cruisinon2

If she keeps complaining, just tell her you'll sell one of her shoes to pay for it...;)

STAMPEDE!!!!!!!!!!

If they were smart, they'd partner with a company hawking elbow braces and those copper-infused compression sleeves. If this thing is as good as the press it's getting, there will be some tendonitis flare-ups...mine bothers me when I play already. ;)

Nothing is guaranteed. Fractal is prefectly content to not sell anything for five hundred bucks. Companies change strategy all the time, so who knows? "You are witnesses at the rebirth of Spinal Tap...we hope you enjoy our new direction!" ;)

Yeah, it's stupid. The vast majority of players don't run in stereo, and guys will often hang onto a cabinetthat they like for years on end. I've had the same Marshall 4x12 for more than 20 years...but the rest of the rig constantly evolves. Why this would be considered a desirable feature, I'll never know.

Who cares? There's a reason that the tag-line for Helix is not "The last amp you'll ever buy". This is a disposable society. Nothing lasts forever. And as long as the the pace of technology continues to ramp up, products will become obsolete faster and faster. They'll keep selling them until incoming orders dwindle to the point where another production run is not cost effective...which is absolutely guaranteed to happen somewhere between 5 minutes from now, and Doomsday.

Lmao...that, and they continue to ignore my Ideascale request for a beer cozy!

It's simple...they're playing the odds that the poor slob who ends up with a malfunctioning guitar will either live with its limitations, find some workaround on their own, or cut their losses and dump it on eBay. Any one of those scenarios is far more likely than a protracted battle for a successful warranty repair. Most people simply won't bother because it's too much of a hassle. Mind you, this is the one and only reason that any lemon ever leaves a factory anywhere on earth. Has nothing to do with this particular product.

I'm not a metal-head either. Well, not anymore...I'm in recovery ;), and I've been playing 11's for years. There are 10.5 "in-between" sets that I've seen...I believe D'Adarrio makes one. Perhaps you could work your way up to the 11's. Even if you make the jump right away, I think you'll be surprised how quickly you adjust.

I don't remember needing the shortboard top update the HD 150, but it's been a while...couldn't swear to it, though. Regardless, if you like the POD'S tones, I don't think your gonna be happy with the HD 150. It's not in the same league, imho. It also has a peculiar design that requires it to be run in stereo, using both outputs at all times at the risk of frying the amp if you don't. So unless you already have a cabinet wired in stereo, or two separate cabs, or you also intend to buy the L6 cabinet that they designed to go with it, your kinda stuck...running mono is not an option. I wasnt really thrilled with the sound anyway, but the stereo thing was a royal PIA, so I ditched it...never occurred to me to investigate that. Never seen an amp designed like that before.

Suddenly? Hardly...it's run by the same Gubmint that can't turn a profit with a train service.

Not sure why you'd want the HD 150 if you already have the 500...I've had both, and they really don't compare. You already have the better unit. Plus, the 150 has no FX loop, so if you're looking for something to drive the POD, you're stuck running straight into the front of the amp, at which point you're daisy-chaining two modelers together. It's redundant, and won't end well. It will be a noisy set-up, and tone-tweaking chaos.

This is what we're all after...reality, however, is somewhat less forgiving. You can get close to this goal with an FRFR rig. I run the POD straight to FOH with an L2T as a floor monitor for my stage volume. Under most conditions, this works quite well, with minimal difference in tone between what I'm hearing, vs what the audience is hearing. There are other FRFR options out there, too...prices range from the affordable to the comical. What's never really gonna work is trying to run full amp models straight to the PA, and trying to use a traditional guitar amp for your stage volume. They're very different animals, and any given patch will sound markedly different through each one. It's a tweaking nightmare. But if you stick to FRFR, then your sound through the PA, whatever you chose to use as a monitor, and your headphones should all be fairly consistent....close enough for government work, anyway.

You mean you actually want real world, first hand experience with the unit before forming an opinion? You're not content with guesswork, wishful thinking, and wild conjecture? Clearly you've come to the wrong place...;)

I bought 6 picks initially...different thicknesses, and couple of really pointy ones, and a couple with more rounded tips. I prefer the ones that are slightly less pointy. The pointier ones have a sharper attack that I don't care for. With some of them you can sometimes catch a bit of a "ping" to the attack listening acoustically, but it's not harsh and doesn't really come through the amp. It's more of a feel thing for me, the way they glide across the strings...not really a game changer for tone.

I'm using Elixir nanowebs (11-49). I don't really get the peeling sunburn effect much. By the time they start to "shed" just a little, they're generally played out and ready to be changed anyway. The ones that I had tried years ago (Polywebs, I think...not sure) were terrible in that regard, and thats why I abandoned them back then. After just a few hours of playing everything was covered in "string dandruff". Didn't like them at all. I figured I'd give them another try 6 or 8 months ago, just for giggles...maybe the formula has changed since then? Whatever the reason, they seem to have improved, so I've stuck with them for a while now. As for busted strings, I haven't had one in more years than I can remember, with or without the stone picks. They're a heavy gauge, and they're not on there long enough. A coated set of strings will last me a month at most. Uncoated, a week if I push it. I do plenty of bending, but I'm not a tremolo bar guy.

Visually, the wound strings do seem to show a bit more wear, but you have to look for it up close with the light hitting them just so...not as if you can see it from across the room or anything. Plain strings seem unaffected. No adverse affect on the tone, just the opposite actually. To me, the plastic picks now sound kinda "dead" by comparison...muffled almost. As for longevity, I play strings to death very quickly anyway...I think I actually sweat battery acid, so it's really a non-issue for me.

As was already mentioned, the 4 cable method will work for you, but is only necessary if you want the option of bouncing back and forth between using the POD's full models, and getting your basic tone from your amp. If you settle on just using the POD for all your tones, and you only want to slave the amp for power, then all the 4CM accomplishes is requiring more cables, and using up 1 of your 8 fx blocks for the FX loop. You could just as easily run GUITAR-->POD-->AMP'S FX return, and call it a day.

Those are interesting,too. Never tried an acrylic pick. Prior to trying the stone ones on a whim, I never gave much thought to how much a pick contributes to the tone. It was only about what felt comfortable in my hand, plus the smaller and pointier tip on the Jazz III's made it easier to play fast.

Neither does anybody else...well NASA does, I'm sure. And even if you could, it's an infinitesimal change, the feel of which would only be noticeable if you're an android. As for the sound issues you're having, I wouldn't have expected it to make any difference at all, which turned out to be the case, unfortunately. The idea that such a glaring sound artifact will magically disappear because you moved the string height the equivalent of a house fly's nose hair, is ridiculous.

Admittedly, I don't do a ton of pick-slides, and I suppose that could put some gouges in them if you're really digging in, but then again most of them are various types of quartz, which usually land between 6 and 7 on the 1-10 Mohs Hardness Scale (diamonds are 10). So they're considerably more durable than any plastic pick you're gonna find. Also, I find it absurdly easy to get pinch harmonics with these things, though I'm not sure why, as that should have more to do with where your hand is rather than what your holding, but it was the first thing I noticed. Could be my imagination...who knows? Fast alternate-picked runs are definitely easier to pull off. For clean tone strumming (and acoustic tones with my JTV), rotating the pick and using the more rounded side gives a really nice glassy tone. I'm partial to the jazz shape ones...almost the exact dimensions of the Dunlop Jazz III's I've been using for years, although the thickness can vary considerably (thickness for each is listed). 1.5-1.7 mm range works best for me.

Try these... http://solidrockproducts.com/ I'm never going back to plastic picks. These things glide across the strings, and they last essentially forever. Started using them a few months ago...same 2 picks, and they don't have a mark on them. You can experiment with different thicknesses and shapes, as it does change the tone, it's subtle but noticeable. Seems expensive at first, but when you consider how fast plastic picks get chewed up, in the long run they're a bargain. And a lot of them are damn pretty things to look at, too.

I've still yet to see a single JTV or Variax Std. in a store...and I'm mired in densely populated suburban sprawl, with 3 big box music retailers (both L6 dealers) within a 10 mile radius. None of them have ever had a single one in stock, as far as I know.

I'm assuming that since your running FRFR, you're already using full amp models and studio/direct output mode. After that, I find that the messing with the cab and mic choices can often get you where you want to be...even if it's a combination that doesn't "makes sense" for the tone your after. I always play around with those first before adding tons of EQ or other fx. Can't help you much with the lights...

Regrettable, but not a surprise.