PodXT Live/ Line6 Users... help me with my new rig preeze!

[Captain Insano]

Curious any of you all use the Variax guitars from Line6? I really dig their whole concept of software based products... Cramming a whole studio in one guitar/amp/effects board sounds fucking sweet...at least on paper.

[xKALECx]

Capt., PM me with your budget. If you are thinking of refunding and dropping some dollars on some gear I may have some nice stuff for sale.....

[Parv]

Ok, back to some more thoughts after reading what was posted.

If you want a decent amp that puts out, on a budget you can get a new Peavey Bandit 112 amp (solid state) with 80watts, or if you're an ebaying guy you can get for not much more a used Peavey 5150 60watt tube combo (probably between $500-700). Excellent amps for metal, especially with the PodXT using them as a power amp. Lots of muscle behind them for high gain applications. Clean is kinda stale, but you can use the XT for that. Point is though, by themselves they have lots of gain and crunch and sound good in a small room (get a good tone without bugging your neighbors) and even with the XT in the effects loop, and make a good power amp for the XT as well if you want to go that route (which I do a lot).

Brinstar is on the money about how you won't get the tone normally that you hear on albums. If you play with direct recording or your headphones on the XT, and learn some mixing/eq/compression/production, then you'll get some very good stuff. A basic trick is to double track your guitars - play the song and pan it hard right, then play it again and pan it hard left. You can approximate this with the XT by using the chorus or delay functions - it gives it a beefier sound and fuller sound when playing by yourself. When you start finding out these production tricks and how to halfass them while playing live, things will start sounding much better - it took me awhile to learn this, and I'm still learning when I record my little things.

Like what was said earlier, play on the shit in a local shop if you can. Bring your OWN stuff though...bring your guitar, your cables, your XT, and sit down and noodle away. Guitar Center hates it since they're trying to push inventory, local shops like it since they feel like they're getting a lifelong customer.

p.s. I'm in Norway sitting across from beautiful blonde chicks in our pajamas and you're not! Ha det bra!

[Witty]

p.s. I'm in Norway sitting across from beautiful blonde chicks in our pajamas and you're not! Ha det bra!

Where in Norway? Dude you're early. Inferno Fest isn't for 5 months--

[Parv]

Was in Bergen, currently in Trondheim. I'm definitely thinking about Inferno next year though, if I can get the vacation =| fuck work.

[Witty]

Right on. Glad to hear you escaped Bergen alive =P I ordered my tickets halfway through the Emperor announcement, so I'll be there next year. Them & Marduk (40 minutes of blast beats~) already, Scum & "I" allegedly. Sounds to be pretty killer. Let me know if you go, I'll buy you a beer.

[Captain Insano]

Ok, back to some more thoughts after reading what was posted.

If you want a decent amp that puts out, on a budget you can get a new Peavey Bandit 112 amp (solid state) with 80watts, or if you're an ebaying guy you can get for not much more a used Peavey 5150 60watt tube combo (probably between $500-700). Excellent amps for metal, especially with the PodXT using them as a power amp. Lots of muscle behind them for high gain applications. Clean is kinda stale, but you can use the XT for that. Point is though, by themselves they have lots of gain and crunch and sound good in a small room (get a good tone without bugging your neighbors) and even with the XT in the effects loop, and make a good power amp for the XT as well if you want to go that route (which I do a lot).

Brinstar is on the money about how you won't get the tone normally that you hear on albums. If you play with direct recording or your headphones on the XT, and learn some mixing/eq/compression/production, then you'll get some very good stuff. A basic trick is to double track your guitars - play the song and pan it hard right, then play it again and pan it hard left. You can approximate this with the XT by using the chorus or delay functions - it gives it a beefier sound and fuller sound when playing by yourself. When you start finding out these production tricks and how to halfass them while playing live, things will start sounding much better - it took me awhile to learn this, and I'm still learning when I record my little things.

Like what was said earlier, play on the shit in a local shop if you can. Bring your OWN stuff though...bring your guitar, your cables, your XT, and sit down and noodle away. Guitar Center hates it since they're trying to push inventory, local shops like it since they feel like they're getting a lifelong customer.

p.s. I'm in Norway sitting across from beautiful blonde chicks in our pajamas and you're not! Ha det bra!

My gawd does norway, sweden and holland have the hottest and I mean hottest tall blonde girls to be found anywhere. I still get boners thinking about the twins I met in Australia from Holland. /fap /fap /fap.

Ok back on track here...

I have read over everyone's responses and bookmarked pretty much every amp suggested in this thread...

I currently live in a 1300 square foot apartment... A nice and relatively soundproof place buy the boogie triple recs, 120 watt Vox's would probably hand me an eviction notice faster than a fat kid could eat a chocolate cake... I would love to own something that loud but I think it will have to wait until I buy a house...

Besides Parv's suggestion of Peavey, I am hearing a lot of people recommending the Vox's....

Bottom line can one of these amps help me approximate the sound of early Metallica and Pantera? That is really all I'm going for. I'm an amateur guitarist at best so I will be focusing on really just one type of music for awhile. Eventually I would like to learn some classic rock and maybe even some spanish guitar but for now its all about metal.

That being said versatility isn't really my biggest concern.



Can you guys help me understand a little more about the terminology of all the guitar amp stuff?

Tell me if I got this correct:

A "head" is an amplifier that powers either a "cabinet" (one speaker in a box) or it powers a "stack" multiple speakers in a box.

A "preamp" should boost and have the ability to modify the signal going into an amp... Therefore i'm guessing that all "heads" have preamp's built into them with varying levels of complexicity?

Is an eq and preamp pretty much the same thing?

"Solid State"? Does this mean the amplification is provided via transistors versus the warmer and better sounding vacuum tubes?

What is a "modeling" amp?

A combo amp is an amp that has a built in preamp/eq and amplifier and speaker all in one?



Ok sorry for all the n00b questions but I just needed to clarify everything and make sure I'm on track here...



Now that we have that out of the way I'm starting to wonder if all I want is some sort of amp/speaker or head/cabinet without any preamp or eq at all?

If I'm using the PodXT Live my life would be a hell of a lot easier if that was really doing all the sound modeling...Do you think I'm onto something here?

Keeping in mind that the Pod is going to model the sound do you guys still recommend the 30 and 50 watt Vox's?


I'm thinking about spending as much as 400 on a better amp... Anything more than that would probably be a little excessive for both my practice space and skill level.

Parv mentioned eBay too... If you guys see something really worth buying on there let me know... I'm pretty savvy at eBay to tell you the truth. I think I'm ranked the 11th top seller in the world at the moment ; )

[Captain Insano]

Oh yah another question... go figure...

crunch... someone explain that sound to me a bit...That is basically the sound that is what makes metallica's "eye of the beholder" sound like it does correct? It sounds distorted but at the same time the sound is short and powerful, instead of just sustaining forever...?

What makes an amp/guitar create that crunch? From what I understand distortion is basically caused by overdriving the amp and providing more signal than it can actually put out.

[mofish]

Ill take a stab at a few.

1/4 stack = 2 speakers
1/2 stack = 4 speakers
stack = 8 speakers

A stack is just a head and any combination of speaker cabinets. A head is a preamp and poweramp in a box basically.

Solid state means yes, digital sound reproduction versus analog tube.

A modeller is just a process by which certain famous outputs (mesa recto, fender twin etc) are copied digitally and reproduced. Your POD XT is a modeller. All those different amp/cabinet settings or what have you? Those are all models.

The Vox valvetronix is a modelling amplifier. It can reproduce the sound, pretty faithfully, of several famous amps. The Vox also, however, has an actual tube in its poweramp section, which lends it a better/warmer tone, or so they say. I love its sound. Can do heavy metal, palm muted chugging stuff, or cleans, whatever, and at really low volume. I usually practice, believe it or not, after the woman goes to sleep.

Im not sure you need any actual combo since youve got the POD. You seriously could just jack straight into your computer, or stereo speakers and be fine Im guessing. Could also just buy a poweramp and a monitor, like a 1X12 or something Im guessing too. Havent researched that solution much, as I just got back into the whole thing after 10 years out of it.

Since youre looking for a metallica type heavy sound, you need to pay attention to your guitar as well. The EMGs in my guitar are super high output pickups, and help the whole metal thing out immensely. Lots of modern metal guitarists swear by the EMG 81 bridge pickup, or the 85 even. Metallica uses them etc...The guitar and Vox I use sound great. Not sure about whats in that ibanez or what it sounds like, there is such a huge variance in pickups and tone.

Im pretty sure, when all is said and done though, youre going to end up playing a guitar that has an EMG 81 in the bridge for the sound you want.

[mofish]

Here's a nice example. This is a PODXT lined straight into a computer, using a software drum machine for the percussion. The guy is using an ESP guitar though with an EMG 81 in the bridge.

http://ben-robbins.com/MP3/humanfabric.mp3

P.S. No tubes were involved in the creation of this mp3

[alezrik]

I always thought Marshell's sound great, when they are cranked up loud, down low not so much, especially for the $$$.

I <3 my Crate Twin, I play mostly speed metal without a pedal/effects proc and it sounds really good, regardless of volume.

Having good pickups help mass, EMG-81 gives an additional gain to the signal.
http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.a ... tegoryid=6.

What I would suggest is going to guitar center, and plugging into various amps, setting the bass and treble up at least 3/4's and the midrange down about 3/4's 7 or 8 gain and volume wherever, and play some rhythms through it and see how it sounds. I wouldnt pay attention to the brand on the amp, just the sound it makes when you play through it.

[mofish]

Guess I also need to say metal isnt only played on EMGs. I think Dave Mustaine uses Seymour Duncan pickups.

[Captain Insano]

I'm getting closer... I was able to get a pretty decent sound through headphones... Going to run the whole setup through my subwoofer on my logitech z5500 surround sound setup here soon... I'll let you know how it turns out.

[mofish]

Another awesome clip made with software drums and PODXT straight in. This sounds much better than the last one I posted I think. Really makes me want the POD XT /drool. Just working on my playing right now though, dont need to perfect my sound yet. Maybe in a few months.

http://spzgarage.com/stuff/untitled3.mp3

[Captain Insano]

Another awesome clip made with software drums and PODXT straight in. This sounds much better than the last one I posted I think. Really makes me want the POD XT /drool. Just working on my playing right now though, dont need to perfect my sound yet. Maybe in a few months.

http://spzgarage.com/stuff/untitled3.mp3

oh yah thats nice... exactly what i'm looking for. I am going to go play with the pod into the computer here today... Hopefully I can get that sound out of it.