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Transparent amp for pod?

6stringvince

6stringvince

Guest
Apr 29, 2012
269
13
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
#1
Hey all, I sold my Markbass Momark, and I'm kind of rethinking my setup. I play both guitar and bass, and call me crazy but I love my Line 6 Pod X3 for both. So, I'd love a one solution for both guitar and bass, something that can handle fairly loud live situations. Will any of the FRFR (flat frequency full range) handle bass loud enough for live rock. I had a quick look at the Atomic stuff, but will it handle live bass?
Thanks in advance
Vince
 
#2
Vince...You will be surprised, but the Carvin power amps are very transparent. I used one for years with a preamp and have no complaints.

Bass player magazine even did a review years ago and stated how neutral they are.

Good luck.
 
#6
6stringvince said:
Any particular model? What cab would you use with that?
Click to expand...

It was the older DCM 2000 (I believe 2000) at the time it was the most the wattage I could get out of a 2 space unit.

I know use it one of my PAs. Very loud and Very Clear...Tons of headroom.
 
#7
This is probably a good place for a fEarful/AudioKinesis/Barefaced type solution. The Pod models will handle rolling out woofiness in guitar tones, shaping more "old-school" bass tones, etc. I'd put most of my focus on having fairly neutral sounding wide-range speakers. Yes, different poweramps do vary in sound a little but most anything of quality, (QSC, Peavey, Crest, Carvin, Crown, etc.) should be pretty neutral.
 
#9
Interesting proposal 6stringvince,

I often find myself in the same position but I have not yet seriously looked into a permanent rig.

The Amps listed above (QSC, Peavey, Crest, Carvin, Crown, etc.) are all fine, and cabinets are many and varied.

What I would also be very interested to know about from people who have more experience with this is: can we get a new type if live sound reproduction from cabinet configurations we might not have normally used?

For instance: 10" speaker cabs for bass and 12" speaker cabs for guitar are popular for a reason - the way they shape the tone relative to the specific instrument. BUT if we are doing the bulk of the sound shaping BEFORE we hit the cab - then what might we be able to expect from, say - 15" speaker cabs?

Curious to see where this leads...
 
#11
thedane said:
Interesting proposal 6stringvince,

I often find myself in the same position but I have not yet seriously looked into a permanent rig.

The Amps listed above (QSC, Peavey, Crest, Carvin, Crown, etc.) are all fine, and cabinets are many and varied.

What I would also be very interested to know about from people who have more experience with this is: can we get a new type if live sound reproduction from cabinet configurations we might not have normally used?

For instance: 10" speaker cabs for bass and 12" speaker cabs for guitar are popular for a reason - the way they shape the tone relative to the specific instrument. BUT if we are doing the bulk of the sound shaping BEFORE we hit the cab - then what might we be able to expect from, say - 15" speaker cabs?

Curious to see where this leads...
Click to expand...

It's a changing world, modelling has come such a long ways, but the power/speaker side of things seams to be mostly unexplored by the vast majority of players.
 
#12
6stringvince said:
It's a changing world, modelling has come such a long ways, but the power/speaker side of things seams to be mostly unexplored by the vast majority of players.
Click to expand...

All but the worst power amplifiers are transparent. What you need is a transparent speaker system. Most instrument cabinets (bass and guitar) are designed specifically for the particular instrument. I believe the Pod has speaker emulation built in, and you'll be playing guitar and bass, so IMO you should look into full-range PA cabinets (as I believe you're doing already).

A Carvin 3-way PA cab got good reviews here in the TalkBass amp forum awhile back; I got to try one and thought it was nice, especially for the price. Powered PA cabs are also a good suggestion; it's your call whether you want to go that route or buy a poweramp to use with unpowered cabs.

Your wattage requirement: you said you get no PA support. How loud are your bandmates, and what size rooms do you have to fill? Those details will determine how many watts you need. Also keep in mind that number of speakers is more important to volume than wattage. That is, a speaker can only push so much air; to push a lot more air you need more speakers, not just more wattage.
 
#13
I would look at a fEARful 15/6/1 with the new 3 way cross over, and a Crest ProLite 2.0. Bridge that puppy and you will have an amazingly flat cab that will handle every thing you can throw at it. Pretty light/compact for the amount of sound you get out of it too, and the ProLite can be driven by almost any sort of pre amp as it has a very good input sensitivity.
 
#15
6stringvince said:
Any thoughts the Carvin LS1503 for what I'm after? I found some really positive reviews for bass, but I wonder how it will handle my guitar through the Pod?
Click to expand...

In my experience, the Pod sounds best when run to a mixing board or hi-fi PA than into a guitar or bass instrument rig. Sure, some bassists and guitarists do the latter and it can still sound fine, but IMO the best usage is for getting amp tone without having to use an amp. Again, the Pod is doing both the amp and speaker modeling -- so, that's why it's best IMO to use the Pod with a transparent system (such as the Carvin).

In short: I've seen guitarists run nothing but a Pod through a PA and they sounded great, so you should be happy too.
 
#16
I have an X3 Live. I use it, sometimes, for both lead guitar, and bass. I send from the X3 Live to an Ampeg PF-350, then into a 1X15 cab with a single Eminence Legend CB158. The sound is quite good for both instruments. I have also tried this rig with my acoustic guitar plugged in. That sounded bad. But the P-bass and the Tele lead sound pretty good. I expected the bass to be good. I was happily surprised that the lead guitar sounded good, also.
 
#17
I use a Zoom BX multi-FX pedal through a stock Carvin LSx1503A, which is the powered version of the current LS1503. I have played with two guitarists using 50watt 1x12's, keys going through one of those PA kits, and a very loud drummer. I have had nothing but complements on my tone and playing and can hear myself fine in the mix. The Pod is arguably a better pre-amp than my Zoom, so you may get similar results. You just have to do some knob turning and work with your settings. A good carpenter with hand tools can always beat out a crappy one with power tools, because the former knows what he's doing and how to use what he's got.
 
#18
nick98338 said:
I have an X3 Live. I use it, sometimes, for both lead guitar, and bass. I send from the X3 Live to an Ampeg PF-350, then into a 1X15 cab with a single Eminence Legend CB158. The sound is quite good for both instruments. I have also tried this rig with my acoustic guitar plugged in. That sounded bad. But the P-bass and the Tele lead sound pretty good. I expected the bass to be good. I was happily surprised that the lead guitar sounded good, also.
Click to expand...

After all said and done I did an impulse buy and placed an order on an Ampeg PF-500. I'll try my Pod X3 in that for a while, and sometime in the near future I'll try to build a fEARful 15/6/1.
Thanks for all the input
 

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