I recently got a POD Go primarily to use as an all-in-one pedalboard for my amp with the 4 cable method, and it’s been great for that purpose so far. I’ve also been playing around with different amp models, trying to come up with analogues of my amp’s tones so I can take the POD to jams with friends and leave my amp at home.
However, I’ve been having trouble getting my distorted tones to sound good to my ears. Played through the effects return of my amp yields a sound far too bass-heavy and boomy for my tastes, but then I get the opposite problem when I play with headphones, where it all sounds thin and flat and one-dimensional. My clean tone sounds just fine through both the amp and headphones, it’s only the distorted patches that don’t sound good.
For reference, my amp is a L6 Catalyst 200 and the headphones I’ve been using are AKG K240 Studios.
Has anyone here come across that issue, and if so how did you solve it? Any help would be appreciated.
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For effects like overdrive, distortion, and compression, you would generally want to run directly into the amp input, not through the FX loop. Try this layout, and tweak from there:
Guitar –> Line 6 (Compressor –> Distortion/Overdrive) –> Amp
Also, if you want to add an effect like delay or chorus, those would generally go after the distortion/OD (and/or through FX loop, if you choose). Obviously, they’re not hard and fast rules, but they should help clean up your sound a bit.
I probably should have clarified in the original post, I’m not trying to run amp models on top of my amp’s tones. Rather, I’m trying to put together presets using the Pod’s built-in amp models to use through either my amp’s effects return (effectively making it a power amp) or my headphones.
With the way 4CM works on the Pod Go, the preamp section of your real amp is routed through the Pod’s effects loop, if that makes any sense. It goes like this:
- Guitar -> Pod guitar input
- Pod FX Send -> Front of amp
- Amp FX Send -> Pod FX return
- Pod main out -> amp FX return
The presets I’m trying to make with the built-in amp models from the Pod have the effects loop disabled. Instead it goes from Guitar -> Pod input -> Main output -> Amp FX return, so I’m certain it’s not a case of multiple amp tones stacked on top of one another that’s causing my troubles.
I’m not familiar with the Go (last Line 6 product I used was the original GuitarPort) but do those amp models include cab sims? If they do, you’re running a cab model into a real cab and that will ruin the sound. Unless there’s a way to turn the cabinet simulation off, you need to run into a power amp (which your effects return is) into a full range PA speaker, not a guitar cabinet.
yep, you have to deactivate the speaker-simulation. I dont know the POD GO, so i cant tell where to deactivate it. Maybe you have a look at the manual!
I’d check the chain the pod is running. I don’t know that model, but generally they simulate: FX -> preamp -> power amp and speaker (IR) -> mic -> output
For use with the FX loop in an amp, you’d need the signal after the preamp, so everything from there on should be disabled in the patch to get a preamp sim out to main outs.
Dark and boomy sound could be cab sim going into an actual cab. Like thin and fizzy is often preamp going to board.
