Members 6StringSling Posted January 17, 2011 Members Share Posted January 17, 2011 Friday I pulled the trigger on the POD HD500. Having owned the PodXT Live for about 5 years turning on and using the HD500 was pretty simple. The edit application is a breeze. I'm not a "presets" guy simply for the fact that the presets weren't created using my guitars with my pickups. That doesn't mean I don't listen to presets and then modify them if I like them but I usually create all my tones from scratch. The downside is that I normally create a new tone for every song I play and most of my tones on the XT were created using Line 6 amp models like the Insane or Spinal Puppet. So going from a choice of dozens of amps/cabs to 16 amps is less than fun when it comes to trying recreate tones that I have used for years on the XT. One thing that is definite: the HD500 sounds better (perhaps to some not "significantly" better) and there is a definite difference in the clarity and dynamics of my playing. YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members warriorpoet Posted January 17, 2011 Members Share Posted January 17, 2011 Cool. Thinking about one of these over the summer into my atomic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted January 17, 2011 Members Share Posted January 17, 2011 I ended up taking mine back over the weekend. Not that it wasn't a good product... it was AWESOME. But... it just didn't offer anything that I really needed. As far as the tone... AMAZING. The amp models, while maybe not 100% accurate, are so frickin' good it's silly. Very dynamic... Very responsive. The ability to blend two amps should not be overlooked. It's not just about blending two amps, but, say you dial in a nice thick tone, but you want more clarity. Maybe if you lower the gain on the amp model, it gets away from the tone you really want. But maybe adding something like a clean Dr Z or Hiwatt or whatever... that might bring in some clarity and solidity missing from just the gainier tone you had dialed in. The pedal models left me less than impressed. The reverbs were good, but I feel they were well less good than a Holy Grail or the Boss/Fender FRV-1. Still, very impressive piece of equipment and if I had any need for that much versatility in one piece, I'd definitely still have mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StevenJM Posted January 18, 2011 Members Share Posted January 18, 2011 i love to be able to use the 'spinal puppet' live if it were cheap. thats my go to amp setting for gain when i'm doing recordings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dwerlin Posted January 19, 2011 Members Share Posted January 19, 2011 I'm in love with my HD300, so much so that I have officially ditched my amp/pedal setup in favor of the following (obligatory pic): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StevenJM Posted January 19, 2011 Members Share Posted January 19, 2011 interesting set up... it'd be nice to just run a power amp into a 4x12 and use the pod as your pre amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members egelmett Posted January 19, 2011 Members Share Posted January 19, 2011 One thing that is definite: the HD500 sounds better (perhaps to some not "significantly" better) and there is a definite difference in the clarity and dynamics of my playing. YMMV Oh, come on! Don't back down on your opinion by giving nay-sayers an inch: "perhaps to some"! I'm just giving you a hard time! It sounds great. WAY better than the XT! As Crats2 said, it's extremely responsive, extremely dynamic. What I enjoy most is the dynamics. Pick soft, it's tamed. Pick hard, it barks. I love to plug into my studio monitors and turn it up. Once the volume is up, it really comes to life! The HD series really is a leap beyond anything Line6 has done before. I have to say, it's one of the best modelers I've used! The downside? Well, there's really no midi implementation beyond patch changes. There's no midi clock sync. The options which the old Pods had for splitting the modeled sound versus a "to amp" sound is not there. But, that's all I have to complain about. The foundation of this thing is the tone. And, it has it. I'll wait for Line6 to implement these other features. It's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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