<div class="bbWrapper">Hiya Scottie (nice name, I'm a Scotty myself)...<br />
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Funny you should bring this topic up...last nite I specifically put my newly purchased hardtail Axis Sport w/MM90s through various style paces with my Boss GT-6, which has great amp and effects models. <br />
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Without exaggeration, I'm happy to report it can do just about anything I threw at it! I dabble in about everything in my home studio, as I was raised on everything from bluegrass to Black Sabbath. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><br />
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Some observations:<br />
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- I brought a Korg Pandora headphone amp with me to work to test the axe when it first arrived. Sounded great on all the presets from the git-go, so much so that I played it on the train all the way home... <br />
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- At first it didn't sound quite as good as I thought it would on the GT-6 amp models that my Ibanez JEM did well on. End result after some exploration and tweaking was I got far more great sounds out of the Axis on more amp models than the JEM, hands down. <br />
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- With the appropriate amp models and effects, it was easy to dial in the sounds I wanted for various styles. I was really pleased to see I could do a nice Dick Dale-ish imitation, as I love surf music. What was funny is that it sounded best on a Boogie amp sim vs. the Fender blackface one! <br />
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- Another oddity was that the best heavy metal sound I got was on the most extreme model the unit had, which normally sounded like crap with the JEM. Mind you, the MM90s aren't known for being metal pickups, but the high end really cut through, and the bottom stayed tight and wiry but full. (just don't try this without the Silent Circuit on, kids!)..<br />
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- Country twang was easily had on the blackface and tweed settings. The neck + bridge setting does a great Tele thing as does the bridge alone. Neck alone is throaty, and a Hendrix tone can be coaxed out of it by backing off the volume. Speaking of which....<br />
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- The volume control on this guitar/pickup combo is the most sensitive one I've ever used - these pickups really roll down or up responsively. With the volume and tone turned all the way up, this guitar really has both the spank of a Tele and the balls of a good vintage Gibson happening. Wind down a bit and there's plenty of nuances and no loss of tone....really amazing. The main thing to remember is the MM90s are neither Strat, Tele, or humbucker...they're a bit of them all. It thus takes a little guesswork and trial and error when you're using those as your base tone references, but the end <br />
results are really pleasing.<br />
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Sorry this sounds more like a review than a simply saying what I'm into playing, but I really do fire off a mishmash of everything (sorta like Eric Johnson or Bill Frisell), and my Axis delivers in spades on all counts. I'm venturing to guess the triple MM90 Albert Lee version I'm dreaming of now covers even more ground and looks that much cooler...now if I just had a few extra bucks handy...<sigh>.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></div>
