Community: Message List - I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:22:47 GMT

No additional stomps with either my HD300 or my M13.I bought them so I don't have to use anything else at a gig and they both work great! Great tools for working pros! I have three pedal boards with individual hand picked pedals when I need them(mostly for recording) but for playing live these Line 6 units are unbeatable. I use an HD300 and a Roland GR-55 for most of what I do and I can do almost anything between the two! Great age to be an electric musician these days!

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:15:08 GMT

Oh ... and for the record, I am unable to edit the post directly about this one!!!!

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:07:22 GMT

Just remember that the HD series is stuffed full of the same FX as the M Series and they are pure effects units. You can get more concurrent effects out of an HD500 than an M13 and that is why I bought mine.

I bought my HD500 as an effects unit and that is still primarily how I use it. I progressively use more of the amp modelling but I have a great (real) amp and so the amp modelling is something that I am coming into rather than a raison d'etre.

The effects vary from the sublime to the ridiculous but there are more than enough in there to hit my bases and I can get most of what I want out of the unit without additional stomps.

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:57:28 GMT

Its not supposed to be used like that. I mean, I know there are no rules, and I am the first person to say "try everything and see if you like it." In this case, you tried it and didnt like it.

Its cool that people want to help, this is a great forum for that, but in reality - the POD isnt supposed to be used like a stompbox into the front of an amp. It is designed to be a complete amp/fx modeller. It is supposed to take the place of your preamp and FX. The combo/stack front output modes are there so that you can use it as a fll modeller into the front of an amp with passable results, not so that you can use it like a stompbox into your amp like normal, with your amp doing all the preamp/tone shaping/etc.

Put it ino a power amp (via FX return, power amp in, into a dedicated power amp, etc) or use it Stufio mode into an FRFR system, and you will have none of these problems with low end.

L6 is kind of doing us a disservice saying that it can do everything for everyone.... If you want stompboxes in front of an amp, use stompboxes in front of an amp. If you want to simulate using stompboxes into the front of an amp without carrying all that crap around, use a POD and a power amp.

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:58:55 GMT

I have been running my HD300 into the effect return of an Egnater Tweaker head with a Celestion loaded closed back 1x12 cab and it has more low end than I need. Of course I am trying to stay out of the bass players frequency range. I realize a lot of metal players like to play in the same frequency spectrum as the bass player. After updating my HD300 to the newest firmware I can turn of my cab sims and it works very well in front of my non-effect loop equipped amps. Very cool!

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 06:31:09 GMT

Hi all.

Thank you for all suggestions.

I didn't try to plugin HD 300 in front of my amp, because I use Green Rhino as my boost/tight pedal and I don't need wah for now.

But yesterday I finally tried to use HD 300 in the FX loop of my amp with compressor, noise gate, chorus for clean and delay for solos and I have to say it's working just great!

I wanted to by separate pedals for delay, noise gate and maybe chorus or phaser, but now it seems that HD 300 works just fine in a FX loop.

So this is how it looks now.

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:41:37 GMT

+1 Phil. I use effects only and it sounds just fine. Some effects are great, some not so but generally I think they are pretty good.

I have an HD500 too but it looks like the setup on the HD300 may be a bit different with regard to output modes. If you are turning amp modelling off: you might try turning the switch on the back to 'Studio' and see how things sound then.

If that does not work too well then

Turn it back to 'Live'
Go into setup and choose output mode='ComboAmp'

That may avoid the EQ that is imposed on the 'Front' modes on the HD. Cant say for sure ...

Try it.

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:05:19 GMT

Well, I've used the HD500 in front of several different tube amps for effects only, and I've not noticed any tone loss to the magnitude being described here. There will be some with any effects pedal, and even a true bypass pedal can result in tone loss because of the extra cable involved.

One thing to remember is that if you're using any of the HDs for effects only, the correct output mode is really Studio Direct or one of the power amp modes. In the "front" modes the high and low rolloffs and the focus settings are still active even if the amp and cab modeling are bypassed. I suspect this might be what some people are experiencing.

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:01:25 GMT

I tried both - bypass all effects and with effects on.

I tried both - amp output mode and line output mode.

I tried also different settings from software level (stack combo etc).

My signal was weak in all cases. I tried it in lead channel and clean channel on my amp. Higain was not so higain and clean was muddy at all.

Now I need to buy a few analog pedals to complete my rig

Re: I tried POD HD 300 in front of tube amp as a effects unit...

support@line6.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:54:54 GMT

It's really lack of a dry analog signal path that is sucking all your tone. I tried it in the loop as well as up in front and just plain simple doesn't work. I think maybe one would do better with the line 6 mutli effcts units if one likes line 6 effects. Nothing new..... The PODXT was the exact same way. Just not meant to be a multi-effects unit.