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The So You Want to Buy A Guitar FAQ
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Line 6 POD
My
POD Experiences
Music and Tools
My
Music
Telecasters
Stratocasters
Gibson-Style Guitars
Carvin
Hollow
Body Guitars
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Here is some stuff recorded with Line 6's "The Pod":
I
use the POD as a front end for a Music Man RD112 or 1960's Fender Princeton combo amp mic'ed with a SM57. The strength of the POD is supposed to be its use as a direct box going line in to a recorder, but I'm used the sound of an amp and a guitar all in a room together.
There are plenty of experts who'll tell you you can't do this or that it won't
sound good, that the POD is for direct recording or for plugging into a PA
system. I on the other hand think it sounds just dandy, because I ain't no
expert.
To hear the following samples, follow the links to my site on IUMA and click on the links to the songs there.
In all the following cases the POD feeds my
Music Man with the Music Man's tone controls set
flat.
Tweed Blues a standard POD patch emulating a Fender Bassman amp. I was trying to demonstrate the POD's response to pick sensitivity (all volume changes in this cut are made just by varying picking attack). In this regard the POD plays very much like a "real amp". You
can get the pick sensitivity and tonal response you'd expect from a cranked
amp. Play softly, get soft overdrive, dig in get
more squeal and grind. Again, you'll hear
experts telling you that the POD can't do this.
Listen and see what you think.
Class A is the Modern Class A standard
patch on the POD. I almost always use the POD in
manual mode because a) I like to twiddle knobs
and make sounds come out and b) because most of
the fancy presets in the POD are like most of
the presets in other effects units: loaded down
with too much muchness. My friend Andy uses the
POD's preset section but he's spent the time
tweaking and creating his own presets.
I'm Troubled and I Don't Know Why
uses the Black Panel patch emulating the 60's Fender Deluxe Reverb. I did turn the reverb up a bit on this patch. Somehow the sound took me into playing a traditional folk-blues melody.
At least on my POD I find I have to keep my pick
attack down or I get some unattractive harshness
from this patch.
In the above cases, the guitar is
a Telecaster
copy I've knocked around with since about 1980. Note that the character of the sound changes, even though the final amp/speaker and guitar haven't. I tend to think of the POD as an effects box for players that don't use effects much. Those that like the sound of fuzz-tones, chorus pedals,
flangers, etc can carry a bunch of different sounds around with them. A POD contains a bunch of sounds too, but they are from the "My rig is a guitar an amp and a patch cord" school of effects.
I think it's a mistake to get too tied up in the "How accurate are the amp simulations (compared to the real amps)" bag with this device. The sounds it makes are very musical and responsive and they do allow one to totally change the character of your tone with the twist of a few knobs.
For comparison Princeton is
a MP3 file done with a "real tube amp". The tune has a more up-tempo jazzy vibe.
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