I'd also still use the amp's EQ a bit, maybe not as much as before, but some. The amp still needs that Peavey midrange EQ to help balance out the speaker and cabinet tone. You actually need that to get the amp "flat" sounding. Then let the POD amp model eq's do the tone control. You may want to turn "off" the POD speaker cabinet emulation and just use the amp models. Sometimes a speaker emulation into a speaker can just be too much voicing.

Here's what I do. On any of the amp models, turn the "channel volume" all the way up and the "drive" all the way down. Then add in "drive" for volume and bite. The opposite configuration will give you distortion. Make sure the "Studio/Live" switch is set to "live." Use the noise gate if it helps.

After all of that, the POD is still pretty dang noisy, BUT, it hasn't been a problem for me on stage.

PS, I'm toying with using both a POD and a Tubefex. Just played with it for the first time last night.

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As with the hiss, I've got it too, but I've played in several places with it and it's always been down to an acceptable level even when the volume was high.

Good luck!

$0.02 more,

I have been going "Ampless" for a while. Plugging straight into the board and having the sound man give me my own wedge and monitor mix. It's like having my own amp tipped in front of me. I love it and I love showing up to the gig with the little POD slung over my shoulder in a small case.

The settings I have been using the most are the tube pre-amp and digital delay chained with the variable (knob) settings tweaked to the sound I want.

I also like having the headphone output for tuning. As well the on-board tuner is pretty cool too.

I forget now but I think you can permanently choose the default of each amp sim--what type of reverb, which speaker cab, etc. with a couple of button punches so that when you choose "Blackface" it will have no speaker sim. But that's no big deal. Just takes a sec to turn off the speaker sim.
I did find that sometimes if I was looking to build a rich overdrive sound the speaker sims added that last bit of color that I was looking for. So they are not totally worthless. They are mainly for direct-to-board recording.

[This message was edited by Jon Light on 03 June 2004 at 12:31 PM.]

I found the POD amp models sounded good through the NV400 up to moderate volumes. But the closer you get to maximum volume, the less it sounded like the models, and the more it sounded like a maxed out solid state NV400 - not good in my book. The problem is that the amp models require very high fidelity amplification to reproduce them properly. Playing into a very powerful PA would probably be preferable to to the NV400 for high volume situations. Possibly you could run the NV400 at moderate volume and mike it.

Have you tried going into the back of your Nash, just for the hell of it? The amp in insert? This is how I used the Pod (in my Evans) and it avoided overly harsh, double preamped sound. I could see this increasing headroom although there's no reason to expect greater overall level.
--BTW--the same tap button boost exists on the drive control but that will give you serious grit.

----let me add that I'm surprised by your inability to get the levels you need. I ran the Pod ito the Evans and also into the smaller Mosvalve power amp (1140, I think?) and never had any problem getting the levels I needed. The Nash should have all that you need, I would think.

[This message was edited by Jon Light on 08 June 2004 at 04:46 PM.]

On my XT (and when I played with previous POD versions), I use the compressor all the time, but only for gain boost. On my XT, I have the threshold set at -1db (not much compression), but the makeup gain set at +12db. You have to be careful that you don't clip internally in the unit, but I found that this helped the output volume - since for steel I keep the drive setting pretty much off.

If you haven't tried this, it may help.
Good luck,