Line 6 Pod Go

Logie

Just received mine. Could I just update straight to 1.11 or would I have to update to 1.1 first? Anybody done that?

Rich31k

I went straight to 1.11

thumpingrug

my upgrade was fine.  Took the opportunity to load a few patches downloaded from the custom tone site.  That was very straight forward as well.   Im quite enjoying playing with it, though still haven't had long enough to get used to it properly du etc grandson wanting to twist the buttons each and every time.  

dhaywood67

Gerz6558 said:

Connected my phone to stream some music to play along to. Suppose my Firehawk had an advantage here with the bluetooth, but 1 extra lead I can deal with as trade off for all the pod go's pluses. 

One of these gives you bluetooth ability for music if the lead turns out to be an issue
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mpow-Bluetooth-Streaming-Hands-free-Cancelling-Black-Updated-Version/dp/B00KON1JIA/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=bluetooth+receiver&qid=1592983187&s=electronics&sr=1-5

bloodandtears

@JohnCordy ; this is scenery inspired... posted a month ago.. using Eric tones according to the description..

sounds awesome. if you port them to the Pod Go.. let us know..

Do you use stock cabs on your patches?

JohnCordy

@bloodandtears I've already ported these across to the Pod go actually as they're my go to!

I use a free ownhammer IR for these tones mostly!

Lev

This thread has gone awful quite since people started receiving their Pods. Not sure if that is a good or bad sign. How are these workng our for people?

Voxman

t's still early days as I've only just started to try and find my way around Pod Go, but for an MFX intended to be simple to use and just put in your gig bag and go.....it's not. There is a LOT to learn.

I'll get a few not so good things out the way first. There are still definite bugs and odd behaviours (I'm on the latest v1.11), and similar to others, I've experienced odd volume behaviours. There is also a noticeable lag on switching patches whereas the switching on my Tonelab SE and LE is instant. The power supply is not sufficiently gig worthy, because the cable is too thin and too short but if I decide to keep it that might be resolvable by a third party unit.  I also hate the 2 button press to access snapshots, but you can set it to switch between snapshots and stomp mode by default and you only need to press both buttons once.  

Initially, I was underwhelmed with what I was hearing and wondering if I'd made a big mistake - but that was because I was listening to factory presets. However, I think that now, I'm just beginning to suss it out. I was having some problems with headphone volume and making it sound like a real amp, but now I'm using Pod Go Edit rather than just playing through the factory presets & tweaking in Pod Go itself. Pod Go Edit is brilliant and it's the best way to tweak and hear what difference your tweaks are making (a great feature is you can undo your changes in each parameter to hear the difference). A key theme I've discovered is the post output levels and output levels on EQ, and how you set up the FX chain. I'm now just beginning to get some good tones and getting a feel for the difference between amp & cab models.

There's so much in Pod Go that it's easy to get confused and overwhelmed by so much choice - affectionately called 'option paralysis'. So, and as recommended in some of the videos, forum comments etc, I'm ignoring the presets because frankly these are (as is typical with factory set presets in mfx units) very lack lustre & don't do it justice, and starting to build my own patches. Once I've figured out how to get a basic set up that I like, I'll likely then tweak 'promising' presets. But I think starting from scratch is the only way to learn.

I'm going to go one amp/cab at a time as the base tone and experiment with reverbs first, then delays, then distortion, then modulation, to build up a core patch. I'll worry about setting up snap shots once I've learned a bit more. Yesterday evening I started with the Vox AC30 Essex model with the 2x12 Bluebell cab and having owned an original 6 input Vox AC30 once I started tweaking I was really liking what I was hearing.

The day before I was hugely disappointed and wondering if Pod Go could ever give me the tones and feel I'm looking for. Today, I'm much more hopeful & positive it has the potential to do so but it's going to need some time investment. With my Tonelabs, although these don't have the sophistication or amp/cab/fx options of Pod Go, I can just get 'there' (by which I mean find good gigging tones) really easily. With Pod Go I think it's all in there, but it's just going to be a longer journey.  Most certainly, Pod Go has tons of amps/cabs/fx - but I recommend you start slow!

I've been reading about some folk who have been disappointed and returned their Pod Go - but I think they're expecting too much, too quickly and fiddling around with factory pre-sets without using Pod Go Edit is just NOT the way to go. I don't think these folk are necessarily giving Pod Go or themselves a proper & fair chance to learn how to use it. I'm only at the beginning of my journey but I've now got a good vibe that I should be able to crack it & continue to make good progress.

I'll update on my progress in due course. I bought my Pod Go from Yamaha London (24 mths warranty & 30 days return) so I recommend you buy from somewhere that will give you more than the standard 14 days statutory period because I think you'll need at least the 30 days to make an informed decision to keep it or return it. 

JohnCordy

Here's an Eric style patch I programmed on both the Pod go and Fm3 - just two tones I liked on both! 

UnclePsychosis

FYI the *patch* ("preset") switching on full Helix models is also not instant. The models are too big and complex to be loaded instantly. 

If you want instant switching of sounds (e.g.  verse, chorus, bridge) that's what snapshots are for, and thankfully snapshots are so powerful that they do the job for most people. 

John_A

Yes. Snapshots are the way to go. I can get through most of a gig with one preset, 4 snapshots and some effects

mikenetic

Just took delivery of mine.

Really nice, I have the Helix LT but I wanted to try out something smaller for my simple headphone setup. Build quality is very good, the casing feels sturdy, buttons and switchgear feel decent too.

There's less to get your head around than with the Helix, but if you're not familiar with modellers I can see it might be a little daunting. YouTube and downloading the manual definitely recommended. Once you're up and running it's pretty simple, IMO.

Oh, and as noted earlier in the thread, absolutely find a clear patch and build your own using the Pod Go Edits software, it's way faster to get into the meat of what the unit can do. Which is a lot - as for tones, they are definitely in there. Everyone will hve their fave amps, but I think the Litigator is superb.

Slight hiccup as I decided the very first thing I was going to do was carefully follow the instructions and update it from the very early 'out of the box' firmware version to 1.11 - the upgrade applied fine, but when the unit restarted itself it just sat on the 'kidney' splash screen. Update was performed via the latest version of Pod Go Edit on Mac Catalina. Not sure if this has been reported as an issue @Digital_Igloo ?

Quickly resolved that by turning the unit off, pulling out the USB and letting it restart, it's now fine and connects without trouble to Pod Go Edit.

Logie

Had mine a week or so and first impressions were mixed. It's £400 and looks £200 until you pick it up and realise it's got a bit of heft to it and it feels good quality. The form factor is great although for some people with size 10's those footswitches are going to be perilously close together on gig night. Not sure how well the footswitches are going to hold up either as they do feel a little cheap. The presets are OK and they do get you in the ballpark ( the Marshall derived one's sound great to my ears but then I do like the Marshall sound ) I updated it and fiddled about with it for a few days and then today I decided to sit down and create a few presets of my own. I used to have an HX Stomp and the sounds out of this, as everyone keeps saying, are just as good. Made some great sounding presets and didn't get near the run out of DSP, greyed out block, scenario. I'm running it through the return of my 100w Katana switched to power amp mode and I really couldn't be happier with it. I meant to spend a couple of hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon and 6 hours later my wife was at the bedroom door demanding her tea. Cracking bit of kit and well worth the money

mikenetic

Oh, and it's definitely worth downloading the full manual, even if only for the "eight pet octopuses" description (and illustration) of how snapshots work. 

Voxman

UnclePsychosis said:

FYI the *patch* ("preset") switching on full Helix models is also not instant. The models are too big and complex to be loaded instantly. 

If you want instant switching of sounds (e.g.  verse, chorus, bridge) that's what snapshots are for, and thankfully snapshots are so powerful that they do the job for most people. 

John_A said:

Yes. Snapshots are the way to go. I can get through most of a gig with one preset, 4 snapshots and some effects

I know guys - I'm just giving my initial impressions. Been spoiled by my Tonelab SE/LE which is instant. 

Voxman

mikenetic said:

Oh, and it's definitely worth downloading the full manual, even if only for the "eight pet octopuses" description (and illustration) of how snapshots work. 

You need the manual regardless. Eg I've just added F7/F8 footswitches for even more versatility - but I had to read the manual to see how to do it. And there's tons of stuff in there it can help you with.

 

thumpingrug

I'm happy with the noises coming out of mine but as voxman has said there is a lot to learn.  Ive only just scratched the surface and still haven't delved into snapshots yet. I seem to have spent as much time watching instructional videos as actually using the Pod-go.  Oh and I agree that the Edit software is the best way to it.  

Voxman

Voxman said:

UnclePsychosis said:

FYI the *patch* ("preset") switching on full Helix models is also not instant. The models are too big and complex to be loaded instantly. 

If you want instant switching of sounds (e.g.  verse, chorus, bridge) that's what snapshots are for, and thankfully snapshots are so powerful that they do the job for most people. 

John_A said:

Yes. Snapshots are the way to go. I can get through most of a gig with one preset, 4 snapshots and some effects

I know guys - I'm just giving my initial impressions. Been spoiled by my Tonelab SE/LE which is instant. 

UPDATE: The above was following on from my earlier comment: "There is also a noticeable lag on switching patches whereas the switching on my Tonelab SE and LE is instant."

Well - this is simply weird - pleasantly weird - but weird!!  I switched on my Pod Go today, and the patch changes are now instant without the lag I was hearing previously.      Can't be the 1.11 upgrade as I was hearing the lag in v1.10 & v1.11.  But it's now completely gone. If there is a technical lag in milliseconds it's indiscernible.  I can now strum a chord, change patches, & the chord will carry on ringing perfectly with no lag in the new patch - just like my Tonelabs do. 

I'm obviously delighted - but I have absolutely no explanation for this odd but welcome change in behaviour.   

shuikit

I have a helix rather than a pod go so it maybe different, but it sounds like you're changing snapshots rather than patches.  AFAIK, changing patches there is always a small quiet break while all the blocks are loaded in, delay trails will be interrupted for example.  Snapshots don't have this.  Snapshots are like changing all the settings of each block rather than changing the actual blocks.

Voxman

Nope, I'm familiar with the difference. I'm changing patches. I've not made any snapshots yet and none of the factory presets in Pod Go come with any snapshots pre loaded.  Helix has way more processing power but it's patches and routings can be way more complex Inc multiple amps and cabs, so patch switching may lag.  With Pod Go the options are much simpler and more restricted with 6 fixed blocks Inc only one amp and one cab and up to 4 flexible blocks.