New Toys

It's time to expand the arsenal...as some have so eloquently put it. This summer I am hoping to, occasionally, fill in on guitar at my church and in some other settings. Since WEC and a few other venuse don't use live amps and go straight into the sound board I had to find a solution. A solution in the form of some modeling equipment. For those non-guitar people when you run your guitar through a pedal board straight into the sound board it sounds like butt. Normally you would have Guitar, then pedal board, then amp, then mic, and then finally sound board. The answer (that you see to your right) is a Line 6 POD XT Live. What it does is model a pedalboard, amp, and mic allowing you to go bypass the amp/mic part of the chain. When I started looking around I knew my budget and I knew that I could get a new Digitech RP500 or I could get a used Line 6 XTL. Well on Tuesday of this week I happened to go to a music store near my work on lunch and behold...they had a L6 XTL there with a flight case (a flight case is just a hard metal case...it doesn't really fly). But when they told me the price I couldn't believe it. New the L6 XTL is about $400 and a cheap flight case is going to be $40. They were selling them both for $250. So I did what any self respecting gear head would do...I offered him less. Which he declined. So then I tried it out...nothing seemed wrong with it. So I talked to Jess and she agreed that this was a good deal and I made the purchase. So far I've enjoyed it. It's not as nice as my Tophat, but I didn't expect it to be. But it's good for what it does. You can save 128 different presets on this and there really is a ton of effects and models on here so I might be able to eventually use them all. The presents are saved under 1,2,3...32 up and down. Then on each numbered row you have A, B, C, and D pedals in front of you. So right now I'm going through and picking out amp models that I like and making a "Clean" channel. A "Clean Solo" channel. A "Dirt" channel. And a "Dirt Solo" channel. I just takes time. So far I've made one complete set using the Marshall Jumped Channel Plexi Model. Surprisingly it sounds close to my Tophat, which is modeled after a Fender Bassman. Anyways, I'm really excited to have so many options at my finger tips right now. I feel like I can go sit in on almost any setting and play...which I'm hoping to do this summer. Thanks for reading about my geek-i-ness.

Oh and yes...that is a clock I installed on the right side of the board. It's important to keep time at gigs. Underneath that I am going to install an empty Altoids can to keep picks and other misc items in it.