The Line 6 Pod lineage...?

siraxeman

As we know there's been numerous incarnations of the Pod - Pod...Pod 2...Pod XT, X3, HD. How much difference is there through these incarnations I mean in terms of tonal quality particularly regarding the amp and cab sims ? I'm toying with the idea of getting a Pod Bean for the desktop - and they don't demand a lot of dosh to buy used. Was watching some demos of the X3 bean last night on youtube and it sounds great..but then so does the others. Is the HD night and day ahead of the others? I've only owned an XT Live in the past and it was better than my then Boss GT-6. I've had all the Boss GT's (now have the 100 natch) and the one that oddly I'm most fond of was my old GT-5!!! I gigged that LOADS. I don't find that to be that much worse (if at all! ) in terms of tonal quality than the current GT-100 !! The GT-100 might have more going on and improved features like you can press the toe down to turn the expression pedal from a volume (or whatever you have it set up as) to a wah controller. But as a tone machine the various incarnations have been subtle to me in terms of being different tonally. Are the Pods similar ?? What says you?

hugbot

The POD sounds ok but is very limited, the POD XT added a bunch of new amps and totally changed the way the modelling and AIR stuff worked which changed the sound quite a lot. The X3 is basically the same as the XT, just with dual amp capability. Thats the same generation of tech that was in the Vetta ii range.

The HD has slightly better amps but uses the same FX that was in the mod/filter/delay pro racks, which is starting to sound a bit dated compared to the whiz bang strymon generation of DSP.

All in all its incremental improvements each time. its just  about finding the point at which you say "yeah that sounds good enough", bands were touring and recording albums with the POD 2.

They do sound very different though. The X3 had a model called "line 6 rectifier" for instance, which was a model of the original POD2s rectifier- which is full of white noise and doesent sound very much like a rectifier but is a cool enough sound that it ended up on a few deftones and fear factory records, so they kept the "bad" model in the later generations.

RandallFlagg

I have had all the PODs over the years and the HD turned me off after having enjoyed all the previous versions. I still have an XT for headphone practice but compared to an Axe-FX (which I had and sold) it really doesn't sound that good anymore, things have moved on and improved significantly with the latest modellers

I plan to upgrade to either a AX8 or Amplifire next year, purely for ease of recording and home practice. 'Real' tone comes from my Victory V40 and pedals but lacks the quiet convenience of modelling for low volume home use and recording so modelling will always have a place in my world.

impmann

Its worth pointing out the X3 was a bit over complicated for what it was - basically it was trying to do too much and sonically, it wasn't much of an improvement over the XT (and was less reliable... ).

Pod Bean HDs are uncommon - Line6 didn't sell many of them (I used to work for 'em, so I know these things), as they weren't so popular by this point. They are pretty good, but I wasn't a fan of the user interface... nor the fact they can run out of processor power if you build too long a signal chain. Was it a 'huge' improvement over the S1 models... er, not *really* but there are differences... some sound better, sound sound, er, different.

Call me an old fart, call me Susan, call me whatever the heck you like... but you'll go a long way to beat the POD II. When it was finally killed off, Line6 got complaints! The only reason it was killed off was that the main Motorola-made chips had been discontinued and the cost of a redesign versus the potential return (bearing in mind it had been done once in its product life due to the main chipset becoming obsolete). In a mix, the sounds are great for what they are and you'll be amazed how many tracks have sounds generated on these. Plus they are proper WYSIWYG, knob-twiddling pieces of kit rather than poxy menus.

bloodandtears

Yep.. +1 for the Pod 2 architecture.. sounds a lot more ballsy than the rest of its family imho...  great bang for the buck device these days...

stickyfiddle

It must be about 6 years since I used one but I gigged and recorded very happily with a Pod 2. The Matchless model on there was lovely.

Cabicular

impmann said:

Its worth pointing out the X3 was a bit over complicated for what it was - basically it was trying to do too much and sonically, it wasn't much of an improvement over the XT (and was less reliable... ).

Pod Bean HDs are uncommon - Line6 didn't sell many of them (I used to work for 'em, so I know these things), as they weren't so popular by this point. They are pretty good, but I wasn't a fan of the user interface... nor the fact they can run out of processor power if you build too long a signal chain. Was it a 'huge' improvement over the S1 models... er, not *really* but there are differences... some sound better, sound sound, er, different.

Call me an old fart, call me Susan, call me whatever the heck you like... but you'll go a long way to beat the POD II. When it was finally killed off, Line6 got complaints! The only reason it was killed off was that the main Motorola-made chips had been discontinued and the cost of a redesign versus the potential return (bearing in mind it had been done once in its product life due to the main chipset becoming obsolete). In a mix, the sounds are great for what they are and you'll be amazed how many tracks have sounds generated on these. Plus they are proper WYSIWYG, knob-twiddling pieces of kit rather than poxy menus.

Albeit hold this button down and twist this knob to turn FX B off
Thats where I fell out with it
When you need two hands to do something to a guitar device then you've lost IMO
The distorted sounds were pretty great.. I wouldn't say it was the most dynamic sound in the world...

normula1

I've still got and occasionally use a PODv1 with v2 upgrade. I always thought it sounded better than the XTLive I used to have. Perhaps that's due to the limited settings making it easier to dial in.

johnonguitar

I had a Pod 2 since they first came out. I liked the Blackface Super thingy and the Soldano. Was never completely taken by it. Sold it about 4 years ago for about £40. Was totally amazed people still wanted them 

DefaultM

I loved the XT. Played in to just one of those with headphones for probably 4 or 5 years before I bought a tube amp.

siraxeman

Just got a pod 2 off ebay should come today that'll do for my lil desktop always ready to go bit of kit....for whence i can't be bothered to get the GT-100 out....who knows i might even prefer it. Excellent condition  plus psu cables and dvd £49.

TheMarlin

Pete Anderson plays through original (large kidney) pods, live and in the studio. 

The believes them to be the best pods made.

Marlin 

siraxeman

Who dat?

TheMarlin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Anderson

I don't care for country music, but love his Reverend Signature Guitar. The PA-1

http://www.reverendguitars.com/instrument/pete-anderson-pa-1/

BigMonka

siraxeman said:

Just got a pod 2 off ebay should come today that'll do for my lil desktop always ready to go bit of kit....for whence i can't be bothered to get the GT-100 out....who knows i might even prefer it. Excellent condition  plus psu cables and dvd £49.

What's on the dvd? I didn't get one with mine, it was second hand though.

siraxeman

I've not watched it yet - its the lick library Pod 2.0, XT & Live DVD....you can still buy one if you want - see the lil freebie trailer on youtube.......

Exorcist

I used a pod 2.0 into the return of a marshall jubilee live for high gain stuff for years, until someone stole it at a gig. Sounded immense. I'll buy another one day. Someone lent me an XT after that but I couldn't get it to sound half as good.
I did have to turn off all the mic and speaker sim's, but once that was done it sounded really, like, really good. IMHO

duotone

Got a Pod XT with the amp & fx packs installed.  I still use it for headphone practice & sometimes through an amp.

It must be 12+ years old now.