Axe-Fx II · Reference · Axe-Fx II · Ares

Look it up fast

Tables, diagrams and fixes. Built to be opened mid-session with a guitar still on, not read front to back.

The hardware

Controls

Every front-panel control on an interactive diagram, including the X and Y buttons that define this generation.

Every jack on an interactive rear panel, plus the front jack that needs a menu setting to work.

The numbers that answer a question, and what differs between the original, Mark II, XL and XL+.

Sound

Eight scenes and two variants per block — and why everything written about channels describes a different device.

Every model Fractal themselves describe — and an honest account of the ones they don't.

Input trim, output level and preset level do three different jobs. The first one does not change your tone, however much it looks like it should.

What a User Cab is, how to get one onto the unit, and the file extension that looks right and does nothing.

Using it

Studio, live with an MFC-101, into a real amp, or matching a reference tone.

Why Fractal MIDI works differently from everyone else's, and the mapping that lets a one-message controller drive a scene-based rig.

Straight answers to the things people actually ask.

Symptom, cause, fix — including what is documented behaviour rather than a fault.

Presets live in banks of 128, so backing up "your presets" usually backs up a quarter of them. Plus the version note that saves you later.

Scene, X/Y, Tone Match, Humbuster, FASLINK, Ares, Cygnus.