Line 6 AxSys 212

Effect-wise, it seems to be all there. But no tone whatsoever to find in this amp.

The overall sound of this amp is very constipated and dull. There is absolutely no usable distortion and the residual noise is ridiculous. I tried this amp with all kinds of guitars and musical styles, it just doesn't deliver. But who knows, some day we may see some famous player getting great sounds out of this amp.

In my humble opinion, this amp is truly bogus. I think Boss are the only company who now how to make digital sounds work (no I don't work for Boss, but I am an extremely happy GT-5 user).

I bought this amp for the effects. I like most of them especially the delay and chorus. The wah effect is not very good. Im going to sell it though because I cant get any distortion at all. Without a pedal theres almost no distortion there with a pedal if you turn the knobs to get good high gain out of it all you get is digital interference on the high notes. If it had good distortion it would be great!

Currently use a Fender Jag stang and also an Ibanez 7-string. I mostly play Korn, Faith No More and Nirvana type music. Like I said before cant get any distortion at all, atleast not heavy. Would be a good amp for someone who doesnt like distortion

Besides the digital interference no problems at all.

Emailed the company countless times. Each time the same answer to the problem, reset everything and start over. Total bull! But hey atleast they responded.

Ive been playing for over 10 years. This is by far the worst amp ive owned distortion wise. I even owned an old sears 15 watt amp as a kid that sounded better than this. The effects are good but the wah is awful also. Id much rather have a nasty sounding distorted amp with a few pedals.

Versatile? The line 6 adds new meaning to this word! As many have already said, it is just TOO versatile. It's sometimes like standing at a buffet with over 20,000 different dishes to choose from. It's often hard to find what you want. I bought this amp because it could sound enough like a 5150, not quite, but close enough, and it was cheaper. I sold it this week. I bought an old Laney tube head and Peavey 4x12 cab. With a few effects, delay, chorus, and Crybaby, I'm set up with all the different sounds I'll ever need. One thing I noticed immediately after hooking up my old Crybaby, the Line6 doesn't come close here to the real thing!

I play primarily a Peavey Cropper Classic, YOU GOTTA PLAY ONE OF THESE!, and an Alvarez Trevor Rabin neck through, with Dimarzio Tone Zone and Chopper pickups. The only sounds I ever used the Line 6 for was the 5150 settings. I like the ability to go in an edit all the reverb and delay settings, KEWL! It suited my playing style fine, I spose? This amp is noisy at times, despite what you may hear, but nothing major. Flexibility is what this thing is all about and it does it well. Has some great tones too, if you can find them, hehehe.

Never had any major problems with the amp.

No problems, dunno.
1 year warranty on a $1000 amp?!!!
Seems a bit less than ballsy to me.

I've been playing for about 13 years and have owned everything from a Gorilla practice amp to the Line6 and my current Laney setup.
If the amp was lost or stolen I would see it as a loss in capital only. I wished it had an octave feature when I was using it.
I don't miss this amp at all, sorry.

Just thought I'd share. Because sharing means caring, right? I bought mine used and I don't wanna go into everything it does because it's been said and said and said. What I wanted to share is that I went out and got the conversion kit and liked the old sounds better.

Before the conversion I was getting some nice warm-like Marshall, 5150, Fender, and Vox tones. After the conversion the amp turned into a mid 80's multi-effects preamp from hell.

The guys at the factory warned me that it would be a hotter amp with more tonal flexibility and more amp models. They also said that there was a certain group of people out there who perfer the older model.

I became one of them. The conversion took all the warmth out of the amp and turned it into a high-gain beast master. The high gain is fine but I had that (and warmer) before I got the conversion. Now it's in your face and you better not be using single coils! Hum for days! Yes I know it has a noise gate etc...but I did'nt need it with the old amp and now you need it or else it's un-usable.

The celebrity pre-sets no longer sounded convincing or anything like the celebrity sounds they were mimicking. What happened to Brian May's Delay? That fat Satriani tone? Brian Adams' Vox rhthym sound? That cool "Red House" Hendrix lead tone? The Robben Ford Preset is useless. My band covers alot of his material and the preset is all wrong. Call it Uglo-muddy tone.

Oh, and no bottom either. I spent all last weekend trying to salvage it. Sure it was fun running through these wild high gain presets and tweaking them, but I was looking for practical applications I could use for our set list on stage. The SRV stuff was cool but no matter what I did I could not add enough bottom to it without making it sound muddy.

Tweaking was easier, and everthing was very user friendly, but I went back to the factory and had them change it back to it's original state. As soon as I got it to my studio I fell back in love. Actual useful tones as opposed to fun high-gain masturbational distortion with delays up the wazoo.

I play in a Blues band and it's bad enough that when my fellow band mates watch me set up I'm gonna hear groans. "Man, why didn't you get a real amp like a Fender Super Reverb or a Bassman!? Have you lost your mind?!"

But when I turn it on the tone has to be there with some bottom too. This is the only thing that will shut them up! I haven't played out live yet with it. That will be part two of my next review but I do know that this amp will sound better now than it would have with the conversion. Just my opinion. I know what I know and that's all I know.

I use it for multiple styles from Prog to Jazz. On 7-String to Semi-hollow. Sounds great!

It sounds great, but I could do without all the retro crap included.

it hasn't died in a year of heavy gigging, and the structure can handle a beating

These guys are great! -'nuff said

Been playing for 25 years, and I can still use 2 4X12 ncabs if needed with it. Damn good amp!

Tons of features. Too many. Unless you're the kind of person who is into never finding the exact tone you're looking for.

This amp sounds like a solid state amp trying to copy tube tones. Don't let anyone fool you. You simply cannot make a solid state amp sound like tubes. Period. It doesn't sound like solid state however. It sounds like a Line 6. But a tube amp it is not. You just can not replicate the fullness and body of a tube amp in a solid state amp. Period, period. In it's defense, the effects were pretty good. Once again you can't replicate the originals perfectly but they are worth their salt.

I had mine for about a year. very reliable. Never had a problem with it. Except for the tone.

It's good reliable amp if you know ahead of time that it is not going to sound like your tube Marshall, Boogie, or Soldano. It sounds like a good solid state amp. And the effects are the only thing that save this amp from the depths.

The amp is very versatile because you don't have to carry separate effects with you.

THe sounds flat out suck. Don't throw your effects pedals away. Some settings are very noisey, even with the noise filter on. The effect sounds are not true.You have to adjust your volume when you switch between sounds which is impossible without the floorboard.

It is reliabile, all solid state and computer chips so it's not effected by the weather unless it gets wet.

Never had to deal with them.

I have been playing for about five years now mainly church. I use several different effects and I was not satisfied with any of them. The sounds are very mechanical, not true and sweet

This amp is loaded with features, as the other reviews say. Models of vintage amps (Twin Reverb, Bassman, Marshall Plexi, JCM-800, Vox AC30, etc.) and has enough effects to replace all of my stompboxes. It's got a good phaser, models of a TS-9, ProCo Rat and Big Muff Pi, chorus, flange, etc.
Extremely versatile, I'd assume that, given enough time to tweak your settings, you could get a near perfect tone for whatever style you play. The amp is rather loud, too. I rarely put it above 3 and even then, my ears ring for awhile if I don't wear my earplugs.

I use an Applause strat copy w/ two single coils and a humbucker (all stock) and I can get some *nice* tones out of this thing. I more or less nailed a ZZ Top setting, tweaked some of the others to get them closer, etc. It suits my styles pretty well, ranging from classic rock to blues to metal and whatever else strikes my fancy. There's little to no hum with the noise gate on, verrrry quiet but it'll feedback if you want it to. The amp models, for the most part, are rather close, but the Plexi is, well, lemme just say that I didn't expect it to be any better than it is. The Fender models are damn near perfect as are most of the rest. As for the effects, as I said, the phaser is nice (one more toy to cross off my list), the chorus and flange are okay, but I've heard better. The wah (with the pedalboard) is pretty nice, haven't really used the autowah much. Also, you can set the wah pedal to change variables in other settings, like reverb decay and whatnot. Not something to use all the time, but it's pretty interesting.

Haven't tried gigging with it yet, but it looks rather sturdy for how cost effective it was made (not cheap, just put together to save as much money as possible) Lots of people worry about the RJ-45 cable going between the floorboard and the amp, I don't think it'd be much of a problem (although I wouldn't gig w/o a spare)

Haven't dealt with the company yet since I got it used, but I've heard many good things about them and will contact them after I get the AX2 upgrade.

I've been playing about 7 years now and this is a HUGE upgrade from my Crate G-150 and Zoom 7010 processor. If it were stolen, I'd have to track 'em down and gut 'em or go steal someone else's ;D The effects builtin are just icing on the cake as the models are, for the most part, accurate. I'm going to get the AX2 upgrade to get the other amp models + updated ones (hoping they can nail that plexi a little more) As for what I hate about it, it's pretty heavy (about 66 lbs. w/ the floorboard), so I'm going to put casters on it soon. Some of the presets are also WAY off (it seems like the Line 6 guys really like delay), but if I didn't wanna tweak, I'd have gotten the flextone. Haven't A/B'd it with other amps yet, but it's extremely close on the Fenders, as I said. Haven't used an AC30 or some of the others, but hey, they sound great anyway. The one thing I'd really like to see is a whammy pedal added in, but at the moment, it's got enough effects to keep me happy.
I was planning on getting a Les Paul, but I figured I'd try for an amp, since it's most of the tone and I tell ya, I'm glad I got it. Still gonna get an LP after I get some more cashflow in, though.
Bottom line, it's sweet, but test it out first, just in case you'd rather go for the real thing. Myself, I'm not gonna get anal about tubes, but hey, whatever floats yer boat

Check out some of the other reviews in here to get details. I'm not going to repeat it all again. Like everyone else has said, except for the lack of an intelligent harmonizer, it's got everything you will need to create great musical guitar sound. It doesn't have silly synth-like noise makers, but who needs that anyway? The amp Models are VERY convincing, once you know the amp and how to teak it to your guitar and playing style. Not exact mind you, but in the context of a live band or recording, only a fuss-budget would ever notice. I'm pretty darned fussy myself and can tell you there is little PRACTICAL difference. It's sort of like the difference between a digitized computer image and real life. If not having the EXACT tone would creep into your psychology and affect your playing, then don't get this amp. Also, if you are one of those types, stop playing/performing altogether because your beloved tube amps will FREQUENTLY sound different given voltage differences, tube aging, room (and circuitry) temperatures, etc., and you're probably already a basket case over it. At least this amp won't do that to you! It is likely the most versatile guitar amp on the planet, and one of its best features is one you don't actually use day-to-day but will appreciate over years of use: IT'S SOFTWARE UPGRADEABLE!!!!! THIS RIG IS PAVING THE WAY FOR THE FUTURE OF GUITARING! And for the price, this thing is A STEAL!!! Nothing can touch it!!!

Here's the deal. Almost everyone today listens to their favorite band/guitarist on a DIGITAL CD, played through their SOLID STATE stereo system. Yet there's no mistaking that 'tubular' tone coming out of the speakers. The Line 6 folks, realizing that a digital signal chain can still sound like tubes, figured out how to make software do the same thing in a digital guitar amp. Trust me, it works. The sounds are in there, believe me, BUT....., it can take some time getting them out. The thing is TOOOO TWEAKABLE, and this can lead to early frustrations! I've had mine for four months now and while I was able to get instantly useful sounds, I'm only now getting truly juicy, INSPIRING tones. I've seen amps where spinning a knob made little if any difference but this amp is very responsive and you can get wrapped up for DAYS just sussing out variations among different preamp tone and EQ settings! Whew!!! I mean c'mon, do the math: you've got 12 amp models, 13 speaker cabiner types, 3 distortion boxes, chorus, phaser, flanger, 12 delay types, 5 reverb types, tremelo, 5 levels of compression, an equalizer, stereo cabinet sread effect, and six parameter knobs for everything each with 100 graduations!!! I stopped calculating the mathematically possible permutations available when I got way into the millions!! And that can be part of the problem for tweak-aholics; there's simply too much to experiment with. BUT WHEN YOU FINALLY GET THERE, it'll have been worth the wait, and you'll learn much about what this amp can do for you in the process which makes your next patch creation that much easier. I've now got clean Fender tones that my Strat sound fantastic with, and NO NOISE either, thanks to the splendid noise gate built right in! I've got cranked up Marshall and Soldano tones to die for that are rich and mondo-fat with my two humbucker guitars. And I mean to tell you this; this thing is LOUD! Oh there may be some two-twelves that are louder, but barely, and doubtless at greater cost with only a fraction of the versatility! Again, if you're a psycho-purist, don't buy this, or any other modeling amp, ever. But for the rest of the practical guitar playing world, DIG IN!!!

Got to give this more time but I'll bet that if you're at all considerate of it, it'll go and go and go. I mean, you know, there aren't any of those funny little glass things to break or go microphonic you know? I once had a GREAT tube amp that died one night at a gig, and after it was fixed, well it didn't sound quite right. Of course I'm sure that I'm the ONLY ONE that's ever happened to, right? Well, here you get solid-state reliability with tube tone, and who wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) want that?

Excellent. Phone and e-mail response! Let's hope it lasts once they 'catch on' and get bigger, and possibly, snootier and less personal. But for now, two thumbs up!

OUTSTANDING!! By the way, did you notice the price I paid? Certainly I take credit for some judicious shopping and negotiating but six-hundred and fifty freaken dollars?! Now this didn't include the foot-pedal but still it makes for a great comparison with any other 2-12 100 watt amp you can name, ANY ONE!! Believe me, NOTHING COMPARES! Their adds suggests you add up the cost of all the separate amps (as if you could even find some of the vintage ones), cabinets and effects and you'll get over the $20 grand figure pretty quickly!! So even at say $3,000 this would have been killer, but $650? YIKES! But my final words of caution and advice; if you don't like infinite tweaking options, get one of their simpler-to-operate 'flextones'; this amp (or the new Ax2Sys 212 upgrade) might drive you nuts! READ THE MANUAL and set your input levels correctly. I needed to have George guide me with level setting too; the gain structure can easily get out of hand and produce some fairly nasty sounds, be careful here. It took me quite some time to finally nail really good clean Fenderesque sound because early on I had too much gain cascading through the knobs. I'm positive that ANY of the poor reviews for this amp relect either improper use and/or the individuals reaching their frustration peak early. And of course, if you're one of those pinhead psycho-tune snobs, stick to your glass tubes and Prozak; you would never allow yourself to appreciate and enjoy this amp so don't even bother!

I believe this has been covered thoroughly in the other reviews ;) I play hard rock, metal, and classical guitar, so I look for a good clean channel and high-gain distortion in an amp; the Axsys provides tones for all of these styles and more..

I've had the Axsys for almost a year now, so as you could imagine I've had quite a bit of time to mess around with the amp and reflect on its sound. I also haven't had the time to perform the Ax2 upgrade, although I probably will within the next few months.
I'm happy with the clean tone. Not too warm, but that's likely due to my guitar's EMG-81 and EMG-85 pickups.
On the distortion side, I have mixed feelings.. While I have created and use a few lead patches that sound absolutely amazing, I simply can't get a distorted rhythm sound that I like. It seems to me that no matter what preamp you use, you get a tone with essentially the same character. I can make one of the Marshall preamps sound almost like a Solando 4-2 preamp by tweaking EQ... But this characteristic "Line6" distortion isn't bad, by any means; for many applications it's perfect. Searing VH eruption-style lead? I got that one down. Responds very well to tapping, etc. Silky-smooth David Gilmour leads? No way. You can tweak the EQ, the cab settings, etc. to make it close to any sound you want, but you will always have the (slightly) harsh "Line6 distortion."
When you play a chord with a distortion patch, the notes tend to mush together...none of the awesome note separation you hear in 1984 (Van Halen).
Also, when you turn the preamp tone controls up to get more gain, you start to hear static noise (digital noise?); obviously not my pickup's fault (I have EMGs).
But of course, these are minor gripes, especially for the price I paid. They would be serious if I paid $2500 for the amp, for instance, but I truly think this amp will get you the best high-gain sound for under $1000. The Axsys is MUCH warmer and more professional sounding than virtually any solid-state (and some of the cheaper tube) amps within the price range. I tried some MesaBoogies (Subway Rocket, DC-2, DC-3) and the patches I made were better-sounding than the distortion on those tube amps.

No problems w/ it... Construction a little flimsy, but I take care of my equipment ;)

Never had to deal with support.. However, judging by the excellent support George Van Wagner gives every day on the Guitar Forum here at harmony-central.com, I'd have to say it must be great.

Despite a few of my perfectionist gripes, I love my Axsys. I feel that 50% of the "high-gain" guitar amps out there sound like crap. It's a shame that guitarists (and their parents/neighbors/whatever) have to be subjected to the buzzing, razor-edged sounds of guitar amps that cost under $1000. I believe that this amp is an excellent midway point to the world of higher-end amps.. If I lost this amp, I wouldn't buy it again; I'd buy a MesaBoogie Mark IV or Dual Rectifier, simply because the Axsys gave me a tempting taste of the sounds of the tube.
If this is the first product Line6 made, I can only imagine what wonders they'll create in the future.