Search the Community

I made the plunge and pulled the trigger on a "Dent & Scratch" JTV59 in Cherry Burst from Sweetwater. I am really excited about this too, because I already have and pretty much love a POD HD500 that I will be playing this through. That makes 2/3 of the so called "Dream Rig", but I really don't see myself getting the amp because I already have a pair of Tech21 Power Engines that sound great to me AND are a stereo pairing which is something I don't believe the DT25 or it's siblings offer. I don't play out right now, and I bought this strictly because I want to see what I can create in my modest home studio in the basement. I have given it a lot of thought actually, and I have had Line6 gear in the past including the PODxt and GuitarPort and they were "OK", but not nearly as good sounding to me as my Fender tube amps with a few quality pedals and a Strat or a Tele, so they remained mostly "toys" for lack of a better description. In any event, plugging into the HD500 changed all of that for me in many ways. Are the models in there "just as realistic" as the genuine article? For the ones I have, namely the 59 Bassman RI and the Deluxe Reverb RI I'd say they are darn close. I couldn't afford the others, and frankly I wouldn't want to maintain it all lol. But now, I can develop great tones in painstaking detail to just sit and noodle on and HAVE FUN, which is of course why we all got into this to begin with, right? So the next logical step has to be this JVT59 Variax in my mind because it extends what I really love about the HD500 to the instrument in my hands. As I understand things, I can create a patch that selects the amp, fx and guitar processing by connecting the VDI cable from this guitar to the HD500. Assuming that is true, my question is this; Why wouldn't ANY guitarist want such a thing for the less than 2k investment? In my case, the Dent and Scratch sale means I'll have less than $1550 invested and in return, I can play Mr. Wizard with my HD guitar and HD amp modeler. I'll probably always have my tube gear, because although it's a one trick pony -- it's a hell of a trick. But I look forward to tinkering like a Mad Scientist in my basement as well lol... So, any advice for the uninitiated?