EddieVanSilva

In my rack, I have my power conditioner between the G90 and the HD. I only did this so that the antennas can be on the very top of the rack. I would think that this would be enough space and material between them to not cause any problems, but who knows. I used to use a vetta head and would just set my old cheap wireless right on top of the amp, and never had any dropouts; I've gotta assume that I should be able to run the G90 in a rack without any problems. I've seen hundreds of guitarists with a wireless in a rack, so maybe just a different frequency would help? Does anyone have any input as to the rear inputs on the HD?

Interestingly enough, I had a couple dropouts last night at my show. Thankfully it was when I was doing sound check and I was over by the board, but when I got back on stage, it didn't drop out at all. The cheap POS that I used to have sounded terrible, but never dropped out, so for the cost of this, I've got to assume it's something stupid. I didn't get a chance to play around with this input issue before going to the show, so I did it the old fashoined way, just running a cable from the front of the rack to the back, but that sux.

Hi guys, Haven't posted in a while, but I now have a completely new (to me) guitar rig, and my intention with it was keep it kinda simple, relatively light weight, and look clean. Along with my HD, I'm using a Rocktron velocity amp, a G90 wireless, and a power conditioner all housed in a rack, and I even bought one of those steel mesh rack spacers for the empty space above my amp, which helps give it a nice, clean look. Before I set it up this way, I just had the HD and amp sitting on a shelf working the bugs out before trying to gig with it. I had always plugged my guitar into the front input of the HD. Now that everything is nice and tidy in the rack, I found that the only output of the G90 is on the back of the unit. I vaguely recall this question coming up here before, but how do I use one of the rear inputs of the HD, which would allow me to keep my cord plugged in at all times??? I had ordered the G90 and it came in literally the day of a show I was playing, so I quickly plugged it into the front as usual, got it to make sound, then went to the gig. There, I tried using one of the rear inputs and couldn't get any sound. I didn't play with it for long, and just ended up running my cord from the front of the HD to the rear of the G90. Since one of my priorities was to keep it clean, it really bothers me having that cord outside of my rack. I know that in the settings, you can set what type of input for the rears. I remember trying a couple different things in the input settings, but at the time I couldn't get anything to work. So I've just been using it the old way for quite a while, without ever really digging into it again. I'll have a chance to do some tinkering on it tomorrow, so I was hoping someone could shed some light on how to set up the rear input for a guitar. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help! I'll give it a shot tonight and let you know how I make out!

Thanks for that. I'm at work so I can't watch it, but I will when I get home and hopefully helps me out.

So I've read a few posts here concerning unwanted "fizz" in a high gain channel, but still not sure what the main cause of this is, or what the best steps are to get rid of it. With my Vetta, my "go-to" high gain setting had a lot of different effects in it, and had a lot of distortion, but not that "fizzy" sound. It sounds like something that a little tweaking might clear up, but no luck yet. For example, when I play with the treadplate pre, I get fizz with the pre's gain set to about 60%. At that setting, The distortion is not nearly as heavy as the finished product on my Vetta setting. While the vetta setting is definitely distortion heavy, it's not the same kind of noise. I find that with a combination of some tube comp and EQ'ing, I can start to get that "Big and heavy" sound I'm looking for, but just makes the fizz more noticeable. With those things turned down or off, it just make my sound very thin, for example, playing through the Vetta is like having several cabs spread out in a large room, and the HD sounding like a small practice amp in a small room. I've tried using that pre with a few combinations of EQ, comps, etc. in an effort to somehow tune it out, but haven't had much luck other than just turning the gain down, which goes against the sound I'm looking for. I've also tried different pre's (haven't downloaded new ones yet), but so far it seems like the treadplate puts me more in the direction I'm looking for, so I've been just trying to mess with that one, instead of starting from scratch with something else. For all of this, I'm using the HD Pro with 2.62 update, Mesa 412 straight cab, and Rocktron Velocity 300 amp. At some point I plan on downloading some other users presets, just to see how they're set up, and possible tweak them to suit my needs, but I feel like the tones I'm working on are close, aside from the fizzyness, so just looking for some insight. Thanks.

I played quite a bit more, with each output of the amp going into each of the 4 ohm inputs of the cab, and still have not noticed the amp getting extremely hot. As for the Clipping sound, I played with it a bunch, but I just can't figure out what's causing it. I wish the Pod had a clip meter like a lot of other devices have.

thanks for the info! Of course, I couldn't just stop there until I found out what was wrong. Yesterday I put the juice to it again, at a slightly higher volumer than before. I played non stop for awhile and it got warm, but nowhere near what it was like the other day. The only thing I noticed, is that I am running everything into a mesa cab, in stereo. I keep the speakers disconnected, so I can wheel the cabinet out of the way when we have band practice. But when I hooked it back up, I accidentaly plugged one cable into the 8 ohm side and one into the 4 ohm side. For running stereo, there are two 4 ohm inputs to run it in stereo, but I must have just reach back without looking. Would this make the amp run hotter?

Well I don't believe the Pod itself is getting hot on it's own. I believe the Rocktron is putting out so much in that, even with a space between the two in my rack, it's causing the bottom of the pod to get hot.

Yeah that's what I posted above, that starting from the bottom of the case, there's an empty space, then the amp, then empty space, then HD pro. Like i said, I wouldn't be surprised if it got WARM, but even with an empty space between it and the Pod, the bottom of the pod was so hot I could barely keep my hand on it. Just don't know if something's wrong or not. the fan kicks on and off like it should. If that's just the way it is, I'll be pretty bummed, as the amp is neat, and even when I add my wireless to the rack, it will still be a lightweight rig. I didn't want to have to get separate cases, or go to a cooler running amp if at all possible.

With all the new threads about firmware updates and new cab models, I hate to go back to basics to talk about some issues I'm having, but here it goes... Having only recently receiving my HD Pro, I'm still in the process of tinkering with it and trying to come up with decent tones. As of now, I'm running in stereo to a Rocktron Velocity 300, then into a 412 cab. As I'm adjusting things, I'll be doing so at rehearsal volume, so it's pretty loud. Every now and again, I'll come up with a tone that to me, sounds decent, but on the highest 2 strings, when I hit a note, I hear, what sounds to me like, a short burst of clipping noise. The tones have distortion, but not extremely heavy (think older AC/DC). I have reverb and delays set up in moderation, nothing with heavy saturation. I'm not using any compression yet. You only hear it the very moment you hit the note, then it disappears when the note starts to decay. On my old Vetta and other equipment I've used, like old proccessors, mixers, etc. I'm familiar with clipping. But all of those have an input level, and I don't see any place as of now to be able to adjust that. Now, while browsing the site, I came across a thread where someone mentioned to press in the pad button, as it's for guitars with hot pickups, so that's already pressed in, so it's not the problem. The other issue is my Rocktron. I have zero experience using power amps for a guitar rig. I personally think that this amp shapes the tone very well. Tone-wise, I couldn't be happier. But today was the first time playing at rehearsal volume for any length of time. Normally I crank it up, then spend 20 minutes turning dials, play for 2 minutes, turn dials, etc. Today I only did minor tweaks, and got to devote some real quality time blasting some rock through my new rig. after about 20 minutes of solid playing, the amp was so hot I couldn't keep my hand on it for very long. I could "smell" it. Not an electrical meltdown smell, but in my line of work there are tools that get hot, and the paint used on the tool, housing, or whatever, starts to create a smell when it heats up. check connections, let it cool down to where I could comfortable rest my hand on it, and rocked out some more. Same thing. I have my HD Pro in the same rack case. It's a 6 space case, and as of right now from bottom to top it's: empty, rocktron, empty, HD Pro, empty. So there's empty spaces on both sides. After playing, the underside of the HD Pro was so hot I could barely keep my hand on it. The fans on the Rocktron are on the side of it, and has vent holes in the top of it. So while it's in the rack case, the fans aren't directly facing the outside of the case, but front and back lids are off. I would have to think that, although amps can get warm, these things are designed to be in a rack case, right? I would assume that they designed it to be able to run with the fan NOT facing the open ends. But I do NOT want my HD Pro to melt down into a ball of liquid circuit boards while I'm playing a solo at a show. So any input guys? Sorry for the lengthy post. Thanks.

I waited until I was at work (when no one was around!) and printed the entire manual. I screwed up by not setting it to print double sided, so now i have a 4 million page binder. I too like to have the hard copy. I can fairly easily look up the PDF, but when I started sitting down to learn how to work the pod HD, for me it was easier having the book in front of me to bounce back and forth through pages, put in bookmarks when the thing I was trying to learn was discussed in a few different spots in the manual, etc. Plus even when I wasn't playing around with it, I would have an issue that I couldn't quite figure out, so I'd take the binder with me when I was at work or whatever, so if I had some free time I could study it to see what options I'd have for when I got back home. I know this makes me old school, but just the way i prefer. I'm not mad about not having the manual right away, although if I had to print it out at home using my own ink and paper, it might have given me a different attitude.

That quote should replace a verse or two in the national anthem!

Exactly. Thanks. We all do this for different reasons, with different gear, with different budgets. Don't get me wrong, if I had my way I would hire a sound guy for even the smallest bar shows we play. Maybe your band sells out entire soccer stadiums in South America for millions of dollars, but I play in a rock cover band in crap hole bars, and by the time we split the money with the other band members, I'm lucky if it pays enough to pay for the gas I used to get there and back. So needless to say, sound man out of the question. I only play in a band as a fun way to let off some steam from a stressful job, drink a few beers, and keep up my chops. I totally respect that a lot of guys take this more seriously, possibly even as their full time job, but you also have to respect that there's a hefty amount of people who are either just starting out, or like me, just choose to stay low key, and do not have the options that you may have. No offense meant by this, just trying to put it in perspective for you.

I have global EQ on my Vetta, and I love it. I know everyone does different things as a guitar player, but I play mostly in small old bars that weren't designed to accommodate bands. Some rooms sound like you're playing in a water tower, others sound real boomy, and others make everything extremely shrill on the high end. I adjust these at most every show to make up the difference. Someone else pointed out that "that's what the sound man is for". I DO agree with this, but in the places we play, I run my own PA, and most of the guitar sound is coming from the amps, not the mains. Using the global EQ allows me to make subtle changes without having to dig in to my presets to do it.

Don't want to derail here, but after just getting my HD pro hooked into a rocktron velocity 300, I ran it stereo, and had to crank the heck out of it to get to live volume, so I ended up just running it bridged mono to get more power. But I also had it switched to "amp" in the back, which is what I "thought" I was supposed to do. So you're saying the the "line" setting is hotter, and won't adversely affect tone or the equipment?

I guess I should point out that as far as how I set it up, I set the HD line/amp switch to "amp", and originally started running in stereo to the rocktron, but it seemed like I was running out of headroom to play at live volume. So yesterday I ran it mono. I also set the HD output to stack power amp. Not sure if these settings would contribute to my issue, but figured I'd give you all the facts.

Just an update... I haven't had much time to play around with my new gear much, but yesterday I was able to commit a few hours to start making some good tones for my gigs. So far, I really like the Rocktron Velocity 300. I played with some settings, and once I got a tone roughed in (at live volume), I adjusted to the reactance and definition knobs a little, and really warmed things up. Hard to explain, just seemed to give it more life, rather than a sterile sound. In doing so, the tones I played with were made using preamp only, no cab. It's taking me a while to figure the Hd pro out, and every time I hear something that I don't care for, I go back to the manual, and find that there's some other hidden adjustment that can solve that problem, but I had to really dig through to find it. While frustrating, I actually really like those hidden things. From having the vetta for so long, I learned that when you're needing a little something extra in the tone, those little hidden adjustments are just one more way to perfect your tone (if there is such thing). One thing I can't seem to figure out. I created a couple tones, and used one preamp in the signal chain. after getting it to sound decent, I decided to try adding a second preamp to it (a lot of my favorite vetta tones were created using 2 amps). This tone had a fairly heavy distortion, with subtle effects added like a slight touch of verb and gate. It sounded good at first, but noticed that anytime I would play an artificial harmonic, the level would cut drastically, and then the very next note I played with no harmonic was significally louder. It didn't sound like anything was clipping. I turned off the effects to see if that had any impact, but it didn't. I tried each amp individually, and did not notice this issue. This was very consistent, so it's not anything in my technique. I'm sure there is some step I'm missing or have set wrong, but I can't find what it is. It almost sounds like the tone goes into super compression whenever I hit those artificial harmonics. As of now I don't have any compression on these tones. This issue is VERY noticeable and I would never play out like that. Once I get comfortable with this unit, I may only use 1 amp for most of my tones, but since I used 2 on the vetta I want to at least experiment with it to see what can be done with this thing. Any ideas???

Just an update... I found a guy locally that was selling an HD Pro, and incidentally had a Rocktron Velocity 300, and for the price I couldn't pass it up. He also had a real nice 412 cab, and for the package deal, I got that too. This is nice, because I basically have to come up with all new tones to replace what I have in my Vetta, and with the other cab as well, my plan is to have both hooked up side by side, crank the vetta to typical live volume, and do side by side comparisons to get all the levels to blend well. This took me a long time with the vetta, always tweaking it during rehearsals, so having these two side by side might actually speed that up a bit. I haven't had much chance to play with it due to work, but once I get things tuned in, I'll post back with a report.

Well, I THINK I've at least narrowed it down to SS only. With people giving their thoughts on certain tube amps, and doing a ton of research, it would seem that I would definitely get a better sound with tube power. But with that being said, the reliability and low maintenance of SS, as well as price, has gotten my attention. My rhythm guitarist uses a Marshall TSL, and his tone is definitely more "cutting" than mine playing through the Vetta, but I would have to assume that, at the VERY least, the new POD HD would have as-good of tone as the Vetta, but I imagine since it's way newer, it's ability in making good tones is probably better. There are some solid state amps that have some tone adjustments on them, and while they probably don't have any way of making it sound EXACTLY like a tube amp, those amps, in conjunction with the POD, would probably be capable of producing a better sound than my vetta already does (once I dial everything in to my liking), and if I am content with the Vetta (aside from it's issues it's having), I would still think the SS amp and HD combination would be an improvement to my sound, and give me the reliability and price I want. Of course, which one??? It really stinks that there aren't any big music shops nearby that might carry a good selection. I'm going to continue my SS research, probably just roll the dice and hop for the best.

That's an interesting choice! I have the 5000 as one of my amps in my PA system. I had it for about a month and it crapped out on me. I took it back and they sent it to Peavey and fixed it under warranty and I haven't had any problems since. From lugging my other amps around, I love that it's light as a feather. My only concern would be the tone it produces for guitars. I have zero experience using a power amp for guitars, as I've always went through some type of guitar head or combo. I see that some of these amps, such as the Rocktron and the Matrix, as well as the tube heads like the carvin, seem to be made for guitar, and have some sort of tone shaping to accomodate a guitarist's tone. With that being said, does the amp/cab modelling in the HD500 do a good enough job that a more "sterile" amp would still do a great job?

I'm not saying it's out of my price range completely. I guess from being a vetta fan, I get good sounds out of my amp, and when I go to set up for a gig, I get alot of haters put their noses up to that amp, as they are wheeling in a 2,000 dollare head, 1,000 dollar cab, and a pedal board that looks like it belongs on the starship enterprise. When they DO hear me play, I get a great response from those same people. I'm not saying my vetta sounds better than boutique amps with all the pedals and such, I'm just saying that, to carry in less weight, have more versatility, less set up time, and play in venues that have horrible acoustics, and do it all for "pennies on the dollar" compared to some others, that's what I'm all about. So long story short, I'm not throwing ANY power amp suggestion out the window yet. but if a bunch of people give a great respose to some cheaper, but durable and great sounding amp, that will probably be the one I go with. I love the sound of a tube head. But let's face it. 99% of the places my band plays at, are old bars. Good crowds, but the bars were built in the late 1800's to early 1900's as a farm house or store or restaurant, and converted years later to a bar, with acoustics never being a thought in that conversion. There's this one place in particular, that regardless of your sound, the echo is so terrible, and the bar has this old piano that they shove into a corner to make room for bands, and that thing makes all kinds of funny noises when you play. You wont' be able to tell the difference between a good tube head and a good modeling rig there.

Wow those Matrix are a little expensive! I read really good things about them though!

Anyone ever use a Rocktron Velocity 300, while using the POD HD and a 4 12 cab? interesting description on their site, I wonder how well it would power 4 12" speakers at live volume. I like the size of it, that would cut down on some of the bulk of a rack setup, just don't know how well it would pair with the POD, or if it could keep up.

I have considered that, but there's been shows where we have mic'd the cab to play through FOH (but I run mine direct out), but due to bad mixing and monitoring, there's been times where I had a tough time hearing myself through the monitor, but could bump my amp up a little to be heard. I think I want to keep it set up more traditional. Plus, my rhythm guitarist uses an older Marshall half stack, which doesn't have the direct out, and I think in a small bar, it would sound a little off having a half stack playing and having the sound very "directional", while my sound would be spaced out among the FOH rig. I believe my Vetta is either 100 or 150 watts. I've read a few reviews about some different power amps, but there were VERY mixed reviews, and none of them were using them in conjunction with the POD HD. People have raved about tube power amps, and a few said that there were solid states that did a great job. I dont mind either one, but would like to hear if any is already doing so with their POD HD. I did read good things about the carvin, not sure if the power will come close to the vetta, but then again, I always run it on half power, 1/3 of the way up and can easily be heard over the drums. We do very little recording, everything that I'm asking is strictly for the live shows.