My POD GO SOUNDS BAD!

[Eric2002]

Hello.

My pod go doesn't sound good at all. I have downloaded all sorts of different IR's, patches, and I've made my own but they don't sound very clear and thaey dont have that "guitar punch you in the face sound" despite all the raving being sad online about this pedal. Honestly disappointed.

 

My Dad owns a AX8 fractal and it sounds so much cleaner, richer, and fuller. The fractal is a great sounding pedal but the Pod Go dosent even sound that good in the first place never mind comparing it to the fractal (which eats it for lunch.) Am I doing something wrong?

 

Otherwise I'm gonna get a different pedal. 

 

If someone could help me that would be great.

[chugzilla]

well as voxman once told me .be patient and figure it out basically.....because i complained about the sounds ect...and i was using it into a power amp to a 4x12 cabinet..i hadn't at that point in time messed with irs...headphones or powered studio monitors....now its been months and i love my sound from pod go to my amp n cab...i since have  got good headphones and powered monitors....i wish everything could sound as good as it does through headphones but thats almost impossible haha...so i guess it boils down to what you are doing..playing through and what kind of sound-preset are your building and trying to get....i used all the fee irs i could find and it was ALOT.... but nothing touched the bogren ones..i got the lead n clean...rythm and downtunes packs i love um...they work for me and what im doing....

[voxman55]

On 3/11/2022 at 4:59 AM, Eric2002 said:

Hello.

My pod go doesn't sound good at all. I have downloaded all sorts of different IR's, patches, and I've made my own but they don't sound very clear and thaey dont have that "guitar punch you in the face sound" despite all the raving being sad online about this pedal. Honestly disappointed.

 

My Dad owns a AX8 fractal and it sounds so much cleaner, richer, and fuller. The fractal is a great sounding pedal but the Pod Go dosent even sound that good in the first place never mind comparing it to the fractal (which eats it for lunch.) Am I doing something wrong?

 

Otherwise I'm gonna get a different pedal. 

 

If someone could help me that would be great.

 

The first thing to appreciate is that modern units such as Pod Go, Helix, Axe FX, Ax8, Boss etc etc are not plug 'n play, by which I mean if you are expecting any of these units to sound great straight out the box it's unlikely that's going to happen.  It will take a little time not just to learn how to change things, but actually how to set these units to sound good to you, with your ears.  Every modern MFX unit is capable of sounding brilliant.  It's also important to understand that all these units are intended to capture the sound of a mic'd amp/cab and none of these will give you the in the room kick in the pants feel you'll get from standing in front of a 4x12" Marshall stack!  

 

So to try & help guide you it would be helpful to understand what gear you are using, and what you are playing Pod Go through? 

1. Are you using Pod Go through headphones, if so which headphones are you using?

2. What guitar and pickups are you using eg Strat, 3 single coils etc

3. Are you using Pod Go through an amp/cab?  If so:

3a - what amp/cab/speaker are you using?

3b Are you running Pod Go into the front of your amp, through the FX return, or using 4-cable method?

4. Are you running Pod Go through an FRFR powered speaker?  If so, which one are you using eg Line 6 1x12 Power Cab

4a If you are using FRFR what type of cable are you using to connect your FRFR to your Pod Go?

5. What type of music do you play eg classic rock, heavy/doom metal, jazz, country, blues, etc

6. Where do you play? e.g. home, studio recording, friends, small clubs/bars?

7. Are you playing with a full band and if so how 'heavy handed/loud' is your drummer? 

8. Are you connecting to Pod Go main out, or amp out?  

9. How long have you been playing? How would you define your tonal experience/knowledge eg are you comfortable with EQ, amp models, cab models, mic type/placing  and tone shaping or is all this fairly new territory? 

10. What were you using before Pod Go? 

11. Have you watched any of the excellent tone tutorials & patch-building vids on you tube? 

 

Once we have a better picture of all this, I'm sure we can then all look to try & give you some helpful guidance to aid you on your tone journey.

 

[grdGo33]

Also see the tone suck thread.  There's an issue wit the Go where if you plug in your guitar straight into the Go, it will 'suck' out the tone of your guitar, so you need some sort of pedal with a buffer between your guitar and the Go to get expected tone.

 

The effect really depends on your guitar and playing style.  I didn't realize it at first, since when you add the Go's Amp, Cab or IR, the effects, your tone is changed by a lot, so the Go's 'tone suck' isn't that obvious.  Plus again, the more effects/distortions, the less noticeable it is.

 

But if you just plug in a strat with clean tone and few effects that you're familiar with, that's when it gets really noticeable.  Pretty sure it's a defect/design of the Go, so you can't really fix it.  But yeah, it's like turning down the Tone knob of your guitar.

[grdGo33]

On 3/10/2022 at 11:59 PM, Eric2002 said:

 don't sound very clear and thaey dont have that "guitar punch you in the face sound" despite all the raving being sad online about this pedal. Honestly disappointed.

 

Also, what are you outputting the sound with?   The speakers you use are critical for that.   If you're using quality speakers, studio monitors or FRFR you should be OK, but I've seen reviewers acknowledge the fact that it doesn't sound exactly like a guitar amp + cabinet in a room.

 

And that's what you have to realize also.  The Helix/Go (and likely other FX units) don't try to sound like a guitar cabinet in a room.  They're trying to sound like a recorded guitar which you'd hear on an album track.  So by default, you're not getting that cabinet in a room sound.  So if that's what you're expecting, I'd think you can kinda get it, but that's not what you're getting out of the box.

[DR2C]

On 3/12/2022 at 11:58 AM, chugzilla said:

well as voxman once told me .be patient and figure it out basically.....because i complained about the sounds ect...and i was using it into a power amp to a 4x12 cabinet..i hadn't at that point in time messed with irs...headphones or powered studio monitors....now its been months and i love my sound from pod go to my amp n cab...i since have  got good headphones and powered monitors....i wish everything could sound as good as it does through headphones but thats almost impossible haha...so i guess it boils down to what you are doing..playing through and what kind of sound-preset are your building and trying to get....i used all the fee irs i could find and it was ALOT.... but nothing touched the bogren ones..i got the lead n clean...rythm and downtunes packs i love um...they work for me and what im doing....

What kind of headphones are you using?
Im currently renting a POD GO and APEX HP100 headphones and am pretty disapointed in the sound im getting.

[chugzilla]

akg k361 but....since i posted that i actually purchased presets from the line 6 marketplace..... from fremen and tonewars and all i can say is wow...now everything sounds even better.... i deleted every patch i ever made.... because im terrible at it lol...loaded all these presets and irs ....and now im all set.... and super happy with what i did ....and everything is 30 % off ...ya cant go wrong lol....and the with the tonewars presets i just turned off the cab sims and lowered the volume of the preset...and they sound amazing out of my setup...pedal baby 100 and 4x12 cabinet....havent tried with the other ones yet....and i think i like the headphones better because of the better bass response....will mess with the monitors more and adjust....

[gilesashley]

Hi iv just spotted this thread and iv just purchased the pod go .

Iv been using a boss katana mark 1 for practice and rehesrsal in a progressive rock band .my tones go from chorus clean to high gain leads and overall iv been relatively happy with it but I decided to dip my toe an buy the pod go.

Well iv spent several hours trying to find a tone to settle on using headphones and through my boss katana .iv tried amp out from pod and in front of amp which I believe isn't the correct way .tried amp out and in return of boss katana which increased in volume but with cab Sims activated I still thought it sounded flat and kind of wooly sound.once I turned off the cab Sims it brightened up but was probably on the brittle side but kind of closer to the sound I'm looking for .kind of defeats the object if I do a gig and I have to turn cab Sims off for amp to sound good and front of house won't have cab sim so it will sound bad I should think.

Any ideas .thanks.

[Titleist050]

There are a few others out there who seem to have figured this out, that information can be found elsewhere. There are also a couple YouTube videos detailing the fix for this design issue. Some users have mentioned this issue to Line6 and apparently they will issue call tags and have you send the unit back to them to correct. One user detailed that when they personally took their unit in for the repair it only took a couple minutes. They also advised that they were not told what the fix is as the service center was authorized Line 6 and allegedly told the user they could not divulge what the fix is.

 

Whether or not the YouTube videos are actually showing what the true fix is remains debatable as there is no confirmation from any actual line 6 dealer or service center. Videos could be from techs who perform the repair but who knows. The repair performed does make sense when you see what it is but I would not suggest attempting this kind of service unless your unit is OUT of warranty or you have the skills, tools and ability to perform the correction. I'd suggest getting hold of Line6 and advising them of your issue and see if they will repair it for you.

 

Good luck!

[voxman55]

@Titleist050If you are referring to the Pod Go impedance issue, this is now well known to be down to a single capacitor in the input circuit that just needs to be removed. Line 6 arranged for the UK service centre to pick up, fix and return mine all within 5 days. All the high end is back and sounds great. 

 

In truth I nearly always use a G10 Relay that acts as a buffer and so I never suffered the loss of high end anyway.  But the fix was free and quick so I had it done in case I use cables.