Line-6 Pod: Your Thoughts

[jimk]

I thought I'd put this in The Others, because it only has a tangential relationship to Rickenbacker guitars and basses. Tell us about your experiences with the Line-6 Pod series of multi effects devices. Which model do you use? What led you to purchase the item? What are your favorite settings? If you use the Pod-X3 have you tried using it in conjunction with the Ric-O-Sound jack if your guitar or bass has one? Feel free to address any questions I may have left out.

JimK

[berth]

I used both bass pod en bass pod XT. Reason for buying them was that we practiced all over Amsterdam with my former band and most practice rooms allready had amplfication. I thought I could bring my own sound to every practice room then. To a certain extend this works. Plug the thing in in either power amp in or maybe in input with tone on amplifier set straight and I almost had my own sound.

At a certain point I got fed up with the sound these boxes make. For some time I even put them before my Ampeg SVP-pro to give the sound some tube warmth. This worked but was not a satisfying way of working. To me the Pod's have a big "almost, but not yet there" factor.

[incubus2432]

My experience, in a nutshell, is that you can get some good sounds out of it but the problem is that the instrument loses all of it's individual character. Any bass I put through it sounded the same so, basically, I felt as though the only tone I was was getting was that of the Line6 unit and the bass was serving as sort of a note trigger. To my ears very sterile and one dimensional sounding.

[Clint]

My bass playing friend uses one and he sounds great. There is of course the fiddle factor, but that's part of the fun.

I use a Zoom G1 from time to time. Once I even ran my 360/12 through it, straight into the board, at a gig. I think it sounds just as good as the Line6 stuff and is less than half the cost.

[JakeK]

I've heard people here aren't that too keen on the Line6 amps (the Spider model, perhaps?). I thought this would be a good place to ask what people don't like about them.

BTW, never used the pod. Don't own a single effects pedal. Boo on me

[gregga41]

Not too sure what the Pods are like, but i've had a Line6 spider II 150w head for a few years now, and it's been a great addition! never had a problem with it. I've used this at the majority of Melbourne jams with other forum members and have been really impressed with the sounds i could get!

[johneek]

I have used a Pod XT Live for several years and am actually quite happy with it. It's really valuable if you need to cover a whole range of sounds. If you're in a situation where you are searching for a particular tone that rarely varies, then you might want to consider individual pedals. Early on, I was of the opinion that the Vox amp models weren't that great, but after playing with them for a while, I'm much happier than I was. It's a lot of sounds for under $400. The other nice thing is that you can go on-line and sample and download other patches. Type in "Hendrix" and you'll get pages and pages of patches that users have put together. If your Pod and guitar are hooked up to the computer (USB cable included) you can try them out and if you like it, download it for free. Pretty cool.....

[ram]

sounds from the bass pods are great but I have had issues with vibration messing with mine (an early version) lately has been relagated to the status of tuner

[gellkeller]

I have found a Pod 2.0 and a set of beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones a good solution at home.

[qwezirider]

I used a Pod Pro for several years for guitar. Just writing and recording. It was stunningly adequate. I dumped it this year for an amp that I mic for recording guitar. The difference is like night and day. The Pod served a purpose to me that I no longer desired.

[antipodean]

I use a Line6 Flextone (basically a first generation pod plus 60 watt power amp) with the floorboard controller and can't fault it. It's robust and gives me a broad range of useful tones. I was looking for something flexible and light, and it was on special at my local usic store. My Boogie Mk III has just been gathering dust since I got it.

A good friend who is a serious commercial musician/composer/producer uses a Pod II exclusively for all his studio guitar work. He runs a state-of-the-art studio and could pretty much have any gear he desired, but the Pod is it. Importantly, he doesn't play live anymore.

[whojamfan]

I have the original one upgraded to the 2.0, a bass PODxt, and an XT live, and they all have more strengths than weaknesses, IMHO.

I got the POD when they first came out through the store I worked at, and wow, it was the best thing since sliced bread. I couldn't wait to use it at rehearsal, and took along an FB-4 floorboard. The POD sounded good through my amp, but a footswitchable bypass would really have made it great, that way I could have switched it on and off like a pedal. After 3 or 4 rehearsals, I went back to the pedals I was using, as the floorboard had latency issues, and there was a high end whispiness when I cranked the amp up a bit. So, my POD stayed at home for headphone use and 4 track demoing.

I went to do some work in Denmark, and had my POD in it's bag on top of my backpack, and it was great to be able to have the sound that I wanted for the sessions without having to hire out gear. Several presets I had made worked nicely, and not having to lug an amp around was really great.

A few years later, I find myself in a cover band doing 4 sets a night, and in need of massive tone shaping capability. I read that the XT live has been specifically designed to be able to go in front of your amp, and has USB. Cool, I think, and buy one. There are a lot of options with it, and had individual banks set up for my Ricks and Gibsons. With a lot of tinkering, it sounds pretty good, you just really need to spend a while setting it up with the amp you are going to use to really get the most out of it. Setting it up at home and then going to play at rehearsal is hard to get right. The sounds for the most part are good, except I never cared for the Vox models on either, and the Marshall JCM800 model sounds better(more uummph and knock)on the original POD. All in all, still not a bad unit by any means.

For that same cover band, I ordered a variax guitar to plug in to the XT live. The guitar arrived with a broken B string tracker, and although some of the models sounded good, it wasn't for me and I sent it back. I told them to send me a 330FG in it's place, great guitar(no kidding).

A few years ago, I got the Bass Pod XT. I really like this unit, and my basses sound great through it. I got it mainly to record with, and it works great for that. Having said that, I am a guitar player who plays some bass, so I don't have years of solid bass and amplifier setups to have a finely tuned ear for the subleties that I do with guitar amps and guitars. I can say, however, that I am quite pleased with it, and really never intend to use it through an amp live.

A couple of years ago, an online dealer was blowing out Vox Tonelabs for 99 bucks. I couldn't pass that one up, and a year and a half later, I took it out of the box and integrated it in to my studio. I haven't messed around with it much, but the AC-30 setting is much better to me than the ones in the PODs I have. I haven't really tried the others, because I'm so happy with the sound I dialed in.

All in all, I don't regret any of the POD purchases I have made, as they have done what I needed of them most of the time, and continue to surprise me still. If nothing else, they are still about the best headphone amp you could ask for.