Gear noob questions..

Pyr0

So after reading through the rack setup thread just there it gave me the courage to ask a few questions to you experienced riggers/players on here.

Looking at Karls setup, Engl head and Cab I've always wondered what was the difference between the big square amps we all know to see, and the small rectangular 'Heads' and of course the Cabs themselves. Now I always assumed the cab projects the sound of the head, while the amp has pretty much itself to do all the work. Would I be right ?

Tubescreamer Pedal and Distortion pedal: I always thought an Ibanez Tubescreamer pedal for example was a type of distortion pedal itself but without the name if ya get me. What exactly does it do ? And how would it say compliment a PodXT (Consider this does pretty much everything:pac:) ?

Thats all I think of atm, It'll be a big help when i'm going to be buying new stuff (which is pretty soon ). And it saves me saying to myself "Damn I should have bought something like that instead".

So be nice !

Edit: It'd be a cool idea to have some questions and answers stickied to help other people afraid to ask the questions !

Karl Hungus

Pyr0 wrote: »

So after reading through the rack setup thread just there it gave me the courage to ask a few questions to you experienced riggers/players on here.

Pyr0 wrote: »

Looking at Karls setup, Engl head and Cab I've always wondered what was the difference between the big square amps we all know to see, and the small rectangular 'Heads' and of course the Cabs themselves. Now I always assumed the cab projects the sound of the head, while the amp has pretty much itself to do all the work. Would I be right ?

Ok, so by "Big square amps" do you mean a combo like this?

Essentially, the combo is the head and the speaker in the same box. With a seperate head, you can match it to any speaker cabinet you want. And it looks cooler to boot.

Pyr0 wrote: »

Tubescreamer Pedal and Distortion pedal: I always thought an Ibanez Tubescreamer pedal for example was a type of distortion pedal itself but without the name if ya get me. What exactly does it do ? And how would it say compliment a PodXT (Consider this does pretty much everything:pac:) ?

Yeah, the Tubescreamer isn't really a distortion pedal, it's an overdrive. The difference between the two is that a distortion pedal will create the distortion itself, whereas an overdrive will push the existing amps distortion a little more, it can add a little more gain, tightens up the sound, compresses a little.

As for the PodXT, it wouldn't compliment it at all, because the Pod already has a Tubescreamer model built in.

Pyr0 wrote: »

Thats all I think of atm, It'll be a big help when i'm going to be buying new stuff (which is pretty soon ). And it saves me saying to myself "Damn I should have bought something like that instead".

So be nice !

I'm always nice. And there's no harm in asking questions at all.

Hope I've helped.

Pyr0 wrote: »

Edit: It'd be a cool idea to have some questions and answers stickied to help other people afraid to ask the questions !

Never be afraid to ask questions!

Yakult

^He basicly said it all. Some people prefere stacks (head and a cab) due to the wide tonal range, anything from speaker combination/size etc. to the build/wood that the cab is made up of. Thats the only imput I can add.

Voodu Child

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Essentially, the combo is the head and the speaker in the same box. With a seperate head, you can match it to any speaker cabinet you want. And it looks cooler to boot.

As an add-on to that, most combo amps are open back. Whereas most of the 4x12 cabs you'd be familiar with are closed back. (there's plenty of exceptions to both).

Open and closed-back solutions sound very different, they'll have a big effect on the final tone.

Pyr0

Does the type of cab you have really affect the sound that much from a head ? I know the size and amount of cabs would eg: 2x12 or 4x12. Does the brand of the cab also affect the tone/sound you could get ? Engl, Marshall, Mesa boogie as examples ? Edit : Just saw voodoo's reply, but feel free to give your own view also

And yeah Karl, thats what I meant by the big box we all know

I shall have a browse for the tubescreamer on the pedal so !

Another question I just remembered ! Amps that have valves and solid state amps ? I've heard people saying that they prefer one over the other but never really stated what the differences would be, I used wiki to have a look but it doesn't really come from a guitar players point of view. Care to shed any light anyone ?

Answers have been great help !

-=al=-

well they would use different speakers, components, woods and all that jazz, so yeah it would effect it in cabs n stuff

tube amps are the ones ya want, there where the moneys at

Karl Hungus

Pyr0 wrote: »

Does the type of cab you have really affect the sound that much from a head ? I know the size and amount of cabs would eg: 2x12 or 4x12. Does the brand of the cab also affect the tone/sound you could get ? Engl, Marshall, Mesa boogie as examples ? Edit : Just saw voodoo's reply, but feel free to give your own view also

Cabs can make a ridiculous amount of difference, depending on construction, thickness of the wood, whether the cab is ported, even something as simple as frontloaded or rearloaded speakers can have an affect on the tone. That's not even taking into account what speakers are used in the cab.

Pyr0 wrote: »

Another question I just remembered ! Amps that have valves and solid state amps ? I've heard people saying that they prefer one over the other but never really stated what the differences would be, I used wiki to have a look but it doesn't really come from a guitar players point of view. Care to shed any light anyone ?

Answers have been great help !

Hmm, bit of a can of worms question. It's extremely hard to quantify how valves (or tubes as they're often called, same thing) sound, so my advice to you is just to try out various amps, and get a feel for the whole valve/tube sound yourself.

darrenw5094

Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (Tubescreamer) over from USA for €100 all in on ebay.

Voodu Child

Pyr0 wrote: »

Another question I just remembered ! Amps that have valves and solid state amps ? I've heard people saying that they prefer one over the other but never really stated what the differences would be, I used wiki to have a look but it doesn't really come from a guitar players point of view. Care to shed any light anyone ?

Hybrid amps were an attempt to combine a valve preamp with a SS poweramp. Examples are the Marshall Valvestate (and AVT). It was never going to work, the power section in a tube amp plays a very big part in the tone, and more importantly, the feel. Actually the hybrids didn't even have full valve preamps, they were hybrids themselves...so the whole thing was a pretty pointless excercise.

Modelling amps (Line6 etc) came out, and soon pretty much blew the likes of the AVT out of the water in terms of affordable non-valve amps. Theres no real point in buying an AVT when you can get a much better sounding modelling amp for the same kind of money.

Some of the Vox modellers are marketed as having 'real valve' sections, but I wouldn't pay too much heed to that, they modellers through and through, and if they sound good, I wouldn't get bogged down in the whole 'they have a preamp valve in them' thing. I think they owe a lot more of their (very good) tone to just being a good modeller, rather than any little valve circuit inside them

Pyr0

Thanks for the replies fellas, it got me thinking of my next buy actually. I was considering going for an Engl Powerball/fireball/blackmore (either one, not all three :pac:) and a cab as my next purchase, but I was thinking it'd probably be cheaper to just get beefy speakers for my PodXT. It'd be my first serious buy for my Pod and of course getting a head and cab, so it'd be great to know what I'm getting into in terms of cost and quaility. Sadly there's nowhere that has Engls in stock in Dublin that I know of anyway so i can't try them out. I wouldn't be an amazing guitar player so whatever I get wouldn't be put to great use just yet It'd be a long term keeper for sure. Any advice on this would be welcome !

Mods: Feel free to move it to another thread, just didn't wanna thread spam the forum or anything !

darrenw5094

What kind of beefy speakers?.....you will still need a power amp to power the beefy speakers....as the POD XT is only a pre amp. It won't drive a speaker by itself.

Dord

Pyr0 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies fellas, it got me thinking of my next buy actually. I was considering going for an Engl Powerball/fireball/blackmore (either one, not all three :pac:) and a cab as my next purchase, but I was thinking it'd probably be cheaper to just get beefy speakers for my PodXT. It'd be my first serious buy for my Pod and of course getting a head and cab, so it'd be great to know what I'm getting into in terms of cost and quaility. Sadly there's nowhere that has Engls in stock in Dublin that I know of anyway so i can't try them out. I wouldn't be an amazing guitar player so whatever I get wouldn't be put to great use just yet It'd be a long term keeper for sure. Any advice on this would be welcome !

Mods: Feel free to move it to another thread, just didn't wanna thread spam the forum or anything !

A PodXT and speakers ain't gonna do fuck all! You'd need a poweramp if you want to go that way.

Personally I'd suggest getting a nice head and then choosing a cab to go along with it. Instrumental on the quays sell Engl, although probably overpriced but you could try one out and buy it online.

kawaii

would a pod xt and a keyboard amp be any use?

edit: Dord your sig scares me.

-=al=-

the pod will be grand through anything really

DeadSkin

Howdo Pyr0, I run my podxt thru a Crate Powerblock, picked it up secondhand on the aul' buy and sell and I built a 1X12 cab to run it thru'.
The podxt has all the effects you may need and the Powerblock doesn't colour the sound.

darrenw5094

kawaii wrote: »

would a pod xt and a keyboard amp be any use?

edit: Dord your sig scares me.

The keyboard amp is a good idea, i have heard because, it doesn't have a tone like a guitar amp would. So your POD amp tones would be quite close to the real thing.

As for Al's statement, the POD cannot power a speaker cab by itself..............you silly moo.

-=al=-

it can try, well u can put it into most things

Pyr0

Haha ! Good thing I posted and didn't just go out and buy speakers for it ! I had a feeling it wasn't as simple as that. I'll drop into instrumental and see what they've got/let me try out !

How do you find the Pod through the powerblock Deadskin ? Do you find yourself feeling like you could get more from a head and cab ? Or is it giving you what you want already ? I wouldn't wanna get a Powerblock like yourself for example and then feel its not giving me what I want !

At least I know a poweramp is needed too

Yakult

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (Tubescreamer) over from USA for €100 all in on ebay.

Sold

brendansmith

Right lads, question:

compressor/sustainer, what does it do? The name would suggest that it provides sustain and allows you to hold a note for longer etc.

Would i be right in thinking that it makes every note on the guitar the same 'loudness' or is that just a notion i have dreamed up.


On a different note, looking at this for a not so distant future purchase ( https://www.billyhydemusic.com.au/shop/index.cfm?action=view&id=2584 )


That is not very expensive at all, less than 400euro, i want a good guitar any suggestion as to whether i should chect this out or a similar guitar (must have floyd rose).
Gonna get rid of my flying V jackson, its a pain in the hole to play, awkward as f**k!:pac:

Karl Hungus

brendansmith wrote: »

Right lads, question:

compressor/sustainer, what does it do? The name would suggest that it provides sustain and allows you to hold a note for longer etc.

Would i be right in thinking that it makes every note on the guitar the same 'loudness' or is that just a notion i have dreamed up.

No, you're pretty much on the ball with that notion. Here is a good read if you want to know how a compressor works, and what it does to your signal.

brendansmith wrote: »

On a different note, looking at this for a not so distant future purchase ( https://www.billyhydemusic.com.au/shop/index.cfm?action=view&id=2584 )


That is not very expensive at all, less than 400euro, i want a good guitar any suggestion as to whether i should chect this out or a similar guitar (must have floyd rose).
Gonna get rid of my flying V jackson, its a pain in the hole to play, awkward as f**k!:pac:

Yeah, Schecter ain't too bad at all, very good for the price, that's for sure. There's quite a few people here who'll tell you more about them, I've only played one once.

brendansmith

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Yeah, Schecter ain't too bad at all, very good for the price, that's for sure. There's quite a few people here who'll tell you more about them, I've only played one once.

Yep im defo gonna get that schecter, searched boards for feedback and now im very excited!

DeadSkin

Pyr0 wrote: »

How do you find the Pod through the powerblock Deadskin ? Do you find yourself feeling like you could get more from a head and cab ? Or is it giving you what you want already ? I wouldn't wanna get a Powerblock like yourself for example and then feel its not giving me what I want !

Not really gettin' the opportunity anymore to play the podxt thru the powerblock & cab much these days, due to a new arrival in the family .

But to answer your question, I found it's just exactly what I wanted. The pod has all the effects I need, being honest it has way way more than I'll ever need :pac:.
I just wanted somethin' to play the POD thru'. Think it was Karl at the time pointed me in the direction of the powerblock, and voodoo_child pointed me in the direction of building a 1X12 cab .

Google powerblock & podxt and you'll get a few hits on what other folk think of it. Think you might get more lucky on the line6 forums.

brendansmith

Lads,

I know a thru-neck guitar give more sustain. Anything other benefits? Truss rod can only be gotten to at headstock i guess yeah?

Also what are the emgs like on the schector guitars? High gain? 'Carcass'y sounding?

Yis are gents!

68 lost souls

Correct me if Im wrong here but pretty sure Blackouts ar enot EMGs but rather Seymour Duncans?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/cutting-edge/

brendansmith

http://www.schecterguitars.com/hr.asp?id=267


You are right i reckon.

I thought that all pick up of this style were refered to as blackouts

Yakult

^nah, Seymour Duncans active pups.

They look like emg's tho. Still really wanna play those blackouts.

brendansmith

brendansmith wrote: »

Lads,

I know a thru-neck guitar give more sustain. Anything other benefits? Truss rod can only be gotten to at headstock i guess yeah?

Also what are the emgs like on the schector guitars? High gain? 'Carcass'y sounding?

Yis are gents!

Grand. Now what about my question.