bass pod as a head?

[MarkMyWordsXx]

first off, sorry if this has been posted...

but would i be able to use a bass pod as a head and run a power amp through it?

if thats possible i might concider that over a kustom groove bass 1200. im not really sold on them based on the price and i like the idea of the pod..

 

[Bassjunior]

Yeah, of course you can, but do remember to run the POD through the power amp, not the other way around , otherwise you'll fry the living hell out of your POD.

 

[seamonkey]

I'd also add that you may want to look into A good three-way that is more hi-fi than a typical bass cabinet. Something along the lines that a good sound reinforcement system would have.

Modeling can do amazing things but it needs a good clean amp and speaker to do it's job best.

 

[Plain Old Me]

I'd also add that you may want to look into A good three-way that is more hi-fi than a typical bass cabinet. Something along the lines that a good sound reinforcement system would have.

Modeling can do amazing things but it needs a good clean amp and speaker to do it's job best.

Bullcrap. You are still amplifying the same frequencies; you don't need a PA cab to get the frequencies that you are amplifying. A good bass cab would be louder for bass, could be smaller, and most likely will sound a tad better as they are designed to get the frequencies of the bass and sound good doing it. If you like the modeling sounds, its probabally better to get a clean sounding cab but you certainly don't need a PA cab, and its advisable not to go that route.

 

[MarkMyWordsXx]

would anyone reccomend this set up?

btw i have aavatar neo410 cab. i wouldnt be able to tell you how clean it is because its being shipped out to me today

 

[steve66]

I have the Avatar 210 Neo and 212 Delta. there are tons of threads about Avatar in the forum. My cabs are clean sounding. You will probably hear the tweeter hiss,(common in most speaker cabs) but you can turn it down. I set my amp flat, volume and gain half way and turn the tweeter down till I just hear a little hiss. I still get killer highs from the cab that way. you will be happy with Avatar

 

[Lowtonejoe]

Bullcrap. You are still amplifying the same frequencies; you don't need a PA cab to get the frequencies that you are amplifying. A good bass cab would be louder for bass, could be smaller, and most likely will sound a tad better as they are designed to get the frequencies of the bass and sound good doing it. If you like the modeling sounds, its probabally better to get a clean sounding cab but you certainly don't need a PA cab, and its advisable not to go that route.

Nah,

modeling sounds better the more hi-fi of a rig that you have.

But it is true, you can play a modeled sound through any decent bass rig and chances are that it will sound just fine.

Modeling is much more than fancy tone controls. It reproduces way more than just bass frequencies. That's why the POD is used mostly as a recording device, it can mimic the sound of different cabs/heads and even basses. To get the most from it go as hi-fi as you can.

To the OP,

I am not sure if the POD has enough juice to push a power amp. Although I am sure that if you plugged it into ANY power amp you would hear sound. However the signal level from the POD may be so low that you might get alot of hiss. If this happens it is easily fixed by running your POD through any clean preamp and then into your power amp.

And as pointed out already, you will want to run your POD through the power amp, NOT the power amp through the POD.



Joe.

 

[Lowtonejoe]

would anyone reccomend this set up?

btw i have aavatar neo410 cab. i wouldnt be able to tell you how clean it is because its being shipped out to me today

A neo Avatar rig will probably sound fine. Especially if you have the upgraded crossover. I have no idea if the new crossovers are standard yet.



Joe.

 

[seamonkey]

hi-fi works best. You can model different colored cabinets like some brand 1x15 to yet another brand 8x10. One aspect is going to be different frequency response curves. Even between different brands of 4x10 the response curve differs. If your cabinet is pre-color to an unflat curve you may not be able to push it to another curve you're trying to match - like sounding like different brand 4x10. On the other hand, you might just luck out and really like what modeling does with your current cabs.

Avatars are as good as any other brand bass cabinet out there, but you'd never see them used for mains.

 

[Plain Old Me]

modeling sounds better the more hi-fi of a rig that you have.

Hi-fi cabs would work best for modeling, but use hi-fi bass cabs, not PA cabs as was suggested in the monkey's post. With PA cabs, you will probabally see less low end (unless you are getting subs and all) and it will not be as efficent as most hi-fi bass cabs, at least in the frequencies that you would use while playing bass. The pod will alter the sound, but not the fundamental frequencies. A hi-fi bass cab is designed to handle those frequencies, and will do better handleing those frequencies than a PA cab (which has to take into account vocals, guitar, and drums) will.

 

[Lowtonejoe]

Hi-fi cabs would work best for modeling, but use hi-fi bass cabs, not PA cabs as was suggested in the monkey's post. With PA cabs, you will probabally see less low end (unless you are getting subs and all) and it will not be as efficent as most hi-fi bass cabs, at least in the frequencies that you would use while playing bass. The pod will alter the sound, but not the fundamental frequencies. A hi-fi bass cab is designed to handle those frequencies, and will do better handleing those frequencies than a PA cab (which has to take into account vocals, guitar, and drums) will.

It's exactly because they have to cover so many frequencies that PA cabs work great. You just have to use them wisely, like any other piece of gear.

I've been playing strictly through PA and monitors for several months now (directly into the board, no POD) and I sound great tone-wise. And we have recieved many compliments for our balanced sound as a group.

FYI, many Hi-Fi bass cabs easily do double duty as PA cabs. Acme and EA come to mind (ask Tombowlus about EA's).

But all that aside, if I were to do the POD thing without a PA, I would use a hi-fi bass cab. It just seem 'righter' even though I now know better.

Joe.

 

[broerevb]

It's exactly because they have to cover so many frequencies that PA cabs work great. You just have to use them wisely, like any other piece of gear.
Joe.

That's the point. Sound-wise a pa cab will do, but most bass cabs are made to withstand bass mayhem that would kill a lot of pa cabs within the minute. If using pa speakers, just be careful, or use high-quality cabs or cabs with subs.

But is it about doing the perfect modeled amp or about having a great sound? I must say I once run my bro's pod through a 1500 watts power amp in a jbl 2x15 with horn and it didn't sound bad at all. However, the same through one of my old 200 watts svt410he's was waaaaay better!
So have fun with the avatar's!

 

[Lowtonejoe]

That's the point. Sound-wise a pa cab will do, but most bass cabs are made to withstand bass mayhem that would kill a lot of pa cabs within the minute. If using pa speakers, just be careful, or use high-quality cabs or cabs with subs.

But is it about doing the perfect modeled amp or about having a great sound? I must say I once run my bro's pod through a 1500 watts power amp in a jbl 2x15 with horn and it didn't sound bad at all. However, the same through one of my old 200 watts svt410he's was waaaaay better!
So have fun with the avatar's!

Actually, the right PA speakers are_made_to_handle_bass_frequencies! It really just depends on how loud you need to go.

Honestly.

Just like bass cabs, you need to choose the appropriate PA speaker cabs. But getting the right PA cab can be just as expensive (or more) as getting a hi-fi type of bass cab.

If a person decides to go that route and chooses the right one, you will sound great!

Not all stereos have subs (my Infinity system doesn't) but they can reproduce excellent bass. Whether or not you need a sub depends on how low you want to go. Sometimes too low is inappropriate.

But keep in mind that I am not campaigning against bass cabs.



Joe.

 

[broerevb]

Actually, the right PA speakers are_made_to_handle_bass_frequencies! It really just depends on how loud you need to go.

Just like bass cabs, you need to choose the appropriate PA speaker cabs. But getting the right PA cab can be just as expensive (or more) as getting a hi-fi type of bass cab.

Agreed. It's just that the choice is a bit more complicated. Lots of pa cabs are just made for mid and high reproduction and have a higher cutoff freq., ... where as bass cabs all are made for, well, bass.
But indeed, there are some great pa cabs out there, no doubt.

 

[dave_bass5]

I would just turn the Cab modeling part off and use the POD to simulate just a head and then use a bass cab to simulate the...well you konw what i mean.
I ran a Bass PODXT for a while as a preamp in to my Ashdown MAG combo, just used as a power amp/cab and it worked well. i really only wanted to use the effects part but the GK sim worked well for what i wanted

 

[daffy]

I do this all the time and it's great.

I either DI into the PA, or go into the effects return of my head - this is the same as just going into a power amp.

I use a 410 speaker with horn and it sounds great - the Bass POD modelling is specifically designed to work with bass speakers with or without horns. You don't need a PA speaker set - in fact the only way you would get a good sound out of the speaker set is to tell the POD you are going DI or else it will change its EQ to suit a bass cab.

If I had my chance again, I would just buy a power amp and bass cab, but it's good to have the full head there for some of my gigs.

 

[Lowtonejoe]

I would just turn the Cab modeling part off and use the POD to simulate just a head and then use a bass cab to simulate the...well you konw what i mean.
I ran a Bass PODXT for a while as a preamp in to my Ashdown MAG combo, just used as a power amp/cab and it worked well. i really only wanted to use the effects part but the GK sim worked well for what i wanted

Right on!

Excellent answer!

Kudos to you dave_bass5.



Joe.

 

[Lowtonejoe]

I do this all the time and it's great.

I either DI into the PA, or go into the effects return of my head - this is the same as just going into a power amp.

I use a 410 speaker with horn and it sounds great - the Bass POD modelling is specifically designed to work with bass speakers with or without horns. You don't need a PA speaker set - in fact the only way you would get a good sound out of the speaker set is to tell the POD you are going DI or else it will change its EQ to suit a bass cab.

If I had my chance again, I would just buy a power amp and bass cab, but it's good to have the full head there for some of my gigs.

Thanks for the insight Daffy!



Joe.

 

[GreyBeard]

I've got a pod-pro and I've used it with several different speakers and it seems to work fine with all of them. Problem is, I usually end up using the "SVT" patch and not much more so I ended up getting an SVP-pro which has a better tone to begin with. The Pod-Pro does have a killer compressor and chorus though.

 

[CLJMB]

I've used a Bass POD Pro (the old version) straight to the board for years now. I monitor through either PA monitors or in-ears. I use a heavily tweaked Mesa 400/Mesa 2 x 15 sim with the AIR and mic sims off. Took me a long time to tweak the standard patch to get a sound but now it works great. Tried upgrading to the XTPro a while back and couldn't get a decent sound out of it after months of tweaking, so I'm sticking with the old version. I've gotten many compliments on my sound through the POD. It's surprised many POD bashers.

FWIW, I don't like the sound of the POD through most bass cabs.