smrybacki

Awesome...thanks for sharing!

I got a different one than you were looking at but I'm bettin' I'll love it anyway! Yes, I do use the ND Edit program and I will use the Workbench as well. This kind of thing is whgat is really attractive to me actually... I was noticing that the tone knob (or volume) can be used for anything. Sean Halley was using it to control the drive on the amp. I didn't know that when I bought this guitar, so that only makes it more appealing. As for the power engines, here is the product page at Tech21: http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/powerengine/powerengine60.html

I'm already feeling the flu coming on for Wednesday lol....

I have the older Power Engines, the ones with the Tech21 Special Design full range speakers in them. I guess the newer ones have a Celstion Seventy80 full range speakers. I love stereo ambient effects and with the ability of the HD500 to have multiple amps as it does, with the further ability to set panning for each chain it sounds really great. When I first got these, I wasn't as big a fan but that was my own fault. I also have an older Vox Tonelab (table top) with the VC-4 footswitch that I used before the HD500. I had inadvertantly set the outpout type on the Tonelab to "Amp" as opposed to "line" and as a result, the sound sucked! I was getting pretty disheartened by this as I had used my PODxT without this issue until I noticed my mistake. Once I changed that setting, the blankets came off the PE60s and I laughed at my stupidity. In any event, I do really like the Power Engines. Not only do they sound excellent, they can also act as stage monitors because the PE60 includes an XLR output that you connect to the front of house, leaving the levels to the sound guy. This worked great when I used them in the Worship band I was in for a while. You can also chain them together with this same mechanism so you can literally build your output to suit your needs. But in my studio, the two I have are fine as is and the can mosve quite a bit of air at 60w each. The idea of a "dream rig" is a great idea, but in my mind I will already have that with the setup I'll have come Tuesday. I looked at the HD500x they just came out with, but for now the HD500 is fine for me as I have not really bumped into the DSP limit too much yet. Once I think, and then I was getting really silly and threw in the kitchen sink. We'll see how it goes when the Variax is added in I guess, but listening to Sean Halley play on those demos makes me want to play a lot more often already... I can hardly wait to start tinkering and smithing my sounds. Edit: I should add the the PE60s come with a 3 band equalizer on the back to make up for room differences, although I have always had mine set to 12 o'clock position (Neutral)

I made the plunge and pulled the trigger on a "Dent & Scratch" JTV59 in Cherry Burst from Sweetwater. I am really excited about this too, because I already have and pretty much love a POD HD500 that I will be playing this through. That makes 2/3 of the so called "Dream Rig", but I really don't see myself getting the amp because I already have a pair of Tech21 Power Engines that sound great to me AND are a stereo pairing which is something I don't believe the DT25 or it's siblings offer. I don't play out right now, and I bought this strictly because I want to see what I can create in my modest home studio in the basement. I have given it a lot of thought actually, and I have had Line6 gear in the past including the PODxt and GuitarPort and they were "OK", but not nearly as good sounding to me as my Fender tube amps with a few quality pedals and a Strat or a Tele, so they remained mostly "toys" for lack of a better description. In any event, plugging into the HD500 changed all of that for me in many ways. Are the models in there "just as realistic" as the genuine article? For the ones I have, namely the 59 Bassman RI and the Deluxe Reverb RI I'd say they are darn close. I couldn't afford the others, and frankly I wouldn't want to maintain it all lol. But now, I can develop great tones in painstaking detail to just sit and noodle on and HAVE FUN, which is of course why we all got into this to begin with, right? So the next logical step has to be this JVT59 Variax in my mind because it extends what I really love about the HD500 to the instrument in my hands. As I understand things, I can create a patch that selects the amp, fx and guitar processing by connecting the VDI cable from this guitar to the HD500. Assuming that is true, my question is this; Why wouldn't ANY guitarist want such a thing for the less than 2k investment? In my case, the Dent and Scratch sale means I'll have less than $1550 invested and in return, I can play Mr. Wizard with my HD guitar and HD amp modeler. I'll probably always have my tube gear, because although it's a one trick pony -- it's a hell of a trick. But I look forward to tinkering like a Mad Scientist in my basement as well lol... So, any advice for the uninitiated?

Thanks for the straight answer to a straight question.

So then, yes?

The web site lists less for the 500 (27) than the 500x (30), so I thought I'd ask.

Look here: http://line6.com/support/thread/74597 From the advanced guide, page 8.3: Note: If you press REC/OVERDUB while Loop playback is stopped, this will always record a new Loop, and any previously recording will be discarded. And I use the RC30 for looping, and it is ever so much better in every way. Not surprising since it is a dedicated looper and this is no knock on the HD500's built in looper mind you. But anyone into "serious" looping will bust through 48 seconds in no time flat (pun intended).

They had me at Cordura..... Seriously...I was just funnin'....

Agreed...don't look now but I just changed your rating to hold three sequential sixes...

I'm kinda embarrased to ask but.... :ph34r: I wonder if the totally overpriced HD500 gig bag with still fit the new HD500x?

I am totally about optimistic brother... You are correct in that if you act quickly, and sell the HD500 for as much as it'll go for, you can get the HD500x at a bit of a discount. Trouble there is I need a new roof, and my motorcycle can always use a few doo dads so I might as well keep the HD500 and go for a ride!....

I've sold lots of stuff on Craigslist, and sometimes it was even for what I was asking for it (wink wink) lol Seriously though, I was just pointing out that I believe you numbers for used POD HD 500s are a tad optimistic.... As for the pricing outlook? Well, yeah if it were me and I was just looking right now, I'd be searching out a discounted HD500 because the small bump in performance isn't worth the extra quid to me anyway. But when there was no HD500x, the difference between the $500 HD500 and the $400 HD400 was enough to get me in the flagship model lol... As an aside, last night I plugged my very first Fender Strat with CS69 pickups into my mostly Fulltone pedalboard with a new Ditto looper and straight into my DRRI and I found a little bit o' nirvana there....

Bingo....

This ebay search of completed Pod HD500 sales would indicate otherwise my friend: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_ItemCondition=4&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=pod+hd500&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc Edited to add that this does not include eBays gouging scheme where they drain your profit.....and then there's shipping and the hassle involved. Second Edit: And when wide spread word of HD500x hits the not so up to the minute consumer, the HD500 will be worth even less.

Yeah, the big thing there was multiple signal paths as I recall. To me, as long as I am not cut out of any firmware upgrades, IE new models, effects or whatever else the HD500x gets, I am fine with this whole deal really. I am kinda old school and rarely use more than 2 or three effects anyway... Clearly, you have been down the road a bit yourself...

@phil_m, didn't mean to come off so harsh man. Just reread it and figured maybe you think I was flaming on you...not really so, but you have to understand to that I am not really either naive or stupid and so I guess I got wound up. You ought to see me going at Congress hammer and tongs sometime ;-) And the X3 was a heck of a lot more of an upgrade to the XT line than this is to the HD line, agreed?

Agreed.

Well thanks for the finance tip, but I think I got that all on my own and my portfolio is just fine thank you. And thanks for the remedial math lesson too -- that took me back to my college days for sure. And since I have worked as an IT Professional for over 25 years, I think I understand the nuances of shelf life as it pertains to tech products (software and hardware) too. All that aside, what I DON'T however expect is that my new flagship modeler is obsoleted in a few months time, especially in Line6's universe. I've had my HD500 for all of 5 months now, so I do feel like it's a bit of a minor sham but that's besides the point. If you can stop being a fanboy long enough to look at it objectively, you'd realize that this is a completely different approach for Line6 who usually extends products lifespans via firmware updates, not by hardware replacements. I know too (before you waste time typing it) that this is a business for them, and money is king.But now instead of viewing them as I have in the past, I have to now treat them like a cell phone manufacturer and expect whatever I buy from them to be old news by the time I get my contacts imported lol.... Peace brother, and enjoy your new toy. In any event, it doesn't matter all that much to me in that I wouldn't upgrade anyway at this point because my HD500 works just fine for me.

Then that'd be better for sure.

It's more the notion that there may be new amp models and other firmware upgrades that the (now) older 500s won't see that has me disappointed. One of the reason's I went with Line6 versus competitors was theirpropensity to update existing firmware to give your product extra life for no more outlay. This blows that right out of the water for me anyway.

Personally, I use my PodHD500 with a pair of Tech21 Power Engines...love those things man...

+1

Let's see...I paid $500 for my HD500 and this one will set me back $500 more, making $1000 invested. IF I could get $250 for my now used and inferior HD500, that knocks my investment back to $750 for a Pod HD500x that other's are getting for $500 new. That's a roughly 20% processing power increase for $250 whereas a new buyer get's it for free by buying the more powerful one up front. Yeah, that's a shameless money grab on Line6's part without doubt man. Don't confuse being a fan (as I am also) of Line6 products with being happy about getting screwed a bit. Now, were they to offer this product at an upograde/trade-in price for current HD500 owners then it'd be a choice. As it is now, 20% isn't worth the very likely money loss or the hassle to me, but it does give me a good reason to look elsewhere when I do want to upgrade somewhere down the road in memoriam of this event. I know all about product upgrade schemes after 54 years on this economy and this is a first for Line6 who usually delivers incremental upgrades within a model via software. This time, they have used the same shells, rebranded them HD500x models and jammed a mini upgrade (20% isn't exactly earth moving territory after all) to the CPU in there. </ rant>