cruisinon2

Lol...jeez, an up-charge for doing less work? That takes balls. I'm normally a Warmoth cheerleader, but that's just ridiculous. It will be a nice neck regardless...stainless frets are the best thing since indoor toilets.

The POD is not a "plug and play" unit. Nearly everyone struggles with it at first. Experimentation with various amp/cab/mic combinations is the only way to get comfortable with it. But I'd start with the following: 1) What output mode are you using? Anything but "studio/direct" will yield garbage with headphones. 2) Set input 1 to "guitar", and input 2 to either Variax, or aux...anything but "SAME"...that doubles the signal sent to the rest of the signal chain. Makes things a mess. 3) Then there's the headphones themselves...perhaps not quite as critical as inputs and outputs, but still a consideration. You need something with a reasonably flat response, preferably open-back, "studio-reference" type cans. There are many options, and you don't have to spend a fortune. Most of the amp models in the POD tend to be a little heavy on the low end...closed-back, consumer level, general use headphones are often deliberately bass-heavy as it is. If they say "Dr. Dre" on them somewhere, throw them away...;)

Precisely. It's become fashionable to get one's underwear in a knot every time the sun moves behind a cloud....you can't go through life analyzing/sanitizing every utterance, on the off chance that what you've said might be taken the wrong way. It makes conversation dull and pointless. I swear there are people out there who seem to enjoy being perpetually offended. Life is short. Laugh a little...especially at yourself when it's your turn to be the drama queen. We all do it sooner or later. 😛

Why should I have to pay for another tank of gas? I already bought one...I mean really, there's free refills on the coffee inside. ;)

It's not surprising at all. Customtone is a wasteland of horrible sounds...and NOT necessarily because those who submitted them are deaf, stupid, or crazy. Many of those patches probably sounded quite good to their creators. But they have a different rig than you do. There are simply too many variables. Trying to find the tone you're looking for this way is best measured on a geologic time scale. It'll be faster to hitchhike to the moon... Someone else's idea of what sounds "just like Jerry Cantrell" is almost guaranteed to be comically different on your end, it's just the nature of the beast. You gotta do it yourself. You could spend the rest of your life auditioning patches that claim to be what you're looking for, and find nothing usable. I learned this the hard way. Lots of wasted time and stunned silence as I stared at a patch labeled "Gary Moore", as I was hearing "Green Day"....quietly wondering to myself who was nuts, me or the guy who uploaded the patch.

Lmao... Clearly you don't understand what the internet is for, though. It's a place for anyone with an opinion and an axe to grind to feel important about their otherwise insignificant existence, by casting themselves as the smartest person in the room. Click, click, "like", "like"...look at all my "followers", hanging on my every word. 😤😉

That'll do it....

You said it, brother! ;)

Our entire economy is based on paying fancy people obscene sums of money to be seen endorsing everything from toenail clippers to erectile dysfunction medication. Personally I won't buy anything unless at least one Hollywood A-lister is using it too...can't wait for the Brangelina divorce commemorative toilet paper...;)

Feelings have largely replaced reason, and getting bent out of shape is now the new national pastime. Mandatory apologies and court-ordered sensitivity training every time someone doesn't like the way you looked at them. "Progress", I think it's called.. ;)

Well based on the info in the links a couple of posts above, closed back is exactly what you don't want if you're looking for a flat response, as those designs tend to over-emphasize the low end. The POD being as bass-heavy as it is, the last thing I want is to have to dial out even more low end.

It was cheaper...;)

I could never make one produce anything pleasant-sounding either, but in the right hands and with the right tone(s), it is capable of mimicking a bunch of other instruments. Damn thing is floating around here somewhere....

Garageband is surprisingly functional...the interface may look a bit "toy-ish", but for getting ideas down quickly and easily, especially if you're working solo, it works quite well. Don't know that I'd record an entire album with it, but for demoing stuff...a with few good plug-ins, and you can turn out a pretty decent sounding mix.

Well something's obviously amiss...I'd have to go along with a factory reset as a first step. If it sounds as close to a wet fart as described, then you've got nothing to lose. The only other thing I'd add is with regard to demo videos...claims of "no post-processing" notwithstanding, I will be forever skeptical. Particularly if the presenter of the video is trying to sell you something....

I was all-in until I saw the Floyd...;) Seriously though, that's a lot of work. Nice job. ðŸ‘

There's never a way to answer questions like these...there's no objective truth involved. Your ears will tell you if one box sounds "better" than the other...my ears may or may not agree, and neither of us would be "right".

A sane, decent, and qualified individual will be elected president before there's another lefty Variax....in other words, don't hold your breath.

We have a winner!!!! 2 years, 3 months, and 22 days...Oldest thread resurrection on record!!!

I find that the less I wonder about things, the happier I am...lotta headaches otherwise. ;)

This discussion is starting to remind me of the "Reefer Madness" propaganda films from the 50's... "You'll go insane...trust us". ;)

This was likely the biggest part of the problem...

Next time she brings that up, tell her it's also time to ditch a few dozen pairs of shoes, and a handbag or three...;)

Buying Helix just for FX is ignoring 90% of what the unit can do. If that's allyou need, you can spend FAR less money, and be perfectly happy. Also, if "plug and play" is really what you're after, then this box probably isn't for you. You're right when you say that a gig is not the place to experiment, with this or any other piece of gear. You gotta put the time in to create your tones first, and you can expect that to take a while...there are no shortcuts, believe me. The plus side is, you really only have to do it once. After everything is dialed in, only minor tweaking with the global EQ should be necessary from one venue to the next.

You're new here, aren't you? ;) You'll have better luck asking for pictures from the CEO's most recent colonoscopy...