Great Things – Phil Wickham – Fractal AX8 Preset

In this demo Brian is playing a Shelton Electric Instruments SkyFlite IV. This demo is using the Axe-FX III, but the AX8 preset sounds roughly the same. See below for included effects and scenes.

IMPORTANT NOTES

1. UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE: Please upgrade the firmware on your AX8. and make sure to use the latest version of AX8-EDIT before installing this preset. This preset was created with AX8 FW 10.01.
2. EVERYTHING IS STOCK: This preset does not use third party IR’s. If you’d like to experiment with 3rd party IR’s, feel free to do so in the cab block.

SIGNAL FLOW AND EFFECTS

Here is the signal flow and effects:

1. Input (the Input Noise Gate is turned off to save CPU).
2. Compressor
   1. X State: Studio Comp: less pronounced, general use comp.
   2. Y State: Pedal Comp 1: Lots of compression and squish. Use this for funk and super clean stuff. Also gets the ‘Bethel sound”, especially on verby clean lines.
3. Chorus
   1. X State: Dimension 1
   2. Y State: Japan CE-2
4. Drive 1  – First Stage OD
   1. X State: FET Boost
   2. Y State: Esoteric RCB (RC Booster)
5. Drive 2 – Second Stage OD
   1. X State: Full OD: Fulltone Fulldrive
   2. Y State: Rat
6. Amp: Matchbox D-30 (Matchless DC-30)
   1. X State: Voiced for Single Coils
   2. Y State: Voiced for Humbuckers
   3. Control Switch 1 (Mapped to FS1): Increases gain for amp gain OD – stacks great with the drives.
7. Cab: F119: 1×12 AC-20 Dlx Mix
8. Delay 1
9. X State: Mono Tape – set to 1/4 note delay
   1. Y State: Mono Tape – Set to 1/8 delay, with more modulation
10. Delay 2 (mapped to FS6)
    1. X State: Deluxe Mind Guy – set to dotted 8th delay – pretty prominent with modulation
    2. Y State: Vintage Digital – Dual delay for swells – very washy with lots of repeats
11. Reverb
    1. X State: Med Plate –  set to be more subtle ‘always on’ type of verb
    2. Y State: Deep Space – Big huge modulated verb
12. FS 8 is set to Scene 8: Swells (turns on Delay 2 (Y state) and the MultiDLY

SCENES

This preset is meant to be used with scenes to replicate different sections of the song:

• Scene 1 (FS1): INTRO/RIFF – Lead tone with chorus
• Scene 2 (FS2): CH/RHY – Slightly pushed tone for the chorus and basic rhythm parts
• Scene 3 (FS3): VS 2 – Cleaner tone with delay and chorus for verse 2
• Scene 4 (FS4): TURN – Bigger drive tone for the section right before the bridge
• Scene 5 (FS 5): BRIDGE – Clean tone with chorus for the bridge
• Scene 6: (FS 6): BRIDGE BLD – Same as the bridge but more drive
• Scene 7: CH/RHY (+) – Same as scene 2 but with more drive – I like to use this on the last chorus
• Scene 8 (FS8): SWELLS – Turns on Delay 2 (Y state) – you get a really ambient tone which works great for swells.

USAGE

FOOTSWITCH LAYOUT/SCENES

By default, this preset is laid out with scenes mapped to the foot switches (all eight scenes are used).

DRIVES

The Drive blocks are designed to give you two options each for stage one and stage two drive (via X/Y states).  The X/Y states for Drive 1 and 2 are set at roughly the same level of gain, but just a different type/sound of overdrive.

You can combine the drives for a lead sound (which is what we’ve done in our LEAD scene), or you can combine the drives with the Control Switch 1 for bigger drive or lead sounds.

DELAYS

Both delay blocks are set to stereo, and have different delay options in their X/Y states. Delay 1 will give you either quarter note or eight note delay, while Delay 2 is set up for dotted 8th note delay in its X state and a big ambient delay for swells in its Y state.

REVERB

You have two options for reverb with this preset. The Reverb block is set to give you an ‘always on’ type of reverb in the X state, but in the Y state you get huge ambient verb via the Deep Space verb.

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS FOR YOUR SETUP

SETTING THE PRESET UP FOR YOUR GUITAR

All guitars are different, so you may want to make changes to suite your playing style and guitar. We set this up with a variety of guitars, including both single coils and humbuckers (primarily a Telecaster style guitar). If your guitar has humbuckers, please refer to the suggested settings below.

To adjust the preset for your guitars, the primary controls to adjust would be:

• Input Trim (amp block – basic). Because the ‘Input Drive’ is mapped to CS1, input trim is an alternate way to increase or decrease the overall level of gain on the amp. You can alternatively adjust the ‘Min’ and ‘Max’ values of the Control Switch 1 modifier to set the on/off values of the Input Drive.
• EQ settings (amp block – basic). Once the desired gain staging is set, the next adjustment would be the amp EQ settings.
• GEQ settings (amp block). The Graphic EQ on the amp block is a great way to make final EQ adjustments. We’ve set it to ‘Post P.A.’, which means the EQ settings will not be affected by the Power Amp section.

ADJUSTING THE OVERALL LEVEL OF THE PRESET

The AX8 offers a very useful tool to check overall level of individual presets. Press the “Page >” button until you see the ‘VU’ tab on the main screen. This will give you a level read-out.

We’ve set this preset up so that the loudest settings peak around 0db (or slightly above). This is recommended in the AX8 manual. If you’d like to adjust the level up or down (to match it with other presets), we recommend adjusting one of the following:

• Level (amp block – basic). This will adjust the overall level of the preset up/down. Avoid using the ‘Master Volume’ control, as this will change the tone of the amp.
• Level (cab block). This will also adjust the overall level of the preset up/down.