Westone active circuits and Line6 PODs

I've recently been fixing the active circuit on my Thunder 1-A. Its the type with the fixed gain and variable tone. I really quite like some of the sounds I can get from it but I have noticed when I play through my POD I get the 'clip' warning displaying on the POD when the active circuit is enabled. I'm guessing this means than the input signal is exceeding some amplitude threshold and I will be getting some distortion (and not in a good way!)

My questions are...
Is this likely to damage my POD? (Might pose this question on the Line 6 forums too...)
Do westone active guitar outputs exceed norms for guitar output? Could this damage amps too?
Is there anyway of reducing the gain but still benefiting from the variable tone circuitry?

Cheers


David

Silverfox wrote:Is there anyway of reducing the gain but still benefiting from the variable tone circuitry?

This is going to be the volume knob isn't it. D'oh!

The Thunder IA/IIA active circuit gives like 20dB boost, which is going to drive the poop out of what you have it plugged in to.

This may have been a good idea back before amps like Marshall had a master volume - so you could drive the poop out of the preamp. But with modern high gain amps with master volume, the 20db of boost in the Westone's circuit is way too much. In reality, standard PAF-like pickups (low to moderate output) are better for use on modern high gain amps and make the amp sound better.

Some PODs have a 'pad' switch for the input. You might want to try flipping it to its 'cut' setting. I suggest, however, that you just don't use the active boost from your guitar when you're plugged in to the POD.

Remember the Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup from the '70s? They were great on old amps but not so good on a new Boogie Triple Rectifier or Diezel Herbert. The hotter the pickup, the less definition your chords will have.

Thanks Colt

I thought that might be the case. Now that its working I may just pop the batteries out to avoid any acidents! I'm hoping using the active circuit hasn't already damaged my pod. Its started rebooting itself on a fairly frequent basis

David

Silverfox wrote:I'm hoping using the active circuit hasn't already damaged my pod. Its started rebooting itself on a fairly frequent basis
David

Interesting!

I have a hard time believing that the two are related (over-driving the input and the POD rebooting itself).

I would check the power supply, cord, and jack.

Does the POD only reboot itself while you are using the active guitar and have the boost turned on, or does it happen with whatever guitar you have plugged in?

Yeah, I'm not really convinced that they are linked. The POD can restart when its juts sat by itself with no input or output connected so its certainly not a direct link. Also I've recently had the back of the jack socket soldered up where there may have been a slightly bad connection. It now seems to reboot a hell of a lot less often ...but still does occasionaly.

Maybe its just time to upgrade to a POD X3

David

Silverfox wrote:
Maybe its just time to upgrade to a POD X3
David

I have a POD XT Live and love it both for the studio and live. But I'd rather have the X3. The biggest advantage of the X3 that I know of is the ability to have two independent signal paths. Multiple independent signal paths is usually how the pros get their big live tone.