Want a digital rig for small gigs

[Devo]

Hey folks,

Im looking to get a small rig hopefully one piece of floor eqipment that can be plugged into a PA (and thats that) that I can use for small gigs, to save having to carry amps pedal boards etc.

Basically the band I play in at the moment (like most covers bands) does everything from pure jazz numbers to cheesy pop and motown to the darkness..

I have a PODXT for when I get the urge to play at 2 in the morning and would consider a floorboard version ...

but is there anything better out there? I havent got a clue about digital stuff?

Zoom seems to make something called a g9.tt that looks pretty cool

http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/g92tt/

and Digitech has GSP1101 ... but I dont know if that can be run straight into a PA with reasonable success?

Cheers for any advice

Steve

[finstah]

You may want to check out the G-System. Some folks love it, others say it colors the tone too much. Vai uses one in his rig right now so it must be good.

[yoyo1299]

get a boss gt-8. they were made to go into a PA system, and are very good.

[dannymills]

The G-System is mindblowing, but also about £1000...

I'd go with the floor POD - I love the tones I get from my POD.

[mi2tom]

Sell your pod Xt and get Xt live instead

[shogun]

xt live

[HeavyMetal4Ever]

If you can, take your favourite axe with you, and cruise around to all your local instrument shops to try them out. Let your ears make your mind up for you

Having said that, I agree with Mi2tom and shogun, if you like the Pod, sell it and get a Xt live.

Hope this helped, and...

Rock on!

[fyrie]

The G-System is not what you are looking for. It's not a amp modeler, nor does it have it's own distortion. It's made to be used with amplifiers.

EDIT: OOPS forgot the NOT in the first sentence.

[Lefty Robb]

XT live is awesome..everything you need right there at 1/3 to 1/4 the price of the G-system and it has great distortion and expression pedals (wah and volume and such)..of course it will only sound as good as the PA you run it into though, as with most things...

[rty13ibz98]

Originally Posted by mi2tom

Sell your pod Xt and get Xt live instead

keep the xt and buy and xt live.
you can tweak the xt in the middle of the night and leave it hooked up to your computer/2am rig and dump the patches into the xt live for using live. i do the same thing with my pod 2.0's and my flextone 2 amps. i hate moving gear so more gear equals less tear down time.


rich

[finstah]

If money is no object, I'm telling ya right now, get an Axe-FX unit. The be all end all. If money is a concern, sounds like the POD XT Live is the consensus pick here.

I agree to take your axe and try some **** out and see what sounds best to your ears.

[sniperfrommars1]

Originally Posted by yoyo1299

get a boss gt-8. they were made to go into a PA system, and are very good.

.....and so is the podxt live. The gt-8 isnt going to sound anything like his current pod

[yoyo1299]

uhhhh, no it's not, it's gonna sound way better . i really like the gt-8, and i know many people like the xt live. each to his own, btw, do u own a xt live? or a gt-8?

[courtney2018]

I use a Digitech GNX4. You can run it straight into a PA system. It also has an onboard 8 track recorder, so you could be a 1-man-band if you ever wanted to. You can put mp3 files in there and play it back (for drums, rythym, etc.) and you can solo over it. Check out any GNX model though. They're all good.

[fookgub]

Man, there are lots of options for floor modelers these days! Most of them sound very good with a little tweaking, but they all have their unique features. I think I can help a bit.

Boss GT-8 is the only one I know of that lets you run two separate preamps at once. If this appeals to you, then the GT-8 is certainly worth a look. Like all of the modern modelers, it sounds good, but it requires some tweaking and a lot of browsing through the 100+ page manual to really unlock its potential. I own a GT-8.

Digitech GNX4 has a lot of unique features for solo musicians: a basic mixer (with a mic input), built in looper, 8-track recorder, drum machine. It's basically like having a JamMan in addition to the modeling functionality. The "warp" function is a unique and cool feature that allows you the blend two different amp models to your liking. This is different than the GT-8, which lets your run two separate preamps in stereo or blended mono. The GNX4 actually blends the parameters of two different models into one unique model. The Supermodels pack (available separately) leverages this feature to provide a number of new models which are supposedly very realistic (but I've never heard them).

Line 6 Pod XTL needs no introduction. It sounds like your Pod XT, but is geared towards live performance. You can also take your patches directly from the XT and dump them into the XTL. Probably one of the easiest modelers to get a good sound from. It's got a simple interface, and Line 6's support is very good. It's lacking for features compared to some of the competition's offerings, but there is no arguing with good sound, and I've heard a number of people make these things sound great.

Those are all the modelers I feel comfortable commenting on. The Zoom G9.tt is a newer modeler, and I don't know much about it. Seems to have some cool features, though. The Vox ToneLab gets good reviews for it's realistic modeling and simple interface, but I've never tried it. Hopefully my comments will help some, but the best thing to do is go try out everything you can get your hands on. Try to get manuals for everything before that so you can compare features, and so you have a basic idea of how they work. Without knowing at least a little about each modeler's interface, you will be hard-pressed to get a good sound during a short demo (at least for some of the more complicated modelers, like the Boss).