Line 6 POD. OMG.

Okay. That's it.

I am giving up.

I can't make my amp sound the way I want it to.

I don't have enough money to keep buying amps until I am happy with the tones.

But there's Line 6 POD 2.

Or even better, PODXT Pro

Only because it'll cost less then a Mesa or Marshall or 5150 halfstack, and in my limited condition will probably work better.

Should I bite the bullet?

Get the POD. It's much easier and cheaper to dink around trying to find your sound on a POD than on a series of actual amps.

Double post

Be prepared for an onslaught!

I don't like the Pod for tracking but... go buy one. Better yet, spend $100 on ebay for the 1st version. Here's why... it'll allow you to try different types of amp styles and will get you more familar with what it is you want.

Of course the Pod doesn't really nail those sounds well enough to make me smile, but it does nail them well enough for me to know I'm not really interested in a Boogie but I am in a little Fender, a Vox Ac30, and an early Marshall. I'm more prepared now answering the question, "Should I bring my Marshall or my Twin?"

Once you start tracking with it you'll get pretty burnt out on it fairly quick, but it does have it's uses down the line is is good to have around.

If you get the POD, try doing some of the emulations through your amp and see if you get closer to what you want, just as a fun experiment. And also, putting a little room in your recordings by micing your amp (even if you are using the POD) is never a bad thing. See what you think.

Also, have you considered looking into the Vox ToneLab? I like the emulations, sounds, etc. better than the PODs I've heard so far.

I keep meaning to ask...what amp are you using, why don't you like it, and do you dislike it when you are simply listening to the amp, trying to record it, or both? Why do you suppose the amp is not bringin' the goods?

Most important in plugging in your pod is what kind of guitar amp you are plugging into and even more important how.

For most Pod users it seems the best solution for the pod is to go with a "atomic" amp. do a search on google...

Or in my case and many others we've gone to an all around keyboard amp... Yes that's right I said keyboard amp.

For me I have a traynor K4 that just rawks with my pod xtLive.

The main reason I went with this setup is so when I'm making sound patch it works both for live and in the studio so I always sound the same... I assume you're using "Edit" and all those resources... when I first started up I used "user patches" from the online community that were great starting points...

If you have to use a typical gitar amp, make sure you bypass the pre's and plug into the fx's return on the back of the amp.

That way you're not going to add a pre amp to a pre amp...

As well when you make your sounds you really need to audition them at the volume you're gonna play them at... Bedroom or headphone volumes don't traslate at all to stage.

Yes you'll be doing some tweaking but the different sounds that can be made are cool. I don't emulate either I make "my" signature sound!

Later;)

If you like the pod, get the pod.

If you don't like the pod, don't get the pod.

I have a Pod XT over here and I don't much care for it. (It's on long term loan from a friend who does like it but has other things going on and needed somehwere to park it.)

But then I don't much care for most of the guitar sounds I hear in contemporary pop, so there ya go.

If I was -- heaven forfend! -- in a cover band (it would have to be a very lame cover band 'cause I certainly don't have the chops many of my working brothers and sisters do ), I'd probably have some sort of digital box where I could punch up the "latest sounds" and feel fine about it.

Most kiddie bands I record love the POD's for some reason I have 3 different kinds Line 6, J-station and of curse the infamous Behringer, I use them with a headphone amp which each member has a POD signal in their cans and a clean signal which they can't hear, the clean signal will be re-amped later on. The reason I do this way is because I get the whole band in one room with the drummer and then I can track the drummer with the whole band playing their tune without bleed issue from the real amps in my kind of small spare room/studio. Then when I 'm ready for mix down a lot of the guitar players that are using the POD's just for a scratch track insist that I leave it in and blend it in with the re-amped guitar which I do. So yea I say you can have the best of both worlds a real amp and a POD blended mix hell I believe I read some where they're were even commercial studio's using this techque guess that where I learned it .

I've got a sweet-sounding tube amp with reverb and tremolo. Basically, the thing sounds great the minute I fire it up no matter what the setting is.

IMHO those things are fine for the appartment dweller who can only play on headphones, but for a real electric guitar sound nothing sounds like the real thing.

What amp do you have? What guitar do you have? What do you want them to sound like?

-Dan.

it's peavey classic 50

i use either a fender am strat with emg 89 / 85, or gibson lp stock

we play some kind of metal-screamo

the amp per se is by no means a boutique piece of gear, but not too bad too. however, everything i record with it, be it it's own dirt or running mesa v-1 in front, sounds VERY midrangey, to the point of sounding like there's a "telephone" effect. I normally record things through a marshall cab, and it's much better, but still not as full sounding as i'd like it to be.

we use sm57, md421 and oktava mics, once or twice i used a vintage ribbon mic, but it was too dark.

however, investing in a better cab is like 700 USD, and I will have to haul around a 40 kg combo AND a cab.

still lots of incosistency in the studio tonewise.

a new amp + cab - think 5150+1960 will set me back 1500 pesos at least.

Pod Pro XT is 400-500 usd used off ebay.

I know I am probably going a less natural way, guitar wise, but lots of people tour and record with PODs, and keeping in mind the fact that i don't have access to a really good studio or a collection of decent amps, it really looks like a workable solution.

What I'm trying to get at is if the amp tone sounds good in the room but not in the recording, the problem may be with either your room, signal chain, technique, or some combination of the above. I mention this only because you don't seem to be dissatisfied with the tone of the guitar amp in the room (is this correct?).

You know, I must be a funny cuss...

(Well, duh.)

Anyhow, for some reason, reading this thread has given me the itch to pull that Pod XT back out and give it another whirl.

Maybe it's cause last time I plugged into my Blues Jr I decided it needed to be retubed... maybe it's cause I was playing d.i. the other night via the instrument input on my MOTU 828mkII and the slight internal CueMix monitor latency didn't bug me as it has in the past... in fact, unless I thought about it, I didn't notice it. It was odd. In the past, it's simply made me uncomfortable. Maybe my sense of fine time is going in my dotage... if so, maybe I'm ready for the Pod.

The Pod will do great for you if you want to have several different sounds that do not sound good. Really the Pod is awful, even the Vox Tone lab has made great improvements so its not awful, its just not any good.

saying the Pod can emulate a real amp is like saying you have been to Italy because you went to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. They sound nothing like the amps they claim to emulate and they sound just plain bad regardless.

The biggest problem with all the amp emulators though is that they will make everything thing else on the records sound worse. Your drums, vocals, keys, acoustics etc will all sound worse because you used the Pod for guitars.

Fortunately, this is a peice of gear you can definitely try before buying. Take a couple hours, go to a Sam Ash or Guitar Center, or whatever else you have nearby. Bring your guitar. Compare the POD to other amps there, and to what you're used to at home.

I have a POD 2.0 and I hate the thing. It's noisy and all the distortion types on it sound fake to me. The clean channels are pretty decent but that's about it.

I've heard good things about some of line 6's actual amplifiers though.

Check the all about POD forum, it will help. First of all I like the POD XT and I have gotten excellent results with it. For live work it is great, now for recording I never use it direct. Run it through a amp and mic it and you will get much better results. Also try everything you can, for example I use my pod set on direct through my amp for the best results (which many people don't even try). I have been told many times that people love the tones I get and I have never heard any complaints, heck in many cases you most likely never knew I used the POD. Just remember dont record direct with it or it will sound fake.

For the price it is a very good tool.

Wow.

Thanks for advice , they say one negative feedback is worth five positive ones.

The thing is, that I need to - being the low life I am - I need to find a workable solution which would set me on a solid ground with recording. I could probably afford a decent head and a decent cab, but it is impossible to just go and try things out; moreover, it is incredibly difficult to find a dealer that could sell me a particular peace of gear locally, unless it's a Behringer or Yamaha; and even more difficult to sell an expensive peace of gear in case it doesn't work out the way it is expected to. I don't even want to mention the recording part of the story. Unfortunately, I am not sure a fancier amp would yield noticeably better results then my miserable C50 in all those small studios we record at.

Phil, an additional "thank you" for taking the time to listen to the tracks on myspace.

I still have/use an original Pod Pro. For live, I run it directly into a Crown D150, then into an old 2x12 cabinet. Never had a complaint about the sounds, and it covers any sound that I'll ever need. Two points. You really need the footswitch board for live apps. Also, the internal reverb is kinda suckie, but a good reverb could easily be inserted after the Pod.

The other night we were tracking a Motown type tune, and the bass just didn't sound right. For kicks we inserted the Pod to the recorded track.. using EQ, compression and a little overdrive. Mission accomplished! Surprised the hell out of all of us. Good investment if you can catch a deal.

Best, Paul

I've got one; it's a very nice tool for making demos of songs for band members or sketching ideas; but if Line 6 POD tones are in the same ballpark, please shoot me before I spend the money on a piece of gear like that.

i took part in a small project recently, sort of lo fi - trip hop kind of thing, and we did all guitars in guitar rig 2.. but we wanted a "weirdo" kind of tones, for example - we ran several drum tracks through reaktor 5 fx, and main rhythm guitars were GR'igged- something like autowah > comp > bass amp > two bass cabs

I use a Vox ToneLab SE for live use. It's great for that. I mean, really surprisingly good. I put it through a Carr Rambler, and I'm quite happy with it.

Does it sound like choice boutique effects? Absolutely not.

It enables me to be able to fit the recordings somewhat, going from really clean unaffected tones to wah-wah/delay/distortion on the dime, something I couldn't do with my other pedals.

I rarely record with the Vox ToneLab because I can get a better tone with my amp and various pedals (if that's what I am using). However, I've recorded direct with the Vox ToneLab once or twice because I had to throw down a sound really fast and didn't have an amp available. Even though I've always favored sticking a mic in front of a great cab, I was surprised at how good it sounded, much better than a POD, in my opinion. And I've recorded the Vox ToneLab through my Carr Rambler once, and was quite impressed with that.

I'll always try and go for the best sound I can, which in my opinion is to mic the amp, but if my amp or pedals aren't around, I feel confident that I can still lay down a good tone with the Vox.