Line 6 Bass Pod

Not easy to have great sounds out of this box. There's many functions using the same knob (like compressor ans noise gate). But I most say that the manual is very good.

I'm using a SM-900 from SWR with two Goliath III (4 x 10"). The sound of the "session" amp (which is suppose to be a SWR) does not sound as great as my amp. The input clips easily and the EQ don't seems to work like a "real" one!?! Some effects (like the tron or the phaser) sounds great but not as those they're modeled after (Mu-tron and MXR). Another problem for me is that it cannot be use only as an effect processor because there is no bypass for the amp model, and it changes the sound of you're amp (even with flat settings on the POD).

I use it for only 4 days so I don't know!

If you want a lot of amps model and effects, maybe it is for you. Considering all the stuff you get for only this price, this unit is a good choice if you don't want to spend a lot of money. But if what you're searching is pure sound, buy something else.

Most of the good controls are hard to find. Very easy to use the computer to fine tune effects

Not able to combined effects. Not able to adjust the input volumn. It distorts easy. But if you get the effect to work it sounds great.

Too many bugs. Wouldn't relay on it with out a back up

Very disappointed with this product. Used it for about 2 weeks then returned it.

I found that you can have a fair amount of fun just playing around on manual and get some groovin' sounds. For 90% of the stuff I play live, running direct into the PA only, it was a breeze to find really good sounds. For recording I got a bit more particular with my selection of sounds. This took some getting use to. After I finally got the right version of Sounddiver, and figured out that I need to install a seperate instance of it unique from my guitar POD's sounddiver, things got a bit easier... kudos to the website user's message board for helping with that. Anyway, it took a while to get where I could manipulate the controls with the software to the point where I cold dial up whatever I wanted. This is mostly the fault of E-Magic and the sounddiver software itself. It is basically not that good. I hear Johnson's J-station software is much more intuitive. Many people have mentioned that on the message board, hopefully Line6 will listen (they usually do) and get either a better software package or make some major improvements to Sounddiver. I thought the unit itself is as straightforward as they come, just read the manual.. its all there in B & W.

I am not using a particualrly great bass with mine. I have owned some really great basses in my time and pretty much know what kind of difference the quality of the bass makes. When it comes down to it, there's a huge difference between the sound of a great bass in a great bass player's hands playing through a great rig, and the sound of a cheap bass in a novice's hands being played through intro-level gear. But that gulf is narrowed quite a bit with experience and know-how... I promise you a great bass player can find a way to make just about any bass sound pretty good. So I'll take the quality of my axe out of the equation (not that I am that great, but I am good enough to not need a 3K$ bass to get a good sound). All that said, I have played through about a third of rigs modeled by the BOD, and like its brother, the POD, I think it does a pretty good job. Some models are better than others. Overall, the quality of reproduction its good. After I got over the notion that this was not going to be a panacea for all my needs, and that it was not going to have 100 different versions of the perfect bass sound, I started making some progress. I think if you know how to make a GK 800RB sound good (I always had a tough time with that one), you can probably make it sound good (in a similar way) on the BOD. Some models are just easier for me to get the sound I want, but I think that is because I just like the sound of that particular amp. The BOD does a good enough job on plenty enough of those amp models to make me happy, and feel like I got my money's worth, especially considering I would be out about 10 grand if wanted to buy the amps and cabinets I am using on my current recording project. Thinking in those terms I can't see how anybody could be dissatisfied with the product given price.
I do have some things I wish it had that it doesn't. I could live without about half of the effects they choose to model. They could have put more compressor options (the ones it has are good, but I would like to see more). An effect I would like to see, for which they made a half hearted attempt on the guitar version is the Leslie cabinet. You can get a great sound from the 15" woofer slowly rotating in a Leslie cab. Also, as someone else said in one of these reviews, its hard to get the drive function to really behave like it does with a good portion of the amp models. I don't think you can really get the BOD to sound, if you desired it, like you are really overdriving the hell out of the amp. I guess it is a fault of digital technology, despite the best efforts of Line 6's Tube Tone Technology. The FX most of us would typically use a majority of the time do sound good, they don't sweep out the lower frequencies like your cheaper stomp boxes and rack mounts often do.
I haven't tried it running into an amp... I go straight to the board and get my sound through full range cabinets. It usually sounds great. This is probably the best way to run the guitar version as well, from what I hear from others and have experienced with mine. If not through monitor mixes from out front, at least through an amp and some full range cabs, wedges or keyboard boxes would work... I havent tried this with the BOD yet live on stage, but from what I hear through our rehearsal gear, it seems to be the way to go. It also just makes sense. This isn't so much a "preamp" as it is a direct recording tool. As much as they claim it can do it, I think sticking with the AIR funtion (the cab + mike models) on gets the best reproductions of the amp models overall, and the best "sound" overall, which is what we are all after, isn't it?

I have had no problems with the BOD so far or with my POD which I have had for about 9 months. Nor has the two or three people I know that have them... there are some bugs in early models, but Line 6 will take care of it, promptly, from what I hear.

Except for having to wait a while to get the Sound diver software, no complaints. The web site is a good resource, and I particularly like the "LUP" message board.. you can get a lot of info off that, as well as get direct communication with the designers.

For me and what I do, I don't think there is anything better on the market. Nor has there ever been anything close to date. It is an enourmously resourceful tool to have for project studio work. I would take it in to a big time, big bucks studio with a fair amount of confidence. If the studio had the rig I was using on the BOD, I would probably use the rig, if I could get the sound I wanted... goes back to that whole problem with "drive" function not really sounding like you're pushing the amp hard...
The only serious complaint I have, is that Line 6 introduced the Bass POD PRO this week at Summer NAMM, which I probably would have bought instead, had I known they were going to come out with it so soon. They weren't even shipping the Bass POD till Spring, I think they could have let us know it was coming...
They did this to me with the guitar POD too, not two or three months after I bought it, they break out this bad ass rackmount unit with SPDIF I/O and other nice features for recording. Not to mention it is just better as a rackmount. I like it alot, but the bean shape is just an awkward thing to have on stage.

It is very simple. Nothing to it.

The Bass Pod input stage clips much too easily. Even a
moderately hot signal will cause the device to distort.
In this case, it's a really ugly, unmusical distortion.

Although I will admit that my bass output signal is hot,
it is very clean, and isn't that much hotter than any
other active bass. The bass itself is a Fleishman custom,
with a proprietary on-board preamp, pickups by Bartolini.

The Bass Pod is also quite noisy when it shouldn't be.
By that I mean that additive noise is context sensitive:
When a distortion based, high-gain effect is active, I would
expect that there would be noise. When the "Session" model is
active with "Drive" way down, and "Compression" off, using
no effects, I would expect that there would be minimal noise.
This is not the case.

(BTW...the SWR amp model isn't even REMOTELY close to the
real thing.)

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

At the time I purchased this unit, none were available locally
to test out, so I purchased it via mail-order.

The decision to do so was based on favourable experiences with
other Line6 gear.

I worked with it for a few weeks. Different environments,
different styles of music. I really wanted this thing to
work out.

I shipped the unit back.

I wouldn't give it a "hunk-of-junk" rating, because it seems to be well made, and the user interface is nice.

The concept of it is pretty cool, it's a shame that the actual
implementation isn't on par.

I have had a guitar POD for over a year so, so it was very easy to use. The interface is as easy as it gets.

I was amazed at the accuracy of the modeling on the Bass Pod. I regularly use and Ampeg SVT with 8x10 cab and previously, a Gallien Gruger 400 RB with Hartke 4x10`s. It was uncanny how it does all the things I love about the SVT, (with the exception of moving your pant legs from the pushing air), and all the things I hated about the GK, like the toneless clinical pick sound.

I found for headphones I had to boost the bass to get the bottom end only a lot of power can give you, however, for recording I?d trim it back.

I briefly tried it through my SVT with all the Tone controls on the Ampeg set to 12 noon.
The sound was tight, concise and powerful. Using the effects didn?t water down the punch at all.

I don`t really use effects on the bass but after playing around with the Bass Pod I pulled all my old Boss pedals out of my kitchen drawer to see if I could duplicate the Pod effects with the SVT. The distortions on the Pod blew away my Boss Bass Overdrive pedal (which tends to sound a little `nasal` through 10 Inch speakers, It works better through 15`s. Chorus?s and Flanger?s were better on the Pod as well. I couldn?t even find an Electro Harmonix ?Bass Balls? box in the city of Toronto. Although the Bass Pod was fairly expensive in Canada ($568.oo CAN incl. Tax), It sure beats the post of a couple of effect stomp boxes and a pretty good compressor ? which by the way is excellent as well.

I recorded bass last year using the guitar Pod (tube ?pre-amp with Marshall 4x12, treble completely off, mid one quarter, mid three quarters) It was - by Far - the best direct bass sound I have ever had. And I have spent a lot of time in the past with Sans Amps and speaker emulators - not even direct - it blew away the sound of a good microphone on an Ampeg Portaflex!

I haven?t recorded with the Bass Pod yet, But I?m looking forward to it, especially with the feature of a second line to the board direct. How may times in the past has there been a recording situation where the engineer says ?we?ll just get a flat sound for the recording then put it through a tube amp during mix?.... and they never do. It`s a joy to record your parts with a `finished` sound.

I can?t say enough good things about it ? Yet in my situation, my Bass Pod froze and died (most likely due to some of the bugs mentioned on this page) so I returned it, waiting for a new one to arrive at the store. (after reading this page I realize all I had to do was re-initialize it. I went back to playing bass through my guitar Pod with out missing it at all. I think if you already own a guitar Pod, buying the Bass Pod may be a bit excessive.

I keep pulling my pod off the Line6 mic stand bracket and it hasn`t borken yet. A lot of the red paint has chipped of my guitar Pod but that just makes it look better

I felt the bass Pod was released a little early. It has two known bugs, and they haven`t made Emagic work with it yet which was quite disappointing.

I play Rock and Roll using Fender Precisions and an SVT. Before I could afford a good tube amp I used a Sans Amp to `dirty`up solid state amps. I did some recording a couple of Years ago using a VS880 Hard Disk recorder. At the time I was using a MusicMan Stingray and wasn`t very happy with the direct Bass sound. THe Bass Pod makes home porcticing a joy, however,I wish the effects included one analog Delay.

Pretty Easy to use. Most features can be accessed using the panel controls. The manual (which other manufacturers should use as an example of how manuals should be written) details every aspect of the POD. A few extra knobs to control certain parameters (for example, a second midrange knob to select frequency for the models with selectable midrange boost/cut or two midrange freq's) would be nice, but it's understandable that the logic used was that not every amp had these parameters; therefore, the knobs were not included. I like that i can twist a knob with the unit instead of wading through menus on an LCD, and the MANUAL feature was a great idea. I do get the feeling that they tried as hard as possible to make the unit logical.

I use my MusicMan 4-string and my Pre-Gibson Tobias 5-string with this unit. When i practice, i use headphones. I'm very pleased with the quality of the signal produced. If i turn the amp model to the SWR setting and the cabinet model to the Eden 410XLT setting, i can make the POD sound like my rig. I can also get the sounds of my friend's rigs as well, just by spinning a few knobs and eq'ing the amps just like they do. I've tried the POD running through a power amp and i've been very pleased with the output, though i haven't been able to test it at a show yet.

I'm not into using a lot of effects on bass, but the POD's effects sound good enough for me. They've included the ones i would normally use (chorus, flange) and a few that i don't. It's nice that there are two kinds of chorus, several distortions, etc. And that they do sound different. Everyone seems to whine about the S/H, but i just solve that by not using it. I did notice that those effects vary GREATLY in response from bass to bass and need to be "tweaked" to be in harmony with your bass.

Bottom line, if you blindfolded me and changed the settings, i could probably play "name that amp" or "name that cab" with the Bass POD. It was above and beyond what i expected; i'll give it a 9 because the next version of the Bass POD will probably sound even better.

Too soon to tell. It's only been a month... how can i guess whether or not it will fail?

Right off the bat, the Bass POD had a bug where it would not initialize properly if the Analog Chorus was being used when the unit was last turned off. A hard reset would let you use the POD again, but the presets were lost. However, Line 6 immediately acknowledged this problem and sent me the v1.06 firmware chip. Very prompt, very nice. The web site should be updated more though, and the SoundDiver software just flat sucks... they should write their own software.

The 8 is because of the website and the SoundDiver problems... If they fix them both, make this a 10.

After reading the other posts about the Bass POD, there were a few things that i didn't agree with. One reviewer was upset that the Bass POD couldn't change the fact that his Ibanez bass doesn't sound good. Another reviewer complained that it's harder to get a good bass sound on the Bass POD than the guitar POD.

The Bass POD can't change aesthetical problems with your instrument. It cannot make a cheap bass sound like a good bass; it can make a cheap bass sound like a cheap bass going through a really expensive bass amp and cabinet.

The Bass POD also makes dialing up a good tone EASIER... but Bass is already harder to get a good tone out of than guitar. When you play bass, you are in most cases playing clean. There's no distortion to hide behind, etc.

I feel that the Bass POD very accurately represents all of the amps and cabinets that it sets out to replicate. I've been playing for 8 years and this unit is like a dream come true. I wanted a Music Man bass for 7 years and i finally bought one. With the Bass POD, i can have the tone of quite a few bass amps that i've wanted for years, as well as few that i would have otherwise never even tried. If Line 6 follows a similar path to their guitar product line, they will eventually include even more effects and amps to the unit. I look forward to the future.

Now, I have only to wait for them to make Bass Heads... and for the love of God, they need to go down to 2 Ohms!

Relative to the guitar POD (I have the "original"), the Bass Pod is a difficult beast. There are quite a few features which take some time to figure out. Fortuantely, there are plenty of knobs and very little button pushing. Getting a good sound is a much more tricky process than with the guitar pod and, like another reviewer mentions in his review, the character of your bass matters much more than the guitar running into guitar pod. One little complaint: when the unit is turned on it defaults to a preset (9c) rather than manual mode. It's a small inconvenience.

I run my Fender p-bass lyte into this thing and initially was listening to the output through my good headphones. I was disappointed, though I've never had a very positive experience playing my bass through headphones. Then I plugged the pod's output into my SWR Workingman's 12" with the amp's eq knobs minimized. This turned the Bass Pod from a bit of a disappointment into a bass flexmaster deluxe. The range of tone coming off this thing (for the cost) blows my mind when put in this arrangement. This is a sharp contrast from guitar pod, which is a much more mixed bag when plugged straight into an amp. Everything from smooth and deep to crunch-pop. I agree with the other reviewers that the effects range from good (distortions) to undependable (synth) to utterly useless (s & h). A reverb and a delay would have been nice. I take only one point away for the weak effects, though, since the real purpose of the pod is amp emulation, which it does well enough for me.

Steel body, beefy plastic knobs. I wouldn't play football with it, hammer nails with it, etc. If you treat your $300 gear like crap, it will crap on you. Still, my experience with guitar pod is good. My pods live on a shelf in my room, so I'll leave it to musicians on the road to rate this.

Line6 should be the standard every other company strives for. Their manuals are available on line and I recommend reading the Bass POD manual before you buy it (even if you've tested it). Everything I've heard tells me these guys are committed to maintaining their reputation.

The bass pod is a useful tool for making your bass stand out. It works well with my amp and for direct recording it is handy. I recommend trying to test it with your bass before you buy it, however, because the bass really matters here. If you already own a guitar pod and are using it to direct record your bass like me, I don't think bass pod is all that necessary. Still, for shaping your tone, this little bean is pretty damn good. It's not as instantly thrilling as guitar pod, but it's a very solid purchase. Line 6 makes great gear for the hobbyist musician who can't afford (or can't deal with) the big rack stuff.

Really easy to use as the Guitar Pod model. With all the buttons you can use directly on the Pod and besides the software SoundDiver which help you to go further with the editing functions, what do you have to say. Let's go play Bass...
The manual is only in english at the moment and is not quite better than the one of the Guitar Pod ... They've got to make it better, I think using more examples. The firmware revision is 1.0 at the moment. I'm one of the first buying the machine in France ant the latest so no upgrade at the moment.

My bassguitar is an orange (ouch!) music man StingRay which is a real good bass as it is known. I'm using without an amp but directly in the homestudio. The sound is perfect (gorgeous). I'm putting all the level on a normal position (center for equalization) on the musicman bass. But you've better turn the "output level" on the pod at more than 7, the dynamic is better.
My prefered bass artist are Jaco Pastorius, Stu Hamm and Robert Trujillo (infectious groove).
All the effects are very good and even better for that price.

I can completely depend on it.
What is interesting with the SoundDiver (on a PC or Mac) is that you can save all your new user sound.

Very Friendly when you ask question and very helpful.
No problem at this time of upgrading, repairing this machine.

I'm composer and I like to mix different type of music (rock, funk, metal, jazz, trip hop, ...) and the pod bass is doing really right his job.
I play bass for 4 years.
If it was stolen, I will buy another one. I don't hate anything. I love the easy use of it, the dynamic of the sound, ... the result on a record. When it's not good, it's my own fault, I'm not as good as I've got to be.
I tried the other product and they're not at the same level. I choose it also because I've got the Guitar Pod and I knew what are its performance.
I want to thank all the people helping the musicians to realize their dreams using such machine,... Many Thanks to Line6, they're doing good jobs and their goods are not too expensive for the quality.

Pretty simple. Most features are accessible from the from panel, which is a good thing because, as of this date (June 27, 2000), Line 6 still hasn't released the SoundDiver editing software. Download the manual from the Web site to see what a really well-written user manual looks like.

You're probably not going to be as blown away by this as you may have been by the original POD. With a few exceptions, the amp and cab models are far more subtle in their differences.

The fundamental tone of the bass that you plug into the Bass POD has a huge impact on your sound. I own an Ibanez Soundgear which I've never really liked the sound of, and I'm a bit disappointed with the fact that the Bass POD doesn't have the capability of changing the sound a little more than it does. However, I shouldn't fault Line 6 for releasing a product that lets the natural tone of the instrument (good or bad) through.

I bought the Bass POD hoping to have the flexibility to dial in a wide range of tones. Everything from Victor Wooten's ultra-clean and articulate to Geddy Lee's "Moving Pictures" midrange honk to Rex from Pantera's distortion to Trevor Dunn's warm and punchy sound on Mr. Bungle's "California." It an extreme understatement to say that I expected a lot from the Bass POD. I'm sorry to say that it doesn't really deliver.

Having said that, I still think it sounds good, just don't believe the hype about being able to dial in whatever sound you want. Remember that you are ultimately limited by the sound of your bass. If you own a bass that you love the tone of, by all means, buy the Bass POD. Just don't make the mistake that I did in thinking that the Bass POD will "fix" the sound of the instrument you own.

There's pretty good EQ and compression. Simple, but relatively effective. It ain't gonna sound like a dedicated studio-quality EQ or compressor, but it does a decent job. Certainly good enough for the home hobbyist or for demo recordings.

Some final comments on the effects--just as in the original POD, they are OK, but not really a substitute for a dedicated effects box. In particular, the Bass Synth is weak. I can't get it it track notes accurately. And the "Sample + Hold", while interesting for a few minutes, should have been left out in favor of a delay, or reverb, or both. I appreciate having the four different choices for overdrive/distortion, though.

I've owned the original POD for about a year now, and I haven't had any problems with it. It seems well-built to me, but I wouldn't be careless with it.

Line 6 has great support in my experience. They have a fabulous, friendly Web site, and go out of their way to serve the customer. The only time I ever needed anything from them--a software upgrade for the POD--it was delivered quickly and at no cost to me.

I wish I had better things to say about the Bass POD. I think I expected too much. I'm not unsatisfied with my purchase. I would have returned it if I were. Like I said above, it sounds good, just not what I'd hoped for.

I'm not sure if I'd replace it. We'll see if I'm happier with it over time. I've only owned it for a week or so. I'd love to get the chance to play a great bass through it to see what it sounds like. But, alas, I'm stuck with an Ibanez.

As I already have a guitar POD, I am familiar with the setup of the unit. having saud that, one of the best features of the POD system is that they use knob layouts which are instantly familiar to guitarists and bassists. i.e. the controls are of the volume, bass, middle, treble, rotary type.
The unit is extremely versatile and therefore requires some exploration to get the best out of it. USE THE MANUAL!! The manual is easy to read and understand, so no problems there.

The unit is fantastic for recording with. It saves such a lot of hassle messing around with mikes, or trying to get pre-amps to sound "warm". With bass POD you can select your favourite head, combine it with a choice of cabinet layouts and, ir required, dial in some effects.
The main reason for my utilising this unit is to obtain great tones at the touch of a button. Does it do this? In a word, YES!!

As I only use it in the studio at present, I can't comment on it's suitability to a live setting. The sound generated would be dependant upon using a quality PA and backline system. In the studio I have had no problems (although to be fair I have only had it for three days so far).
I have a guitar POD, and if the Bass version is as reliable, then I should have no problems.

No problems, the guys advised me as to when the unit was appearing in the UK, and I had the first one in my country reserved for me - pretty good service I think you'll agree!!!

Playing and teaching various styles from rock, blues, reggae, pop, funk, soul, gospel, etc I need a unit which provides sounds adapted to these styles. Although most of an individual's sound comes from their fingers, it's great to have good sounding backline (live I use a 1,000 watt Eden stack!!). The sound generated from Bass POD is, I have stated earlier, fantastic. Try one out for yourself, I'm certain you'll agree!!