Line 6 Pocket POD

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $179.99
Sale Price: $129.99
Today's Bonus: 28% Off

• 300+ Presets -- Including exclusive rock star presets with unrivaled tone
• 32 Amp Models, 16 Cab Models -- Mix and Match amps and cabs to create your own unique sound
• 16 Effects -- Built-in in set of effects that are tweaked to perfection
• Chromatic Tuner -- The built-in tuner can be set to mute for those on-stage tunings between songs,
• CD/MP3 Jack -- Jam along with your favorite songs, Portable Design --Weighs just over 6 ounces!Only 5 x 3.25 x 2.5 inches in size
• USB Connectivity -- Edit your presets on the computer with FREE software from Line6

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Having owned other Line6 hardware and having good experiences with this I bought this device to take to work and jam at on my lunch break. I regret this decision....

First, the good things. It sounds pretty decent if you like to play rock or metal. Its not great, but for jamming along with your mp3 player and practicing it works perfect. There are a ton of different sounds you can coax out of this device. Other people have complained about the interface but I don't have any troubles with it. There are some features you can't manipulate unless you plug it into a computer and use their software, doesn't bother me though. Its portable and runs on batteries. All you need is your guitar, cable, and headphones. Back-lit screen is nice and legible.

The bad: The modulation effects are pretty cheesy and digital sounding. Eats batteries very quickly Clean sounds are just meh, but if you aren't using it for recording it should be fine.

Here my main beef: The build quality of this device is not up to normal Line6 standards. It is very flimsy cheapo plastic. I'm still wondering where the real Line6 device is because this seems like a crappy cheap Chinese copy of a Line6 device. I dropped mine onto indoor carpeting and the screen cracked, making it unusable. Line6 considers this device to be consumable and will not help you fix it. They tell you to use their authorized service center to repair...ok, I contact every single one on the list and they all tell me the same thing, deal with Line6 directly. So I try, and Line6 tells you to use an authorized service center... I don't like being treated like this and playing these games. I broke it an am willing to pay for a repair but they just want me to buy a new one. Heck, sell me a new screen and I will solder it in myself (I work in electronics). No go. Digitech never treated me this way with any of their products, in warranty or not.

If you buy this be extremely careful with it. I'm not joking, this thing is flimsy. Its not high impact plastic... its thin and fragile. If you have an issue, good luck dealing with Line6. In this economy you'd think they would do whatever it takes to maintain customers but I guess thats not the case. Their business model must make them immune to these things.

I wanted to like this thing, I really did. My old POD 2.0 is great and sturdy. This pocket thing is an example of a great concept implemented very poorly.

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This thing is great for practicing with head phones. The wide variety of sounds make for a more authentic practice session (so when you're playing U2 songs, you don't sound like ACDC and vice versa) and makes practicing more fun.

The only big downside is that it sucks down power like nobody's business. I bought four high-end AAA batteries and the Pod ate them in a about a week of playing for less than 2 hours a night. Furthermore, the manual states that only non-rechargeable batteries (or the optional AC adapter) should be used. I now plan to buy the Line 6 DC1, which is line 6's 9 volt adapter, from Amazon soon.

Another, much smaller downside is that the real manual is only available in PDF format from Line 6's web site. But if you're at Amazon, you probably have an internet connection.

While getting the manual, you should probably also download Vyzex, which is Line 6's software for editing the tones from the Pocket Pod. This software isn't absolutely necessary for using the Pocket pod, but it does make editing tones somewhat easier, and it also allows the use of download tones (which work somewhat like synthesizer patches.) I also think the software could be better designed.

Still, I'm very pleased with the product. When you consider it's cost versus the cost of an amp head, plus stomp boxes, etc., the variety of amps and effects modeled, and the fact that the Pocket Pod doesn't take up much space at all, it's a great deal, especially someone like me who practices in an apartment.

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Line6 is a company that revolutionized professional grade studio guitar processing in the late 1990's with the original POD... Studio musicians from New York to Nashville began praising this little red box they could carry around in their backpack and into the studio instead of the usual crate of amps... Yes, the POD sounded THAT good. Since it's introduction, Line6 has revised the POD every few years to improve features, the Pocket POD technology (processing chips) are identical to the POD 2.0, the sound you get is the same grade... the only difference is the size of the unit and the Pocket POD is missing some of the more high-end input/outputs (MIDI, foot switch control, etc...) other than that, the Pocket POD is a second generation POD with a budget price tag. So here you get professional studio grade amp simulation and effects for under $150 and you can carry this around in your pocket.

Now putting the core technology (which is very good) aside and getting into features. The Pocket POD comes with an excellent set of presets. You can select by BAND, STYLE or USER. As I mentioned, the POD is used by professional musicians, BAND presets are presets created with direct input from the pros. Want to dial up Hoobastanks guitarist sound on The Reason? It's already programmed for you along with about a dozen others artist presets created by the artist themselves.

There are many more STYLE presets, style presets are approximation of specific artist recorded tone on specific songs, they have names easy to reconize like: CRAZY TRAIN, JUMP, FREE FALLIN, DUST WIND, SANDMAN, ANOTHER BRICK, WHOLE LOTTA LOVE etc.. Most of them sound fantastic.

Just dial up a specific tone patch then use one of the four silver knobs to adjust: Gain, Effect Level, Delay Level and Volume. There are so many of these presets many guitarist will probably never even bother to "deep edit", but for those who want more, Line6 has a free program that you can download for MacOS X and Windows that allows you to build your own presets and store them in the Pocket POD. The Pocket POD connects to a PC through an included USB cable and then the user can select a specific amp head, amp cabinet, add effects, etc... You can build your own virtual guitar rig and then store it in one of the included user preset spots.

CONNS:

The "deep edit" software I mentioned above does not work on many notebook PCS and will not work through USB hubs. This will leave many users wanting more frustrated. Also, no power supply is included and the battery life here isn't good. User manual is essentially 3 pages printed in many languages, no manual for the software (and how hard would it have been to include it on a CD-ROM in the box?)

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The Pocket Pod does indeed create an incredible variety of tones for the guitar, and it can make even a cheap Danelectro sound like many different (and much more expensive) instruments. While accessing all this power from the Pocket Pod itself is a bit awkward, it can be more easily programmed and experimented with using the downloadable Vyzex software, which displays a virtual control panel with immediate access to most settings. When everything is working, the Pocket Pod is a joy and is downright inspirational to work with.

Unfortunately, both the hardware and the software are rather rough around the edges. My first Pocket Pod had a loud 60Hz hum and ate batteries even when it wasn't plugged in, so it was replaced under warranty by Line 6 (it took over two weeks to get the replacement, however). My current unit works better, but every so often the 4-way switch ceases to function. More mystifying are glitches with the Vyzex software. First, very few of the USB ports on my computer will recognize the Pocket Pod, and I'm not sure that even the ones that appear to work really function properly. I found that getting the Pocket Pod and software to function properly often requires several restarts of the Vyzex program with the Pocket Pod attached. Moreover, even when the software appears to be functioning, it will usually start to throw various glitches as the session progresses. For example, the volume level will often change unpredictably in the middle of a run, or the mouse position will become erroneously detected when operating the screen interface, or certain effects unpredictably become unavailable. Thus the software has to be shut down and restarted constantly when using this system.

In summary, when it is working the Pocket pod is capable of transforming your guitar sounds into nearly anything one would wish. It is so impressive that it could, in principle, be used for gigs. Unfortunately, the reliability of the hardware and software is very poor and it would almost certainly leave the user stranded at the worst possible moment in a live performance. Line 6 really needs to do some serious QC on this device and its software. Until they do (and until they improve the response time of their warranty service), I'd recommend considering other products.

Bought this for my son. He is very happy with the tremendous number of features and I liked the price. This will be perfect for playing in a dorm room when he goes to college. No amp necessary, just plug in earphones and start playing.