So I'm currently playing through a Pod HD Pro. I was initially able to find some serviceable tones, but was honestly a tad bit discouraged. Then I found out about the "Input 1-Guitar Inputer 2-Variax" thing and holy lollipop, it worked like a charm. However, I stumbled across a thread from someone stating that using this method also lowers the volume. I tested his observation, and found it to be true. I don't quite remember the specifics, but I think it had to do with the Pod's pre-chain area being 2 mono signals rather than 1 stereo. So when you set input 2 to Variax, the Pod somewhat averages the Input 1 signal and Input 2 signal, and since Input 2 is essentially set to 0, the overall signal is reduced.
Does anyone have any experience/insight on this matter? Is there a way to get the desired sound of "input 1-guitar input 2-variax" without having the drop in dB?
thanks!