Line 6 POD

the best aspect of the pod is it's simpleness and widerange of sounds. while it cant compare with some of the amps it "models"
is not the point because it has totaly deceint tones at reasonable price.

32amp models, 32 effects,ect
this is pretty well covered by other reviews

after a couple of months the shitty power supply broke.no big deal
called line 6 and the shipped a new one for $35 about 3 weeks later.
then the whole thing craped out on me , i took it to a line 6 tech, it took about 2 months for this retard to tell me a chip blown and it would cost me $249 on top of the $40 service charge i already paid.
thats just crazy and it really pissed me off that it would cost me more to fix it then to by another one used.

the warranty is garbage it olny covers defects at purchase , not defects due to shotty quality.
customer support is worthless at line 6 , the first time i called for
a replacement power supply ,i had to wait half an hour for them to get there manager jose,the olny english speaking person available at the time, to help me.

even though i think line 6 is overcharged me about $200 for this hunk of chips wraped in red tin foil. you can probably get them for a decient price on ebay , and could be totaly usefull if your just learning to play guitar or cant afford a real amp.

I use this with a slightly customised PRS-SE, with DiMarzio PAF pickups, and also a Standard American Telecaster. I tried using it live connected to my amp, but as discussed below it didn't sound too good. Currently I have it plugged directly into my mixer for practice and recording. I have yet to hear a guitar (amp) sound I cannot get pretty close to with this unit, although I do think the effects are limited.

With regards live gigging, I have a Laney VC30-210 along with quite a few pedals which beats the Pod hands down when it comes to stage sound. However just recently I had a gig abroad so could only take my guitar and the pod on the plane. I DI'ed straight from the pod into the PA, used a monitor for foldback and was actually quite impressed how workable this set up was. It's not ideal, but as a Guitarist who often "can't be bothered" to worry about vast quantities of gear I think the pod does very nicely.

I have had this unit for two years. Essentially it is an amp simulator with a few effects thrown in for good measure. I also have the larger footswitch which makes it a whole lot easier to use.

Hasn't broken despite intensive use over two years (and I once dropped my amp on it but it still worked!).

Haven't had to deal with them

I bought this unit whilst on holiday in the States a few years ago, during what used to be a monthly tone crisis. I've been playing and gigging fairly regularly for about 15 years, although very much as a hobbey not career.

I used to be very keen on getting "that" sound. After years of gear, guitars, pedals etc. I am a firm believer that the sound is in your fingers. As such I am happy to get a workable sound and let my playing do the rest. For practice and recording this is a great unit; live it's not so good but definately workable if you are being lazy.

I'd probably buy the updated XT version if it did get broken, mainly for the better effects.

Very easy to use. Plug & play. It should be noted that I use the POD exclusively for recording & would not use it for live performance or through any amps. I my humble opinion, the POD shines best in recording direct applications.

For recording it has excellent sound quality. The over-driven tones are good - even better if you layer them and add some ambience on them in the mix. The clean tones are ok - nothing too special. I don't really use the reverb on the POD except the spring simulations which are kinda cool.

I am a full-time music composer/producer and I find the POD is VERY useful - mainly because it is a huge time-saver. I am always recording on a tight time-frame and often don't have the luxury of messing around with my many amps. Also, when producing music for singer/songwriters on an hourly basis, I keep my clients happy by working quickly = saves them money.

I have read some reviews complaining about using the POD for live playing. The answer is simple... THE POD IS FOR RECORDING ONLY. Even though Line 6 says it has other uses, believe me, this unit was designed for recording.

So, for sound quality I give the POD a qualified 9. It is great for what it was intended - a studio time-saver. The tones are varied and very useful... besides most of your tone comes through your fingers anyway doesn't it??

Very relieable.

Could not meet my deadlines without it. Easy, fast, competitive sounds, looks cool, etc...

Side note, try putting vocals through the POD and blending them in to the direct signal for some good alt. rock grit!! Be creative!

Cheers

This thing is pretty easy to use, I like the feature of the presets holding to what you saved, regardless to what the knobs say. The manual is very comprehensive, but you don't need it. This thing is self explanitory

I have been playing for 21 years and know this is not the real thing, but dammit it comes so close that I cant tell when recorded. I have a mesa triple rectifier and found the POD a very good substitue when I get too lazy to hawl the stack around. Very poor performance with a traditional guitar amp. I had to use a floor Monitor instead of my cab to get the desired result.

This thing is extremly durable. I had it in my guitar gig bag and it fell out on the pavement while I was walking and i kicked it and it slid about 15 feet. Looks like hell now but works perfectly.

Good web site, but phone and warranty SUCK

I have to give it the best overall rating because of what you get for 300 bucks.

This product is fairly easy to use, an dif you get stuck consult the VER WELL writen manual.

If you use this for headphone use, or into a PA you can get just what you'd expect...decent amp wannabee tones. Good for practicing at home with CDs or EVEn recording (tonnes of tweaking necessary).
DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT...try and run this as a preamp to an amp. It sounds hideous I hav tried this and it completely takes over your amp.
The high gain sounds are very weak sounding when ran thru a PA.

No probs

nada

best for at home headphone work...crappy for live. Buy an amp!!

Honestly I feel the urge to pay a tribute to this thing because it made me happy. I'll tell you a little story. I'm mainly a Jazz player. I'm expert, almost a pro. But I go crazy also for rock fusion, for the distorted, creamy hi gain sound. The ones that when you play with them you feel something like having a Ferrari under your bottom. You fell free to express your full technical potentials. Well. Two years ago I was in my preferred guitar shop here, in Italy, when my head was turned by an unbelievable lead hi gain sound, complete with reverb, compression and delay setted at the perfect level. It was a sort of Lukather type of lead sound. The one I never had the chance to have AT HOME, AT PRACTICE VOLUME LEVEL, no matter what kind of hi end amp did I buy, Mesa, Vht, Ampeg, you name it, I had it. So immediatly I came across to discover what kind of jewel did produce that sound. Did you imagine my marvel when I discovered that the magic rubberish Lukather sound came from a stupid red box that costs under 300 dollars? I was blown away. Anyway beiing a valve enthusiast as I am I didn' t permit myself to buy such a stupid red toy. I couldn't admit the truth. I waited two years. Each time I walked in a guitar shop I encounter that red bean and turned my head the other side not to think about that sound. In the end the red bean won. I decided to buy it. Man, how am I happy I did? I bought it one month ago. I still have to change the preset. The Soldano slo 1OO emulation still blows me away each time I start the thing. Plus that sound is always there, I don't have to set the delay, to set the compression, to link the pedals, to move the rack mountain! It is always there ready, waiting for me to blow my fusion chops without creating any problem. Unbelievable, it's so easy, it's gear for dumnies, and that joy costs only less than 300 $! I'm extremely happy I did buy it. It's surely one of the best thing I bought in my all guitar history, and I had everything!!! I'm talking about things really useful, greatly priced, clever no problem stuff. At least this thing sound so good as a Soldano emulation that now I want to buy the real thing. Really this thing did this magic. Mr Soldano you have to be grateful to people from LIne 6. They are making you a big favour!! You will sell another one of your head one of these days thanxs to this MAGICAL red toy.
For the rest of the sounds I can tell that if you tweak you can find good sounds that surely are NOT comparable with the original ones (because they are phisically something, this is in the end an emulator) , but they get reallyyyyy close. At that price that's unbelievable. And what about portability, flexibility? This comparing to tube amps. No on ever compare this box to solid state amp? Did you ask yourself why? Because this thing can compete even with the original valve things. It is so good. Can you imagine what this thing can do to valvestate of transistor amps? Valvestate amps are trash compared to this thing. This is a revolutionary piece of gear. Don't forget this word. REVOLUTIONARY. A marvel product.

Tons of features you need century to know them all. At least if you're like me. I want to play each day better not to become a Pod expert. Anyway here we have the ultimate guitar box machine, seriously. You can use this as a direct box or as a tone box for your amplifier to get a good, consistent tone, clean or distorted without spending all the money in the world.

Hope it will stand the test of time. Anyway, it is such a joy to play that I immediatly will buy another one if it will die soon or later.

No idea.

Take this thing for what it is. Obviously the original amps sound better than this emulations. It is so obvious you don't even have to think similar things. But this red jewel gives you something those amps can't give you. And you can take this thing in your pocket wherever you want. Can you do this with a Mesa monster stacks? Or with a Fender Bassman? Or with a Soldano SLO 100? And this thing sounds good. Really. It's convincing. This digital emulation is a revolutionary thing. I can imagine than in 5 years they will come out with something so close to valve amps that they will become gems for vintage maniacs and stop, those amps will be dead, out of reality, out of music in a sense, substituted by their clone. Like in those '503s science fiction B movies! Digital emulations from outer space !!! Crazy !! In the end I'm extremely happy with this thing, it gives me hours of enjoyment without any of the problems the original amps gave me for all the years I passed in my practice room. Do you know that story that say that "God created the cat to give humas the joy to caress the tiger"? Well, Line 6 create this close emulations to give you the joy of playing a SLO 100 all cranked up with delay, compression and reverb properly setted in your bedroom at practice volumes. Isn't it a great, great, great, revolutionary thing?

First let me say that I'm a purest. I hate digital modeling. I was forced to use this in the studio because my VHT Pittbull 45 was in the shop. I ran the pod into the return input of the effects loop of a mid 80's Marshall JCM 800 100 watt head, with 6550 tubes. Clean was marginal at best. Just no character. When combined with a Vox AC15, the POD/Marshall provided some much needed bottom, but by itself, it's useless. Overdriven tones were a bit better. I especially liked the modern high gain and british high gain mods. I used them both for the heavier tracks I was recording. My only problem was they were a bit mushy. Individual notes didn't stand out as much as I like. Needless to say, I'll be re-cutting all my tracks as soon as I get the VHT back.

You should know by now.

Just not my cup of tea. Real tube amps still rule. Works well in a pinch though.

See above. I cannot speak for the people at POD, but I would suggest that all they intended to do with this product was produce an amp (&/cab) simulator, which could, er, SIMULATE various classic amps in a recording or practice environment...simple as that really...so all of you who bitch on and on about valves, valve amps, movement of air, playing live etc. should get that pole out of your respective asses and start taking products such as these at face value. No, of course it will never sound the same as a Marshall stack set at 11, but it can be set to a fair approximation (in a recording/home/practice environment)...it really can. If it isn't close enough for you then buy a Marshall stack, and stop wasting people's time with your pithy , 'it-isn't-as-good-as' comments which, frankly are of no use to any potential buyer of said product whatsoever.

This is effectively an amp simulation unit to be used primarily in the studio/home recording/practice environment.. What it claims to do, it does fairly well.

OK so far. I've had the unit for three years.

N/A

Playing for fifteen years. I bought this to replace my flagging Sansamp pedal...which I thought was amazing...until I tried this POD. It is a good unit....it can sound great with a bit of tweaking...actually, it sounds great period. I really would be at a loss recording -wise without it. You will never regret owning one...unless you are one of those assholes as mentioned above.

Better than the V-amp 2. The POD has a lot of bad sims and a few pretty good ones, while the V-amp 2 has a lot of bad sims and not a few pretty good ones. Don't use this unit for live playing, it's noisy noisy noisy, a toy. However, in a low budget studio you can get a pretty good use of it. Professional sounding gear? -"nope"

enough...

it seems to be well made

no comment.

Well, save the money instead. Don't choose virtual amplifiers, choose the real thing. V-amps,PODs,GTs all have the same thing in common: "bad distortion and pretty thin digital sounds". I won't buy it or anything else like this. I want the real thing, it's that simple.

Just turn the knobs, push a few buttons... you'll find the sound you need. I never needed the manual - simple as that.

I play an Epiphone Les Paul and Ibanez AR-250 through a Mesa/Boogie DC-5. The pod is in an effects loop with my amp. I use a Ernie Ball volume pedal and Wah wah cry baby as well. Mainly to play rock, Pink Floyd-style.

The trick is to find the right balance in the effects loop. I make sure the POD doesn't master the amp, but serves it. It's great to add little details, shaping my tone to ake it sound very complete and natural.

The rotary and the tremelo sound great, they're my favorites. One flaw. The flangers could have been much better: they sound pretty cheap. I was used to Boss flangers and they are way better to my ears.

Never had any problem with it. And I have been using it for more than 3 year now. Live and during rehearsal. Sturdy stuff.

I have been checking their site when in need of support and I have found what I needed.

Our band plays rock, pop-rock, Straits and Floyd-style. I have been playing guitar for 11 years now. I prefer it to normal effect racks, because the POD is versatile and gives you the sound you want - if you want to look for it. I have four sounds that I use live and recording, that's all I need and the POD delivers. I am planning to use it for home recordings as well. Don't forget to buy a floor board, though.