Line6 POD - Is it worth it ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter leedon
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I have a Fender bassman (blackface).

Then I got the Pod, now I never use the bassman. Recording with Pod seems so far superior the Fender.

I'm really having a hard time figuring out what's so bad about the pod. If nothing else it will save your hearing.
 
it ROCKS

alright my friend Mike, from my band, has an amazing amp with a built in line 6 pod. ITS PHENOMINAL. All we will ever need for recording. Some people might think the effects suck, i personally think they're pretty awsome, plus the amp modling is a dream come true. Why don't we all just go out and buy 100 amps. Hey, hmm, wait a minute, maybe a line 6 might do the trick. eh? now i'm gonna get one. OH wow, look at the price difference. 10000000000 dollars to 300. Yea i think i'll go with the line 6. (trust me its soooo worth it).
 
Does anyone really need 100 amps?

I tend to think that one really good tone each for lead, clean, and rhythm will take you a really long way.

Of course that's just my opinion.
 
I would think that only a session player would need an assortment of amps to get a variety of tones for different styles of music/sessions. For the rest of us, I think that a good lead tone/Rhythm and clean should be good enough! But some of us guitarist are gear hounds and would love to own 100 amps! Of course I would need another house to put the crap in!!
 
Remember though , this forum is Home Recording...playing out you might just want 1 great lead, 1 rhythym and 1 great clean tone , but the awesome thing about home recording (at least for me) is you can dream up guitar songs and parts with all sorts of different tones , layers, sections, solos etc. if you have something versatile like a pod or the like. So even though I'm not totally gonzo over it for some things, it's versatility is tops.
 
I do mostly demo's at home and I really dig the pod for it. It works, I can access many different tones really quick. I can get an idea on tape (not really it's hard drive) and if the song is to be recorded or played by whomever it's the basics and it does it real well. Likewise if I were in the studio I would use the actual amp. WAIT get a pod and the new Isolator cab bruce is horny about! (haha) That's what it's all about!
 
Ok, I've been bark on my Boss GT3 alot. The POD just came in the mail today ($300.00 form AMS :)). One word so far...warm. The 2 units sound completely different but the GT3 is staying.

And after all, it's just homerecording. Like making your own homebrew beer & comparing it to a Bud.
 
Yup, that Randall Iso cabinet is a killer!

I have been working with that cab since Wednesday and it's still AMAZING - threw up a Beta57 (my Beyer M160 is on order) and my clean sounds are phenomenal again!

My biggest complaint about the POD Pro has always been its clean sounds... they've never convinced me, although for dirty sounds it is very versatile....

Bruce
 
Improved

I'm running the POD through the GT3. Killer combo. There's no signal loss I can hear. Think: POD & extreme stereo & dimension. (the POD still lacks for my taste)
 
There was a time when I (no, it's not gonna be "cryin'", hohoho) hardly could tell the difference between a tube and a transistor (which all digital-amps and pod-like effects are) amp because I didn't care... that's about a month ago (what a shame - I've been playing guitar for nearly 7 years now).
I was quite interested in the flextone, which is basically the same as the pod + a speaker. wow, it's nice... you got something LIKE a marshall-tone, something LIKE a vox. But hey, it really doesn't sound the SAME. I'm not the type of guy who says any strat that doesn't sound like a fender sounds shitty - no, if it's got a nice character it's ok... but to come back to the pod: its tube imitation is quite bad - even I did hear that. that guy in the store plugged a low-end strat into a 500-bucks-tube-amp and squeezed those sounds out of it that I've been searching for. with a pod you have to get the power from the distortion; less distortion means less power. with an average tube amp you get so much blues-power out of the cranked up clean-channel, damn... that was an amazing demonstration.
why should one buy a pod? because you want a wide variety of sounds. but you can throw away 2/3 of it, because the clean and crunch sounds suck. it's only good for heavy distortion... so there's not much variety anymore.
I doubt about using it as an effects-box for a tube amp also; this way you cut off the tubeamp's pre - and what comes out is half an eunuch.
and by the way: doesn't a pod always simulate an amp AND speakers? so what you get is guitar-> simulated amp -> sim. mic-ed (and polished) speaker -> real amp & speakers... does this really sound good?
anyway. I like digital stuff because it's cheaper and - as I said - any effect used with a tube-amp will cut off some of its character. there's some digital amps of the big brands that don't imitate but create their own "tube-sound" with built-in multi-effects in the right place that don't kill the sound... quite good, really. I ordered one ;-).

... and if you use your pod for some demos only: you could have saved some money by buying a 'real' multi-effects-pedal with some amp/speaker-simulation (boss, for example).
 
100 amps

About the 100 amps...do you need them? Well, of course nobody needs that much. But the fact is, the more paint you have on your pallet, the more tools you have to make your art a personal statement. I am the sad ex-owner of a Line6 AX2/212. I sold it and tried being a tube snob....mistake. The AX2 blew away ANY amp I've ever palyed or heard as far as RECORDED SOUND goes. I'm not talking about live playing here, just recording. Tube amps still have a slight edge live, but the modeling amps are closing the gap. I also know the POD is not the AX2, but it is just a scaled back version of it, in fact...POD has some features the AX2 doesn't have. Nobody expects everybody to like everything, but for my 38 years of playing rock and roll, and as far as recording goes, I'll take the Line6 stuff over anything else out there right now. How can you go wrong for $300????? But if something better comes along, then I will go that route. The futire IS here now, and it's going to keep getting better.
 
Actually Six, you can use the POD in front of a tube amp! It's sort of like a glorified distortion box with effects!! It doesnt kill the the tube characteristics either and it does sound good! You also have the added eq section of an amp.
As far as recording goes, it sounds great if you mic it up and record it. I hate direct recording by the way!!!

As far as what you said about an amp simulator (POD)into another amp, Most of the big boys do this in their rigs. It's called slaving an amp. Its when you take the direct out of 1 amp and put that signal to a power amp or another amp heaD. It captures the full amp sound of one amp(POWER AMP SECTION AND PREAMP SECTION) and your able to re-amplify the signal.

RockinRobert:
You can get great sounds by mic'ing the line 6 amps but you also can get great sounds out of mic'ing a tube amp.
It just takes practice !!!
 
I agree that it's nice to have a lot of tones to choose from, I guess where I was coming from is that if you listen to most of the great guitarists they all have their own tone, a sound that when you hear it you know straight away who it is, granted the tones will change slightly from album to album and the effects (reverb, chorus, delay etc) might change completely at any time, but underneath you have this one great tone.

I agree that if you are a home recorder who puts out a wide variety of stuff, a hard rocker on monday, a Ska tune on tuesday, country blues on wednesday etc, that you will need a lot of tones but if you play one style which you call your own my view is that you should have a tone to call you own too.

Once again, just my opinion.
 
gainfreak: ok, I believe you with that "slaving". but I still think the pod sounds a bit too finished and polished (like recorded guitars) for something like that... just my opinion.


in the end it's all about taste anyway. I like the AX2 and hate flextone, pod & spider - though the spider might be quite nice for rocking at home.
 
I hear you Six!!
I was just giving out some examples!! I really beleive that whatever works for the Individual is the right choice!!
By the way, not to sound like a hypocrite but I use tube amps for my guitar sound!! but I do think the POD is a cool peice of gear!!

Peace!!!
 
In the end, the ultimate answer to the"Line 6 POD-Is it worth it?" question is...It depend what you are after.....

You want a box that faithfully reproduces the sound of mic'ed amps....forget it....

You want a box that can dial up a decent reproduction of several different amps....worth it....

The POD, J-Station, etc. etc are great for what they do....those that think it sounds as good as a mic'ed tube amp probably think that a handjobis just as good.....
 
A hand job for $350 or $10,000 worth of hookers??

I just got the POD & it suits my humble needs. For 10 years I've slaved & spent money on 'red boxes' & cabnet emulators only to be disappointed & frustrated. This is the best technology yet & I'm very pleased.

This thread is a dead horse. Let's just put away our whipping sticks.
 
I second the motion...Moderator please close this thread.....
 
rob my friend has ax 212 built in pod =)

alright, what rob was tryin to say was, the ax 212 comes with a built in line 6 pod. My friend uses it, and right now hes letting me borrow his amp for recording, its a shitload of money, but so worth it. Now if you wanna know my opinion on the pod, its the most fuckin worth it thing you can ever buy. Billions of amps packed into one 300 dollar module. Pay 10000000 dollars? nah, how about 300? so big deal, sometimes the quality is off, if your not a professional who's obsessed and wants everything to be perfect, well, heck, even if you are, the pod is the best buy in the world. I'm about to get one offa my summer job. i give it 100 outta 10 stars. BUY IT!
 
ax2 has pretty much nothing to do with the pod... ok, they're both line 6, but that's it. so don't confuse them.
 
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