A question about that lovely singing tone Bill gets. In several pix, I see a Line 6 Pod in his studio, but I cannot believe he gets that clean/dirty all at once with that alone. Any insights here?
Here's a tip...for fabulous clean sounds... I like to use what the Line 6 manual calls 'California Crunch #1Just Hold Tap +Brit Blues. "This model is based on the Clean setting of the classic Mesa Boogie Mark IIc, with enhancements of the + version of the Mark IIc circuitry design" (their words, not mine). It's nice if you add a touch of Presence and compression...2 x 12 cab suits this quite well I find.A good setting for a reasonably convincing Andy Partridge/ XTC sound (Black Sea era).
Hi Bill and other Line 6 Pod II users...(of which I am one). Actually you can go into each of the individual saved Pod 'tones' and scan through each parameter (amp, cab, EQ, Reverb, effects etc)...and then make a note of them. In the back of the book there is a template (in red) that you can scan and print out. If you have the Line 6 Pod II manual...they call it Pilot's Handbook it's section 6.6here's a direct quote from the book to help you, if you've lost or misplaced the manual..."so what if you're not sure which Amp Model or effect you are using right now...Just press(and keep holding) the Save button and turn the Amp Models, Tone controls or Effects knob. Once you have them in the right position, both the arrows for the tuning indicator will light up. The Tap light will also light solid if your Amp Model is part of the second "layer" of models (17-32)"Hope that helps you... there's no excuse to loose those classic settings now Bill. ;)
The Line 6 Pod II provides about 95% of the guitar sounds I use on my albums, both clean and dirty. The other 5% comes from my Fractal Axe FX which I mostly use for ambient, crystallised reverb sounds. But that Pod really is the foundation of most of my tones. Of course, they're not factory presets...the sounds were created by myself and then stored as personal presets.
Thank you Bill. I am use that unit myself (the Pod) and I am amazed at your prowess. Would you ever publish/sell your settings? Line 6 should pay you royalties on the amount of Pod's the would sell.
@skywhale1 Well, I guess you might call my Pod settings a kind of 'state secret'. 😄 Truth is, I created them by trial and error, just turning the controls until I got a tone that felt right for me. There's no hard science or formula to it. None of the settings were written down and I guess I'd have a hard time in trying to reproduce whatever I did if I needed to recreate them now. They were stored several years ago and it would be virtually impossible to figure out what the exact settings were that I landed on back then. Plus, of course, I might not even feel that those tones were relevant to the here and now if I did have to start from scratch again.
Truth is, there is no such thing as a bad or 'wrong' tone...only an appropriate or inappropriate one, depending on the context of each individual song. Sometimes, what you might think of as a 'bad' tone might sound spot on in the right context...
@Bill Nelson Well said. I try to use only 2-3 'base' tones on my recordings. If I am being contracted to a fly-gig, the engineer will of course have THEIR idea of tones. I own the Pod II - and after many, many hours of trying to get 'that' sound (the one in my head), I managed to come up a rythmn tone that sounds like a wet badger with a single coil guitar, and a lead tone that sounds exactly like a wet badger with a single coil guitar being electrocuted. The curse of easy distrotion....
No probs... I'll be happy to share any of my fave Pod II settings
Here's a tip...for fabulous clean sounds... I like to use what the Line 6 manual calls 'California Crunch #1 Just Hold Tap +Brit Blues. "This model is based on the Clean setting of the classic Mesa Boogie Mark IIc, with enhancements of the + version of the Mark IIc circuitry design" (their words, not mine). It's nice if you add a touch of Presence and compression...2 x 12 cab suits this quite well I find. A good setting for a reasonably convincing Andy Partridge/ XTC sound (Black Sea era).
Hi Bill and other Line 6 Pod II users...(of which I am one). Actually you can go into each of the individual saved Pod 'tones' and scan through each parameter (amp, cab, EQ, Reverb, effects etc)...and then make a note of them. In the back of the book there is a template (in red) that you can scan and print out. If you have the Line 6 Pod II manual...they call it Pilot's Handbook it's section 6.6 here's a direct quote from the book to help you, if you've lost or misplaced the manual... "so what if you're not sure which Amp Model or effect you are using right now... Just press(and keep holding) the Save button and turn the Amp Models, Tone controls or Effects knob. Once you have them in the right position, both the arrows for the tuning indicator will light up. The Tap light will also light solid if your Amp Model is part of the second "layer" of models (17-32)" Hope that helps you... there's no excuse to loose those classic settings now Bill. ;)
Pretty sure the settings on a Pod can be downloaded to a pc for backup purposes, using the 'Soundiver' software that comes with it.
The Line 6 Pod II provides about 95% of the guitar sounds I use on my albums, both clean and dirty. The other 5% comes from my Fractal Axe FX which I mostly use for ambient, crystallised reverb sounds. But that Pod really is the foundation of most of my tones. Of course, they're not factory presets...the sounds were created by myself and then stored as personal presets.