Community: Message List - I miss my...

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:40:00 GMT

Hahahah! Nice . . .

But back to CroSSed's dilema, I can totally relate to what appears to be an overwheleming amount of info to wade through and an even more daunting array of settings within the POD to come to grips with. And you freel like a ******* because everyone's talking about things you have no experience with an so on. BUT, it really isn't as horrible as it seems and as soon as you build your first simple patch it pretty much all starts to fall into place. Stick with it! You won't be disappointed!

Keep posting questions. No-one's gonna bag you for it. The dudes on this site are fantastic. And check out meanbobbo's site. Very good!

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:04:58 GMT

Use the line6 customtone site. It has all the settings you could ask for. Though in fairness, you'll still likely want to tweak any tones you download to your own taste.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 07:56:21 GMT

I miss my Ferrari F350. I sold it to drive a rickshaw pulled by a team of mice.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:46:42 GMT

Here's another question: Is there a website out there that is dedicated to sharing settings for getting specific tones of other players? Say, for instance, I wanted to capture Eddie Van Halen's tone on the studio version of "Eruption." Is there a place I can go to get the settings? I'm also interested in capturing Alex Lifeson's tones in the pre- Exit Stage Left albums.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:41:34 GMT

Hey CroSSed, this thread is all about what I like about this forum ..... great help from guys that are prepared to put in the time to help and encourage. I've learned so much from these blokes. When you're almost 63 like me and still wanting to expand your sonic capabilities you need all the advice you can get. I bought the "dream rig" (HD500, JTV, DT25 and DT50) so you can imagine my learning curve. Sometimes in feels like you're treading water but then the breakthru comes when a bit more info onthis forum nails the missing piece that's been frustrating forward movement.

To all those that dive in to help (you know who you are) .... thanks from me. Still miss seeing Nick's wisdom!

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:54:37 GMT

If I can add anything to this, as one "I love my tube amp - gone modeller guy" to another, it's that the time invested in learning these things is worth it. In fact, very soon you will reach the point where dialling in tones is as fun as playing. I've spent entire days at it, not because it took that long but because I was having that much fun. You get a new sound, you noodle with it, totally inspired but the novelty of a sound you haven't messed with before. Tweak it a bit more, it turns into something even better and you noodle some more. It becomes an art, in and of itself, and once you have established a good bunch of useable tones, you'll still want and search for more. Because you can, because you know they are in there. In my experience, the cabinent DEP's specifically the "Low Cut", is your friend. It takes the boominess out of some of the cabinets and gives them a more focused sound.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:36:06 GMT

phil_m wrote:

After reading your original post in this thread and some of your later comments, I guess my question for you would be what persuaded you to buy the HD500 in the first place? You seemed to be happy with your amp setup to a degree, but there must have been something that pushed you towards the HD500.

I read his reason why he did what he did - he wanted more amp choices and that is what lead him to buying the POD HD500.

I guess in addition to the advice given here already, I would say that rather than trying to do everything all at once, the way to approach a modeler at first is to limit your choices. Stick to one or two amp models, and get them to sound good and then add effects. Trying to make all the amp models sound the way you want is a sure way to get frustrated.

I could not agree more with this statement. I did my work that after quickly realizing this POD HD500 unit was not anything like my Vetta other than it was modeling amps from the real world. I got very fustrated for a few months and had to walk away. I thought after all my experience with a few pieces of modeling pieces of Line 6 gear (Spiders & previous POD pedalboards), that I'd be well-equipped to handle anything new. Wow, was I wrong about that thinking. New design really meant...new design!

I hope all these posts help you and anyone else who chooses to find and read all that is here.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:29:08 GMT

I am hoping I can start a subscription based or per incident based video tutorial/problem resolution service. I have no idea if anyone would actually pay for something most can get here free, but I'll never know unless I try. I have several very good people that are encouraging me to give this a shot and perhaps might even work with me that have similar and also differing knowledge, experience, and suggestions on how to get from point A to B, or resolve a problem, or even like the gentleman who started this thread - just to get this high tech Line 6 gear up and running in a way that makes each user happy with their purchase.

Meambobbo has some great instructive docs - especially for the heavier sounds.

But all this gear can do so many things if you have one or more of the "Dream Rig combination...a JTV guitar, a POD HD500/PRO unit, and a DT50/25 amp. This is not even taking other gear into consideration and just touching the tip of a very big iceberg that is the combination of these pieces. The heart of all this gear is obviously the POD HD500 or HD PRO unit and these are by far the most complex with the most possible set up configurations. Everything is adjustable from the input through multiple signal paths and then into a huge variety of output set ups into the DT amp via L6 Link, or into any other solid state/tube guitar amp, or into a solid state tube or plain power plant into one or more cabs with all sorts of speaker options.....WHEW!!!

I've had over two years with the POD HD500 and about 18 months with the POD HD PRO. I've been fortunate enough to have been part of the Beta teams for all the gear in the Dream Rig and got a bit more insight on how things started and finalized. However, I wish to make note that the Beta experience while certainly flattering and productive, it honestly did not give me any more personal knowledge of HOW this gear works. After all , the gear was finalized to what it is now at 2.02 for the POD HD units and 1.82 for the JTV and I'm not sure what is the most recent public DT50/25 amp software...but in any case - it really does take quite a bit of learning. This - I've said numerous times on numerous posts - "This is NOT a plug & play piece of gear. Anyone buying this equipment should be ready and willing to spend the time it takes to get to know all the POD HD500 & HD PRO units can do."

Someone else posted an excellent point about just a small portion of the work involved to truly assess exactly how this gear can work for each person who is interested. Sadly, there truly are no "shortcuts" and even downloading tons of patches, bundles, etc. from Customtone.com which I always recommend as a helpful starting pint for those frustrated like the original poster here just getting some workable patches that can be much easily adjusted to all the variables we each want or need for our guitar work however we each use the gear.

As much as passed between myself and Line 6, I'll NOT throw them completely under the bus because they CHOSE to design two top of the line "Flagship" units that are not for those who have no desire to spend countless hours upon hours dialing in, testing, trying, tweaking, finalizing - and then do it all again until you get the sound you are after.

As an example of my first experience with Line 6 gear, I bought the original Vetta 2x12 300watt combo. I literally sat in my room with that amp sitting next to my Marshall Plexi (4-input jump jack with no variac, but a power brake between head and the sweetest Ampeg 4x12 cab I filled with 16 ohm 25w Greenbacks which I wired in parallel to achieve a 4 ohm cabinet load), Marshall Silver Jubilee and Marshall 30th Anniversary heads both with 1960B 4x12 cabs (due to the better low end response from the internal standing waves inside the straight B cab instead of the thinner sounding A top cab all using my 1972 LP Standard I've had for decades. I never took the Vetta amp to a single gig until I created a patches that could mimic all of these Marshall amps that I had been playing for a long time especially the Plexi.

It took me two solid months of setting, testing, tweaking...repeating...and what I found to get that open back combo to sound like my closed back Marshall heads with 4x12 cabs was to use dual amp patches. There are even a Silver J, a Plexi, and in the final Vetta release the Model 2000 which is about as close to the 30th Anniversary 2.5 channel head amp models Line 6 put into the Vetta software along with a total of 80 amp/cab models including the whole spectrum of Line 6 original amp models. Nearly none of the individual models had all the characteristics I got from my Marshalls. But I found when using two - even if neither were a Marshall modeled amp, I was able to get as close as a bunch of computer chips in a 2x12 open back cab with solid state power could ever get. And my reaction was confirmed at my first gig and all the guitar players noticed I had an amp none of them had ever seen before, plus the non-guitar players/audience had nothing but compliments about my ability to get all sorts of sounds that were needed to cover all the variety of music and bands I was now able to do that I could never truly do with all of my Marshalls put together.

I've certainly rambled long enough yet again, but I wanted to share my personal experience with the original poster of this thread and any others who have chosen to read all posts written here. If any here want simple plug and play and give that money to Line 6, then just buy a DT50 or 25 in whatever configuration you like best. Plug in your guitar and any stomps boxes, and you'll be extremely happy. The DT amp on it's own with multiple configurations is one of the best products to come from Line 6 since the Vetta in my opinion. Plug & play (the DT amps have a tiny learning curve) add whatever FX to the loop or to the input...add a guitar...and you're good to go.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:23:32 GMT

This is too funny and too true.

I miss my Pod HD500 (which I sold) and my Pod HD desktop (which I traded back in). I'm completely Line 6-less these days and it kind of bums me out.

Re: I miss my...

support@line6.com — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:39:50 GMT

Honestly, if you hate tweaking and delving into the details that much you may have been better off with the HD300 or 400. I think your comment kind of illustrates why Line 6 broke the HD product line up the way it did. They're trying to be all things to all people, and that's a difficult balance to achieve.

After reading your original post in this thread and some of your later comments, I guess my question for you would be what persuaded you to buy the HD500 in the first place? You seemed to be happy with your amp setup to a degree, but there must have been something that pushed you towards the HD500.

I guess in addition to the advice given here already, I would say that rather than trying to do everything all at once, the way to approach a modeler at first is to limit your choices. Stick to one or two amp models, and get them to sound good and then add effects. Trying to make all the amp models sound the way you want is a sure way to get frustrated.