Pod Go good for acoustic guitar?

[Numbat]

Half the songs my band does are acoustic and the other half electric.

I’m using a Takamine EF341C with a good quality preamp. It’s a piezo, but sounds great in a band mix.

Currently using a Trace Acoustic pedal, which has chorus and delay when I need them.

I’d like to know if the Pod Go caters well to acoustic guitar or not.

I’ve seen mention of downloading acoustic guitar IRs, but I’d like to hear from others who have tried this.

Can it be my one stop solution for both electric and acoustic, or am I better off continuing with my separate acoustic effects?

Thanks.

[silverhead]

The Pod Go caters well to acoustic guitars. Your acoustic presets will work best if you don’t use an amp/cab. The available FX include many varieties of the chorus and delay FX that you currently use as well as many other types of FX. 
 

Personally I don’t think you need acoustic IRs but you can certainly add them later if you’re not satisfied.

[Numbat]

I didn’t even realise there were acoustic presets. Shows how green I am!

It’s good to know ai don’t have to mess around with IRs right away.

The POD Go seems to be marketed at electric players, but it sounds more diverse than just that.

Thanks for your response Silverhead.

[pederlyng]

I play both acoustic and electric through my Pod Go.
I have made separate presets for my Hummingbird and a smaller parlor acoustic, both with L.R.Baggs Element piezos.
I use the 'studio preamp' and EQ to dial in the tone and level - and chorus, reverb, and delay in different combinations (snapshots). No IRs - and directly into to PA - great tone :-)

[voxman55]

2 hours ago, pederlyng said:

I play both acoustic and electric through my Pod Go.
I have made separate presets for my Hummingbird and a smaller parlor acoustic, both with L.R.Baggs Element piezos.
I use the 'studio preamp' and EQ to dial in the tone and level - and chorus, reverb, and delay in different combinations (snapshots). No IRs - and directly into to PA - great tone :-)

 

If you haven't already, please do share those acoustic patches on Custom Tone. I for one would be very interested to try them, with my Washburn EA30. 

[trainguy]

I bought an acoustic IR (10 USD) from 3Sigma and it sounds unbelievable with my Takamine  - with piezo pickup into the Pod Go.  No more Ovation type quacky acoustic sound, just gorgeous, "mic-d Taylor in a studio" sound, in a live setting.  I have been waiting about 20 yrs for this acoustic sound. And now the kicker - it happens to make my strat also sound like an OK acoustic. No chorus needed, just slight compression and room reverb.

 

tg

[wpostma]

I have several acoustics:

 

1. A sigma dreadnought with passive piezo pickup, no onboard pre-amp and the levels from this piezo are very weak, and yet the PodGo does a phenomenal job of giving up to +24 dB of boost to the weak signal just by setting up my presets.   

 

2.  A borrowed one from a friend (Yamaha) that has an onboard electric preamp and onboard EQ.   With this one, the PodGo doesn't need to provide much gain but the reverb and delay (used subtly) add a lot to it, and the EQ on the PodGo is far more flexible than the onboard EQ.  

 

As a side note if you just want a credible acoustic sound the "acoustic simulator" in pod go does a passable job within the context of a full band mix, of giving me a strummed or arpegiated acoustic part, suitable for country or folk accompaniment, without changing to an acoustic.

 

The big drag with acoustics is they are giant feedback magnets in a loud-stage environment.    If you have a big resonant acoustic, and you can play it on a big quiet stage, great, but if you just need to not be the guy the sound guy is having problems with, you can get by without a real acoustic when you're not the center stage person.

 

 

[Numbat]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

It's obvious that the Pod Go is a great one stop shop for electric and acoustic, assuming the DSP aren't an issue for you (which for me they're not).

 

The only thing that's causing me hesitation is the possibility of option paralysis. I'm worried the huge amount of effects and options are overkill for my needs.

 

Call me strange, but for some reason i don't like the idea of loads of features that I'm not using. I like simplicity. And even though the layout seems simple enough, it's still a departure from my usual pedal board. 

 

For this reason I'm considering getting a Tech 21 Flyrig 5 V2 as its simple layout makes more sense to me. The thought of something going wrong in a live situation but then being able to make adjustments with physicals knobs and dials on the fly appeals to me. And I think I would be satisfied with the fewer tone options on offer with the Flyrig. A fender Blonde for my clean and a Plexi for dirt - I'm a simple guy.

 

I realise this is a decision that only I can make, but if anyone has any advice i'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

[voxman55]

2 hours ago, Numbat said:

Thanks for all your replies.

 

It's obvious that the Pod Go is a great one stop shop for electric and acoustic, assuming the DSP aren't an issue for you (which for me they're not).

 

The only thing that's causing me hesitation is the possibility of option paralysis. I'm worried the huge amount of effects and options are overkill for my needs.

 

Call me strange, but for some reason i don't like the idea of loads of features that I'm not using. I like simplicity. And even though the layout seems simple enough, it's still a departure from my usual pedal board. 

 

For this reason I'm considering getting a Tech 21 Flyrig 5 V2 as its simple layout makes more sense to me. The thought of something going wrong in a live situation but then being able to make adjustments with physicals knobs and dials on the fly appeals to me. And I think I would be satisfied with the fewer tone options on offer with the Flyrig. A fender Blonde for my clean and a Plexi for dirt - I'm a simple guy.

 

I realise this is a decision that only I can make, but if anyone has any advice i'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

 

I know exactly what you mean, but 're option paralysis that fades away as you get to know Pod Go. Once you've found your favourite amp and cab set up, reverb, delay, distortion, modulations, etc these are the ones you'll gravitate too.

 

're ease  of use, the new feature of saving user preference settings in v1.30 means when you select these they'll already be set to how you like them. You can also create a template 'new patch' with eg your favourite reverb, delay etc already 'there'.

 

With regards to real knobs Pod Go kind of has these in that the 5 parameter knobs will control the selected amp or fx, but these are limited.  It's a huge reason that my Vox Tonelab SE has been my gigging MFX for the last several years because it has easy to use knobs and selector dials that make onstage tweaking so much easier. 

 

Real knobs is why some folk like the Boss ME70/80 units because these are akin to a series of stomp boxes strung together. Downside of these is lack of patch naming and and amp modelling quality.

 

But another mfx that has a great real 'knobs' layout is the Zoom G11.  In addition to real knobs for all effects, with a layout that looks like stomp boxes, it has a dedicated set of knobs for amp parameter settings that mean you can tweak it just like a real amp if you want to adjust volume, gain, presence, mids, treble, bass, etc.  Had it not been for the stupid initial price (which has come way down) I'd have seriously considered it.  Amp options are more limited at 22 currently but is still plenty for what most folk will need. 

 

No mfx is perfect with each having pros and cons. The trick is to find the right one that's the best fit for your needs and then learning to live with and work around the cons. 

 

 

[trainguy]

To Numbat,

 

After 15 months with the unit, I can share the following, previously craving simplicity with a tube amp, a delay and a volume pedal for many years:

 

1) Make sure you use equipment that your Pod Go is designed for: i.e. High quality studio monitoring headphones and/or an FRFR speaker or studio monitors.  Yes some will say it can work through an amp, but what I suggest is the most direct path to ENJOYING the device.  Took me 8 months to realize this...

2) Despite the above, you will most likely not like the presets.  They are rarely the patches of choice, maybe because Line 6 is maybe trying to demonstrate the amazing array of features instead of providing many usable out-of-the  box sounds.

3) Stop thinking like a guitarist who just tweaks an amp.  Expand your outlook slightly to add a mic-d guitar cabinet to your universe.  It's not that much more complicated and once you find 2-3 goto sounds that you know how to tweak, it opens up a huge array of possibilities, if you are interested.

4) Understand Low and high cuts - these were the number 1 eye-opener for me.  Proper understanding will get rid of the "fizzy" sound.

5) Search Youtube for Helix Amp Model videos.  The amp models in Pod Go are the same and there are many "recipes" of amp settings that will produce sounds you will not believe.  And the videos will quickly have you grasp best practices (for example the usual order of blocks (od, amp, cab, eq, delay, reverb etc)). Yes there are tons of settings but you quickly keep re-using them.  Use a laptop to dial in sounds as they do on these videos - much quicker.

6) Remember to regularly play along with backing tracks or fellow musicians, this is a very quick way to stop obsessing over your f-n sound!!

 

If you can only remember 2 of these, choose 1 and 6.

 

Or, just use the Scream 808 - Line 6 Litigator amp model, simple delay and any of the reverbs and you will be happy.

And get an acoustic IR - which will work well with an acoustic, and the same purchase will give you options to use your electric to emulate an acoustic, quite well.

 

Good luck!

tg