The Steel Guitar Forum

I haven't used an amp for 10 years...The pod XT bean has a very great sound once you dial it all in, and that may take some time, don't expect to find it in a few minutes. All the best Mike.

Would anyone care to answer the final question in Paul Sutherland's post?

Going direct has a huge learning curve for some of us,
If I knew what sound the V 8 delivered with his pickup , Id be a fortune teller.
seeing one in action, hasnt come my way...yet !

I record direct with a Line6 Pod XT fairly often. It works well for my level of playing (I'm not a pro). When I use it on stage, I always run it into an amp. I have different patches for my various steel/amp combinations, and for direct recording.

I think that designing patches for the target gear is key. Right out of the box, none of the presets are any good for steel. When I'm going to use a different guitar or a different amp, I spend a few hours tweaking 3 or 4 presets to get the tones I like. In theory my recording patches should work direct into a PA, but in reality every environment is different.

I've never lost any patches in the Pod XT. I think it's a very well designed, rugged unit. Some of the effects models aren't the greatest, but they're good enough for stage.

Paul Sutherland wrote:...

I'm wondering what I would hear different if I eliminated the Black Box and DI and just used a Sarno V8 preamp. Any comments or thoughts?

The V8 with the Octal tubes really does something that is extraordinarily DI-friendly for some reason. There's something about Octals in the preamp that dramatically tames the high treble and reduces that glassy quality when we go direct/full-range without a miking guitar speaker. Personally, I like the Black Box first before any effects pedals so the tube is the first thing the pickup sees. But in practice, I must admit that the V8 even without a Black Box up front does direct amazingly well. I've heard others and also tried it myself where the guitar hits a volume pedal and then a delay and reverb pedal and then into the V8, and from there the V8's XLR out direct to the house mixer, and it just sounds great, mixes really well without the soundman having to do anything to it other than turn it up.

Brad

Brad: Are you saying the ideal signal chain for playing direct, using mostly your gear, is as follows:

Steel
to Black Box
to VP
to Delay (optional)
to Reverb (mandatory)
to V8 preamp
to house?

Thanks for all the advice and sharing your rigs with me. I've been using either my 92 Emmons LeGrande or my 73 Emmons PP through a Goodrich Match-Bro or Match Box to Goodrich volume pedal, to a Boss CE-5 chorus (one song only) to Boss RV-3 (set for delay and verb) to my Evans DP2R preamp to a Behringer GI-100 (the red one) with speaker simulation on...

I have also used the same lineup with my Mesa Boogie Formula Pre and it sounds great too.

I have since purchased a used Pod XT Pro rack mount unit and I'm looking forward to digging in and writing some cool presets for it!

Thanks again for all your help!

Our Guitar player has become very interested in the Kemper system and if he gets it, I'll give it a test run myself. The YouTube stuff sounds incredible!

Quilter Phantom Block.

This is an old topic. These days I'm using the Fender-ish setting the Strymon Iridium.

I use a Sarno V8 for direct recording into my DAW.

I just finished playing two nights at a NorCal casino, playing direct using a Wet Reverb pedal, a Sarno Black Box, and a Sarno V8, and nothing else. I was very pleased with the tone of my steel.

I should add that about six months ago I bought much better quality IEMs. I believe that helped a lot.

Another vote for the the Kemper. It does everything and does it well including effects. You can pick the amp profile you like best. After hearing mine a couple of times, my buddy Doug Stock got one to use on his Orange Blossom Opry house band gig down in Florida and LOVES IT. FYI- Micky Adams is playing lead guitar in that band. If you go to the Orange Blossom Opry facebook page there’s plenty of recent videos especially the Vince Gill tribute show where you can hear the steel thru the Kemper yourself. He’s using a Michael Britt Little Walter 50 profile.