MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
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Modern Hi Gain - The Soldano sound is intensely overdriven, and also has
EQ after the preamp distortion. This oversaturated tone is well-suited to thrash
metal and grunge bands, but has also been used more subtly by artists like Eric
Clapton. This is a good Amp Model to use if you want to get a current Van Halen
or Joe Satriani sound. The POD Modern Hi Gain Amp Model is based on one of
Mike Soldano’s rackmount preamps. Talk about high gain preamp tube distortion!
The X88R we studied to create this Amp Model would have been the rage for Los
Angeles studio use in the late ‘80s.
Fuzz Box - Although not technically an amp, we felt that the unique tonal
qualities of the classic 1960’s Arbiter Fuzz Face earned it a place among the amps
modeled to create POD’s TubeTone Amp Models. This fuzz box used broad
frequency transistor-based clipping. The result is a buzzing kind of distortion that
has become popular again with the alternative and grunge set. Jimi Hendrix was
among the first guitarists to popularize the Fuzz Face in the States, but our model is
considerably dirtier than the tones found on “Are You Experienced.” Try playing
“Satisfaction” by the Stones, or the lead from “American Woman” by The Guess
Who. Liberal use of the Bass, Mid, and Treble controls will let you go beyond the
tones that the Fuzz Face could deliver, enabling you to discover your own unique
recipe for those elusive fuzz tones in your head. Just a note: when recording Purple
Haze, Jimi didn’t even use an amp – just went straight from Fuzz Face to an Orange
power amp to a 4x12 cabinet. Which is the same sort of tone you find here....
Tube Preamp - Not even close to being a guitar amp, but once we got
started, we just couldn’t stop ourselves. The thinking went like this: ‘Once people
get this POD, it’s gonna be so great that they’re gonna wish they could use it for
everything – warning up keyboards, crunching up drums, fuzzing up vocals. We’ve
gotta give ’em something to do that!’ So we did. The Tube Preamp Amp Model
lets you warm up any sound source the way producers and engineers often do in
the studio with vintage tube gear. For more “edge” on vocals, try running your
vocal tracks through POD. Or punch up (or much up) a synth bass track by
sending it through POD and cranking up the Drive and EQ controls to suit your
taste. And although this is not actually a guitar amp model, you can get some great
guitar tones out of it nonetheless. Also try using it as a direct box for bass. When
you do this stuff, you want to use the Drive control like a mix knob on a reverb to
control how much processing you want to hear. You generally don’t want to mix
the pre-POD sound with the post-POD sound because of the comb filtering that
results. Instead, jack the sound source right into POD and then only monitor it
post-POD processing. With the tone controls at 12 o’clock, the EQ is “flat.”
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