POD Go "Live" Drive

[Aceman]

So I took the POD Go to a gig last night. All in all, very successful, but not without a hiccup or two.

The Good:
1. Sounded great. I have two main "Classic Rock" settings - a Soldano SLO 100 Crunch channel and a Marshall JCM800. Both with OD's pushing the front.
2. The Pedal mode worked great. I was able to arrange my usual batter of my favorites Delay, Chorus, and Reverb settings for easy access. Color scheme is a great thing; Green = delay, Orange is reverb, etc...
3. Lead boost - I used a graphic EQ with a +4db increase and the rest flat. I may tweak frequencies a little later.
4. Set up was super easy, everything fast and clean. I used my wedge for a test until PA guy showed up.
5. Liked the Wah available all the time. Didn't use volume, but might in the future. Could set the volume for a min/max for leads also...

The OK:
1. The Wah on/off thing was a little kinky for me. Had a couple situations where I was playing with the Wah on toe down that I didn't want. Noticed quickly, and was able just step and be back to to correct. I'll lean to look for that / Wah off quickly.
2. I still used my Digitech Pitchfork and EHX9...might be better sounds somewhere or ways to lower 1/2 step or make synth noises, but I haven't found them yet.

The Bad:
1. I hit an "unassigned loop" button and killed my sound because loop went "nowhere." It was not a bad show deal, since me and other guitar player doing the same thing. I may just need to reassign, or watch that now that I know it can happen.

Here was the "Main" thing I didn't like. When going from bank to bank....
a) Press bank up (or down)
b) The four visible patch names in the new bank start flashing
- You haven't changed sounds yet, until you select one.

The text is small, and it flashes. This made it really hard to see what the four presets were. Now, since I had three that handled 90%, and a couple of specific ones, it wasn't too hard to get around. Still nice clean readout names would be nice. Maybe I can change that, but as of now...I don't know how.

All in all, very satisfied,

 

[Mincer]

Memorizing location, rather than reading small LCDs is probably a better bet. On my HX Effects, I do use general pitch shifter to play one song 1/2 step down, and it works well. I also bet you can replicate your synth sound you need with it. There are some creative synths in there.

 

[Aceman]

Well, this thing is so slickly arranged that I suspect I'll be able to get away with maybe 8 presets for everything, so memorization won't be a big deal.

And I haven't even used snapshots yet...

Crafting Synth noises will be a low priority - my Synth9 pedal is awesome.

 

[Mincer]

Snapshots are great if you have to switch on multiple effects at the same time. I use them a lot.

 

[Aceman]

Snapshots are great if you have to switch on multiple effects at the same time. I use them a lot.

I use lead boost/delay quite a bit...

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, so just set up the snapshot with all of the effects you want on at that time, and just hit one button to make that happen.

 

[Aceman]

I'm usually not a fan of 8 different ways to do the same thing in software apps...

But I love this thing. I'll settle on something that works for me.

 

[Seashore]

The one thing I really like Snapshots for is the ability to toggle between different parameters on the same effects. I have some set up for my bass with different compression and EQ settings so I can go back and forth between a pretty full-bore gritty main tone, a fat sub-bass kind of thing with no high end, and a clear clean tone that hits both the compression model and the front of the amp less hard. But I found through trial and error that I didn't like switching between Snapshot and Stomp mode in-song, and there are some things that require me to be in Stomp mode - for instance, momentary switches for pitch bends and self-oscillating delay swells - so I pretty much plan my setup around Stomp mode and assign multiple effects to one controller as needed - OD in front of the amp and delay in the effects loop for a lead tone, or turning on reverb when I go to the clean channel on my guitar amp, that kind of thing.

 

[Aceman]

This thing can do "momentary switches" ??? That RULES for the Flanger in Down Boys!

 

[Seashore]

Well, argh. At least the HX Effects works that way. I'm not sure whether the Pod GO gives you the option to toggle between a latching and momentary switch... don't wanna get your hopes up. Sorry.