Silhouette Special and POD HD500

[Rufedges]

Recorded a few clips and uploaded them to the cloud today for anyone interested, Silo Special -> POD HD500 -> PC.

Song was done in two takes only, tried to keep it real........I love recording (not), it lets me know I still need to keep practicing.

https://soundcloud.com/guitarplayer0376

 

[Razzle]

Link doesn't work for me.

 

[Rufedges]

That is weird.....fixed it in the OP and here too:

https://soundcloud.com/guitarplayer0376

Link doesn't work for me.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

How do you like the POD? I have been thinking of getting one and running it into the PA.

If nothing else, it would reduce my setup and teardown on stage to about 2 minutes!

 

[TSHOW]

Nice.....good sounds too.....! Good job on the Journey....Neal is hard to emulate and it sounded very good...Are those presets on the Pod.......or did you create them.....? Thanks for sharing......

 

[Rufedges]

Well, I wish I could say it has been plug and play, but it has been about a year of tweaking and research, and I am finally at the stage where I almost cannot create a bad tone, and everything sounds good (playing, sour/missed notes not included) ............I run it FRFR, straight into the house, and the tones on my recordings (I have a few more I use) are exactly what they sound like comign out of the house.........I use a house amp on stage as a monitor only, just dial down all the gain and tweak highs/lows to match.

I actually thought I could do better and ordered a Kemper, which I had for about two weeks. Liked a million clean tones, bu couldn't come close to repliating my lead tone, and among havign to figure out a whole new operaing system, trying to figure out how to make the HD500 into a MIDI controller for the Kemper, spending a vast amount of time dialing in everything and learning how it all affects the other parameters, etc. etc., I just don't have that kind of time, so I kept the HD500 and am very happy. None of my patches are even close to stock, sometimes pulling some high-rated tones off of the L6 customtone can give you ideas and a good starting point for tweaking your own sounds, and Meambobo's high gain tone guide has also been a big help. I can walk off stage in 30 seconds, it is great.

How do you like the POD? I have been thinking of getting one and running it into the PA.

If nothing else, it would reduce my setup and teardown on stage to about 2 minutes!

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Well, I wish I could say it has been plug and play, but it has been about a year of tweaking and research, and I am finally at the stage where I almost cannot create a bad tone, and everything sounds good (playing, sour/missed notes not included) ............I run it FRFR, straight into the house, and the tones on my recordings (I have a few more I use) are exactly what they sound like comign out of the house.........I use a house amp on stage as a monitor only, just dial down all the gain and tweak highs/lows to match.

I actually thought I could do better and ordered a Kemper, which I had for about two weeks. Liked a million clean tones, bu couldn't come close to repliating my lead tone, and among havign to figure out a whole new operaing system, trying to figure out how to make the HD500 into a MIDI controller for the Kemper, spending a vast amount of time dialing in everything and learning how it all affects the other parameters, etc. etc., I just don't have that kind of time, so I kept the HD500 and am very happy. None of my patches are even close to stock, sometimes pulling some high-rated tones off of the L6 customtone can give you ideas and a good starting point for tweaking your own sounds, and Meambobo's high gain tone guide has also been a big help. I can walk off stage in 30 seconds, it is great.

The only thing that puts me off a setup like this is the tweaking involved. I have been using my Boss Super OD -> Duoverb rig for over 10 years and I love the sound of it. Whilst the POD would be a much simpler rig (maybe with a powered monitor for my use) the tweaking would drive me crazy, especially as I can't turn up at any kind of volume at home.

But then again, the work would pay off at 3am when I have all my gear in a small bag!

Food for thought...

 

[mtrejo]

I used to have the POD XT live and connecting it to my computer was a lot friendlier than manually adjusting the knobs on the unit. The computer interface software was great and easy to understand, plus you can assign the settings you like to patches. Lots you can do.

I assume this uses the same software.

 

[Rufedges]

Thanks man, these are not stock presets, the stock profiles are pretty much crap...........my lead tone is pretty much a tweaked version of Lincoln Brewster's official patch from L6 Custome Tone.

Nice.....good sounds too.....! Good job on the Journey....Neal is hard to emulate and it sounded very good...Are those presets on the Pod.......or did you create them.....? Thanks for sharing......

 

[Rufedges]

Yeah, it is a trade-off I guess, but do whatever works for you. I have actually tweaked everything to where I don't actually need a dedicated FRFR speaker, I can plug into the front of almost any amp (maybe not a metal type amp), lower the gain to zero, tweak EQ on the amp to taste, and just use that as my monitor or even mic'd to the house, and the audience doesn't know the difference. Once you get things tweaked though, it is nice to have the available variety (amps, cabs, mics, delays, reverbs) and such, even though I pretty much use about 4 or 5 basic sounds, I do use varying delays / reverb / gain on some things.

The only thing that puts me off a setup like this is the tweaking involved. I have been using my Boss Super OD -> Duoverb rig for over 10 years and I love the sound of it. Whilst the POD would be a much simpler rig (maybe with a powered monitor for my use) the tweaking would drive me crazy, especially as I can't turn up at any kind of volume at home.

But then again, the work would pay off at 3am when I have all my gear in a small bag!

Food for thought...

 

[Rufedges]

I don't even need the computer editing software anymore, I can do everything via the UI on the HD500 and actually find it quicker and easier. It is cool to get some pretty pictures of the actual gear you are using, but you CAN do everything via the HD500 UI as well, you just have to know which button/s to push. The HD500 UI IMHO isn't terribly complicated once you use it for a little while.

I used to have the POD XT live and connecting it to my computer was a lot friendlier than manually adjusting the knobs on the unit. The computer interface software was great and easy to understand, plus you can assign the settings you like to patches. Lots you can do.

I assume this uses the same software.

 

[Rufedges]

BTW, the humbucker in my Silo is NOT stock, it is a DiMarzio DP 212........it is very low gain, actually the lowest gain bucker that DiMarzio makes, but everything sounds really clear with it, and I have bonded so much with it that I have a DP211 and DP212 set on the way to drop in my PDN ASS. The axis pups are super high gain compared to the EJ, and I can't even play my PDN right now in its current state. Not that I didn't used to love my ASS and it's pups a few years ago, my sound taste and preference has just changed.

Good news for somebody though, there should be a set of literally brand new Axis pups on market in maybe the third week of FEB or so......

 

[Razzle]

That is weird.....fixed it in the OP and here too:

https://soundcloud.com/guitarplayer0376

Thanks, worked fine now. Sounds really good, good playing and good sounds. It's amazing what you can do with modelers. I just got a Boss GT-100 and haven't even had a chance to play with it!

 

[Rufedges]

Thanks, you are too kind......the recording needs some work, guitar sound was coming out of my FRFR setup and the backing track was coming out of the computer speakers, so in the slight disconnect there I think it contributed to me not being able to hear some of the sour notes / timing I was playing.........next time I will try to put everything into the computer speakers and not use the additional FRFR speaker as a monitor.

I had a GT-8 about 7 or 8 years ago, didn't really care for it, however, I had no idea what I was doing with gear and even much of the guitar back the, so it really wasn't the GT8s fault. Between the two units, it seems for effects only, the BOSS units have the edge,...for amp modeling, HD500 might have the edge. It is all personal taste for the most part though.

Thanks, worked fine now. Sounds really good, good playing and good sounds. It's amazing what you can do with modelers. I just got a Boss GT-100 and haven't even had a chance to play with it!