Variax 700 + pod xt live test. Different styles, sounds and tunings

thanks a lot bill!
good purchase on that xt live! congrats!

i really like the way the pod sounds. it made my life easy. i get a lot of sounds i really dig. it’s not easy. you have to spend a lot of time trying different combinations of amps, cabs, mics, eq’s, stompboxes, etc… but i think you can get any sound you are looking for.
i would still like to have a cornford or mesa someday, but they are out of my league at this moment.

if you have a tube power amp and a 4×12… great. just make sure you “tell” the pod what are you connecting to…

the variax is the most amazing thing i ever played. , but it’s a beatiful looking instrument, really confortable(maybe not amazingly confortable like my trusty ibanez rg470) but kinda like a PRS feel. soundwise…. it’s amazing. infinite options.

about the tunings… if you go a step down, or even 2 and 1/2 steps down(like a 7th string)… the tracking is still amazing… i don’t know how this guys do that. if you go beyond that it’s not that good. when i change the tuning, i try to set the volume so i wont here the real tuning of the acoustic sounds…

the sitar patch is really cool too… haven’t played much with that sound yet… but it’s great.
you wont be able to get the sitar sound with your les paul mate… that’s within the variax, not the pod.

so you have a tool cover band?? GREAT!!! they are amazing!

cheers mate!

@billmeedog 6627 wrote:

Hey Andy! 🙂

Wow bro, you have serious skills! I love the diversity of your playing style! Your diversity marries up perfectly with the Variax’s ability to be a “chameleon!” (LOL!) I have a few questions for you about your gear, because I just bought a used POD XT-Live just yesterday morning! (I got a good deal too! – $249) 😉

Anyways, here’s those questions:

– What’s your opinion of the XT-Live’s sounds? (especially the AMP models?)

– Would you think that the XT-Live can benefit from a tube power-amp & 4×12 cab?

– Any truth to the negative things about the Variax’s actual guitar-quality?

– When you play the Variax in NON-standard tuning at low-volume, doesn’t your
perception/hearing/monitoring seem weird (like being able to hear the strings
acoustically in a different key than they are being triggered to?) I guess if that does
happen, the solution is CRANK IT UP, RIGHT! (LOL!) :rolleyes::o

Again, great playing Andy, and thanks for giving such a comprehensive demo of your Variax and especially all those various tuning features! (AND how about that BANJO sample!!! WTF? That was cool!) I do wish you had demo’d the Sitar patch, just ‘cuz I need to emulate a sitar somehow for an INTRO to a song in my Tool tribute-band, and I’m curious how close I can get with a Les Paul through the POD-XT-Live? (NO Variax!) :confused:

Thanks in advance for your feedback/opionions! 😉 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀