Line 6 POD PRO

I got my PODpro in '04. Let's just say it has lots of different tones available. I like the tone of the line6 units when recording direct but felt it lacking something in the power section so I decided to get a Line6 preamp to run with a real tube power amp. I agree that 36 memory banks is pretty funny, considering the processing power available today.

I must admit that I don't have much use for most of the tones available
from the PODpro. Not because they sound bad but because I only need a hand full of them. My main tone comes from the "Modern Hi-Gain 1", the Soldano preamp patch NOT the SLO patch. I use the "Roland JC-120" patch for my cleans and I use the Line6 "Layer" patch when I want to blend a clean and dirty tone together. This is a patch that I fell in love with on my Line6 Flextone HD head and was happy to see in the PODpro. My only
complaint is that all the presets seem to have a mid-scoop which I hate even though I'm a Metal guitarist. I actually boost my mids and I now use a DBX 131 graphic EQ to turn my mids up around 800HZ. This unit is my secret weapon in making the PODpro sound like the end of the world. I use a Mesa Recto 2:100 power amp in the "Modern" switch engaged and it kills all the boutique amps I A/B'd it to.

I had a problem with the output of the PODpro where the volume was going in and out, so I took it back and the unit was replaced with the last one they had. All they had then were the PODxt units which I didn't like. When I played through the unit, it's tone was way better than the original one which led me to believe there was something else wrong with the first unit besides the output stage and since I didn't have anything to compare it to, didn't realize it.

Never dealt with them directly.

When used with a good graphic EQ and a great tube power amp like the Mesa 2:100, this makes for the finest Metal rig in existence.
Haven't heard anything better and I've heard everything from Diezel amps
Engl amps, VHT, Mesa, Peavey, Krank, Carvin etc. and my rig with the PODpro sounded much better without that saggy, spongy effect that I hate from most all-tube amps.

I know absolutly nothing about when the POD Pro was made but I can definitely say that I met someone who owned it and uses it to record as well as live gigs. Their music has been broadcasted on the MTV network as well as soundtracks. I believe it was one of those horrible reality shows that everyone is obsessed with. honestly, what the hell?
I wish the POD Pro had a teleporting feature without any type of identity mechanism so that I could make one appear right in front of me on my computer desk for which I would then plug my guitar into and connect a few patch cables, experiment with the sound settings and continue writing and recording the great music that I enjoy listening to. I love music aside from not being able to appreciate many other people's style, ability, effort, creativity, or genre, etc.... I need not say more for I find human communication borish and lacking a certain value of entertainment quality much desired by me.
I like creating a wide-spread stereo depth, plunging my axe right between those lucious waves of ecstacy and shredding with precision.
oh, and I do so while recording in private settings as well as public.

The POD Pro sounds exactly how I make it sound.
I control the combinations. I control the volumes. I control the compensation ratio for volume/distortion irritants. I am the man.
And now on a more personal note:
"Anyone who lacks the ability to create should NOT be allowed to call themselves a musician. If there were a penalty for ignorance and idiocy perhaps the majority would think twice."
POD Pro RAWKS baby!!! woooooooo!!!!!!!!
*cough*

I'm still waiting for the teleportation mechanism to trigger this beautiful machine into my hands.
I cross my fingers right...............NOW

Every moron thinks they're a professional and I laugh.
The ONLY (and I stress) ONLY reason anyone should or would need customer support is if they LOST the manual or they were just too lazy to read it.
Get real people.

I've never played through a POD Pro. I have no rating for this product.
I'd LOVE to own one and I am currently in the market for such a thing.
I'm interested in the POD XT Pro but I was recently introduced to a mint condition POD Pro for under 1/2 the price.
My only question so far is if I'm able to add plug-ins or "patches" to the POD Pro like I've read about for the POD XT Pro.
Overall I love this thing unconditionally as if it were my own child you silly grunt mongers.

Just purchased Pod Pro 2.0... had regular Pod and 2.0 upgrade prior. Preferred the rack set up with pedal. just easier to use. Did not buy to use primarialy sa modeler or effects... but rather for a little of each as needed and not need to have a bunch of pedals all around.... though I still use a few because you cannot combine more than 2 effects and only certain ones. But that said it has enough to please me for recording and gigging. Using with a marshall FCM100 head and 4-12 Marshall bottom... sometimes with Fender Ultimate chorus... both amps have excellent clean channels so it can be used more to it's potential.

Primarily Classic Rock and new age rock

good so far... prior POd lasted with zero probelms and resold for 74% what I paid after 2 years,,... not bad!

To expect an amp modeler to work in every amp and truly recreate a particular amp or cabinet is just plain stupid.... add chocolate to milk you get one thing... add it to beer you get something completely different.... your amp dtermines how well anything can sound through it and what the flavoring will do to it. I happen to really like it the way it works with the Marshall and with the fender. My POD 2.o suckeds through my Tube Peavy Classic 50 head w/ Peavy 4-10 bottom... just sucked.. but that was the amp... not the pod.. pod was fine in other amps.. the peavey amp on it's own was great so it's not because the amp was bad... just not a good combo.. I love the POD PRO

Let me begin by saying that this is definately not a 1 trick pony. I have played guitar for over 20 years in hard rock/metal bands and this is a great versatile unit though it does have its drawbacks. I will explain. Control surfaces are intuitive and easy to use. The fact that they mimick the simulated amplifiers in tonal sweep is great. (some of the featured amps never had mid controls like a Vox AC/30 but allow you to add a mid boost or cut because the mid knob is there. Channel switching is seamless and effect carryover is also nice. Total control is achieved with the 300 floorboard though I own the $75 FB-4 model which is a scaled down version for basic control of 4 presets within a particular bank.
I currently am using a solid state (YOU HEARD RIGHT) Crown Microtech PA amplifier with an Avatar 2-12 open back cabinet with (1)Vintage 30 / and (1) G12H speaker. I have also used a Mesa 20/20 dyna AND a Simul-Class Two Ninety in a traditional guitar rack set-up. I have also used this rig with a Gibson/Norlin Lab series L5 combo amp with the live /studio switch set to studio. (no cabinet simulation or mic AIR properties). The mesa's or any other tube amplifier for that matter are strange with respect to the extra coloring of the guitar tone. If you are going to use this unit the way the manual tells you to, do it with a PA type amplifier and boy will you see what everyone is talking about in prior reviews. It is best to use this preamp live with no cabinet simulation if you insist on a Tube type amplifier of your liking like my 2/90 or similar. This thing sounds absolutely monsterous through headphones or a recording console though. splendid.

I generally use a PRS custon 22 birds as my main axe, though I also use a Zion Ty Tabor signature model strat fasioned after the Fender Strat elite switching system of the 80's with the Joe Barden single coil pickups. These pickups are truely the cleanest sounding units of modern time. The bring out the best AND worst playing. They are very unforgiving when you make mistakes. A drawback if you are a crappy player. The POD PRO is a great friend if you need that versatiity factor. It is very quiet, especially with the noise gate built in. With 32 amps and 32 effects theres enough to keep you busy though a lot of the presets are a little too busy, they are a great starting point for your custom tones. They group effects or reverbs commonly found with that particular amp model to help showcase its sound. Nice. In a nutshell this unit can growl with the best of them and go until the cows come home and then some, or be meek as a kitten when necessary. I will say this though, there is still and never will be a perfect match for any of the amplifiers they emulate though they come sort of close in a lot of attempts. You must have real good ears to really get what you are after.

I have had only one problem with the POD PRO which turned out to be such a simple but aggrivating problem. The unit would re-boot onstage in the middle of high level performance! Yikes !! The problem turned out to be a simple fuse holder that was a little loose and allowed the unit to lose power by vibration long enough to turn it off and back on real fast. BUMMER. The good thing was I found the problem after bringing it to a so-called CERTIFIED line 6 repair center. The jerk-job who was the tech said he could not reproduce the problem I was having. I embarrased this guy severely buy simply playing a chord and lightly, yes LIGHTLY tapping the top of the POD, and 'zip' it turned off and on. The boobs eyes got wide as saucers as I whipped it off his bench and brought it home determined to fix it myself. Which turned out to be a simple clip on the main fuse. Thus proving that this 'tech' never really looked at it in the first place, and costed me 2 weeks worth of rentals on a floor model. DOH!!! It has not faulted since that day and after 6 years of touring in a rack, being stored in a cold garage and fired up on weekend warrior excursions. Basically being treated like the red headed stepchild she is. So reliability is a solid 8

Dont bother, they are nice to you but they didnt help me in the least, see above comment. posers..

I own 2 Gibson Lab Series L5's, A Marshall JCM800, Matchless Chieftain, Buddah Twinmaster, Peavey 5150 combo, a Fender princeton and a 52 Fender Deluxe, these are the real things, the POD comes sort of close to the ones they simulate but with a lot less back ache so it makes it worth the sacrifice. I like 8's so it gets an 8.
King's X rules!!

hey i need to say this because everyone is not realizing something those individuals running this with a guitar power amp are the ones have the bad sound your not suppose to run it with a guitar power amp it has color to it you want to run it with a power amp with out color. that is why the sound is weak and odd but sounds great through head phones. try running it with a crown solid state power amp or something it will be great then.

Bought it used in early 2003. POD PRO. Already had the old POD 1.0.
Very versatile. Already covered in other reviews.
Used it with a Digitech MiDi controller.
A lot of tweaking possible. Nicest feature: on-the-fly cabinet emulator selection.

I used POD PRO as a preamp+FX unit for a Mesa 20/20 (EL-84) poweramp.
Guitars: Epiphone Slash Signature w/ Duncan Jeff Beck (bridge); Jackson Soloist w/ Duncan SH-8 (bridge) + 2 custom handwired strat single coil pickups (neck & middle).
Mostly play hard rock, rock, blues, R'n'B.
Overall nice sound, but with some major issues.
It sounds AWESOME driving a Brunetti Silver Bullet all-tube poweramp.
It sounds weak with the Mesa one; after about 2 years I just sold it for my VH100R.
IMHO POD lacks dynamics; yes, fair for recording, but tones just aren't "alive". It might be as well a guitar synth.
And this is sad, because no preamp should sound this bad, connected to a Mesa poweramp.
I'd say: good for beginners or as a recording tool; just don't expect to sound like a SLO live.
Just don't understand if one of the above reviewer, speaking about SLO, Mesa Mark IV and so on, ever played through a real tube amp.
Any owner of a SLO or JCM800 will tell you the difference between this and the original. And it's a BIG BIG difference in tone & response.

Excellent.

IMO, it is much better to have one or two REAL GOOD sounds, even without FX, rather than thousands of crappy and mediocre sound combinations.
But, if you just cant wait to have some preamp-fx-recording multi-purpose rack unit, sacrificing sound quality for some "versatility", then it might be for you.

The features have been covered enough already. Most of the effects are OK but nothing to brag about. Gives me some really loud pops when switching between settings. I bought the floor board ($300 extra to make it usable on stage) to go with it as well because I thought I would use it on stage but it will never happen....

I bought it after listening to it through headphones, like a fool. The unit sounds OK through a PA set up but sounds like crap with my Mesa Boogie TriAxis and 2:90 power amp. I play an ESP KH with active EMG 81's. A few of the amp simulators sound good but not much like the real thing I have found.

The midi quit working on the unit after a couple of months of fighting with it to get some good tone out of it.

I haven't bothered getting repaired because it is junk in my humble opinion. I have contacted support a couple of times with other issues I had with the software and they were polite but not very helpful.

This unit is fine. If all you want to do is play through headphones! It has been sitting out of my rack for a long time now and has become a very expensive paper weight. It will be sold on ebay or at a local pawn shop very soon. Unless somebody on hear wants to buy it!

EASY to get amazing sound
editing is not easy
manual is good

You definately need to buy the best floorboard and that is about $300 if I remember correctly

Strat and Les Paul
No noise
Always sound great
all effects are great

I can depend on it.
Too expensive to buy another for backup

Telephone support is great
web support is horrendous

I play tastey music
Ive been playing forever
I would buy another if it was stolen. I would never loose it
POD XT Pro Version 2

There should be Blank banks at the beginning 1-64 for storing new user created banks so that you can keep the original presets (unchangeable) in banks 65 through 70 (which don't currently exist). I still believe in POD and when Line 6 makes the unit like I have described (and I believe they will someday) I will replace my POD Pro unit. No Question.
Why oh WHY did you do away with the
*Dumble Overdrive Special Drive?!?!?!?

Hopefully you will keep the:
*1989 Soldano SLO Super Lead Overdrive***
*Modern Class A ? modeled after 1996 Matchless Chieftain,
*Line 6 Clean with Compression,
*line 6 Twang, with Slapback Echo?modeled after Fender Deluxe meets Bassman
*1995 Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Head
*Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ Drive Channel,
*Line 6 Crunch #2 with Room Reverb ? modeled after Plexi + more tone range.
I dont think I can live without them anymore!
If anyone has input about this item and can give me some feedback on my issues please feel free to email...please do!

Line 6 Should give you the 36 (or whatever it is now) Factory presets Channels that can NEVER change as banks 37-72 and then repeat these "presets" as user changeable channels 1 through 36 where you can change and tweak the sounds...shuffle the order around do whatever, without worrying about loosing the 37 through 72 bank factory presents. Yes there is a reset button for complete factory reset (Who the F#*k wants to do that?!?) The way it is designed, in order to shuffle banks around to your liking,you HAVE to sacrifice one of the presets. Line 6, please check out how Digitech did it with their GSP21 and pro units. The layout is much better, much more user friendly. Only thing is the POD Sounds WAAAAAY better.
I want to move on knowing the original is still in one of the 37 -72 factory presets.
With the POD XT: can you line up any of the Stomp boxes on Any of the amp models at any time or are you restricted to what is ?preset? for that particular amp like in POD Pro?
I want to buy a new PODXT Rack unit but these issues are addressed but PLEASE bring back the Dumble Overdrive Special Drive!!!! And leave these:
*1989 Soldano SLO Super Lead Overdrive***
*Modern Class A ? modeled after 1996 Matchless Chieftain,
*Line 6 Clean with Compression,
*line 6 Twang, with Slapback Echo?modeled after Fender Deluxe meets Bassman
*1995 Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Head
*Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ Drive Channel,
*Line 6 Crunch #2 with Room Reverb ? modeled after Plexi + more tone range.

POD is definitely the best by FAR.

Seaside Jimmy

Amazing! I cant begin to describe how handy this thing is, Its not alot of money for the things you can do with it. The effects are lacking a little though.

Well, I hated it when I first got it, I didnt have the time to sit down and work it out. Once I did, it was a whole different ball park!
I use the Recto, JCM 800, AC-30, Insane, tweed, well, all of them really. I use a 62 strat and a les paul through a JCM 2000 DSL 100, with a 1960A and an original 1968 4x12 with 20watt green backs, the POD is infromt of the amp. No shit, it is amazing! No noise, just tone, I dont know why people say they sound like shit. Personal taste maybe. I myself cant afford all those amps or even 2 of them. Wake up. This is the new way of getting tone!

Ive had it 6 months and its never fucked up on me

Ive been playing along time and gone through many different styles, this thing can keep up with you as you change. Its good for when you change guitars mid-set coz you dont need to change settings, just patches. You dont need to crank it to get a good sound either.
The question everyone asks me is always the same, "does it sound like the real thing?" NO! it doesnt, but when the band is going off you lose a certain quality of sound anyway, I have never seen half of the amps in real life anyway. If you are working in the studio, its alot easier technically and physically too. Time to stop being tube snobs I think!!!!!

I bought this amp recently only because I ws under the impression that I could plug it into my power amp and it would sound heavy as hell. I was wrong. I was going into a Mesa Boogie 2:90 power amp and a Marshall 1960a cab. The POD was ment to be used with uncolored power amps and cabs. The factory presets are ok, some suck ass, some rule. If you have the patience to work with the POD and have a good PA power amp and a Line6 Cab or a PA cab it sounds amazing. Better then any other amp I have played. It is indeed for the tone bitchy guitarist like myself, if you can't find the amp you are looking for something to get that special tone you are looking for. Then this is the amp, but beware, you are gonna have to invest in PA type power amps and speakers, unless you like the sound of your current power amp and cab.

I use an Ibanez RG7620 tuned a half step down and a custom made ESP tuned to F Bb Eb Ab Db Fb Bb. All in all I wouldn't trade this amp for anything. It is capable of playing any type of music possible, your imagination is the limit. There is a lot of variety in the amp sounds. Some people complain how the sounds are fake. But as I said before you can't sue coloring equipment to power your sound. I used to have a Dual Rectifier and this sounds exactly like it, sustains better to. The clean channel you really have to work with. Some people like there REALLY REALLY clean almost like an acoustic, just add some chorus and compressor to it it sounds dead on. But i like mine with a tiny amount of gain. It can do cleans and distortion sounds well you just have to work with them and have patience.

I would recommend that if you are using a POD for direct recording get the XT or the XT Pro. Though this one sounds good you can get more out of the XT. I use this live and I just mic my cab when I record.

The only one problem I did have with it is on my old Mesa Boogie, and 5150 2, I didn't have the pinch harmonix problem. It is just a matter of re-finding the sweet spot on your guitar. I have noticed this problem occurs more on my B.C. Rich Warlock with EMG 81s. But I just re-found the hot spot for the harmonix and it works again. SO no worries.

I have only had it for about 5 months now, It hasn't broken down or anything. I haven't gigged with it yet but am looking forward to it.
I haven't broken any knobs or any of the switches. It is like any piece of equipment, the more you take care of it the more reliable it is.

The really shitty thing about it isthis is the little delay between patch switching. For me it is a real pain in the ass. But I have a Morley ABY switch so I wam just gonna buy another one and put it in my rack.

I have only dealt with thier customer support and they wre kind of stupid. They couldn't answer any of my questions. Since it was just the person I talked to I will give them a 5.

I have played guitar for about 11 years now and I have the worst trouble trying to get a nice tight tone on any other amp. This one does it, but like I said be ready to invest in PA equipment to run it. If it were stolen I would definately buy another one. I love that I can make my own amp tones on it. I compared it to the Behringer V-Amp pro thingy and since this one is Industry standard I figured I would get this one. The only thing I wish it did have was a better editing program. I had to download the one from line6.com. I would say buy this if you want to creat your own tone. Your own custom tone... IT is a great model for someone with patience. It has some killer distortion, killer effects, killer clean sounds. Everything you want but you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to know how to use it. The manual doesn't tell you shit. You have to have good tone ears.