As I don't care for the internal HD500 overdrives (which sounded fine until I started messing with boutique overdrives...), I now run my HD as only amp/cab, volume, tuner, delays, and one or two modulation FX. Compression and overdrive are handled by these:
CMAT Mods Deluxe Signa Comp
Lovepedal Amp 11
Lovepedal Eternity Fuse
Timmy
Wampler Ecstasy
Fulltone Fat Boost
All of these do different things and are often stacked - Amp 11 plus Ecstasy or Timmy plus Eternity - or whatever hits me at the moment. Fat Boost is just to put some more meat on the bones, an effort to "analog-ize" the HD's amps.
You may know that the HD500 (and frankly all the PODs and maybe all the other modelers) don't produce stellar overdrive tones using just the amp settings. Standard wisdom is to combine amp gain/drive with an overdrive/distortion/fuzz. I eventually tired of the lack of transparency and touch sensitivity. Using these pedals (which obviously cost at least twice the HD5000) helps that. But it's a band-aid, IMO.
I have heard clips that make it appear that I can find Holy Grail-class tones in the AxeFX 2 using only the amps, properly tweaked, right?
But if the overdrives come into play, are they clearly superior to the HD's as well?
Transparency, expressiveness, and touch sensitivity are what I'm looking for. I'm very much a touch player - fairly light-handed, but I use a variety of pick pressure, skin, and angle.
Am I making any sense? I just don't know what I'm hearing with these clips and I can't judge them on those three criteria.
Any insight for me? Thanks again for the great responses to my first thread.
Greg
CMAT Mods Deluxe Signa Comp
Lovepedal Amp 11
Lovepedal Eternity Fuse
Timmy
Wampler Ecstasy
Fulltone Fat Boost
All of these do different things and are often stacked - Amp 11 plus Ecstasy or Timmy plus Eternity - or whatever hits me at the moment. Fat Boost is just to put some more meat on the bones, an effort to "analog-ize" the HD's amps.
You may know that the HD500 (and frankly all the PODs and maybe all the other modelers) don't produce stellar overdrive tones using just the amp settings. Standard wisdom is to combine amp gain/drive with an overdrive/distortion/fuzz. I eventually tired of the lack of transparency and touch sensitivity. Using these pedals (which obviously cost at least twice the HD5000) helps that. But it's a band-aid, IMO.
I have heard clips that make it appear that I can find Holy Grail-class tones in the AxeFX 2 using only the amps, properly tweaked, right?
But if the overdrives come into play, are they clearly superior to the HD's as well?
Transparency, expressiveness, and touch sensitivity are what I'm looking for. I'm very much a touch player - fairly light-handed, but I use a variety of pick pressure, skin, and angle.
Am I making any sense? I just don't know what I'm hearing with these clips and I can't judge them on those three criteria.
Any insight for me? Thanks again for the great responses to my first thread.
Greg