PODxt or 10 or 15 watt Marshall Amp?

[Slappo]

Well, you know what ... don't laugh at me for this. My youngest brother was after a practice amp the other week and I went to the stores to listen to them all and was blown away by the Crate GX-15R amp which we went on to buy for £69. It has a powered output and when I ran it through a Marshall 4x12 stack it had a simply fabulous sound for the money. Great distortions and a very passable clean. Even through its own 8" it was ok!

I've got one of those. I found in the neighbor's trash. The only problem I had with the clean channel was the speaker clipping so I put a fender cone in and now that amp is one of my favorites. My axe btw, is a classical with a fishman piezo/pre. Go figure.

 

[Kore]

Heh, I've seen similar threads all over: POD versus ANYTHING ELSE! It's definitely a divided and heated argument every time.

Anyone who says that the POD is "Awesome!" is wrong. As is anyone who says "it sucks." So, too, is the person who says it's "okay, I guess." These types of comments are irrelevant unless there is some practical context.

1. The POD is HANDS DOWN the most convenient and effective tool for recording demos. Dial in an effect, amp, whatever. Good variety in one box, and you can record while doing laundry in the next room.

2. The POD is quite convenient for getting a variety of different-sounding distortions out of a single box. For a non-serious cover band, it could do quite well for emulating various other guitarist's setups.

3. The POD is poor quality when compared to a well-mic'ed tube amplifier. However,
4. Recordings done through a POD will sound better than recordings done through a well-mic'ed tube amp if there are children screaming, appliances applying, and whatnot.

For me, the POD is a start: a good place to get ideas for effects for any fiven song; a good way to record background-less guitar tracks for demos. It is a good place to practice (Headphones out is definitely nice, especially with stereo reverb).

Conclusion:If what you need is a good start, then I think you will be happy with the POD. If what you need is incredible quality and liveliness, then you will be disappointed with the POD.

 

[HogansHiro]

Its a tool like anything else. Any idiot can buy a guitar and an effects unit but it takes an artist to use them together well.

Learn your pod. Tweak it until you get the sound you want. Not everysong ever made should have a Marshall stack in it contrary to some opinions here. it all comes down to finding the sound that is right for the song. Sometimes you will find it with the POD sometimes you won't.

Don't depend on the presets. When you buy a distortion pedal you just don't pull it out of the box and plug it in and hope thats the sound you need. The same goes for this. Even though it has multiple effects....tweak them.

Have fun...honestly if everyone on this board were such brilliant engineers and producers then why are they trying to limit people to one style of recording. If I had a marshall half stack I would use it...if I had a voxac30 I would use it.

If you don't have what you want then you make due with what have.

 

[amra]

I think you need to keep things in perspective in here. The pros here are right, there is no comparison between amp modelers and true high end tube amps. BUT, (and this is a big but), I think you have to get into the $800-$1,000 range of amps before you can really say that the amps sound better than a modeler. Comparing a properly setup V-AMP or POD vs. a marshall valvestate, solid state crate or peavey, lord forbid a rogue or other assorted low end budget amps - sorry fellas I would go with the modeler every time. I challenge you pros out there to argue that !

Most of the people that say they hate modelers have never learned how to use them properly. I hear all the time about people using modelers like effects pedals through their amps (they aren't) , and complaining about the sound. Amp modelers SIMULATE amps. That would be like micing an amp, and then outputting the mic'd amp sound out of your amp. SHITOLA, is what comes out. Amp modelers are meant to be used live, direct to the P.A. (or some other FULL range speaker\amplification setup) or recorded direct. NOT used like an effect pedal. yea, you can turn off the pre-amp and cab models, but that is the whole strength of these things. Used live, direct through a P.A, 99.9% of your audience will never know that you weren't using a real amp, and the .1 percent would have to be a guitarist or recording engineer. Yea, I know direct guitar always sounds like crap through a D.I. - but believe me folks that has changed.

For now I am still using a 1/2 stack tube amp for gigs and recording and an 80's solid state for practice, but I appreciate a couple of the roles that modelers excel at in recording and playing live: a nice tool for recording demo quality quitar tracks, and a small portable back-up for your main live amp rig. In those roles a modeler can really come in handy.

amra

P.S.
I keep hearing POD this and POD that, personally I feel that for metal guitarists the V-AMP 2 has better and heavier guitar tones. The POD has some nice Satriani-esque leads and some decent medium gain crunch, but the V-AMP has better cleans and low end mega gain metal distortion.

just my $ .02

 

[noisedude]

I've got one of those. I found in the neighbor's trash. The only problem I had with the clean channel was the speaker clipping so I put a fender cone in and now that amp is one of my favorites. My axe btw, is a classical with a fishman piezo/pre. Go figure.

Cool. I figure that only session guitarists need to replicate standard tones, the rest of us search till we find one that we like in our music. My bassist swears by my 100W Fender guitar combo for the best clean sounds for his acoustic bass, but for his Fender P-Bass he records using my little Vox AD15VT!

You find what works for you and then get on with enjoying it ... or it should be like that at least ...

 

[ecktronic]

I would seriously not get any. The POD is nasty in my opinion. Its the work of the (against real guitar tones) devil.
A 15watt amp just wouldnt sound good enough to record I dont think. I would say you should go and get yourself a nice 2x12 Messa Boogie all valve. Mmmm.

 

[gemsbok]

another thumbs up for the pod. i dont care if the mix engineer has to work a little harder to get it to sit in the mix.its just a stepping stone. once the processors get better it will only get closer and i think its good now. another thing to consider is that amps have been miced up forever and its the way to do business. with the plug ins and modlers being used more and more it will be a more accepted sound on albums as we get used to the sound like we did going digital(cd-s) over tape(cassette). i think the new metal sound is a more direct clear dry type of tone(think disturbed) the days of the big mesa washy big tubby sound are dated for me.recording direct from a box or sftware will only get better and for now the pod-s at least are a powerful tool.

 

[SpotlightKid83]

I don't think you can really talk about the POD if you haven't got into it through MIDI and tweaked the sounds from the inside, that were the juice comes from, you'll see there are some things you can only modify this way.

It also depends on what you need it for, the style of music, some types of music are not that big on guitar sound and you can get away with a decent sound on the POD.

I had the oportunity to A/B my POD 2.0 with Behringer's V-Amp and I liked the POD better. While the V-Amp sounds a bit more sterile and artificial they both sucked on the effects section, but still the V-Amp sucks a bit more than the POD.
What I do as a golden rule in recording my stuff (not only when using the POD) is never using effects on the way in. It may sound like something obvious but I have heard lots of people bitching about how they recorded they're best performance ever and had to erase it because it had too much reverb/delay/flanger... on it. Remember you can always add the effect on the mix and it will sure sound 100 times better than the modeler effects.

And to close this post I'd like to say we have to take the modelers as what they are, I don't think they were ever meant to replace a real and properly miked amp on a professional recording. If that would be the case it would sure cost much more than 300 bucks don't you think?

If you don't have the space to have and/or record a big and loud amp (or even small and not as loud) and you're not looking to commercially release what you are recording (and you understand that you don't necesarilly have to achieve a "Mesa amp>Neumann mic>Neve pre>Studer 24track>SSL mixer>$5k mastering" quality), then I totally recommend the POD to you.

Enjoy and make music!

 

[Kore]

Let me TOTALLY second that comment about MIDI access to the POD's guts. I was getting sick of my POD for its lack of tweakability, until I hooked it up to my computer and played with more stuff than the knobs allow. Plus, you can download sounds from some Line6 website--you know, ones which claim to model specific recording sounds (ex. the solo from Stairway, the rhythm guitar from Purple Haze, etc.). There's quite a bit more that can be done through your computer than without, that's for sure. Plus you can save your settings/sounds to your computer, and make more room to make new patches on your POD.