Pocket Pod, iLoud, and Flamenco

[BuleriaChk]

These just arrived today from Sweetwater. Wow!

The Pocket Pod is an excellent interface to the iLoud (via the headphone out/Aux In), which is what everyone says it is. Clear, strong sound quality up to very loud indeed.

(Acoustic active pickup nylon string guitar, played as Flamenco - Takamine TC-136SC (special order Flamenco version of TC-132SC, Palathetic Pickup/CTP-2 Preamp, cool tube at minimum) The basic sound out of the guitar is pristine; absolutely no need for "acoustic" compensation of any sort (I'll have a chance to audition a Cordoba GK Pro with Fishman pickup system and will post back if I remember .

I probably won't use anything except the Tube Preamp, which is very similar to that in Mobile Pod - not as good as the GT-1 or Helix, but still very usable for that extra grit... (so far I haven't played with the compressor or other effects, but don't need them to get a good usable sound.... I can use the Bluetooth for backing tracks (also works very well) simultaneously with the Aux In..

The GT-1 sounds gorgeous (I only use the Full Range preamp with that).

(Of course I can also use the trrs cable to connect the guitar directly to the iPad/iPod if I forget to bring the Pocket Pod...., but I like the immediate control of both guitar in and backing tracks...
Not a big deal - it is the best of both worlds IMO

AND - the main thing - everything fits in the sports pack of my Blazing Orange Kawasaki Naked Z-1000 SuperBike!! (which, like me and my cat, is by now a bit long in the tooth, but still runs....

The big surprise is how good the iLoud actually sounds.... I am very, very impressed... !

(This is the beginning of the end of a long frustrating journey, where guitarists like myself were forced to perform with underwhelming pickups (piezo quack), into electric guitar amps with unusable feedback and ugly coloring of the rich harmonic texture of the nylon strings ever since the guitar world went electric in the 50's (no more Joan Baez, or the Limelighters, or the Kingston Trio, much less Sabicas...

The real issue was the tone coloring of the electric guitar speakers (desirable but now modeled in the software/electronics) for the Helix et. al., but disaster for acoustic guitar, ESPECIALLY nylon string); finally FRFR comes to the common man via speakers like the QSC 8.2 and now the iLoud (well, ok, me anyway)....

FWIW, these modelers (GT-1, Pocket Pod) sound GREAT into the Aux Ins of my Fly 3 (Blue) and Katana Mini, which themselves are pretty convincing for intimate gatherings (and are even smaller). The sound, as far as I can tell, is very accurate as well.... And both run on 9V, so one could conceivably use a Volto 2 as a backup power solution if one forgets to bring spare batteries.

If you need acoustic compensation for your pickup, then an external unit (thre are many) devoted to such for your particular guitar/taste is best.
I found that when I was doing my research the Schertler DYN-G was by far the best solution; it sounded equivalent to my Takamines, which were perfect to begin with...