grdGo33

Ibanez HSH or HH, Fender SSS, PRS SE HH, etc., What is weird is that if there was a ground loop, I would hear it from other systems (audio speakers, etc.), but it's really just from the Go, with high gain amps, so it doesn't look like it's a ground loop. 

Also, I don't get it from my L6 Spider amp, which to my knowledge doesn't have a noise gate, but maybe...  Hmmm...  Ha!  The Spider amp does have a 'hidden' defeatable noise gate, and if I turn it off manually, I'm getting similar noise...  So yeah maybe it is 'normal' behavior...!

Would using a power conditioner with the go + amp reduce or fix this issue?

I'm getting some bit of weird noise with high gain amps, where it's humming if I'm not touching any metal part of the guitar, but goes away as soon as I touch the strings or bridge.  I'm using headphone out to stereo amp & speakers, and just a guitar in cable...   Getting the same with multiple guitars, and what's strange is that it does it even with humbuckers.  It's almost like if there was a ground loop...   Sure, noise gate does help, but it doesn't feel quite normal that I'm getting that much 'electrical' noise for no apparent reason...

Any idea what could be causing it and is anyone getting the same thing?

21 hours ago, Wondo100 said:

Found the culprit. It was a wiring issue on my end. Took some time to figure out. Thanks for the help. 

What was the wiring issue?

1 hour ago, pengipete said:

Thing is - that model is actually saying that we can add time-based effects AFTER the sound has left the speaker???   Surely, the correct path should (must?) always have the power amp and speaker cab at the very end of the chain - it makes no sense in terms of a real-world rig to do otherwise.

Who cares about real-world rig?!  If you're dreaming that you're in your harem in your floating castle, surrounded by beautiful women, riches, delicious food, etc., would you rather wake up frustrated that castles do not fly and that therefore you should not have a floating harem castle, or stay a little longer and enjoy the marvels of your dream world?

Yeah, you're not limited with the real world constrains of an unpractical guitar rig.  Instead, you're given previously impossible options & settings, it's a wonderful thing, appreciate it!  So sure, you want to put your distortion after your cab, or your amp after your speaker cab, go ahead!  The world is yours!  If you want to use it it's there, if not, don't use it!  It's 100% up to you!  Not being able to do all those things when it's technically possible would have been a HUGE shame and limitation!

Nice I was also looking for something like that thanks!

4 hours ago, dacop13 said:

simple setup type using AMP, Chorus, Phase, EQ, Delay and Wah. That is what most of my presets include. I use a real cabinet powered by an Orange Pedal Baby, so there are no Cab blocks in my presets. Is the Helix overkill for me? Would the Go make more sense, its a $700 difference.   

More than good enough if that's only what you'll use...  It is less than 1/2 price...  Basically, with Go, you have 4 'free' slots where you can put any effect.  You always have an EQ, Volume/Wah pedal, amp and cab.  Plus 4 whatever.  So with your above, the Amp, wah and EQ are 'free / always on'.  You'd have 1 chorus,  1 phase,  1 delay, and you'd have 1 slot free for a Go distortion pedal, compressor, a reverb, looper, etc. 

https://youtu.be/sjRP5gtnZCA?t=1647

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6f4slSLGlo

On 6/28/2020 at 4:32 PM, voxman55 said:

Distortion pedals are often very idiosynchratic.  [...]   So I think you should just experiment and go with what your ears tell you. 

Yeah definitely!  There's just soo many options lol

My main issues is that for some reason (well obvious reasons), the settings which some love and sound great with others guitars, often just sounding bad for me...  And I mean I have a few, guitars Ibanez RG/RGA/ART (HH, HSH, actives), Yamaha Pac 112v (HSS), Parker (HH with piezo), Fender, etc., and honestly, already the way the Go's amps react to every guitar and how much really they make the different patches sound so different, is pretty crazy...

So when you add not only different amps, but also different distortion pedals, ouch...  Like I posted in another vid teh etypitch (sp?! can never remember his name) where the guy goes through almost all the presets, and they pretty much all sound great, I'm getting almost the opposite; where I don't "get" what the patch should do, and it sounds maybe not bad, but not inspiring and somewhat bland and not that usable for me...

The Go is really a great tool, but boy, it does require quite a bit of skill to be used proficiently.  Not that it's complicated to use, but it has so many options, overwhelming...  I think I would need to go back to the the amp thread, focus on only 2-3 amps, get to know them very well, then maybe add some distortions, really get a good feel to what they do, how they interact with the different amps.  Maybe download more patches and see how they work...

Your amp has got an FX loop, nice!  The most optimal method to connect would be the 4 cable method, page 7 of the manual.  It allows you to use your amp's distortion via the Go's effect loop, really cool!

If you don't want to complicate things though, you can just plug your guitar to Go's guitar in and Go's Main out to your amp's FX loop return.  Make sure your main out is set to instrument level in the Go's global settings. (manual page 32)

And btw how is the sound Go via headphones? 

Oh and no go for directly in the cabinet.  The Go doesn't have an amplifier, so the sound needs to be amplified somehow!  I'm using a regular stereo amplifier via hifi speakers, also works great!

13 minutes ago, malhavok said:

Amp distortion and pedal distortion are totally different. I use whichever one is most appropriate for you and for any given situation.

How are they totally different?  I mean sure, I get that a valve amp's distortion characteristics will be different from a solid state pedal, as the valve will introduce more natural harmornics and it will react differently to dynamics.

Hmm... Damn...  But yeah thinking how different OD/distortion types will combine is pretty damn hard to visualize...   I guess when the amp saturates the sound with distortion, the pedal becomes less apparent, but the cleaner the tone, the more the pedal might sound through.  But again...  Can't you just basically get the same (or very similar) pedal+amp clean'ish tone via another amp who's distortion characteristic is similar to the result of the pedal+amp?

Yeah that's why my question was rather multifold:

1) Are you really getting a 'special' tone that you cannot reproduce with one of the ~100 amps when you're using a distortion pedal plus amp?  I mean yeah I'm fairly aware that if you're using a JCM800 + distortion pedal, you likely won't be able to make it sound the same without the pedal.  But what about one of the other amp models?

2) Should we re-think how we 'see' distortion as pedal plus amp?  I mean in the old days, you had a limited number of amps, and you didn't have the direct control of it like you do with the Helix/Go.  So if you were SRV, you basically had a choice of maybe a few dozen amps (I'm guessing), and you basically also had no choice but to use a boost or distortion pedal to get a certain tone.  But this is 2020, and we all have 100+ amps available at the switch of a button, not to mention amps that weren't available to SRV at the time.  So can't you basically ditch the distortion pedal and get a nearly identical sound from just another amp model?

I mean at the root, distortion & overdrive are both clipping the signal.  And clipping a clipped signal is just another type of distortion.  But how many 'types' of distinctive distortion is there?  In Go, there's 100+ amps, so in theory, 100+ types of distortions.  Each can be tweaked...  Is there not one distortion pattern that will match JCM8000 + Boss SD1 or JCM8000 + TS?

I'm just wondering, given all the amp models, is stacking a pedal's distortion plus amp distortion that much different than what you could get using just a different amp with more gain, some tweaking of the sag, EQ, master volume, bias, etc.?  Shouldn't you be able to just using snapshots or low/high settings, to basically get nearly the same result as distortion pedal plus amp?

Ex1; If you're using distortion pedal as a boost.  Well here, using snapshot or low/high settings, you could easily increase the input volume to act like a boost, even adjust tone if you want, similar to what you'd get in a screamer or whatever...

Ex2; using distortion pedal as to stack the pedal's distortion and the amp's.  Well here, couldn't you simply use a different amp with more gain or just an amp who's distortion characteristics would match the other pedal + amp stacked distortion characteristics? 

TLDR:  so basically, shouldn't you just be able to get a nearly identical distortion by just tweaking amp & other settings, or is there something inherently drastically different to stacking distortions?

On 6/25/2020 at 1:59 PM, alexdgood said:

@voxman55 Many headphone amps do colour the tone slightly, specifically though the ones that do are geared more towards audiophiles.

Just a correction, that's not really the case.  As with most solid state drives, be it speaker amplifiers or headphone, solid state amplifiers impart very little color to the sound.  You can see it in the reviews with measurements, where the FR is basically flat from 10Hz-20kHz.  For primitive tube technology, then yeah, it'll make a significant difference, but most headphone amps are SS and so are very neutral.

10 hours ago, GibsonStudio said:

I normally run my Pod into 2 studio monitors but also tried the GO with 3 different pairs of headphones - all sounded bad.

Got any sound sample or anything?  It didn't sound great for me also on headphones, but sounds great with headphone out to amp & stereo speakers.  There's plenty of examples on youtube where it doesn't sound bad, so if yours sound muffled, very definitely something wrong on your end, or if it's really the unit, then I guess it's possible you got a defective unit...   It should sound 100% like the full blown helix...

Do you have a presence dial or other config issue with your monitors?  Are you getting anything like the above or is your setup sounding stupidly bad in comparison?

On 6/22/2020 at 8:06 PM, silverhead said:

As for audio dropouts when switching patches, that is the case for the vast majority of modellers.

My 2006 Spider 3 amp doesn't do it though, lol   I also found it strange.  I wonder why that is...  Does the full blown Helix also do the same thing?

Quote

2. You don't get 4 slots to put whatever pedal you want in. You have 3 slots to put whatever pedal you want in, and then another slot to put whatever Line 6 deems is left, which is not much. You always have reverb, and typically delay. Guess what...you have one slot left. Not acceptable for pedalboard replacement. My use case.

I would say that's one of its main weakness, but it's $450............!  Listen, for what you get, it's lollipopING mental..... (just want to see what it'll replace lollipoping mental with! lol)  So even if you ONLY got those 4 slots by themselves, it would still be pretty damn awesome...   I mean one distortion pedal is easily $100, boutique crap go for what, like 2-5 times that much?  As much as the Go?  LOL   The Go doesn't really take more space than 4 pedals, it's much more practical than 4 stupid pedals with wires...  You can preset all your 4 pedals with different settings and change all four at the press of a button.  Crazy!

Also, if you already have some pedals, say you already have a delay pedal and a reverb, etc., you can still use them and your '4' effects now become 6!

But personally, so far, 4 seems to do the job...   There's also a lot of ways you can workaround the issue.  Take the distortion pedal, if you use it as a boost, you can do the same with the built-in volume, so you save 1 slot.   Also, you can simply use multiple patches.  Sure there's a 'slight' silence when switching, but hey, this lollipop is 450.................  Hell, it's the price of ONE boutique pedal.......  My old Akai head rush looper cost like 1/2 of the Go!  What you get is really insane for the price...

On 6/21/2020 at 10:50 PM, Nylander88 said:

I like the Archetype, Cali Rectifier, brit 2204 and brit plexi. I set the gain a bit lower than normal and then boost it with a scream 808.  than to get a super distorted tone I add a Minotaur and both gain pedals are set to stack. than I normally have 3 mod effects a nice plate vverb and maybe a vintage digital delay.

I think these are amps and not cabs! hehe

I've just started to try to make my own Go tones, and wow...  The cabs really do make a drastic difference...  Was just trying the AC30 amp, and boy, just changing the cab really does a huge difference, so much so that it's almost like it's almost like changing the amp itself!

I think that for a newbie, the option "link cab/amp" should be off?  That way, you can somewhat familiarize yourself with the cab's sound, and afterwards trying out different amps...  Or maybe forego the cabs completely and just play with amps?

Shish and then there's the cabs options themselves... Even the mic model, mic distance, reflections, which I'm sure will again change everything...

Thanks I'll likely check out it!  I created a amps thread and a cabs thread, hopefully people can share some good info in there, I was thinking definitely effects also, but that might be a bit much for now lol

Oh I was also reading the Pod Go thread on thegear page, I started about page 180, thread starts when it's announced and and everyone speculates, so actual product discussion late...  But it's pretty much mishmash, all kinds of random topic so...  Not so much discussion about effects and such...  Though there are some patches to download and a few screenshots with some settings    https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/line-6-pod-go.2113195/page-200

Haha yeah I'm not a big fan of facebook!  Who knows maybe we can get the ball rolling here!  I created two posts, let's see how it goes.  :)

Just curious what are your favorite amps? 

I'm for now looking for mostly a good lead tone.  I've read good things about the Line6 Litigator, and I've always loved the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, but I'm new to Go so haven't spent too much time fiddling...  There are sooo many options...!  It will take months to just have a basic grasp of all, and I doubt I'll be an expert in a couple of months, plus who knows if some amp sounds 'bad' with default settings but shine when tweaked...  I know some of the major players, but not so much about specific models, and even something classic like Vox AC30 don't have much experience with, seems mostly famous for classic rock rhythm tones, but maybe not greatest for lead? 

So would you have suggestions about the top amps for different genres/categories/guitar types, etc.?  Or maybe some of the classic amp and guitar combinations?  So that at least newbies like me could start off just targeting a couple amps? 

Thanks!  :)

So I'm just starting out with the Go, and don't know much about the dozens of cabs available on Go/Helix...  Are there particular cabs which are renown to be the 'greatests', and why?  Are there any amps which with certain settings really improve the way they sound or are the defaults typically good?   Do you tend to mix and match amps and cabs, or just leave the link amp/cab option and don't really care about cabs?

Also I just posted this! 

This forum is at least labeled as a support forum: "Community Support -> Multi-Effects Units -> POD Go", so maybe it could explain why there's not more users.  And also I'll admit that I also expected a bigger community, but as I mentioned, think with covid and the Go's being released not so long ago, it might ramp up with time.  But still I kinda expected a bigger community, not that questions aren't answered, but there probably some other forum or site out there with more enthusiasts, and maybe where it's more about sharing tips, info, etc., rather than just offering free community support!

And yeah, I'm one of 4 people following this forum, for whatever this means........!  Kinda feels like there should be more.........

Does anyone know if there are good discussion forums or sites dedicated to Helix/Go?  This forum appears to be more for tech support than for talking about presets, effects, patches, etc.! 

For instance, sure, the manual states the Soup Pro is the Supro S6616, but that's not much info...  I can google the amp, and it's fun to learn about, but hard to believe there's no dedicated site or resource with relevant info.  You could imagine at least a site with some pictures of the amp, maybe some recommendations about what the amp is good at, how it should be used, etc.?  Same for the effects...  Ex; 30 distortions, pretty overwhelming when you don't know anything about most of them...  Then there's hundreds more effects, amps, etc... 

I thought I'd start with the presets, but...  It's kind of a pain to go through them all, and I find myself skipping most, as they sort of feel bland, they seem miles away from for example youtube 'tweaked' tones I heard when researching the Go.  So I don't know, is there a discussion forum somewhere where users can share tips, experiences, suggestions for some patches, effects, etc.?

2 hours ago, rsvette12 said:

Hmm guess not many Pod Go's being sold pretty dead around here

Pretty sure there's tons of them sold already, but not all are subscribed to this forum and even less check it on an hourly or daily basis.  Also given the china virus, the availability is pretty slim, pretty much sold out and out of stock everywhere...  Well at least in Canada...

Thanks for your answer voxman! 

When you're talking about frequency range, which frequencies do you believe are at fault?   And when you're saying that the fx unit's has a wider frequency range, do you mean bass or treble?  On the low side, the low E string is like ~80Hz, even with a drop c, it only drops to like 65Hz, something easily handled with mid-fi headphones like 598 or B8.  Don't forget that 'music' pretty much covers all frequencies; from low frequencies(organs, bass, tubas, etc.,) to high frequencies (cymbals, triangles, snares, etc.), and everything in between.  So if it can reproduce a bass low end and a drum's cymbals, electric guitar shouldn't be an issue, even dropped C tuning and harmonics! 

The bass boost you mention is most commonly what I'd call.. I don't know like techno hipster 'garbage' (sorry ppl) like BOSE or Beats or the such, and it's typically a mid bass boost.  Also, I'm sorry to inform you that your headphones have quite a bass boost.  lol   Much more so than the 598 or B8, you can check out measurements below.  (though <100Hz, so bit lower than the typical mid bass boost)

https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHM50x.pdf

https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD598.pdf

Also remember that there's really nothing particular about studio monitor headphones vs audiophile headphones.  Sure, they try for a flat FR, but that doesn't mean they succeed!   Also you can't beat the flat & low bass of a decent planar, anyway, studio monitors like the Sony V6, Sennheiser HD280, AT M50X, etc., all are closed headphones (for isolation) with dynamic drivers...  They all reproduce from ~30-50Hz to ~15kHz.  There's really nothing inherently different about them, higher end 'audiophile' headphones do exactly the same thing they do, even better.  ;)  They all largely target the harman target curve, anyway, I'd be curious to know when you get your Go what you think!  Let me know how it sounds to you!  :D Thanks!

Strangeness...  I've always thought that the headphone out of my Spider amp sounded kinda 'fake', kinda 'plastic'...   I mean the sound is somewhat close to what you're hearing from the amp, but it's like the sound has a sort of digital background noise, you can hear it say if you pick a single note with distortion in the attack, or some sort of digital 'cheap' plastic sound in the background if you strike a 3 note power chord with distortion...  It's like maybe 90% of the sound is there and fine, but if you listen closely, you're hearing that the last 10% of the sound is like digital crap which sounds like lollipop, if that makes any sense...  :\ 

I always attributed it to just the amp having a low quality headphone out sound; or the lower quality speaker driver somehow masking this sound...  But lo and behold,  for some reason, I'm hearing some of that in the Go...  It's not as bad, but it's definitely there, it doesn't sound totally 'clean', there's also this sort of 'plastic' overtones in the background, which just doesn't sound quite right...  I mean it's close... If Spider was 90%, maybe this is 95%, but there's some strangeness to the sound...  I also remember old multi effect pedals having the same sort of issue...

And I'm a little bit confused, because plugging the same headphone out on speakers, and I can't really hear the same sort of digital distortion of whatever it is I'm hearing on headphones...  I don't think it's the headphones, I've tried so far with Sennheisers 598 and Bosshifi b8 (closed) and while neither are ultra high end, they're not cheap either; they both sound quite decent with music.  The B8s sound slightly better with the Go, maybe because of their closed nature, or I was playing them louder...  Maybe a sensitivity issue between headphones and the amp or go?

And another thing I've noticed, if you increase the volume as to have the sound quite loud, it sort of goes away, and seems to sound better...  It's really weird...   Anyone else ever noticed anything of the sort?

On 6/10/2020 at 8:22 AM, silverhead said:

Why pay for amp modeling (POD Go or HX Stomp) if you don’t plan to use it.

From what I can see, at sweetwater the Line 6 HX Effects is 499 and the Go is 449, so you're actually saving $ for getting the amp modeling even if you're not going to use it...! hehe  

Also I can't see why you would go with an HX instead of a Go...  Besides smaller form factor, maybe MIDI, but anyway if you're looking at a single standalone multi effects processor, go fo go, IMHO, you're getting a screen, an expression pedal, I think the HX is more for a sort of pro gig pedal rig thing, whereas the Pod Go seems like a much more 'amateur' friendly, more practical, all in one solution.  And honestly, it has soooo many effects, it'll take you months and months just to get a decent grasp and understanding of what they all sound like and do...  You'll likely have 10x more than you need!   LOL   So yeah, just for playing at home, looking for a all in one solution, I didn't even consider the HX, and I don't think you should go with HX over Go either given your original post!

The Stomp is a bit like the HX, more for Pros who have a pedal board and want something small with 'pro' features.  The Go has some limitations, ex; no parallel amps, read the thread here, but while 2 parallel amps might be great, honestly, so much you can do with the Pod Go, if you're not 100% sure RIGHT NOW that you absolutely need it, you're not going to need it.

also there's lots of youtube videos comparing the stomp vs the Go in depth.  But for me, the Go has a screen, expression pedal, more buttons, it's even cheaper, Go was easy choice vs Stomp!  For the 4 slots, it's plenty... Check out the channel "worship tutorials" on youtube, they have a good review, with very impressive Go sounds.  I'll likely pick up some of their patches soon, they sound REALLY good!

For the Go with Fenders amp, you're a little bit where I was/am with my Amp...  Honestly, plugging the Go to the amp's guitar In was a compromise...  One of the key features for the Go, for me, was sound quality, getting all the sound of those amps & effects, but when you're using an Amp+Cab from the Go and plug in in your amp, you'll hear your amp!  I mean already for me it was an upgrade, got some nice sounds, but it's not phenomenal, I was really not blown away.  Nothing comparable to the epic tones from worship tutorials review vid!

Also in my case, my amp has a "CD/mp3" in and I was able to bypass the Amp's amp, which helped a bit, but it's nowhere near I think what you could get with speakers.  I'll likely try mine with a stereo amplifier plus audio speakers in the next couple of days, and I'm very confident it'll sound a lot better than my amp.  The point is hearing the 'original' amps/cabs...  Something my old Spider 3 amp can't really do! 

But honestly, the Go deserves a good set of stereo speakers, as in my case, a budget guitar amp is really not doing the Go justice.  There's some cheap Studio Monitors which should also work great, of course the better the speakers the better, but I think even a pair of 200 or 300 buck studio monitors would make the Go sound a lot better!  (Stereo + will sound more like the emulated amp than a guitar amp which will impart a LOT of flavor to the sound!) but that's just a guess for now!  Others more experienced will likely chime in.  :)    But yeah, I'm in the same boat, no effects loop on amp really blows...

Hope this helps!  :)