How do you feel about your POD now ?

[hongteck]

After months/years of owing and recording with a POD, how do you feel about it now ??

[Track Rat]

It's a tool like any other. On some applications it's what I reach for and sometimes it's a mic in front of an amp.

[Blue Bear Sound]

I bought a tube amp....

(but clients still seem to love it...)

[mikeh]

I recently bought a tube amp to "get that sound" (mostly to have it for certain demanding clients). But I still like the POD for all the reasons I originally got it (lots of amp sounds at the push of a button, quiet direct recording for late night sessions, etc.).

Guitar is not my main axe so I'm sure I'm not as demanding of my guitar sound as many on this sight are (nor am I as informed on what the "real amps" should sound like). Given those factors - I still like the POD alot.

[Slackmaster2K]

Cute effect. Not $400 cute though. If you've already got everything you need and are bored it's probably fun to play with.

Actually, the POD's biggest benefit is the way it sounds in headphones. Great for practicing and whatnot.

Slackmaster 2000

[c7sus]

Ouch!

After months of living/arguing/trying to please your wife, how do you feel about her now?????

[Track Rat]

I traded her for an out house (smaller hole and it smells better).

[GT]

I still love my Pod.

I must be easily amused. I don't feel that I need any other guitar procesor.

I would like to try the line 6 filter thingy. Guitar synth sound, would be a lot of fun!

[asi9]

Right on, GT.

We're going to do an entire album with POD. Works perfectly for what we want.

[mixmkr]

the POD has been great for me. I have since gotten the J station, and like a couple settings on there too....especially the solo lead one. I still think the POD is excellent for the Fender Blackface sound and the tweed....just tops. I bought mine when it first came out, so I have had it awhile, watched the price climb up with the 2.0 version..and now back down. I would have bought it at any of the prices.. >>.and I have played guitar for almost 40 years, have owned many, many, many amps, from twins, to V4's to Pignose's, to Deluxe reverbs, to Marshalls....on and on.....and the POD sounds great to me. I'll argue all day long about the virtues of it with all the naysayers. It is more than another tool....it's a shitload of sounds and amps.

[Sonixx]

100% agreement ... mixmkr

i've been playing for thirty years and too, like you, i've had a boat load of different amps over the years. i wish i had kept all of them. i presently have two Fender BF amps, a Champ and a Princeton Reverb and also a JCM-800.

i've spent hours matching tones between my amps and the POD and IMO the POD does a great job.

i use Patchwizard for my setups and i there's no need to touch the front panel.

i like it and so do my clients. with the correct pickup, it's a bunch more than just another box.

-kp-

[Gidge]

me still loves my J-Station after all this time....just cant believe I paid $275......

[Aaron Cheney]

I absolutely love my POD, and I use it regularly on non-guitar things as well.
Last week I was recording a reggae song and we were looking for a really gritty Leslie organ sound. None of the alesis or Korg patches were exactly what we were after. We ended up recording the part with a kind of percussion organ sound, and then ran it through the POD. We put the amp setting on TUBE, and used the rotating speaker effect and just a tiny bit of gain. It ended up sounding absolutely great - probably the best organ sound I've ever got on tape ...er... hard disk.

Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com

[ruebarb]

I used it on vocals when doing some 4 track vocals...a la Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" - I wanted that rich old reverb, and found a patch on the POD that put some nice verb on the vocals, so I plugged in an SM58 to the POD and went to lunch...Lots of fun.

RB

[BBB]

Based on all this noise about the POD, I once again stopped by the shop to test drive it and possibly purchase it. Once again I found it lacking.

Sure it sounds great for some playing styles and in some playing positions. However, while it seemed to produce a quasi-tonal sound of a modeled amp, it still seems to lack the tonal character. In particular, it just doesn't react to the dynamics of my playing the way a tube amp or even a SansAmp does. It doesn't have that Marshall mid-driven wahish tone. It also seems to compromise some brightness (yes, brightness) of a modeled Boogie for the sake of bottom end. Most importantly, it doesn't sustain and sing the notes in the upper frets the way some of the amps that it tries to model do.

Of note: I was using a PRS to audition it at the shop. So the lacking singing/sustain aspects were certainly not caused by the guitar.

Also keep in mind that I'm saving for a TriAxis. Thus, not purchasing the POD was influenced by the possibility of additional savings for and the comparison to the Boogie.

Matt

[Brad]

I am going to sell my POD.

Not because I don't love it, but because I want to bump up to the POD Pro.

It works for me, I want the digi outs of the P Pro, and I have two rack spaces open at the moment.

[Executivos]

Right on...I have a pod pro....I wanted a modeler...I bought the sansamp first...(I knew someone selling it for 200) it was good, but I liked the pod better, so I sold the sansamp for 425(hell yeah!) and got the pod pro....I love it. I would much rather use a live tube amp for performing....but for recording it's my choice. The dig outs are great and so is the unprocessed out on it. You can record that and then send it back for monitoring. That way you can change the sound later.

[charger]

I've had mine since they were $250 new. I still love it, and it still gets used over a lot of other choices. My latest thing is running a bunch of pedals into it, and it handles them really well. The on thing I think it lacks is really killer effects, but I have bunch of old pedals for that, so no big loss..

[Krystof01]

I own a POD pro as well. I bought mine the week it came out for £400 and there still £450-£500 over a year later.

Anyway, the POD. I will say one thing and that's hook it up to the computer. I was getting especially anoyed about such things as the noise gate level and other settings that are untweakable from the front panel. Plug it up to the computer and you have a whole new tool.

One thing about the effects; I don't use them anymore. I was really pissed off with the reverb sounds especially. After spending hours and hours.....and hours.....and hours with the effects and trying to get a good sound in conjunction with the amp models I new I would have to buy something else. I got a TC Electronics G major. Now the 32 banks on the pod are dry old amp tones with no effects and the TC provides anything I want barre distorion and overdrives that I get from a range of guitar pedals.

So the POD now in comparison to when I bought it. I use it for the reason I bought it, to give me a 75%-85% realistic (real to the amp modeled) tone. Once you mess around with adding effects the 32 banks don't add up to much, now I have 32 amps without compromising.

It's still going strong but not under warranty any more.

[nattn]

I would call my pod somewhat of a disappointing compromise. I can't afford to buy a bunch of interesting amps & the neighbors would kill me if I was micing an amp all the time as opposed to DI recording with the pod.

The pod sounds seem a wee bit thin for my taste, + I think it is a tad too noisy. it is a useful tool though & often incites me to come up with interesting "feels" to my recordings. Something that i wouldn't be doing if using just the one amp that i have . Crunchy sounds are far superior to the clean sounds in the pod. I do like what it does for bass more than what it does for guitar.

[PSP]

hello all... new member here...16 year guitar player

how much of a sound difference is there with different pickups and the pod. I am using a digitech unit right now but am in dire need of a change. I'm looking into the pod but also need some new pickups...

what have you people discovered along these lines and can you reccomend some killer pickups
for heavy rock sound with the pod?

[kfm82]

Originally posted by ruebarb
I used it on vocals when doing some 4 track vocals...a la Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" - I wanted that rich old reverb, and found a patch on the POD that put some nice verb on the vocals, so I plugged in an SM58 to the POD and went to lunch...Lots of fun.

RB

Hehe... ruebarb my man... i've also been doing exactly that for a while before getting a korg d12....

my setup was dynamic mic - behringer 802a mixer - aux output - pod 2.0 - aux input - mix - sony mz-r30 minidisc recorder...

that way, i abused the pod as somewhat of a fake tube preamp/compressor and digital reverb to go onto both vocals and miced or piezo acoustic guitar.... sounded fully on par with the overall sound quality of songwriter live gigs....

speaking about nebraska though... in order to get that dry, clanking electric guitar sound a la "Open All Night" into your recordings, you also might wanna consider separating electric guitar and pod and just inserting your trusty old tele into your mixer's mic channel without further processing or even so much as a d-i box (that's how bruce must have done it on his tascam portastudio) ... believe me, you'll see... :-)

[kfm82]

btw... notify me if you wanna start a discussion on nebraska-style recording techniques... all bruce-style recording methods for that matter :-)

[happy hour]

POD sucks... first $250 American takes it.

pushit75@yahoo.com

[Sonixx]

hey Happy Hour,

in what situation are you using it that it sucks...