boyce89976

PHD (for overdrive sounds and some clean sounds when I want a full/rich low end) AC30 (for shimmery cleans and for some overdrive) Flip Top (for balanced cleans where I don't want the shimmery harmonics from the AC30, but don't want a bloomy low end either) I'm also experimenting with DivideBy13 and Bassman and Gibtone

Thanks. I've set up all of the tones I use regularly, all from scratch, but I'm having difficulty capturing the tone from "The hardest part", particularly the overdriven tone. It's a tone Coldplay uses a lot, but it would also be a useful tone for our worship band.

I'm trying to replicate the tones from Coldplay's "The hardest part" from their X&Y CD. The song starts with a clean tone, then switches to an overdriven tone that sounds mid-rangy, and a little warbly (like he's playing an ES335). Any help would be appreciated.

Although bias is the "idle" voltage, I would definitely recheck in full power mode, just to make sure your not running things too hot.

I'm not sure you understood what innovine was saying. The "effects loop" in the POD is not a traditional effects loop, in that it can be placed anywhere in the signal chain, whereas most effects loops in amps are between the PRE amp and power section. In the POD, you can insert your distortion pedal where you would normally have it in the effects chain... Like right after the compressor, or anywhere in the chain you would like it.

You benefit from the tubes when using the amp, plus your moving air, which you can't do with headphones. Finally, you get the interaction with the room.

I noticed something similar to this last week when building a new patch. I had a really nice and creamy overdrive tone going going, but in the trailing delays, it was really fizzy. It wasn't overload, because I create everything at unity gain by constantly checking effects levels vs. the clean signal. I'm not sure how I fixed it, I think by deleting the delay and re-adding it?

Sounds like you might have an amp issue, or your POD settings have changed for some reason.

Your best bet is to contact Eurotubes and ask them. They are the importer for JJ's and really know their stuff.

Congrats on your new amp. I'm using the DT25 and the POD 500x. If you use L6 Link to connect the POD to the amp (recommended), the amp becomes a slave to the POD. Yes, you can tweak the amp's tone stack real-time from the amp, and then save those changes in real-time on the POD, but other than that, the POD is in control and you are essentially using the amp only for it's power section. I'd suggest downloading the patches you want, and then play with the amp settings to get the sound you want (Operating Class, Topology, Pentode/Triode, etc...). Happy tweaking!

Nicely done STPLE. We should exchange some of our church patches sometime.

That makes sense... A FRFR speaker and a guitar speaker in the same cab, with the ability to blend the output from both... Would be pretty useful for you JTV guys, no?

You can, you just have to sort up two separate paths, A&B, and pan them hard left and hard right in the mixer. Then, don't put any effects after the mixer that would sum the A&B. Use both XLR outs or BOTH 1/4" outs. If you use one XLR and a 1/4", put a dummy jack in the other 1/4" out.

Glad you got it working!

This is the right approach. I have an OPPO bluray player and there are a couple of beta testers on AVRForums that perform resident expert duties in exchange for thorough testing of new gear and firmware. It eliminates the need for OPPO to have a presence on the board, plus it's a direct link from owners to OPPO if there is ever an issue with a product. In the year that I've owned my OPPO I've updated the firmware 3 times with new firmware based on user requested updates. I think that's the least Line6 could do for our experts over here... Like TheRealZap and others.

Agreed!

Eurotubes told me the phase inverter tube should last between 2-4 times longer than the powertubes. I ordered a matched quad of EL84s and one ECC83S, figuring I'd keep the ECC83S through the next EL84 change.

Yes, please keep us updated. I'm looking at adding an expression pedal too. From what I've read, the POD works best with a pot with a certain resistance (10k linear, I think)... perhaps yours is not the right resistance, but I'm not sure how that would cause a power cycling issue, though.

Just took a db meter reading from 4 feet, C Weighted, Slow Response (RadioShack Digital db meter): Overdriven Channels: Avg 110db Clean Channel: Avg 107db I wouldn't want it any louder than that!

Okay, Just had a chance to crank it up and my review above holds true... better high-end, fuller mids, especially the lower mid-range/upper bass where you FEEL the punch. The stock tubes never achieved that "feel it in your chest" kind of thump, but the JJ's do. My Strat sounded amazing at higher volumes. The high-end is pristine, without any of the harshness I had before with the stock EH's. I was running the DT master at 3 o'clock and the POD master at wide open, and my cleans remained clean. The stock tubes would start to breakup, and get harsh, at those volume levels. From a volume perspective, I would say it was plenty loud to play a rehearsal with an acoustic drum set. I don't have my db meter handy, but I'll try to get an objective measurement. Another interesting, and positive side effect, is a patch I built to mimic EVH's tone on 1984, particularly Panama, using the PHD Motorway. I had to EQ in a lot of high frequency gain with the old tubes to get his warm, cleanish overdriven tone. With the JJ's I may have to back the HF gain down a little, due to their better reproduction of the high frequencies. It's not harsh, or overbearing, it just not as accurate an EQ setting as it was with the old tubes... again, that's a good thing! Oh, and sustain is definitely better... I would have to say it's at least 50% better. I think this is attributed to the balanced and matched phase inverter better maintaining a consistent signal balance to the EL84's.

Ah, I was under the impression the boost tube was a preamp tube, my mistake. Thanks for clarifying!

Seeing as the DT50 actually has preamp tubes, you may hear a bigger difference than I did in my DT25. Another good description I thought about today is that the highs really opened up. With the EH's I always felt like there was a ceiling in the frequency response, where things got brittle and a little harsh, whereas with the JJ's, in early testing, it sounds like the tube is capable of higher frequency response. I'll be able to crank the volume a little bit tomorrow morning while the wife and kids are at Church, and will report back with any additional findings.

This is good to know!

I had always felt my DT could sound better. The clean highs were a little thin, the midrange lacked body and punch and the lows were a little spongy. So I swapped out the tubes on my DT25 last night with a set of matched JJ EL84s and a balanced ECC83S (a direct replacement for the 12AX7) and performed a re-bias on the new tubes. (This is a very dangerous operation, and should not be done by anyone who lacks the knowledge and experience of re-tubing and re-biasing an amp. If you choose to do this, you do so at your own risk). This is just an initial review as I have bronchitis and was running a 102* fever as I was putting the amp back together. Not feeling good at all. Anyhoo, below are my initial thoughts after about 15 minutes at moderate volume (just loud enough to get the tubes warm). First thing I noticed is that both tubes glowed with the same intensity. With the stock tubes, V3 glowed significantly hotter than V2, which probably indicates their bias voltages were significantly different. Sounds on some of my clean patches (in Topology I, Pentode and Class A/B mode, but with various amps - PHD, Blackface, AC30): Low end is definitely tighter with a more defined pick attack and better thump and compression High end is cleaner, and meatier with better extension - definitely more of that "jangle" EL84s are known for Mids have more body Sustain is clearly longer than before and there is more clean headroom... harder to drive the amp into breakup through aggressive picking, at least at moderate to moderately loud volume levels On overdriven tones (same settings, but mainly with the PHD Motorway and an AC30 thrown in): More "air" in split coil settings (a recent mod to the bridge pickup of my Charvel Pro Mod) Fat, bluesy tones through the SH1-59 neck pickup, with plenty of pick attack and more sustain than before Better low-end definition from the bridge humbucker, while also being meatier with a subtle, but crunchy, staccato pick attack (This is the closest I've gotten to the sound of Warren DiMartini's guitar sound on the opening riff of "Lay it down". The low "D" was clear, tight and thumped like I always thought it should). Through my Strat with the N3 Noiseless pickups, in position 2 (without the S1 switch engaged) the cleans had the body I always wanted from this setting, while still retaining that high-end sparkle Strats are known for. Overall, I am VERY pleased with the JJ's over the stock EH's and Chinese 12AX7. Especially since they biased to within 1.4mV of each other - I definitely recommend the change, and recommend matched sets since there is only one bias adjustment pot. I also recommend the balanced-triode ECC83S for the phase inverter position (in place of the 12AX7). Again, I do not recommend performing this kind of work if you have never done it before or aren't completely comfortable with partially taking your amp apart, replacing important parts and putting your hands into an amp that is pulling current... If you have any reservations at all, it's best to pay an amp tech the $100 bucks instead of risking your life. If you do try this, you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Sorry to hear that, MIKEY. Can you give us some more info? Does the POD power on? Can you get any sound out of the POD through any of the outputs (L6 Link, headphones, etc...)? Have you updated Monkey recently? Have you tried different USB cables?