[adamqlw]

Hi Holyoli,

I can't comment about how it takes pedals, I literally have none in my setup (and that's one of the primary reasons I wanted to Axe, for the all-in-one package). I can say that it takes different guitars very well. Guitars really retain their character. The input is unitary gain, meaning there's a digital trim that you set to minimize your signal to noise ratio, but this is compensated for internally once it hits the effects processing stage. It's also got impedence matching if you want it, so taking all those things into consideration, I'd say it would take pedals well. But that's just my conjecture!

Regarding feel and dynamics, I don't think it is head and shoulders above the ElevenRack. I didn't do a side by side, but I was never disappointed with the ElevenRack's responsiveness/dynamics to begin with. I'd peg it as both operating such a high level that it doesn't matter.

That said, when it comes to the overall tone/EQ-curve(?), which I view at separately from the "feel" side (which I see as more of responsiveness to how hard I dig in, whether the gain sounds rich and complex or thin and raspy, how it cleans up with the volume knob), it has far more options than ElevenRack, and in a way, it's far more intuitive. With the ElevenRack I find myself reaching for the paraEQ *all the time* to tame the boominess in my patches, and to add a low pass filter. I attribute this to the cabs/IRs. The tweaking process then becomes, to me, counter-intuitive. With the Axe FX I find that just selecting a good cab+mic combo gets me 80% there. A little high-pass filter if it's boomy. And a handy graphic equalizer in the preamp stage if I want to get just that little bit more specific. None of these require an extra slot by the way, they are all handily provided as parts of the amp/cab block. I really appreciate how well thought out those bits are, and it makes editing much more manageable.

Sticking the graphic EQ between the amp and the cab seems to work better for me than the para EQ after. With the 11R routing, that's simply not possible.