Versatile Effects Unit Suggestions?

Dillon Jackson · Post by **Dillon Jackson** » 13 Jun 2005 9:54 pm

The band I play in travels to locations by plane. So at sites the amps are from SIR or a similar renter. In about 6 months I'll have some simple songs down and will add some steel sound to the group. So I have time to practice and plan a bit. I can probably get some pretty decent rental amps but none are for steel. My conclusion is that I need a pretty versatile effects unit to adjust as best I can. Lexicon 110? or what d'y'all suggest?

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Dillon Jackson
abiband.com
ZUM U-12; NV-1000

Dillon Jackson · Post by **Dillon Jackson** » 13 Jun 2005 9:58 pm

OOPs I started this post in electronics and somehow hopped here by accident. Please transfer.

Ben Slaughter · Post by **Ben Slaughter** » 14 Jun 2005 12:13 pm

PODxt, hands down. The POD lets you shape the tone not just add FX. With that also, you could run straight into the PA, if your monitors were up to snuff.

Also, if you knew you couldn't get a steel amp and you had a POD dialed in, you might think about renting keyboard amps instead of guitar amps. Keyboard amp would give you the response you need and wouldn't color the sound as much as a guitar amp would. Let the POD shape your tone and use the amp as a monitor. I would think a rental company would be more likely to have a keyboard amp in its inventory than a NV400 or the like.

That's what I would do, anyway.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 14 Jun 2005 12:55 pm

If I have to rely on using "whatever is there", the Pod is a lifesaver. When presented with 'toy' amps, I have played straight into the PA, and used my monitor to hear myself.

The Pod presets are mostly for varying degrees of distorted guitar. So I need to tweak my sounds (ahead of time, saved as patches) to get a reasonable steel sound, but decent to very-good sounds can be obtained on either Pod 2 or Pod XT, IMO.

I also have, and like, a Digitech Genesis 3, but they're out of production and a bit harder to find. They're also not as user friendly 'on the job' - the Pod is laid out nicely from an ergonomic point of view, it's easy to tweak the settings on the fly, switch to the tuner, etc.

I concur on using a very clean-sounding amp with these modelers. A clean keyboard or bass amp (forego the ones with tweeters) with the appropriate power level work nicely, IMO.

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 14 Jun 2005 1:34 pm

Check out the Boss GT-6 or GT-8

Biggest complaint about ANY multi-fx devices is that you can't tweak what you need to tweak onstage without going into some kind of EDIT MODE. The GT-6 or -8 has 15 knobs and 34 switches. Knobs and switches for EQ (bass, mid, treble), overdrive (type, drive, and level), delay (feedback, fx level, and tap tempo), chorus (fx level), and reverb (fx level) allow you to adjust them on the fly. You can also change amp or speaker model, turn off two selectable additional fx (like compression, auto-wah, phaser, flanger, and lots more) without missing a lick. Try doing that with a Pod.

More info: http://www.roland.com/products/en/GT-6/index.html

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 14 Jun 2005 4:57 pm

it's a shame the Genesis 3 was discontinued, I bought two of them I like em so much, on the fly tweaking can be done to volume and EQ settings, reverb, echo, and chorus or flange, they have the headphone jack and are small, one thing though the software level of 1.1 has a bug, if you are using chorus or flange sometimes the speed jumps to max, the upgrade to 1.4 fixed the bug, eBay has these on a regular basis, my new one cost $150, my eBay purchase was $100

David Spangler · Post by **David Spangler** » 15 Jun 2005 7:09 am

The POD XT is the most functional unit I have used, and I have used most of them. It has knobs for gain, eq, output right on the front and it's quick and easy to make adjustments on the fly. For "deep editing", I connect it to my PC and use the Line 6 editing software to work out those subtle nuances that make it work so well with the specific guitar I'm using. Then, in live performance I can tweak quickly with the knobs. I have all 3 models, the basic "kidney bean, the "Live" and the "Pro". I can back up some or all of the presets to my PC hard drive in a few seconds and restore to my other units. And Line 6 keeps updating the firmware, so you can download the latest to your PC and then to your POD (you need to back up your presets first). Most retailers offer a 30-45 day trial, so you can return it if it doesn't work for your needs.

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David Spangler

Dillon Jackson · Post by **Dillon Jackson** » 15 Jun 2005 7:33 am

Thanks guys. This is useful stuff. I have played acoustic all my life til now and this is all new to me.

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Dillon Jackson
abiband.com
ZUM U-12; NV-1000