rchoueri wrote:

 

Neal,

 

I'm curious, when you send back all your beta test items, will you buy the head or combo when you purchase one if you do decide to purchase one? Reason for/against/no vote?

 

I think my DT50 head is in and should be here in NJ around Th this coming week. I'll be able to finally post some substantive findings on the HD500-DT50 interface and decide whether a one head solution will suffice for what I want it to do or if two head solution will be a better option for my rig. I just wish that the JTV59 could have come in at the same time to fully test all three together but after reading all the posts in 'the expected date' thread I surmise Jan will be the earliest target date.

 

That discussion has been been around the world and back and covered just about every minute detail of who in Korea woke up, who showed up for work, how many meals they ate a day, how many bowel movements they had, the unions, the firefight between the two nations, the oceans currents, naval martime laws, line6's policy, line6's silence, line6's wakeup, line6's old course of action, line6's new course of action, who cares, who doesn't care, who is ambivalent, who wants their money back, who doesn't want their money back, what is a headstock, why do we need headstocks, why is it shaped like that, why is it so pretty, why is it so ugly, is it a strat neck, is its a LP neck, is it an Ibanez neck, is it a bird, is it a plane, is it superman's guitar, what is a bass boat, does it need an anchor, the DT50 86lb combo w/o catsers is/is not recommened as a boat anchor, what is a mullet, comparative analysis between a mullet and a douchebag, the new Obama World Order Economics of Doom, and the fact that it now I'm stupid because I ruffled some Obama politically correct drone's feathers. Oh snap! I don't think I can possibly live with myself now. How can I possibly go on? I'm beside myself. I'm having an existential out of body upper room experience.  I am now forced to go take a dump and ponder carefully how I am going to live with myself.

 

Well I guess the shipping delay and that discusson 2437 posts and associated inbox emails later has been exhuasted to death at this point? In case I missed anything from the expected delay thread, please feel free to start an ad continuum ad nauseum thread so we can all vent some more aggressive testosteroni - ~fuggedaboudit!~

 

Be well -

 

~skygod~

I read only the first couple of lines and I am not sure how I misrepresented what I've done to get this HD500 & DT50 I've been trying out.  I did NOT get these for free or to Beta test by anyone from Line 6.  I BOUGHT these products with my own money and it will cost me the price of shipping to and from my home back to NJ's shipping warehouse just for a month's worth of testing that I've been doing.

I put my money where my mouth is and after reading so many conflicting posts about the HD500, I decided to try them out myself and not wait for anyone at Line 6 to possibly set me up with some for testing.  Most of the things I THOUGHT about the HD500 were NOT accurate, and now they are.  I also had no idea as nothing was ever said or advertised that this unit is NOT just for guitar.  It DOES handle Vocal input as well and a Variax bass or standard bass with several patches designed specifically for each other instrument than just guitar.

Why Line 6 chose to add all these things in this unit?  No idea.  Why there are such a limited amount of amps - I think it has to do with the unit being a MULTI-PROCESSOR style unit instead of a guitar preamp, or like every previous POD. Not because of the stated version that they wanted to give 16 GREAT amps instead of 80 no-to-great ones like on the Vetta.  I will agree that SOME of the amps ARE significantly better than those on the Vetta, but in comparing apples to apples, it stacks up like this...

For $500.00 you get a POD HD500 which CAN go directly into a PA or a DAW.  If you are like myself and am not thrilled with having your guitar only in monitors, then you will need to still have an amp/cab/combo of some type to have on stage for yourself.  More money.  For me all the Vocal and bass bits are 100% useless as I already have TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 which does vocals amazingly well and has processing for guitar including some decent sounding distortions & effects.  Very expensive unit, but if ya want great vocal processing - this is the unit to have for live and studio work in my opinion.

The bass section is very small and I already also have all the bass gear I could ever want or need.  Pointless again for me on this unit.  I would have much rather had Line 6 spend it's time and resources building a better Vetta-like POD, then do what they chose to do.  It doesn't even have and on/off switch which is the super high end way to do things base on the TC or Eventide, etc that figure when you're not using it, you will power down your system so why put in a switch.  Very true if that is how you have your gear set up.  How many do not have their gear set up that way??  I bought a 50 cent A/C power on/off in line switch so I could leave the unit plugged in while I was testing.

The DT50 - IS a really excellent tube amp with some flaws in my opinion.  The biggest one is that it is designed like a real tube amp.  It needs to get HOT before it sounds it's best, it needs to be turned up louder than what would be acceptable in bars/small clubs and in most bands for it's sound to truly be heard & felt that they it really sounds as good as it does.  All the punch and other things that a 100% tube amp brings is not there until it's pushed a bit, not on 11, but a bit, however a bit on this amp whether @ 1/2 power or full power settings is still too loud to be practical.  I wish Bogner had thought of this and went smaller with the power section.  50 watts is LOUD AS HELL in any of the Marshall Heads I've owned, so perhaps a smarter thing would be to go to 20 or 25 watt power section which should then bring it into a really useable output volume, PLUS bring down the weight significantly.  The 2-12 combo weighs 86 pound and no casters were included or even pre-drilled for.  Not good design thinking in yet again, my opinion.

These units DO combine together seamlessly with the L6 iLink XLR  connection.  If ya want to control ALL the DT50s modes, preamp settings, power amp settings, you HAVE TO buy a POD HD.  No way to do it any other way.  Salesmanship or another missed design spec?  I'll not comment and let everyone reading decide.

One last thing about the JTV guitars and the POD HD500.  You only have TEN fully recallable (sp?) presets on the guitar Custom bank 1 & 2.  You MUST program or sect and save any alt tuning to one of these ten slots and once done with choosing what guitars and tunings you need for your live performance. Switch the atl tuning knob to MODEL in order for those changes to be "seen" by the POD HD500.  Oh yeah, and this also works with the Vetta, XT, X3 pieces of gear.  Sadly for me ten is not enough to do the shows I do.  The Model 700 allows me to access EVERY patch on EVERY bank once saved in with each amp I want to use with a specific guitar and a specific tuning.

Being able to create and dial alternate tunings on the fly is a great concept.  Also as stated my me many times before - the JTV improved modeling is just that VERY IMPROVED modeling.  See some other previous posts for more detailed descriptions.

What does this all add up to?  Nothing at this time for me as i want a guitar processor that just does guitar with more amp/cab choices.  I want  a unit that will recall EVERY patch in every bank like they used to do.  I want a STEREO tube amp that I can turn up and get that terrific punch and balls that tube amps provide.  And I'd like the total price for both of these things to be not more than $2,500.00.  This price is based on the price of the Vetta new with the longboard controller @ $2,000.00.  I am more than willing to pay extra for all tubes, but only if it is what I already have grown to know and love, but just better.  Not sideways as I believe much of the functions and company choices have made these unit to be.

That's it for me on these units.  I still have a few days worth of time next week before I have to ship them back to keep from being charged a second payment.  If I discover any new bits, good or bad, I'll certainly report them here.  In the meantime, if anyone has any questions, please ask and if I know I'll answer.  If I don't know I'll simply say so or try to find out.

Take care,

Neal

variaxlover wrote:

 

MerlinFL wrote:

I also had no idea as nothing was ever said or advertised that this unit is NOT just for guitar.  It DOES handle Vocal input as well and a Variax bass or standard bass with several patches designed specifically for each other instrument than just guitar. . . .  Why Line 6 chose to add all these things in this unit?  No idea.  Why there are such a limited amount of amps - I think it has to do with the unit being a MULTI-PROCESSOR style unit instead of a guitar preamp, or like every previous POD.

Just want to clarify this for Neal and anyone else who didn't know -- Line 6 made the move to this kind of "multi-processor style unit" with the POD X3 series.  At least the POD X3 Live and the POD X3 PRO have the same features for vocals and bass (not sure about the "bean" version -- never owned one -- but I believe it did too).  Here's a photo of the box from my old X3L where you can see the pictures of an acoustic, a bass and a mic, and blurbs about the new features.  These have been out for what? 2 or 3 years now?

 

 

 

So they didn't "add all these things in this unit" and they definitely did NOT reduce the number of amps in order to add processing for vocals and bass, as Neal theorized.

Yep - I remember glancing at the box when I bought an XT then an X3 POD to try them out.  Never bothered investigating very far into either of those PODs as I knew very quickly they would not be a replacement for my Vetta.

Fair enough - Line 6 did not add these features just for the new POD, but my logic still remains valid in my opinion.  I would rather see Line 6 stick to a guitar only oriented unit and dispense with these additional CPU consuming bits that are not the main selling feature of any POD to date.  Also how does this help Line 6 sell M9s or M13s multi-effect units if (at least in the HD500) they are including things these other units have in abundance?

Here's my simple way of looking at things....

AMAZING new Variax guitar that has everything from slightly better to worlds better modeling that also has mag pups that can produce independent outputs using the VDI connection...PLUS ON THE FLY alt tunings...PLUS the ability to CREATE any tuning in just a few minutes right on the guitar itself.  (CHECK)

AMAZING guitar modeling for amps/cabs/mics (for cab emulation only) that can connect seamlessly with other L6 gear or work great as a stand-alone unit  (CHECK)

AMAZING multi-effects pedalboards M9/M13 for anyone who likes to use lots of effects in various combinations  (Check)

AMAZING all tube amp that is computer configurable with ALL pre/post/mode functions on it's OWN PEDAL that is not required to crank up too loud to be practical to get the full all tube sound and feel. (Check)

This is a wonderful way of getting the most from each separate unit and you only need to buy what you really need to have.  Other functions are potentially useful, but a waste of CPU resources in my opinion.  Especially on the HD500.

Just trying to make my view as clear as possible and no one has to agree or disagree with anything I've just written, but it is one REAL (regular guy in the trenches) live & studio players point of view after trying out all this new gear.

See ya,

Neal

rchoueri wrote:

 

Neal -

 

Too bad it didn't work out for you. Hope you can find what you need for your performance needs in the Vetta II.

 

My DT50 is enroute. Got the email UPS tracker today should be here by Thursday next week. Hopefully it will be everything I hoped for live performance and the PODX3 Pro will remain a studio staple for everything else. BTW do you know if my future ex-wife the the someday to arrive JTV59 that'll hopefully be here before the end of the world 12/23/2012 will work with the POD X3 Pro? I think it uses the old Variax paradigm that you use in the Vetta II right? I haven't been keeping track of the JTV threads and in a nutshell I think should work or partially work with the old Variax yes/no/maybe?

 

Kind regards  -

 

~skygod~

Keeping it short as it'as 4am and I just got home from a gig.

Yes & no - the JTV will work ONLY with custom banks 1 & 2 to recall patches with or without PRE-PROGRAMMED alternate tunings.  All other banks will not respond to patch changes.  Always - PLEASE keep in mind, that in order for any of this to work, the alt tuning knob must be set to MODEL.

There's your 100% factual and accurate answer based on the current software on all equipment.

Take care,

Neal

nickmattocks wrote:

 

Hey Neal

 

I don't know if you've been over on the POD HD forum much.  It just struck me as a bit odd that you were experiencing issues recalling JTV banks and patches using the HD500, but I don't yet have my JTV59 and I'm not expecting it now until after Christmas so wasn't able to test what you were reporting and didn't chip in because of that.  But seeing now that you have succeeded, I'm guessing that maybe you had the HD500 Edit program connected to the HD500 last time when what you were trying didn't work and  not when you succeeded in doing what you wanted.  The editor can throw you a googly now and again, and if you haven't worked out what it's done sometimes and why, you can sometimes think that the HD500 is misbehaving and you end up doing a bit of head scratching.  The number one rule when using the editor is not to also start twiddling knobs on the unit itself or you can end up confusing the unit and/or yourself too.  The editor needs a bit of work IMO to make it slightly more user friendly.  It is very good but definitely has a few wrinkles that need ironing out.  The editor will remember any changes you made on the unit so when you twiddle knobs on the unit, those changes get reflected back to the editor which keeps them for the remainder of the session BUT as long as you don't send those new settings back to the HD500 they're not permanent.  However when you change back to a previously edited but unsaved patch with the editor running it will still be wanting to audition the changed preset with the HD500 and has made some users think that the editor has permanently overwritten the patch in the HD500.   It's possible therefore that if you have a Variax attached that the HD500 Edit program if running and connected could lead you on a wild goose chase in the same sort of way - if that makes sense

 

I might be thinking a little off beam here but....

 

Nick

Hi Nick - Exellent bits of info to be aware of, but my problems were not related to those words of experience and wisdom about the HD500 and the new EDIT software.  I hadn't done anyone of the things you've mentioned, but I certainly will keep all those things in mind as I continue my exploration.

Thanks,

Neal