have you done it?? (down-sized)

[-J-]

It's becoming painfully obvious I don't need a six guitar heads (a 300-watt older line 6 head, a crate power block, and four low-wattage tube PAs converted into guitar heads) a 4-12" cab, and a small practice amp for the amount of playing I do. I haven't played with a drummer for years, and I record like 1-3 songs per freakin' year where I mic the 4-12". Most of my practicing is done at pretty low volumes, when it even happens. Future recordings are likely going to be mostly direct with impulses added anyway.

I'm thinking of ditching nearly every amp and the cab except maybe one or two tube PAs, after which time I'd just get a Roland cube or some other type of small (probably modelling) combo amp that can also be used as a 1-12" cabinet for the tube heads. I'm thinking the change-up might even spur me to get back into guitar a bit more.

So....Have any of you taken the down-sizing plunge? How'd that work for ya? What did you select as your small be-all end-all amp?

DISCUSS

 

[colonel kurtz]

if i downsized on the amps that i have, i'd have none...

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I have not downsized. But I never up-sized so...

Basically I have 1 cab and 3 heads, it does the trick for what I do. I buy an amp every 4 years or so and I buy a guitar every 5 or so. I'm pretty conservative.

 

[IronApe]

Just sell everything and get yourself a Pod (XT or XT Pro), mate... You're already using impulses anyway.
A good guitar, a good pod tone, a good impulse... voilà, recording.
A good guitar, a good pod tone, headphones... voilà, practicing.
At least, that's what I would do...
AND you would have some extra cash, which is never annoying.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

a 5150.....a v30 cab.....a 1x12 or 2x12 combo amp.......3 guitars(get a baritone and standard and acoustic)...1 bass guitar....maybe a small drumkit.

A few cables, a few sm57's, "good" kick mic, two overheads, 1 large cap condenser....and ofcourse an 8 or 16 channel interface and DAW.

The basics....... But not what you probably "want".

 

[AdamWathan]

I went from...

Guitars:
Jackson DK1
Jackson DX10D
Jackson DXMG
Jackson Kelly XL
Jackson KE3
Jackson SLSMG
Dillion 7 String RG copy
Washburn A5 Stage model
Washburn acoustic
Vantage bass

Amps:
Line 6 Flextone HD
Line 6 Flextone II HD
Ampeg VH140C
Peavey Supreme
Johnson Millenium
Rocktron Velocity poweramp

Cabs:
Peavey 4x12
Behringer 4x12

Effects, etc:
Line 6 Pod 2.0
Line 6 Pod XT Live
Korg AX1000G

to my Jackson DK2T and Carvin DC127M, a 5150, kept my Peavey cab and added a Boss GT5.

Couldn't be happier and I've never looked back!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

This must be the only recording forum where people actually like Pods.

To -J-: you aren't in a band and you aren't a professional music producer, no need for 6 guitar heads, maybe stick with 1 for the chance that you might one day gig. Some sort of modeling device (like a Pod) would be perfect for you.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Thats because people here dick with them long enough to come up with something worth half a fuck. Most POD bashers dick with one for an hour and then pass it off as "thats horrible".

 

[Metaltastic]

Seriously, many people here can put there money where their mouths are when it comes to the pod - I love mine, but only for its convenience; I've never felt the need to go to the effort to make it sound truly incredible, so I'm content with it sounding pretty good, which is all it needs to do to help me write, its main purpose.

Still, though, I've heard more than enough amazing clips here to know that I could make it sound incredible...

 

[IronApe]

... I've heard more than enough amazing clips here to know that I could make it sound incredible...

+1

Most POD bashers dick with one for an hour and then pass it off as "thats horrible".

+100

 

[AdamWathan]

I dicked with my Pod XT for 2 years before deciding I couldn't stand it. Yeah, you can get great Pod XT tones if you run a tubescreamer in front of it, and spend hours micing cabinets creating your own impulses so you can bypass the cabinet simulation in the Pod, or using Curve EQ or something to match somebody elses tone, but those are ALL workarounds to making the Pod sound good, it sounds like shit on it's own. I've yet to hear a single Pod tone I thought sounded good that wasn't done with impulses or Curve EQ. My Behringer V-Amp sounds 100 times better than my Pod XT did. My Pod 2.0 sounded pretty good though.

 

[-J-]

I'm definitely not against pods, given my main head is a line 6 Flextone I (which I really like actually). I have some soul searching to do now. I really don't use half the amp settings on my head. I could theoretically get by with a marshall that has just two sounds: light and heavy.

AudioGeek: keep in mind the PAs are all really small (10-20 watts and as big and smaller than a shoe box). It's not like I have 6 huge Carvin heads laying around. And yes, you are correct: I'm not going to be gracing the stage anytime soon, much less try to get into a band. But when Mike Smith of Suffocation calls me up one day out of the blue and wants to rock, I need to be ready. [begins staring at phone]

Forbidden: wow, you REALLY down-sized! and interesting perspectives on the pod, especially since you used to use a Flextone I as well.

 

[AdamWathan]

I actually REALLY liked my Flextone heads, they sounded great but the 2 I had had serious reliability issues so I sold them off cheap because it was giving me headaches. I personally like the old 2.0 era of Pod sounds a LOT more than the XT stuff, the Rectifier and Soldano models on the Flextone heads were awesome.

 

[-J-]

I actually REALLY liked my Flextone heads, they sounded great but the 2 I had had serious reliability issues so I sold them off cheap because it was giving me headaches. I personally like the old 2.0 era of Pod sounds a LOT more than the XT stuff, the Rectifier and Soldano models on the Flextone heads were awesome.

yup, those 2 settings are what I use 99% of the time.