MGR/japhydean « Line 6 Bass POD »
Published on 10/07/02 at 15:00I bought the POD at Guitar Center on Sunset - paid around $275 for it along with a 4-channel footswitch made especially for the POD. I purchased it because I play in a power trio, and the music is somewhat "theatrical", so I was looking for a way to be able to diversify my sound in specific areas of certain songs.
I like a lot of the flange and chorus effects - and saving the sounds is really a breeze. I also like the feature that allows you to emulate the sound of classic amp/speaker combos, however I already play through a great Ampeg Rig with a sound that I like very much, so I rarely utilized this feature.
In spite of a wide variety of distortion options, I never really found a "fuzz" sound that did it for me - I tweaked them every way I could but could never find what I was looking for. Every setting seemed to kill that attack on each note, and it didn't allow for a distortion sound with a good PUNCH. The main thing I didn't like though, was the footswitch setup. I purchased the POD to play live and that was a mistake. There was a second of delay when I hit the switch to go from one sound to another, and I wasn't able to go from preset to preset cleanly. I think the POD would be excellent for studio work, but using it live (for my purposes anyway) just wasn't an viable option.
The unit is constructed solidly - I don't really have any "samsonite" stories where I sent it tumbling down 4 flights of stairs or anything, but it fit in my gig bag nicely and I never had any problems with it.
The bottom line is, I think the POD is good for studio work and maybe for helping to improve the sound quality of a cheap rig, but using it live simply didn't work for me.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I like a lot of the flange and chorus effects - and saving the sounds is really a breeze. I also like the feature that allows you to emulate the sound of classic amp/speaker combos, however I already play through a great Ampeg Rig with a sound that I like very much, so I rarely utilized this feature.
In spite of a wide variety of distortion options, I never really found a "fuzz" sound that did it for me - I tweaked them every way I could but could never find what I was looking for. Every setting seemed to kill that attack on each note, and it didn't allow for a distortion sound with a good PUNCH. The main thing I didn't like though, was the footswitch setup. I purchased the POD to play live and that was a mistake. There was a second of delay when I hit the switch to go from one sound to another, and I wasn't able to go from preset to preset cleanly. I think the POD would be excellent for studio work, but using it live (for my purposes anyway) just wasn't an viable option.
The unit is constructed solidly - I don't really have any "samsonite" stories where I sent it tumbling down 4 flights of stairs or anything, but it fit in my gig bag nicely and I never had any problems with it.
The bottom line is, I think the POD is good for studio work and maybe for helping to improve the sound quality of a cheap rig, but using it live simply didn't work for me.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com