Hi!! I'm new to this forum, but not new to using PODS!! I have been using a Bass POD Pro XT now for 1.5 years. All live. I love it! I really, really do! Now, I have owned a kidney bean Bass POD since 2000, and am at ease with what it can and can't do. Compared to the old POD, the new XT is so, so, SO much better!
I had always wanted to try out the rack-mounted POD for live use. I have seen a few bassists using them over the last 3 years. One being Ross Valory from Journey. He had two of them in his rack about a year ago. Anyway, I auditioned for, and got, the bass postion in a rock opera being developed in LA. The music is based on 70's hard rock and prog. rock. Just my cup of tea!! The writer, who is a prog.rock fan through and through, wants me to sound like Entwhistle here, Squire there, Wetton here, Rutherford there, etc etc!! So............
The POD immediatley came to mind when I thought about how I could best emulate all these different great tones within these assumed parameters: 1.5 hour Act, 15 minute intermission, 1.25 hour second act. The music flows and there is little to no time to switch out basses. So, the tone had to come from the amp. So, I started assembling gear specifically for this rock opera that would allow me to have access to a wide variety of tones and effects, and a clean, clear, strong signal.
I started by getting a Demeter HBP-1 preamp. THIS...for the cleanest, clearest tone that I assumed would work for the majority of the opera. Next, the new Bass POD Pro XT for all the color!! I got two Aguilar GS-212 cabs and a QSC PLX-3402 to power them, IF a stage rig is even needed. These cabs and amp will suffice. Niceley. So, The POD. With the POD and a Demeter in the rack, I need a way to merge their signals and split the incoming basss signal to one or the other.
What I do is take the out from my Sennheiser wireless into a Morely A/B box. The 'A' out goes to the Demeter, the 'B' out goes to the POD. Now, since I use the power amp in stereo, sending the same signal to both cabs, only one input is needed. So, I take the three outputs from the TWO preamps (Model and DI XLR from POD, 1/4" TRS from Demeter) and send them to a small Behringer mini mixer. There, I can fine-tune the signals so that the output to the amp and house is balanced and not clipping. And, having immediate acces to the channel volumes for the two POD signals allows me to adjust the Model-DI signal ratio as I see fit in real time.
Now, the POD..........It has become just what I had always wanted out of it. There is a process needed to get the tones and effect combinations that suit, and it took some time. But now, I have 12 presets in memory, bank 1 A-D thru bank 4 A-D. This allows me to call them up via the FBV Shortboard with ease. Each of these twelve presets give me a very wide variety of tones and effects that are accesable immediatley live. The process at arriving at these presets went something like this:
New POD. Plug in headphones, open the USERS MANUAL, read and play, listening to the factory presets. Next, I spent time listening to EVERY amp model and cab model in almost every combination I could think of. AND, I listened to every amp model without cab models. Then, I listened to every effect and synth model, and checked ot their parameters. This was time-consumming, to say the least. All the while, I took notes of what sounded good to me.
Next, I hooked up the POD to my amp and cabs, and played the different presets I had chosen through the cabinets. Big eye-opener. I started using the POD every weekend in bar gigs I do with old friends. THAT is where I started to really fine-tune what the POD could do. Comments from the other musicians and from people listening all made their mark. The POD XT allows you to not only set the front-face para-EQ settings, each preset has an assignable graphic EQ. THIS can make all the difference between a so-so sound and a GREAT sound!!
Having used digital effects since 1990, going into the POD and tweaking EQ, effect parameters, etc, etc was no big deal. Some people seem daunted by that aspect of it. Anyway, it is pretty much mandatory that you learn what every page of each preset is for and what it can do. By tweaking the effect parameters and assignments, the EQ, the output level, etc before hand, then, in my experience, any problems with the tone I am hearing live can be fixed with minor tweaking of the front-face tone controls. And that is where I am at with it now!! 12 presets, all consecutive, that I like ready to go, and another 4 just after them that are OK, too! I plan on getting this down to 8 max. by the time this rock opera ramps up to full production.
With the built-in tuner which mutes the system when engaged, to the PLETHORA of effects, this thing is the cats' meow for tone variety in real time!!! Anyway, for my last hurrah here...............over the last 8-9 months, when gigging with my complete rack, I have had ample opportunity to compare the POD to the Demeter through Aguilar cabs. Some nights, I will be jammin' away on some tune, diggin' the tone, thinking I had switched the A/B box to A (Demeter), only to look back and see it's on B!!! POD!!! 'nuff said!!!
