JTSC777

I am an HD500 user strictly for live gigging.I would not record with one unless asked too.Yes a JC-120 model would be nice as I play a lot of Wes/Benson type tones on my straight ahead jazz gigs but Wes and Benson(whom I saw long before he had vocal hit records) used Fender Twins and the Twin in my HD500 is damn good. As for acoustic tones if you play through FRFR powered speakers it's easy to write a patch with a compressor/e.q./limiter /chorus if you like for acoustic.I do this with my VG Strat and HD500 and it works very well with the acoustic models in the VG Strat. I have owned every floor based amp modeller since Digitechs RP-1 and I will tell you this HD500 absolutely amazes me with it's tone/feel/effects/amp choices etc...Really really digging it.And since I bought it used if someone falls on it with a full beer in a club and kills it I can just go online and buy another one and keep on rollin'!

It is stereo and a great practice tool.I have found it very easy to balance my HD500 patches with my Mp3/Ipod tracks for practice and learning material.I always make sure my extension cable is good and yes the cable is fully inserted into the jack.

As am I. I have recently purchased a whistle clean HD500 and am considering getting into this Variax business with the rest of you.I have and use a Roland VG-Strat and it's quite good but the POD and Variax together are something else. I just don't want to disappear down a tweaking/string balancing /workbenching etc...rathole.I did that chasing my jazz muse for about 20 years LOL!

John McFee of the Doobie Brothers(and many other recording gigs) is amazing with the Variax and has used one for many years. I saw him in 2010 with the Doobies in Hollywood using a Variax and a POD. He played electrics/acoustics/banjos etc... and IMHO his tones killed the other guitarists conventional PRS/Strat/335 etc...into tube amp tones. But I think he could do pretty well with a couple of rubber bands and some popsicle  sticks. That Guy Can Play!

If it's new take it back to the retailer and get another. If it is used as mine is I had the same problem. That switch gets used a lot as it is also the tuner access and tap tempo. I opened my unit and replaced the tiny switch under the plunger/footswitch. This is not easy to do and I recommend you have a friend with soldering electronic skills help you or take it to a repair shop. Cleaning it might help and you can squirt a little contact cleaner down into it and gently work it a few times and see if that helps.

Good Luck!

I still keep a Boss GT10 around for this reason. It does have global e.q. I play with 6 different bands some of whom do shows with house P.A. gear so I understand your pain. If I know I have a gig using a house/provided P.A. I will use the Boss unit or sometimes I will run my POD HD500 or GT10 into a small Behringer mixer so I have some way of compensating for the crappy P.A.(that usually comes with a sound man with a tin ear LOL). The little mixer can also be used to do a mix with your in-ears if the sound man can give you a drop(line) from the monitor mix.I then mix that with my POD in my in-ears and it works well. Although this is a bit oif a problem IMHO it is way way worse when using a conventional guitar rig.Tube amps always sound /behave differently from venue to venue and mic.ing an amp in a situation with house PA is something I don't miss at all.(To the OP)-you will have to experiment a bit and perhaps carry/setup a small mixer to get it figured out. 

Good Luck!

Some of us(yourself not included) do not need a frame of reference for creating realistic tones on these modellers.Some of us do. My point is if you have never played through a Twin/good Marshall or a Vox AC30 it might be a little challenging to replicate it with a modeller. I have owned and still have a few of these amplifiers but when I go to work this weekend for a club date and then a  casual(wedding) the HD500/GR55 and FRFR speakers/in-ears will go with me and It will go like it always does for me .Very well.Playing wise and paying wise.I will not have to worry about tubes shorting out or carrying my tube amps/cabs in and out of these places and with in-ears the powered speakers are optional. The path of least resistance is the one I choose.YMMV depending on what you want to do.I was the second working pro in my city to buy an original first generation Flextone amp after tracking commercials all day the day before with Amp Farm. So yes I have been using these things since the beginning when we slogged through the snow with our Flextones and Shure Vocal master P.A. systems.

Some bands I work with use set lists some don't. What I do and have done with every processor I have ever used(Digitech RP-1/2000/Boss GT3/GT10/Roland GR55 etc...) is set up 4 patches  starting with bank 1

             Bank 1 General Purpose

1.Funk

2.Clean Chorus

3. Marshall or Boogie style crunch/lead

4. Marshall or Boogie etc..crunch /lead with Fuzz and Tube Driver always available(when i use my HD500)

            Bank 2 Roots/Country/Blues

1. Fender Twin w/Tube Driver and EQ pedal boost available 

2. Fender Deluxe w/ "                                                     "

3.Dr.Z w/                 "                                                       "

4. VOX AC30 w/ "                                                            "

           Bank 3 -Jazz

1 thru 4 variations of Fender twin tones for Wes/Benson type things

and maybe a Robben Ford patch in slot 4

           Bank 4

1. Acoustic sim.

2.Clean Chorus/Twin

3. Treadplate crunch

4.Another slightly hotter Treadplate or other heavy amp tone w/lead boost available at all times

I don't use the set list feature as of yet. With my patches arranged like this I can cover and most importantly get to almost anything I need in a couple of seconds as most of the time the bandleaders on my gigs call "audibles" instead of using set lists.

At the end of the recording day IRs' or no IRs'  my tube amps and various cabs are going to sound better. To spend so much time auditioning/choosing/tweaking and money on external gear just doesn't make sense to me as a working pro. The clients I record for especially the main one insist on my playing tube amps and cabs although I tried to use some modelling gear on the last album I recorded for them they would not go for it. Having said that I had some time this morning to really dig into the cabinet sims in my recently aquired HD500 and I think they sound great through good headphones/good studio monitors and cranked up into my Atomic Reactor active wedge with 6L6s' in it. If I need a real speaker cabinet live or for recording I will use one. For all other situations live the HD 500 cabs are quite good IMHO . Yeah some of them don't sound so good but neither do the real ones to my ears. Lots of things to tweak and experiment with when it comes to the HD500s' included cabs. I am hoping to use it to record at least some of my next project and perhaps blend it with real speakers/cabs. 

Also quite a few real tube amps have some fizzy sound to them especially when using them for gain. A good JCM800 has some of this. I know because I have a very well maintained 1982 50 watter. A whole lot of realism is modelled into these Line 6 amps and not all of it is pleasant. You have to dial it out and "live" with it a while just like a real amp.It took me a few years to learn how to use that JCM because I learned on Twins and Hiwatts and Bassmans. Now I can play everything from straight ahead jazz to Metallica on it. 

The 4 cable method is one of the best things about  using the M13.It works very well with my Marshall JCM800 4010 combo/Fender HRDLX and BDRI combos and my Egnater Tweaker head/cab.I recorded the band Follys Pools latest album "Out Of A Dream" using that Egnater and M13 for  almost the entire album.Using the M13 made it one of the most enjoyable sessions I have ever done and I have done many over the years. You will get it going just be patient. The combination of that Orange amp and M13 should do just about anything you want it to do.

Good luck and Have Fun!

I also have just purchased a used HD 500 from Guitar Center and it interfaces perfectly with my Windows 7 computer as do my used Roland GR55 and very used Boss GT10 . Remember when you download drivers /editors etc... you have to launch them and follow all installation instructions exactly or they are not "installed". I never registered anything regarding this HD 500 unit I just downloaded and installed the correct drivers/editor and I was downloading customtone patches in about 20 minutes. Line 6 is much less fiddly than the Roland stuff.

I hope you get it figured out because these HD units are great sounding and a lot of fun.The Boss/Roland stuff I use is very utilitarian and has great build quality but the Line 6 gear is a lot more fun IMHO.

Good Luck!

If you do not have access to real tube amps and pedals you will have a very hard time using any guitar amp modelling devices. I always use my tube amps and pedals(JCM800/Fender BDRI-HRDLX/Egnater Tweaker etc...) when making tones with any modeller. I don't think I could do it without those tools.

There is one player in my area who has an original Soldano half stack. Not a Jet City piece of junk. The Line 6 POD HD500 Soldano sounds exactly like it and yes it is a great very usable tone.Clapton played them for quite a while for a reason.One of L6s best sounds ever!

I play paying gigs in all kinds of situations 4 to 6 nights/days a week.I also record and am a paid session guitarist. For working players who play 80 per cent covers as a chunk of their living all of these modelling devices in the 500 dollar price range are a great thing.I think that is who Line 6 is mostly aiming at customer wise. For me personally to not have to transport/maintain/tube amps/speaker cabs etc... to most of my gigs(their are of course exceptions) has been a great thing and has increased my profit per gig. I think that a few players who maybe don't have the best skill set and think they need a bunch of gimmicky( 8 reverbs/ 3 tremelos/4 phasers/3 amps etc...) effects are looking to the HD units when they should be buying a bunch of pedals and cables to make those silly sounds. In the hands of a good skilled player with a well maintained well setup instrument these HD units are tough to beat.I just don't think they are made to do 6 choruses/3 reverbs/ a helicopter rotary flanger etc...and IMHO I have heard enough of those silly sounds from  few recent records my son listens to. I gave him a Cream album/a Hendrix album and a few others so he could get some perspective on what the guitar should sort of sound like. If you want to sound like a synth get a Roland GR55 like I do and play weird envelope follower/phasey/moog type sounds with it. I am very grateful that Line 6 and Boss/Roland still make such inexpensive powerful units for us to use in the field. Man we are so spoiled.

I just bought and started using an HD500 and made this a global setting and I can tell you that this thing sounds great period! Really digging it and it will soon replace my Boss GT10 which will become my backup.

Great thread very interesting. I use these modelling devices (Roland GR55/Boss GT10/Line 6 HD 500 etc...) a lot through either 2 Alto powered 10 in or 12 in FRFR speakers or even sometimes an Atomic Reactor wedge (the one with 6l6s in it).They all sound good and do the job but depending on what I am doing and who I am working with I will also use various tube amps/cabs/pedals and  or an M13. IMHO the OP will get better results not using the HD500 for most of his gigs.The "realsim" of the tones he is seeking from an HD500/FRFR rig may not ever sound right to his ears as he is very used to tube power sections/guitar cabs. I don't ever get used to anything because I am always changing it up for the situation. My next large show is with an original band (Follys Pool) and I am using either my Boss GT10 or HD500 direct to the board with in-ears and one Alto 10 FRFR just for some reactance between the guitar and speaker. I am doing this because the main vocalist is a very quiet singer who has hearing problems.The following week i will be with a 6 piece female fronted rock band that has a lead vocalist that sings loud as hell. For that it will be a Fender HRDLX/cab or JCM800 combo/cab pedals.I no longer try to get these modellers to do everything in  every situation. I use them when they work and when they don't I use something else.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

For cover gigs all I use are modelers these days. I have a nice collection of tube amps for recording and for my own enjoyment and pedals too. I started using Amp Farm in studios to record commercials 20 years ago and bought the second Line 6 Flextone in my town a week later. It still kills! Great amp. At the end of the day I have had enough of biasing and servicing my own tube amps. They are temperamental difficult things  and mine are only used occasionally and never for a cover band gig. All of this technological guitar stuff has come a very long way and I am reaping the benefits of sticking with it.YMMV.

Don't play it through a guitar amp. Play it through a powered PA cabinet or a good keyboard amp. Makes a world of difference. I have the HD300 and love it  played through PA cabinets in stereo. I set the switches on the back to studio and line.but you need to experiment to find what you like. Don't give up until you have tried it through  full range FRFR type of amplification. Mine is terrible plugged into a conventional guitar amp. Good Luck!

All of these modeling devices sound best into an FRFR setup. Also we as guitarists don't know how to manage mid-range. For a lead tone clean or distorted I set the mids right at the point where they start to sound unpleasant when played alone. When that drummer starts drumming and that bass player starts playing and the keyboard player starts playing your guitar will be lost instantly if you don't do this to some degree. You have to set your e.q. correctly to work with other instruments. I play to a backing track to make sure things are right before I take any modeler out to a live gig.

Tweak your patches at VOLUME! That means loud. Most important. Go through with the editor and set all patch levels at 50 percent so you have headroom because especially with the Line 6 HD units any patch with a distorted amp/effects will be much lower in output volume than the clean ones. My other processors don't do that to such an extreme but with my HD300 I quickly run out of output volume in a dist. patch when balancing it with a clean. Use the volume pot on the guitar too. These HD models clean up well and you can have a lot of variation in the same patch. Lastly take breaks every 15 or 20 minutes to let your ears rest whilst tweaking patches and don't do it when you are tired. When you feel tired so are your ears. Good Luck!

All I had to do was type in my name and zip code! Yip Yip Yoo Rah!!!

I build patches and play through two 10 in. Alto FRFR active speakers in stereo at home -church and anywhere else. Inexpensive and loud with pretty good fidelity. I always test all my tones at volume and wont use them at worship or elsewhere until I do.I also use an older Roland KC300 with a 400 watt eminence delta driver and upgraded tweeter in it for smaller rooms. Either way I turn up to regular playing volume and make adjustments. Good Luck with your worship assignment!

I use the GR55 with either an HD300 - M-13 or GT-10 and it works really well. As a trio cover band guitarist I can do almost anything with this setup. Plus they back each other up.If one goes down I can keep playing with the other! Enjoy!