AX8 Incoming!

kjdowd

AX8 arriving next week. Going to A/B it with the Helix and then it will be decision time...

dean2371

And if you decide not to keep the AX8 can I have first shout?

kjdowd

Yep. 

Wazmeister

Kev, you're gonna love it.

kjdowd

I strongly suspect I am...

kjdowd

Rehearsed with the ax8 tonight. No time to programme it properly so just picked a preset and edited on the fly. 

The interface ain't Helix but it's perfectly usable. Certainly easy enough for me to add fx and assign footswitch as with no recourse to the manual. 

Most important thing - it sounded fantastic. Lovely trem, great sounding twin, beautiful reverb. Think I'm going to go with this over the Helix for this weekend's gig and then do a proper a/b next week. 

BintyTwanger77

I'm still torn about the Helix.

Can you use the AX8 for silent headphone practice?

kjdowd

Not tried it yet. It doesn't have a dedicated headphone out, but by all accounts sounds great with headphones using an adapter that costs a few quid on ebay (2 x 1/4 inch to headphone adapter). I've got one arriving tomorrow, so will give it a blast then. 

BintyTwanger77

Really? Right. A new quandary...

I'm NOW wondering whether I should try out an AX8 before I leap into buying the Helix.

kjdowd

Issue is that it's not that easy to try one without buying (I don't think any UK music shops stock them - they come direct from the European distie). 

That said, depending on where you are, maybe have a blast on mine or someone else's on here?

BintyTwanger77

I'm in London. Can't believe no dealers in London stock Fractal.

Si_

G66 are the only European dealer, you won't find one in any shops unless it's 2nd hand. 

Teetonetal

BintyTwanger77 said:

I'm in London. Can't believe no dealers in London stock Fractal.

And there in lies the issue with fractal. Expensive leap of faith required. Can't imagine it doesn't sound good though.

Assume g66 adhere to distance selling regs though?

relic245

Fractal are really great with their money back guarantee. I think they give you 14 days, may even be 30. It really is no questions asked.

relic245

Sorry g66 not feactal

Si_

The only problem is you have to pay to ship it back to Germany.  

It's a strange setup not having more dealers. I guess it works for them but it also plays into Line6's hands. You can go to LOADS of places and get a Helix. 

Wazmeister

Si_ said:

The only problem is you have to pay to ship it back to Germany.  

It's a strange setup not having more dealers. I guess it works for them but it also plays into Line6's hands. You can go to LOADS of places and get a Helix. 

It's little cost to ship it back, when you have potentially loaned it for a month. Stunning service, imho.

Benson

I've been gigging an AxeFXII for years and recently migrated over to an Ax8.  It is simply an amazing sounding piece of kit with incredible flexibility. The level of support and software development from Fractal is simply leaps and bounds beyond anything Line 6 provide. 

Teetonetal

Benson said:

I've been gigging an AxeFXII for years and recently migrated over to an Ax8.  It is simply an amazing sounding piece of kit with incredible flexibility. The level of support and software development from Fractal is simply leaps and bounds beyond anything Line 6 provide. 

I'm not sure that's true, at least with helix.
Fractal tend to release a lot of minor updates and bug fixes.
Line 6 tend to go for major updates only

Just two different, but valid models of the same thing

I think I've done 3 FW updates on helix in 5 months and the developments have been huge. that is quite enough for me.

guitarfishbay

Axe FX 2 updates have significantly slowed down recently. Also they've finally allowed modelling version to be selected in the advance menu - so you can update and get new amps/FX/features and keep your tones. Only applies since implementation of that feature, so last few updates, but still very cool they added that.

BintyTwanger77

I'm flying up to Glasgow, so will nip into GuitarGuitar and ask if I can try a Helix with a Big Sky in the FX loop.