The Edge's new rig

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Part of the reason I imagine Edge has multiple Axe FX's (besides backups) is for switching between different settings. I have one myself, and one thing I've noticed is that when switching to different scenes, the transition isn't seamless. It's especially apparent when recording and switching scenes throughout a single take.

I was recently watching a video of one of Metallica's guitar techs going over their live rig; they've now ditched their amps and pedals onstage and rely entirely on the Axe-FX. But he mentioned the cutout issue, since they have a lot of quick transitions from a clean to heavy sound. So their solution was for both James and Kirk to have 4 Axes, one for clean, one for heavy, and a backup for each. When they play, both Axes are running simultaneously into a unit that controls their levels, so they can fade one sound into the other. This allows for really quick and seamless transitions when they switch from one sound to another. I would imagine Edge would be doing something like this too!
 
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Well, eliminating the gap has been one of the biggest demands and Fractal now says with the III its as close to zero as they can make it. There basically has to be a fade in/fade out or else you'll get a pop.
 
I bought my Axe FX II at the worst possible time - last September, right before it went on sale by like $300 or $400... and now the III is dropping in a few months... :doh:
 
I bought my Axe FX II at the worst possible time - last September, right before it went on sale by like $300 or $400... and now the III is dropping in a few months... :doh:

Which is why on the Axe forum the trend seems to be 50% of the users going 'SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!', 25% going 'nice to have, but what I have works good enough', a few going 'dammit! Still not what I wanted!' and the remainder is kinda pissed off that it came after they recently scored a II XL+. Sometimes after even asking on the board 'should I do this? Is a III coming?'

in Japan Axe-Fx II still seem to cost about.....2000 bucks.

Still cheaper then in Europe. A new XL+ still costs €2300 at G66. And Fractal just plainly refuses to even sell a discounted XL+ outside the US. I tried, using an American address. They saw my credit card was European, no Axe FX for you! Of to G66 you HAVE to go!

I ended up buying a 2nd hand XL off Ebay from the States, which including shipping and customs still set me back 2000 bucks.
 
seems like Edge isn't really changing his rig over to Axe-FX III. which is to be expected because apparently you cant just transfer settings from Axe-FX II to III.
 
Maybe not now, but who knows what happens when AlGrenadine works his magic. He's a guy on the Fractal board who developed fracpad, an Axe editor for on android and apple tablets and phones, and fractool, an app that, among other things, lets you convert presets from different Axe and AX-8 versions to and from another.

But I reckon for now you're right. With the upcoming tour Edge might decide to stick with what he currently has, rather then program everything new into the III. Then again, that might just be what he's currently doing already.
 
At least from some limited pics from rehearsals he’s using similar looking rig from ones used in IE and Joshua Tree 30th anniv tour. Even guitars used in rehearsals seem very similar from ones used in last 3 years
 
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