Is the bass unit a neccessity when using Pod XT and Variax? I trying to minimize my cost

Hi dfuller,

Interesting question. It depends on the kind of music you are doing, if you are playing solo or with others, and the kinds of places and events where you play.

Please, tell us a little more about what you are playing and with whom and where.

I'm going to jump in and offer this thought: the sub is not necessary for guitar work, but many prefer it. I generally don't use one in most situations, but I don't like a heavy bass anyway, and I find that the sub can make things a bit muddy on the low end. In duo situations, where I may be supplying a walking bass line for a hornplayer or singer, a sub can be very nice, but in solo or larger groups, I'm happy without.

ST is exactly right, we need more info re: musical styles and the sound you're after.

I play a Variax through a PodXT Live and personally prefer the sound with at least 1 B1. It makes the acoustic guitar tones come alive, and adds just that extra punch and warmth on low end crunch stuff.

We play primarily R&B, Motown & Jazz, just got my PS1 with the B1 yesterday. Any suggestion on the best way to connect the Pod XT. I'm using Ch2 preset 00 right now, sound good with my Variax and Godin LXST and I'm running my G33 synth sound thru Ch3. Just wondering what the consensus might be.

Hello dfuller,

Thank you for your purchase.

And welcome to this community.

Forgive me if my answer is not what you're asking. Here's the basic configuration for a POD connecting to an L1 Cylindrical Radiator speaker.

Feel free to fire back.

Ken Jacob
Chief Engineer

Do you use the POD in the effect's loop of the GR-33 or do you run seperate lines from the guitar and synth ? I've been using a Digitech RP-80 multi in the effect loop of my GR-20 for some fun sounds esp when I play my Switch with built in GK-3 .

I sometimes do two "tails" with my variax acoustic ( I put a GK on that too) so I can avoid using batteries -
But at a gig I blend thru the 13pin.

Now I've got an XT-live ( havn't used it out yet) so I'll be trying different things soon too.

Hi dfuller,
Have you set the PODxt "Destination" to "Bose PS1"? The PODxt and PODxt Live have an output setting EQ'd to sound natural through the Bose Cylindrical Radiator. I find this setting helps greatly to take some of the buzzy high frequencies away and make it sound more like a guitar cab.

I just purchased a second PS-1 bass unit. I use the PS-1 for guitar and keyboards. The unit sounds great with clean guitar (thinking of replacing my surf setup), but is very muddy, too much bass with distortion settings. I run through a Boss GT-8 with the Bose EQ at '00'.
Would another EQ setting clean up the bass
or any other recommendations?
Thanks.

Which version of Presets are installed on your PS1?

Version 2 has Presets #83 and #84 which work well - they are bandpass filters that allow only 50Hz-5kHz and 80Hz-5kHz through. This tightens it up and sounds more like a guitar cab.

Mark,
I have the version 1 presets still. I will upgrade to version 2 and try the settings you recommended.
Thanks, Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by ronjazz:
I generally don't use one in most situations, but I don't like a heavy bass anyway, and I find that the sub can make things a bit muddy on the low end.

Hi Ron,

Were you using a B1 (or two) at Big Sur? Your guitar had plenty of bottom, I'm guessing you didn't go to the trouble to unhook any B1s that were already in place.

Just curious.

Hi there, i didn't understand what you mean by "1 B1"!?
Can you please explain it, cause i also have an electric Variax 700, and a PODxt Live.
I'd like to ask you smth, cause when i plug my podxt live and variax 700 to a large PA, my sounds seem to be a little funny,and the volumes between the presets change,ones get higher others lower,and my sound changes completly.But, when i plug my podxt live and variax 700 to my marshal cab or thru a small mixer at home,my sounds are good,and sound ok!?
Don't know why this happens!?Is there some configuration,i must do on podxt live!?
Thanks & Regards

quote:

Originally posted by Chad in Houston:
ST is exactly right, we need more info re: musical styles and the sound you're after.

I play a Variax through a PodXT Live and personally prefer the sound with at least 1 B1. It makes the acoustic guitar tones come alive, and adds just that extra punch and warmth on low end crunch stuff.

Hi osnb,

The B1 is the low frequency component (speaker) of the L1 system. As in our other similar thead, I suggest that the best way for you to familiarize yourself with all of these L1, B1, PS1 references would be to have a look around on our main website. Be sure to let us know if you're still unclear about any of it...

FWIW, I also use an XT Live with a Variax electric for a lot of my gigs. There are so many variables involved that it's difficult to give you short, simple answers to your questions. For starters though, I also found a broad range of volumes in the different factory presets. This wasn't much of a problem for me , because I ended up creating all of my patches from scratch, in order to get the thing sounding the way I want when I'm playing through it...

'Hope this helps...

Chuck

you know, now that we're on this topic - I have always preferred the XT's DIRECT setting to the Bose setting - just find it much richer sounding to my ears. And I prefer a single B1 per L1 (I run stereo into two L1s so it's 2 L1s and 2B1s) 2 B1s with a single tower gets kinda dull to me - go figure!

Hi bdotson,

That just shows to go ya that there's no one right way to do this stuff. To each, their own, as it should be. I prefer using 2 B1s with my single L1, especially for acoustic guitar and drop-D or drop-C tunings on my electric. I really miss the low end headroom when I use just one, especially at gigs where the volume gets to crankin'...

After trying pretty much every modeler out there, including the Pod XT before the PS1 output mode was available, I had all but given up the modeling approach for live performance. They were close-but-no-cigar, to my ears anyway. That all changed with their release of the PS1 output mode. With a bit of tweaking to my close-but-no-cigar patches, I was finally able to get that thing sounding and playing amazingly close to the actual amps that I had been trying to emulate (my Boogie MkIII and my Champ). It was like a whole new world of tonal possibilities opened up for me and I've been feeling like a kid in a candy store ever since!

Off to play some music, before the little guy wakes up from his nap. Later, y'all...