Rig advice needed.. POD XT Prooptions

[Bryan]

All right, here's the story. My friend just called with a killer offer for his Line 6 POD XT Pro. I'm considering it but I need an amp/speaker combo to go with it and I need some suggestions quick as I told him I'd let him know tomorrow.

I already have a main amp so this could be a side rig, if you will.

One idea I had was to get one or two Cube 15s to run stereo through. That way I can go small (1cube) or larger (2 cubes) if needed.

I thought about a power amp then a larger cabinet, but I don't have a clue as to where to begin. I really don't think a 4 X 12 cabinet is necessary, although at the right price I could be persuaded.

So anybody with POD XT pro advice or preamp/power amp/ speaker cab help would greatly be appreciated here.

Or is the POD XT pro even worth this trouble??? I have a lot of Line 6 experience so I'm not worried about figuring the XT out. Just trying to figure out what to do with it should I decide to get it.

Thanks up front!!

[Inazone]

Don't bother with the Cube idea...plugging a modeler into another modeler doesn't make sense. I believe Tech 21 (www.tech21nyc.com) makes powered speaker cabs for the very purpose you are discussing. Otherwise, I think a good guitar-type solid state power amp like a Rocktron Velocity and a Line 6 or Rocktron flat-frequency cab would make sense.

[chrisolson]

I just bought a Pod XT tonight. Holy shiite!! This thing is DEEP! It's going to take me a while to get into this. The manual alone is about twice the thickness of the old Pod. But I think I should be able to coax some good stuff out of it after I get to know it.

Here's my setup: Guitar >> Pod XT w/FBV shortboard >> Alesis RA300 Power Amp >> B-52 AT-412B 4x12 cab in stereo (GREAT cab BTW... I got it near new for $250. Looks great,and sounds as good as anything else it the $400-500 range.)

It sounds great! Just as good as my old Pod Pro >> Alesis RA-100 power amp >> 2 x Marshall 1936 2x12 cabs. Don't be afraid of SS power amps (reference models) - they sound great with a Pod since the Pod emulates the tubes anyway. Make sure you get it set up in to the correct configuration though, otherwise the EQ is off due to the A.I.R. function.

I had also run a Pod 2.3 through one of the Tech 21 Power Engines mentioned above. It worked well as a compact rig, but it did have a vibration I was never able to isolate, and I've tried others and gotten the same thing. It souded pretty good though. I would rather have had a closed-back cab however. That's part of the reason I got rid of my Flextone. Closed-back cabs are simply superior IMHO.

[Bryan]

Here's the whole scoop. I have one Line 6 amp at home and an identical amp that belongs to my friend that I leave at church. My friend offered to sell me his amp. I am in the process of buying the amp at church so I would have two identical amps so that my floorboard would be compatible with both. I would then only have to carry a floorboard back and forth, instead of the whole amp.

In the meantime my other friend said he wanted to buy my amp at home. So I was thinking about selling him my amp and using the money to pay my other friend for his amp. I would then buy something a little smaller for church, as the Line 6 at church is a 2X12 combo and is way too much for that setting. My friend has the rack mount POD and was going to sell it outright. He then calls me and offers the POD for my amp even trade.

If I trade the POD for the amp, I still have to pay my other friend for his amp, and I'll have to get some kind of amplification for the POD to use it in church. We don't have enough mixes for me to get my own guitar mix, and none of the singers want as much guitar in their monitors as I want to hear!!

So I would really be looking to hook up the POD Pro into something smaller in order to use it at church.

Or should I just forget about the POD Pro and grab something smalller like a Spider II or a Roland Cube?

But if I get the cube, I gotta buy a floorboard for it and that's more money that I really didn't want to spend. That's why I kind of wanted to stay in the Line 6 family.

[chrisolson]

They're solid state amps - there is no such thing as "too much". You can play them as quietly as you want to! Going from the Flextone/POD to a Spider or Cube is going to be a let down. Hell, use the pod and buy some studio speakers and a studio power amp! If you're competing with a church PA, I don't think you'll have an issue. Why don't you just go direct?

But it's your money, and you decision. Make it. Your dilemma sounds like a non-dilemma IMHO.

[Bryan]

The problem with going direct is that I have no way of hearing myself. It's a church setting but it's a pretty big one. We have guitars, bass, electronic drums, keys, and vocals. Everything runs through a PA and there are floor monitors for everybody. However, there are only 4 mixes:

Vocal 1
Vocal 2
Vocal 3 (includes keys & acoustic guitars)
Drums
Bass plays through a bass amp and lines out to the PA.

I am playing guitars through my amp which is miked for the PA. But if I am too loud it throws the entire mix off because the soundman can't control me. So I have to be very careful about my volume. My amp usually runs on about 2 at the most and that's pushing my volume level. This Line 6 is loud!!

[memphiskat]

Hello- I've been using a PODxt for a while now. I use it mostly through my computer's small speakers and it sounds great. I also use it through a Randall RG75 (solid state 1x12) and it sounds great. I also use it through a custom built (by me :-) solid wood 2x12 cab loaded with Eminence Modeling 12s and powered by an Adcom solid state amp..... and it sounds great. What I'm getting at is it will sound good, in my expereince, through just about anything. It will definately sound good through another line six amp as they are nuetral by nature anyway. Many people run them through relatively inexpensive keyboard amps (Behringer KX1200 is popular I think) and that would suit a church environment well. You could run that as a monitor at low levels and send a line to the board/PA for you to be mixed in. Karl

[Adam]

Electric guitar and church don't get along at all. This is pretty much the common theme in every thread like this I have read (on this forum and others).

Good luck!