NinoScholz

....and the same to all of your gear!!

Have my rack all setup using the front guitar jack, and everything works great including the tuner. Here's something i did not know until know - the rack sides/handle area (my rack is SKB i believe) can be unscrewed to reveal holes to pass cables through and such, so i have about 2 inches of cable showing in the front of rack and that is it, still permanently connected and out of the way just as it was using rear line input, and to boot i think the feel of the Pod has improved slightly using this input.

Hi! I use my HD PRO with a Brunetti RockIt power amp and my experience is: do not stop your attempts in "power amp" output setting. I use "direct" output and cabinet simulator to have my best tones. Connections are important, of course, but, in my case, I'm "obliged" to use my power amp in bridge mode to "squeeze" more power from it, so I use mono unbalanced output (no XLR available on RockIt). However the settings' influences on tone are bigger and bigger respect connections' type. Ciao!

I found the exacxt opposite of this. If you are using that tube power amp and a guitar amp, the best tones can be had using only the preamp models - no power amp or cab models. The power amp patches may sound good at low volumes, but once you start playing loud in a band it will sound undefined and just messy when ran through another guitar power amp. Best to keep it logical - using a real power amp and cab? Then don't emulate them again by using them in the pod.

This is just my experience, you can always do what sounds best to you!

The Dry Out takes its feed directly from the physical Guitar input jack. Your symptoms are consistent with your HD Pro preset using other Inputs rather than Guitar.  Yes?

aha! yes that is it - i use the line-in in the rear of the unit so no wires show in front of the rack. So sounds like i must use the guitar input to use the dry out? no other way eh?

only problem is the guitar input (either setting) is a different gain than both setting on line in. I just adjusted my patches accordingly. I can get a 90 degree cable to make it minimally invasive up front to go back to my wireless unit. 

Thanks again for your helps silverhead - love that i can mute the pod via tuner setting and still use rack tuner now.

I just got a korg pitchblack rack tuner. the dry out on the Pod HD pro is not sending any signal to it. If i plug the same cable into the pod's headphone jack the tuner works fine, so the tuner is fine, but nothing coming from the dry out. 

I have the pod HD in studio mode and am running the line outs into a stereo power amp, so both line outs are taken. I also tried the FX send with no luck (don't want to put FX loop in all my patches anyway). How does one get the dry out sending a signal? Cant find anything in the setup menu for it

We are doing this song "Wherever I May Roam" in my band and i'm trying to set up a patch for the sitar intro on the Pod HD Pro (no variax). So far the only really useful things for it i've found are the octaver and pitch/harmony FX. I can't find the FX to really get that sitar sound. Anyone have any suggestions?

I use the Pod HD pro with a mesa 50/50 power amp. My previous power amp was the velocity 300 which was pretty good, but the 50/50 was a step up. Not jaw dropping right away, but over time i can really tell the difference. It goes great with the pod's "preamp only" models - sounds like any other real amp. I use the shortboard too for gigging, works great. Also make sure you have a good guitar cab, that can make or break the Pod when using it as a preamp into a power amp.

I tried the same thing with a 5150 and just gave up. Would love a good 4CM setup with a nice tube amp but there was too much tone suck and other issues like the one you are having. I decided to go all in on the pod as my preamp and run it directly into a tube power amp., using the preamp models on the pod....works great like that, i gig it regularly and am very happy with it..vreat tone and easy troublefree operation gigs.

Hopefully you have better luck with 4CM than me, but if you are picky about tone suck and level matching, i found the pod hd inadequate for it. The upcoming FX8 looks promising feature wise (especially the built in amp relays).

So if you turn off the pods FX loop in 4cm, then you effectively have Pod --> Amp's power amp --> Amp's speaker

For me, if it's a tube combo amp i'd run studio mode and use the pre-only models with no cab modeling. That way the pod is your preamp, the combo amp power sectionis your tube power, and out to amp speaker .

My rack setup is similar - Pod HD preamp models --> Tube power amp --> Guitar speakers. Sounds great for me live.

What's best really depends on what you're looking for, but if you're looking for a nylon case with a pocket, the Gator Case is great:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002GL7ZO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I've been using one for my HD500X for several months and I really like it. It's just a bit snug on the corners, but that gives it a nice comfy fit without letting it bounce around inside the case.

2nd this - i use it for my Shortboard and it works great - especially love the storage pouch!

Just as a side note, I keep one of these hum destroyers just in-case I run into grounding issues

that's common to guitar gear when interfaced with other gear. http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/HD400.aspx

Not saying it will definitely fix it for you, but its a worthy last resort, and cheap.

As for mains grounding, technically this is an "earth" connection rather than a grounding.

Typically, an earthed power socket/plug/cable will consist of 3 pins/wires, as opposed to the 2

pins/wires on non-earthed power connections. Also, I would take a hard look at the power

supply that Line6 supplied with your HD500X, it may be defective. Hope this helps.

This behringer box has worked for me as well. When i was running a multi amp setup (pod on one side / amp on the other) I was getting a ground loop. This box took care of the issue. Must be used in front of the amp or pod to avoid tone suckage.

 

(the mesa 2x12 cab has only 1 input / 8ohms

 

 

if you end up with a stereo power amp (very likely), the mesa 2x12 is easy to rewire in stereo, by soldering one speaker to the output jack, making it the second input. Just solder one speaker to each jack on the back - now you have a stereo cab. Did this for awhile with my Mesa 2x12. Great cab to use with the pod by the way.

As for power amps, i'm running a mesa 50/50 and love it. 

^^ well he says he wants wah from the pod too, so that would really need to be out front, requiring 4CM. I found that using 4CM with the Pod HD (pro in my case) just sucks tone. I couldn't live with it, so i started using the pod's amp modeling and ditched the amp head, and all the headaches that go along with integrating the two units.

True...there's always a trade-off. For me, I need the versatility, as my main gig is a cover band. And the convenience of having everything in one box is priceless...for me anyway. I abandoned individual pedals years ago (except for my Clyde Deluxe wah, as I've yet to hear any wah in a multi-fx unit that was even half-way convincing). Nothing wrong with traditional set-ups either, all about what you like...that's why all these "taste's great/less filling" arguments crack me up. "Better tone" is in the eye of the beholder (well, the ear I guess :P ), and the audience couldn't tell the difference if their lives depended on it anyway.

Yup, same here, with the cover band. Got tired of tap dancing and bringing massive pedalboard/rig for cover band. Switched to the Pod HD Pro. Sounded OK at first not great. Got a tube power amp and solid cab - started sounding better. Now, almost a year later, i feel there is not much of a trade off, if any. The pod just sounds great. It took awhile to get there, but i truly love the way my rig sounds at gigs lately. And i play with a guy running high $$ full tube heads (which also sound great) so i can constantly compare to the real thing. At volume, with the tube power amp doing it's thing, the feel and tone is killer, and very clear in a band setting.

If you are using a power amp and guitar cab, heres how i get a good distortion tone up loud..

Treadplate PREONLY model, gain around 40% lots of mids.

cabs off.

Once you turn up this sounds very realistic. Its very simple but it works. No need for extra eq or boost. Im using tube power but the SS power should add a little something too.

So they had a used rocktron gainiac 2 at GC today so i figured id try it out given the return policy and dirt cheap price.

Seemed to do pretty well as far as keeping the tone intact in the pods fx loop. Unfortunately the preamp itself has a cocked wah thing going that cant be dialed out.

The strange thing is at first the gainiac sounded pretty decent, but i doscovered the tube was not fully seated (its a real 12ax7 not a light bulb as some would tell you). So once i fired it back up with the tube pushed in thats when the cocked wah tone showed up. Sounded better just solid state without the tube trickery.

Anyway, its going back, but im sure a good tube pre will work well like this now.

Inerzia...thanks! Thats the type of thing i was hoping to hear. Now i can GAS after the triaxis with some confidence. And yeah, i never run cab models since im using a guitar cab, pod sounds great into v30 loaded mesa cab. Also would not run a model as you noted, would expect any decent preamp to cover that part of the chain. Thanks for your reply!

Just curious if anyone is successfully using a preamp in their pod's fx loop. I know exactly how to do it, but i'm worried about tone coloration making it not worth it. I tried it with an ADA MP-1 in the HD pro's loop, and i found that in that configuration the pod models still sounded better than the ADA pre in the FX loop.

I do want to stick with the preamp being in the pod's loop so i can continue to use the pod and shortboard as the "brains" of my rig. It's very convenient to punch in the FX loop block into a patch in place of a model. 

So now i've got my eye on the Triaxis, wondering if it will sound as good as it should in the Pod's FX loop, or will the D/A conversion kill any real benefit using a tube pre vs the pod's models. I've got the models sounding great and play live with them regularly - i use a tube power amp and guitar cab - but my obsession wants more tone options. 

Yes you can totally set it up that way, guitar --> Pod --> Bugera. You can turn off the modeling and just use the effects, many of which will sound good in that set up.

Some effects like delay wont sound very good being in front of the amp's preamp. Then again, if you put the pod in the amp's loop, then the OD effects will sound like poop - they like to be out front.

That's what the 4 cable method does, allows you to put the effects before OR after the amp's preamp,

My other guitarist consistently gets this singing lead tone with his leads. I'm convinced some of it is in the fingers. Try the JCM800 model boosted. That gets me pretty close - plus it will cut through any mix like a chainsaw!

It's possible the speaker(s) in that combo is killing your tone as well. The tone of a speaker can make or break the Pod in my experience.

Sounds like you have it hooked up correctly.

For dirt, try a patch with just the Treadplate-Preonly model. No cab or power modeling - gain less than halfway. I've found that sounds great as-is, no EQ or other stomps required. The pod's output mode wont matter as cab models are off anyway. You should be able to get a realistic tone like that. If not, then your amp/speaker is probably killing the tone.

I use it on my HD Pro, works fine. I use the shortboard tuner for quick tuning checks, and when i want more precision i just go over to my rack and use the actual POD HD Pro unit, which is very accurate and easy to use.

This is exactly what i do. The tuner on the HD pro display is great. I do intonation with it no problem. The floorboard is just good for "good enough" tuning. Not sure what the tuner on the 300,400,500 is like, but on the HD Pro it works great.

You mean 0% drive and 70% output? Anyway also the master volume drastically change the tone of the jcm model!

Yup you got it - the usual "boost" OD setting! As for the master volume, i ditched the full models a few months back, since the preonly models sound better into my rig at band volume. (The full models still sound more 'alive' at low volume though to me)

 

I would like to use the Marshall-models, but they become too boomy for me.

 

I find the marshall models really benefit from either a clean boost (screamer) or mid boost (mid focus EQ) to get rid of that boomyness. I really dig the JCM800 or Park with a screamer out front set at 0% gain and about 70% drive.

^^^ I like gunpoint's suggestion. just get a decent power amp for around $100-$200 bucks and a 2x12 cabinet (wire it up in stereo) and you are all set.

Or you could even go the power wedge route and just plug the pod into that with cab models on.

This is the only thing i don't like about my Pod HD Pro. I can't just grab and go since it's in my 6u rack. Most of the time its better this way for my gigs, but for quick jams i don't want to take the rack..

So i have a little RD20 Diavlo coming in the mail. I bought a used Spider Valve MkII first but it was nowhere near the level of the Pod HD - very disappointing.

....so, the HD500+powered wedge could be a great grab n go rig