Res. Level

Sets the resonance level of the cab. This is basically like setting how hard you want to push the cab. At lower levels, the resonance is not affecting the speaker's signal reproduction as much, and the tone is a bit crispier but can sound a little more "dead" and scooped. Higher levels can get a smoother tone but it is a little more compressed and less tight. This control also affects how much the Thump and Decay parameters actually influence the tone - they are basically flavors to the resonance set here.

I find there are 3 zones to this control. At lower settings, the cab tone is cleanest, but the tone can be a little rough. Depending on your amp tone and cab selection, it may be more crisp than rough. As you turn up the Res. Level, the tone will start to get squishier, smoothing out the roughness. I find this is the sweet spot. Past this point, the resonance starts to dominate the tone, with certain frequencies boosted and others cut. Also, the tone begins to lose clarity, sounding a bit washed out or noisy. Thus, extreme settings make the tone "wonky". I never go lower than 25% and never higher than 70%. Most of the time I'm close to 50%.

I find I usually turn this down a little bit on the Hiway and Tread V-30 cabs, but turn it up a bit on the XXL cab. It makes the Hiway's highs a bit more crisp. The Tread V-30 becomes less presence-heavy and a bit clearer. The XXL gets a bit of a mid-boost by turning it up, which I find makes it sound less dark and scooped then it does at 50%. But I rarely go past 60%.

For dual cab tones, I find this control is best left around 50% or boosted slightly. It really emphasizes the character of the cab and supplies the mids that cut through. While this might throw the Hiway or Treadplate cabs out of balance by themselves, when they are paired with the XXL or Hiway to provide more low end warmth and punch, everything blends better, and the tone is richer with higher Res. Level settings.

This control is yet another means to alter the nature of the distortion tone you are getting. If you find pre-EQ'ing your amp (or some other distortion stage) can't get you exactly where you want to go, this is a good place to experiment. I've had tones that worked for rhythm but were too harsh for lead or weren't giving me the right compression that were vastly improved by manipulating this control. For instance, if I lowered this control, I'd get a more bright and less compressed tone. Then I could add a bit more compression and use less treble before the amp. Overall I had the same average amount of compression, but I got more consistency between rhythms and leads. And the highs I had were less gritty and harsh for leads but still crisp and crunchy for rhythms.

Thump

This determines if the resonance affects the low-end of the frequency spectrum or not. If you want a chunky low-end response, you can turn this up; but if your tone is too boomy you can turn it down.

I found this control worked better for adding punch to the tone than the bass control on the amp. The bass control seems to boost more ultra-low-end making the tone boomy. I think many people would turn up the bass, then use this control to try to dial out boominess, but I find the opposite approach works better, being conservative with bass and adding punch using this control.

Decay

Basically sets how long the resonance persists (at least I imagine). This is kind of like the decay setting on a reverb. Too short gives a tone that sounds too thin. Too long gives a tone that sounds fake or weird. I generally like to boost this a little if I want to thicken up my tone, but going higher than 70% I find things start getting weird. I generally stay between 50-70%.

Top of Cabs and Mics

G. E.R.

I default this to 0%. I prefer to use a reverb effect if I want to add a little space to the tone, but for a metal rhythm I generally don't want space at all. The only time E.R. would be useful in my opinion, is if you have already maxed out your effects blocks or DSP and want some additional reverb/space. It doesn't sound bad, but you get more control and a better sound from a reverb effect. Sometimes, I set it to between 0 and 10% to add a minor touch of ambiance to the tone where I don't feel that effect is worth adding a whole Reverb effect.

VII. EQ

• A. Classifying the Frequency Spectrum

• B. How to EQ a Hard Rock Tone

• C. The Pod HD's EQ Effects

  • i. Graphic EQ

  • ii. Parametric EQ

  • iii. Studio EQ

  • iv. 4 Band Shift EQ

  • v. Mid-Focus EQ

  • vi. Q Filter

• D. EQ'ing your Patch

• E. Fizzy Spots

I find one of the best tricks to getting the sound you want is to properly EQ the final tone. Unlike the Amp/Distortion Tone page, which involves pre-eq'ing the tone before the primary distortion phase, this covers post-distortion EQ'ing.