Pick up response on POD HD....something odd??

[porcytree]

Have been using my POD HD for a couple of years or so mainly using my Gibson Les Paul Standard and my Fender Tele - both guitars are completely stock ( no mods and the original pups ). Once I got the POD dialled into each guitar I have been completely happy with the tones I get.

 

However, I have recently begun to use a couple of different guitars and have discovered something odd.

 

One of the "new" guitars is actually the guitar I've had the longest ( bought 2nd hand in 1989 - it's a '85 Washburn G20v, a "Super Strat" style guitar with 2 HBs ( stock Washburn HBs ) which can coil tap to SCs.

This guitar sounds amazing through the POD in both HB and SC modes (hell, I've even got some really cool 80s "Hair Metal" tones from the JCM 800 model which I have never liked when using the LP or Tele.

 

The other "new" guitar is a new Yamaha Pacifica 611 - which comes stock with a Seymour Duncan HB (which coil taps) in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan P90 in the neck.

These I would regard as "higher spec" than on any of my other guitars ( many players swap out the stock Pups on Gibson and Fender guitars ).

This  guitar sounds amazing through my amp but my POD absolutely "hates" it. The actual tones are pretty good (once dialled in) but there is a noticeably "soft attack" when I hit the strings. It's like there is a slight "lag" between hitting the string and the note sounding.

 

I haven't a clue as to why this should be. The pick ups aren't particularly "hot" nor "modern voiced" (more classic/hard rock/vintage voiced) 

Could it be that the PODs don't like "higher spec" pick ups.

 

Anyone else had a similar experience.

[scias23]

I used to use a stock Washburn HSH bought from the 90s (not mine). The guitar sounds good through the spider iii amp, but when I use it with the POD HD, it seems that the sound is too ice pick-y. I can't even use the full amp models because the fizz is unbearable. I exclusively used the pre amp models with that guitar.

 

The guitar was once submerged to floodwater. Surprisingly, the pickups still worked. Maybe the pickups are the reason why the POD HD hates it.

[pianoguyy]

I have an old Jackson, with a 1200-midboost circuit. 

The effect is awesome on my 'old' gear. But it seems non existent on my hd500. 

 

So, in other words, its not just you. 

But I am not too concerned with it. One of the reasons I got the pod was to update my gear and become more modern, more generic. Pink sparkles is not usable in every situation. 

[porcytree]

thanks for the replies guys.

 

interesting that it seems to be your older guitars that don't quite work with your PODs whereas, for me, it's my newest guitar (with "higher spec" pickups) that doesn't seem to work so well.

 

my old Washburn works really well with my amp (Blackstar ID 15) and my POD.....yet it didn't seem to work to well with my older Tube amps ( Blackstar HT40 and Laney VC30).

 

very odd indeed.

[BillBee]

Hey not sure how much of this you haven't already tried but here goes:

 

Have you tried resetting the noise gates/compressor you have in the chains? (EQs may be worth a look at too).

 

A few of the hotter pu's I have seem to trigger the "squash" faster then others.

 

But I hear what you guys are saying and there are times where a patch has to be tweaked per guitar.

 

-B

[porcytree]

Yeah tried adjusting the noise gate settings and still notice this "problem" purely on the one guitar (I pretty much don't use the compressors).

 

As I mentioned, the pick ups on the Yamaha aren't particularly "hot" - certainly not as hot as the Burstbuckers on my Gibson.

The pickups (Seymour duncans) have quite an "open" sound " so I wonder whether the signal hitting the POD is maybe too "pure" - the pickups on my Tele and my Gibson can both be quite "gnarly" when cranked whilst the Duncans on the stay quite open and clean.

[phil_m]

Have you tried changing the input Z parameter at all? That changes the actual impedance of the guitar input, so that may make a difference in how your guitar reacts.

[gunpointmetal]

That's strange. Over the last year I've gone from crappy stock Schecter pickups, to adding a preamp to them, to some really nice SD Nazgul/Sentient pickups and there was a noticeable difference throughout each change, but I can say that the more "open" qualities of the Nazgul/Sentient set have made the POD, for me, feel and sound more lively. Is there a possibility that you have some microphonics going on somewhere?

[porcytree]

Again thanks for the replies.

 

Haven't tried changing the Z yet - still set to Auto, so will have a little tweak with that.

 

Hey there Gunpoint - no I don't think there's a problem with the pick ups ( though I will ask my tech guy to check them out ).

The guitar sounds great through my amp ( digital not tube ).

 

Again, the actual guitar tones through the POD are great - there's just this "soft attack" effect that occurs when using this particular guitar.

 

I have re-read my description of the tone of the pick ups and I wasn't quite accurate.

The pick ups aren't "hot" ( so not good for metal/djent ) but still hot enough for Classic/Hard rock.

The tone quality with the pick up volume " cranked" would be almost Les Paul-like but with a little hint of Fender wide-range HB on top (so a bit more bright and "open" than a Les Paul but certainly not "ice pick" highs).

As you lower the volume of the pick up it stays open/bright with not much "muddying" high end roll-off.