Guitarman33172

Which pickups are you using on your strat? I personally use the neck pickup only for beefy punchy tone that sounds so full and sparkly especially on clean amp settings. I never heard that artist before and his version of the song but if it’s anything like SRV , I know SRV preferred the neck pickup primarily for that reason.

Smittyjones502, when I first tried using dual amp tones I had the same experience, so, I feel your pain..lol!! Since you are wanting a good SRV tone I thought I’d mention that Stevie Ray ran two cascading Tube screamers into the front of his amp to super saturate the amp input. I can’t tell you how much gain he set the Screamer pedals at or the tone setting he set the Screamers at but That’s all I know. Good luck in your tone chasing!!

I’ve had the PODHD500X for a couple years and I use it with my Acustic half stack G120DSP. I tried many different hookup combinations but I finally discovered the best sounding combination for my own taste. I run the 1/4 left mono out from my HD500X to the effects return (power amp input section) of my head. I then run the XLR output directly to the mixer. I heard a few remarks about using the Direct/studio output mode and so I tried it and I’m blown away! I have so much better flexibility in adjusting my amp tones and the clarity is amazing! My half stack costed about $600 brand new! For a $1000 setup I have the best rig I’ve ever owned!

I just realized I never mentioned I bought the PODHD500X. I’ve had it for almost two years and I couldn’t be happier!!

Great to hear! I only use the onboard expression pedal 1 as a volume pedal and it works great! This unit I believe is the best unit for the money!! I don’t even want the Helix…lol! This unit sounds perfect and gives me everything I could want in a floor unit!!

I don’t know what your budget looks like, but, I Have a good suggestion for you. I bought a great half stack. It’s the Acustic G120H DSP head and matching slanted cab. I bought everything brand new for around $600. It’s a great sounding amp for the money. You may find one used for much cheaper.

I have to agree with Cruisinon2. I’ve done my share of cascading preamps together and it is very unpleasant to the ear. And Even if you succeed in running the 500X pedal through the front of your Spider on the clean channel, you will not hear the true tonal characteristics of your 500X which will be a travesty...since you are new to Line 6 products I will say you’ve made a great choice! I’ve been a user for over a decade and will not go back! I suggest to look for a used amp with an effects loop so you can take advantage of the 500X and all it has to offer. Don’t get me wrong, the Spider is a good amp but it’s not High Definition and the 500X you don’t want to plug it into a digital amp that Can’t produce HD output. Find a regular tube amp or analog amp with an effects loop. That’s all you need!

Ya... some people don’t get on the band wagon til years later... lol!

I’ve had very good success using the Ernie Ball 11’s . They are not slinkies, but, they still have comfortable tension (at least for my fingers) even at standard 440 tuning. They have good tuning stability once they’ve been stretched out.

As Punkin suggested. You can try the four cable method and learn to program your IO’s accordingly on your POD HD500X. Another way you can do this is to plug your guitar straight into the input of your amp and plug your POD HD500X into the effects loop of your Marshall. Just be sure to turn off all the amp blocks.

I'd like to add this too for all others who are reading this post. The purpose of this post is to help educate others to show them another way to "Skin the Cat"(so to speak) and help them achieve the same goal... controlling your lead volume. this wasn't intended to criticize anybody else's methods of achieving this goal whatever the method is. whether it's by changing your eq's or tone or having a sound guy do it, etc... This is just another method Which I've found to be affective for those who don't want to use these other methods. I'm also not here to question your motif for wanting to change your volume leads either. Whatever your Motif is, it's your business and yours only. I'm simply trying to show the benefits of using The volume Pot (potentiometer)of an Expression pedal to control the output of your Amp Block on your unit (just like taking the volume knob of your amp and rolling it up and down) rather than placing the volume pedal in front of the amp which only cuts your input signal like the volume pot on your guitar.

Yes you are correct. there are two mixes to be considered. There is the house mix which can be adjusted by the sound guy to benefit the audience and there is the stage volume for the musicians. The whole concept of volume lead changes is simply to be noticeable by everyone including the musicians. The musicians ears are no more important than the crowds, but, still important for the rest of the band to mesh together. If that control was intended to be left Entirely up the sound guy then all these innovations of giving the guitar player total control of his setup and sound with digital pedalboards and stomp boxes( in my mind) is kind of pointless

I’ve always believed to let your ears decide. It’s not necessarily the numbers... it’s letting your ears determine what is right for the moment. As far as a sound guy running your solo volumes, the only way that works well in my opinion is if he knows you so well that he knows everything you are going to be doing on stage in order to make the necessary adjustments.

Just curious if anybody else has gone through the same kind of guitar gear preference changes since you first started. When I started playing ( age 13) I was a hardcore 80’s hair metal fanatic! I strictly used Humbuckers, light gage strings (8’s) and thinner picks. The more distortion the better! I hated Stratocasters and single coil pickups because I thought they were too clean and couldn’t pull off good harmonics. Boy, I’ve completely turned around. Lots of things over the years totally made a liar out of me.. I love Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs. Didn't realize all that time that many of his great solos I loved were played with a STRATOCASTER!! Same thing with guitarist of Accept. I loved his squealing guitar solos.. I read the album cover.. he used a Stratocaster too!! Today.. I couldn’t deny that SRV. Had one of the best guitar tones around. He played a Strat with heavy strings. Today.. many years later ,I won’t play anything BUT a Stratocaster with single coil pickups and mostly with the neck pickup!! I also play 11’s strings at standard 440 tuning. Plus I only use thicker jazz picks. I love great smooth punchy clear tube driven guitar tone that’s got harmonics without all the distortion. Wow... what a metamorphosis!

I would next try setting the heel position to your normal playing volume instead of zero.it sounds like for some reason the EXP is acting like it’s set to operate as an “ on/ off” switch and not a typical potentiometer function. Let me know if that helps