Variax Standard Acoustic Sounds Through POD Go

[majicmanmaj1]

Hi.  I'm looking for some advice on getting a decent live sound from my Variax through my POD Go.  I'm playing Guitar 2 in a pit band in a couple of months for a performance of Bonnie & Clyde.  Most of the sounds are acoustic guitar, Dobro slide parts, Banjo, electric and I've managed to get a half-decent mandolin sound by fiddling around on the workbench HD.  My problem is that I can't seem to get a  convincing sound through my POD Go for the acoustic instruments.  For the show I will be going from the POD Go directly into the PA. Has anybody got any advice, please?

[silverhead]

A typical acoustic setup would use compression, EQ (maybe two), Studio Preamp (no guitar amp), perhaps an IR (there are some free ones out there) and chorus, delay, reverb to taste. You’ll notice the need for a deep EQ cut in the 200-400hz range with any Variax acoustic model. Experiment. 
 

If you want to purchase some very good presets, Helix Marketplace can help. I bought the Glenn DeLaune Acoustic package for Helix and was very satisfied. He may offer a POD Go acoustic package but if not you will be able to adapt the blocks and settings.

[cruisinon2]

On 2/23/2024 at 8:19 AM, majicmanmaj1 said:

Hi.  I'm looking for some advice on getting a decent live sound from my Variax through my POD Go.  I'm playing Guitar 2 in a pit band in a couple of months for a performance of Bonnie & Clyde.  Most of the sounds are acoustic guitar, Dobro slide parts, Banjo, electric and I've managed to get a half-decent mandolin sound by fiddling around on the workbench HD.  My problem is that I can't seem to get a  convincing sound through my POD Go for the acoustic instruments.  For the show I will be going from the POD Go directly into the PA. Has anybody got any advice, please?

 

Getting a convincing acoustic tone is mostly about what you're listening through when creating your tones. You need some sort of FRFR speaker solution, as that's what you'll be dealing with at the gig... studio monitors, a good pair of reasonably flat response headphones, etc. If you're currently running your POD Go through a traditional guitar amp, you can tweak until you turn blue, and it'll never sound like an acoustic guitar as typical guitar speakers lack a sufficiently wide frequency response. Also, it will then sound wildly different when you run through the PA.

 

Beyond that, you don't really need to bother using an amp sim in your chain either, in fact it'll probably do more harm than good. Some compression, a studio preamp, EQ, and any fx you might want (reverb, delay, etc) are really all you need to get a decent acoustic tone. You could also just run a completely empty patch using the raw Variax acoustic model of your choice, and let the sound guy deal with the EQ and fx...if you were playing an actual acoustic/ electric guitar, or a mic-ed acoustic at the gig, that's exactly what would be happening anyway.

[brue58ski]

I do not really like the acoustics in the JTV Variax. The older Variax's acoustics sounded better. One thing I do is put the Acoustic Sim in the EQ section parallel to the Variax's main path. I will then judiciously mix the two. Not perfect but it helps.

[jerseyboy]

On 4/10/2024 at 10:24 AM, brue58ski said:

I do not really like the acoustics in the JTV Variax. The older Variax's acoustics sounded better. One thing I do is put the Acoustic Sim in the EQ section parallel to the Variax's main path. I will then judiciously mix the two. Not perfect but it helps.

I’ve always felt that way too.  Gen 1 pre-HD j-200 model always sounded mighty fine pumped thru FRFR amplification.  
 

Although Standard/JTV HD edited 12 string Martin body as a 6 string sounds pretty good of late. That and judicious adjustment of mic placement has improved my outlook of HD acoustic models.