Bonefish Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 As much as I like the idea of having an effects board with the exact tones I'm looking for, I am starting to think this may not be the best option. The recent post on the M13 has me thinging about the HD500. Does anyone have any experience with the HD500 they can share? Any input would be greatly appreciated (e.g. tone quality, how it works with your tube amp, tips on programming, etc). Thanks so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yavuz Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I have an HD300. I keep it at home most of the time. I have a pedal board and an Evans Amp that I would like to use at gigs. However, when I cannot carry my pedals and amp, HD300 comes handy. It is pretty good at what it does. I did not get the HD500 since it was a lot bigger and I do not need any efx loop. I also use 3-4 effects at most at a time. HD300 has a better ( longer ) handle, HD500's handle is short and it is not balanced to cary. HD500 has a bigger screen but HD300 has the extra FX1, FX2, FX3 knobs that helps me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmenne Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I had the HD300 and an M9. I sold the HD300 to finance another purchase. For me, it was an amazing piece of equipment. Very good models and lots of efx. Now that it has been gone for a few months, I am curious how it would work as a multi efx unit with my amp. The M9/M13 are brilliant. I sold my M9 to buy the HD300. I really wish I had one now. The M9/M13 are very easy to use and packed with great features (looper, tuner, deep control, etc). I would put it in a pedal board in an instant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 If I'm not mistaken, the HD series can be used with Line 6's new tube DT Tube amp as a remote for the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonefish Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 Hmm, lots to think about. I like having the effect loop as I'll mostly be using it with my tube amp (although will be plugging direct on occasion). I also like having the longer loop times. What I'm realizing is that I am not as tonally sensitive as I like to think I am, and in most instances I am not going to notice the difference between a pedal and the emulated effect. @Kmenne, if you really liked the M9 and M13, then it sounds like you'd probably have good things to say about the HD500 as well since it has the same effects along with a few more options. Any reason why you'd think I might should go a different direction? @yavuz - Based on what I've seen from YouTube, you aren't switching your tone around much, and so it makes sense to me that you'd have your basic pedal board setup that you'd want to take out with you over the HD300. Have you had any major issues with it or feel that there are significant compromises in tone with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yavuz Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 You are right about me not changing my tone so much. At least the amp voicing stays the same. Occasionally I use a bit of a drive. POD HD would be great to take around except the stage monitor sound is not always great at every concert hall or club. If I am sure of a great sounding stage and PA I could take my POD. Ironically most of those places have Fender Twin Reverbs so I take my pedals only. Fender Twin Reverb was the best sound I could get from an amp so far. The closest light amp to that sound are my Enans amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmenne Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I think you would be impressed and very pleased with the HD500. For the money, they do an amazing amount of stuff. The amp models were great, efx (other than distortion/overdrive) were very good. The i/o section was very flexible and gives you many useable options. There is tons of "tweakability" on this unit. To me, a great value for the dollar. I would love to have one in the efx loop of my Egnater Tweaker!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 A on line guitar teacher I know uses this for live situations. The tone is really good and the ability to change effects on the fly work great. The cost of these units can be a little overwhelming, but just think of all the money we spend on guitars and amps to find the right "tone" and forget about pedals needing to be of high quality too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonefish Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 @Kmenne - My amp is an Egnater Tweaker. Planning to use effects loop with setup. Typically I'll leave amp modelling off (I think!). Anyhow, I'll let you know how it goes. @DetroitBlues - I will actually come out ahead after selling my pedals. This is based on conservative pricing. I have a 15% coupon at Guitar center which means it will cost around $425 for the HD500. At this point I have over $700 in my pedal board (street value). So, it should work out pretty well! I think I'm going to try and get a hall pass from my wife and go get one tonight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Sweet. Good luck! I had to do the same thing with my strat yesterday! Sort of asked for forgiveness rather then permission.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonefish Posted March 31, 2012 Author Share Posted March 31, 2012 Got the hall pass! She realized the math in the pedals I was buying and really liked the idea. This is going to be fun. Covering Beautiful Day and have already downloaded some patches for it that sound great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpuma Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 how does it compare to the Boss GT10? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 What about the latest Boss? GT-100 http://www.boss.info/sound/GT-100/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I own the HD500, and have owned Boss GT-8, GT-6, and GT-3, and also have owned a POD XT and have a POD XT Live. The HD500 has the most realistic "good" amp sounds I've heard from any modeler, hands down. That said, the 300 and 400 have the exact same amp models, so if that's what you are going for, save a couple hundred $ and get the 300. The 300 and 400 also seem easier to use, to be honest. Like all of them, there are features I'll NEVER use (phase shifter, harmonizer, over-the-top effects of every sort) but I kind of miss the more effects pedal format of the Boss GT-8, to be honest. I still haven't hardly scratched the surface of my HD500, much to my embarassment, as it's just easier to plug into my modest pedal board or just crank up the KBP810 Tweed Deluxe. The Tweed Deluxe cranked about halfway IS the sound I most often want to play over, so it sure makes it simple, if quite loud, haha. All this to say, it sounds like you have the same idea I once had; replace the pedalboard with a multi-effects pedal. I'm glad I've kept both, but I wish you luck. I just hope, for your sake, you are more disciplined than I am when it comes to cracking the books to actually LEARN these damn things. I simply find myself going from preset to preset, saying, "ew, wierd," or "Hmm, pretty cool, let me play Enter Sandman over this one for a minute and pretend I'm James Hetfield from Metallica...." Before I know it, I've killed an hour and it's time to stop being loud so the kids can get to bed, haha. I'm not trying to talk you out of any of these units, just be ready for the impending learning curve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhoadsScholar Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 I ended up going with the POD HD and I love it. added the smaller foot controller and run it straight into my Studio monitors at home. Still learning it but the HD technology has very convincing sounds. I have always liked the 'bean' pod at the desktop and this had most of the guts of the 500 without the I/O control or foot pedal. Got what I paid in trade for my original pod 2.0 and used a 15 % off ... Once I master this thing, I'll pack it up and take it to the blues jams to see what I can coax out of this. I too have to agree that sometimes its more fun to crank a kbp810 amp half way an let er rip... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonefish Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Thanks for the additional input. Now that I've got the pedal, it's interesting to learn from others experiences as I figure out how I am going to use the board. I'm glad I got the HD500 as I wanted the larger board, longer loop times, additional effects (including running 8 concurrently), extra inputs and extra outputs. I'm planning to keep this guy for a while and so paying a few dollars more seemed worth it to me. I began working with the pedal Friday night and am loving it. Fortunately the layout feels very intuitive to me and the software is extremely powerful. Within an hour of owning the board I had recreated my physical pedal board. I created a couple versions around certain tones and have found them very easy to control. I also downloaded a couple "Beautiful Day" patches (we were covering this song Sunday morning at church). They sounded great and provided some tones I would have never had otherwise. While there is certainly a ton to learn, I'm really enjoying it so far and already feel that I can use it well in its most basic form (as a replacement for my pedal board) after a weekend working with it, and am looking forward to learning more. I think that because my initial focus was so simple (replacing my pedal board), it made it easy to hit the ground running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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