Line 6 PODxt

Lots of features -- especially hooked up to Guitarport online. I use it to practice and then jam -- loud -- without waking the neighbors.

I use a 72 Les Paul w/Duncans, a stock 57 strat (yes really) and a hot rodded Pacifica.
The sounds are apporoximations OK -- no they're now the real deal and yes the presets are muddy or thin -- but a little tweaking always gets me into something that sounds good and that I can have fun with. I agree with the detractors that they tend to neutralise the guitar -- but so what? Great for practice or loud headphone/quiet living room jamming with a friend and his pod
I don't use it through speakers -- if I'm going to play in front of people or with a band I've got a BadCat BlackCat 30 that will kick ass or get all class "A" for me -- really brings the strat to life.
Been playing close to 40 years -- mainly rock -- nu and old.
The pod is a GREAT tool -- wish I had it when I first started out!

Rock solid -- no complaints or issues. Had it for 5 or 6 years

Never had an issue -- I've contacted Line 6 re: Guitarport online and they were very helpful.

Playing about 40 years -- 6 guitars -- best is the 57 strat and a 70 Martin D-35. Old reliable is the 72 LP Deluxe player routed to fit full size Duncan humbuckers (OK, OK -- I know the value went down like a zillion percent -- but I did it 25 years ago! Guitars werent so sacred then!) :o)
Bad Cat Black Cat (best amp ever owned -- love it! I've owned Fenders, Marshalls, Boogies and a Musicman -- Bad Cat does it better -- for me.) Marshall 2-12 cab (hardly used) - pedals galore. When not in the Pod, I use a Real McCoy wah, an old 808 Tube Screamer and a Boss OS-2 -- mainly use the effects very subtly though so as not to overpower the tone.

Truely sad to see all the dinosaurs who are enslaved by their "vintage" tube amps continuously slam this great little unit - which is really the wave of the future.

If you're looking for a device that can simulate literally hundreds of different "vintage" amps with all the effects pedals, reverb, cabinet options, and microphone options ...

If you're looking for a unit that will seamlessly integrate with your computer for home recording...

If you're looking for a unit that you stash in your backpack and take on a business trip for quiet hotel practices where you don't have to sacrifice creamy distortion...

If you're looking for a unit to dial in tones and then instantly select those tones on stage in seconds ...

Well if you're looking for all that ... don't look at a Blackface Fender Twin Reverb (LOL)...

But you CAN look at the PodXT to do all that for you. :)

Gets a "10" for features ... the PodXT DEFINES the benchmark for features. No unit has more.

Sound Quality I'll rate at about an eight. No, the Double Verb doesn't sound exactly like a Double Verb - but it's not bad - and a REAL Double Verb is a one trick pony - it only sounds like a verb.

On a PodXT - you dial in a Double Verb, a Budda, a Tweed, a Plexi, whatever - there's hundreds to choose from with all the combination of effects and cabinets.

You CAN make this baby sound REAL to most people's ears though. You first have to experiment with all aspects of your setup. Here's what I do with my signal chain (very simple) ...

First - people complain a lot that the PodXT tone has a hard or brittle tone to it. This is usually overstated grossly - but it IS there. It's not so much a problem with Humbucker pickups - it's usually the single coil guys that complain. So the first thing I do is insert a RADIAL TONEBONE DRAGSTER between my guitar and the PodXT guitar input. The Dragster is a load corrector - and simulates the load your pickups would see if they were connected to a real amplifier. There's a dial on it - you simply set it for the best tone. It's a $49 unit - and if you plug your guitar into a wireless transmitter on stage - you'll need this anyway for that (even if you don't use a PodXT).

Once that's done - you can then dial in the tone you'd like on the PodXT. This takes a lot of experimentation that I consider to be quite fun. What I usually do though - to save time - is download tones from the Line 6 tone library at their website and just load them into my PodXT's memory. Those tones will be close to what I'm looking for - but not quite. It only takes minor tweaking of those tones and I have what I'm looking for - I just save it and forget it - and call it up whenever I need it ... in seconds. :)

Now - what to do for an output device? Well Headphones work great for on the road business trips. In those situations where I want to actually play so that others can hear - I plug my PodXT output into the Alesis Transactive 50 Amplifier. It's a Powered PA system that is very lightweight - it's about the size of a very small stereo speaker. I've tried plugging the PodXT into a tube guitar amp - and I've just had no luck. The guitar amp "colors" the sound you've worked so hard to produce with your Pod. What you need imo is a amp that won't "color" the sound and this is why a powered solid state PA amp is great.

Also - you get all the distortion and effects you want at low volume - or high volume. The amount of distortion you hear is NOT dependent on how hard you're driving your PodXT.

Try that with a tube amp. ;)

Gets a 10.

Well it's made out of steel. And I've drug mine ALL over the world several times. It's been scanned in airport terminals, dropped, you name it. It almost bought me a body cavity search in Narita Airport when the nice Japanese security lady couldn't figure out what in the heck it was!

But I was spared the body cavity search when I made an "air guitar" motion with my hands and she recognized what I was saying. Darn! I was looking forward to that search!! :)

Never had to call them - but I'll give them a "10" just based on their online support - which I've used extensively. Everything you need is online. Tones, Software Downloads, User Forums ... you name it.

I've been playing now for about 20 years and I WOULD BE A MUCH BETTER PLAYER TODAY IF I HAD OWNED A PODXT BACK WHEN I FIRST STARTED LEARNING.

Why? Are you kidding? The mobility that this unit gives you is astonishing. I used to be in the Navy - on submarines - there was no way I could load a real amp down on the boat during underways - I had to play my electric guitar without an amp if I wanted to practice - or use one of the old POS headphone amps (like a Rockman) ... bleeeh!

Really this thing is awesome - I love it as much as my IPOD. It's one of those things you buy - that you actually USE all the time. I have vintage amps (Blackface Champ / Blackface Princeton). I have a Marshall Half-stack too. But heck man - I use the PODXT plugged into my Alesis Transactive 50 about 80% of the time when I'm just playing around the house - and usually when I'm jamming with my buddies too.

loads of features

better than i thought it would be

wont break

amazing little box that produces loads of diffrent sounds

Covered well by others

This device renders your guitar totally anonomyous. My guitar has five pick-up selections, all of which sound the same through this thing. It does not matter what kind of pick you use or what gauge your strings are. Left hand touch is irrelevant. Highly condomized.

The designers made some strange choices in which amp properties to emulate. Why would they choose to accurately represent horrid hum levels from some famous amps and ignore the responsiveness of this same boxes?


I read the flippin manual. Tried it through a variety of speaker systems, including through a Mackie Mixer, Mackie amp and good speakers.

Been playing 34 years. Music Man HD130, Mesa Subway Rocket Reverb and Lonestar Special.

Maybe useful for experimenting with some stompbox sounds before going to the store to check out the real thing.

Okay. It's a toy. It's got lots of toy-like bells and whistles.

Utterly diabolical. I own more than a dozen vintage tube amps. This is a piece of garbage in comparison. I actually have a couple of cheap solid state modelling amps that blow this thing away. The tone is devastatingly brittle. There is not a hint of tube warmth or harmonic distortion. In fact, the distortion appears to be not of the 3rd harmonic but of the 7th - ie. not pleasing to the ear. Clips easily. Oh yeah, it sucks tone. Anyone serious about tone should avoid this. It seems there are thousands of satisfied customers. Most of them I guess have never played real amps. If you are on a budget there are far far better choices. Even Behringer's VAmp sounds more realistic.

I sent mine back after spending a week trying to coax something useable out of the box. The presets are that bad.

Meantime - a friend of mine who bought his Pod new only a few months has been having terrible trouble with it. The unit keeps dying on him and it's not a faulty power unit.

I wouldn't gig with this, period.

They actually get other Line 6 users to answer other users queries because they haven't got a decent support set up. A bunch of jokers.

Line 6 Is Killing Music

The PODxt has 32 amps models, something like 20 cabinet emulations,
a lots of effects, and so on. You can get model packs on line6 website to get more amps and effects.

You can use it with an amp or with a computer for recording.

With line6 monkey program you can update the sounds of the POD.

I first bought it to play on my amp(randall stack). I could get some cool sounds but some sounds sounded very digital and I had to turn off the cabinet emulation to not influence too much my speaker's sound.
I give a 6 for use with an amp.. It is better when using it with a power amp I guess.

Disapointed with the sounds on my amp, I decided to use it to play on my computer and use it for recording.(Decided to do that because anyway I prefer to use the distortion of my amp rather of something else on it, and cause i'm living in an apartment I can use only my stack at low volumes in the afternoon, that means theres some days I can't even play so I used it with headphones.

With the Gearbox program by line6, which its easy to set your sounds, I finally could make some really good sounds, the effects sounds great, I've made some really good sounds as for rythm as for leads.

I play metal (death metal) and with the metal shop model pack I could get some brutal distortions good enough for death metal! If you want to play metal with the PODxt you must get the metal shop, otherwise the choice of amps is limited, some of my favourites are the Modern hi gain,line 6 lunatic,line6 big bottom,engl powerball,...

It sounds much better when using it for direct recording.

seems solid. can't tell much more it just stays near my computer all day.

Never had really to deal with them.

Theres a lot of support on their website, with line6 monkey you get updates and stuff, so when theres something you want to know the line6 website got almost all the answers

I've been playing for a year now.. if stolen I would buy one right away, its a very good device, I can now play with headphones during the night with an awesome sound! And I'm intending to buy some speakers to use with it, when my I will start to jamm with my band currently in project.

I'm very pleased with it,I couldn't have anything better than that to create some crazy sounds and record my songs on my computer.

THe POD xt is a substantial upgrade over the previous POD, offering more amps, effects and parameters. It's set up to run mono or stereo, has headphone jack and is very versatile and easy to use. The presets are a good staring point, and you can go as deep as you want or keep it simple. I recommend the FBV shortboard in a HUGE way.

The POD, of course, can make whatever sounds the operator wants...within reason. It can be a little brittle and, natch, digital-sounding, but tweaking can take care of some of that. It doesn't breathe the way analog and tubes do, but has very nice cleans and brutal distortion. Very nice choruses and delays, some efx are weak (harmonizing, phasing) and it does a surprisingly good job on tube screamer and OD sounds. With a small tube amp with minimal knobs, it does a much better job than one might expect.

So far, so good, though on occasion some of the knobs freeze up while editing, but it can be worked around. For the most part, quite sturdy.

I have talked to tech people on the phone and they were very thorough and pleasant. The web site can be a bit hard to navigate for answers, but they do offer lots of support. I highly recommend the tone crafter options and like all of the updates they offer.

I've been playing for 30 years and have been through lots of gear. As for processing goes, the PODxt is far easier to operate and more realistic sounding than Boss or DigiTech gear of a similar ilk. The floorboard is extremely helpful, and the box works great for recording and practicing, and pretty well for live situations depending on one's taste and preference. I still prefer analog and tubes for live, but the POD isn't bad, especially with a very simple tube amp run flat. It's won this hardened purist over. There are some sounds that it doesn't get, others it nails. I'd like to see a "Polytone" setting for jazz, and a way to work speed controls into the mix for tremolo or Leslie/vibe sounds.

Does it sound great yeah, Does it sound like a guitar NO. Thats the main problem with these digital effects. The guitar loses its tone as it gets morphed into a digital effect. I'm not a tube snob. I prefer SS not because it sounds better but, because its more practical and reliable to use however an SS pedal or Amp still produces a pure tone that is driven my electrical currents. YOur guitar gets a pure tone. From these digital devices you get a processed computerized sound which emulates a sound.. Big difference.. I consciously felt like something was missing when i played through the XT even though every sound I got was great. I then played through my amp only and although the sound didnt emulate what I wanted to hear I was still able to clearly hear the guitar tone. In other words the guitar sounded like the guitar. I can hear the presence of the wood construciton whereas with the PODXT I only heard the pickup. Sorry but, for pure tone this doesnt work. it's virtual playing..
As a processor it gets a 10.. As an effects pedal it gets a 7 for taking out the guitar tone.

First of all, I think it looks great in my home studio. Of course, there's a lot of command but hey, there's a lot of features so... For those who've mess with effects unit before, this one isnot so much easy to understand at first, but some tweaking later, it's a piece of cake. Everything you need to record great guitar track is inside this little red miracle!

Does it sounds good? No, it's sound fantastic, awesome! Ok, I can hear those tube freaks now laughing at me, thinking I'm an amateur. Well, my friends, I've been playing guitar for 17 years, I've played every amp and effects ever made, including tube amps, solidstae etc. Yes, tube amps sound rich and creamy but you have to crank it. That's perfect in a live situation or in the studio wher there is an accoustic isolate room where you can put the amp. But what do you do when you have neighboors and worst, a girlfriend who hates rock music. Simple, you try a podxt.

You see, I would never use the pod in a live situation because it's not an amp and it was not meant to be use in this situation. But in a direct mode, it shines! I plug it in my M-audio firewire 410, then in cubase Sx3 and i can record great guitar track. I upgrade to the metal chop and classic so I have an arsenal of almost 80 vintage, modern and everything in between amps! Does it sound like the real thing? Yes it does. Someone came by my house the other day to buy some pedals ( don't need them, I have my pod ). He owned a Mesa boogie rectifier and a Marshall JCM900. He was intrigued by the pod, he had never heard how it sound. So, I run the 2 models he owned and guess what, he was blowned away by the tone. He told me it souded just like the real thing and was amazed. Botom line is that it souds great when use in direct mode to record, much of the models sound great and I will never crank and mic and amp again at home.

Seems solid, no trouble so far!

I own guitar rig2 and it sound like crap! I owned the vox tone lab to wich I think sound great too, but missed something. The podxt rules all the way, it change the way guitar is record forever.

When i tried the podxt first time i was extremely dissapointed
but i was using the factory presets first, they sounded very
analog and small, some were good (high gain)it's after a couple
of times using the pod that everything went better, and boy i
was impressed, the presets are very good but you have to take the time working with them, creating own song's is the main core of the
unit, you can created monstertones with it, i was lucky to get in
a schort time a preset from line edit website, where people send
their presets, the tone was a speeddeadmetalsound, by tweaking
it went a powermetalsound, offcourse i created my own sounds from
the ground up too. for me the podxt is the best sounding device on
the market.

If you are carefull with your podxt nothing will happens.. otherwise
it looks like a solid device.

customer support is the best, very helfull in a short time

I play only a month with the podxt, if i loosed it or it was stolen
i replaced it with another podxt.. defenitly