GETTING SET UP: SCENARIO TWO – POD PLAYS LIVE
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POD Takes Over
If your POD is running into the front end of a guitar amplifier, you want to be sure
to switch the
A.I.R. switch to the “Amp” position (otherwise, things will
sound wrong). This disables the part of the digital signal processing which is
simulating a speaker, moving air, and microphone – which you don’t want, because
you’ve got a real physical speaker right there in the guitar amp which is doing its
part to shade the tone of your POD. Also, be sure NOT to connect headphones to
POD, as they will override the A.I.R. switch and turn the extra processing on so
things sound right in the headphones (and wrong on the amp). Connect a standard
guitar cable from the POD left output (POD’s mono output) to the input of the
guitar amplifier. Then get your levels all set up as follows....
POD Output Level: A Word of Caution
POD’s Output Level control is setup with enough gain available to drive into
almost any piece of equipment. Consequently, it also has plenty of power available
to overdrive the input of your guitar amp, which you don’t want since it will add
extra distortion that will color the sound so you don’t hear the “true” POD tones.
So set it pretty low at first, then you can experiment with higher settings.
Tuning Your Amplifier
When you’re having your POD “take over” another guitar amplifier, it’s a good
idea to start off with that amp in neutral. What is “neutral,” you ask? Well, if you
only have one volume control on your amp, set it low enough to get a “clean”
tone; that insures POD’s sounds come through as purely as possible. If you have a
Master Volume in addition to a Volume control on the input, set them both so
that the first volume doesn’t overdrive the master volume (so you’re getting a
clean tone). This will vary from amp to amp, but usually the input volume is going
to be less than the master volume to get a clean, non-distorted sound. If you have
passive tone controls, try setting you mid control at max, and your treble and bass
controls at zero (this is actually “flat” equalization-wise on most amps). Active
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