Pod HD500X tips anyone?

gearaddict

Tried the Pod through a Harley Benton GPA400 into a Marshall 1936v cab at practice last night...sounded pretty good. I was even getting quite nice musical feedback on sustained notes and stuff.

I seem to have settled on the Engl Fireball model as my go to amp.

Voxman

That video of using the parametric EQ is brilliant.  It just shows that if you really know what you're doing the HD500X can sound really good.  Problem I suspect is that very few folk probably really do understand how to do all this.

gearaddict

Voxman said:

That video of using the parametric EQ is brilliant.  It just shows that if you really know what you're doing the HD500X can sound really good.  Problem I suspect is that very few folk probably really do understand how to do all this.

Yes, I found that really useful. It made me think about the whole issue of EQ and amplifiers. When we buy an amp we are usually 'stuck' with whatever eq profile the manufacturer thought would be good. I can see now why so many people use eq pedals to get the tone they like. I just kept buying new amps!

In any case, people do get nice tones out of the Pod but it does take a lot of tweaking. I do wonder why Line6 seem to have filled the Pod with amps which out of the box are pretty much unusable! I suppose there must be some situations where they sound good without an eq block but I haven't found them!

bloodandtears

I've heard of the FX block being used for nothing more than a boost function.. e.g wired back on itself like a jumper..

Voxman

bloodandtears said:

I've heard of the FX block being used for nothing more than a boost function.. e.g wired back on itself like a jumper..

Yup, very much like the patch lead I use in the FX loop of my Marshall DSL401, to give it more volume & punch. 

gearaddict

So I ended up buying a cheap power amp (Harley Benton GPA400) and I've been using the Pod straight into that (into my Marsall 1936v) for practice and it is actually sounding pretty good. I'm using the rectifier model, with some eq and it sounds really fat.

For interest today I pulled my Orange TH-30 out of the cupboard and plugged straight into that...I thought it might be night and day and I'd end up binning the Pod but it really wasn't...it sounded good but not that good. Then I tried the Pod into the fx return of the Orange and that sounded...absolutely monster! Really great. Preferred it to the valve amp by quite a bit. Going back to the Harley Benton, it sounded a bit boxy and flat. Useable but not inspiring.

So, I'm really liking the flexibility of the Pod and through the Orange power amp it sounds really good. I think I might get a Magnum 44 for a lightweight rehearsal rig and use the Pod into the Orange for gigs.

I'd love to try a Helix or Kemper or Amplifire into the Orange power amp and just see if it is that  much better...I might get one on 30 day return 

gearaddict

Someone probably knows this and I've been struggling with it for ages...I'm using the HD500 as a midi controller which is working fine but I can't figure out how to get the footswitch lights to match what's happening on the amp. I basically want the top 4 switches to work like radio buttons. I thought I could do this by assigning dummy stomps on the HD but I can't figure out how to do it! Any ideas? Thanks.

gearaddict

Just resurrecting this old thread...the Pods are old hat now but I've been playing with the HD500x again and getting pretty decent results. I have been playing it through the FX return of a valve amp with the cab modelling off...but a weird thing I discovered today was that I actually get a much warmer more convincing tone with the cabs on. It's one of those things that shouldn't work...but I guess there are no rules when it comes to this stuff. Need to pick the right cab though...some sound awful.

This time around I have steered clear of lots of heavy eq-ing...just using the amp eq controls. It's not as flexible but much less of a rabbit hole.

And for the 4CM, the discovery that there is a separately stored volume value for the amp block, even when bypassed, has been a game changer. I don't notice any discernible tone suck now. Life in the old dog yet! 

Nature_1

I’m loving mine (dicky exp pedal aside). Interested RE your experience with the harley benton poweramp. I am tempted to try one of those 44 magnums with my pod.

gearaddict

Yeah, I haven't tried one of the more expensive ss power amps like the Matrix but the Magnum sounded a lot better to me than the HB one. I recently compared it to the power amp in my Orange Micro Dark and they sounded quite similar. I wish someone did a small, basic, inexpensive tube power amp but it seems to be cheaper to buy a whole amp and just plug in to the fx return! Running the Pod into the fx return of my Orange TH30 gives the best results...but the Magnum sounds good and is so convenient!

I have also been messing with going direct into a B-hype 8 FRFR speaker (which I bought a while ago to amplify electronic drums) and that sounds pretty decent too. I'm thinking that for rehearsal that might be the way to go...such an easy rig to carry!

bloodandtears

using mine as a midi controller for Katana but also wired in front of the Katana so I can use tuner/wah and volume. (and who knows, maybe clean boost or other non-modulation effects. Not using 4cm with the Katana.

gearaddict

So, another observation I thought was interesting...I always found the Pod (and solid state / modelling amps) to be too 'hard' sounding. It's partly personal preference but I like the slightly mushy tone of my Orange TH30 and the Pod amps always sounded too 'clanky' to me. Today I tried turning the gain down on the modelled amp and sticking a fuzz face at the start of the chain with the gain at a moderate level and the level up high - it really sounds loads better to me - much softer and warmer. More valvey.

Odd, coz I've never got on with fuzz pedals in real life