First of all, I am pretty sold school when it comes to amps and effects. A simple tube amp pushed with a couple of tube screamers, the on board reverb from the amp itself, and some modulation like delay and chorus. I joined a band a few years back that was about to go into the studio to record an album the year before covid struck. As a result, I ended up buying a Pod HD500X as a way to try to consolidate the effects that I might need all in one unit. I used it mainly as a "pedal board" in front of the [tube] amp as if it were my old analog board full of individual pedals. Needless to say, the recording project got pushed back because of the pandemic, and I was stuck at home, with a lot of time to play around with the processor. It was "good" but it left me wanting an easier to use option. As you could imagine, what that kind of time on my hands, I did a lot of floating around the internet just looking at possible modelers. All of the names. Kemper, Helix, Axe FX, Fractal, and this HeadRush board. Out of everything that was out there, the HeadRush board seemed to be VASTLY easier to try to figure out. Pushing my late 40s now, I don't really 'enjoy' learning new technology the way I did in my teens and twenties, so I didn't want a steep learning curve just to be able to use this thing. I spent a day while it was being shipped looking over youtube tutorials as to how to use it. Only took me a few hours of messing around with it once it got here to dial in the tone that I had on… read more the HD500X. If you can use your cell phone, you can figure this board out. The effects sound convincing and the amp models really seem as good as the competition's offerings (even if this board doesn't have quite as many jammed into it). We are about three weeks out from going in to start laying down the guide tracks for this LP [finally], and this will make things much easier to navigate when each little tone will be more heavily scrutinized. The ability to tweak it on the fly will save time (and thus MONEY) in that studio environment. No deep dives into large menus to try to make a minor adjustment. Gives me a lot more freedom to just try to play my parts instead of worrying about the setup itself. I think this board is a bit underrated as far as the amps and cabs as well. I still will be running it to my amplifier and mic-ing it up as I do still like the "feel" that tubes give when playing. But who knows, I may use some of the sims as well. Built like a tank. A bit heavier than I had expected. Should hold up well under live applications (though that was actually not a problem with the 500X either). I highly recommend this unit if you want to get something that doesn't take a degree from Berklee in sound engineering to get started making music.

Musical Style:
I play anything from Rock, to jam band stuff, to country and blues and even in the church praise band. Can't say that I am great read less