Axis SS or Reflex? Trouble deciding

[Night Goat]

Axis SS or Reflex? Trouble deciding (reflex won)

It's christmas time again which means I get buy myself another guitar. I've narrowed it down to two candidates at the local music store but I have trouble deciding. The rationalist in me absolutely wants to get the more affordable option, while the inner child wants the toy with the most gadgets. The fight is currently in a state of stalemate.

This is a very silly "problem" but Im thinking someone here could come up with some arguments why I should get one guitar or the other?

EDIT: I got the Reflex Gamechanger and Im very glad I did!!

 

[jones4tone]

If the economics of it are not a primary concern, and both are appealing to you visually, then I would get the one I thought sounded better to my ears, assuming I thought I could get on with the feel of the neck.

One man's opinion. Should be a fun Christmas either way!

 

[Kinjin]

Axis. I purchased a 25th Anniversary when they came out, and that is to this day the one EBMM I could never bond with. Still have my Axis, it's never leaving my collection.

 

[Manxmusicman]

Axis. I purchased a 25th Anniversary when they came out, and that is to this day the one EBMM I could never bond with. Still have my Axis, it's never leaving my collection.

It just goes to show how subjective this all is, once I played the 25th my Luke's didn't get a look in.

 

[Fro]

I'd love to have a 25th.

 

[Kinjin]

It just goes to show how subjective this all is, once I played the 25th my Luke's didn't get a look in.

Exactly! It was a beautiful specimen, incredible character and depth to the flamed top; it's a little larger than the Axis, which me being a big guy (6'2") should have been great, but I just never did click with it...

 

[mikeller]

Had a 25th - very beautiful and sounded amazing, but I, as well, never clicked either.

 

[DrKev]

I thought I'd hate the Reflex with the larger body but every one I have played has been quite amazing. I'd pick a Relfex over the Axis and the Gamechanger would be a plus.

 

[threeminutesboy]

My 25th purchased has still a lot of playtime after 5 years.

My ASS is slipping in its case since then.

That being said I don't like the game changer at all the USB plug and all the electronics inside turn me off. I have espressed that many times before. Call me old fart if you want but I don't think this can last as long as a "regular" guitar. BP said that with my attitude I would be still driving 2CV but I don't think it's the same. Car is a commodity thing. Guitar can last for years and even century. My kids and grand kids hope they will enjoy my guitars when I will be gone. Not sure they would be enjoy the gamechanger the same way.

 

[Night Goat]

The gamechanger system is one aspect that actually makes me really excited! I work in tech and have a lot of experience in software development so it would be a fun hobby project to try and do something cool with it. Maybe make an unofficial android version or maybe a raspberryPI control box or some such.

I dont know how open EBMM is with source code etc. but since it failed commercially, they might be open to letting it go the opensource route? That would be pretty sweet.


Even without modding, gadgetry is always fun to play with!

 

[Ishmun]

The 25th is my number one...The chambering does very cool things with leads (sounds more open) and clean chords. Its truly unique.

There's so many choices with the series parallel switch (not to mention the gamechanger) - but I'm most happy finding my top 3-4 sounds and sticking with them...otherwise I feel selecting tones get too much in the way of creative processes. I also appreciated the bigger body as compared to the ASS.

So, I'd say go for the Reflex

 

[Night Goat]

Im sitting with my Reflex GC at home right now and I have the widest grin on my face!

It sounds so good that I havent actually gotten around to replacing the ancient store-strings yet. I feel kind of bad for not buying one of these when EBMM launched them, it's such a shame that it flopped.

 

[jones4tone]

Im sitting with my Reflex GC at home right now and I have the widest grin on my face!

It sounds so good that I havent actually gotten around to replacing the ancient store-strings yet. I feel kind of bad for not buying one of these when EBMM launched them, it's such a shame that it flopped.

Wasn't that supposed to be a Christmas gift??

Odds are very high that my next EBMM is a Game Changer. I'd love to hear more of your impressions of it.

 

[Night Goat]

It was my birthday yesterday so I decided to make it a birthday present instead

The reflex guitar itself, is like an axis with a thicker and slightly wider neck. All my guitars have tiny necks so it feel quite big to me, but very comfortable because there are no 'shoulders' to the neck profile. It sounds fatter and bigger than the axis or my lukes, probably due to the mahogany block or simply because it's a hardtail.

The GC system works like a charm, you just go to The Gamechanger and start to fiddle away at all kinds of bizarre settings. You can easily do settings with it that would take many yards of wires and make your control cavity a ratsnest of wiring. The guitars comes preset obviously, so you can just play and use the switches and knobs.

The only negatives is that the 3rd bank of settings on the guitar is difficult to use. Bank A and B just make the 5-way switch do different things, but the 3rd bank Z that has 15 settings is only controlled by a up/down lever so if you want setting #7 you have to push the toggle 7 times to reach it. And you have no visual indication of where in bank Z you are, you could be at #3 or #12, you have no way of knowing except to listen to how the sound changes.

Second problem is just a tiny thing: the web app doesnt react to what you do with the guitar controls, so if you set the 5-way to the bridge position, the web app still shows whatever position it was in before.

ALSO, one thing that maybe EBMM forgot to say about the GC is that it seems very easy to change the pickups. You have these nice big soldering points on the circuit board. Any 4-conductor pickup will work. All my friends were under the impression that the GC uses some kind of weird proprietary multi-coil pickups that couldnt be changed without replacing the whole electronic package.

 

[jones4tone]

Well, a belated happy birthday to you. Great gift!

Thanks for sharing your impressions. The pickup lead connections is something I'd wondered about, so it's good to see that. Don't know that I'd ever change them, but good to know it's not more difficult due to the circuitry. I'm very intrigued by that model. I just wish I could find a Reflex or 25th to play in a store or something to see how they feel.

 

[Night Goat]

Here's a photo of the control cavity. The early ones I've seen had a lot of the circuitry sealed and hidden with black epoxy, but everything is exposed on mine. The pickup soldering points are to the left, they are marked "PU1-PU6" where each coil is wired to a set of connectors, so they could have up to 3 humbuckers in a GC guitar

 

[jones4tone]

That looks very clean and neat for what it does. Is there a separate cavity where the pots are connected? (Don't worry about opening up for a pic, unless you're just keen to do it anyway.)

 

[Night Goat]

You can see the volume and tone pot in there, as well as the empty socket for where the piezo pot and preamp circuitry would have been. The volume pot(up-left) is a special kind of pot with a small white plastic housing, while the tone pot(middle) is a more standard push-pull that has been welded to a small circuit board.

 

[BUC]

No brainer for me. My two "can't live without" guitars are both Reflex's. A 25th and a HSH piezo GameChanger.

The GC is amazing. You will get exactly whatever sound you want out of it eventually. And the black grows on you.

 

[Smellybum]

reflex - or if you can get a 25th- impossible to live without.