Happy Friday! My review of the POD HD500X is up.

[Bob Womack]

Alrighty, then. I've had this unit for three weeks and have had the opportunity to put it through its paces and learn it pretty well. The honeymoon is over and I can give you my impressions of the POD HD500X. Motor right on over HERE and find out what I think!

Bob

[Davis Webb]

Fantastic review Bob, Thanks!

[Bob Womack]

Thanks for reading!

Bob

[Davis Webb]

I was impressed with how happy you are with the modeling and the tweakability of it all. It really sounds like a one size fits all unit. I did have one question, how is the wah pedal effect? Is it tweak-able? You know I have issues with tone distortion due to buffering, and the wretched lack of mids on the classic crybaby. I rented the 535Q, they did not have the Classic re-issue in stock to rent and I am really loving the range of effects it can produce, you can pretty well emulate the sound of a 1980s electric piano in pedal up and there is a really smooth sweep with lots of tweaks with is Q filter. How would you rate the wah? The 535 goes for almost $200 and I am thinking perhaps my money would be better spent on your unit if it does both.

Thanks in advance.

[muscmp]

bob: excellent review.

even tho i am still a tube amp freak, i have used the pod 2.0 for years and once you are able to tweak it to your liking, it is great. now, i use a fulltone full drive 3 and strymon pedals, the timeline delay, the mobius modulator and the big sky reverb. i'm able to dial in just wonderful sounds with them and use them quite a lot. i also use the built in amps and effects in logic pro, and, as with the pedals, once you tweak them, you can get great sounds.

when it comes to lead guitar parts, i still record using one of my tube amps and then, usually, add effects via logic or strymon pedal afterward. now and then, i do use my echoplex ep3 as either a preamp or delay, and, my 65 fender reverb unit, but, they are both quite noisy.

i feel that i'll use whatever ammo works to get the sounds that i want to complete my song(s). i can see that you do the same!

thanks again for a great review.

p.s. davis webb: i have the 535q crybaby as well as an old thomas wah. the thomas only has basically one great sound. the 535q has a multitude of tweaks that gives you a lot of sounds.

play music!

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

I was impressed with how happy you are with the modeling and the tweakability of it all. It really sounds like a one size fits all unit. I did have one question, how is the wah pedal effect? Is it tweak-able? You know I have issues with tone distortion due to buffering, and the wretched lack of mids on the classic crybaby. I rented the 535Q, they did not have the Classic re-issue in stock to rent and I am really loving the range of effects it can produce, you can pretty well emulate the sound of a 1980s electric piano in pedal up and there is a really smooth sweep with lots of tweaks with is Q filter. How would you rate the wah? The 535 goes for almost $200 and I am thinking perhaps my money would be better spent on your unit if it does both.

Thanks in advance.

Well, now. The Wah has seven different models. I've got a '60s Thomas Cry Baby and this one does that wah just fine with the "Fassel" but there are more to play with as well:

Fassel (Cry Baby Super)
Weeper (Arbiter Cry Baby)
Custom Chrome (Vox V847)
Vetta Wah
Throaty (RMC Real McCoy)
Conductor (Maestro Boomerang)
Colorful (Colorsound Wah-Fuzz)

Perhaps the Chrome would be more to your liking if you want the classic sound but the Throaty is a wee bit more modern.

Bob

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by muscmp

bob: excellent review.

Thanks!

even tho i am still a tube amp freak, i have used the pod 2.0 for years and once you are able to tweak it to your liking, it is great. now, i use a fulltone full drive 3 and strymon pedals, the timeline delay, the mobius modulator and the big sky reverb. i'm able to dial in just wonderful sounds with them and use them quite a lot. i also use the built in amps and effects in logic pro, and, as with the pedals, once you tweak them, you can get great sounds.
when it comes to lead guitar parts, i still record using one of my tube amps and then, usually, add effects via logic or strymon pedal afterward. now and then, i do use my echoplex ep3 as either a preamp or delay, and, my 65 fender reverb unit, but, they are both quite noisy.

Yeah. I've got an Ep-3 in "closet mint" condition. It is about time for new caps, but I love my 'Plex.

i feel that i'll use whatever ammo works to get the sounds that i want to complete my song(s). i can see that you do the same!

Yeah, some sounds only seem available from an old tube amp, no? I've got one sound I can only get with one particular old LP and an old Traynor amp.

Bob

[jseth]

Wonderfully written and informative, Bob! Thank YOU for posting this link...

Every time I have read one of your reviews, I have been struck by how well you write, how you keep it light enough for even a "tech-challenged" guitarist like myself to stay with until the end... (I confess that I'm really a "plug-in-and-play" sort of guy!)

This POD unit sounds like a far cry from my little red kidney bean POD... I have one of the first POD units, and, while I like it for messing around with, I have never used it to record, and only had it running through my PA a couple of times, without much satisfaction. Heck, I even have the 4 button pedalboard (unused!) that I got with it, way back when, thinking I would use the POD instead of schlepping either of my amps around; I never did get a decent sound out of the thing live...

Recently, I loaned the POD to a fledgling player so he could have a way to play his electric, until he got his own amp. The other day, I stopped by his house and gave hime some pointers on his playing; for my "amp" I used the POD through his old-school home stereo. I was shocked at how good it sounded! I had managed to get 4 presets dialed in when I was first messing with it, and they are still there, and THEY sounded great!

Now, with your review, I'm thinking that I probably missed a huge boat by not digging in to that POD deeper... I had told my friend that I'd sell him the POD and the pedalboard for $150, and now I'm rethinking that offer... although it sounds as though this new one is quite the deal...

One aspect of the original POD that I found lacking was the inability to combine multiple effects... even something as simple as BOTH a delay and a good reverb... I seem to recall that the reverb adjusting knob on the POD becomes a "depth/signal balance knob when in "delay" mode? Anyway, sounds like the new one does not have that issue...

Also, with my POD, just changing between patches causes this god-awful BLAT of electronic noise... momentary, but that sort of racket would never cut it on stage for me... While using the POD through my friend's stereo, I did NOT notice that same noise which is so prevalent when using the POD as a front-end for a guitar amp... I assume that the new unit does not have issues like that, else you would have written about them?

How much are these things, off the top of your head?!!

Thanks again for the terrific review...

[Davis Webb]

I agree with the poster above, your reviews are compelling reading with technical insight, humor and a conversational style.

I saw that Long and McQuade Bloor street has one now, $439. Any Toronto folks that want to scoop it up, get to it! Its discontinued and its just a waitin' for someone to show it some love.

Thanks for the reply on the wah. I found a youtube vid just after I posted with a breakdown of how to set the wah type. Incredible'.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jseth

One aspect of the original POD that I found lacking was the inability to combine multiple effects... even something as simple as BOTH a delay and a good reverb... I seem to recall that the reverb adjusting knob on the POD becomes a "depth/signal balance knob when in "delay" mode? Anyway, sounds like the new one does not have that issue...

No, when you go in and adjust an effect, it becomes the only one on your plate. The four knobs below the display and above the horizontal chrome bar become your adjustments for the effect. There is also a dedicated control page for each effect, but there aren't the dual-purpose controls re-tasked by the "tap" button. The main amp controls are basically like volume controls in that they swing from a left stop to a right stop. The four knobs below the display, used for effects and deep editing, are rotary encoders with no stops. You use them to access the parameters to edit.

Oh, and you can assign the footswitches to control the various FXs as needed. It's nothing to string up six effects - noise gate, compressor, drive or fuzz,volume pedal, wah, then amp, then delay and reverb and only use what you want at the moment. You can use one switch to turn one effect off and another one or one amp on and another off.

Also, with my POD, just changing between patches causes this god-awful BLAT of electronic noise... momentary, but that sort of racket would never cut it on stage for me... While using the POD through my friend's stereo, I did NOT notice that same noise which is so prevalent when using the POD as a front-end for a guitar amp... I assume that the new unit does not have issues like that, else you would have written about them?

Hmmm, even my old POD didn't do that but this one definitely doesn't. But besides that, switching the effects and amp blocks in and out makes it so that you don't need to change presets so often.

How much are these things, off the top of your head?!!

The same everywhere - $499.

Thanks again for the terrific review...

My pleasure!

Bob

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

I agree with the poster above, your reviews are compelling reading with technical insight, humor and a conversational style.

Thank you!

I saw that Long and McQuade Bloor street has one now, $439. Any Toronto folks that want to scoop it up, get to it! Its discontinued and its just a waitin' for someone to show it some love.

If it is discontinued it is a POD HD500 - no "X." They have a different display, less hearty foot switches that aren't as well illuminated, and much less memory. Some of the users say that you bump up against the memory limit with them much quicker. Speaking of which, I haven't run out of memory with the HD500X yet, though I haven't monkeyed with dual amps much yet. Sweetwater has the older HD500 (no-"X") for $348.99 right now.

Thanks for the reply on the wah. I found a youtube vid just after I posted with a breakdown of how to set the wah type. Incredible'.

My pleasure!

Bob

[J.R. Rogers]

Great review, Bob! Thank you and congrats on the new board. It looks like they've changed this board into something else and I was wondering if it was good for me to check out. Now I know. I have the predecessor to this one (X3 Live) and have used it pretty extensively in a singer/songwriter setup. The previous one had the ability to work with two different "tones" at once and you could "lock" one of them, so if you change the guitar tone, the vocal tone would remain the same for instance. The console emulations were also really good and I loved how the mic sounded through this board. You can't deny the flexibility and they had put some thought into usability. The I/O is hugely flexible, too and gives you the ability to walk in and get your tone anywhere with some simple connections. But all that "flexibility" is sitting there under the hood waiting for an opportunity to cause you problems, too....

The downside (to me) is that it does everything and it's hyper-complicated. It does take hours to learn and then, you'd better hope your keen editing powers are sharp if something goes wrong during a performance, a setting gets changed, or you need to change an important setting on the spot. A friend that I used to perform with had the exact same board as me (X3 Live) and his had "gremlins" in the settings that would cause his mic channel to be completely locked out. Nothing like buggy software to ruin a performance or jam session. Another thing that I didn't like was the lack of an internal power supply and standard power connectors, and it looks like they've carried that over to the HD-500. Where do you stow that wall wart in a live situation?

[jay7347]

Bob, was just doing my research on one of these units to go along with a new ES 195. All I can say is WOW! You did one incredible job of explaining everything. Seriously fine and incredibly helpful work. Thank You!
-jay

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jay7347

Bob, was just doing my research on one of these units to go along with a new ES 195. All I can say is WOW! You did one incredible job of explaining everything. Seriously fine and incredibly helpful work. Thank You!
-jay

Thank you kindly, Jay. I'm glad it was useful to you!

And J.R., very belatedly, my HD500X came with a power supply that has the A.C. plug on it and occupies one plug space because the body is transverse to the plug's orientation.

Bob

[8TrackJoe]

Good write up. Enjoyed it very much. I also appreciated the fact that you gave it a couple of weeks of working with it and using it before compiling your thoughts on it.