32 posts
Anyone here have one of these or ever used one ? (I'm talking about the reissues of course as it's almost impossible to find an original for a sensible price)
I'm toying with the idea of getting one of these and putting it through the hotplate of course to get the nice saturation that these amps are famous for as it is essentially a clean amp at low volumes.
I used to have a Marshall hundred watt Super Lead, I bought it for $800 sometime in the late 60's to as late as the mid 70's (Sorry can't remember the exact date) I had it for a year or so and then sold it I assume (as I can't remember exactly what I did with it) The amp was awesome at higher volumes. I tried the Tom Sholtz Power Soak and it did not translate into a good tone at all. I replaced it with a Silver face Pro Reverb and Silver Face Twin Reverb, both had master volume controls so I could get great tones at lower volumes. I never liked that twin but I really liked the Pro Reverb it was a fifty watt model and I replaced the speakers with JBL K 120's (in both Fender amps).
Anyways I would not recommend the hundred watt model for anything but stage/band volume levels in a big room. That is my $.02 anyways.
But one thing about that amp was I could mark spots on the floor and move from spot to spot and get different levels of under and over tones and specific feed backs at different spots in front of the amp. I was using a Sunn Cabinet with 6 twelves in it, just an awesome unit at higher volume levels.
Of course when I got my first Mesa Boogie Mark II it supplanted anything the Marshall and The Fenders could do in my mind, because I could get that Boogie sustain at any volume level.
Gotta echo what dbm said, a non master voulme/ 4 hole input Marshall is just so friggin' loud for home, even most "home studios." Just a different planet loud, and the volume jumps from off to full tilt (higher volume level added more dirt as opposed to actually getting much louder) so don't think there's wiggle room. I say this as a Splawn Quick Rod owner and those are damn loud themselves. I owned the Plexi re-issue and thought the volume wouldn't matter to me since I'm a bum with a house to myself and a sound treated room. Wrong. Still too loud. The tone was sweet but the volume discouraged me from playing it for any real length of time, and that was the ultimate irony that forced me to give her up. Never tried it with an attenuator, results seem mixed at best with those things.
The wattage doesn't worry me as I would use it with the hotplate. I've had good results with the hotplate on every amp I've tried it on so far. At the other extreme I'm also toying with the Jet City 20 watter, that looks interesting.
I did have a Marshall DSL 50 with 4x12 cab a couple of years ago (for gigging). Nice amp, but didn't get the vintage Marshall sound that I was looking for so I sold that.
The Jet City stuff is awesome. I love the voicing of their amps! The youtube clips of the JC 20 watt head sound great but you'll be blown away in person, at least I was...very focused/distinct mids, bad ass crunch for the money. Great small studio/recordig amps.
under heavy attenuation, hot plates don't sound all that good imo - the uber sounds pretty bad with -16dB and some extra with the knob.
but! the line out into impulses... that might be worth a try if you really like the way the amp sounds. run a little bit of volume into a cab for feedback but don't bother recording it... buzz/fuzz town.
ironsheep — Aug 31, 2011under heavy attenuation, hot plates don't sound all that good imo - the uber sounds pretty bad with -16dB and some extra with the knob.
but! the line out into impulses... that might be worth a try if you really like the way the amp sounds. run a little bit of volume into a cab for feedback but don't bother recording it... buzz/fuzz town.
Yep, that's what I was planning on. The peavey C30 records great this way, surprisingly using the clean channel on the C30 gives great results, crank the amp up to exploding territory and the line-out from the hotplate into reaper using a cab sim sounds fantastic, but the C30 doesn't quite have that vintage Marshall vibe that I really love.
To test the theory I've just ordered a Jet City JCA20H head
Difficult to go wrong at this price, only £249 (approx $418) (and the HD500 is up on ebay) :)
nice! congrats. you won't need to attenuate that thing. They're also super easy to bias. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4T83PgEIhc
Lookin' forward to your test clips.
Kabala — Aug 31, 2011
nice! congrats. you won't need to attenuate that thing. They're also super easy to bias. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4T83PgEIhc
Lookin' forward to your test clips.
That's useful. It should be here in a day or so, clips will follow ! I'm almost digital free :-)
WOW! Selling the HD to fund a $250 amp? I'd think you'd keep it around and just buy the amp to try.
I keep thinking I'll buy one of these, but more than likely won't keep it without the Friedman mods. I need to try one though. Can't wait to hear yours. What kind of cab are you going to use it with?
That's £250 (UK GDP), approx $418 US dollars.
Since becoming self employed a year ago I don't spend any money on myself without full justification within my accounts. So, something in then something has to go out to balance the books. It's a good strategy and is paying off big time at the moment. Becoming self employed was the best thing that happened to me really and it really does focus the mind on what is important and what is not and makes you budget correctly which is great because the financial layer of fat is building up nicely.
HD500 is very good, but once again I find myself becoming a slave to the technology and spending all my time "testing" sounds etc instead of just getting on with playing the guitar, which after all is the sole purpose of all this.
Cabwise, haven't decided yet, although of course I still have the Celestion G12H that I have yet to put into a cab, but initially I am interested to see (hear) what sounds I can get from it via the hotplate on full load and then line-out to Reaper and an impulse cab.
I will probably get one of the Jet City cabs at some stage.
Ironically, they are also $250 in the US...
charger — Sep 01, 2011Ironically, they are also $250 in the US...
Not surprising really as we are always well and truly shafted with pricing in the UK.
Sold the HD500 on ebay today for $560 .... I'm happy with that :)
Heard good things about these Jet City amps. Soldano SLO lead channel on the cheap. Would love to try one of these puppies. Noice!!
The Jet City head has arrived. Clips in a couple of days !!!
Jon — Sep 05, 2011Sold the HD500 on ebay today for $560 .... I'm happy with that :)
+1 ! Gone for 420 Euro !
Good, good pedalboard but I'm not able to play thru headphones...I hate it...I've to feel my noise !!
The guy that purchased the Pod is using it thru a Mesa 20-20 and a 2x12 cab...I've to say that's not bad at all !!
Lwb — Sep 20, 2011[quote author=Jon G link=1314621050/0#14 date=1315241542]Sold the HD500 on ebay today for $560 .... I'm happy with that :)
+1 ! Gone for 420 Euro !
Good, good pedalboard but I'm not able to play thru headphones...I hate it...I've to feel my noise !!
The guy that purchased the Pod is using it thru a Mesa 20-20 and a 2x12 cab...I've to say that's not bad at all !!
It is funny the way we churn gear.....just can't live without a real amp and just can't live WITH constant tweaking :-)
:)
There's a new Line6 product for the iPad (interface + software, basically another POD) at 80$.
Probably not as good as the HD but for practice and silent playing I think it will be more than enough for me.
Ciao!
Marco
One of the big major drawbacks with modellers like the POD is that ruins your playing technique. By using patches with compression before and after the amp it makes everything "too easy" to play and then when you go back to a real amp you realise that your technique has diminished because you are having to fight with the amp (or at least that's how it feels to me). A real amp makes you play better in the long run because you have to make notes count more than hiding behind the ease of the modeller. Anyone else have any thoughts about this?
I am not sure I agree... if you play well, you play well. Beginning on a Pod may affect your technique but I doubt it. I play almost exclusively with my fingers nowadays and I find that the Pod (well, Pod Farm) has very similar dynamics to the amps I play through. However, I also do not play through much distortion... if you're playing only the super heavy amps in a modeller, with massive gain, that's one thing. Semi clean amps on the Pod Farm... especially the Bassman and Plexi 45--are excellent, and very representative of the playing dynamics I get from a real amp. And in fact, a tube amp pushed has a LOT of compression.
My technique has definitely suffered because of using modellers too much over the last few years. I actually started playing guitar on Classical guitar which of course is all fingers and got to quite a good standard and actually mastered bach suite for lute (the one that includes Bouree as one of the movements, one hell of a suite to get through) I eventually went all electric when I started playing in bands exclusively using tube amps and dropped classical almost completely, mostly because electric guitar in a band is a social experience whereas classical guitar is a very solitary experience. The move to modellers in later years definitely made the playability of the guitar too easy. I always found that the only way to get a decent sound from a modeller was to use oodles of compression both before and after the amp otherwise it just doesn't sound good to my ears....to much digital "chirp"....the big problem with that is it definitely smooths things out in your playing and you get lazy....at least I did. Yes, tube amps have compression, and that's the joy of them, but the amounts of compression that I am talking about in the pods definitely makes things too easy. I don't actually like any of the cleanish sounds on the PODs without compression, they just sound too brittle. It's good to finally clear the fog away and get back to real amps exclusively. I tended to get lost in the technology by constantly searching for the sound that really isn't there....a fruitless task.
Funny twist on the thread now because I used to wonder about this over the years when watching youtube vids of all the wiz kidz playing insane stuff through their modling gizmo at whisper leves, I would jealously think *yeah, now jack into a raging loud tube amp and try that, betcha sound like a sloppy newb.* Maybe. Maybe not, but I know where you're coming from Jon, kinda feel the same way about technique needing more attention with a loud tube amp vs where it was after too many years of strictly using a modler (my only experience with modlers has been the Pod series to be fair, starting with the original bean and ending with the XT Pro - which I still have), just doesn't feel the same to me. To be fair though, it could simply be a volume thing, I never played my pods loud because hell, everything already seemed so easy to play at normal to low volume, why bother. But, I dunno, even if I play my tube amps at bedroom volume, they sound so tight, open and raw compared to the modlers, I mean they still have that resonance, feedback, sustain and clarity at lower volumes, and of course the challenge that comes with managing all that as well. Maybe a modler running into a loud pwr amp and cab would feel similar but then why not just own a real amp, lol, so I never tried that. Anyway, like you, I know my technique has improved since moving over entirely to amps, don't really see myself ever switching back to modlers unless something revolutionary comes along and it can all be done direct, otherwise, why change from an amp + real speakers + mic's + more disciplined technique + the beautiful end resulting tone.
for me, the problem with modeler compression was that it brought the floor up too much - without it sounding like it was compression. that's what changed my playing.
with an amp, I have to really work (and often fail) to get sustain, clarity and articulation - I have to be stronger and more precise with the left hand. the pods eased that requirement a lot for me - the floor made up for it if I didn't maintain enough pressure or flubbed some fingering.
I do get a massive amount of amp compression going on with the flexi but it's different - more like moving the ceiling, rather than the floor. that works out for me since I'm pretty heavy with the right hand most of the time. it's been my experience with pods and daw modelers that they are very unforgiving of picking issues, often leaving the direct sound of pick attack seemingly unmodified as an artifact. whether that's what is actually happening or not, I have no idea - but the sound of unmodeled picking next to modeled note drove me to distraction. so, in a way, I exchanged forgiveness of left hand for that of the right by going back to an amp.
it's entirely possible that these effects are not apparent to a listener but I'll never be able to only listen to my playing without first playing it! heh.
For me modelers never changed the way I play, I was playing far too long for my habits to change. The thing I did not like about modelers was the tone mostly. Of course in the beginning, it made recording much easier for me in my retirement community. I have not tried any of the latest modeling gear, it sounds much better than the ones I used to have, at least in clips it does. I just don't need to spent $500 bucks to get the extras that they have over my amps and analog pedals. I just have no need of them anymore.....
good points, all. Brings to mind a funny story that nobody who is here (now) knows. Back in the days when i got lovingly coaxed into recording something, the first recording I put up was done with my PODxt. At least 3 guys commented about how I had way too much compression on it. Matt referred to it affectionately as "that overly compressed turd you put up." I made some story about thinking the BT was going to be acoustic and so I had set the pod to record my Taylor but then got the BT and without any changes plugged in my electric and recorded. When people continued to say that it was ok but way to compressed, I laughed, and said that I checked the settings on the XT and I had accidently set the comp to -20dB. Almost everyone told me to lighten on the compression.
I told one person who is no longer here, because we discussed settings in detail and he too thought it sounded like it had compression on it, and I sent him the patch!... but that track had NO compression on it whatsoever. I was using a Vpick, which gives a bit of a unique attack and a bit of chirp (why I rarely use them anymore despite their superior picking capability). Everyone thought it was too compressed. I just played along. It didn't have any comp on it at all.
I tell this now, because while it amused me before, this clearly proves what you guys are saying. ;) I will say though, that I think the Vpick contributed too that, as it always seemed a poor match for the PODxt. The chirp was emphasized, and it had a unique attach that did sound a bit like a keeley comp or something. I think that the string coming off the pick quicker gave it less pull on the string and that had something to do with it. But the Vpick was not a good match for the POD, making the compression you guys are talking about even worse.
...modeler or not, I'm still playing bad.
Lwb — Sep 23, 2011...modeler or not, I'm still playing bad.
Not from the clips I've heard!
lol
Some start with modellers, then curiosity makes them buy their first tube amp.
Then they buy a bunch of pedals to improve the tube amp because the tube amp wasn't the magical experience they thought it would be.
Then after going through 30 pedals and 3 tube amps they buy a modeller again.
Now the modeller sounds great, so easy to play, all in one solution...sounds very close to a tube amp tone.
A few months later the modeller sounds like sh*te, it's ruined my playing technique, it just doesn't have the tone of a tube amp.
Time to buy one of the new latest 5 watt tube amps again, with power scaling and all the latest "gimmicks".
Oh yeah!!! There you go, that magical mystical tube amp tone I was missing is back, I'm in heaven.
Time to buy a dozen overdrive pedals again, 4 compressor pedals, 3 delays and a couple of fuzz pedals.
A few months later, "my needs have changed, I need a low volume solution, what are the latest modellers?" :)
Wow, have you seen and heard how good the latest modellers are, apparently they're awesome...time to buy one.
"My tube amps are gathering dust since I got my new modeller X"...who needs a tube amp when modellers get me 97,32745% there. :)
My modeller is driving me nuts, my technique has gone downhill since I got this new modeller, it's nice, has some great tones in it, but....what are the latest tube amps out there.........
Wife and kids ask, "when is this insanity going to stop, when are you just going to be happy with a guitar and amp and start playing some Beatles & Bee Gee's songs for me?"
:)
Lance now that is funny
