In another recent thread i gave myself GAS for one of those little POD's / V-amps or whatever.

Which of the "guitar in, headphones out" boxes are nicest? The POD or the V-amp, or any other alternative?
I don't really need a ton of different tones or any of that crap to choose from, i need one great solid tone that kicks ass and a box that sort of makes you feel like you're not playing a little plastic box.
My real amp is a 5150 which i have fallen in love with, so it would be nice if it had a decent 5150 model (similar tone and (this is most important) similar feel while playing, similar EQ response etc). I guess every amp simulator ever made has a 5150 simulation though.

Stuff like preset switching latency, number of presets, effects etc. doesn't matter.

Money's no object but try to keep it reasonable. I'm a "bang for the buck" kind of guy. I would like to use this for some recording stuff too, that's why I'm bothered about the tone..

Reliability isn't that much of a concern as I'm handy with electronic devices and baby all my gear.

Thanks

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V-amp will get the job done, but I wasn't satisfied with the tone. I thought they sounded shitty. I have the PODXT, sounds great on it's own, but I purchased the additional metal pack and it's got even more really nice metal amp models. I think it's better "for the buck", as you can use it with headphones, record direct w/ computer with it, use it as a preamp w/ a poweramp, or just use the unit for effects. Also, it's got 48 banks to save into, so you can buy the foot controller and get even more control with it.

PODXT it is then.

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Oh, and with the extra floor controller, if you get the PODXT live, then you're set. Yeah but anyways, the sound quality and the incredible amount of options and flexibility of the thing makes it great for the buck IMO.

What about the other ones, like the Zoom G2 series, Vox tonelab, Boss GT-6/GT-7/GT-8? All crap?

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I don't know about the zoom's and the vox's, but the GT-8 is a pretty nice unit, similar to the PODXT live.

if you don't need fx, maybe a sansamp. better distortion modeling imo.

Oh. I'm looking at a Sansamp GT-2, it seems perfect for practice / recording, it's cheap, and SIMPLE.. no 5150 sound, but wth. I became sick of my rack setup, i like as few knobs and switches as possible. Really straightforward. Good idea?

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Yeah.

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Well i didn't like it, the high gain pretty untight and boomy sounding! Luckily the guy who was selling only lived 15 minutes away by car so no biggie.

Anyway. I don't want the PSA, so that leaves tech21 out. (i want a small box).

I'm thinking either POD 2.0, PODXT or the Behringer V-amp 2.0. Or maybe some of that Zoom stuff but they have a reputations for being shitty. Also Korg and Boss.

Price jump up to PODXT from the POD is probably not worth it for my use, as i sad I'll just dial in something passable and pracice my chops. Maybe record a riff or two but nothing that would be used on a published record / mp3 or whatever I also have a $$$$ soundcard and mixer and stuff, so the USB recording thingie on the XT would never be used.. and i don't like effects apart from a little reverb / delay + chorus for some solo stuff.

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What were you playing the GT2 into? It sounds amazing man, but if you're running it into an amp you need to do more adjustments, it's not a normal dist. pedal.

I had a Zoom G2.1 STAY AWAY from it, it's just a generic multiFX pedal, not decent either.

POD 2.0 sounded horrible to me, the V-amp 2 sounds like a good solution and I like what I've heard, but if you have the money and the need of a little better quality for recording purposes the XT is your best bet, but since you don't I wouldn't suggest it.

If I were you, I'd just download Guitar Rig 2 if you have a recording/guitar interface on your PC and use that, I'm using that for whenever I don't feel like firing up my amp for practice/learning songs and it sound amazing, so yeah.

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I played the GT-2 Guitar->GT-2->Headphones. Sounded just like a recto, I'll give it that, but i don't like rectos in real life (but they're amazing on record) so go figure.

Guitar Rig 2 sounds pretty clever.. and for free you can't beat the price.. But it's not really portable.. I'll give it a spin though, thanks for the tip!

I do have money for a Pod XT but i feel that overall it's just not worth it.. And i also heard the zoom units were dog shit

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did you switch the mic'ing to 'classic' on the GT2? i find that to be the key to good tone. it loses some gain but the tones are so much warmer. i don't use mine through headphones tho. it's hard to get nice distortion direct through phones.

the pod and vamp are better for phones due to the cab modeling ... but they have the same kind of tones as the sans just not as good imo. so you might not be satisfied.

i use guitarrig2 for cab modelling and fx on my pc. i have a few different things for distrotion pre cuz i wasn't satisfied with the distortions on it. amplitube2 has a more 'true' tone, but it sounds like a recto too lol and it's not very flexible.

Well guitar rig 2 ain't really free, I just got it pirated because I'm a cheap bastard.

kleenx, amplitube 2 got boring for me after a while too, but I've just been playing with GR2 a lot now and I like the sounds I'm getting out of it, sounds way more "live" and present like a real amp, while amplitube just sounded heavily processed and distant. Stupid way to describe it but I can't think of any other way, I really like GR2! Especially the one that has a Recto model running on clean or slightly dirty, boosted with a Pro Co RAT, forgot the name of that preset.

I don't need cab modeling for it if I'm running my amp into it though, my Palmer DI box has really good cab simulation, it goes in between my amp and cab and gets amazing sounds, I just can't believe it sometimes. Also works in the FX loop, but it doesn't pick up the massive lowend and vivid high end you get when you use it after the power amp(it accepts speaker loads of course, but you still need to hook it up to a cab, and put the volume up to at least an audible level to get a good signal, because it's a passive box)

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cool ... my fave combo is the plexi + rat.

If you didn't like the POD 2.0, I'd guess that you wouldn't like the V-amp 2 even more. I didn't get to test out all the amp models extensively, but the high-gain models sounded like ass.

Well I'm giving the computer-based solutions a try first

Piracy is legal and encouraged here, so no big deal.

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Encouraged? Haha, Norway rules.

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Okay i gave GR2 a spin.

First off. Recto model - unuseable. Super muddy and untight on modern, too bright and buzzsaw on the orange light thingie. The low D string palm mutes were like "fuzz fuzz fuzz" and it was like using the neck P/U all the time. The orange cab helped the most, it almost had some harmonics and the low end was nearly workable. Sustain was a joke.

JCM800 - stock i dunno, not enough gain. W/boost in, pretty decent, still "fuzzy" (i like "clicky" better) on the chuggs but not as bad as the recto, i would guess i could dial that out. A lot clearer, and i could pull off some half-assed pinches. I could practice with this at night. But, not record.

Common for both was the fact that changing from bridge to neck pickup did nearly nothing at the distorted models, and not much on clean. It's probably designed that way, more output into the sound card doesn't mean more distortion on digital stuff really.

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If you thought a software was gonna give you nice 5150 results, you're mistaken...

going to give same advice that i did for the sansamp ... change the mic setup ... the condensers will give you the warmth you seek. tweak the 'grindcrime' preset, throw in a noisegate and eq and youre good to go. could even use the tube compressor to make it warmer.

agree with you that the tone will have little to do with your hardware/guitar, but in some ways in makes it more versatile ... same thing with most modelers, no?

Yeah i can tweak around with the JCM800+boost model, it will do fine for late night practice

I preferred (from my 10 minutes of playing) the orange cab (UK 70's i think) slightly reduced in size. But, i was thinking, when you mic a speaker, you mic only one. So maybe the 1x12's are more realistic and sound more like a recording? Just a thought

And i was running master fairly high, which means i need a lot of mids, and i kept mine on 5 or so.. should've been more.

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hmm interesting. i just tried every possible combo, and settled on
4x12 UK 60s tall - on axis - condenser 87 (panned one way) [<-edit]
2x12 chief v30 - on axis - tube condenser (panned other)
and i run the sans and mxr eq before the soundcard.

do you have a midi pedal to use w it? i've been thinking about picking up something cheap like an art x but idk if it would be compatible.

I like the UK V70 too. I don't have a midi board, no.. I'll experiment with mics.

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