the price seemed a bit high before I bought the device, but now that I have it, I can say it's the best value on the market, by a really wide margin.

Super awesome! This quality product is so easy to use, I can't believe how I managed without one!

The Fractal Audio AxeFx sounds amazing! I have played Dumbles, Trainwrecks, and even Dumbles, but this sounds better than all 3 combined! I havent used an eventide, but I can tell for sure that the effects in this are much better! Awesome!

This is the most reliable piece of equipment ive ever bought! In the 3 days ive had it, its worked flawlessly. I don't actually gig, since im more of a bedroom player, but I think that's who this product is aimed at anyway. It will definitely stand up to my bedroom use, thats for sure! Awesome!

The Fractal guys are awesome, friendly, cool guys. Probably the coolest and smartest guys in the industry. Simple awesome!

This is the best $2000 modeller on the market, its awesome! The manufacters like very much to describe it as a 'Pod on steroids' and they're right, that's exactly what it is. I waited 9 months for this, and it was worth every minute.