Line 6 bass POD XT Pro or Line 6 LowDown Amps??

[NewGuY2]

hey there..i'm new to this forum and am excited to get useful info from you all in the future!

My first question is..I have been having issues getting a solid bass guitar sound in my mix..I play stuff that is similar to chevelle and thrice..so thick bass, round and tubey is what i want..I've been looking in to Line 6 products..either the Line 6 Bass Pod XT Pro or even buying a Line 6 Lowdown 150 amp and recording out of the Direct out on the amp and going straight into my yamaha 16 track recorder. Any suggestions on what to do...even maybe something totally different that would hit that sound a little more tighter??

I'm using an Ibanez SRX300 bass guitar, which does have passive pickups and was designed for that hard rock sound..but maybe an active pickup guitar would be better...please any opinions would help a ton!!

Thanks.

[KeithMoonwannabe]

My bassist in my band uses a Bass POD XT Live and it works great for our purposes so I would definitely suggest it.

Personally I own the regular POD XT Live and I have POD Farm. I actually purchased the Bass amp/cab add on for my POD and I use it for laying down my shoddy bass parts to my solo projects. It sounds lightyears better than it ever did when I was just recording direct to my saffire.

[fonman]

For live use, I use a POD XT Live with the Bass Model Pack. I used to use a Bass POD XT Pro with a short-board. But, because I also play a bit of guitar, and wanted to downsize my stage rig, I figured to try out the POD XT Live with the Bass Model Pack... Bass Model Pack is just as good. Sold the Bass POD a week later.
Using the POD XT Live (on stage), I just run one side to the board, and the other into a poweramp feeding an Eden wedge for my stage monitor.
If you play a wide variety of stuff, and have to change tones rapidly from say a "p-bass" into an SVT fingerstyle tone, to a split pickup hi-fi slap tone, and want to keep your volumes consistent, etc. It's the dookie.
However, If you only play one style, and don't change tones much, then you may not like it as much as I do.
Over the years, I have owned quite a few amps: (2) SVT-II's, Mesa M-2000, GK 400RB & 800RB, SWR Redhead, Several Eden amps, Demeter pre into Hafler power-amp, Ampeg SVP pre into Hafler PA, and several other descent, but lesser amps (Ampeg SVT200T, Peavey Combo-300, etc.) All of them had thier strong points and weak points.
The SVT-II into EV15B loaded cabs, stands out as my favorite all-time rock/blues tone, and the Demeter ->Hafler ->SWR Goliath II had my favorite slap-tone, the GK's into Hartke cabs had a nice punchy finger-funk tone. But, none of them did a great job at everything (Except the POD XT and running a distant second, the Mesa M-2000).
Why ? Because when you change your playing style (like from rear pickup fingerstyle to front pickup pick style, etc) you have to change your whole tone setup, or it sucks.
This was my dilemma for many years doing the top40 club circuit. If I had set up my tone for P-bass finger-style front pickup tone (bread & butter) , and then we start playing some funky/dance, and I want to slap a bit, or get a good hi-fi pop finger funk thing happening... The first thing I would want is to split between front and back pickups. But, as soon as I split the pickups, the output of the bass drops a bit as a result, so now I need a slight volume boost to compensate, and then, I could really use those lows back that I had previously cut for my "P-bass" tone. So, now I gotta boost some lows. Then, I need some more presence... Blah, blah, blah. Now the song's over, and I want my "P-bass" tone back again.
Too much tweaking! when I just want to be playing, and not thinking about that crap too much. I'd rather be thinking about my harmony parts, or groove instead. Anything but tweaking.
The POD rig lets me set up patches for each style, and save them. So, I just hit a footswitch, and all my tweaking has already been done. Nice.
It takes some patience at your first few jobs to dial it in, but once you get it there, I think you will love it.
Sorry for the long answer, but , believe it or not, I actually left a lot out. Good luck.

[fonman]

Also, regarding your question about basses/pickups. I like (2) pickup basses equipped with EMG DC pickups (Fave), Any other EMG's (second), Bartolini soapbars (3rd). Anything else can work fine if you tweak it a bit, and your chops are up to snuff. But, I really like EMG's.

[KeithMoonwannabe]

I should've mentioned I'm not a big bassist but I scored a good deal on a used midnight wine MIM Fender J Bass and I switched the nut to bone, did a fret level and dressing, setup, installed Badass II bridge by Leo Quan, and installed a set of DiMarzio Ultra Jazz pickups, my electronics feature a switchcraft jack CTS volume pots and a custom PTB concentric tone pot (passive treble bass). I also switched the stock white pickguard to a cream pearloid. So it's a classy looking and sounding bass now.

I will say that I am glad I switched out the pickups the DiMarzios are quieter and sound much better than the stock pickups.

The passive vs active argument will be pretty subjective. I think there are pros and cons both ways. I went with passive just to keep the overall noise level down and it was simpler to wire/solder up.