Tones, Tones, Tones!

[apl]

I've got three electric guitars and a Pod xt Live. That's over 100 guitar/amp combinations. Then I've got pickup selectors on the guitars and I can add stomps, effects, delays, and 'verbs on the Pod, as well a gazillion knobs.

An embarrassment of riches, and it's a bit overwhelming.

I could record songs for the rest of my life and never use the same tone twice.

 

[Zaphod B]

I've got three electric guitars and a Pod xt Live. That's over 100 guitar/amp combinations. Then I've got pickup selectors on the guitars and I can add stomps, effects, delays, and 'verbs on the Pod, as well a gazillion knobs.

An embarrassment of riches, and it's a bit overwhelming.

I could record songs for the rest of my life and never use the same tone twice.

I feel your pain.

I have three electrics - I may be adding a 4th soon - and I also have a Pod XTL. What a hoot! It's like having a warehouse full of amps and speaker cabs.

I know the amp purists think that all modelers suck. But I'd be willing to bet that in a blind listening test, a well-tweaked XTL can't be identified as a modeler.

 

[apl]

I feel your pain.

I have three electrics - I may be adding a 4th soon - and I also have a Pod XTL. What a hoot! It's like having a warehouse full of amps and speaker cabs.

I know the amp purists think that all modelers suck. But I'd be willing to bet that in a blind listening test, a well-tweaked XTL can't be identified as a modeler.

I don't think it's fair to say they suck, but this one's definitely good enough for an awful lot of things.

Did you listen to my blues rumble entry? There were about seven models or eight models.

Nurtz! I might have to start a stupid notebook.

 

[mshilarious]

I use pretty much the same tone all the time

 

[Zaphod B]

I have to make notes on which models I'm using; on any given recording I may be using two guitars and three or four models. I even found a use for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" model in a cover of Van Morrison's Moondance (multiple-guitar-part harmony a la Brian May, of course!).

 

[Zaphod B]

mshilarious, the reason I like to experiment with the different models is because it adds some tonal variety to the sound.

Just like every band I've ever played in, each guitarist had a different brand of amp and guitar. So you might have one guy on a Strat playing through a Mesa, another with a LP through a Marshall half-stack, and a third on something else through a Twin reverb.

I really like the way the disparate tones blend in a mix.

 

[Thurgood]

An embarassment of riches. I concur. 7 electrics 3 Acoustics 6 tube amps (soon to be 7) 1 modelor (sp) 1 pc w/ 5 amp sims, and I still suck. Oops, 8 electrics, forgot one. We should all praise the MAN for the great things that have happened. With that said, I WANT MORE!!!!! Y'all have a great day. ps. The original post made my day, as it reminded me of errrr. not being at work and at the house jammin on the patio. (current ambient air temp here 70 f. ) I do take issue with the statement that "generally" a pod etc.. is indistinguishable from the real deal. I will say that they do a very good job. Easy to carry too. I have a trained ear and have been paying close attention to the POD lately and have some comments that probably have a home someplace else. The redundant POD thread. Once again, y'all have a great day.

 

[Zaphod B]

You, too, Thurgood (ya slacker - get back to work! )

Any comments on Pod tone are welcome, whenever you have the chance to share.

 

[Zaphod B]

Oh, by the way, over the course of my life I have owned several tube amps, and I still wish I had them all. My current is a vintage British Matamp 100-watt valvestate (identical to Orange amps of the same era, I am told) that sounds wonderful but is not very practical for anything except large venues.

 

[blueroommusic]

The POD doesn't suck at all...in fact it does it's job very well.

to the trained ear though, it is very easy to tell the difference between running out of an amp modeler, as opposed to a mic'd amp.

to me the POD has "digital" sounding highs...the crunch can sometimes be offensive as opposed to smooth.

honestly, the whole point of having an amp modeler makes sense...I own one..I also own a few tube & solid state amps. certain tools do certain jobs well.

I venture to say though if you had a Mesa & a POD using a Mesa modeler, recorded a full rhythm guitar track on both, and panned them out...the difference would be night and day.

 

[apl]

I venture to say though if you had a Mesa & a POD using a Mesa modeler, recorded a full rhythm guitar track on both, and panned them out...the difference would be night and day.

A good tweaker could perhaps get them indistinguishable.

 

[mshilarious]

I really like the way the disparate tones blend in a mix.

I have two guitars, an amp, and an amp modeler plug, and it still all pretty much sounds the same . . .

 

[Zaphod B]

I have two guitars, an amp, and an amp modeler plug, and it still all pretty much sounds the same . . .

Well, dammit, start turning some of the knobs!

 

[apl]

I have two guitars, an amp, and an amp modeler plug, and it still all pretty much sounds the same . . .

I was surprised how distinct the three patches I used with the Carvin on the blues rumble are, a Mesa stack, a Mesa combo, and a JCM-2000 stack. That's what's kinda overwhelming me right now is I'm getting able to hear more and more detail about how a guitar sounds.

 

[apl]

I do take issue with the statement that "generally" a pod etc.. is indistinguishable from the real deal.

I was just hedging a bit to avoid a amp v sim argument.

 

[Dogman]

I just got me a Vox amp, and I'm loving it...AD100vt....Many different sounds from it. I also have a POD XTL. Now, I just need a new guitar, and a player who doesn't suck...

 

[apl]

I just got me a Vox amp, and I'm loving it...AD100vt....Many different sounds from it. I also have a POD XTL. Now, I just need a new guitar, and a player who doesn't suck...

Congrats on 10k posts.

Get one of these with the C22B option. 60's got one that he built, and it's his best sounding guitar. And if he can do it, well...

 

[mshilarious]

I was surprised how distinct the three patches I used with the Carvin on the blues rumble are, a Mesa stack, a Mesa combo, and a JCM-2000 stack. That's what's kinda overwhelming me right now is I'm getting able to hear more and more detail about how a guitar sounds.

You remember the very first RUMBLE!? That was done without the RAGE!, and with my Gibson The Paul, vs. the So-Cal through the RAGE!. Compare the two if you get bored . . .

 

[Zaphod B]

A good tweaker could perhaps get them indistinguishable.

I think you can get very close. Much of the problem with modelers is due to factory presets not being exactly right for any particular setup, and the known difficulty of trying to make one sound decent through a guitar rig.

I'm guessing that even someone with a "trained ear" (and I guess I have one, too, since I've been playing guitar through various rigs for almost 40 years and have played with other guitarists with all sorts of gear) could not listen to a given recording and definitively identify a guitar track as having been generated with a modeler, assuming that the modeler is decent and well-tweaked.

Certainly if you panned two tracks L/R, one being a mic'd tube amp and the other being a modeler, you could hear a difference. And maybe you could identify which is which - IF someone told you that there was a difference.

All that having been said, the Pod XTL, for example, has a limited library of mics and mic placements in its cabinet simulation, so there are lots of techniques you can use with real amps and mics that you will never get with a Pod.

 

[apl]

You remember the very first RUMBLE!? That was done without the RAGE!, and with my Gibson The Paul, vs. the So-Cal through the RAGE!. Compare the two if you get bored . . .

One of my beefs with my Digitech RP-50 was that it seemed to sound pretty much the same no matter what was plugged into it. Maybe some of your equipment suffers similarly.