Need guitar info. Lots and lots of guitar info...

[Faustt]

I've been playing electric guitar for about 2 years now. I upgraded from a *very* shitty guitar about a year ago, to a somewhat decent guitar. I've gotten to the point where I can sight read a lot of tabs/chords now. But I feel I've reached the point where I need to start understanding the instrument more, rather than just going through the motions and trying to imitate others.

I picked up a used Pod XT with all the expansion modules loaded up and realized I know nothing at all about amps, effects, cabs... basically 90% of the options on there. I know it's way to much to respond to in a post, so can anyone point me to a site that just breaks down all this stuff? Like what sound can you expect from mixing X amp with Y cab setup with Z effects? I've been playing around with a bunch of different settings and have got some cool sounds, but I have no idea at all WHY they sound good together. If that makes sense?

I'm guessing a lot of this stuff just comes naturally after playing for years and you just pick it up as you go. But I'm just over whelmed by all the options on this little kidney bean shaped thing. lol. Any help at all would be amazing, because I'm just confused as hell at this point.

Thanks!

[SnappleMan]

You're asking something that you have to learn on your own. There's no way to describe a sound of a cab on a POD I can't personally use and hear for myself. The most important thing you need to know is about how Amps and mic placement work, the cabs you use to shape the sound the way you want it. I don't know which models the POD has, but I'm guessing it has them sorted by the amount of gain and drive. But, you probably don't even know what gain and drive are either, so time to teach you how that all work.

An amp (or amp modeler in your case) will always have a GAIN control, gain is the volume of the incoming guitar signal. Some amps have this as a flat out GAIN knob, some have it as a VOLUME knob, and some have it as multiple volume knobs. Amps that use two volume knobs will give you a Volume I and Volume II, which is a bit more interesting because each knob will affect different characteristics of the guitar input (like, VolI is for the high frequencies, VolII is for the low). Amps may also have two inputs for your guitar cable, this works the same as the double volume knobs, Input I (or High Input) and Input II (or Low Input). Gain does not ADD distortion, it just boosts the signal coming from your guitar, this may cause the amp itself to distort the sound. You may also have a DRIVE control, this can work in a couple of ways, it can act as a second GAIN control to let you push the amp further and get more distortion out of it, or it can be a DISTORTION control in disguise. Distortion controls usually ADD distortion to the signal, instead of just boosting it to the point that the amp itself distorts it. This is a difference between Tube and Solid State amps that has nothing to do with what you're doing because you're using a POD so we're not getting into that. Just know that gain and drive don't change the signal, distortion does. Also to note, there might be words like "american", "british" and "modern", all this means is that those amps have been voiced to emulate a different style of EQ used by a couple legendary amp circuits. American typically means no mids in the EQ, or a fixed low value without a control for mid eq, British means that all three (Bass, Mid, Treble) are all even, Modern means they're emulating Mesa amps, or that particular style of very high gain.

Now you should be able to set the POD to match the cabinets for whichever amp you choose, but if it doesn't, the cabs are grouped similarly to the amps. You start with small 1x10, 1x12 cabs. What does that mean? the 1 means that there's one speaker, the 10 or 12 is the size of the speaker in inches. Then you get into Open Back and Closed Back, that means the back of the amp is either sealed or it's open and lets more sound escape out the back. A Closed Back setting would get you a closer sounding, in your face tone, open back would give you a slightly smoother, rounder sound, up to you. Typically, low gain or CLEAN amps tend to use smaller cabinets like 1x12 and 2x12. Higher gain amps go from 2x12 to 4x12. Don't think that to get the heaviest sound you NEED to go with a 4x12 cab, personally I prefer to use 2x12 cabs when recording guitars, 4x12 cabs are just louder (and you can mic more speakers for when recording, but you're using a POD so...) but amp modelers sound a little different when working between 2x12 and 4x12 cabs, for heavy tones play around and find the one you like. Again, you'll find "american" "british" and "modern" when looking at the cabs, these are EQed to match the amps.

Mic placement time! I don't know how much the POD lets you fool around with Mic placement, but it's very important in the sound you want. There are typically 3 options when it comes to mic position. They would be called On Axis (or directly on the speaker of the cab)which gives you a very bright sound, Off Axis (tilted at a 45 degree angle) which gives you a slightly dampened sound, and Far (mic placed a few feet from the speaker) which gives you a more ambient sound. I like to use two mics on a cab, mic one speaker on axis, one off axis, you can simulate this by adding two cabs and choosing a different mic position for each (if the POD allows for it). Then you have mic selection, the standard procedure is to use a dynamic mic, but (especially for the low gain clean amps) you wanna try plying around with the condenser mics, they tend to have a warmer sound as opposed to the dynamic mics which give you a more direct sound.

Hope this helps you start learning how to get your own tone, and have fun with it! The most important thing is to learn by listening.

[Lunahorum]

Thanks for that Snapple.

[Faustt]

thanks snappleman. I figured it was just something you need to learn after years of hearing different setups. but it never hurts to ask right?

I'll have to re-read that post a few times and try to get a feel for what it all means in practice. lol.

[Legion303]

Summary of Snappleman's post: play around with it a lot.

-steve

[SnappleMan]

Summary of Snappleman's post: play around with it a lot.

-steve

I'm teaching the man to fish, you fucknut.

[The Pezman]

Makes me glad I don't play guitar or bass (and never will).

Percussion, Piano, and softsynths all the way, baby!

[Lunahorum]

Makes me glad I don't play guitar or bass (and never will).

Percussion, Piano, and softsynths all the way, baby!

Don't put a stigma in your mind. You might want to try it someday.

[Tensei]

Makes me glad I don't play guitar or bass (and never will).

Guitar and/or Bass guitar are arguably among the easiest instruments to learn and probably the fastest to get to an intermediate level of playing (if you know how to practice effectively). I'm pretty sure that electric guitar is the only instrument that's more profitable to actually pick up and learn than having to clumsily sequence a track using a huge-ass expensive sample library (Yes, prominy LPC, I'm looking at you). Why not?

[Legion303]

I'm teaching the man to fish, you fucknut.

Wait, I thought he was trying to learn about guitars...

-steve

[Nekofrog]

Since a PodXT is my primary weapon, hit me up with a PM sometime and I can walk you through the use of it.