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HD500X Tube Replication


afedericojr
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Good day all,

 

I am new to POD, and as a fan of Lincoln Brewster, saw he was using a POD X3 Live, which blew my mind! I have periodically reached out to solid state or modeling amps only to be disappointed and go back to tube. I thought a hands on test of the HD500X would convince me, but my visit to Guitar Center was disappointing as out of the box, the effects are very limited and seem to be geared to more '80's style synth. I now realize that it needs to be configured to your preferred patch sequence and per paired speakers/pa, but it would have been nice to have some floor model demo patches.

 

For those of you with experience, what is your honest insight as to how this will replace a 50+ watt 6L6 tube head? Is it only going to shine in a full PA blasting over the seats, taking into account room acoustics, or can you get some decent sounds anywhere (from bedroom to venue)?

 

Lastly, is the L2T and L2M the preferred pairing with this pedal? I see some combos sold as FRFR, but want to make sure that if I invest it is the right path for the most flexibility and true reproduction of sound.

 

Thanks.

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First, as to the factory patches... 

I don't know if they were designed to be used. But I consider them good at demonstrating what can be done with the unit. Some of those weird 'tron up' type patches, I would never have thought to make something like that. I would never even imagine making a noise like that with a guitar (but I have access to keyboard stuff). 

So, it is nice to have stuff that shows the far reaching aspects. I mean, if it can do that, it can do just about anything. 

Sure, I may not have a use for it, but it is nice to know that I have those capabilities.

 

Could you imagine buying a unit capable of all of what the Pod can do but it only showed plain ol' guitar sounds. How would you know what it can do!

 

 

So, as to the question of it replicating tube sounds... 

 

I never bought into the idea of tube vs solid state. I go with my ears. 

My HD500 replaced everything that goes between my guitar and the PA. And I hadn't made any changes to that rig in over 20 years.

So, while I may not know what 'tube' sound people want, it certainly gives me the sounds I want.

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I had always been a hardcore tube guy for more years than I would like to admit. My old guitar roadie called me up one day and said he had gotten hold of this thing called a POD 2.0 and he really didn't care for. We got together and I was immediately captivated with the possibilities of how this thing could get me tonally where I wanted to be in seconds! I do a lot of recording sessions and being able to cut back on the amount of amps to carry around was a no brainer for me. Now my amps sit in storage and I am up to the HD unit. I have not missed my tube amps one bit! There was some wrangling around to get used to the direct to the for live performance, but once I got my ears trained I never regretted my decision to go this direction. Now in my studio I use Amplitube but for live I am perfectly happy running my POD direct to the house with a little bit in the monitors for me.

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Like Pianoguyy said, the stock presets on products like this are always garbage. All the presets are very cluttered with different FX to the point that they just don't sound very good. When buying new gear, what I like to do is research the crap out of it on Youtube first to see what can be done with it. If I'm still interested after this point, I just go buy it from GC (or whoever), bring it home and see how it works with all my current gear. I figure if I'm cool with spending the money already then why not? If I really don't like it after a few days, I just bring it back for a refund. I've never been charged a restock fee so it's essentially a free rental. Yeah you might do a bit more running around but I find I need a good couple of days with any piece of gear to really decide if I like it or not. FWIW, Line 6's multi's have always made the cut for me. I could definitely tell you a few items to stay away from though lol.

 

As for the speaker setup question. If you have an FX loop on your current amp you could run it through that and still take advantage of the tube poweramp section and have the best of both worlds. I have a friend who hooks up and gigs like this, I use FRFR PA speakers myself and both sound killer when dialed in correctly!

 

Direct recording is also a godsend if you don't want to/can't crank up the tube amp. I feel the HD series does a much better job of replicating tube amps than the previous models have. With some time in service on the machine, I bet you could build some patches you are really happy with. The global EQ they added on the latest update does help dial in your current sounds to whatever type of room you're in without radically changing things in my experience.

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If I bought a guitar amp I don't think I would leave all the controls the way they came set out of the box, the same goes for a POD. Those presets have about .1% chance of being what any one of us is looking for. All the amps and effects have many settings that need to be adjusted to get your sound. I like to start with just the amp and get it sounding good before adding any effects.

 

-Max

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PODHD presets suck.  The PODHD also takes a fair amount of time and effort to learn how it works then to tweak it for the tone you want.  I spent weeks and weeks getting it to sound right for me.  In the end it's worth it and there's a lot of us in this forum that will help you get there.

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The more i use My HD500 connected via the XLR'a directly into my MG16XU Mixer then into a Dolby stereo Virtul Surround sound Amp for home use the more i love it just sounds amazing to my and friends ears ...

 

This is why i want to get a pair of Yamaha DXR12's PA speakers for my HD500 and Mixer because it sounds awsome in stereo with effects.

 

i have four valve amps Huges & Kettner Tube20, Peavey VK 50 combo, Peavey VK MK2 100W head and an Vox AC30CC2 i know they are nothing special although they are all valve amps and i am starting to like the idea of my HD500 +mixer and the Yamaha DXR12's over all my amps

 

im not to keen on the HD500's distortion effects but then again its more to with i like clean sound with effects and even more so just lately when using an cheap (Ibanez Talman TCM 50-NT1206)  semi acoustic guitar with the setup.

 

how good it is for professional Live show i would not know im just a mear learner/novice ..

 

heres a video with Paul Hindmarsh at andertons doing a demo its old and about 30mins long but may show what can be done

 

https://youtu.be/pAI2rOT-QuY

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I would check out the thread that's in this forum about the best patches people have developed for the HD500 and give those  a listen to show the capability of the HD500.  Like everybody else here said the stock patches are there for more show off the edge of the envelope than anything actually useful.  From what I understand there is a new set of patches with the latest update that are supposed to be pretty spectacular

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Thanks all. Fantastic and very helpful responses. As a first impression, you all seem to make up a very helpful community here.

 

While I don't have much experience with it, I have been using Guitar Rig 5 more and more, with my Presonus Eris E5 monitors. I imagine that they would work great for the HD500x, but if I am going in, maybe I'll grab the L2T/L2M. I love the idea of stereo.

 

Hopefully Line6 puts some better OEM samples on the unit. If I test a combo modeling amp in a store, I expect the preset dial to have some typical basic samples that will give me clean, classic, metal, etc to quickly sample some capability. I just thought the first 10 banks would have been something like that. Had that been the case, I may have walked out with one, but as some of you have said, I too have been listening to video after video trying to discern what is room acoustics, etc.

 

Thank you again for all the helpful replies. I did come across the Axe-FX II, but that is a different world altogether. Granted, it goes for the "feel" (blooming delay maybe) of tube, but at that price, I think I'll leave it to the pros.

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I think Line6 loses lots of potential customers because the Pod presets suck.  That is what everyone who goes to a GC to try one out will experience.  It's not possible to make a good preset on the fly if you don't have experience with the pod.  These things are great when you get the hang of them though.

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Thanks all. Fantastic and very helpful responses. As a first impression, you all seem to make up a very helpful community here.

 

While I don't have much experience with it, I have been using Guitar Rig 5 more and more, with my Presonus Eris E5 monitors. I imagine that they would work great for the HD500x, but if I am going in, maybe I'll grab the L2T/L2M. I love the idea of stereo.

 

Hopefully Line6 puts some better OEM samples on the unit. If I test a combo modeling amp in a store, I expect the preset dial to have some typical basic samples that will give me clean, classic, metal, etc to quickly sample some capability. I just thought the first 10 banks would have been something like that. Had that been the case, I may have walked out with one, but as some of you have said, I too have been listening to video after video trying to discern what is room acoustics, etc.

 

Thank you again for all the helpful replies. I did come across the Axe-FX II, but that is a different world altogether. Granted, it goes for the "feel" (blooming delay maybe) of tube, but at that price, I think I'll leave it to the pros.

You could try loading the "Song/Style" setlist instead of the "Best of HD" that loads by default. There's a few more straightforward patches in that setlist. It's really easy to load from the editing software but I can't remember how to do it from the board itself.

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Hopefully Line6 puts some better OEM samples on the unit. If I test a combo modeling amp in a store, I expect the preset dial to have some typical basic samples that will give me clean, classic, metal, etc to quickly sample some capability. I just thought the first 10 banks would have been something like that. Had that been the case, I may have walked out with one, but as some of you have said, I too have been listening to video after video trying to discern what is room acoustics, etc.

 

 

 

There is way too much to learn/test for an instore test. And as mentioned, there is a learning curve. Personally, I had the unit for months before I even took it out of my house for a rehearsal. Test gigs, full gigs, and then gigs where I took ONLY my Pod happened long after that.   

 

And as far as 'the first ten' goes, you don't know who touched it before you. So, the first ten you played could have been something useless like a Variax or vocal setlist, or it could have been the weird creations of the previous users. 

 

 

Even amp modeling at a store can be dreadful. A Marshall will never sound like a Fender. So, what you test it out on will make a difference with how it sounds too. 

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