using a podx3 live with a Marshall Valvestate II! (lost, please help!)

brazmonki

Hey guys ?

I need help yet again. This time, for a friend of mine (smuts182!!). He has a Marshall Valvestate II and a Line 6 PodX3 live. Currently he is playing his X3 through the front input of the amp and through the clean channel. However, after I saw what the Line 6 Spidervalve can do (in terms of bypassing the amp with a pod) we really want to do the same with his Valvestate and X3.

HOWEVER, I tried to bypass the amp last night and the only thing that worked was when I plugged a cable into the "FX return" of the amp and the "Live out (left or right?)" of the X3. But then it gave a very muted bass sound. I have battled enough!!

How do we do this? Your help is really appreciated. just say if you guys need more info and I will add it on!

THANKS A MILLION!

(Here are some pics, sorry about the quality!)

I could not get a proper pic of the line 6 pod X3. So here is a hyperlink with a panoramic-"like" detailed pic from line6 podX3 live
http://line6.com/podx3live/specs.html

the back of the valvestate

The next pics are meant to be a panoramic as well but I am not a wizard with pics (as you can tell by now! hence I have split them up into 3 sections!)

front panel of valvestate

clean

both overdrive channels

the fx

guitarboy2828

Wait, what are you trying to do exactly? bypass the preamp of the marshal? That is all i can imagine? So that'll take you straight to the power amp. \

If i'm understanding you correctly, you can't do what you are wanting to do. You can run the pod past the preamp and hook it up into the FX loop. Then it would look like this..

Guitar going into marshal's preamp tubes, pod, power amp, sound.

With the pox in the front its going guitar, pod, preamp, power amp, sound.

So what are you trying to bypass in that mix exactly?

AlanRatcliffe

The "four cable method" is what you need. In short:

1. Plug the guitar into the in of the POD
2. Plug the FX send from the POD into the amp's input
3. Plug the send of the amp into the return of the POD
4. Plug the output of the POD into the return of the amp

The POD will then always be using your amp's power amp, but the amp's preamp will only be used when you switch in the effects loop of the POD. You'll probably want to turn off any speaker simulation in the POD (or set to the output type that matches your amp).

brazmonki

guitarboy2828 wrote: Wait, what are you trying to do exactly? bypass the preamp of the marshal? That is all i can imagine? So that'll take you straight to the power amp. \

If i'm understanding you correctly, you can't do what you are wanting to do. You can run the pod past the preamp and hook it up into the FX loop. Then it would look like this..

Guitar going into marshal's preamp tubes, pod, power amp, sound.

With the pox in the front its going guitar, pod, preamp, power amp, sound.

So what are you trying to bypass in that mix exactly?

You can run the pod past the preamp and hook it up into the FX loop. Then it would look like this..

Guitar going into marshal's preamp tubes, pod, power amp, sound.

thanks for expanding on my terrible guitar literature. ? ? I must also admit that I am 99% sure of my facts and what I am doing. The reason why I want info on this is because I heard that this setting will sound better than plugging it through the front input of a amp!! however, I think the italic statement above is what we are trying to do.

The statement below is exactly what I did and it gave me a muted bass sound!

HOWEVER, I tried to bypass the amp last night and the only thing that worked was when I plugged a cable into the "FX return" of the amp and the "Live out (left or right?)" of the X3. But then it gave a very muted bass sound. I have battled enough!!

I want to get rid of this. should I change the settings of the podX3 or what? (I don't own a X3 and don't know it to well!)

We have tried this with help form other guitarists, but with no success!

thanks 2828! ?

Smuts182

Thx guys, Its my amp and pod x3 that brazmonki is talking about, its at his place, thats why he posted the subject.

We'll try the four cable method for the time being, thx alan ?

We'll post some more question if still uncertain of something!

Peace

AlanRatcliffe

If you don't want to use the amp's preamp at all, you can skip the two cables mentioned in 2 & 3. In other words, straight into the POD and the out of the POD into the effect return on the amp. Then you will be using the POD as the preamp and the Marshall for the power amp and speaker. BTW - left output is always the mono output on a stereo effect.

As you are using the amp's speaker, you're usually going to want to turn off the speaker simulator, which limits the range of speaker tones you can get to whatever is in the Marshall, but will prevent you from getting odd tonalities (may be the cause of the "muted bass sound" brazmonki describes).

guitarboy2828

Oh, that makes sense Alan, i never thought of bypassing the preamp that way.. Not sure i've heard anyone ever do that before though... The nicest thing about the marshall valvestate amps is that they have tubes in the preamp section, to bypass them seems like a waste to me. But I would be interested to know what it sounds like.

I think i may just try that with my vox or crate and my boss multi effects.. I'm interested in this set up now! ?

Vintage-Vibe

the x3live really sounds best straight into a PA/full range amp eg Roland KC350 - it tends to be WAY too compressed straight into the front end of a gtr amp

cain

As far as i know, you need to bypass the preamp, which is not such a big problem, when i tried doing it i read allot of stuff on the net saying that you should plug a "dummie" cable into the effects send and the multi-FX into the effects return, maybe that helps.

Smuts182

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: The "four cable method" is what you need. In short:

1. Plug the guitar into the in of the POD
2. Plug the FX send from the POD into the amp's input
3. Plug the send of the amp into the return of the POD
4. Plug the output of the POD into the return of the amp

The POD will then always be using your amp's power amp, but the amp's preamp will only be used when you switch in the effects loop of the POD. You'll probably want to turn off any speaker simulation in the POD (or set to the output type that matches your amp).

Thx Alan! It worked like a charm!! Now I got a great solid sound coming from my amp!
Now I can use the X3 Live to its full potential!

Thx again!!

brazmonki

http://www.harmony-central.com/theater/video/instructional/instructional_video.html

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