A low pass does help with some things. I'm not using any EQ before S-Gear, but I like to use Sonimus Sweetone before Amplitube. Sweetone is just a quick, simple, nice sounding EQ that is perfect to go before or after an amp sim. Of course the quadcurve or any other would work just as well.

I'm still hanging in there with my original POD upgraded to POD II. I wish they still supported it, it sound's killer through the loop of a Crate Power Block into a Emi Texas Heat. Absolutely kills the Flextone II. Have a Toneport UX-2 too. I'm not sure they support it anymore either, it is one of the early red ones. I've bought four hardware products from them, used Toneport online and they dropped pretty much everything I bought. I wont be buying anymore Line6 products. I'll use what I have but that is it.
 
J

I'm drooling over the DT-50. A good friend of ours who gigs quite a bit has replaced his old Fender/Vox set up with one and he recommended it whole heartedly. Maybe someday...
 
I didn't know that you could EQ the HD 500 more extensively. The HD 300 offers some basic options, but, since the same effect slot is occupied by EQ, Compression and Gain and a few others, you often have to choose between EQ'ing and something else.
 
I used to run it through my Mackie board but the results were a tiny bit too noisy for my taste.
 

I agree about the older Pods. I have a POD 2.0 with the line 6 long board foot controller I used mainly for Fender amps. I have the HD500 and even using the onboard Eqs to soften it on the top end I still find myself dragging out the 2.0. Although, TH2 has really filled the bill for a while now.

Bitflipper has a valid point. To me, two of the best arguments for using amp sims are:
1)when you can't turn up too loud. (live on a residential street in Anytown USA and inspiration strikes at 1:00 AM)
2)when you can't turn the devices/ people in your house down. (If only the furnace or washing machine had a volume knob, or my kids for that matter).
My favorite amp right now is a Musicman HD130 that I pretty much use as a tube power amp with a Hafler T2 preamp, an Alesis quadraverb and hushIIcx sitting in a rack with it all running through a no name 4x12 with emminence legends. When the stars are alligned it is the best sounding thing in the world. All the cool hot rodded reasons you would pick rack gear in the first place. The problem is that this makes for that many more pieces patched together with jacks and plugs. I have yet to get an intermittent short that drops my volume 10dB, thus ruining that one perfect take that was destined to transport me into the stratosphere of greatest of the great from an amp sim. (that's how it happened, and I'm sticking to my story.) Plus that thing all told weighs about 100 lbs. and requires 3 trips to get it all from your car to the studio.

I would think that the Gibson and Ibanez would present different impedance's to your audio interface. Could that be the difference you hear? IF you had an amp with a line out, you could let the amp provide a consistent impedance to the interface regardless of the guitar you use.

I meant an emulated line out, so it looks like that theory is shot.