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.

First of all, this isn't my unit. I'm test driving it for a friend of mine who is visually impared. Ok, blind. I know what he looks for in a sound, and design it for him. Personally, I don't care for the unit, but I'm trying to be objective about it.

It's hard to get a really good clean sound out of it. Distortions, overdrive, no problem. But that "ultra clean" tone similar to that of the Police, or jazz, not so well. The effects, without the software, are lame at best. It only allows 2 effects at one time, and you have no choice in the matter. I WOULD NOT recommend this as an effects pedal/unit. With the software, well, it's better. (Still not as good as my trusty Digitech RP-3 that I've had since the day it came out.) NOTE: THE SOFTWARE OUT OF THE BOX HATES WINDOWS XP!! Download the latest verion, and you're cool.

Things that SHOULD be available on board the unit can only be accessed via the software, and that's somewhat limiting. Especially in a live setting where the size of the room can really affect the sound. (What sounds perfect through the 10 watt practice amp in your room, may not work through the 100 watt live rig.)

Recording is where this thing is supposed to shine, and in a way, I guess it does. The different distortions, and overdriven amps, (Of which there are far too many examples of.) sound realistic, though I think that the reverbs suck. The cabinet models sound good, but there is something lacking to my ear. Some sound great, while others you just shake your head and wonder "What kind of crappy 4x12 cabinet is THAT supposed to be?" My Ibanez and Aria like the cleaner amps, while the Electra and the Penco go for the dirt. (Although, after much tweaking, I was able to get a good jazz tone that everything liked.)

In it's defence, I have to admit that it's the first thing that has ever been able to allow me to record my bass, a '80 Kramer DMZ6000B, without any problem what-so-ever. It recorded chrystal clean!

I've been using it with a '93 Ibanez EX1500 (2 Ibanez powersound humbuckers and a single coil), '78 Electra X350 ( DiMarzio PAF's humbuckers coil tapped), '72 Penco Paul (Stock humbuckers), '87 Aria Pro(EMG Singles and a humbuckers), and the afforementioned Kramer (Dimarzio specially designed bass humbuckers).

This is the POD 2.0 with the 32 amp models, effects, and all the digital nonesense. Memory storage for your settings, blah blah blah. Too much to go into here.

It's digital, so the only thing that would hurt it, would be overheating during a daytime gig in the bright sunshine in August. Personally, I wouldn't use it in a gigging situation. It's not meant for that.

Very helpfull! Downloads, user presets, online help, all done easily and quickly.

I've been playing over twenty four or five years now. Other than the guitars listed above, I also play a Roland G707 Guitar synth through a Roland CM64 and D-110 sound modules, and a 62 Dan Electro longhorn bass. Again, I really don't care about it. If it were mine, and it was stolen, I'd be pissed about losing the money spent on it, but not about the unit itself.

In general, the effects on this thing are about the lamest I've ever heard. Clean sounds are hard to develope, and that you can only access some of the features onboard is a major drawback.

Distortions are fine, and recording is it's purpose in life. It really is quite good at that, but I still prefer my Digitech.

The first thing I want to say is that anyone who is saying that it is impossible to get a good sound is simply a freaking idiot. It is hard to get started on; i.e. learning all the details of it. But once you get going on it, it's a breeze. I never liked it through an amp until I REALLY spent some time working with it. The trick for me is running it through a 450watt Fender Ultra Chorus. I use a Shure UT-14 Wireless system into the POD and out into the return of the mono effects channel. I don't use the input of the amp at all. I turn the amp modulation off as well. This way I am modeling the POD instead of use it as an amp modeler AND the amp I am using. I am using the POD as the pre-amp and using my speakers directly. It makes a lot more sense. So anyone who says you can't get a good sound is straight up retarded.

i am using 2 les pauls with detailed customizing. 1 handmade custom guitar built from an expert in Austin, Texas. 1 Fender American Fat Strat. 1 B.C Rich Warlock. 1 Ibanez AX-120 and a slew of others but those mainly. It defiently needs a seperate noise gate. I use it running directly into a P.A. usually and if I use amps it's either a crate, peavy, fender, or marshall. The downside of this is that there is not a good tremelo nor a phaser. The delay is good as well as the reverb. It has a lot of good qualities but it also sucks with SOME sounds.

This thing is built better than a tank. you can play Baseball with this thing and take it to a gig the next day. I never use a backup. The only backup I ever use is a gain channel on an amp in case my ADD catches up with me and I forget to bring it to a show.

Never had to work with them. They might be jerks for all I know.

I play with lots of people and bands. I have played with Slash from GnR in Vegas as well as Jack Black here in Austin...at NerdStock :-) I also am the lead gunner is Signs of Immanuel (rated the 2nd best Youth Band in America) (I'm 17 btw) I alsp play in CrossFish, Test of Silence, and several others. I would buy it again if it got stolen. Again I really wish it had a phaser and a good tremelo. Also a noise gate.

I play mostly neoclassical metal and classic rock. I mainly bought the POD for one thing: the Modern HiGain setting. To me, this is the "shining star" feature; very heavy distortion, but DEFINED as opposed to being muddy sounding. It's modelled after a Soldano SLO 100. I have two Jacksons, a Charvel, and an 80's Kramer. The POD sounds excellent with all of them.

DO NOT listen to the people who say that the POD "sucks through an amp." They haven't tweaked it enough. I have a Marshall JCM 800 2210 twin-channel half stack. I spent an hour pulling my hair out one night trying to get the POD to sound decent across the Marshall, i.e. like it sounded through the headphones. Believe it or not, the magic tweak was to set it on "Direct" (as opposed to "Amp") and set the cab emulation for 1x8. No, that's not a typo. 1x8 was the best sounding speaker emulation to me.

I recently discovered THE clean sound, as well. Like a moron, I forgot what amp setting it was, but I had the presence of mind to save the setting as a preset. I'm talking about a Fender-like, sparkling clean and that's on a Jackson with EMG pickups! All I remember is that it's at about 8-9 o'clock on the "alternate" amp models (the ones you access by holding the Tap switch while turning the amp model switch). I wish I could remember it exactly, so sorry....

Don't get me wrong, I think that the POD most definitely has some sucky, unusable sounds (like Tube Preamp, for example), but the GREAT sounds available more than make up for it.

POD 2.3, bought in December 2003 for $249.00 at Guitar Center. 32 amp models, 16 effect settings, headphone jack, stereo outs, A.I.R switch, several others I can't think of at the moment.

I've heard some weak things about Line 6 gear, not only in their reliability, but in poor customer service, as well. In fact, TWO of my local music stores recently stopped carrying Line 6 products for this reason. In all fairness, though, since I haven't yet had a problem I'll refrain from rating in this category.

See above.

I've played off and on for 20+ years. I've owned several amps at different times; a Carvin X100B head, a Crate G1500 head, a Dean Markley combo, my current Marshall, not to mention trying probably over a hundred amps in stores over the years. I honestly believe that the POD holds its own against anything I've ever played on. Or at least at "living room" volume levels.

See my guitar inventory above.

If it were lost or stolen, I would DEFINITELY have to get another one. I also did some (computer) recording with it recently and was impressed with the way the recorded sound came out exactly like what came across the speakers (I use a CD jam box as my PC speakers).

As for comparisons, yes, I played it back to back against the Behringer V-Amp. Believe me, I WANTED to like the V-Amp more because it retailed for only $139.00 including the footswitch and carrying bag which both cost extra on the POD. Unfortunately..... the V-Amp wasn't even in the ballpark to me. Not knocking the V-Amp here. It sounded okay, but it just didn't have THE sound I was looking for. Plus, the V-Amp has a plastic cover as opposed to the metal cover on the POD.

Epilogue.... I don't give out "10" ratings easily. I honestly believe that the POD deserves it, though. I've also tried the PODxt and didn't like the overdriven sounds or the usability nearly as much. I think the POD 2.0 (2.3 currently) is a much better sounding amp than the xt.

I am constantly finding new and useful sounds by tweaking this thing. You must read the book to be able to access all of the features. I use the manual setting to produce some tones that would otherwise caost me hundreds and hundreds of dollars to reproduce.

I found that it is best to use this unit through an amplifier that has no personality. I use a peavey bandit that does not color the pod tone. The effects are ok, especially if you are using them for subtle coloring. I use this with a mosrite combo, and i can get a nice rockabilly twang with it. with a les paul, emg pickups, nice metal crunch. The cab simulations sound great. If you are looking for exact duplication you will not find it here , but you can dial in a lot of really great sounds. just tweak the thing.

this is a tank. If you treat it reasonably it going to be fine. Mines been dropped, no damage.

never had to deal with the company

I play a wide variety of music. I do not have a whole lot of money to put into gear. I would love to have a couple dozen vintage tube amps but for 200 hundred dollars you cant beat the vesatility of the pod. I have not gigged with this but it seems like if you get the right tweaks and setup you could definatley get useful live sounds from this. If you plug in, turn it to your favorite amp model, and expect perfection you will be dissapointed. Play around, learn how to use it, make it work for you. Once you find a few quality sounds, set them as presets. This has improved my playing because I have been so frustrated with my sound in the past.I use this through the effects loop of my amp, or through headphones. It is very satisfying to have this many sounds available.

I bought this based on its reputation and the guy on the Mike Bullard show was rockin' with his.
I disliked it from the get-go,and tried to get with it,but I liked the blackface model and one of the Marshall settings,but not enough to keep it.I traded it back to the store for a microphone.Everything else left me wanting...big disappointment !!

Tons of stuff.....

N/a

N/A

I wanted to like it,but it was a big drag.I am not a vintage snob,and love convenience,but the sounds were synthetic to a fault.
At the risk of hypocrisy,I love the Guitar Port !! An awesome toy,and learning tool,even for a guy with tons of experience.Maybe I'm spoiled as I use a Badcat combo live,but I consider myself to have good ears,and the Pod sucked the joint out...perhaps the recording application is where it shines,but as far as judging the sounds on their own merit,I have yet to get excited over this thing.Same with the digital amps(Vox inluded).It's more of how it feels than how it sounds...and it feels brittle and spikey.
Food analogy:fresh tuna is great...canned tuna is convenient.Class A is great....Line 6 is canned tuna.

Enough already!
Maybe it doesn't sound as good as the real things, I don't know, the only decent amps I've ever played through were a gorgeous vintage fender Twin and a Marshall something or other. I will never own a Soldano or a Marshall stack unless I win the lottery.
Using a Pod 1.0 and after five years of fiddling, I can still find new and inspiring tones.
Very easy to use, software is great and you could tweak all day.

Use it direct to my pc, or occasionally through my Fender Princeton Chorus, always sounds great. Fender Strats and Gibson ES335 copy along with a Les Paul Junior type of guitar I built myselfare my usual guitars. Also use separate Wah pedal, Boss EQ pedal and a Zoom 9002 for basic EQ, compression,etc. just to get a slightly wider sound than Pod alone.

Never let me down.

never had reason to try them.

I love this unit, beginning to think about moving to an XT, only because the Pod 1 is no longer supported for tones on the net, and my muti-effects unit is dying, the on-board effects are a little limited.
OK, maybe it doesn't sound EXACTLY like the amps its modelling, but I can get all the sounds I want out of it (usually lower gain stuff like Clapton, Pink Floyd, Blues, Knopfler, etc.)
32 amps for #300, if that isnt value for money, I dont know what is!
Up against my mates Boogie, I cant tell the difference and as I said, I'll never afford all the amps modelled here, or have room for them in my home studio, even if I did, would I want to keep getting up. going over and re-plugging in all my FX's and guitars every time inspiration led me in a different direction?
No, probably not.
Todays rant has been brought to you by the word, COMPROMISE, learn it its a good one!
And if you like one or two sounds, go and buy the real thing, but otherwise I'll meet you on the crossroads with 32 amps in my gig-bag!

General Notes:
I play heavy metal (Along the lines of Metallica <sg>, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Megadeth, Slayer).

I like JP's tone on Awake and ACOS, but not on his other albums (especially Train Of Thought). I like MJR's tone. I don't like Slayer's tone much, and I love Metallica's tone on Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets (but not on Kill Em' All or ...And Justice For All). I hate Dave Mustaine's tone on RIP. So keep in mind I will be judging the POD against the tones I like. I don't consider myself a tube snob.

You can get good tones out of this box, but it will take A LOT of tweaking. I mean this to contrast with crappy practice amps which take very little tweaking to get their best tone, which still sucks.

The Bad:
The POD sounds a little fake or solid state even at its very best tweaking. I'd say they are about 90-95% there in emulating a tube sound.

The factory presets SUCK. They are simply awful. Do not judge the POD by it's awful factory presets. You need to spend half an hour figuring out how it works in general, find an amp model and spend 45 minutes or an hour trying to dial in a tone you like).

The POD doesn't automatically sit well in the mix. It is difficult as well to find the proper reverb for your recording, so I'd recommend adding the reverb after recording the dry track.

I'd like more amp models. They only model two Mesas, one model very similar but slightly worse than the other.

Too noisy to gig with without a separate noise gate. (You won't notice the noise unless you are amplifying the whole signal a lot, or you've turned up the POD the whole way with a very high gain channel.)

The Good:
The POD sounds better than the V-Amp, but not as good as the Triaxis (or the more advanced Line 6 stuff).

The clean sounds are easier to dial in and sound better than the dirty sounds, and are clean even when cranked all the way.
You can make most of the sounds you want for metal (or at least I could). There's no auto-wah, and the chorus sucks, but you can get a decent rhythm tone and decent lead, clean or dirty, with or without delay (reverb, &c).

NOTE: I DON'T easily give high ratings. 5 is average to me (but you want a good amp, not an average one). I am rating the amp based only on my personal experience.

I prefer an amp that has enough features to produce the sounds I like. I'm not much into copying other people's tones (even though I have tried with some success).

And now about the POD 2.0...
General Notes:
I don't know when it was made or where it comes from. But I got it from the Guitar Center as a factory-refurbished model for $200. Mono input, stereo output for direct recording (with microphone and recording space simulation) or feeding the signal into an amp. Stereo headphone jack (note: you cannot use the headphone jack without turning on the microphone and recording space simulation--which means if you are gonna use the heaphone jack, it's probably gonna sound bad through an amp). There are 9 banks, each of which has an A, B, C and D channel (So 36 total channels. I only use a 6 or 7). I use the pod for direct recording, playing through my brother's solid state practice bass amp, and using with headphones. I'd say it sounds best through an amp.

The Bad:
Brief pause between channel switches that forget the delay you've been using. In other words: NO DELAY SPILLOVER. It's hard to tell exactly what the settings are on a preset that you've stored (even though it is possible).
The effects are OK, and the distortion is mediocre.
The POD needs some better distortion (but note: it's gonna sound bad anyway if you use too much. They give you room to add too much gain).
The POD's design isn't especially aesthetically appealing to me (but if you're into kidney-bean shaped amps...).
I would like more of an EQ, but 3 bands is probably enough for most people. They offer an on/off presence toggle, but it

doesn't do much.
The POD is a lot trickier to record than Line 6 might claim. But it's still essentially the easiest thing you'll find.
They screw you over with an expensive floorboard to get access to certain features which only the floorboard (or separate MIDI controllers) can access.

The Good:
Very intuitive design. Easy to learn and use.
More patches than you'll ever need.
Inexpensive.
Many effects to choose from (the delay is good).
You already have an idea of what tone you like. You just have to find it, and this box will not let you find it (if you like a lot of distortion), but it WILL let you approximate it.
No tubes to replace or maintain.
Light.
Full MIDI support.
Durable.
Small.
Excellent manual.
Great for practicing at home with heaphones (But be careful of using too much compression, in can disguise your mistakes).

The POD has treated me well so far. I have had no problems with it.

I would not go on a gig with this without a backup. In fact, I wouldn't gig with this as a primary amp. Maybe this would be my backup. There is no FX loop, but it is not especially necessary.

IF I were to gig with this, say with a noise gate, OF COURSE I'd use a backup. I wouldn't take any reviews seriously that advocate the use of an amp--especially a modeler or tube amp--without a backup.

The warranty is somewhere between 1 and 3 years, I believe, but I'm not sure.

NOTE: I DON'T easily give high ratings. 5 is average to me (but you want a good amp, not an average one). I am rating the amp based only on my personal experience. (I think I gave the POD a good rating.)

I play heavy metal (Along the lines of Metallica <sg>, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Megadeth, Slayer).

I like JP's tone on Awake and ACOS, but not on his other albums (especially Train Of Thought). I like MJR's tone. I don't like Slayer's tone much, and I love Metallica's tone on Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets (but not on Kill Em' All or ...And Justice For All). I hate Dave Mustaine's tone on RIP. So keep in mind I will be judging the POD against the tones I
like. I don't consider myself a tube snob.

I prefer an amp that has enough features to produce the sounds I like. I'm not much into copying other people's tones (even though I have tried with some success).

I own this, a Marshall MS-2 (The cheap Mini-stack. I mean hey, it's battery powered! I'll save that for another review though...). I play an Ibanez S-Series Prestige with the crappy stock humbucking pickups. Well, just the bridge one. The neck pickups sounds REALLY fake with any appreciable amount of distortion.

Overall, the POD 2.0 sounds good and is cost-effective, especially for practice, or amateur or low-budget recording. I'd recommend the PODxt instead though, in general.

If it were stolen/lost, I'd buy a PODxt. The xt sounds better. If I had more money, I'd buy a Vetta II or something.

OK, here we go. There are ALOT of sounds in this thing. As I've said, I've had this for over a year now, and find that when I'm setting up my sound, I don't even care what amp model it is on. LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS. If it sounds good, then it sounds good. With that saod, I find I'm always landing on the Marshall or the Mesa. You can tell alot of time was spend on those models in particular.

I use the POD exclusively live, and I did notice the same weird EQ crap-out thing that others have wrote about when at loud volumes. This is easily explainable, and even more easily remedied. The frequencies normally associated with "bass" and "treble" actually increase as you increase the volume. Imagine turning your volume up, and turning your bass and treble to '15' if it existed. This is the same thing that will happen in your car...max out your car stereo, what happens? Your woofers might blow, your speakers will crackle, and the high end will make your ears ring. Put your Marshall tube stack on 1...sounds like crap. No "woof", no "bite", unless you turn it up...

So, if you are going to play live with this, and play loud, first make sure the swith is on "Amp". TURN OFF THE CAB MODELING. At low volumes, the Line 6 cab model is amazing, but the bass and treb EQ is so cranked in this cab model, that it will sound like junk live. Flip it to "bypass" and stick to the "stock" eq section of the amp model itself.

I'm running it this way into a Marshall 80/80 valvestate power amp, or the effects return of a JCM900 head, into a Marshall 4X12 cab. If you got a good cab, with some good Celestions, why put a cab model on that?

V 2.3. Had this POD for almost a year, and still experimenting with the features...amp/cab mod, some OK built in effects, live/direct use. Layout similar to normal amp-knob set up. EQ response itself is even modeled after the selected amp...pretty sweet.

Could have use some seperate controls for the "hidden" features (delay decay/time/intensity, presence, gain boost, etc.)

Year old, stored uncovered in a dusty, cold basement (I know, shoot me). No prob's yet.

Never had to deal with them.

If you want to use this live as a preamp, try to ignore the bells and whistles, and use it just as a preamp. Pick a good amp model, set the eq to your liking, add some effects (I'm into verb and some delay), crank it up and rip. Leave that cab modeling stuff for recording, not live. Remember the old ADA's and SGX? They didn't have cab modeling, and they sounded great live, so take from their lead.

Using emg81 at bridge. I play hard rock , metal ( metallica influence ) , AC/DC tones. Yes, i can get pretty close tones. And i have a good ear. Nice chunky 'And Justice for All' tone , is hard to get , but with proper EQ and backround , is achievable.

Heres the deallie-yo - The POD at first , to me , sucked. Until i found the AIR switch ! What a difference when connected to a PA ! I own a peavey 5150 and use to own a dualrec (im broke now). I play in a band , and i cant bring the 5150 everywhere ( 85lbs , anoying as fcuk to lug around ) so i use to bring a couple of effect pedals and feed direct through PA ... Sounds like shite ! So long story short , POD sounds amazing compared.

PPL out there saying this sounds bad , ok whatever , you probably didnt even know there is a TAP function on this. It gives you extra amp models to choose from , extra cabs , options for drive boost wich gives more distortion , critical to get a thick overdriven sound. Read the manual , i used the thing for 2 months before discovering i could change the presence of the amps as well !

This thing sounds pretty good. I say its good enough for a gig , but you need to know how to set it up !! I tell ya , its very easy to get a crappy sound when you dont know what your doing .

Its not a tube preamp. But getting closer , and closer. Inexpensive solution.

Craploads - Its almost impossible to use all of them.

Its a peice of metal with a couple knobs.

So many factors influence the sound that will come out of a rig. Guitar , pickup , amp etc... Most importantly , your own fingers. I say during a gig , 98% of ppl wont even notice the difference between a 'pink-face PLexi-9million' , a Quadruple rectifier , and a POD. Hell , 50% wouldnt notice a fuzz box to a Soldano.

Its not the best sounding out there , but what matters is your own opinion about your sound , and nothing else.

Feel free to comment, inquire.

primary guitars are 76 reissue gibson explorer,2 reissue fender strats61,62.i play mostly gary moore stye blues rock,and some eric johnson stuff with standard 60"s british blues.this is the 3 pod ive owned the xt i sold because i needed the $at the time still have first and second versions.now for my 2cents worth..many people either love or hate these things if used through the front of a guitar amp at band levels it embarressed me and i wanted to throw it in the trash.throuh a marshall 9100 tube power amp unbelievable..i own a boogie mk3 simil-class,a marshall 2204jcm800,marshall1987x50watt plxi reissue through 2 mesa slant2x12 cabs with celstion v-30s.the pod is so close for the $ and lack of weight,carrying these amps for me with out a lot of help is out of the question {disc injurys}i can manange the pod with the power amp althogh its a screach.got ver 2.3 epprom from line 6 for free and hate it it makes the marshall models sound mid heavy and farty no clarity or crispnes of the 2.2 with was immeadtly put back in 2.3 tonality is just not there.also turn of cab simulator,and most important TUNE CAB SETTING ON POD TO {B} REGARDLESS OF THE CAB TYPE YOU ARE USEING THE OTHER ONES ARE AWFULL THEY SOUND LIKE A CHEAP TRANSISTOR RADIO REGADLESS OF THE CAB YOU USE....OTHER REVIEWERS HAVE MENTIONED THIS AND IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TING BESIDE TURNING OFF THE CAB SIMULATOR IF BEING USED FOR LIVE SOFTWARE VERSIONS 2.2 AND LOWER ARE THE TICKET.

ver2.0 with2.2 epprom.

Never had a problem

i have allways been able to get a tech on the phone at line 6 and ive called a lot when setting up the sounddiver edit software they walked me through it and it took at least 45 mins setting up the computer,midi cable ,installation etc,etc.they have been great to me with out exception....

it would be replaced as soon as possible but only one with the right software version it does make that much difference tone wise.althouth this version does have that wierd thing with the vol when changing channels in manual mode ..it still worth it.i under stand from line 6 that only the early pod pros had a software version that sounded like 2.2 so watch out, Im looking for an old one myself.IT SMOKE ADA MP-1 witch i own but sits in the closet.

No problem with using the Line 6 except choosing one. There are so many sounds to choose from.

I have a Am. Std. Strat, a Tele and a Les Paul Studio. I generally always use the Strat directly into the POD, and then, I run the Pod into the main 6L6 output stage of a Fender Evil Twin amp. I use the "amp thru" jack or the input of the effect loop if I want to adjust the signal level so that I can increase the output level on the POD without increasing the volume level of the amp. The POD seems to simulate the output stage distortion of a tube rig when the output level is cranked. I don't know about you, but I like to play LOUD. My favorite set-up is the PODs Marshall sound, a little compression, some digital reverb with the POD Output Level close to full on, slamming into my 6L6's and distorting them as well. If you think about what I'm doing; you'll see why it sounds soooo good.

I haven't had even the slightest problem.

I haven't had to deal with any of the people, but I love the web site. I've downloaded the manual since I lost mine.

OK. One day, I'll have a Marshall DSL 100, full stack, with a Lexicon effects rack, and maybe a couple good pedals to help that Marshall jump over the moon. But, until then, My Strat-Les Paul-POD-Fender combination is doing the job just fine. The metal holder for the POD slides under the hand strap on the top of my combo amp and it looks good sitting there. If I'm playing 80's rock, I can load two Marshall sounds, one louder for solo's, and then, maybe, a VOX 30 Top Boost with echo and a Fender Twin with compression into one bank and choose them at will with the selector pedal. Or, if I'm playing Modern Rock, I can substitute the Marshall?s for some Mesa's and load all that into another bank. Pushing one button has me ready to play out of that bank of four amps. And then there's this awesome amount of shit that I never get around to mess with. So, lez see, Marshall, Fender, Mesa, Vox..... Rock, Classic-Rock, Modern Rock.... Is there anything else? Nope. I don't think so. Oh yeah, I've been playing 25 years and if my POD got stolen I'd buy a PODxt.

You have to play around with it for a while but with something with such depth it will obviously require a bit of tweaking to get to the best sound. However, a good sound is easily found. One problem I did find though was that in the manual it didn't advise you to turn off the speaker cabinet simulation when running it directly into an amp - it sounded funny for a while when using it as a pre-amp. This is necessary if you are going to use it as a pre-amp as I often do.

I use a Texas Special Fat Strat with a Boss Blues Overdrive, Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe, Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz and a Budda Wah. This goes into a Marshall DSL-201 Valve amp. For headphones I use a great pair of #100 Seinnheisers.

The POD sounds best when used as a pre-amp plugged into a cranked valve amp. However, you HAVE to turn off the cabinet simulation - this should only be used if you're plugging it into a hi-fi, a direct recording device or headphones. Otherwise it sounds muffled - it's simulating the sound of a cabinet when u're already using one so what's the point? I can't stress the importance of this.

I can get pretty close to Hendrix sounds (only clean hendrix sounds cos when you crank it it sounds a bit fuzzy). Stevie Ray Vaughan is easy to get, - ANYTHING! In particular the Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier and the Marhsall JCM-800 sound amazing. However, note the Fuzz box sounds crap. The tones on this machine sound amazing - I swear when you tap into it's extra amp simulations via computer you can get a PERFECT Santana.

As for effects, I don't really know - I don't use them much. I know that the delay sounds very good, apart from that I'm not sure.

It's worth noting that if you want to use the POD with headphones, it sounds SO MUCH BETTER when you turn on the 'chorus 1' effect and turn the effect intensity to minimum. This changes the output to Stereo (I don't want it to come out in Chorus). I don't know why anyone hasn't mentioned this but TRY IT! It sounds amazing.

As for recording, I would imagine that it is only useful to those who don't have the luxury of cranking their amp and recording it though a microphone. How can the simulation of a cranked amp ever sound as good as the real thing? I don't think it can.

It has a slight delay between changing channels but this is fixed considerable if you buy a POD V2 or get the upgrade. I wouldn't ever gig it without a footswitch though (I've heard that is a bit flimsy though - apparently you can get a much better pedal for the PODXT). however, the POD itself is chunky aluminium and mine looks like it has been well used before I got it and it still works perfectly.

Never tried

I like to play rock and blues. The POD is the ideal solution for those who want to have several amp sounds available by just taking this thing around and plugging it into any valve amp. I take it to practice rooms to different amps and I crank it on a clean channel and just use the POD as a pre-amp (remember to take the speaker cabinet simulation off). Obviously, owning several amps and using them and taking them everywhere would be better but for a price tag of around #300 - (or #100 for me) who can argue. I don't think anyone in the audience or anyone listening would actually notice the difference between a decent valve amp cranked with the POD set on a Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier and the real thing.

Also ideal for headphones, or non-serious recording.

OK...I've had my Pod version 1.0 since it first came out (I actually had to specially order it at the time because no music stores carried it). I write and record my own stuff, and have also used the pod to record demos for bands I've been in, so I've used it an awful lot over the last few years and I think I can finally give a fairly objective, unbiased review. The pod is VERY easy to use. The interface is about as intuitive and user friendly as can be and the manual was very well written. One huge help is the fact that the manual offers you insight into how the controls worked on the original amp. For example, I thought the vox amp was really muddy until I realized that the original has a "high cut" control instead of treble...so if you have the treble control at 12 o' clock you're actually cutting highs. On most amps (fenders, marshalls) having the treble control at 12 o clock would have you neither boosting or cutting the highs. It helps to read the manual and get acquainted with how the original amps worked. I use the vox model all the time now...I love it. There have been upgrades since my version but I've never been dissatisfied with the tones so I've never bothered to get them.

I don't own any of the amps modelled, so I don't know how accurate they are, but I don't really care. I can pretty much approximate any tone I hear in my head with this giant kidney bean and I'm consistently impressed by how it sounds on tape. For a solo project, I recorded the basic track live at my rehearsal space using a reverend hellhound and then used the pod for overdubs and I don't hear a real appreciable difference between the feel and realism of the pod tracks vs. the "real" ones. This is a tool, and like every tool how successful you are with it has alot to do with you. I've spent alot of time experimenting and I'm finally at the point where I feel confident that I can dial in just about any tone I need using the pod's controls. After reading lots of HC reviews, I feel like people are sometimes too quick to blame the equipment. My favorite models are Line 6 Clean, Line 6 Crunch, Brit Class A, Small Tweed and the Soldano model.

I've had it for years and it hasn't given me a single problem. It's been treated pretty nicely though. It's never left my "studio*"
*also known to my wife's cat as "the room I like to go into when I'm about to vomit a hairball."

I never had to call them about the pod but they were very nice when I called and asked them a question about a flextone amp a few years ago.

I can honestly say that this piece of equipment had a greater impact on my creative growth than anything I've ever bought. With the pod, a guitar, a zoom rhythmtrack drum machine and a tascam portastudio I feel limited only by my own creativity. It's a truly wonderful tool. Some will quibble that it doesn't sound as good as a carefully mic'd amp but some people don't mind spending 4 hours pounding on a snare to get the right "snap." I think that sort of thinking gets in the way of creativity. I mean, there's definitely a difference in tonality between a soundtank digital delay and an echoplex, but is it really THAT noticible in the context of one part in an entire mix? I know lots of people won't agree with me, this is just my opinion. The pod allows you to sit down, twiddle some knobs and you've got your tone. Lay down a track and move on to the next. Erase it and try it again or try something else. It really helps me create music.

This preamp couldn't sound good if you tried for a hunderd years.
Sure it sounds O.K. especially at low volume, but try to go live
with this thing at high volume and you will understand why this product is garbage.

This medeling amp will attempt to sound like many different amps with
many different features.

I'm sure this thing will last a long time, unfortunately.

Don't know, don't care

The vunue that I play bought one of these and insists people use it
for live performances in a large auditorium. It flat out sucks. If
you think this thing will give you great tube like distortion at any
volume you're don't know what a real amp sounds like.;

The pod, once you read the manual, is extremely easy to use, but don't just take it out of the box and think you're gonna know how to do everything, because I did that and didn't even realize I was missing out on like 16 alternate amp sounds that aren't listed on the face of the unit, just in the manual.hehe

I was EXTREMELY impressed with the sound quality this thing gave me. I was in the market for a new amp and I simply did not have the money for an amp, so instead I began looking at these PODs, picked one up on ebay for about 180 dollars, plugged it in, and MAN did it sound amazing. I have a Fender Ultimate Chorus 2x 12 160 or so watt amp, (I would NOT reccomend getting that amp) but when I plugged the pod in I could get any tones from Brian May playing a bohemian rhapsody lick all the way to a metallica sound with a bottom heavy chunky distortion, up to randy rhodes and zakk wylde, not to mention clean tones and great effects!

definately would use this on some upcoming gigs I have, great investment, havn't had any trouble with it

Havn't had any problems

I play metal, punk, classic rock, neoclassical, jazz, blues, anything, this is your effect kit, get one, I highly reccomend it

im using a jackson dxmg with stock EMG hz specially designed for jackson pickups. it sounds pretty decent at lower volume but the louder you turn it the worse it sounds. id really like to play this through two actual real 4x12 cabs to see what it REALLY sounds like but as for now im using a 1x12 marshall and its just too nasty sounding loud at band practice.

as far as features go this is a pretty good little deal. its got several effects that are mixed with swells that id like to have just the effect without the swell. its got really decent amp models from a vary wide range of sounds. the only good cab models are the 4x12s however.

it's urvived several tours of duty in my drummers room and only has a few scuffs so it seems to be built fairly well.

never dealt with them

Ive been playing probably 6 years now and own a crappy jackson js 20 with active EMGs and a bc rich warlock with emg hz's in it. if it were stolen id probably pitch a bitch but i doubt id buy it again. id invest in a new half stack. i love that it has so many features and does have some good sounds but it just sounds AWFUL the louder you turn it. i wish it did have a few different amp models like more heavy metal based stuff but i think the hd 147 covers those fairly well.

Pretty easy to use, PC software is also very nice.

If you want the POD, understand what you are getting into. If you want to sound like a wide array of guitar players, or are curious about multiple amp types and want to play them before you settle to a big tube amp purchase, then this is for you. The POD is also for you if you like to record, but live in an apartment where you can't easily mic a cranked Fender. Keep one thing in mind however, when was the last you saw your favorite professional band live that used a Marshall, and Vox and a Fender, switching between them for each song.

For the money, it is an amazing solution, however, the sound can be very digital if you compare it to the real things (especially the reverb and overdrives). For live performances, I've used a Fender Twin, a Fender Deluxe, and am currently using a Fender Super Reverb. I would not even think of using the POD live, as I already have the amp sound, and my effects (Boss BD-2, Boss OD-2, RAT, Boss RV-3, Line 6 DL4, and MXR Phase 90) are much more superior to the POD effects. For home recording, it scores an A+ for the quick and dirty, as you just plug it in (for quality recording, I still prefer renting a couple of $600 microphones). I would have given it an high mark for practicing, however I now have a much better solution. I bought a 1970s Fender tube champ (amazing a low volumes) and a Tascam CD-GT1 for headphones (allows you to slow down CDs to learn all those difficult parts). The POD is great for beginners and simple recording, but should not be considered a professional sounding tool. That being said, it blows away all the other cheap ?all-in-one? effect boxes.

Seems nicely built, and high quality/impresive emulations (keep in mind, they are still emulations and do not compare to the real thing).

If you have the money, buy a real Fender/Marshall/or Vox amp. Get something like a Fender Tube Champ and Tascam CD-GT1 for practice, and rent a $600-$1000 mic for recording ($30 a month at a local store, or if you record frequently buy one). I am impressed with the home recording aspect for its ease of used (the POD sounds not bad here), however, nice mic to a high quality tube amp will make you happier.

The clean sounds are not bad, for example the blackface model. The effects are the best part of this machine.
However I play hard rock. And the high gain sounds like fart. The fuzz sounds like fuzzed out fart. If you need a farting machine this will work fine. If want a real simulation get Johnson J station and you'll have a mesa boogie at your finger tip.

VErtile amp for mellow rock, country, R&B, hip hop. But not useful for hard rock, metal or anything else heavy. The effects on the other hand are very good.

Works well. Farts on que.....

I'm sorry, But the Johnson J station is only $99 at the time of writing and sounds 10 times better. I can't recommend this thing at all. I give this a 5 out 10 because the effects rocks....

I cannot, for the life of me, understand how some reviewers say that the POD doesn't sound good through an amp. Maybe I just got lucky with my set up (since I'm not running it through a Peavey Bandit), but this is my dream sound. Not close to it, but IS.

I'm running an Ibanez or ESP into the POD (set to "Amp"--duh), into the effects return of a Marshall JCM900 100watt head, into a Marshall 4-12 cab. Also using the floorboard. The core tone of any amp or cab model in the POD is amazing. I guess having a pure tube power amp doesn't hurt either...

Honestly, the whole "it doesn't sound like it" deal is getting tired. Some of the sounds in the POD (regardless if they sound like the real thing or not) are simply amazing. The cab modeling really adds to shaping your tone, or tweaking some funky combinations.

Effects are nice. Not "wall of racks" nice, but usefull. I like a relatively uneffected tone - delay, some reverb, a little compression, occasional chorus. For my tastes, the effect section suits me just fine. Stomp boxes in front and rack effects after the POD still sound great, though.

Haven't recorded extensively with it yet, but it does sound better than my Flextone (1st generation)direct into the 4-track (I used to think that was the tits). The amp and mic placement modeling is exceptional.

The stereo spread, when running in this environment, is extremely wide (ie. in headphones). This is great for silent practicing or recording, but I'll definitely go with the mono signal for live sounds (sound-men seem to have problems putting 2 mics to one cab--no offence).

One more note: I also own a JCM800 head. I A/B'd this and the set-up with the POD (above), and the Brit Hi Gain model actually sounded BETTER to me than the real thing. And I didn't have to crank it. The bass was tighter, highs were more controlable, gain was more sweeter.

Ver2.3 Too many features to list. More than I'll ever need. Definitely get the bang for the buck on this one. The only feature I wish it had was a USB port, to go directly into the computer (ie. without the midi adaptor), but not a big deal at all.

To new to rate. But I still have the first generation Flextone that I bought like the second week it was available. I beat the hell out of it, played numerous gigs with the volume literally maxed (it's the 1-12, 60 watt version), and have had absolutely no problems with it at all. So if that's any indicaiton...

N/A

I've been playing for 20 years (I'm 29, so don't consider this an old-fart review from your grandpap). There are so many great things about the POD. It really should be a requirement for all guitar players. Guitar players need picks, strings, beer, and a POD. This is the best sounding live set-up I've had, and I went through alot of gear changes over the years. Who care's if it doesn't sound EXACTLY like a '68 Plexi. It sounds damn good, and that's all that should matter. The POD makes me want to spend hours playing, and running through all of the fantastic sounds. I think of all of the time I wasted on my stupid tube amps crapping out, not sounding good below 163db, or only having 1 or 2 sounds to work with, and it reminds me of an ex-girlfriend...like, man that relationship sucked. I'm glad I dumped that bag. Sure, there will always be those closed-minded people that say "tubes are the only way to go; digital sucks; if I could power it, I'd stick a tube up my ass"...just give it a listen, and experiment, both with the sounds and the connections. There is definitely something in the POD for everyone.

If it were stolen, I'd buy some tubes, find the guy who stole it, stick them up his ass, and say "these sound better anyway, right?" Then I'd take my POD back and blow his ass-tube tone out of the water.

Very easy to use (compared to some rack unit like a Lexicon mpx-1
witch for me as one of the badest menu design).
very easy to find good sounds.
MIDI editing is also not a problem
only thing I don't like is the way it handle volume change
when changing preset. (but could be me...)

I play this unit trough a fender US Strat. and a Gibson ES-135
I only use that thing for direct-recording on my computer,
and for that purpose, this is a fantastic tool !
For live situation, I still prefer a real amp.
my favorite settings are Modern HIGAIN (modeled on a soldano)
and black panel (modeled on a fender).
other amp settings are good too.
they are also some effects that I don't use a lot (I prefer
computer's plugin for that purpose)

2 years, no problems

never called them

very good tool for recording on a computer.
If stollen, I will first check the Vamp from Behringer
cause it seems to be good too, for less money than the
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.

I took this right out of the box, didn't even glance at the manual, and I had the whole thin figured out in 5 minutes. Everything is on the front panel, so there are no menus to scroll through.

Overall, the sound you get out of this box is very proffesional. I gig AND record with this thing. Recording is where it really stands out. You switch the AIR mode to direct and you get the sound of a stack. I mostly use the high gain stuff, but I do step into the clean areas every once and a while. The clean channels are a little muddy, but with a little tweaking it will sound fine. If you want an acoustic sound, play an acoustic! The only problem I have is with the volume settings. Some of the amp models I want to use for some soloing do not get to loud. But with a little clever tweaking with the levels here and there, your problem is solved.

For practicing at home, I plug this direct into my amp. For small gigs, i just run it into the system while in the DIRECT mode. For bigger gigs, however, I bring the amp along and mike it up.

Some of the reviews said that it sounded like crap. Bottom line is, if you have a crap guitar and can't play worth crap, your sound will be, well, crap! I play Les Pauls, and this little box shines.

As I have said, I gig with this, record, and just practice at home. It is a solid metal chasis, so unless there is nuclear holocost or something, it will survive. The only problem (electronical) I have had is the EDIT light coming on every now and a while. I have noticed that this does NOT change the sound, it just gets a little anoying. The floorboard you can buy with it is good, but a little slow switching effects. I use a korg MIDI floorboard, and it works just fine.

I haven't dealt with the company, I never had to.

I play mostly the harder stuff, but the for the bands I gig with there are various styles. I play lead guitar, none of this rythem crap. I have been playing for a long time. I am no ametuer. I own Les Pauls, as I have said, and don't think I could bring myself to playing anything else. I comapred this to the Johnson J-station, V-amp, and the DigiTech Genisis. The POD came out on top, no questions asked. I love how easy it is to use. If you are looking for an excelent recording tool, or for live shows, I would say this is for you.

For a device that tries to do so much in a relatively small unit, its fairly easy to use. The knobs all have a second function through the use of a "tap/hold" button, and there are quite a few knobs. Because there are a lot of knobs to play with, it can take a while to tweak your way to the sounds that you want...not something you could mess around with on stage, for example. The factory presets are all garbage.

The manual is a hype-fest of epic proportions, but manages to give you all the important information. You just have to supress your gag reflex as the author talks about how wonderful the POD is over and over again.

I use the 2.0 version.

I run very nice guitars through this thing. In my case, I bought it for direct recording and apartment-playing in an environment where high volumes are forbidden. I did not buy it to dress up a mediocre guitar to sound like a more expensive model. In any event, I use a Strat, Les Paul, Telecaster, etc. Good stuff.

I haven't noticed any more noise through the POD than I do through any other amp with a particular guitar. You still get 60 cycle hum with single coils, etc. More noise with high gain settings and so on. No surprises here.

The effects are inconsistent. Some (ambient reverb) are excellent while others (spring reverb, flange, chorus) are crap. Outside of reverb, I really don't use the built-in effects much. Controls for things like delay, for example, are incredibly difficult to mess with due to the fact that every knob on the POD has to have several functions.

I've run this through a Mesa/Boogie Rect-0-Verb amp just out of curiosity and found that its sound suffered tremendously compared to headphones. It just sounded completely emasculated, to be honest. I would never use this as a stompbox due to this phenomenon. Direct recording good, amp bad.

I've found it quite enjoyable to practice along with CD's using two sets of headphones...a pair of earbuds connected to my CD player with a set of high-end muffs connected to the POD over the top. It does a good job matching the tones on the recordings...of course, I'm not listening to these tones through a million dollar system. I haven't got the best ears in the world for tone, so if its close I'm happy.

One thing I've noticed about the POD is this: you MUST use good headphones for this thing. This is particularly true if you are looking for good bass response. Little Sony earbuds will give you terrible sound from the POD...all treble with no balls whatsoever. Invest in good headphones, however, and you will find the sound to be quite tasty.

I've found the the POD does distorted, high-gain sounds best and suffers on clean tones. In particular, the AC-30 models leave me cold. I haven't been able to find a setting that makes them sound good. Love the high-gain Soldano and Dumble settings as well as a mid-gain Fender Bassman model with my Telecaster.

Flakes out when you connect it to an amp. Very reliable when used for direct recording. I would never gig with this thing, however. Just use an amp and, if necessary, some stompboxes.

This is a wonderful tool for practicing and home-recording. It models a lot of tones closely enough to satisfy me at a fair price. It is no substitute for the real deal, so I was shocked to read a studio engineer talking about musicians wanting to use this on their records. Hey, if you have access to a vintage Fender Twin Reverb, chuck the POD and use the real thing. If you spend a lot of time playing in your bedroom, however, the POD may just be the best investment you ever make.

Most of the built in patches sound great, and it's easy enough to navigate through them without the foot board (if not a little slow). Editing the basics of a patch is easy, really editing the effects all but requires the use of a computer and midi interface. That being said, the computer interface provides a huge array of tweaks that you can perform, and this is where the POD really shines.

The first version (the version I have)has the unfortunate circumstance of not being able to select half of the amp models without the computer interface.

For direct recording, I've never found a more useful or better sounding device. It's indispensible for my music. The ability to simulate the 20 or so amps and 20 or so amp cabinets provides an immense tonal range for the musician without the capitol to buy one or two of the real thing. Does it sound as good as the real thing? no, but at around $200 it's versatility more than makes up for it. It's shortcomming in my eyes(ears anyway) is in it's live application. Played through an amp (practice amp or gig tube amp) it just doesn't have the definition that it exhibits when direct recording. There is a switch near the outputs to change it from direct to amp mode (which shuts off the speaker cabinet emulation), but it's just not as lively or interesting fed through a real amp.

Recently I've been using the POD's software with bass and acoustic guitars to create patches for them, and I've had some great results. Most notably with the bass, you can accomplish some truly usefull and good sounding bass patches with a little editing.

It frequently freezes up when loading the midi control software for the first time... shut it off and turn it back on and it's fine. Other than that I've never had a single problem with it.

Never dealt with them, thankfully. But, they have amp patches on their website, you know, sound like your favorite rocker with the touch of a button. That's downright generous of them.

This unit is the most versitile peice of equipment I own, and it's been in countless songs and produced some amazing tones. I'd recommend this to any budding guitarist looking to expand his/her possibilities.

I'd also highly highly recommend buying a midi interface cable ($30 or so) and using your computer to run the POD. The software is a little hard to figure out at first, but it gives you the ability to edit any facit of your POD's sound.

The POD has knobs for every part of your sound that you may want to modify. This however can be tricky, adjusting everything just the way you want to sound may take time. However, There is no way around that aspect! This is as easy as I have seen as any pedal or "box I have used.

This sounds awesome (as good as one can get out of a "box" such as this). There is no way to knock this unit, unless of course you happen to have 36 new and vintage tube amps laying around your house! I play this through a 50 watt Marshall equipped with Celestions and it sounds amazing! The only downfall here being that it is not actually 36 tube amps.

I have yet to have a mechanical problem with my POD. The paint however may be another story. Two days after I got my POD I noticed two chips in the paint. This was no big deal since I'm playing live shows, which tend to focus around the sound of a band not the looks of their gear. This thing would still sound and work great if it looked like a piece of dung.

Never used customer support, will let you know when I do!

This is one fine piece of amp modeling arse! With the combination of choosing your amp (Fender, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Roland,Dumble, to name a few), choosing your own effects (2 flangers, 2 chorus', tremolo, compressor, delay, which can all by customized), to choosing your own speaker cab (from fender tweed, to Marshall 4x12) There is no way I could not give this a ten!

I have to admit the guitars i use aren't very nice at all but when you think about it, my review is perfect because people who buy this amp usually wouldn't have very nice guitars. I have a De Armond( the one that looks like an SG but is really modeled after a Gretsch) and a Fender amer stand strat( i have used it stock through this and with a hum bucker mod) I've used this through a PA and Let's just say... don't do it. It sounds better than a little 8" practice amp but doesn't compare to what it's trying to compete with. what everyone says about the channels is correct. They are thin. it's difficult to get that correct tone. To try and get a better sound i bought a mesa rectifier 4x12. It changed the sound magnificently. but still not close. Both of the rectifier channels on the pod don't sound so close. I stuck a sonic maximizer after the pod and it sounded like a very decent amp. But then I started using a friends mesa dual rectifier and lets just say i havent used my pod for more than the tuner. The reason why the mesa sounds so much better is because that is what we've been listening to all our lives. Distortion was sort of invented and needed to be tuned in a way that is was pleasing to the ear. Well the mesa rectifiers definately do that and that is why they sound so much better. We strive for a tone that we know.

what im trying to say is if you want a preamp (thats the only thing its good for) buy it because its cheap and fun to play around with. It definately beats some crate half stacks that ive heard. after days of dissappointment i finally realized that to even get a clear sound you have to turn off the cab simulator (i run it through the 4x12)

on a side note: in certain channels if you turn the mid knob around while holding the HOLD button you get delay. and in certain channels if you turn the bass knob while holding the HOLD button you get infinite delay. its useful in some applications.

If you Don't know what's in this, you shouldnt be reading these. go to line6.com and check it out.

after 3 years it still works just a little paint chipped off which looks pretty cool because its grey underneath

i beat the hell out of my equipment. I mean I'm in a cover band that plays a frats. alcohol and keeping your equipment nice don't mix. this thing definately holds up to all rugged standards i have.

pod pro. lots of editing can be done. (actually too much if you're the obsessive tinker-type). any preset can be made to sound better. remember it's all subjective. manual is ok. written by techs that think theyre funny cut-ups. i think they had a comedian come in and punch it up a bit...i guess it's the world we live in today...everybody thinks they're adam sandler. if we're gonna connect with the kids that buy the product, we better act like class clowns.
i've had it for about 2-3 years. tough to change certain features, because it requires two hands. i've learned to do it with one hand. in order to access certain features, you have to press and hold down the tap tempo, then while doing that turn/punch other knobs. if you have a guitar in one hand like i do, it's difficult. it's taken me a couple of years to get the most out of it.it's a slow process... i guess i'm a slow learner. while it has many applications to computer-midi, etc, i never use it for that. i paid the extra money for the pro to get the rackmount style. there is no way the kidney shape could be a handy-dandy form, at least not the way i have my "studio" set up.

i own the pod and the behringer v-amp-2. anybody that claims the vamp sounds as good is making an excuse for being a cheap bastard. they drive a rusty car and claim it's paid for...the only thing we know for sure is that its a rusty heap. don't listen to these people. pod is a matchless and v-amp is a crate. that's overstating it a bit but it's the same thought process. v-amp is ok for the money but so is a rogue amp. right? we all want to improve our tone, and in this case get a pod.
sound quality is excellent. it's in there...you just have to "dial" it in.
while it sounds ok out of the box, you can certainly tell the diff between recordings i did 3 years ago (when i bought it) and now. best sounds to my ear are the rock-blues, british hi gain, some of the clean sounds. a few are too thin, or too buzzy. even tho there are 32 amp models in here, many sound the same---or too close. i guess if i thought about it, that's the way real tube amps are as well: there are marshalls, fenders, soldanos, mesas, and then the rest are derivative of these...(if i left any original sounding amps out of this list, forgive me). the most annoying thing about the pod is the "3rd" ghost note you get when playing two strings..mostly when there is some gain/distortion involved. i';ve found it's in the lower registers and can be "dialed out" with the bass eq knob. it never goes away completely but can be minimalized. when you add drums and bass and vocals, etc, you can't hear it.
i just work around it. other's who have a certain personality, it will drive them crazy. some people will sell a car because it has a rattle in the dashboard. you say "hey steve, where's that cool car that ran so well...?" "oh it had a rattle so i sold it."
if you're recording at home, this pod is very close to sounding like a real amp. the thing to remember is the pod isn't a real replica of any exact amp. but you'll get a ballpark "marshall" and tweed sound that fits in the fender category.
but even if it doesn't sound exactly like your favorite amp, it does sound like an amp! the effects (chorus, flange, etc.) aren't that great. the delay is probably the best. the other effects are for special occasions anyway. definately can be overused and abused. rackmount effect units for reverb and such are better and i recommend getting one. high gain settings are noisy to an extent...just like amps, single coils suffer more, and humbuckers are pretty quiet. i've just purchased a carr amp for a gazillion dollars and while i haven't had long to record with it, i find it very hard to hear the difference on a cd. the diff is hearing it live. the carr is like cream and butter with the naked ear...but on a recording, in the mix, the diff is so minimal it's hard to justify spending the money on an amp. the pod has just enough truly usable sounds to justify it's price. it will do a marshall sound pretty well, voxac30, blues like clapton played with mayall...i can't find a decent srv on here...tweed is just kind of ratty.but it will do in a pinch. high gain is good. rectified is ok but could be better. i give an 8 in this category. i'm grading on a curve here. almost everything on this site is overrated with 10's. that tends to skew everthing else.

just like some people will pay $4000 for a matchless amp, and gladly, to get a better tone, i'll pay $500 for the pod pro...it's that much better than a v-amp. if you buy a v-amp, and then your buddy gets' a pod, you'll then wish you had your money back. why not get the pod now and make your buddy feel bad? it's much better that way!

works like a champ. and i hope i don't jinx it by stating that.

don't know, but customer support from car dealers to broken toasters to heating and cooling etc sucks. period. i don't know why line 6 would be any different. once in a great while i'll actually meet and talk to somebody that tries to help, but it's so rare i don't even care anymore. try and get some health insurance info sometime! i assume if i have a problem with the pod, i'll get the runaround-vague nonanswers...you know the drill. call me pessimistic. i'm 47, so don't kid me about customer support. everybody gets a "1".

bottom line: it is a lifesaver if you have anyone in your house that is bothered by a guitar amp.( AND I DO!) i would go crazy too, if i had to listen to me play the same riff over and over and over trying to get a good one on tape. going direct is a godsend. i've been playing about 30 years. ive' got a prs mccarty, melancon tele (good guitar by the way), guild starfire III (? without the bigsby, single cut), reverend with P-90's(a goofy-ass guitar that sounds real good), a carr imperial 4x10 amp, used to have a voxac15...schecter electric 12 string (another solid value at only $400),american deluxe fat strat. i play into a joemeek mic pre---art dmv pro effects rack ( a decent unit for the money-then you don't have to use the unusable effects from the pod)i would get another if lost or stolen, at least until something better came along. very versatile, can get many diff usable sounds for when i'm in diff moods. again, the best thing is it won't bother or wake up the dead (my wife...please don't wake her up!).

4 years of use should be enough time to give a fair review. I use a Fender American Standard Strat and an Ibanez AS-80 (335 copy) and it sounds pretty good on both guitars. For what it was designed to do, it sounds pretty good on some "amps", better on others, and lousy on some. In the beginning, I only recorded with it and have been very satisfied. Later, I took it to the church (where volume is critical) and ran direct to the PA using the stage monitors for my monitor. The clean sounds were OK, but the distorted sounds were like an old transistor radio with a busted speaker. So I ran the POD into a direct box which fixed the problem (more in a minute). To me, the best models include; 1)"POD clean" for basic generic sounds. That setting fattens up nicely with the more "Drive" you add. 2)"Tweed Blues" for the Fender Bassman sound, but any drive past 12 o'clock gets annoyingly fuzzy. 3)"Modern Class A" after a Matchless. Open, yet throaty sound. Great from no drive to max drive. 4)"Brit Hi Gain" after Marshall Plexi. Great distortion but never really cleans up with no drive (notice how important the "Drive" knob is?) 5)"Rectified" after Mesa-Boogie. Great wall of distortion, but not punchy enough for lead work. and 6)"Modern Hi Gain" after a Soldano. Great "midrangy" distortion that is punchy enough for lesd work. The other models are either too thin (POD Layer) or too bassy (Vox model) The effects sound just ok, the best being the compressor, chorus, tremelo, and delay. The combination delay effects aren't tweakable enough. The flangers are not subtle enough. For some reason, when I add chorus to a sound, the volume lowers a bit (???). Also when I change amp models in manual mode, the volume significantly lowers. I have to decrease the channel volume to turn it up, then it suddenly gets louder, then the channel volume acts properly. Every time! (???) I don't like the fact that the volumes vary greatly from amp to amp. Makes it hard for live work (even though I do use the FB-4 floor pedal). I recently decided to simplify my stage setup because we learn songs sometimes on the fly, and getting the right sound for the song takes too long. Too many options!!! I also got tired of taking the POD back and forth. So, I pulled out my old Crate amp and immediately noticed how much punch I'd been missing. Even though the POD sounded good thru the PA, it just didn't have the punch a speaker gives. I recommend not using it live, but you certainly can with reasonable success. Recording with it is a joy! It sounds much warmer than the Roland sounds that are in my BR-8 multitracker, and those are good, just brittle.

I got one of the first POD's in 1999, so it's the 16 amp modeler. It's plenty versatile. I play Contemp. Christian, Rock, Blues, Funk, some country and pop. It has 15 effects + a bypass. Other features are a noise gate, tuner, multi-function tap button, and it's midi capable.

Mine is very dependable. It has never broken down. The tuner, however, was never very accurate. Especially on lower pitchs. It seems to have gotten worse over the 4 years I've owned it.

I emailed them twice to find out about the channel volume quirk. I received quick, friendly response, but I still don't think they understood my question, so it wasn't properly answered. No other contact so I'll give an 8 for effort.

I've been playing for 30 years and have been thru more gear than I can remember. I'm stripped down to the aforementioned guitars plus a Jazz bass, a Fender acoustic, that Crate G120 amp that is well below my taste, but has served it's purpose (God, it's loud, though, for a little 1x12 combo), and recording gear. I've played everything but Classical (on guitar, anyway), professionally. If it were lost, I would get a higher level POD, probably. I did compare it to the Johnson box like a POD and believe the POD superior in every way. Good hard casing. I love the sheer number of quality sounds available. I hate nothing about it, but would like it to have a better tuner and more consistant amp volumes. If your looking for lots of good electric guitar sounds for a home recording setup, this is the deal. Get a real amp for playing live.

The box is crowded with knobs and little-bitty writing, which makes it something of a pain to figure out. The POD tries to do so many things at once that it demands a lot of manual-reading to get the whole story. Factory presets try to provide quick shots of tone, but almost all of them are lame, so you need to spend some time with the manual tweaking knobs.

The manual is written like a sales pitch, which is silly since you already bought the thing, but its informative about everything except for the MIDI applications. You absolutely must have the manual because only half of the amp models are written on the unit. The rest you have to look up.

Ah, the controversy...

I've had this for about a year now, and I've spent a lot of time playing through it in my apartment. I have a good selection of high-end guitars that I've been fortunate enough to own and play, so I've gotten a pretty good idea of what the POD can do.

First I'll explain the guitars I play:
-A 1999 Gibson Les Paul Standard
-A 1952 reissue Telecaster
-A 2002 Reverend Slingshot
-A 1993 Fender Mexican Strat


WHAT THE AMP DOES WELL:
-Even on high-gain emulations, its very quiet. The only real noise problems I've had to deal with have been with my Reverend. From what I've read, this is a problem with the pickups, not the POD.
-The range of amps that it models are very nice in terms of vintage/modern as well as hitting all of the higher end brands such as Soldano, Mesa/Boogie, Vox, Marshall, Fender, Budda, and Dumble.
-The high gain settings sound very good through headphones and do a decent job of modeling various amps and cabinets. The Mesa/Boogie model, for example, is fairly close to the one that I actually own.
-The ambient reverb for various cabinet models are quite nice. I love reverb, so this is a big plus for me.
-Various cabinet simulations make a significant difference in the sound. Whether or not this is purely accurate is beyond me because I've never had the pleasure of playing vintage 4x12 Marshal cabs. I liked what I heard.
-Different guitars sound better with different emulations. This seems good to me because it shows a certain amount of transparency. The Les Paul sounds best with ultra high-gain models while the Telecaster sounds best with the Fender Bassman and the Vox AC-30. The Reverend also seems to work best on the Bassman, although at lower gain settings.

WHERE THE POD FALLS SHORT
-Clean sounds are not good. Too thin and tends to be tinny. Only the Dumble sounds decent clean, but I've never been happy with it overall.
-Spring reverb modeling is terrible. It sounds way too "cave-y" and unpleasant. I tend to minimize reverb when using Fender models.
-Many of the built-in effects are weak and difficult to adjust, particularly the chorus and the flange. Delay is okay, but too tricky to adjust. Volume swell is the only effect that I've found particularly useful.
-Sounds like crap when run through an amp as a "stompbox." I use it only for direct recording and practice.

Overall: It's worth the price. It does what it should. It's not a stompbox for live playing. It's a damn good tool for practice, composition, and demo-recording at home.

No problems.

Never bothered.

I have not got a golden ear for music. I see this as an advantage because I don't need to play an authentic vintage Marshall stack to enjoy playing the guitar. I don't spend all my time finding fault with my gear and then bragging about how refined my tastes are. I like trashy distortion and trashy reverb. If it sounds close to the real thing, then my ears will accept it as the real thing. If you find the models so far from the real deal that its unlistenable, I pity you, because I've been enjoying the POD immensley.

This is no substitute for tube amps. I own two real tube amps, and they both have big bonuses over the POD. Of course, they were both more expensive than the POD. This is a compromise, but a nice one. Don't buy it expecting to replace your vintage Fender Bassman or your Marshall Plexi. If you suck without the POD, you'll suck with the POD. For 300 bucks, this thing is a nice deal. I like it. It sounds cool. For those of you with "oh-so-sensitive" ears for pitch and tone...I'm sorry.

I like brutal distortion for most stuff I play, but it is nice to have other amps also. After owning both the Behringer V-AMP 2 and the Genesis 3 I can truly say that the POD blows them away as far as amp modeling goes. Anyone who tells you otherwise is "puffing the magic dragon".

The V-AMP 2 is good, but it and the Genesis cannot produce the "pushed cab" sound that the POD gets. The Modern High Gain and Rectified amps absolutely kill. Going through the presets, I enjoyed fiddling with every single amp.

I think the clean sounds are great on this thing. The Digitech Genesis 3 has better clean tones, but the POD's are good also. I also like the effects, but understand when people say that they are not real ambient and in your face. They still sound really good.

The noise gate is great. The V-AMP 2 was loud as hell next to my computer. With the POD I have been able to record right next to my computer with very minimal to almost no noise.

Brand new 2.3 version of the POD fresh from Musician's Friend. I am plugging my Gibson Gothic Explorer into it, then into my computer for home recording.

About a month ago I was going to buy a POD, but instead I bought a Behringer V-AMP 2 and then a Digitech Genesis 3. Now I am finally back to a POD. This is my third purchase of the POD and I don't know why I ever got rid of it in the first place.

This thing is very convienient for me with home recording because it sits on my desk right in front of me. I tweak sounds and then can immediately hit "record" and get down to business.

I think the features are outstanding on this thing and with the 2.3 upgrade, they really improved on an already great product.

I have never had problems with PODs before and don't anticipate any now. I had problems with the Flextone amps, but never the PODs. These things are solid.

I don't think I would try to get a hold of these guys. The company is just too big. My POD is already upgraded to 2.3, but I heard they give free upgrade chips to people who need them. That is really cool I think. Their website is done very well.

I have been playing for about 18 years and have owned alot of equipment. The POD is definitely worth the money and is an outstanding recording tool. I hear it works great live also. I need to try to play it through my power amp and cab to see how it sounds.

I'm not trying to rip on Behringer or Digitech, but if you like high gain amps and sounds, just buy a POD. I bought all three within the last month and ended up going back to the POD, which I have bought twice already!!! Save yourself the headaches. The POD was the first desktop modeler and is still the king.

I play this with a Gibson LP Standard through a Fender bass amp. The amp itself has a decent clean sound with a guitar, so it doesn't color the tone from the POD.

As others have said, this is really a practice amp. I played a couple of small gigs with it, one playing classic rock and some original stuff, and the other was mostly country. It was able to cover any tone the band needed, but not as well as I would have liked. Still, no one seemed to notice. The amp models are good enough for playing by yourself or with some friends, and the singer/rhythm player in my last band really liked its ability to dial in a tone that was really close to what he had in mind.

With that said, I'm still looking forward to the day I can afford a Plexi or JCM-800.

Plenty of features, and easy to figure out. No need to go in-depth here.

The knobs don't stay where you set them, but there aren't many to worry about. Also, the finish chips very easily. It never fails to turn on, though.

No need.

It was great when I was trying to figure out my sound. I was fluctuating between death metal and twangy country, plus everywhere between. I got really sick of playing country (I didn't like it that much to begin with) and now that I know EXACTLY what tone I want, I need a great amp that will nail it. The POD comes close, but no cigar. This unit impressed me at first, but I'm alot more sensitive to my sound now. The POD is well worth what I paid, which was a couple hundred if I recall. Buy it if you want a great practice amp, play in a band that has to switch between several diverse sounds, or are trying to figure out your own tone (it's much easier and cheaper to fiddle with this thing than to buy several tube amps). I'm glad I bought it, but it doesn't quite compare to the real thing.

Plus, I feel like I need to be playing through an amp that costs something close to what I paid for my guitar.

It's easy to use and edit. But controlling the effects is quite a hard.Because there is only effect tweak button ,sound from effects is never going to be what you would want to have.
Knobs are easy to use.
Manual is good,but MIDI section is not! It is written like every user would have basic aknowledge about MIDI devices.
Getting good sound of it is easy.But thing that really turns me off to this unit is that you can't dial those 16 extra amp models from POD itself..

*I'm using am.std.strato '94 and keyboard amp.
*It's not noisy and noise gate really works surprisingly well.
*Amp models are quite good overall,there isn't much digital sound on it,but really comparing to tube amps,modelling will never be accurate,there is too much variables and things to get unit sound a tube amp.And you can't forget the thing that especially oldel players get part of their motivation from tube gear,and it would seriously affect their playing just to know that there is digital unit doing the sound even if the sound would be ok.
*But important thing is that you can get very usable sounds from it.
Overall sound is quite a trebly,too trebly with strat.I must alway turn tone knob to "0" when playin w bridge pickup.Then it sounds good.
*Tone controls DO NOT affect sound almost at all,i mean it's almost like joke!Any amp will respond way more when tweaking tone controls,with pod there is almost no change in sound.
*Tuner is crap,total crap,any multieffect unit has had better than this one.It does not track note at all,and is impossible to tune accurately with this thing.
*Amp models all have same problem..It's hard to get good clean sound or it's always very thinny.With Gt-3 it's opposite.
With distorted sounds ,sound is quite a good,but lower string playing always sound very mushu,fuzzy and unclear with this thing.
There lacks clarity and certain force from distortion.
But sounds are very usable and not sound digital.
Generally best modeled amp(pedal) models are rectifier,fuzz faze,black panel and marshall plexi.These have good dynamic range and volume control really affects to sound.Also soldano models are qood,but far away from accurate.
Jcm800-model is good,but lacks really much of the punch of the real amp. Ac30 models are not so good,sound is very cheap and fuzzy,no warmness of the real thing.LIne6 own models are actually best models in the category,they sound good clean and distorted and there are versalitiy in models.Unfortunately,overall sound of these models is quite a boring for long time playing.
*Effects are not so good compared to amp models.One big reason is that they sound all very digital "rack type" effects.Another reason is that there is no chances to tweak to sound,since there are no other control,than "effect tweak-button".
Reverb in this unit is average,spring reverb simulation is not so good,sound is very unclear especially with lot reverb using a'la black panel.No good surf sounds from here..
Delay sounds overly digital,but is good.Again,no tweakability.
Chorus sounds are pure rack stuff,faaar away from warm of ex. CE-2.
But still usable chorus sound is there.
Flanger is very dull and didital,far away from 70's jet swooshing,.
But again there is certain quality in this effect too,but digital.
Rotary speaker simulator is good,almost very good.It really has not typical digital sound and is very usable with all amp models.
ANother good effect is tremolo,which is not analog sounding at all,but smooth and nice. Compressor is average stuff..
Volume swell is really interesting and fun to play with.One of the pod's best part.
Getting sounds of familiar artists is very easy,BUT sound always will be only close call,not nearly a real thing.
One of the best things in this unit is that it's really quiet,and all of this thing reminds of studio quality.Not any of the effects or amp models sound cheap or processed.
For the price,pod sounds are absolutely fantastic.
Very usable,many many good sounds.

For home use this seems to be very reliable.For gigging,certain arrangements should be done or it would end like a catastrophe.
One of the funny things with this unit is that when input,output etc. are plugged pod takes quite a space since all the connections are different places in the unit and this is not good thing..that is the price of pod looking good.
Digital equipment usually can't use in cold,or places with humidity or vibration.Same is with pod,you must be careful if gigging with.
But overall i have always had feeling that it won't break suddendly as with using low price range zoom units had.

Good website support

It is very very good unit and offers so much usable sounds,and it's definitely 10 time worth of one stompbox in case of offering good and usable sounds.It has many things that could be better and there are things that never can be done better.But pod is usable in home playing,recording and maybe even gigging.
Effects are not anything special,amp models are good,but tone controls are poor besides tuner.
It' is very handy and portable unit and build with quality.
When using it,it always had the feeling of quality.And it is definitely fun for home playing and exploring different types of amps.
Very good product.

A bunch of pretty cool sounding presets. You can in fact recognize what actual tones they're trying to get at. For sitting at home in your room and screwing around, it's awesome- very flexible and lots of fun. For anything more than that, BUY A TUBE AMP. Why do you think they gear their entire marketing campaign at trying to convince you it sounds LIKE a tube amp? Why? Because tube amps simply sound better. Every sound you get out of this thing seems to have this digitally processed overtone that cannot be ignored. I've used the POD on it's Marshall presets, then I've plugged into my "real-life" 1987x and JCM800 amps, and believe me, there is NO comparison. I once tried to use the POD in practice- I stress ONCE. It absolutely sucked. But, for times when you don't need a pro-level sound, i.e. in the bedroom, this thing is top-notch.

You know what it has and does. I don't like the fact that you are so limited in how many effects you can turn on off in the same mode (tremolo/delay/flange/etc)- I have the big floorboard, and it's still pretty basic.

Floorboard pedal just about unraveled itself on it's own. Had to take it apart and tighten every screw in it. But, apart from that, it just sits on top of my cabinet and does fine.

Like I said, in the correct application (sitting at home), it rules. If I could have one amp that was for everything except rehearsal, studio use and playing live, it would be this. But, when push comes to shove and you need the real deal, I wouldn't be caught dead with this thing.

I've tried repeatedly to like this unit, but it just falls short of the mark for important situations. I want to like it -- it would be soooo convenient. I have tweaked and tweaked, but it still sounds like the Pod no matter what I do. Those of you who think this thing is ass-kicking cool, you've either never played through a good amp, have a hearing problem, or you wanted to like it even more than I did. You know -- like people who bought an Edsel and convinced themselves that they had a good car!

And as for my tweaking skills, while guitar is my main instrument, I am also a proficient keyboard player -- at one point, for a living, I taught people how to program their Korg M1s, O1/Ws, X-3s, DW8000s and so on. And I have picked apart synths, effects units, workstations, digital recorders, sequencers, samplers, software and so on from Roland, Korg, Alesis, Ensoniq, Yamaha, Akai... The Pod, in comparison, is actually quite simple. It just doesn't sound all that great no matter what you do to it.

In fairness, I do use mine for gigs when I'm hired as a keyboard player and just need to a play a bit of guitar on a few tracks. I also tend to use it for rehearsals into a PA. It makes any amp sound like crap. If you buy a footswitch, you'll learn that there is a nice long delay from the time you step on the switch to the time your sound actually changes...

Some of the clean tones are okay as long as you turn the reverb and effects off or use them sparingly. The high gain tones really leave alot to be desired. For the money, it's a decent piece of equipment, but you could also say that, for the money, a Kia is a decent car. It doesn't make it a ten, though.

People here need to stop over-rating this product and be realistic. I think what they are looking for here in a sound quality rating is... how good does it sound compared to everything that is available regardless of price? As opposed to how good does it sound in comparison to other shitty equipment. I guess compared to other shitty modeling devices, it would get a ten. But when the entire spectrum of gear that is available is added into the equation, I'd have to say that it barely gets a five -- and that's pushing it.

Lots of Bells and Whistles. They seem cool from a distance, but the closer you get, the less pretty they become -- owning one is kind of like waking up next to someone you thought was hot last night when you were intoxicated. Lots of effects that, frankly, are not particularly good. The tremolo is good, the reverse delay is cool. The reverbs all sound crappy. The choruses -- ehh. I will rate based on the quality of the features, not the quantity.

Doesn't handle vibration at all -- it will change channels and edit itself if you put it on top of anything that is resonating. Kind of shitty for stage use.

I bought this when it first came out and have tried repeatedly to like it. While I don't HATE it, I have found it to be only somewhat useful. I do encourage people to own one -- it IS a good product for the money and is convenient in situations where bringing along a real amp is not practical, it just doesn't sound like a ten. It's more Beau Bridges than Bo Derek, if you know what I mean.

If it were lost or stolen, I don't think I'd miss it. If I did, I would just get the behringer, which sounds identical, for a third of the price. I would definitely not get a Pod pro, xt, flextone or a vetta --now you're getting basically the same product, just with more bells and whistles, but now into a price-range where you can truely find something that is a ten in terms of sound.

I am an intermediate beginner I've been playing for a few years on and off taking lessons and all. I had tried a few different amps and found that i liked too many styles of music to only have one amp and then found this little jem. it is extreamly easy to use. Trust me coming from a beginner, if i can figure it out you can. What makes it even easier to use, i download tones off the net and use thoes to start and tweek to get my own. i hook it up to my computer with the midi cables and you can see the dials on the screen move as you turn them on the pod. It comes with a manual but the only thing i use it for is to tell me what the different amps are (tweed blues = 59' bassman ect...)

This is the key to the success of using the pod. DON'T PLAY THROUGH A GUITAR AMP!!!! it will sound like crap. I play through a roland kc 100 keyboard amp. It's like playing through a small P.A. the tone is incredible. I like everything from classic rock to metal, and I also play with the church praise team. We play some progressive stuff but also need to play clean and quiet. It does it all. the effects are cool. I have experimented with them a little but usualy I just crank the drive and add alittle reverb. (spring reverb usualy you can change it if you like it's one of the options when you hook it up to the computer.) I play a US fender strat with 2 hot humbuckers (invader in the bridge and tone zone in the neck) with hybrid strings 10-52 sounds great. And I also have a 96" jap strat with texas specials great bell like tones when playing through thoes old classics like vox ac-30 or a fender deluxe or jc 120.

The only problem i have had is when I got a new computer with windows xp. The software was not totaly compatable but I managed to work around it. Now I am thinking of the bass pod and I don't know if I can work with both pods on the computer or not. But thats a problem for tech support. Who are great by the way.

I have called there tech support alot, not because of problems just questions while doing research to buy the pod and my computer problem. They have always called back within 48 hours. Usually you can hold for about 10 min. and get right in. They have helped me imnensley. These guys are greate not like swr taking 2 weeks to awnser a simple e-mail.

If you only play one style of music and are going to set the amp to one setting and never touch it then go buy the amp suited for you. But if your like me and like everything then this is the amp for you. I can't say enough good things about this little wonder. If it were lost or stolen i would definitly buy it again, or mabe the pod pro. I have a friend who has the gt-6 and another with the vg-88 and they both do the same thing play through keyboard amps. Its the way to go.

I've owned my POD one to two years. I have found the sound driver software is not user friendly. I use the POD with the floorboard to adjust the sounds and it works pretty well. Patch editing is simple from the Pod itself. I always ignore the manual and do my own thing because I want to get my own sounds.I never went for the upgrade because the unit is fine for what it is.

I use one of two telecasters a Paul Reed Smith and a Eric Clapton Strat.Here's my beef you can't get a good clean sound. All the sounds are for light distortion to really hot distortion.Yes you can get a clean sound by turning down the guitar volume, but there's not much variety for those ultra clean fender sounds etc.Some of the higher gain settings are quite noisy, but the noise gate works really well to control this. I would never use this with a tube amp live. It doesn't really work for that in my opinion. A good tube amp sounds much better without it since it colors the sound of the amp.I really like the Fuzz Face. It sounds fairly close with more control of sustain tone etc than on an actual Fuzz Face. If you use the neck pickup of your guitar you can get that Eric Johnson tone. The effects are good but the spring reverb is disappointing.

I have had no problems with it. I wouldnt gig with it although I do always carry it as a backup incase my amp should ever crap out. I doesn't look road tough and I always pack it well.

I've never dealt with the company.

I play a wide variety of music from 40's to Country to Hard Rock and some Jazz. My original music is just as varied.I been playing for about 40 years, and still gig a few weekends a month year round.I may replace it but would probably shop around to find a unit with more clean sounds. The POD is my creative friend it helps me write music in different styles and I get different ideas from the wide range of sounds inside. Overall I like it. It is well woth the price, but you must consider it won't compete with something costing $1,000 or more. Also I feel that it may sound a little this compaired to an amp, however recording is an illusion. I've walked away from some of my recordings for a few days and came back and was really convinced that one could not tell if I was playing through a tube amp or not.

This is the problem as I see it:
This thing has no playing dynamics at all. It doesn't "follow your hands" when you play through this thing.
If you have a chance to try one of the amps the POD is trying to emulate and then switch to the original amp you'll see what I mean.
There is no air in the sound...its pretty horrible actually.
And here is something they complitely overlloked:
The fact that all the different brands of tubes sound different. Lets take the Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series amplifier as an example. Those of you who have been playing for alonger period of time are probably familiar with this fact. If you were to put lets say JJ poweramp tubes and mix that with for example sovtek pre-amp tubes it sound one way, swap the JJ's for Svetlanas and the sovteks for goldendragons it will sound another way. The differences are small butt audible, especially if you have experienced ears like some players do (me for one). Same thing with the cab emulations........it just gives you an idea of what a real 4x12 cab sounds like.

Loads of options........study the manual.

only use it for practice....so idon't really know how much abuse it can take...but so far so good.

More thing to be pissed of about:
The advertising for this thing is a bunch of hype.
The aplication this thing is ment for IMHO is this:
If you have to do a homerecording (a demo or just to record a riff for later use), you live in an apartment with paperthin walls, you don't have acces to a studio the next day where you could use a tube amp, and you absolutely have to use some device that plugs directly into your recorder. I personally would never use this thing for anything else than practicing at home, I would never take it to a gig and use it as a preamp or a "stompbox" type unit, there is other far superior stuff for that sort of use.
I do not really understand what has happened to peoples ideas of good tone lately. Partly it is the manufacturers fault that overhype their products. Adds like "a fullsized marshall stack in your 1x10" solidstate practice amp with this pedal"...oh please. If you want a halfstack sound buy the halfstack there is NO other way to achieve it....or get your AC30 sound from your pod - yeah right!
My advice to everyone out there: Buy a good, solid tube amp the really take you farther than you would think at first. Then when you have a good amp, then start adding effects that equal the quality of your amp (i don't use effects other than a wah-wah)...the foundations have to be in order. The bottom line is that good gear sounds good. If your gear is good and you still sound bad, blame yourself, not the gear.

The POD is easier to use than a lot of boxes that do a lot less than the POD does. It's very easy to edit and save settings. All you have to do is get the sound you want and hit a couple of buttons and you're there.
The manual is an easy read that explains everthing very well. But if you don't "get it" read it again.
The POD isn't an instant "everything" unit out of the box. You really have to spend the time and tweek the knobs. If you work at it you can get almost any sound you want out of it.

I use a Texas Special Strat with a Duncan Hot Rail in the bridge position. I have a Carvin X60, Fender Princeton and an old Gretsch model 6161 for amps.
My POD was very quiet. The noise gate works very well and hushes everything down very nicely.
I have to say that my favorite amp model is the one based on the Marshall JCM800. It responds remarkably like the real thing. It cleans up so good when I pull the volume back on my guitar that I would swear it was the a real JCM800. And when you kick it wide open it sounds amazing.
When it comes to clean sounds the model based on the '59 Bassman is my choice. It sounds great for blues and even chicken pickin' country.
As far as the effects go I can't imagine them being any better in a box that sells at this price. Of course they don't have the controllability that dedicated effects units have but that should be expected.

It's built like a tank. I've had no problems yet but if I were to use it on a gig I would probably take my Carvin and my Lexicon just in case(you never know).

I've never dealt with Line 6.

I've played for 30 years and in that time I have played just about every kind of misic you could imagine. Right now I do a lot of blues and some country also but love to wail upon occasion.
The POD does a lot of different styles well if you're willing to spend the time to get the sounds you need. If you're lazy maybe you should just move on. I also have a Yamaha DG Stomp and it sounds pretty good but the POD still blows it away when it comes to getting the closest to a real tube amp feel.
If you buy this unit expecting to get a million dollars worth of real tube amps in a convenient little red box you will probably be disappointed. If you buy it and use it for what it "REALLY" is you're going to fall in love with the POD.
I've seen so many reviews that are nothing more than someone whining about how POD does NOT sound just like a $3000.00 boutique amp. DUHHH! It's a $250.00 box! Get over it!
When it comes to getting what you pay for I thing the Line 6 POD would be VERY hard to beat. If I could give this thing an 11 rating I would. It's that good.

a lot of hidden functions. READ THE MANUAL! it is a must to fully open up this things capabilities. this is not a plug in and play great tone device, it takes some serious tweaking to get what your looking for but once you get it you'll be very please with the tone.

this is where my story begins, in my quest for "the perfect tone" i have been thru numerious 4x12 cabs and finnally settle with Carvin Legacy cabs with vintage 30s. i run 4 cabs total, 2 per side. then for the poer to push these babys i have been thru 4 differnt marshall valvestates, a 1973 marshall mk2 super lead and have settle on a marshall el34 100/100 power amp. then for a preamp i have gone thru a korg ax1000, a digitech gsp legend,, and a digitech 2120 artist and thought i had it pretty much nailed. oh buy the way i play through a 83 gibson explorer and a 84 gibson v both with the original dirtyfingers pickups. the we hired a new guy and he came in with a power amp and this little red kidney bean looking thing and blew my tone away! so i went down and got the pod oro rack mounted and sit down for 2 hrs and congured up a lot of squealing noise and was ready to take this thing back when he walks in and said, "it will help if you turn the cab simulator off" and within 5 minutes had my tone righted and me smiling! NOTE: IF YOU ARE USING THIS LIVE THRU A POWER AMP TURN THE CAB SIMULATOR OFF! any who , im sitting there feeling like an idiot but he tells me that he has spend many an hour in front of this thing making very minute changes in setting to get what he was looking for. this thing takes time to find that "perfect tone", but once you do you will be pleased. my rig now is one of the best ive heard and the punch and air movement is second to none. i have yet to use it live where i can open this baby up , but when i do i will have no problems leaving the first couple of rows exiting with a good case of ear ringing! needless to say this is a good preamp at a good price, but dont expect to find your tone without working for it.

have not used it long enough to really know but if it lasts like the rest of line 6's stuff it will be bullet proof

have never dealt with them so cant really say

we play 80's metal ie. priest, metallica, ozzy, black sabbath ect. and this thing hits it right on the head. it has bottom end that will shake the windows and highs that will blow them out. i have always heard that if you use a tube amp that you had to use a tube preamp and visa versa but i think i have got the best of both worlds. this preamp compliment my tube amp perfectly. REMEMBER: READ THE MANUAL AND FOR PLAYING LIVE TURN THAT DAMN CAB SIMULATOR OFF!

This is one of the first POD's. I use it live and recording at home on Cubase VST. I have been in alot of mid level recording studios, where they always want a Marshall recorded dry with a SM-57 and a bunch of ambient mikes. Then the so called "pro engineer/producer" adds his Lexicons and so on to get the so called big time guitar sound. This to me is delusional and a huge waste of money. Most of the time your band spends about $20,000 and walks out with a mix on a CD. Only the big time studios/producer/engineers can help you, and that is if you are already signed. So yeah I use it live and at home to work up my songs, and I am saving my $20,000 to buy my own Pro Tools home recording situation where I can be in control and not at the mercy of some thief.

Better than the 80's stuff by far. This has every amp/combo you can imagine and if you get a midi pedal you can switch between them at will for home or live. Since it was only $250 and has all that why would I spend $3000 on a 3 channel "Soldano/Bogner/VHT"? If you end up in a mid level studio you can just use there Marshall, and be dominated by there engineer.

Nothing has gone wrong yet, and I do use it without a backup.

I havent had to call them, there website is very comprehensive, and has patches you either downloade or view!

Like I said these things are great, sorry to all of the studios out there trying to make a living. I would rather spend my money on something tangible ie: digital home recording, and processor's/plug-ins!

I engineer in a recording studio, as well as play guitar.I've played since '84 , and I would like to think that I know a good tone when I hear it.Despite my age I like lots of modern hi-gain tones as much as "vintage" ones.When you work on 200 to 250 rock sessions a year, using conventional methods of miking amps, and someone insists that you try this pod thing, at first you wanna go w/ what you know.It is hard to justify the risk of abandoning a tried and true method when clients are paying hourly.However, I feel you shouldn't be resistant to change or finding an easier, better way to achieve a desired result.So, we bought a pod to test on our own time.This thing immediately reminded me of an old Digitech gsp 21 (at least I think that was the model) that everyone was using in the late 80's.Maybe a step closer to the real deal (a miked amp), but not by much.I could still hear the buzzy top end on the saturated settings and just a general lack of balls across the board.I was fooled once by the first generations of amp sims, but now I think it's a little tougher, to pull the wool over my eyes.I remember hearing those 80's processors thinking "damn that sounds great!" until I figured out how to get the sounds these boxes were trying to emulate on tape using the real thing.Anyway enough said I think, one step closer but not there yet.
I would not have written any review at all if it wasn't for all the people saying that this thing is exactly like a tube amp (or 20 kinds of) miked.I will object to using it (unless it means a client walking out) just to save the studio's reputation.Everyone always asks a band where they did their recording, and I don't want anyone thinking that is a representation of our guitar sound.Maybe good for writing songs to a 4 track or a small PC for composing purposes but,not for you finished product.

Not gonna bother you know the features...

Never broken down, maybe use it live for clean tones?Probably not on second thought.Can't really be objective here.

Nver called line 6, but did download the software from website and ran it w/ no problems.

Good for maybe practicing or writing parts late at night.Would not want it to represent my sound .

I play my Ibanez prestige, Tele, and Peavey Vandenberg on this and they all sound good. I don't say great because this IS a digital modeling amp with no speakers and, although the actual Line6 amps sound good, the sound of this POD through headphones is close but no cigar. It does, of course, offer a huge array of different amps models, which are close enough for home practice or tinkering on my computer.

All the features you ever wanted. Lots of nice effects but not enough detailed control of the effects unless you use the software on the PC.

This think has been a tank. It is made of steel and there are really no parts that don't appear to be extremely durable.

When I first bought this, I spoke with a few guys at Line6 a couple of times. Once or twice about upgrades. They were always friendly and extremely helpful. Probably the best customer service I've received outside of a strip joint.;)

I have been playing for close to 20 years and I have a Fender Princeton Combo, several Ibanez RG's, a parts Tele, and a Customized Peavey Vandenberg. I've also had Marshalls, Mesa's, and Crate amps. This product is good, but doesn't have any good application for me at this point. I'm not recording and I have a practice amp. I loved the features and the ability to get close to a Soldano tone one earphones and a budget, but I just don't care to have all these extra amp models anymore. I can afford the real ones now. For those who can't, this is one of the best products out there.

I'm currently using this with a Les Paul Standard, all stock strung with Blusteel 10-52's. I play primarily 80's rock and classic metal, with a touch of neo classical and blues. The guitar goes direct to POD, which goes direct to my G4 into Bias software, or simply into studio phones if practicing without recording.

I have yet to find anything wrong with this. I put off writing a review for months thinking I would find something wrong after reading all the reviews here at the time, but nope, not one thing wrong.

The sound is excellent, from crystal clear tones through to grind in your face distortion, its all here. I created a couple of my own presets based on the clean tone mark iic (clean) and a variation on the plexi and rectifier. Personally I think the tone is incredible. Through good quality headphones it cannot be beat.

Recorded, I am taken completely away. For testing purposes I recorded my own three guitar versions of Metallica's Fade to Black and Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness and I nailed the tones pretty much accurately. Not perfect, but you can't expect perfect! Definitely a close pass though.

Shaping your own tone is so easy with this unit, much easier than other such devices I've tried over the last ten years that claim to 'provide tube warmth'. On that note incidentally, no it doesn't 'sound like a tube amp' but my God does it sound good...definitely the best non-tube device I've ever used.

POD version 2, bought six months ago from London England. I won't go into the features because they're fully illustrated here, and in great depth. Suffice to say the features are plenty for my needs. This review caters to those of you who would use your POD for home recording and practice primarily, as that is my use for my POD.

Built incredibly solid, as anyone who has handled it knows. Before I bought it I had doubts, thinking it looked cheap and tacky. But when the cold metal touches your hand and you feel the weight, you know its built well.

Just don't spill anything into it, or jump up and down on the dials.

Their support is supposed to be excellent...if you live in the US. In the UK things are harder to work through, but as I haven't had to go through anything with them yet (and don't anticipate having to) its all good.

26 and been playing for fourteen years now. I've been through so much equipment I can't begin to describe, though mostly BOSS and Roland gear. This POD will never replace a great tube amp, but it serves a purpose and does it incredibly well. I love my POD. For recording and practice at home you can't beat it. Just realize you don't want to take it live - buy a couple of good amps for live use.

Buy a POD. They're great for what they do, at a great price.

Easy to use, just turn the knobs, but hard to remember the extra
unlabeled functions provided by using the "tap" button as a shift
key. I always press the wrong arrows to switch between patches;
I'm continually suprised when I press the up arrow and the active
patch indicator light moves down.

I use it mostly with an American Standard Strat with regular
old single coil pickups.

It it noisy? Rather. I'm not talking pickup hum or anything, I mean *noise*, sounds like digital quantization noise. It's more apparent on some models than on others, unfortunately my fav, Brit Class A, is among the noisiest. Running a higher level signal in moves the sound farther out of the noise, but that requires using a preamp between the guitar and the pod, and it
affect the drive settings you need. I was surpriesed to find
the POD has 20-bit D/A converters, they sound more like 16.
It's tolerable for live use, but pretty annoying for recording.

For some reason, it's hard for me to get a sound out of it
that doesn't sink to the bottom of a mix, even with the lows
cut out of the sound. It's possible, but it should be easier.
Beware of sounds that sound good in headphones, they can sound
trashy on monitors.

It does sound better than any of the software plugins I've tried,
which is why I keep it around.

Had it for 2 1/2 years for live and home studio use with no problems.

Balanced outs are good.

The sound is spectacular, there is nothing you would want more than a line 6 pod. It is great for creating music, the manual is very well explained, even I got the hang of the pod quite easily.

i use an esp h-100, with a marshall head,(original jmp 800 from 1976 tube head) the noise gate works very well. i can get the sound of anything i want, metallica, pantera, you name it.

its very dependable, i cant think of anything better, i would use it on a gig without backup fo sho!

just amazing, this is a breakthrough in guitar history.

The POD, along with all of Line6's gear, is quite easy to get around in. I guess someone unfamiliar with digital technology might be intimidated at first, but I find this to be much easier to use than rackmount digital preamps (meaning, no annoying menu scrolling).

Ah yes, the subject than can start a veritable war.

Many people find the POD to be very lacking in sound quality. I don't see why, because this box is able to provide all the tones I want to have. I've got my metal tone, my classic rock tone, and various clean tones all there at my fingertips. It's personal taste, I know, but I think many of the people that are diehard tube amp fans don't give it enough of a chance. Like it's been said, these are not perfect models, but that's fine by me, because it sounds damn good to my ears. Many people that hear me play simply can't believe I'm getting the tones that I am out this unit.

I'll tell you this much; this poor POD has been through hell and back with me, and it has yet to crap out on me at all. Good sturdy jacks and the metal chassis are a definite plus.

I haven't had to deal with Line6 yet, although I've heard from many people they can be pretty elusive.

I am a metal guitarist more than anything (played for 6 years), but I also enjoy having many different tones to choose from. And the POD is able to do this, rather than the one-dimensional and very fussy Marshall JCM900 I used to own. Despite everything good about it, this unit is not for everyone, and that is understandable. But if you, like most of us out there, don't have the money to purchase an arsenal of various tube amps and maintain them, then this is a good box for you.

wish i could give it higher than a 10, but i cant. i can't believe that one guy was disappointed that there a setting that's like his practice amp! line 6 cant put every amp in exsistance on here. it could use a 5150 though. the amps it does have are outstanding, the black pannel is completely awesome. it is the warmest modeler i have ever heard, doesnt have that cold, computer feeling to it. i run it through the poweramp of my fender princeton 112 (i use it as a head), and the dyna touch circuitry adds that tube feeling most others lack. i was in awe a how great it sounded direct, words can't explain it.

where can i start? this thing is not like any other modeler, it is so simple to use. it opperates pretty much like any standard amp. line 6 did a great job not making this complicated. this helps you get away from the idea that it's a modeler and into the mind set that its just like any old amp.

i would never play a gig without it. i play in an indie/emo rock kind of band (im also really into blues and classic rock, the guitar sound in those genre's beats anything) and needed something that would give me nice tube amp sounds and would last a long time playing at least 5-10 gigs a month, and this has proved to be the answer. i've had it for about 7 months now and i still works great.

never had to deal with them, this thing wont break. i've heard good things though.

i think people that dont like this just arent giving it the chance it deserves. if it was stolen, would i buy another? most deffinately. the pod is just so accurate and can be used in any situation that its hard not to love. a little tip, try it in a live situation through your current amp's power amp, a lot of people overlook this... but it is something to look in to.

I use an Ibanez RG 550 from 1987 with great stock pickups, tuned to D (all stings down, not that dropped D garbage), with heavy strings (.12-.52). Since my style is Metal with tight tight rhythms ala Metallica/Fear Factory/Meshuggah, I have the noise gate set up pretty high, and it works great! Very intelligent gate, lets me do volume swells. With the gate set up correctly, I NEVER get feedback, and I'll tell you, I hate feedback more than you'll ever know. It's also whisper quiet, even at loud rehearsal/gig volume. I get a fantastic crunch rhythm tone (with a hint of compression), a pretty amazing slightly distorted clean tone with chorus and delay and reverb, and a lead tone with delay and reverb that cuts through a noisy band full of 5 string fretless bass and machine gun kick drums.

I mean, the tones don't make me 100% happy, but after 11 years, I still haven't been completly satisfied yet, I am still searching. I have owned Peavey's, a Marshall Valvestae Head, a 5150 Head, a Crate Head (best head I have owned yet), and lots of others, and overall, the POD is best. The POD shines through my live rig bypassing the eq and preamps, just using the poweramp of the Crate Head and my Marshall 2X12 cab. And I can switch tones with my FB4 Footswitch easily and quickly. There IS a delay changing presets, no matter what anyone says, but you just get used to pressing the footswitch a touch earlier than you would with a regular amp. And going direct to the PA with the right output, while the left output feeds my rig?" Godlike.

This is a 2001 POD Version 2.2. I bought it September 2001, and it is now July 2002. And I payed $200 used on eBay for it. I play extreme Metal ala Morbid Angel with a sense of melody like Iced Earth/Metallica. My style is based primarily on heavy riffing and tight rhythms. Yes, I do solo too. I think we all know the features in the POD, so I'll spare you guys and gals all that.

I think the headphones sound pretty good, especially if you add a bit of chorus to the distortion sounds, so the sound is coming through both sides, as if it were double tracked panned hard left/right.

I use the POD everywhere. Through my main rig (Crate 120 watt head power a Marshall 2X12 cab, using the effects return), through my old Peavey Classic Chorus 2X12 combo amp, through my little Peavey Rage, through my ghetto blaster, and through my stereo system. But the POD shines the best through a recorder. My guitars on my band's new CD were all done using the POD direct, no amp was used and no mic's were used either. Everytime I listen to the rough mix of the new album, I am happier and happier with the tones. The rhythm sparkles and is tight and clear and has some great mids. The solo sound cuts right through the mix and is creamy, and the clean sounds did me just fine, but I am not a real expert on clean sounds. I even did a third clean track to one of the new tunes with the TREMELO effect on, and it sounds so killer.

I was sick of doing a tap-dance on stage and at practices with a bunch of pedals, so I bought the POD. I tried one out for fun a couple of years back and was pretty impressed, but I was a real 'no effects processor/digital sim' guy. I hated the POD when I first got it, I wanted to sell it, but I was encouraged by a fellow guitar player whose tone was awesome (he had the Line 6 Flextone Head), so I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did.

The secrets to the POD are these two things: First: be patient, tweak like a madman, try everything you can. Different cabs, wild EQ settings, DIRECT or AMP, try, try, try. Secondly: have a bank set up just for the particulat amp you will be using then. I have seperate banks for my live/rehearsal rig, my bedroom practice rig, and recording. The POD sounds great through what I have it set up for, but sounds horible and muddy through another. You have to set it up to perform the best for any particular setting.

I wish the compression was on a knob as well, like the reverb and effect tweak knobs. I want to be able to compress a clean sound with chorus as well. I wish you could have different effects together at the same time as well, similar to the compression thing. Why not 5 at a time, which is pretty standard. I wish the Marshall cabs sounded more clear, and had more real Marshall bite. I mean, they do sound kind of like a Marshall, but I don't really find them usuable with any amps other than the Marshall amps on the POD.

This thing is worth the money with the Soldano sim, the X88R. Boy, is it scary godlike! Lots of mids, bite, tightness, crunch and note definition. I use it for all my highly distorted tones. I cannot say enough about the Soldano X88R sim. The Rectifier is muddy, the Line 6 is unfocused and midless, and the Marshall JCM 800 could use about 30% more gain - if it had that, it would be godlike too.

Never EVER gig without a backup! If my POD goes down, I can plug right into my Crate head and hook up one of my old Yamaha noise gates and I can get through a gig no worries. No problems yet........

Haven't dealt with them, I just go to POD forums for answers.

11 years and counting for me. I also have a Yamamha RGX 721 electric as well. I own lots of other amps to, mainly by Peavey, cause they are so releiable. If it was lost or stolen, I would definately buy another POD, it's a miracle worker. I wish it had 2 more outputs, and 24 bit converters and 44.1 sampling. Also I wish it had more cabinet simulators, especially more 4X12 ones (Mesa/Peavey/Line 6/Carvin etc...) and more amp sim's (Mesa/5150/Carvin/Crate/....)

Overall, POD is great, and don't compare it to the other amps, just tweak the tones YOU WANT, NEED and USE. It's all about what sounds good for what you need it for.

i have tried the pod with several good guitars and i really like the tone i can get. i upgraded to version 2.3 (for free) and it made a big difference. the first problem most people have is getting that glassy clean. if you play a guitar with hot humbuckers, you will need to reduce the drive control on all clean presets. i found the layer preset to be the best for dream theatre type clean sounds. reduce the gain and this thing is beautiful. i played the preamp live thru monitors and p.a. and it toasted my old rig. i have several presets set up for use either live or studio. for studio use, i like to double all of my guitar tracks using a marshall preset then a mesa boogie rectifier preset. the line 6 insane preset can get the 5150 feel down pretty good. there are tons of presets available from other users, should you need the help. this thing has all of the distortion that you could ever need. plenty of in-between distortions also.

the pod is deep. maybe too deep for the few knobs on the unit. i hate having to hold the tap button to access 2nd functions. having said that, i still feel this unit is pretty good at what it does.

my pod looks war damaged. been thru hell with no problems. i really should buy a case for this thing.

i called them for a 2.3 chip upgrade. i was on hold for 2 minutes. i was given the option via computer voice to have a call back instead of holding. i chose that option. i was called within 15 minutes. very friendly guy talked to me, answered all questions, sent chip with instructions for free.

i've been playing for over 20 years. i am a shredi master. i have recorded many cd's for several people and i consider the pod v2.3 i great tool for any use. i would run to buy another one if stolen. i compared it to all other amp modelers and found it warmer, more realistic.

You all know the features, very easy to use - the only problem being the use of the shift button to access all the models/effects.

Here's where the debate really rages!! Reading through a few articles it really is a love/hate thing - I'm now going to break that rule by saying I like it!! I was really against this sort of thing before I got it but it has slowly convinced me that it was worth the money - I solely use it for recording into my eight track/pc and it really works well for this sort of work, I also only ever use good quality headphones with it - using it through a guitar amp is pointless as the finer points of the model get lost and the cab simulation becomes redundant - through a mixer/pa is better but I wouldn't want to use it in any sort of live situation.

Onto the sounds - first thing to remember is the models DO NOT match the amps they're supposed too. Then again my Classic 30 doesn't match a Vox but still sounds damn good - and thats my point, they're are lots of good sounds in here, just don't expect them to be exact matches.

Of all the sounds on offer the clean sounds are bad (either almost unusable or sound just like the guitar being played straight to headphones), the warm overdrives and distortions are okay to good but I found the distortions/hi gains/fuzzes to be really poor as well - it tends to become too fizzy or too muddy and needs a little work to get right (humbuckers are a right pain - my Tele seemed a lot better).

The second point is the sounds really lack depth and sometimes dynamacism compared to a real amp - some sounds seem wafer thin and picking/solos really don't work at all through this unit - it's a rhythm players tool. It doesn't provide enough gain on a single note to solo with which is presumably a nuance of the modelling technique.

Not broken it yet though to be fair it's pretty much been plonked in a corner and not moved.

This is where line 6 win - good website and excellent customer services.... Are you listening Fender???

I'm glad I bought it and for quick practice/getting ideas down it's good but it does have some quite severe limitations - it's solely a rhythm players tool and won't give any sort of screaming/searing tone.

The key thing to remember is - if you can afford an original vintage amp then go buy one and don't waste time slagging this box off, if you want a good recording aid with a few nice tones in it buy this. It's the best modeller around but please try thoroughly (ie through an amp/recorder/headphones over all models and try all your styles of playing) before buying but more people will be happy than dissapointed.

The current POD ver2.3 is quite easy to use, although some of the parameters require pressing 2 buttons in order to edit. Because it's laid out like an amp, you don't have to scroll thru a bunch of different menus. Just turn the knob and you're done. For some of the hidden parameters you will have to hold the tap button down while simultaneously turning the particular editing knob. This can be rather combersome. The manual is a must to find out the various parameters. The manual is interesting and helpful, but I've yet to see the ideal manual.

While the POD was designed for recording, it can be used live as an amp substitute. I go right into a mixing board & then thru a power amp. Unless you A/B it with the amp it's modeling you can get some pretty good simulations even at low volume levels. Good for preserving the hearing. I've heard that at concert levels all of these amp simulators crap out, but it still sounds pretty good to me. You can use effcts pedals with it just like an amp. I use a tube screamer in front of the POD to get some extra gain. If the gain in the patch is set too high it will reduce the effectiveness of the tube screamer.
I like the effects that are incorporated in the POD, but it's pretty hard to set the delay time unless you use your computer & the included sound diver software. Also, I've seen more effective compressor effects. Since it was designed for the studio, the POD is very quiet. You can get that high powered amp gain hiss ala Robin Trower by turning off the noise suppressor, but who wants to.
If the gain settings are carefully tweaked you can get some terrific responsiveness to picking dynamics; very amp like.
Interstingly the newer PODs seem to have noticebly less output than the earlier versions (about 30% less), even though I upgraded to ver 2.0.

I have never had a problem with my POD. I did get a second one for use as a back up. Gee, imagine lugging around two or three amps as backups. I wouldn't go to any gig without backing up everything. This makes it quite easy to back up your amp.

Ah, the one sticking point. I've tried emailing, faxing, bullatin boarding, and attempting the fateful phone call without success. If I were in trouble with my equipment, I'm afraid to think what I would do to get it straightened out.

To summarize, the POD is a versitile good sounding guitar amp simulator. The amp tones are very recognizable giving a good impression of the amps it's supposed to be simulating. That is the Fender model sounds Fenderlike, the Marshall sounds like a Marshall,etc. It is the standard to which all of the other amp modelers are compared to, to me it still has the best tone. I would get another (I already did) if lost. I was very disappointed by the customer support. This fact alone altered my rating.

Strat with lace sensors (noiseless (sort of) single coils).
No pedals in use with it. Anyway, I've been playing for about 5 years, and I've been looking at getting a big, great sounding 'real' amp for a while. I played through a 63 vibroverb and it was stunning; you just plugged in, and had a hard time playing a bad sounding note. But the pod was a struggle to get a good tone from. I tried it through nice headphones, through a hifi, and through an amp, and it didn't help much. I don't really know what each particular amp is supposed to sound like, cause I'm 16, but none of them was a patch on the vibroverb, or even the peavey practice amp I've got. It was a bit of an impulse buy which I'm regretting.
The rectifier/solando type settings get muddy when the gain is up high; palm mutey stuff sounds pretty weak. Low gain stuff sounds pretty weak too. The chorus and chorus/delay effects were really good though; it sort of masked the crapness of the rest of it.

It's a million amps in one with some pretty standard effects: delay, chorus, flanger, compressor, and combinations of effects. It's got knobs and is simple for anyone with half a brain. Press&hold a button and the knob doubles as a switch type thing.

I got one and it dicked around with the patches, like it would change them. So I got it replaced with another one, which has worked perfectly. It also worked in the store when I took it in (embarrasing) so I think it was a dodgy transformer, and the power in my street is just a little bit too low voltage wise.

Haven't dealt with line 6

As I said, I was looking for a real amp, which the Pod isn't. The pod is a million fake amps. I thought it would save heaps of money by having one nice convenient box which sounded close enough to a few amps, rather than spend ten times as much on those few amps. It didn't sound close enough. It's a good idea, but for my practical purposes, it's a gimmick. I got lured in by 'super new dsp high-tech sampling rates digital-modelling sounds like the real thing fine tuned audio equasions and crap like that' marketing hype.
Mind you, everything I tested it with was solid state; it would probably be better through a marshall 9200 or mesa 50/50 or something like that; then again, so would a good, real, tube amp with quality speakers.

After you get used to POD, it isn't difficult what you want....I haven't tried the MIDI thing yet though....

Well, there are several amp models that can make your guitar sound good. I like POD clean, Black panel for clean sounds and Britt hi gain, Rectified and Modern Higain for distortorted sounds. I like delay of POD, that's the effect I use the most, and Reverb, also Chorus...I don't have much use for flanger but I have tried it and for you who use it I I guess you can be satisfied with the flanger sound you get out of this little box.

I have used, and would use it without backup.

Never needed it.

I play the POD through a mixing board and through a keyboard amp (good for uncolored sound). I use my main guitar with it, which is a Heritage H-150CM* . I like this little thing a lot. I am thinking of assembling a live Rig using the POD Pro and a Mesa/Boogie all tube Power amp.

First off, I really can't say how authentic the models are, as I have not done a side by side comparison. I can say that it gets me the sounds I want. Tube amps may sound superiour, but they are such a pain in the ass that I can give up the tube amp sound in favor of something smaller, lighter, CHEAPER, and a hell of a lot more versitile. Sure, the POD isn't perfect, and neither are its models. BUT, it gets me the sounds I want in a small package and and even smaller price. I can get warm OR sparkling cleans, SHARP or warm overdrive, and a Brutal Disortion that is to die for (at least on some of the models). My favorite models are those that were modeled after the Dual Rectifier, Soldano, and Marshall amps. I use all those for my overdrive/distortion sounds, and use the tube pre-amp and some sort of fender model (forgot which one) for my clean sounds. My favorite cab models are among the 4x12's (for distortion) and 1x12 and 2x12 (for clean). I never really bothered to check which Cabs my favorite ones were modeled after.

Again, this is a great tone maker. It is good for home studio use and live use. For an advanced home or professional studio, or an advanced guitar rig, I would suggest the POD Pro. Right now I am using it to get the sounds I want till my budget permits the purchase of the real thing. Once I have the cash, I think I will stick witht the separate preamp/poweramp setup and get a Rectifier Pre-Amp, the Marshall JMP1 preamp, and a suitable mid-sized power amp. Most likely I will also toss in a POD Pro for added versatility.

POD 2.0 version. Purchased Dec'01. The features have been pretty well covered, so look below or go check out www.line6.com. I give it an 8 just because nothing is perfect. The amp models sound fairly nice. Some of the effects are decent, some are just wierd and crappy.

I would definately say that it is dependable. It is very sturdy and has a heavy-duty metal shell. The optional 4 button footswitch that I purchased is also solid as a rock. Both get tossed around the trunk of my car with no protection and never fail to perform. Added props go to the sturdy footswitch because I am a big guy and slam the hell out of it and it is holding up awesomely. It doesn't even have a scratch.

Haven't had to deal with them in person. Their site is really handy though. Check it out for specs on their products and resources to help you get the most out of your products...or...just visit it to keep you from being bored for a little while.

Overall, I think the POD is great. I can get good sounds out of a compact, inexpensive piece of gear. Pros and bar regulars alike are singing it's praises. For the money, it is great. The footswitch and footcontroller could both be a little cheaper (especially the 4 button footswitch) but even they are reasonable priced. Also, a studid and useless piece of information is that the sitckers they give you are pretty nifty! LOL :o) Bottom Line: Whether you should buy this or not is your opinion/decision, but I can say this....You at least owe it to yourself to give it a try. Spend some time with it before you decide if it is right for you. And, even if you dont decide to buy it, spend time checking it out before you bash it.

Ibanez S540 FM TTS, humbuckers AND singlecoil. POD didn't respond too well to lowering the guitar's volume. POD sounds muddy to me (Digitech GEnesis 3 is WAYYYY cleaner and better). POD seems better suited for 'dirty' vintage overdrive/crunch-sounds. You can't get a totally clean (JC-120 type clean) sound from a POD.
The only amp-sim that stands out above its competition is the Mod HiGain (Soldano XR88).

The POD makes most guitars sound a like. J Station and Genesis 3 respond way better to a guitar's OWN sound.

I would maybe use it in a home-studio, when it would cost around $150 (like the Behringer V-amp2, which has several edges over the POD: LED-rings, ENGL Savage-pre, aux in), but I'm going with a Digitech Genesis 3. I play 80's metal, 70's rock, 60's surf and some blues and funk, and like I said: for surf the Blackface model is nice, and for metal the Mod Higain...but for instance the Vox AC30... COME ON!!!

Hmm... only liked the JCM800, Soldano and Blackface sims. Headphone jack is voiced otherwise than the line-outs.
I didn't like the FX much. I tested it in a pro-studio (with Apogee converters, ProTools TDM, Genelec 1031 monitoring) and THEN it sounded nice, but when playing in the store with MY guitar, headphones etc. THE POD SOUNDS WAY TOO MUDDY! Frankly, I've heard several people here say with their glowing reviews, stuff like:"If you can't get a great sound of it, then it's your fault." or "I'm not impressed by people that are dodging the POD."

WELL, I'm not impressed by the POD itself. And
1)I know what a good tone is
2)I have tried the J-Station, Digitech Genesis 3 and GNX1 and they all sound better and more accurate.
Why? Because the POD has 20bit AD/DA converters, and 31.250Hz sampling rate. The others have 24bit converters and 44.1kHz sampling rate. THIS MATTERS A LOT!
I wouldn't even want to try it live. I've played on the Flextone II combo, and although the sounds by themselves sound nice, they 'drown' when playing with a full band.

Oh another big issue: the knobs mostly don't work for 60% or so, meaning: when you grab the bass-knob, put it on '0', and bringing it up to 10, you will hear almost no difference between 0 and 6. The whole bass-range sits between 6 and 10. Ditto with mid and treble. Drive is the other way around. 0 to 4 does it all, and after 4 there's little to be 'gained' (pun intended)

it does look and feel a lot more reliable than J Station, Genesis 3, and V-amp2. Thick metal casing. Nice.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 10 years, have played on several quality tube amps (Fender Deluxe, Marshall JCM2000 TSL 122, ENGL Savage Spec. Edt (RULES THE SHIT! BEST AMP EVER!), Mesa Boogie Mark IV, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Rivera Knucklehead 55W, Hughes and Kettner Duotone (sucked!), and yes I have calculated the fact that a $300 device cannot fully imitate a $2000 amp. But how come his cheaper competition does a better job at this? Not to mention providing digital outputs (Genesis 3, J -Station), Warp-function and studio quality fx (Genesis 3).

My objective was to find a suitable desktop-unit, for home-recording, with which I could emulate nice amp sounds. I don't care if it emulates the 100% perfect, I care if it has the sounds I like. And the POD just sounds way to muddy to my ears.

I wish it had:
-better effects
-digital out (yes, POD Pro has it, but $700?!?! No way!)
-better converters
-less brainwashed users ;-)

I've been involved in playing and recording music since the mid-1980's. I've owned tons of different guitars, FX and studio equipment. I find my POD 2.0 very easy to use. In fact, I was working with it for two weeks before I even opened the manual. The key to getting a good sound seems to be hooking it up properly depending upon your situation. I get sounds out of this thing that I haven't been able to reproduce in the past. Good sounds, quality sounds. I don't know what all the "POD bashing" is about. I've owned Mesa Boogies, Soldanos, Marshalls and the like. Let me tell you - this is an excellent piece of technology at a very affordable price.

I'm using a POD 2.0 purely as a direct-box for a digital audio workstation using Cakewalk's Sonar 2. I've "front-ended" the PC with a 16 channel Carvin mixing console and several pieces of outboard gear. My reference monitors are a pair of Yamaha MSP5s. Why am I telling you all this? Well, from what I've read, POD sems better suited to "direct box" type of use than as an PX platform for live performances. I can pretty much buy whatever gear I want to, and the POD is the only guitar FX processor in my arsenal. It's that good people.

I've never taken my POD out of my studio, so I can't comment on its' reliability. It does, however, seem like it's very durable. It reminds me of the old BOSS FX pedals. You know, the kinds of metal cases that you could toss out of your car going 50mph and it would still work.

Never dealty with POD, though have been on their web site a few times. I have had some trouble getting their MIDI-based editing software to work properly, but I think it's more an issue with the MIDI interfaces in my digital audio workstation. I also own a Bass POD, which I purchased because I was so pleased with the POD 2.0.

I do all kinds of recording and post production in my home studio. Two-track archiving and restoration from all types of sources, multi-track recording of original material, and full motion video editing and distribution on DVD. Whenever my guitars get involved in these things, the POD serves me very well with quality sounds. My only suggestion for Line6 would be to add some additional clean sounds in future versions of the software. The distorted, overdriven and rectified sounds are awesome, but there are fewer outstanding clean sounds. Could use a few more.

Very easy to use.

Sorry guys but this sucks if you are trying to create real music. It is fine to use if you are just laying down tracks during the songwriting process, but that is it. There is no substitute for placing a quality mic in front of a high quality tube amp like marshall, soldano, riveral or fender.

I find that the guitars sound extremely thin and chessy.

Hasn't broken yet.

Haven't tried.

great for practive, sucks if you want to make quality music.

Okay, so..Basically this baby should bring you about 90% of the original sound of the tube amps it models. When I bought POD I had fiddled it with a lot and I was thinking that it was something great.
A year passed and I started to notice something weird. I first listened to bands who were using tube amps and then tried to match their sound. No, I was not looking for 100% tubesound, just something that would even remind me of them. And then I realized that this thing is a piece of junk. It sounds like total shit! It's just an expensive distortion box. It has only 2 usable cleans (JC-120 and Line 6 Layer) and about 3 distortions to use (Mesa Recto, Soldano preamp, JCM800).
Personally I don't like effects so I won't say anything about them, but I bet that if you want good effects, then you can use the same amount of money on an "Effects Only" pedal. If you want a good sound, try to save money for a tubeamp, believe me, it's worth it.

Bought mine a few years ago. Sorry, I'm not going to give a detailed description of the features. Take a look at the other reviews or www.line6.com
If you have just tried a POD at your local GuitarCenter and were blown by the great sound and stuff, then read forward!

Never carried it around much but it seems to be sturdy.

Never dealt with them.

If my POD was stolen, I would go and collect the insurance money and save it for a tube head!

Using an epiphone LP 100 with it, not noisy, you have a Noise Gate. I use it in mah room. Can make ANY sound, almost. It gets a tad distorted at high volumes with Fuzz and drive, but that's it. Not very brutal.

Probably made in 2001-2. It can do any style of music I think, for me it is rock, classical rock, and blues. Headphone available, has ALL the features i need, 16 effects 32 models.

I've dropped it from like 5 feet, still fine. It's metal, not any of this plastic stuff.

Not needed them.

I have been playing one year, and I own a shitty little practice amp and a good guitar. It if were stolen or lost, I would buy this again. I love the effects and the models and the versatility, and I hate that it does not come with MIDI and extra cables. (not really hate, just dislike.)

Dans la version pro, les reglages du pod ne sont accessibles que via Midi ..., non acceptable a mon gout. D'autres ne sont accessibles qu'en pressant plusieurs boutons a la fois, ... c'est loin d'etre pratique lorsqu'on a la guitare a la main !

Sans aucun etat d'ame : ce produit n'est pas fait pour moi ! C'est soit disant un simulateur d'ampli a lampe CE N'EST PAS VRAI. S'il m'a donne de bonne satisfaction avec une guitare moyenne (charvel + micro EMG) ce n'est pas le cas avec une guitare de gamme superieure (ibanez jem7 ou autre JS1000). Dans ce dernier cas, lorsque je baisse le volume de mon micro, le son fourni est sature et faible, alors qu'avec un vrai preampli a lampe (jmp1 ou Pirhana) le son est clair ... Le Pod n'est pas un preampli a lampe ! Le son n'a rien d'original, il est tout simplement commun !

En conclusion ce produit est parfaitement adapte a une guitare moyenne mais la qualite de ce pod n'est pas coherente avec des guitares de gammes superieures (jem7, universe, JS1000, ....)
Certains grands guitaristes utilisent ce truc ET CELA S'ENTEND : gros son edulcore sans ame!

J'ai garde ce produit 2 jours. Je continue a jouer sur Rocktron

Je joue depuis 22 ans sur Ibanez Jem7 ==> WhaWha Bad Horsies ==>Pirhana ==> Replifex ==> Intellifex ==>Peavey Classic 5050 ==> 2* Vintage 30

Mon style : Steve Vai / Satriani / Steve Morse, ....

Very, a stoned guitar player would have no problem

I have owned some classic amps (blackface showman, 70's bassman, Marshall JCM) and have been around many great vintage amps. I can say that many of these tones are close. I had a hard time getting really good clean sounds but after working with the unit for a while I settled on the black face, and the vox replications with tweaks to the tones to get what I want. It definatly has a bias towards the overdriven crunch type sounds.

What really kicks ass about the unit is that it has good tones if worked with enough and you don't have to worry about setting up the mikes correctly, having good mikes (well I know sm-57's are cheap, but..)bothering the other tennants or neighbors, ensuring your tubes are sounding good, and of coursebeing able to afford the amps in the first place. It is a bit noisy but no more than any amp I have played through. This is a cool unit that is very flexible and should really be considered as a good piece of equipment in the studio.

I just threw it against the wall and checked and it still works.

First off i'll say that the distortion on this as well as any other line 6 amp has no rival. The insane channel is that dream guitar sound that i have long wished was so easily accessible. I play on a jackson sustainer and an older Ibanez it's a rg series but i'm not 100% sure from when it was used. With the two guitars i play in a variety of styles from alternative to experimental/prog rockish styles
and the Pod is what makes this myriad of tones possible. As you would expect i get a little interferince playing through single coil pickups
other than that the only noise i encounter is at extremely high gain settings, this is where the built in noise gate comes in handy(or creative eq'ing). So to summerize jazz and blues to shred and industrial this things got you covered.

As you probally know, the Pod is an amp modeler. In my opinion the best. features are 32 amp models and 16 cabinet simulations and 16 effects. If you have the seperate floor controller the feature list rises to a 9 because you can toggle on&off effects, distortion, gain boost, treble boost also puts into effect the wah wah via a dedicated expression pedal and volume control. It can be run stereo or mono and is obviously digital(solid state).My only beef is the lack of a phaser effect which i consider mandatory for guitar...
Other than that not too many amps come with software to edit the sounds or the ability to download other pod owners posted settings, Not to mention either guitar worl or guitar one posts suggested pod setting for their transcriptions

Very dependable. i work in a cramped space and on several occassions my Pod has been knocked from my desk to the hardwood floor. It has survived these unplanned trips with barely a scratch and absolutely no change in performance :)

never needed em. though the line 6 site is pretty cool.

Well, nothing is perfect but the Pod is pretty damn close. i hocked one once and could never figure out why, a mistake i wont make twice.
i love the distortions, colda done with a more organic sounding flanger. i would definately replace if stolen. and i just wanted to add that the flexibility of the pod i've reported here is not including the included software(pc and mac)that delves even deeper into sound editing.

I've owned my pod since Dec 01. I own a HotRod Deville. I've read many of the reviews here and opinions are really divided into two camps. Some people are looking for the holy grail in sound, hoping that a $300 device will deliver the tone of all those vintage amps and their favorite artists, those people are usually disapointed. The second group are the people looking for good over all tone with ever greater versatility, these people are usually very pleased with their POD.

I fall into the second category, I own a tube amp and love the warmth of the clean channel, most people who own or have played a Deville agree. However there are times when I need a different sound. I'm not trying to replicate someones sound, I want my own I strive for that sound that sounds good cutting through the mix. Most time I can hear it in my head and then go and find it on my POD, most times I can nail it some times I'm disapointed.

Lets be realistic here, and some people have already commented on this. If you are looking for that Plexi or Blackface sound and that is the only sound that will do, then get the real deal. Belive me I'm still looking for a Blackface or SF that can be moded. But for now I love POD!

I have tried the POD through my Deville and it sounds good but it really sound great through my Acoustasonic, I use the second channel set the eq up at 5 for both the treble and bass. I also use the balanced outputs of the POD to the amp. Many days I switch back and forth between my POD set up and my Deville and the Deville does sound bigger and fuller however the POD sounds great, especially when I want that drive or crunch sound (Blackface or Plexi).

POD has it place, for live use it can be a bit difficult to use with out the foot pedal if you what to change settings mid song or ever quickly between songs you will need a foot switch. To me the POD sounds great cutting through the mix for live music, does it have the same dynamic range as my Deville? No. Does it have dynamic range and is it touch sensitive? YES! Set it up right and spend some time with it and you will not be disapointed.

Hints;
1) use a balanced cable if you can
2) do not set the output higher that 3 or 4. I got this from line6, any higher and the signal starts to clip.
3) Use an amp that will not colour the sound like a keyboard amp.
4) when in manual mode if you push manual and tap simultanously you will will be able to change cabs and amp models with out having to push tap, push tap again to release. OF course this sets up the POD like you have tap pushed so if you need to set your eq you need to push tap.
5) Be patient and create you own sounds, and ya you will find some of your favorite artist sounds in there accually may of them, just be patient!

I give POD a 9 for what it is, an amp simulator with amazing flexability!

Pod2 with 32 models etc, etc, etc,,, see below

dropped it on the floor and no problems

Emailed them a number of times and always got a reply!

For what it does, this is a great little tone machine.

I have been playing for over 20 years and know what Sound good, and POD sounds good, very good.

Cheers

This is where the real bummer is.i would like to firstly say, itested it for a while only. i never bought it.The sound is totally crappy. I hope Line 6 is paying attention here. i've tested Flextones before and they were wonderful.As ironic as it may seem, i don't think it is the POD's fault. the guy at the shop hooked it up to some really crappy amp and my signature strat was reduced to limp sounds. totally unimpressive!! you may ask why not i just change the amp instead... this is the point i want Line 6 to listen to.People who are experinced knows the amp is theproblem... but for alot of guitarists, they'll just hear and conclude that the POD is crap.i think what line 6 should do is at least send the dealers with a line 6 cab or sme special amp to go with the POD. this way, they can get excellent sounds and also sell the cab at one shot. you know sort of a POD/CAB package deal.True that most POD owners have already their own amps but what about those who don't? Line 6 must understand the mind of the user.if the POD can sound great with the cab they send... then they nail the coffin for the the sale POD or even the cab together. All i am trying to say is IF i am an inexperinced user...Line 6 products would forever be blacklisted under my books. All said, i will test it again at another place with another amp...the dealer wasn't too friendly.i still believe in Line 6 products... i just hope nobody goes through the torrid time i had in testing the POD. Please Line 6, give reminders for dealers to test it on your own amp...even a spider amp would do.I will not vote in this section as i feel it is unfair to do such. just wanted to bring this matter to attention.

There are alot of features as already mentioned with other people.Features are excellent. I give it a five for needing to shell out extra for the midi footpedal.Mind you ... it is not cheap.

No comments... but construction seems very sturdy.

Haven't deal with them.

I can't rate it as of yet... but wait for my final review. i will test it throuroughly.

The POD is surprisingly easy to use considering the large number of knobs and buttons and other whatnot strewn all over the face. My biggest problem is that they had to use a "shift" button (tap-hold) in order to acess another whole set of functions. The amp models (17-32) are not actually written on the unit, but must be looked up in the manual. This is sort of a pain, although I can see why they couldn't write everything on the face of the unit itself.

The presets are fun to wank around with and easy to access via an "up" and "down" button. They are organized into 9 different channels with 4 voices each. Most are twat, but some are really cool.

The manual is pretty easy to read through and explains all the important stuff to get started. I found it amusing how much the author tooted the company's own horn, but that was a minor point.

I haven't gotten into the SoundDriver part yet. I've only owned it a few days.

Wow.

Okay, I play with several different guitars: a Les Paul Standard (factory pu's), a 52 reissue Tele (factory PU's) and a Mexican Strat (replaced the bridge single-coil with a lace sensor humbuck.). They all sound great, but very different. Its amazing how the POD manages to keep the essential character of your guitar intact while manipulating the sound electronically. I was particularly impressed by the way my Tele sounded through this thing. Very twangy and raunchy!

It sounds great through headphones as a practice-amp. I wasn't too thrilled with a lot of the factory preset sounds, but manually switching between amp models, cabs, and effects quickly produced some great tones. Because I own a Mesa/Boogie Single Rectifier amp, the first place I went was the "Rectified" model to see how close it got. I was pretty impressed...it was dammn close. Not exact, but damn close. Worth 300 bucks! I can't speak for the other amp models, but they all sound pretty distinct and most are quite delicious.

The POD seems to produce high-gain distorted sounds best...the Soldano, Mesa, and Marshall models are very tasty. My favorite sound is the Soldano High-gain through a 4x12 cabinet simulation. VERY cool for a person too scared to buy a stack. I'm not as thrilled with the clean Fender models, nor with the AC30 emulation. Of course, I wasn't too thrilled with the real AC30 I played in the guitar store once...

The effects sound really good, considering that they're thrown into this package of amp models. I hate the chorus effect, but I've never found a chorus I liked packaged in with other effects. The reverb effects are wonderful, and you can really hear the difference between the spring-reverb amps and the room-reverb varieties.

I plugged into the POD and then ran the POD through my Mesa/Boogie Rect-O-Verb 50 and...wow...I was impressed. It was a bit thin on certain settings, but the power was something that the POD could not emulate. Again, the high-gain settings sounded best. I didn't mess with the effects loop, opting to connect directly to the input on the front of the amp, keeping the amp as clean as possible. It sounded great. I don't think I would ever use this *instead* of the natural distortion on my Recto, but it was very fun to mess with. You just can't get that kind of gut-shaking power through a pair of headphones.

Overall, this little puppy can produce a barrel of sounds. Between the 32 amps and the multiple speaker cabinet settings, I dont' see myself getting bored with it any time soon. I record at home through a Roland VS840 digital studio, and I think that this will be a dream come true for quick recording solutions.

In three days it hasn't had a problem. TAke that for what it's worth.

I play mainly blues/folk/rock with a leaning towards roots stuff like Wilco, the Jayhawks, etc. I've been playing for ten years and have owned a Park practice amp (still use in a pinch), a Peavy Special 130 (piece of crapola) a Fender Performer 650 hybrid (a good little amp) and my Mesa/Boogie Rectoverb 50 combo.

I love the POD because it does exactly what I imagined that it would. It pulls a pretty dammn good impression of some great amp models and makes it easy to switch from one to the other. I bought it for home recording and practicing, and I think I'm going to be thrilled with it for years. I heard a lot of good things about this puppy, but I went to the music store to play it for a while before I wrote the check. I used the crappiest Mexican Stratoclone I could find on the wall and it still delivered the goods. For the price, it is the best accessory I have ever purchased. Does it render real amps obsolete? Hell no. Of course, I never thought it would.

I'm using a Charvel CSM1-G (check out my review) with it. I always use the neck humbucker. The single coil sounds good with some cleans, but I don't have time to sing, play, switch channels, and switch pickups all at the same time. :) It suits all my styles extremely well, and I'm probably going to soon start experimenting with the more odd-ball amps and models, such as the fuzz. The delay on it is pretty good and you can set it to a t in sound diver. Chorus 1 and one of the flangers I don't like. I mostly use the Chorus and delays on this, of which may not be the absolute best, but they fit me well. Getting used to the POD is a little difficult, but after you do, it's cool. The noise gate absolutely rocks!! I am so happy it has one and has a switch to turn it off with on the front face plate. The only thing about it is that you have to use Sound Diver to adjust it, but that's ok. I use the insane model for my distortion and it sounds AWESOME!! It's got that fat Mesa sound, but at a very small fraction of a cost. I am currently using this preamp with a Fender Champion 110. I do have a Peavey 2x12 on its way to me now and I may possibly buy my friends Valvestate 102 (2x12, 100 watt combo). Be prepared to tweak!!! The only thing I don't like about it is that every amp model, while trying to be true to the original, reacts to EQ changes differently, making it sometimes hard to find the sound you want because what works with this amp, doesn't with the other amp. It's still awesome, though, and it will be a very long time before I sell it (probably until the POD 3 comes out :o). It is really awesome being able to practice late at night (except for when you leave your headphones at church... DOH!!) through the headphones. It sounds great through a good set of headphones (I've got some AKGs). I highly reccomend this product and one thing I HIGHLY suggest... spend time with it!! Lots of time!! I loved it when I first got it, hated it the month after that, and then FINALLY was able to get the sounds I was wanting after fiddling with it enough. Be patient with this and you shall be greatly rewarded. :) Also, keep in mind that the whole delay between the channels switching has been taken out with the new versions of this thing. There is hardly a noticible delay, now, as compared to the earlier versions which I hear had a terrible delay.

I bought this awesome little piece of gear about a year ago. It is unbelievably versatile, perfect for what I do. That being Christian Metal to Praise and Worship every Sunday night. I love it because I get the sounds I want when I need them. What more could I ask for? A little better effects, possibly, but these work for what I do. It has 32 amp models on it, 16 effects, and 16 speaker cabinet simulations. I have the FB4 with mine, and I'd like to have a floorboard, but personally don't have to have it yet, although I am starting to foresee the day when I do (when our songs get so complex, 4 channels won't cut it any more...). I only use 5 of the 9 banks on this thing. Since I play praise and worship every sunday night, I use two of them for it: one for going through an amp and the other tweaked for direct. And then the same for my metal settings. The 5th one is for my Ibanez AE18 Acoustic/Electric (a fine guitar, btw). I'm giving it a 10 because it is very versatile, especially with Sound Diver, of which allows me to backup my amp settings on a 3 1/2" floppy disk. How cool is that!! Tell me of a Marshall or Mesa that can do that? :o)

I have never had it to break down on me at all. It's always come on on the first try. The only thing I've ever had with it is that it has frozen up on me a couple of times, but it wasn't to my surprise because I whacked the delay settings to where the delay level was high and the number of repeats were infinite. lol... I'd freeze up if someone did that to me, as well. For that reason, I give it a 9.

Dealth with them once through the new thingy on their website. They were helpful. I asked for how I could get the latest version (at that time v 2.2) and they said they'd send it to me. I need to go ask for v 2.4 or 2.5, whatever's out now. 2.2 is good, though. The channels switch fast and it sounds good.

I love this thing and have no plans of selling it unless they come out with a POD 3, which I suspect (and hope and pray) they will. It is an awesome little piece of equipment and is worth it's price alone for the practice time you could get with it and it's also good for going direct into Pro Tools. :o) I highly reccommend it. I give it a 9 over all. Oh yeah, the paint chips easily, not cool at all, but it's ok. Just affects the cosmetics. Feel free to email me with any questions about it. God bless!!

This is the best toy I've ever bought. It is so easy to use and to get good tone out of it, that it makes it be more fun that it already is just with the sounds you can get. If your not going to mess to much with the effects, its really easy to use by itself. But if you are not scared of computers, the fun just gets better with SoundDiver. You can teak the effects really easy with this program, and whats even better, you can save ase many presets as you want in your computer.

I use it throu headphones and also thru my mixing board. It just sounds great!!! I've never owned a satck amp, but I've used my brother's JCM 800, and the tones you get out of this can kick that thing's buttom. And whats even better, I can play a heavy riff thru a dual rectifier, a solo on a JCM 800 and a clean tone bridge on a fender tweed. It's just great.

I just got it 2 days a go. But a friend of mine has one, and he has never had trouble with it. We've jammed together, and with the floorboard, he had a whole arsennal on his feet. And it was always ready to attack

I tried to register it on line, but it didn't work. But the tone transfer library its just great!!

Best investement since my Ibanez RG3120!! couldn't ask for more, well, maybe just a harmonizer inside the unit, but I guess it would be crapy, so maybe that's why they didn't pu it in there. But I'm as happy as I can be with this unit.

I am using it with a Ibanez RG7620. i practice with headphones and it sounds superb. very warm, and the effects are easy to access and setup. i gig with it, and i plug into a stereo keyboard amp. it is set to null and the sound is exactly what the POD puts out. because of this, i have turn the cab emulation on, and then it comes to life. rich and warm, it has the presence of a tube amp (only on the Line 6 4x12 model though). it fooled my guitar teacher, who is a session player. he has just got one to practice with.
Distortion is un-frickin-believable. as a metal player, i love it. it has a little solid-state bite on the high-gain models, which i love. however, it is tough to get the warmth on the Plexi and Class A models (if you run through a tube power amp, the problem is solved). otherwise i love the infinite headroom. i could never use my guitar and pickups with a real Matchless and get anything resembling a clean tone.

Everything....country to metal with ease

Had no problems whatsoever. i always make sure that it is powered off of a power conditioner(usually the bass players) and it will never chirp or pop or die. those are line power probs that shitty clubs and studios often have. computers are very sensitive to that. reliablity starts with diligence.

the line 6 website is very friendly and quick. they solved my line power problem quickly.

As the guitar in a metal trio, i have to cover a lot of sonic territory. the POD is my main tool, and i am surprised that guys buy 1000 dollar marhsall solid state full stacks(MG100RCD) that suck balls. it's not a tube amp, it isn't better than a tube amp, and it doesn't model perfectly. but it excels at delivering accessible tones on demand with perfection.

I was using it to gig with but that was pretty stupid,and I had extreme reliability issues. I play all styles, jazz, blues, country, R&B, fusion, etc. Works really well for practicing (I was using it through a Pignose which was fun). Has that digital noise on the high gain settings (hold out a note, and as it decayed it would just kind of crap out). A lot of sounds and variety, the best which were the Black Panel and the US High Gain with lower gain settings. The bottom line is that the POD does two things- turns your Pignose into a fun toy to play with for like hours and hours, and makes things really easy in the studio. Other than that, pretty much useless.

2001 Pod 2.0. Has a good amount of features for the price and works REALLY WELL for studio, and sets up very quickly. (It's a bitch to get good sounds in the studio.) Don't use as an effects processor or with a tube amp, because it's not made for those things. Understand that VERY CLEARLY before you buy one.

As far as this goes, the Pod kind of sucks. I've had it crap out on gigs where it just stopped working, and even when it wasn't crapping out, the volumes of the different channels of presets I had stored were incredibly wacky and I was always getting yelled at in rehearsal by my bandleader. (Not loud enough, too loud, etc.) AGAIN- only use as a toy or in the studio and you should be fine.

Don't really know.

I got rid of the thing when my tube amp (Peavey Classic 50) crapped out; sold it to get a Super Reverb reissue (which are mighty pricey.) The POD is a great inexpensive studio tool for direct recording and is a cool toy to play with at home but DON't use for gigs or think that you're buying an effects processor.

It has the essential nobs right there for you, but there are some features that you can't access as easily. Its best to use the midi software if you aren't afraid of computers in order to get the full potential out of the POD. I'm sure many users won't even try this, and so they won't see how truely flexible the POD is. Even so, if I'm just jamming with somebody I can twist the knobs and have a cool sound literally in seconds.
The reason I give an 8 here and not higher is because the POD is somewhat difficult to control via midi in a live situation. I would like to send a midi message every quarter note that acts as a tempo tap or just send the tempo, but all the POD allows is for you to do (well to my knowlege) speed or slow the tempo, not set it exactly. Since I am a recording musician at heart, I like to use midi in live settings too. To some people, this will be irrelevant.

For 300 dollars, you can't argue this. Obviously I wouldn't use about half of the presets, but you have more control over your sound than anything else for this price. If you use the software and are patient, you CAN come up with some great stuff. You will want to buy some other gear for effects, and one day I'll probably get an Eventide, but we're talking 10 times the price!!!
I record music, and I am serious about it. By this, I mean that I don't sit down and record a song for four hours and its done. I work for weeks on a single song because I only want professional quality so I can sell them. I use the POD now for all electric guitar parts. I have had small trouble with the noise level on some patches and the noise gate is worthless, but this is only when you aren't playing. Anyone who knows anything at all about recording can just clip the beginning and end of the wav.
For live performance, I have the Line 6 floorboard and I run the pod straight into a Yamaha EMX 660. It sounds great! I have read people's complaints with the POD for live performance, but it is because the POD isn't as good through an amp. You need to plug it straight into your PA System.

Have seen some strange midi issues before, but nothing too earth shattering.

Fantastic value. This is pretty much what I use for everything when an electric guitar is in my hands (I play Parker guitars by the way).

"I can tell it not really an [insert amp here] so I'm dissapointed". Then by an [insert amp here] my little friend and stop wasting time on a amp simulation package.

"Tube amps are the greatest thing since slice bread so this thing sucks". Then why did you buy a product that didn't have tubes my silly little friend? Did it say anywhere on that box that it had tubes? Do you like buying products that do not meet your tube requirement? Didn't you try it before you bought it?

Now, for those of you who are looking for an amp simulation package and not to appease some weird pass time that include buying products that you know you won't like, here's the deal:

As a practice amp with headphones: Man does this thing ever rock! Try it, it's unbelieveble. *I* was fooled by it 100%. A perfect 10 here. Midi interface gives access to a couple more feature (including getting libs from the line6 website).

As a recording device (I plug it in my PC): Very nice. Some tweaking may be required, but the results are quite pleasing. I have no trouble believing that many big numbers use this thing for recording. Again, a perfect 10.

For live playing (throught an amp): Not exacly there. A bit thin sounding. Do not use this with a tube amp. It sounds awfull. With a SS it's ok. Because of it's size, it makes for a good backup. A 6 here.

Hey, tons of sounds in this thing. And most of them sound terrefic. Bought this as a practice amp and it's the perfect thing for this. I ended up doing most of my recording with it to.

32 amp simulations + cabs + effects + eq + midi interface + stereo output + headphones + + + + Yeah, we all know what it is by now. Featured packed. Mine is the 2.0. Don't think you can get much more for the money. A basic 1 chanel foot switch would have made this little thing perfect.

So far so good. I trust the thing and I can't say that I'm scare of seing it brake on me.

No idea.

The perfect practice amp. The almost perfect recording amp. The not so perfect live amp. Don't get fooled, try, hear and judge for yourself.

Ok, it sounds good, but it has abolutely NO punch. I can't believe that many bands use the line6 amps. Take a small marshall valvestate amp and the sound will have more punch. But the effects are really good. But the 2 flangers soudns exactly the same. The flanger 2 sounds different but if you try to adjust it with the effect tweak knob, the sound change and it sounds like the flanger 1!

A lot of features. Nothing has that much features

The effects are really useful! The clean sounds are ok, but like I said, I would take any tube amp distortion instead of this. And please, people with a 5150, Dual Rectifier or something like that DON'T USE A DISTORTION PEDAL OR A POD!!! I don't know why people do this, a good tube amp sounds better than any pedal that you can find! Believe me!

To people who have a cheap amp and/or who want to make direct recording, the pod is good but buy a Behringer V-Amp instead. I paid the pod 550$ and my guitarist got a V-Amp for 300$ with a pedal and a bag.

When I bought it, I got a lot problems with the knobs. The settings were changing without reasons! The volume would pop up at the higher level, really disturbing. I returned it to the market and it took at least 7 weeks to repair. But, I'm from canada and it was just after the 11 september...

Yeah it's cool. I do a lot of direct recording with it. It cost too much and it is A LOT OVERRATED. And like I said before, don't use this with a tube amp! you will waste your money!

I use a Fender American Standard Strat, plugged into that POD thing and into the power amp of my Peavey Delta Blues amp. I play all different kinds of rock/blues, jazz, metal, alternative...on and on...
I find the POD very versatile for recording and practicing, but live,jamming with another guitarist it sounds like crap. It's always really "thin" and the distortions and overdrives are all fuzzy. great for someone who wants a lot of sounds for the money. I like it better than the Boss multi-effects crap, I've used a GT-3 and they're not very neat. I guess the POD is for direct recording, it was designed for that, should be used for that. I have the floorboard for it too but it's a pain since all the buttons are multi-function, each button does like 3 different things...

I bought it as the original POD and upgraded it for $60. They're very versatile, sound good for direct recording, headphone use, going straight into solid state power amps they're okay. I don't think they're very good for live use. They're easy to use though, all the features are straight up, what you see is what you get...

It's tough, reliable, but the paint chips easily. with the floorboard if you have the wah on and switch channels while it's still on, it gets stuck "on" and it won't turn off unless you turn the power off on the pod and back on again. I dunno if mine is just fucked up or if this is normal for them...

dunno, but I've heard they're good...

When I first bought this I loved it. I wouldn't have guessed then that I would ever sell it, but I'm going to sell it and buy a Fender Bassman and a few pedals. I just don't use all the sounds that it has, it's not for me. I like it for a recording tool, it's easy to use, sounds decent for the money...buy one if you like it, but try it out a lot first, make sure it's the right thing for you, just like anything, don't go by what other people say dammit!

Pretty easy, just remember to use the "shift" buttons as needed. I'm using a version 1.

This really depends on application. I like the tones, and it's a lot of fun, but I can tell it's fake. I wouldn't recommend this for live use, but for recording it's great. I use it in a recording studio, but only as a last resort if we are having trouble with other gear. It's also good for late night tracking.

Since Microsoft did not engineer the software, I am guessing it will never crash.

Line 6- good enough for Ace Frehley, good enough for me!!

I use this in a recording studio, like I said. It is one more tool in a very large toolbox. I would not rely on this as a replacement for other distortion boxes or amplifiers. I only wish the rackmount version was not so much more expensive than the kidney shaped version.

Lots of ppl love this thing, fewer critisize it... but i was really upset with the clean sounds... even after tweaking in soundiver forever. things just dont ring out.
The heavy sounds are great. exactly what i was looking for. rectifier + noise gate + compression + delay and drive boost gets things screaming..no hiss when i stop.
Ive use it live. notes dont feedback and die out quite the way they should...shouldn't matter unless your playing really slow stuff.
I never plug my acoustic Fender into my POD!...takes all the tone away. and for clean electric...i'd rather just plug into some decent guit fx.
I do use the tube preamp setting on the pod to record mics,keys,bass, basically just to access the fx... sounds fine.
POD GOOD FOR ROCKERS...CLEAN PLAYERS BEWARE

Accessing drive boost, setting fx tempos is irritating.

hasn't glitched yet. 1 year old.. lite gigage

-

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
I've been playing for...who cares. I wanna sound like Dillinger Escape Plan, Jeff Beck, Bumblefoot, Micheal Hedges, Dimebag Darrel, Alex Lifeson, Junior Brown, David Gilmour, Snot, Django, Lenny Breau, S.R.V., Raging Slab or even Bad Brains.... but i sound like http://spammyhamster.tripod.com .
-Anything you wish it had?-
A 3 octave pitch shifter [controllable by vol pedal], envelope filter, auto-wah, loop riffs [solo over long delay] a sweeter reverb that works on all amp models..and a little compartment to put my weed.

Has great sounds through the headphones and lets you be very creative while practicing. I like the noise gate and variable amount of effects knob, but would like more range on the Treble and Bass sides.

I bought my POD 2.0 in Sept. 01. It sounds fantastic through the headphones and good through a mixer board, but lacks the quality I wanted through my ART Bluesbreaker amp. I have to go through the effects loop which means I loose all those rich EQ settings I bought the amp for in the first place. It takes a little time to play with all the knobs and learn the amount of effect each will have, but once you master that, the POD is a fun little gadget.

So far, very reliable, the floor board has also worked everytime I needed it. I would suggest buying the floorboard carry case which will also hold the POD for protection.

Never needed it.

Sounds good through my Fender Strat, but misses the mark with a Taylor acoustic 414ce run through a Fender Acousticonic amp. Sound is muttled.
For live performances, I use the POD direct through the mixer board. The part I don't like about that is I can't control the final sound EQ or quality that comes out the front end. Good thing I trust my sound man !!

Mine is a 2.2 and I have the floorboard. Easy to just twist knobs and find great, usable tones

A little noisy, I find a small amount of distortion even on the clean stuff. The effexts are good, if limited to the combinations you can get. I can find any tone or sound I want, no problems!

No problems after a year, and I have been gigging with it the whole year. So far, so good. I never go anywhere without some type of backup. 2 gits the POD and a amp. Shit happens!

Haven't had to use it, hope I never do

I play everything, and been playing for quite a few years. I use this with either a Peavey Delta blues or a Classic 50 watter with a 410 and 115 cab. I think that people are not using the POD properly live. You must bypass the Speaker Cabs, to really get the most out of this thing, it allows the sound to run though the amps speaker, and opens up the sound alot. The amp I use has a 15 speaker and it works great together. Turn off the speaker cab emulation! Make all the difference in the world in live situations

If the floorboard actually worked, this combination would be a dream come true. Sadly, it falls short. The foot-engaged buttons are cheesy and unreliable, and the volume pedal will not stay in place; it continuously falls forward (to full volume).

The quality of the features are well known, but how does the unit work in a live situation? I submit that without the floorboard, it is a one-sound wonder. Now, as to the floorboard, the spirit was willing, but the end result is weak. Mechanically, it doesn't live up to my expectations.

The floorboard takes forever to cycle through patch locations, often not responding at all to repeated tapping on the fragile buttons. Two buttons on my floorboard have died outright, and the delay effect keeps coming on by itself, so much so that I had to forgo using delay at all on any presets. Frustrating!

My complaint regarding the broken buttons produced replacements, but I had to unsolder the old ones, and re-solder the new ones in place.

High hopes for using the POD live are dashed by the floorboard. I now leave it out of my live rig, at home in disgrace.

Cannot be more easy. So much knobs to play with.

The Pod sounds amazing. I don't give it a 10 thought because there is something about it that sound a tiny bit digital in comparison say to the SansAmp. But for recording, the Pod is the ultimate classic amp simulation.

Very solid.

Don't know.

If it were stolen or lost, I would definitely buy another one. It's a tool you can't live without if you're serious about recording guitars or even warming up some synth sounds.

I don't like the effects or the fact that you really can't get musical feedback through your amp. I am using this through a vintage Marshall Super Bass 100 watt head, and I have scared people with the tones I have gotten with this thing. Word of advice, put an Equalizer after the POD to further shape your sound.

I have played guitar over 15 years and have never found an amp I was happy with and I tried or bought them all. Now i have my sound, but it did take some tweaking. But like everything try it before you buy it.

the sounds are awesome, live and in the studio, i play a lot of diferent styles but it all works fine (metal/funk/rock you name it)
even though i have bought an old line6 HD for the stage (just 'couse it looks cool =])

it can do everything you want (and a bag of chips) but the pod 2 does it better =]
36 channels... oh well if you want features... read the damn manual

it is very reliable but it can also decieve you... sounds can differ a lot when used on different amps so it always is a bit of a gable wether your sound will 'rock' or 'suck' that night... but i don't use backups

the support is great, once i just rammed through my floorboard and they just gave me a new one!

i have been using this thing for about 1,5 years and i love it... but the new toys on the block are a lot cooler... the vetta by line6 is a whole new consept and i would really like to get my hands on it

but overal, it still works fine, it still sound fine, it's still a kidney shaped red blob so i'm happy

cudos to you, line6