cruisinon2

This is nonsense. You're not switching back and forth between a guitar and a bassoon. I bounce between my JTV and other guitars daily. They're the same species. No different than going from LP to Strat, or Strat to Tele...take a few minutes, get your bearings and play. No two guitars are gonna sound identical through the same amp/patch/etc...that's why we all own a bunch of them. It's the whole point, actually. I have lots of patches set up for one guitar or another. Not a big deal.

The PODs are just as good as they were a month ago before the world was blessed with Helix. There will always be a newer, shiny toy to play with. Doesn't mean the previous generation of gear suddenly sucks. Would I like to get a Helix? Yes, and eventually I probably will...but that doesn't mean that my POD doesn't cut it anymore. It hasn't changed. And if and when I buy a Helix, I'm keeping the POD for a backup...nothing wrong with those tones.

This just in! Adjusting your own intonation, or turning a pickup height screw without access to the double-secret factory specs and testing documents now "risks voiding your warranty". Ugh... It's a guitar folks, not the Hubble Telescope.

If you don't like 'em/don't want 'em/don't need 'em...it's up to you, but I think GC is getting the better end of that deal. The JTV'S are a lot cheaper than they used to be.

The world is full of morons spreading wrong information. Whomever told you that is no doubt union president of Idiots Local 342. Running straight to a PA, DAW, etc., is precisely what the POD is designed to do. Now you may have blown a speaker...if you push them too hard, it happens. But that has nothing to do with the POD, as it has no power section. That's a problem with the PA itself. The more I think about it, this could easily be a case of them not wanting to pay for a warranty job, and inventing a fairy tale about "gain" from the POD damaging your PA as an excuse. Wouldn't be the first time a warranty department decided to get shady because they don't feel like taking the hit on a repair.

The honest truth? It should hold up fine...***provided that you get a good one***. Love my 69, mine is fine almost 2 years in, but they're not without their issues. Model selector knob is cheap plastic crap, known issues with that knob not engaging properly. It'll either work or it won't, and you'll know on Day 1. Piezo "plink" issues are not uncommon either. Again, if it's gonna be an issue, it's likely to be present from the get-go. The 69's neck is a gross miscarriage of justice, but that's easily remedied by the fine folks over at Warmoth...though this is a personal preference thing, you might love the stock neck. I've had no issues with the electronics, other than some of the inherent limitations with altered tunings and wackiness that accompanies piezo pickups (ie crosstalk), but there's nothing to be done about that...the technology is what it is, and it has certain limitations. Overall it's a nice axe...gets a ton of use. The complete lack of pickup hum alone is worth the price of admission. Buy from somewhere with a good return policy just in case you get a junker.

Sledge hammer, hacksaw, or strategically placed small arms fire...though I wouldn't go with anything bigger than a .38 ;) Seriously though, it's probably one of those tiny screws that keep circuit boards in place. If it's not malfunctioning, I say leave it alone. It's a desktop unit, so I'm assuming you're not moving it around much anyway. You might bust something else trying to get in there. Some of those jacks on the back panel are less than robust...

Different tools for different jobs. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight...;)

Yes, and this will always be the case...with the POD or any other modeler. If you're running straight into the front of the amp (as opposed to the FX return), then your amp's tone stack is getting in the way and coloring everything coming from the POD. You could try the POD'S various output modes and see if you get better results, but in my experience (with this and other modelers) daisy-chaining a pre-amp and modeler together never ends well. I suspect you'll find it easier to dial in tones if you slave the head instead of plugging into the front end.

Agreed. First and foremost, it's a modeler. If all one wants is an FX unit, there are plenty of other options that are likely better suited to the task.

I have yet to try Helix, but I'm not surprised at your experience with the factory patches. It was the same with the 500 series PODs. Mostly unusable...personally I chalk it up to the myriad variables that go into patch creation. What else plays a role? Everything. The guitar, the pickups. How is the sound getting out? FRFR/PA speaker(s), a tube amp, headphones, or studio monitors? How about the room the guy was sitting in? Wall-to-wall carpet, wood floor, concrete warehouse? There's just no way you can expect them to sound the same when you change half of the elements in the equation. The moral of the story? You gotta shape your own tones. It's been the case with every amp/fx unit/modeler I've ever owned. I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Maybe it's me then...over the years I've tried the chain of stomp boxes straight into the amp numerous times, with combos, head/cab rigs. My own stuff, other guys' rigs. Always a $h*tty mess. Noisy to the point of driving me nuts, and never satisfying tone. If the OP wants nothing but clean tones, perhaps his results will be better, but for me it's a non-starter.

Well that's just it...placing certain FX before the amp, just plain doesn't work. You're messing around with the raw guitar signal before it even gets to the amp. In my experience, this does far worse things to your sound than the usual "tone suck" complaints associated with the 4CM. Generally, you want to get your basic tone first, before you start mucking around with FX. Otherwise you're kinda putting the cart before the horse. Also, anything you put between the guitar and the amp tends to add noise to the set-up.

Running straight into the front of the amp does not work well for many FX. Especially delays, chorus, and reverb...those all need to be the last thing in the chain before the power section, or it becomes a complete mess. Distortions, overdrives, and compressors can be OK out front...but not much else. If your amp has an FX loop, use it...that's what it's there for. Forget the 4CM. guitar-->front of amp-->FX out-->500X--->FX in Set up your patches on the 500X with no amp model, just whatever FX you're looking for.

I'd be inclined to agree, if it were not for the fact that I've uploaded photos from the same phone elsewhere, and the orientation is never an issue. Seems to be something peculiar about this site...oh well.

Been piecing this together for last couple of months. Old girl needed a face lift. Ebony neck was "before". New stuff: Warmoth neck: walnut with birdseye maple board, flamed maple skunk stripe, high gloss finish Walnut pick guard Birdseye maple knobs and toggle switch tip Lace Sensor Hot Gold pickups Planet Waves auto trim tuners Wilkinson tremolo No idea why it always rotates the pics 90 degrees when I upload 'em....

Seems a little odd, but if it works, why not?

With this particular wall-wart, no...but it's coming like a freight train. Cheap plastic housing + dental floss wires = inevitable failure. I've lost count of the number of power supplies that have crapped out on me over the years. You can treat them with kid gloves, and they still die. Is what it is...

Perhaps. Though on a long enough time line, anything you put in there will attract crud to some degree. Life is filthy...

The plain digital delay in the POD should be able to give you as many repeats as you want, almost to the point of silliness. The "feedback" parameter controls the # of repeats, and the "mix" control sets the volume of the repeats relative to the initial note. Between the two you can have either just enough delay to be noticeable, or you can make it sound like a spaceship. Stay away from the ping-pong delay if you don't want to hear the L/R bounce.

Good point...assuming that is a similar mechanism, I don't see why it shouldn't work.

Neither does anybody else. "Units shipped" and "units shipped to an end user" are two different things. The first number is easy for L6 to calculate. The second, almost impossible to get a real number. And even if they do have a rough estimate for rates of failure, they're never gonna part with that info anyway...

Having never seen one in person it's hard to say, but if I were to make an educated guess, I would say that you shouldn't use anything thin that will run all over the place, potentially messing up something else. Something like white silicon grease might do the trick...consistency is more of an ointment than a liquid, and you shouldn't need much. A little goes a long way. Found in any auto supply store.

The guitar player I know is Danny Gatton... Danny Gratton sells plumbing supplies in Squashed Possum, TN... ;)

I never said malfunctioning gear shouldn't be fixed. I never said that being cranky that your new gear isn't working isn't justified. What I did say, is that those who continue to ask...time and time again..."Hey L6, what does product development have up their sleeve next?", are hopelessly naive if they actually think that an answer will EVER be forthcoming.