My friend told me today, "don't even think about selling your AxeFx. OK. He told me the same as crhfish said "I can't handle bending constantly to tweak"...He also said, he's had it a week now, and felt every time he had his sound nailed, he had to go back and tweak again. Told me he didn't have to doo this with a Axe Fx.

What befuddles me though, is he sold his 11R too. I would think without even trying this POD HD500, that it would be a cool device to add to a 11R. Can't it be integrated together and use it as a footcontroller. This way you can utilize the cool sims from both...What turned me off immediately with the POD HD500, was no SLO. But like i said if you utilized both, you'd have nearly as many models as a Axe FX.

BTW crhfish, the PARK amp is a Plexi type amp. I know, i played one in a studio years ago. Very Plexi like, but not a Marshall (though i believe Park was a Marshall Knockoff that didn't last very long.

After spending more time with the HD500 trying to get the JCM800 model to sound as good as the 11R, I discovered the following:

1) It has the potential to sound really good. I struggled with the JCM800 model until I combined it with the Bassman 4x12 cab, a U67 mic and added two EQ blocks to adjust some frequencies and add a clean boost. It sounded way too muffled with the 4x12 with greenbacks unfortunately.

2) By running my guitar cable into the HD500 and running a SPDIF cable out to my 11R, I can combine effects, amps, cabs from either unit. On the 11R, all I had to do to get the HD500 tones was switch RIG INPUT to SPDIF. When I wanted to hear 11R amps, I muted all HD500 amps and effects and utilized those in the 11R. Pretty flexible for at home, studio use.

Just some observations so far.

Ok, tried it a bit more. This time hooked into the FX loop again. I tried going in front and behind the 11R. Thats a waste of time. I got some good Zep tones out of the Supro. It has some nice delays and some weird compressors. Not so many wires this time. Have to set up one preset on the 11R clean with only the FX loop up full to get the HD by itself.

The Park I think is a fore runner to the Marshall I think made by Marshall but not sold in the US. The thing has some nice amp models but they don't really mesh with the bizzare effects. Tune in the Gibson 135 and ad a little triple octave late dive synth, (lol).

I have not messed with the Midi but I'm not sure you will get the sounds to mesh that way. I think it just works like a controller. Still got to check that out. I may keep it, jury still out. Don't rush out to buy one just yet.

Maybe one of the pros on here can make it work better than I can. At least I did not electrocute myself..............this time.

At least I did not electrocute myself..............this time.

That's usually my line....lol

Would you like to know what the Park 75 is all about?

According to The History of Marshall, when Jim Marshall began building amps, the distribution was very limited. A guy by the name of Johnny Jones made a deal with Jim to be an exclusive distributor of Marshalls in North England. When Jim began to expand, Johnny Jones lost his exclusivity. Jim decided to build amps for Johnny under a different name. That name was "Park." Park was the maiden name of Johnny's wife.

The Park 75 was a Marshall 50 with KT88 tubes instead of EL34 tubes. The first Park amps were basically JTM45s.

I realized today that this thing has one rather large limitation. I have the HD400 and on it you have 3 effects. The first is compression/Distortion related, the second in chorus related and the third is delay based. If you want to add compression and distortion, can't do it. You get to add one of each, thats it. I think the 500HD is better on this.

I think PODXT3 owners who buy this thing will be disappointed. I'm back to taking it back again. I do like some of sounds from a few of the amps. I tried to get close to a VH tone and can't seem to get close. The controls for the effects are not that easy for me. When it says graphic EQ I expect a graphical display to pop up so I can see the curve, not here.

There is no way this thing competes with an AXE-FX or the 11R, no way. Not in a total way. You may be able to dial in a tone or two that sounds similar, but in total its just not there for me.

Ok I got my Pod HD 500 today and have been playing with it for a couple of hours. At first I thought the models were kind of boxy, mid-rangy without a lot of presence and touch but then as I got into it I really started liking some of them and appreciating the better fidelity and touch. The edit software was also a bit confusing at first but after a while it's super easy to use and absolutely fantastic for assigning virtually any footswitch to anything. Love the Dr. Z amp model. Too soon to tell how well I really like the others. I will be doing a comparison recording with the Eleven Rack soon. Looks to me so far like the Pod HD 500 is worthy.

Hey guys I'm new to the forum here (been lurking for a little while...) but I figured I'd post my recent experiences with the POD HD400 and the Eleven Rack. I don't own either unit... yet.

This is a LONG post... and my first, but I felt I needed to voice my opinion.

I was able to spend about an hour with the POD HD 400 a couple nights ago and about an hour with the Eleven Rack tonight. Both were done with just guitar>cable>POD/11R>Shure SCL4 earphones which is what I am used to monitoring with through an aviom system. I am VERY familiar with the sound of my guitars/amps through these earphones. With the POD, I played a fairly nice Gibson Les Paul off the wall behind the counter at Sam Ash and I played my 03 PRS McCarty through the 11R tonight.

Just to give you some background about me, I've been playing guitar for over 16 years and have been recording/producing music for over 10 years. So you know what I'm used to playing through these days, my current rig is as follows: PRS McCarty or Strat w/Dimarzio areas>EB VPjr>Modded Vox wah>Fulltone Deja Vibe>JHF1 Fuzz>VHT Valvulator>EHX POG 2>Keeley Comp>Boss Graphic EQ>Fulltone OCD>Boss Slicer>Mesa Stiletto Ace head>Boss DD20 in the loop>Splawn OS 2x12 w/WGS green berets. I also own and use a Genz Benz Black Pearl 1x12. I've recorded and played live with both of these amps extensively as well as recorded direct with Tone port/POD Farm quite a bit.

Now on to the goods...

Here's what I can say of my experience with the POD HD 400 before I played the 11R:

POD HD 400:

Sound: Pros: I've played though the XT Live and used to own a POD 2 and still have my Tone Port w/POD farm. The HD sounds better than their previous PODs for sure. There's more depth to the amp sounds, more realistic I suppose. I like that there's fewer models to choose from.

Cons: I noticed that the lo-end on some of the models gets flubby in an unrealistic way the same as with the old PODs. I can't say that this can't be gotten rid of with tweaking but real amps and speakers just don't sound like this so you don't have to "tweak" it out. The midrange on some of the models sounded synthetic to me... plastic-y. In an hour I couldn't get a tone out of it that would make me comfortable leaving my amp at home--except for the Hiwatt model which I thought sounded good. Also, it did not respond to volume knob changes like I was hoping it would.

Feel: I've never monitored direct guitar live with my Shure earphones, just my amps so I wasn't sure what to expect although I know how they sound with the real deal. I had a hard time adjusting to the feel of the POD vs my real amp/pedals and this was likely affecting my perception of the way it sounded because feel is so crucial to the tone. The sounds were pretty good but it seemed to me to lack an authentic sense of interaction which would be difficult to overcome especially if I were to play it live without an amp.

Effects: I didn't get to check them all out just a few select models. I tried the facial fuzz which is, of course, a fuzz face model. I have a Fuzz Face which sounds amazing and behaves radically different depending on where the guitars volume control is set and I make use of this interaction a lot. The fuzz face model does not respond well to volume knob changes and doesn't behave like the real thing. Maybe I'm expecting too much here as the guitar/fuzz face interaction is really a special and unique thing but I have high standards I suppose. Also, it seems to me that when you engage, say, a tube screamer model in front of a distorted amp model that the tone of the amp takes a back seat to the sound of the pedal which isn't how my real amps react to my real keeley ts-7. For instance, the volume setting on the tube screamer model actually adds mostly volume instead of adding saturation when run into a crunchy amp model. Frustrating. The modulation and delay effects that I tried were good.

cont. from above:


Eleven Rack:

After an unfortunate interaction/exchange over the phone with a salesman in the pro audio dept. at Guitar Center Fountain Valley, CA (Moe I think his name was), Terry (the manager) and another much more professional salesman in pro audio got me setup in the pro audio depts studio/mix room where the 11R lives. Surprisingly to me anyway, these things seem to be scarce in SoCal--this is the first one I've seen in person and I think the fact that these are placed in pro audio instead of guitars is a determinant in this.

Sound: Well, after thinking I may be able to make due with the POD HD 400 or 500 for my intended uses and mainly for convenience sake, virtually as soon as I plugged into the 11R I had something that was in short supply with the POD HD--Tone.

I am not comparing this to an Axe Fx--I've never played one. The Eleven Rack feels and sounds real. A couple times I took out one of my earphones to make sure I wasn't coming out of their studio monitors they had in the room. I had that "feel" even with just my earphones. The response of the amps were dead on. Volume and tone changes on the guitar were accurate through the 11R. Keep in mind I had an hour with it though--I'm sure it has some flaws but they weren't glaring or even really noticeable in my time with it tonight.

Most all of my experience with modeling gear has been with line 6 products. I have played with older versions of a couple other plugins (guitar rig, amplitube) but I know line 6 products (and their limitations) pretty well.

These limitations were not present with the 11R. It took seconds to dial in good sounds on each amp and the tones stood on their own no effects needed.

Something that really stood out to me was the different cabs and mics--none of them sounded bad, just different and this is accurate in my experience micing up guitar cabs: some combinations sound better than others but none of them sound BAD and you can usually find at least a decent tone with almost any mic, it just needs to be placed right. This is something I was fighting with on the HD--not all of the cabs and mics sounded good on each amp. Post EQ can fix some of this but you shouldn't be relying on a post EQ to fix what shouldn't need to be fixed in the first place.

The effects that I spent time with sounded great. The univibe sounded very nice. I have a Deja Vibe to compare to and the univibe model in the 11R holds up. I tried the univibe model on the POD and it does not. The tube screamer and black ops od models sound great. The tube screamer in front of the deluxe or bassman model do just what you expect and want them to do. The delay and reverb models sound very nice as well but I need more time with them to give an accurate assessment.

Am I glowing over the 11R? Probably a little bit since I just played it for the first time tonight. For live use with in-ears, I was planning on still using an amp for feel but I actually may be able to get away without one.

I'm sure all or most of this is old news for Eleven Rack owners here on the forum but it's news to me.

I suppose it is ultimately unrealistic to expect a $400 or $500 product to compete with a $900 product but there's a lot of mystique and hype going around about these new PODs so I wanted to find out for myself since I will be in the market for an amp modeler/simulator hopefully very soon.

The Eleven Rack seems to me to have crossed over that boundary from tech/gadget to musical instrument and should hold its value through its lifespan as real tone never becomes obsolete...



Cheers!!

So I spent some more time with the HD500 and the 11R. Want to try something really cool??

Run your guitar into the HD. Then, run the HD500 into your 11R via SPDIF, use the HD500 amps and effects and turn off the cab modeling. On the 11R, bypass everything except the cab modeling and the reverb and set your rig input to SPDIF. Wow! Sweet combination. I can mix and match everything in each unit.

I have found that the cab modeling in the HD is the weak link. Use it with either the Redwirez IRs or the 11R cabs/mics and things really improve. The other thing I have noticed is that the HD is VERY sensitive to the guitar. I ran through my SG, Strat, VH1 partsocaster with an SD '78 in the bridge and my Gibson Historic R8 with stock Burstbucker 1 and 2. Each guitar sounded different like it should.

The looper on the HD is pretty cool too! Very easy to use.

So far, with these two units in my home studio, my GAS for the AxeFX is gone. I WILL NOT be investing in the current AxeFX hardware. Maybe when they release the next incarnation I will take another look. I know next to nothing about DSP chips and I could be completely wrong. However, I have heard that the DSP chips that they rely on are no longer being produced and there is no future development being put into those chips. Again, I could be wrong.

For the $$$ I have put into the 11R and the HD500, I am still not up to the cost of the AxeFx and I have a foot controller and two DAW interfaces and tones that work well for me. I am planning to continue to evaluate the HD before my 30-day return period is up. Right now, I like having both these units in my studio.

As an aside, I am currently doing a masters thesis that involves the brain of creative personalities. Without getting too "heady", it is interesting to note that since our brains interpret everything we see and hear, and that interpretation is colored by all of our own unique experiences and feelings, each of us interprets the world in our own unique way. This is one of the reasons each of us hears tones differently. That is also why all of these modelers work well for some of us and not so well for others. Be extremely grateful if you are one of those people who hears great tones from a modeler that does not break the bank!

Cheers!