I don’t think you could in the first generation, but they made it so that the second generation could bypass the cab sim. I really think that this video outlines the whole reason for that. These guys were some of the first ones to be modeling cabinets and microphones, and since the technology was in its infancy, then, there is no way to get a really great sound like they can now with the maturity of the technology. I’ll bet those Amp models hold up just fine paired with IRs on the 2.0
@@Twominutedevotions I have been meaning to try it out with my X3 but the only IR loader I have is the Helix LT. I never seem to get around to trying it out when I need to pull the Helix out, I always seem to get side tracked into the Helix! :)
@@marksvideochannel3592 my favorite modeler was the Vox tone lab series because I felt like it did the best job at sounding real with real good effects on board. It converted me from the line 6 stuff in the mid 2000s after I had been an early adopter of the line 6 stuff. Now, I think the mystery has been solved that 99% of what we consider good tone is really just a well set up guitar doesn’t matter if it’s $100 or $10,000 and whatever cabinet IR or cabinet and Mike combination are being used. so now I’m tempted to think that every piece of gear I’ve ever had was really good and the problem was just either it wasn’t adjusted properly, or we just didn’t have the technology to replicate what speakers do like we do now.
The fact they came out with a rack mount version, and simultaneously three separate racks per flavor (chorus, delay, and filter) which are still the best out there speaks volumes.
The first BANG CAMARO record was made almost exclusively with two of these. We fattened up some of the rhythms with mics on cabinets but it's probably 80% POD back in 2005.
I gigged with one for a couple years in late ‘99-‘01 running into the fx return of a Randall 100 watt half-stack and it was great! I had the floorboard for control and the POD sitting on the amp neck to my wireless. It was the simplest and easiest rig to setup/tear down and NEVER had a single technical issue. I got so many compliments from sound guys who could easily get a great mix. I kinda miss the thing......🤔
Had one back in 2000. Ran it straight through a powered mixer with a boss 7 band eq. Man I miss that sound. Also had the Flextone head running through a Marshall slant and a Genz Benz G flex. They don't make them like that anymore. Thanks for the memories
I have a POD XT Live, which I bought when I traded in my Digitech unit late 1990s (which was constantly eating midi cables). That unit did years of gigs and never let me down. Absolutely bullet proof and always powered up when I needed it. Haven’t used it since I went back to lunchbox amps but I need to do the same and fire it up, just because.
I Actually bought a pod XT live for 150€ from my vocalist, and I was blown by how good it is for heavy stuff,made presets with The soldano,The JCM 800 and The treadplate, The hability to chosse the cab,mic and mic distance as well to add post eq is the key to great tones, lots of presence and great tone, I tried switching off The cab Sims and 3rd party IRS as well ToneX IRS and Actually prefer The stock cab sims
I remember when Korn released Follow The Leader. There was an MTV news segment where Jonathan Davis was holding one and talking about how they used 'em on the album.
My grandfather had one of these around the time I started playing guitar. He only played old timey gospel music with LP’s on a Fender Twin in Chet Adkins/Les Paul style but for some reasons would buy every new Line6 product when it came out? He never ventured beyond his typical settings and he was always surprised whenever I’d set this thing to STUN lol
I still play mine all the time. Write with it often. I’ve got a wall of awesome vintage 70s tube amps and still crank THIS thing. Into a carvin power amp. Or plugging in direct. Cmon man… Delay swell?!Love it. I got it when I worked at a guitar shop in the ‘00s. Learned to do the gain boost and treble boost tricks from our NY line6 rep. Forget the guy’s name but he had the coolest hair and shoes. After all These years; I finally got a floorboard for it.
I think I started at that GC just after you left, was always great seeing you walk in as a customer! I still have the V1 Pod that I bought off of Ralphie that day that you and he came by my place (and I bought that AT3060 from you!). I use it as an additional FX unit for crunching stuff up, etc. This was definitely a break-through unit at the time. It was so under wraps that instead of using the name of the unit when people called the company, they simply were transferred to that dept on line 6 on the telephones, hence the name.
Like every other piece of technology, knowing how to use the piece of gear matters. It is entirely possible to get some great sounds out of these things, knowing how to dig into and get those sounds out goes a long way to getting a better sound. Spend some time reading the manual and hooking it up correctly will make a difference and as others have said, using it with IRs helps too.
About 20 years ago, a friend of mine bought a used Soldano Hot Rod 100 (prototype) for next to nothing. We asked the guy why he was selling it. His response was "I got a POD!" I'm sure that guy regrets selling the Soldano.
I gave mine to my daughter, it makes a good practice amp with headphones. When i was in a band supporting Wynona Judd, the two guitar players had PODs as their live sound through a monitor! The dirty sounds are passable, but it's not hi-fi! Lol
I got called for a session once, but I didn’t have a lot of my regular gear available. I used a POD into the effects return of a Peavey Bandit, which I ran into a Marshall 4x12. I used the JCM800 model. It sounded awesome.
Great video. Line 6 was so much ahead of its time. Now I am sad that my PodXt is dead.. Would have liked to try it again with good IRs ( your Two Notes packs are killer)
I loved mine, I also was working at GC when these first came out, we were obsessed with the display model haha. Good times. Still have some of my Line 6 stuff like the xtlive and hd400.
Used one on so many tracks for TV and video in the early 2000s. In a track totally works - still! Hilarious! Watch prices go up on reverb - POD vintage modeler 😆
@@BigHairyGuitars I remember hearing all about it when they were nominated for a grammy that year. It was a big deal because everyone had been using modded marshals and mesas up to that point.
It was not meant to be a floor or rack mounted unit (although those versions exist). This was to be a desktop amp simulator and it was great at what it did. I loved the rotary speaker effect on this thing.
It isn't the tools, or gear, it always comes down to the playing and songwriting. No one cares what is used if it sounds good. Good to the average listener isn't what nonsense us guitar players think is good. You have to EQ the shit out of actual analog gear to get it to sound good anyway, you might have to do the same with this type of gear.
As an engineer i had alot of issues dealing with pod guys. They sound ok on their own but super tough to EQ in a mix. I usually let them do it, but caught a DI and reamped without telling them. To be fair alot of bands that used real amps were even harder to deal with because of room and bleed issues. I often tried to get them on a POD to record the drum tracks with headphone monitoring then made them re record through a real amp individually. Either way, people were not happy. Glad the industry has progressed to the point that even luddites can grasp these issues. I had to work my ass off to learn this stuff back then
Ran into a band at a Microbrew tap house, the guitarist said he toured with a Pod and would tell FOH to plug into it & FOH Guy was tripp'n because that was it, nothing else. lol
I have never used one, but Lincoln Brewster toured and recorded with these things and his tones are always amazing. Though he can make anything sound good.
Can you do a series of videos on how you set these devices up in your system? Probably like some of us we have equipment but need some tweaks to make it sound better. If you can take a pod and make it sound like this, I'd like to see how you set it up.
2nd this, I'm the best player, but I can never get anywhere close to the sounds that RUclipsrs are getting even when they are saying they are just plugging straight in to their interface.
It is my base unit , I use it everyday , but I add other things and it is unlimited. I keep the recorder going and I photographed knob settings because I come up with major surprises and I want to remember how I did it.
I bought an X3 bean in December 2008. I didn’t realize it was old even at that time. I still use it until I get an Ampero II or something similar. I do a lot of headphone practice/playing.
I toured and recorded with one in the early 2000’s - in the studio I went DI, mic’d up through a JC120 and also ran a Peavey TubeFex rack preamp DI’d for some more layers. Once I got a Vox Tonelab SE it replaced my old Pod 2.0 and floorboard. I’ve always wanted to revisit that one with some good impulse responses.
Micheal i still have the original Spider I Red Faced 50w combo amp that has some of the amps and effects of the POD your reviewing in this video,i made my amp sound much better by using a Eq with a cut in the lower frequencies and i also use a Behringer OD300 overdrive and or tube screamer type OD in front of the amp,i get very good tones with the fender amp models and the Mesa model,another tip is to use the hidden features for boosting the EQ,OD and Distortion,on my amp you have to hold down the Tap Tempo Button while turning Volume and or Drive or Treble control knobs,this made a big difference in getting a much better tone out of my spider amp!You should check to see if your POD has these hidden features for improving the tone?
I used to have the Pod Pro plugged into a Peavey Classic 120 poweramp, I loved it and actually preferred the tones of the Pod over the Digitech GSP1101 (which was pretty new at the time). I’d happily use one again
Maaan.. I used to have the little pocket pod and it was unbeatable for travel. Hearing this vid definitely gives me a good appreciation of how far digital sound has come but I bet if you use this live, 99% of the audience wouldn't know the difference between it or an AxeFX III. Michael, I want to hear this running into something like a Fryette power amp and a good 4x12. I still have my old Korg G1 distortion processor (the red thing that J from White Zombie used) and it still works, sounds kinda ehhhhh going DI but running it into the power section of my SLO and into a cab hilariously isn't that bad.
I'm not saying it makes sense, but.... It was made to Mount on a microphone stand with a heavy iron base like the old school microphone stands. The little notch where you have your finger was intended to lean the guitar against by the back of the neck. I have my original pod with both version one and version two firmware eproms, and I have the microphone stand mount with the rubber standoffs still. The version 2 eproms had vast improvements in some areas. I remember dialing in extremely passable early Van Halen tones when combined with the right power amp and speakers.
I never used the original, but eventually got the black HD bean sometime after 2010. I struggled with it, but remember getting some epic bass tones. Sold it, but also eventually regretted selling, like always. Edit: I did record a couple of albums withe the Line5 Pod farm plugins though around that time. I liked those.
The strength was the low cost, variety and straight forward interface. The weakness was the tones. High gain was fine if you were just mashing... But no nuance at lower gain / lighter touch. Was still happy to put up with my low variety tube amp and sold the pod after it sat unused for a few months
I go the same. Stumbled upon some YT comments, remembered it, wanted to throw it away, but decided to play it first. I mean, yeah, of course it is digital and dated. But. For a lightweight traveling solution, plus a headphone. Any day. Kept it.
Ha, I left a comment on one of your videos, I don't know, 8 months ago or so, suggesting you get a hold of old gear like this to do some demos/songs of it to see how it has held up. I specifically mentioned the old red kidney bean Line 6 POD and wanting to see you record a little instrumental with it. You replied saying you still had one in your garage. And here we are.
That outro jam sounded good! The trick with this thing is to bypass the awful cab sims and go with a modern IR loader. Leon Todd did that, if I’m not mistaken.
Speaking of GC - I remember selling a set of the rackmount versions of this thing to Godsmack's road manager when I worked for Mars. Then put the guy in touch with our Line 6 rep. For a backline/live sound solution these were good. To your point, there's something kinda missing with these things but 20 years later technology has made some advances.
I never had a Pod, but I remember getting a Line 6 Guitar Port just because it was on sale for so cheap; had to be like 2003 or so. I was a kid, and the only thing I could afford to record with was a cheap Tascam cassette 4-track and the dual... (I think?) MXR condenser mics that everyone bought at GC because they were $99 bucks. Crazy enough, in hindsight, I made some crazy good recordings on that Tascam using only cassettes and cheap mics, not even SM-57s yet. lol. Would do 4 tracks for drums, and bounce it all down to 1 single track on the tape, then using the other 3 now-remaining tracks for bass, guitar, and either another guitar or keys. Then bounce that all down to make room for 1 or 2 more final tracks to add vocals and/or whatever else. Then, browsing in GC I stumbled across this for like 20 or 30 bucks on a discount rack, and was like.... woah, so I could just plug my guitar into this, and then send it straight to the computer?! It was the first time I was able to actually afford something that allowed me to record w/ a PC and it, while obviously not great, sounded surprisingly good enough and opened me up to a whole new world (while still having some of the old school analog tools in my back pocket). I forget how I was getting drums into the PC at the time. I honestly may have still been using the Tascam approach, and then using some bassackwards way of bringing that into whatever DAW I was using at the time. Man, being a poor and 13 y/o musician circa 2002 really lead to getting incredibly creative with trying to record at home. It was a time when analog really was on its way out (totally out for professionals, but still hanging by a thread because of hobbyists and home enthusiasts. My guitar teacher at that time actually made brilliantly engineered albums using one of the better Yamaha cassette consoles simply because he preferred it). while digital was **mostly** out of the price range for people like me, but starting to get affordable enough to allow for.... welll... things like I described above lol. Anyway... what a time. Still consider it my prime haha. I don't think I'll ever be that creative again, even if my skills are far more developed now
Gave mine away a long time ago. Did make some nice recordings with it. Doug Rappaport has a killer clip ripping thru one. You'd never know it isn't an amp on his clip, if he didn't mention it.
Tommy Shaw still uses a rack pod as a preamp connected to a Palmer PDI-03. The palmer goes to FOH…the unfiltered outs go to the fx return of the Marshall heads
I've gotta POD XT Live pedalboard that I bought new when it came out. Only used it a few times. Just sitting in the closet.Just seemed to complicated for me. Might revisit it. Got any videos on it Michael?
Hmm. I don‘t know. Could it be used for contrast? I mean, if eveything is big, nothing is big. Putting a flat lined pod guitar somewhere to make the harmonic rich parts pop better, could that work? Or is it just makng evrything worse instead?
I went the Johnson Millennium route With that in the late 90s. Sounded good for the time, but I feel it’s the same as special effects in movies. When you were younger you thought land of the lost looked real, now it makes you laugh.
I’ve been thinking a lot about solid state front end with tube back end set ups. Seems like most of the early hybrid amps like Peavey and Music Man built a lot of amps that way. There must have been some wisdom around that. Clearly later tube front end was the thing. Now with all of the Fractals, etc, using tube power amps with those is a thing. Since you are knowledgeable power amp guy, I nominate you to make a video on the subject.
i found its better to have the tubes close like the preamp pedal or in front for the feel thing, and amplitude handled by clean solid power, the blu guitar iridium is a great example :) loud af
I still use mine to this day ( I have 3 of them) and I use pod ui software, that is modern software that connects to the pod, and allows you to change all the deep dive editing via midi and computer interface
I like that the amps/efx are right there. And the standard amp layout of the EQ, gain, etc. Just in my little opinion, all processors should be laid out that way. The sounds are quite good. If too dull as is, in a DAW track with a channel strip, warmer such as free Vintager Toy, a vst tube compressor, and a vst tape sim, once dialed in, I'm pretty sure it would "come to life" and be perfectly usable and even really good. I even find myself considering going on Reverb to maybe grab one of these. Good overview; thx for the demo.
The problem with these early modelers is the latency. I f***ed up my technique practicing on a Line 6 pod 2.0 for a month back in the day. It sounded alright though! But it’s been a while. Nowadays I play the Diezel VH4 UAD plugin amp. It sounds pretty dope.
The weird thing about line 6 is while the tones have gotten better over the years as they’ve come out with new generations of modelers, those early beans were just so damn easy to use. Sure my hx stomp sounds better, but holy crap the hx stomp is such a pain in the ass to dial in sounds.
@@FlipGuitarist80 yeah it’s to the point where I don’t tweak anything on it without a computer. Lot of the time if I’m just recording demo ideas I actually use an old tech 21 gt2 for guitars instead , but the hx stomp has some useful features. It’s one of the easiest devices to “reamp” with for example. But yeah it’s way easier to dial in its sounds on my computer than on the stomp itself.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Sounds pretty damn good to me. I'd love to see you do the test with bypassing the cabs and using modern IR's.
THIS is the way my friends.
It's the only way I can use it nowadays
I don’t think you could in the first generation, but they made it so that the second generation could bypass the cab sim. I really think that this video outlines the whole reason for that. These guys were some of the first ones to be modeling cabinets and microphones, and since the technology was in its infancy, then, there is no way to get a really great sound like they can now with the maturity of the technology. I’ll bet those Amp models hold up just fine paired with IRs on the 2.0
@@Twominutedevotions I have been meaning to try it out with my X3 but the only IR loader I have is the Helix LT. I never seem to get around to trying it out when I need to pull the Helix out, I always seem to get side tracked into the Helix! :)
@@marksvideochannel3592 my favorite modeler was the Vox tone lab series because I felt like it did the best job at sounding real with real good effects on board. It converted me from the line 6 stuff in the mid 2000s after I had been an early adopter of the line 6 stuff. Now, I think the mystery has been solved that 99% of what we consider good tone is really just a well set up guitar doesn’t matter if it’s $100 or $10,000 and whatever cabinet IR or cabinet and Mike combination are being used. so now I’m tempted to think that every piece of gear I’ve ever had was really good and the problem was just either it wasn’t adjusted properly, or we just didn’t have the technology to replicate what speakers do like we do now.
The real deal vintage one! Those warm rich harmonics! They don't make them like this anymore
RICH?? that was rich 😂😂😭😂
The fact they came out with a rack mount version, and simultaneously three separate racks per flavor (chorus, delay, and filter) which are still the best out there speaks volumes.
Yeah i got the pod pro XT a couple of months ago and it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G ! I plug directly onto the mix table and dono use any real amp anymore!
The first BANG CAMARO record was made almost exclusively with two of these. We fattened up some of the rhythms with mics on cabinets but it's probably 80% POD back in 2005.
that blows my mind, I was a very big fan on that band.
The entire Def Leppard Hysteria album was recorded on the Tom Scholz Rockman amp. When I found that out I was blown away.
Funny thing is if you use one of these with *only* the amps sims and a good IR, they're actually pretty useable LOL!
Yeah I saw another video where someone did that and it held up much better
I still have mine somewhere in the box….. 🤘🏼
how do you turn of the cabinets on the 1.0 version?
tap + bypass does not seem to work.
Still have and use mine as well as a Bass POD, and floorboard. Have recently created several Tonex IR's of both and uploaded to Tonex.
What a brilliant product for its time! I had the “Chibson”-copy version, the blue Behringer V-Amp 😆
Me too. I had the V amp pri which was pretty cool actually.
I gigged with one for a couple years in late ‘99-‘01 running into the fx return of a Randall 100 watt half-stack and it was great! I had the floorboard for control and the POD sitting on the amp neck to my wireless. It was the simplest and easiest rig to setup/tear down and NEVER had a single technical issue. I got so many compliments from sound guys who could easily get a great mix. I kinda miss the thing......🤔
Had one back in 2000. Ran it straight through a powered mixer with a boss 7 band eq. Man I miss that sound. Also had the Flextone head running through a Marshall slant and a Genz Benz G flex. They don't make them like that anymore. Thanks for the memories
I have a POD XT Live, which I bought when I traded in my Digitech unit late 1990s (which was constantly eating midi cables). That unit did years of gigs and never let me down. Absolutely bullet proof and always powered up when I needed it. Haven’t used it since I went back to lunchbox amps but I need to do the same and fire it up, just because.
I Actually bought a pod XT live for 150€ from my vocalist, and I was blown by how good it is for heavy stuff,made presets with The soldano,The JCM 800 and The treadplate, The hability to chosse the cab,mic and mic distance as well to add post eq is the key to great tones, lots of presence and great tone, I tried switching off The cab Sims and 3rd party IRS as well ToneX IRS and Actually prefer The stock cab sims
I remember when Korn released Follow The Leader. There was an MTV news segment where Jonathan Davis was holding one and talking about how they used 'em on the album.
My grandfather had one of these around the time I started playing guitar. He only played old timey gospel music with LP’s on a Fender Twin in Chet Adkins/Les Paul style but for some reasons would buy every new Line6 product when it came out? He never ventured beyond his typical settings and he was always surprised whenever I’d set this thing to STUN lol
Where it's at in the Pod 2.0 was the Brit High Gain with either Delay/Chorus 1 or Delay/Chorus 2...
Great video as always
Woo Hoo!! Still have mine on the desk and the large floorboard (on the floor)!😂I enjoy using old gear. Thanx Michael.
Still have my original. Gigged it all over back in the day. We all got them at the time! Will have to dig it out! 😂
Wow!!! I have both the guitar and bass one. They both still work! I just used my Bass Pod the other day!
My POD was the first effects unit I ever tried (08 ish) and it’s still sitting pretty on my board today! Never gonna get rid of it.
Pod 2.0 allows you to kill the cab (alt function on Effects knob) and use a modern IR which makes a huge difference.
Any idea on how to do it ?
Dude! The lead guitarist in my band in HS had the pod and I was so jealous. A lot of those sounds still hold up. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I still play mine all the time.
Write with it often. I’ve got a wall of awesome vintage 70s tube amps and still crank THIS thing.
Into a carvin power amp. Or plugging in direct.
Cmon man… Delay swell?!Love it.
I got it when I worked at a guitar shop in the ‘00s.
Learned to do the gain boost and treble boost tricks from our NY line6 rep. Forget the guy’s name but he had the coolest hair and shoes.
After all
These years; I finally got a floorboard for it.
I think I started at that GC just after you left, was always great seeing you walk in as a customer! I still have the V1 Pod that I bought off of Ralphie that day that you and he came by my place (and I bought that AT3060 from you!). I use it as an additional FX unit for crunching stuff up, etc. This was definitely a break-through unit at the time. It was so under wraps that instead of using the name of the unit when people called the company, they simply were transferred to that dept on line 6 on the telephones, hence the name.
The "Line 6 Layer" model is one the coolest bass sounds ever
Like every other piece of technology, knowing how to use the piece of gear matters. It is entirely possible to get some great sounds out of these things, knowing how to dig into and get those sounds out goes a long way to getting a better sound. Spend some time reading the manual and hooking it up correctly will make a difference and as others have said, using it with IRs helps too.
Exactly. You can make anything sound like poop (this video being a great example).
Reppin Vermont! That old POD rocked my world back in the day. This is pure nostalgia.
Getting some "How Soon is Now" vibes there on the end jam!
I have 3 POD XT and a POD Pro - there are some legendary amp sims on them and with good IRs they are freaking killer.
I love some of the old Periphery and Animals as Leaders recordings they did with both.
Thats what i use, i record with it, fools people thinking im using Plexi stacks, and Vox AC30s, nobody can tell if its
real or memorex
@@HenritheHorse don't forget John Browne of Monuments
@@ayeapprove Yeah John is great! Early Tesseract might have been some Pod too now thinking about it.
The 2.0 is the best one I have three of them and you know it’s better than anything else out there.
Still have mine as well. And it is amazing! It is really nice through my original Hughes and Kettner Redbox. 4x12 sim only of course.
Redbox mkII is amazing!
About 20 years ago, a friend of mine bought a used Soldano Hot Rod 100 (prototype) for next to nothing. We asked the guy why he was selling it. His response was "I got a POD!"
I'm sure that guy regrets selling the Soldano.
Oh God. 😂
And the exact same marketing works on today's guitarists...as it will in another 25 century.
My second record release in 2005 was recorder with one of those. It was amazing......still is.
I gave mine to my daughter, it makes a good practice amp with headphones. When i was in a band supporting Wynona Judd, the two guitar players had PODs as their live sound through a monitor! The dirty sounds are passable, but it's not hi-fi! Lol
I've got an original POD as well and I really love it! I use it every day!
All of these tones would work in the right mix. Good stuff.
I was at the record plant when these came out and people were showing up with these very excited.
I got called for a session once, but I didn’t have a lot of my regular gear available. I used a POD into the effects return of a Peavey Bandit, which I ran into a Marshall 4x12. I used the JCM800 model. It sounded awesome.
No doubt it did. Go to show ya eh.
Great video. Line 6 was so much ahead of its time. Now I am sad that my PodXt is dead.. Would have liked to try it again with good IRs ( your Two Notes packs are killer)
At least once a year I fall down a rabbit hole of watching every live video of Craig Ross' "Believe" solo on RUclips.
I loved mine, I also was working at GC when these first came out, we were obsessed with the display model haha. Good times. Still have some of my Line 6 stuff like the xtlive and hd400.
I just found a brand new one in my storage, can't wait to try it!
This was all over XTC's Venus Apple, and Wasp Star albums. Vocals, drums, guitars, basses, everything
True that…and those albums sound phenomenal.
Used one on so many tracks for TV and video in the early 2000s. In a track totally works - still! Hilarious! Watch prices go up on reverb - POD vintage modeler 😆
Didn't 3 doors down record their first album with the original Line6 HD100 which was basically a POD with a power amp in an amp head?
Line6 was everywhere for a decade or more. I wouldn't be surprised.
@@BigHairyGuitars I remember hearing all about it when they were nominated for a grammy that year. It was a big deal because everyone had been using modded marshals and mesas up to that point.
It was not meant to be a floor or rack mounted unit (although those versions exist). This was to be a desktop amp simulator and it was great at what it did. I loved the rotary speaker effect on this thing.
I’ve still got one of those and the floor board 😆
Actually, when I listened back to this video. Most of the sounds were pretty decent. I might've had some personal bias going on there.
It isn't the tools, or gear, it always comes down to the playing and songwriting. No one cares what is used if it sounds good. Good to the average listener isn't what nonsense us guitar players think is good. You have to EQ the shit out of actual analog gear to get it to sound good anyway, you might have to do the same with this type of gear.
As an engineer i had alot of issues dealing with pod guys. They sound ok on their own but super tough to EQ in a mix. I usually let them do it, but caught a DI and reamped without telling them.
To be fair alot of bands that used real amps were even harder to deal with because of room and bleed issues. I often tried to get them on a POD to record the drum tracks with headphone monitoring then made them re record through a real amp individually.
Either way, people were not happy. Glad the industry has progressed to the point that even luddites can grasp these issues. I had to work my ass off to learn this stuff back then
Ran into a band at a Microbrew tap house, the guitarist said he toured with a Pod
and would tell FOH to plug into it & FOH Guy was tripp'n because that was it, nothing else. lol
I have never used one, but Lincoln Brewster toured and recorded with these things and his tones are always amazing. Though he can make anything sound good.
This type of content is what we live for.
Can you do a series of videos on how you set these devices up in your system? Probably like some of us we have equipment but need some tweaks to make it sound better. If you can take a pod and make it sound like this, I'd like to see how you set it up.
2nd this, I'm the best player, but I can never get anywhere close to the sounds that RUclipsrs are getting even when they are saying they are just plugging straight in to their interface.
LOL I still have my POD from 20+ years. Still works. I recorded my first guitar album with it.
First season of Metalocalypse in a kidney right there!
Just an XT version through a UA 6176 and you're good, haha!
It is my base unit , I use it everyday , but I add other things and it is unlimited. I keep the recorder going and I photographed knob settings because I come up with major surprises and I want to remember how I did it.
Messugah actually toured at one time using nothing but PODS.
Ola did a vid like this except he used his own IR and it made a huge difference. Try that and you'll find the amp models are actually quite good.
Im still using mine!
I liked the small Fender amps on this thing.
That was fun. Can you do the Rockman next? haha
I bought an X3 bean in December 2008. I didn’t realize it was old even at that time. I still use it until I get an Ampero II or something similar. I do a lot of headphone practice/playing.
I toured and recorded with one in the early 2000’s - in the studio I went DI, mic’d up through a JC120 and also ran a Peavey TubeFex rack preamp DI’d for some more layers. Once I got a Vox Tonelab SE it replaced my old Pod 2.0 and floorboard. I’ve always wanted to revisit that one with some good impulse responses.
I still have my pod in my desk drawer.
Me too
Micheal i still have the original Spider I Red Faced 50w combo amp that has some of the amps and effects of the POD your reviewing in this video,i made my amp sound much better by using a Eq with a cut in the lower frequencies and i also use a Behringer OD300 overdrive and or tube screamer type OD in front of the amp,i get very good tones with the fender amp models and the Mesa model,another tip is to use the hidden features for boosting the EQ,OD and Distortion,on my amp you have to hold down the Tap Tempo Button while turning Volume and or Drive or Treble control knobs,this made a big difference in getting a much better tone out of my spider amp!You should check to see if your POD has these hidden features for improving the tone?
So much low-end 😂
Where is the “scientist hat”!? 😉
Outro was freakkn nice
Love the kidney bean.
I used to have the Pod Pro plugged into a Peavey Classic 120 poweramp, I loved it and actually preferred the tones of the Pod over the Digitech GSP1101 (which was pretty new at the time). I’d happily use one again
never had this, but the Pod HD PRO X was my favorite amp sim ever. I know not everyone likes it, but I thought it did a lot of stuff really well
Great booster into sounding solid state amps......dude did you ever get the stand holder?
Awesome for the time, the only hicup was the Digital Dithering that took place on the DAC. Thanks for a great demo 🤘🤘🤘
I have the very same one still .....still use it occasionally ,.stills works good ... good headphones helps.
Maaan.. I used to have the little pocket pod and it was unbeatable for travel. Hearing this vid definitely gives me a good appreciation of how far digital sound has come but I bet if you use this live, 99% of the audience wouldn't know the difference between it or an AxeFX III.
Michael, I want to hear this running into something like a Fryette power amp and a good 4x12.
I still have my old Korg G1 distortion processor (the red thing that J from White Zombie used) and it still works, sounds kinda ehhhhh going DI but running it into the power section of my SLO and into a cab hilariously isn't that bad.
My behringer v-amp with modern cab IR sounds really good.
I'm not saying it makes sense, but.... It was made to Mount on a microphone stand with a heavy iron base like the old school microphone stands. The little notch where you have your finger was intended to lean the guitar against by the back of the neck.
I have my original pod with both version one and version two firmware eproms, and I have the microphone stand mount with the rubber standoffs still.
The version 2 eproms had vast improvements in some areas. I remember dialing in extremely passable early Van Halen tones when combined with the right power amp and speakers.
I never used the original, but eventually got the black HD bean sometime after 2010. I struggled with it, but remember getting some epic bass tones. Sold it, but also eventually regretted selling, like always. Edit: I did record a couple of albums withe the Line5 Pod farm plugins though around that time. I liked those.
I'm still using my Pod pro rackmount in 2024... Just saying. Got the floorboard too. Still a great piece of gear for various situations. Plug and play
I still use a 2.0 for headphone practice. The jcm800 models are my faves.
With a good IR, they sound great
I still find it hard to believe that Ty Tabor used one of these for the "...Mr. Bulbous" album👍
The strength was the low cost, variety and straight forward interface. The weakness was the tones. High gain was fine if you were just mashing... But no nuance at lower gain / lighter touch. Was still happy to put up with my low variety tube amp and sold the pod after it sat unused for a few months
Had a Johnson J-Station. Didnt get into a Line 6 until I got a Floor XT-Live
I go the same. Stumbled upon some YT comments, remembered it, wanted to throw it away, but decided to play it first. I mean, yeah, of course it is digital and dated. But. For a lightweight traveling solution, plus a headphone. Any day. Kept it.
Ha, I left a comment on one of your videos, I don't know, 8 months ago or so, suggesting you get a hold of old gear like this to do some demos/songs of it to see how it has held up. I specifically mentioned the old red kidney bean Line 6 POD and wanting to see you record a little instrumental with it. You replied saying you still had one in your garage. And here we are.
That outro jam sounded good! The trick with this thing is to bypass the awful cab sims and go with a modern IR loader. Leon Todd did that, if I’m not mistaken.
Speaking of GC - I remember selling a set of the rackmount versions of this thing to Godsmack's road manager when I worked for Mars. Then put the guy in touch with our Line 6 rep. For a backline/live sound solution these were good. To your point, there's something kinda missing with these things but 20 years later technology has made some advances.
I never had a Pod, but I remember getting a Line 6 Guitar Port just because it was on sale for so cheap; had to be like 2003 or so. I was a kid, and the only thing I could afford to record with was a cheap Tascam cassette 4-track and the dual... (I think?) MXR condenser mics that everyone bought at GC because they were $99 bucks. Crazy enough, in hindsight, I made some crazy good recordings on that Tascam using only cassettes and cheap mics, not even SM-57s yet. lol. Would do 4 tracks for drums, and bounce it all down to 1 single track on the tape, then using the other 3 now-remaining tracks for bass, guitar, and either another guitar or keys. Then bounce that all down to make room for 1 or 2 more final tracks to add vocals and/or whatever else.
Then, browsing in GC I stumbled across this for like 20 or 30 bucks on a discount rack, and was like.... woah, so I could just plug my guitar into this, and then send it straight to the computer?! It was the first time I was able to actually afford something that allowed me to record w/ a PC and it, while obviously not great, sounded surprisingly good enough and opened me up to a whole new world (while still having some of the old school analog tools in my back pocket). I forget how I was getting drums into the PC at the time. I honestly may have still been using the Tascam approach, and then using some bassackwards way of bringing that into whatever DAW I was using at the time.
Man, being a poor and 13 y/o musician circa 2002 really lead to getting incredibly creative with trying to record at home. It was a time when analog really was on its way out (totally out for professionals, but still hanging by a thread because of hobbyists and home enthusiasts. My guitar teacher at that time actually made brilliantly engineered albums using one of the better Yamaha cassette consoles simply because he preferred it). while digital was **mostly** out of the price range for people like me, but starting to get affordable enough to allow for.... welll... things like I described above lol. Anyway... what a time. Still consider it my prime haha. I don't think I'll ever be that creative again, even if my skills are far more developed now
All hail the mighty kidney bean!
Gave mine away a long time ago. Did make some nice recordings with it. Doug Rappaport has a killer clip ripping thru one. You'd never know it isn't an amp on his clip, if he didn't mention it.
Tommy Shaw still uses a rack pod as a preamp connected to a Palmer PDI-03. The palmer goes to FOH…the unfiltered outs go to the fx return of the Marshall heads
I've gotta POD XT Live pedalboard that I bought new when it came out. Only used it a few times. Just sitting in the closet.Just seemed to complicated for me. Might revisit it. Got any videos on it Michael?
Hmm. I don‘t know. Could it be used for contrast?
I mean, if eveything is big, nothing is big. Putting a flat lined pod guitar somewhere to make the harmonic rich parts pop better, could that work? Or is it just makng evrything worse instead?
Totally! I think I’m gonna try some Kemper captures if it! I’ll make a vid of it
I went the Johnson Millennium route With that in the late 90s. Sounded good for the time, but I feel it’s the same as special effects in movies. When you were younger you thought land of the lost looked real, now it makes you laugh.
I’ve been thinking a lot about solid state front end with tube back end set ups.
Seems like most of the early hybrid amps like Peavey and Music Man built a lot of amps that way. There must have been some wisdom around that. Clearly later tube front end was the thing.
Now with all of the Fractals, etc, using tube power amps with those is a thing.
Since you are knowledgeable power amp guy, I nominate you to make a video on the subject.
i found its better to have the tubes close like the preamp pedal or in front for the feel thing, and amplitude handled by clean solid power, the blu guitar iridium is a great example :) loud af
It’s old so it must be good right? Because that’s how guitar tone works! On Reddit anyway.
Sounds best in stereo too.
I still use mine to this day ( I have 3 of them) and I use pod ui software, that is modern software that connects to the pod, and allows you to change all the deep dive editing via midi and computer interface
Oooo, I can’t find my original sound diver disc. Can you tell me which editing software you’re using? Appreciate it!! Thank you.
I like that the amps/efx are right there. And the standard amp layout of the EQ, gain, etc. Just in my little opinion, all processors should be laid out that way. The sounds are quite good. If too dull as is, in a DAW track with a channel strip, warmer such as free Vintager Toy, a vst tube compressor, and a vst tape sim, once dialed in, I'm pretty sure it would "come to life" and be perfectly usable and even really good. I even find myself considering going on Reverb to maybe grab one of these. Good overview; thx for the demo.
The problem with these early modelers is the latency. I f***ed up my technique practicing on a Line 6 pod 2.0 for a month back in the day.
It sounded alright though!
But it’s been a while. Nowadays I play the Diezel VH4 UAD plugin amp.
It sounds pretty dope.
POD Line I Still Have Line 6 POD XT Live And Just Add On TC IR So Sound Pretty Cool
The weird thing about line 6 is while the tones have gotten better over the years as they’ve come out with new generations of modelers, those early beans were just so damn easy to use. Sure my hx stomp sounds better, but holy crap the hx stomp is such a pain in the ass to dial in sounds.
The reason I got rid of my helix. I could never figure it out properly, I got so used to the straightforwardness of the pod
@@FlipGuitarist80 yeah it’s to the point where I don’t tweak anything on it without a computer. Lot of the time if I’m just recording demo ideas I actually use an old tech 21 gt2 for guitars instead , but the hx stomp has some useful features. It’s one of the easiest devices to “reamp” with for example. But yeah it’s way easier to dial in its sounds on my computer than on the stomp itself.