Line 6 POD

Well, I have just got an used one (beliave, jan 2009!) First POD version (no speaker cabinet options). Decided to face an experience with modellers but with very low expenses (live in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil ... import taxes are really high to spent lots of money in some gear you are not sure if that??s what you want). It is very easy to use (10), easy to get usable sounds. But, it is better to listen to it LOUD when editing patches, and through some kind of flat response system (studio monitors), this brings an 8, so, average 9.

I use it for rock, soul, funk and "jazzy" stuff. Run a Fender MIM with a Seymour Duncan JBJR on the bridge direct to computer.

Use clean sounds with black panel and modern class A models, low gain crunch and mid gain settings brit hi gain.

2 experienced players, both professional and owners of many great tube amps (Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall JCM, VOX AC-30 etc) told me that this sounded more natural to them than the earlier versions. That encouraged me to give this version a try.

First of all, as we know, this is no tube amp. I have a Fender Blues Junior "replica" here, and obviously the POD can??t beat it. However, the POD is very, very usable. A non-musician would never tell the difference nor care about it. Only experienced guitar players could notice difference, however, being honest: one thing being better than other does not make the worst of the 2 a bad thing at all.

As others said, it is really less dinamic than an tube amp, but playing with a band, probably the player will be the only one to notice that. It is a little harsh, but a only little. Depends on how you set it.

I created a patch of a basic clean sound and I am experiencing to put good stompboxes (a RAT and a Fulltone OCD) before it. Sounds Good, with better dinamics, but it does not sound SOOOOOOOOOOOO better that the POD doing all by itself.

I don??t think that it has 16 really usable amp models... I have not really tried to geat a good sound from each yet, and I probably won??t. But by now I think the Black Panel, Modern Class A, British Hi Gain, Modern Hi Gain and Fuzz Box can deliver nice tones. Others I haven??t tried to tweak enough to tell for sure, but some of them sounded really weak in a first moment.

3 things are important, in my opinion to get good results:

1. Hear it LOUD when dialing yout tone, and consider how does it sound IN A MIX.

2. use a Flat Response reference like using it direct to a mixer/monitors or through a keyboard amp. At least use the return of an effect loop on a guitar amp. I use mine through a home stereo, and it is usable. Direct to the computer for recording it is good.

3. I think that when shaping tone in this device it is important to make subtle adjusts in treble/low/mids to get a more realistic voice. Sometimes small changes in these parameters together make the sound much better. Knobs are very sensitive.

Effects: Has many. They are not "awesome", but usable. Some better than others. Very few tweaking options for them. If you are a modulation pilot, think you will miss some options.

In my opinion, it is very usefull for live , practice or recording, once you understand how to set good sounds.

However, if you are a "tonefreak", this is not for you. You wont like. I preffer to be a "playingfreak" , and this makes things much easier for me.

Recently got it... don??t know yet, but i think it is reliable. Would not gig without a backup.

I know this is an old thing. I just wrote this review considering that like me, there must be someone else somewhere tired of carrying heavy amps and pedalboards, that never had a modeller for time enough to judge as usable or not.

As I said before, I am happy with it. It is light, small and easy to plug and go. I have been playing for 20 years, had some tube amps and lots of stompboxes. If it was stolen, probably I would get another. It helps me a lot to make my music. I woud like to be possible to scroll through the banks with the FB4 footswitch. You have to choose one bank (from 1 to 9) manually on the POD and than the foot calls one of the four patches (a,b,c and d) of each bank. It has a tap tempo function on the footswitch, which is a god thing to control effects like tremolo, rotary and delay tempo. Anyway, I think it can be controlled by a Midi footswitch controller, that would cover it all.

Once again: If you are a tone freak, this is not for you. If you want very usable sounds (not awesome) and an easier life, get one. Try for a couple of weeks and decide for yourself.

I am reviewing this product for what I use it for, which is a teaching aid. I haven't got the space, or half a mile until the next house to have my tube amps running at home for lessons!
The Pod has an excellent range of sounds that get pretty close to tube feel (through a Mackie mixer and a pair of Mackie studio monitors) at very low volumes. The effects are useable and this unit makes it very easy for me to dial in a close call to just about any sound my students want to imitate.
My only gripe is that I wish you could choose which reverb you want, rather than it being pre-determined by the amp model you select.

For what it's worth, here's where I stand on the whole tube vs modelling debate that seems to go on forever below:

FOR HOME PRACTICE, teaching, quickly dialling in a range of useable sounds - this is great.

FOR RECORDING it sounds pretty damn good, if you know how to mix properly and haven't got access to anywhere that you can record at high volumes.

FOR GIGGING - I would not suggest going down the Pod OR modelling route. Sounds that you spend hours tweaking at home tend to sound absolutely rubbish when you start to run them at higher volumes due to cirtain (especially higher) frequencies not being audible at low volumes. You will be forever tweaking my friends! You'll end up with 50% of your patches having to be for home use and 50% for live. This is fine if you have access to somewhere that you can practice on your own, at gig volume for hours on end, but most of us don't.

A selction of modeled amps and effects, read other posts for full list - you must know what a Pod does by now people..

I have never had a problem with this unit, and have used it pretty much every day for the last 3 years.

I have never had to deal with Line 6.

I have been playing for about 14 years now and have used many different effects units, amps guitars etc. I love the fact that this is such a good sounding device that can sit on my desktop and produce useable practice sounds.
As I said above, I would not recommend this unit for gigging but if you need a versitile home practice set up, I would suggest running one of these through some average studio monitors, rather than going down the combo route. Unless you also want to use the combo to gig with of course..

This has been a very useful product for me as a teacher.

I find it easy to use, although don't mess with editing patches. My approach is to use it manually, set it to the amp I want to model, tweak it and play. I use it live in club and bar gigs in between my guitar and a Fender Bassman 60 amp. It is easy to go from one amp to another between songs .

I have several quality Humbucker guitars plugged into the pod, which goes into the input of the Fender Bassman 60 amp(not the new one but the old one from the early 90's). Noise filter removes the unwanted noise. Effects are used sparingly, and work well when needed. I regularly use distortion, tremelo, delay, compression. At one time only tube amps were available. Every player knows they are best but require maintenance. They also can have a problem during a performance, which has happened to me several times. Because of this, I favor solid state amps and the Pod. I know it does not sound as good as a good old tube amp, but for gigging dependability and a sound that is almost as good this works for me. No one has said anything bad about the sound and tone the rig made, guitar afficionandos included. The pod amps I use are the Fender Bassman(blues and classic rock), Fender Twin(blues, classic rock and surf music), Marshall JCM800(Classic rock) and the Vox AC30(Beatles).

It is very reliable as long as it is not abused.

No need to contact them. Manual is easy to understand. Plenty of on line help also.

The 14 year existance band plays the blues and classic rock. The pod covers it well. I have been playing since the mid 1960's and cut my teeth on the Stones and Beatles. I have gone through a lot of gear over the years, but gradually realized tube amps, while the best tone, are maintenance prone, expensive to fix and can/do breakdown at the worst times. Not being rich and without a lot of storage space, the pod houses a lot of tone, settings, amps and at a low cost. I would buy it again as it is very versatile, including a headphone jack and tuner! Good lighting in the dark. Easy to use under pressure. My favorite setting is the Fender Bassman model going into my Fender Bassman 60 amp playing my Fender Telecaster! No other product comparisons were done. I did my research on harmony-central and then found a used one in a pawn shop. It makes me rise to a higher level because I can play different tones and amps with some simple tweaking. I could not afford nor store all the amps the Pod has at your fingertips.

9 If you use the Deep Edit Program. 4 if you tweak it from the front panel. By all means, to get what you're after you have to go deep.

I have probably put over 20-30 different guitars throught this unit.
(no kiding , I have a huge collection) Each has it's own sound. I don't mind the effects too much cause IMHO less is more. They do the job for me. I would have a short wish list regardig effects, but it's ok as it is. I use it Live and Studio(dry). Into a Bose PAS, as a front end of Tube and Solid State amps. It's a different sound in each setup. Like the other reviewer said you gotta know how to use all the variables. I've A/B'd this against my Matchless Chieftain and it's awful hard to tell. Same for a Twin Rev. Reissue. This unit is probably on more recordings(pro and amatuer) than most people realize.

Had one or two go bad, bought replacements. Right away. I rely on this
unit and keep a backup close by.
It get's used a lot, and if you use it enough, eventually it'll break.
In a strictly studio environment, it'd probably last a long time.

I've gotten into it pretty good with the Line 6 folks for a bunch of other issues but never about the POD 2.0
They suck on some of the newer gear, but not on the 2.0 I've upgraded from the original Ver 1. Repair? Why? These are a bargain nowadays. If it breaks , Launch it.
too exensive to repair once it's out of warranty.

I play to almost every type of crowd. I get asked to do a wide variety of music, I have a handful of presets that stand up to just about any challenge. I've been playing 40 + years, I'm a gear junkie I own well, you name it,(gear Junkie) I probably have one. I've compared it to the J station and the Behringer and this seems to have the edge although I thought there were some nice features on the others as well, especially if you shred. I wish it had Auto Wah and a better sounding Leslie. I play as a single mostly, but I'll use a tube amp OR the Pod as a front end to a Tube amp(into the effect return) when I work in a band cause I need more stage volume. This thing usually does the trick though. I love a good tube amp. I own some really really cool ones.
But I think the pod gets its points from being so multi dimensional.
I mean, who brings 32 amps to a gig?

Bottom line, technology has not evolved to the state that it can recreate the sound of tubes and especially the sound of air from a speaker hitting a mic.

People that rate this unit high fall into 4 categories;

1. They do not know how to record an amp properly.

2. Their ears have not matured enough to distinguish the difference between the real deal and a simulation.

3. They need to record in a quiet area.

4. They actually like the sound of digital products.


I fit into them a few years back, but with continuous ear training I am now onto bigger and better tones.

Pretty good amount of features.

Never had any problems.

Never had to use it.

I would not even use this unit for practice because why practice with something you are not going to record with. Your best bet on achieving a decent sound is to use this as your preamp and use a power amp and a cabinet of your choice. Direct does not give you a full sound. And I am not just talking about this unit. I mean anything direct.

Don't buy into Line 6 hype. They spend more on advertisements then Lars Ulrich spends on lawyers.

Tubes Or Bust.

I run my Old Baby 1979 The SG , a Squire Fat Strat, as well as my Ibanez Electric/Acoustic and various bass guitars thru it. I either plug direct into my Behringer mixer at home for recording, my Kustom practice amp, or my old Peavey Renown with 2x12 cab for gigs.
My Sound kicks ass!!!

If this were 2001, I would give it a 10. But there is an upgraded model, the PODxt. That being said, I'm still exploring the unit's possibilities.

I use this with the 4 button Line 6 footswitch. It's 3 years old and no problems at all. Solid construction. If/When I upgrade, this unit will become my backup.

N/A no problems, info is readily available online, read the F%$#@!ING manual and you will have a much clearer understanding.

I'm not some dumbass kid playing dropped C death metal riffs. I'm a 40 year old dad with 25 years of playing behind me...and I play louder and meaner than most of these 20 year old suburban pussies who pretend to be rockers. My musician friends often consult me about good guitar tone.
The POD is a Godsend. While I love Old School tube amps, I really like and support Line 6's approach....I mean, cmon, I've got 3 Marshalls and 4 Boogies on tap here!
It will probably take one generation, but mark my words...In 2025, NO ONE is gonna give a damn if your guitar tone came from tubes or not.
Get a POD , Now!!!!

Jackson Soloist (japan made, custom), with HSS, Duncan SH-8 Invader bridge, 2 custom strat vintage single coils on center and neck positions; Epiphone Slash Signature, with Duncan Jeff Beck in bridge position.
I mostly play blues-rock-hard rock; POD suits those styles very well for home-practicing; i'm not a metalhead, but I guess it's ok for that also.
Great variety of sounds, most of them usable, 36 storing locations, blah blah.
Clean sounds are ok, distorted are also ok.
The weak point is obviously the lack of breakup from clean to overdrive to dist. But if u want the sound of power tubes breakup, then buy a tube amp.
I've certainly heard better sounds, but also heard so much crap sounding equipment.

Mine is 1.0, bought in March,2000.
It is almost all I need for practicing in my apartment.
Plenty of features, blah blah.
Obviously it comes with a handy headphones input.
It is also in my backup rig for gigs.

ROCK SOLID.

Never dealt with 'em, and I suppose I never will have to.
Anyway they seem ok.

I've been playing for 10 years, and my main amp rig is a Laney VH100R head, stacked on a Marshall Lead 1960 4x12 w/Celestions GT12T-75.
Blah Blah some fx, eq, wah, same as many players here.
No BBE maximizers or crap, just pure tube sound.
Anyway POD is always at my gigs as a backup; you never know when a power tube is gonna quit working.
Coupled with a midi controller and the same fx/eq chain of the main rig, it is the ideal backup and my best mate for jamming with friends, no big deal!
I've also owned in the past a Line6 POD Pro rackmounted with a Mesa 20/20 EL-84 poweramp, and b4 that even a Rocktron Velocity 120 (UGH!).
If my POD was lost or stolen, i'd buy another in a sec.

Conclusion: it will never sound like a tube amp, but it comes close enough to give good but somewhat "static" sounds.
If you buy it for what it is, it is a good piece of equipment!
Good work, Line6!

I did not buy this to reproduce any vintage amp. I wanted tone control in a appartement environement. I got it and much more. If you want a Plexi, you'll have to find a real one. If you want a sound shapping device, this is it. Thank God you can save your settings, because there's just to much variable to play with! I've setted up so that I can dial basic setups and just have to tweak effects, EQ and volume. Fantastic. It took some time to find my sounds but it was well worth it. You must use your PC to access some of the features.

I play mostly blues and classic rock on an epi LP and a cheap fat strat clone. As an front end for an amp, the POD reacts well (at least on my amp) but the extremes tends to sound unrealistic. Too much distortion often gives weird results. Very clean tones are also somewhat poor. The effects are mostly just passable save for the 1st chorus and the delay that are great. The reverb is nice at low settings. I'm sure that for any of my 11 basic setups that I've made, I could find an amp that could sound better. But I'm pretty sure that I couldn't find one that could reproduce all of them.

For silent practice use, it beats anything that I've ever played. You can play not too loud and still get great tone.

For recording, well, I guess it was built with that in mind. I'll leave the final verdict to more seasoned technicians, but for home use on a PC, it's very fun and versatile.

I have a POD 2.0 that I bought in 03. It's pack full of features. So much, that you can get lost in them. I originally bought it to play with headphones in my appartement, but now that I can make as much noise as I want, I use it as a front end to a cheapo Dean Markeley SS amp set to neutral. I've also played with for recording thru my PC. You could say that this is my main amp.

I won't name all the features, too many of them. Since I do not have the pedal board or the switch, I think it would be nice to be able to get some sort of auto-wah out of it. As it is, the wah is simply not available. Other then that, hard to complain. I takes some time to get comfortable with the controls.

In over 2 years, it never failled. It's build tough and the control knobs are also tough. Only thing I could see failling on this are the push buttons, but they have yet to show any signs of wear. Yeah, I would gig with it.

Don't know and I don't want to know.

I originally bougth this because I wanted something to play without getting trown out of my appartement. Now, I can pretty much play my self to deafness if I please, but I still use it as my main tone tool. I've had it for over 2 years, I'm still getting some suprises out of it. It takes some getting use to, but it's well worth the effort.

The pedal board would be nice I guess. I've collected quite a number of gadgets over time and I keep coming back to basic setups. Still, an auto-wah probably would have been easy to implement... Foot swtich should be standart. I don't have it, but I would use it if I had it.

If it was stolen? I'd go out an buy an all tube amp, crank it up and make the house crumble. Then, I'd miss my POD.

you do have to do some tweaking to match your settings with your gear, and sometimes you have to dig pretty deep with certain amp models - but IMO it is well worth it.

once in the ballpark with the internal tweaking its no problem to twist the knobs to fine tune things when changing guitars or locations you are playing/jamming.

I am taking this unit for what it is, an amp modellor. If soemone is trying to compare each model to the real thing they are missing the point. Also - add in the fact that you dont have to worry about micing and soundbleeding and all the other hassles with recording, and the quality of the results this is a very handy companion. I have listened to clips on HC of people recording thier Marshall track onto a song/clip, and also a clip using the Pod - and you know what? There have been many times it is hard to tell the difference.

And if you cannot crank up that fender bassman or twin and use quality mics/recorders then I think you will end up with better recorded tones using the Pod anyway, again its a handy companion for computer recording whether you are just laying down some grooves or trying to capture kickass tones for your songs. So in alot of instances I think the Pod could come in more handy than your 2-3 tube amps - if you own all the tube amp models here and quality mics then what do you want the Pod for?

So, if you need alot of good sounds that are different, and you take the time to tweak your own patch settings I dont see how you could go wrong or be dissapointed with the Pod

I am giving it a high score because after taking the time to find your settings you will have some very good tones to work with, and recording direct with these Pods is so useful - like I mentioned Ive heard clips comparing the Pod/amp model against a certain amp and often times it is difficult to distinguish the playback.

Since you can get that close and do not have to worry about mics, replacing tubes, or particular micing techniques/soundproofine, etc., Then I think it deserves a high score.

I have had the 2.0 (with 2.3 firmware?) a little over 2 weeks - I wanted to mention that but Ive been playing tube amps for about 17 years. Again I am not comparing any of the models to the real deal in a live settings because when playing live in a band setting I do feel the response of the tube amps being modelled is missing - But I am comparing it using the recorded tones as a guide compared to the real thing, also including the "no'hassle" factor. - for that I give it a solid 8.

I have set 1/2 of the patches for my strat and the other 1/2 for my SG/humbucker guitars and it is handy having all of those presets to save your settings, I dont have to tweak the knobs when I switch guitars I just use the long-floorboard controller to select the patches that I made for each guitar

I use a B.C. Rich Warlock NJ Series (2001) as my main guitar, and a Ibanez RG 570 (1993) as my secondary guitar. Although I play Folk/Goth Metal, the type of sound that I like and use is basicly a complete insane brutal high gain, very saturated with huge low end, but always without loosing thickness. If you ask, is the POD 2.0 capable of doing it? The answer is yes.

The POD doesn't achieve the kind of thickness (bit fuzzy in some cases) that I can get with my Boss MT-2 (Metal Zone), but still is pretty good and powerfull. The type of distortions that I prefer on the POD is "Modern High Gain" and "Line 6 Insane", and especially the last one has lots of agression and attack... perfect for any extreme metal style. "Modern High Gain" is a little bit more soft, and I use mainly for rehearse at home.

For the recording of my band's Demo CD "Revidere Ad Vitam", I used the Boss MT-2 running through the POD, wich was set in "Jazz Clean" in a "2X12 Line 6" cabinet... the result was very pleseant. If you want to hear it, go to www.monslunae.com and then to the Discography section.

YOU MUST CONNECT THE POD TO THE COMPUTER via MIDI IN/OUT in order to access some of the the controls of the POD. I specially refer to the "Cabinets" item... "Cabinets" is one of the most, if not the most important item on the POD, by "Cabinets" you can change drastically the hole sound on of an amp, and turn it from fuzz to brutal death metal... always keep this in mind.

The only thing I really don't like that much on the POD, are the clean sounds, but since I don't use them, they suit fine...

There is so many stuff, that the best thing you can do is to check out Line 6's Website. I own the Line 6 POD 2.0.

In almost two years, it never let me down... extremly reliable.

When I first tried to register the POD at Line 6's Website, the Website gave me an error... I then tried to contact the webmaster, but I was never given an answer. I really didn't like that fact.

Beside of that, fortunatly I never had to deal with them.

The POD is no dought a very useful and versatile tool... To be honest, I really don't like digital amps or preamps (I hardly would buy something like Vetta II or ZenTera... Triple Rectifier, Warp-T/X, Framus Cobra, Marshall Mode Four, just to name a few, are much more of my team), but I have to admit that the POD is much better than I ever expected... I surrendered myself to this little red box, it has served me very good.