Line6 releases the Pocket POD for tone on the go

While we're not crazy about modeled solid-state guitar tone, sometimes firing up that 800-watt tube amp just isn't feasible -- which is where Line6's new Pocket POD comes in. Essentially a miniature version of the company's popular POD amp modelers, the Pocket POD features 300 presets based on vintage and modern amps and cabs developed in conjunction with several popular guitarists, a host of effects including delay and compression, 1/8-inch input for jamming along to an iPod, headphone jack, and USB connectivity to Line6's Vyzex software to tweak and tune your presets any way you like. If this thing sounds half as convincing as other Line6 modelers, it'll be quite a steal at $129 -- but deep down you'll know it's not the same.

[Via Macworld]

[TDG01 @ Aug 4th 2007 6:10PM]

Line6 modelers are amazing....hope this one follows suit....

[Glazun @ Aug 4th 2007 6:18PM]

I might actually pick this up.. though if my amp can only bring out a grungy kinda sound will this thing really help at all?

[Brian Wohlgemuth @ Aug 4th 2007 6:41PM]

Why oh why do people think Line6 modeling is sacrilege? While to guitar snobs it is obvious listening to a modeled amp as opposed to a real tube amp, 99.999% of the people on this planet don't really give a rats ass.

If I didn't already have a Flextone III, I would buy this.. :-)

[tb @ Aug 4th 2007 6:50PM]

it models tube amp, not solid state ones(or only like 2%)
or you meant DIGITAL modelling? because solid state modelling also exist(sansamp)
and 800 watt tube amp? show me one please beside that one of "...massive 36 x 10 650-watt Ampeg amplifier was used. The head houses 22 vacuum tubes. The amp weighs 950 pounds."
from a dead discoverey show http://news.harmony-central.com/News/2004/Big-Guitar.html
anyway, it's the PODxt engine so it's sure great

[eric @ Aug 4th 2007 7:27PM]

I've never heard a line6 recorded guitar that didn't sound like a "line6".

For recording, Native Instruments' Guitar Rig is miles beyond the sounds that a pod pumps out.

This seems like a nifty little device to play around with, though.

[Urza @ Aug 4th 2007 11:01PM]

I never quite understood what the hatred towards Line6 is. Sure, it doesn't sound like the amps it tries to model, but so what? Personally, I can't listen to something and tell if it's a Crate or Peavy, but I didn't get the Line6 because I wanted a Peavy, I got the Line6 because I wanted the Line6. It was actually the ONLY amp I found in Guitar Center that had more effects than just reverb and/or drive. Sure, if you have the money to blow on a professional amp and a crapload of effects pedals, go for it. But if you want a large variety of sounds on the cheap (like, say, a garage band), the Line6 is a godsend. Add a Boss GT-6 effects processor, and you got one hell of a rig.

Heh...there are actually currently 7 guitar amps in my basement...a peavy, a crate, two line6s, a hondo, and two others I don't know the brand of (one of them is a full head and two tower speakers). I still think the Line6s are by far the best. And the Crate we've had nothing but trouble with from day one. It amazes me that the music snobs at homerecording.net basically told me not to go near Line6 with a ten foot pole when I asked about a good amp for a highschool garage band just starting out. Line6 is amazing stuff.

[tb @ Aug 5th 2007 12:00AM]

@Urza, wouldn't the unknown with towers be a traynor YVM4?

[Urza @ Aug 5th 2007 12:20AM]

Nope. I just went down and checked. It's a Marlboro Soundworks SRA920. It's not mine, and I'm not sure that it's strictly a guitar amp...might be a general-purpose PA system. I also am unsure if the speakers are the same brand or not...I can't find any trace of a brand or model number on them, but they're a bit smaller than the head, and they don't really seem to fit together.

[Jeff @ Aug 5th 2007 1:02AM]

"Sure, it doesn't sound like the amps it tries to model, but so what?"

So it's no good at its stated purpose, but it's still good?

It's like anything else; you can go cheap and crappy from the beginning, develop a bunch of bad habits and end up with a tone that sounds just like everybody else using a Line 6, or you can take your time, build your rig up as you can and end up with something that's totally your own.

I just don't really see the point in amp modeling; why would you want a cheap copy of an original? You may as well look for something unique instead, and make your own sound. But you can really only do that in the analog (tube) realm.

You yourself say you don't care if the amp models sound like the real thing, so why do you care about modeling at all? Just get a real tube amp and make whatever sound you want. Or at least go hybrid and get a tube/solid state combo - they hardly cost anything more than modeling amps.

[Urza @ Aug 5th 2007 1:05AM]

As I said, I didn't get it for the modeling. I got it for the effects, which no other amp had.

[Donnie @ Aug 5th 2007 1:46PM]

"there are actually currently 7 guitar amps in my basement...a peavy, a crate, two line6s, a hondo, and two others"

Sounds like 7 turds...it's easy for a POD to rise to the top. :>)

[ryantrevisol @ Aug 4th 2007 10:20PM]

Someone at Engadget's learning guitar . . .

[Rob @ Aug 4th 2007 11:33PM]

800 watts for a guitar amp.
OMG, "Who Are You", Pete Townsend?
I'd be scared of plugging that guitar into a head with that much juice.

But, Line6 does put out some good tone Pods. I have the PodPro and I'm pretty pleased with it. I have respect for the purists. But my Pod does what I need from it. I may look into getting one of these.

[Liam @ Aug 6th 2007 1:25PM]

An 800 watt amp would only sound about twice as loud as a ten watt amp. Most of the volume increase in costlier amps is due to sturdier cabs, and more efficient speakers.

That said, most gigging bands use smaller combos, and mic them. So, they end up going through the house PA anyway. As someone said, no-one will be able to tell the difference.

My money would go with a Sansamp or JD10, though. I don't like menus.

[Hugh Newmark @ Aug 4th 2007 11:58PM]

I have a '79 Les Paul, and I can't find a better tone than to crank it through a Line 6 Spider II Head mounted on a vintage Marshall cabinet (or two depending on if I'm gigging or not). My absolute favorite piece of gear is my Line 6 Pod. If you have a decent amp to start with, then the Pod is a hell of a lot better than anything else you'll commonly find (especially for recording). I can't wait to pick one of these us.

[PEZ @ Aug 5th 2007 12:32AM]

These days solid state does a very good job of emulating tube. Not that it is a replacement, but I dont think the author of this post knows anything about music. AHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA!

[Manuel @ Aug 5th 2007 12:18AM]

korg's pandora multi effect personal processor is good alternative

[FrankTheCrank @ Aug 5th 2007 8:48AM]

I actually have the Korg Pandora.

It's pretty amazing. Sounds real nice. I also have an ART tube preamp that pumps through a single Peavey 12". There is just no comparison. The ART tube preamp give me that CRUNCH I love.

[blindelf @ Aug 5th 2007 12:49AM]

Two words: Electro Harmonix

[Manuel @ Aug 5th 2007 12:56AM]

Tubes? you lied me! your older than what you said

[javacody @ Aug 5th 2007 1:09AM]

Vox Valvetronix is a much better sounding modeling amp albeit with way fewer features, but for portability, this looks pretty darn cool.

[belial20xx @ Aug 5th 2007 2:57AM]

Ok let me start by saying I bought a line6 and at first thought it was ok till I brought it home from guitar center and pluged it up and started to get mad feedback. One thingh people must learn that solid state amps cause massive noise and feedback. If you want true warmth and natural compression you need to go tubes I had the line6 for the 45day satisfaction period and took it right back. I use a Rhino which is perfect for me the line6 I had was decent for a practice amp for very low volumes due to the feedback. The tone to me is not natural either it sounded to electronic or artificial for me if they can make a tube powered modeler with say 1 12ax7 in the driver stage would make a world of difference in the tone area.

[Bobo @ Aug 5th 2007 4:14AM]

I've never liked any of the Pods. They sound lifeless to me. I'll take a Tech 21 PSA 1 or GT2 any day over this.

[sentient.exe @ Aug 5th 2007 5:31AM]

Guitar Rig dominates all, google it.

[BoxOfSnoo @ Aug 5th 2007 7:27AM]

I have a PODxt, and love it. People who complain about it are probably just using the (rotten) presets. With some skill in tweaking you can get amazing sound out of it.

That being said, this item is POD 2.0 technology. Not meant for high fidelity, but meant for clipping on your belt with headphones.

[emfb @ Aug 5th 2007 12:03PM]

I own a tube amp and I'm even sick of the tube snobbery.

The gist of a tube amp is that they color your sound more so than solid state amps. Guitar tube amps have a horrible high frequency response coupled with speakers that have an uneven mid range which is usually referred to the 'warmth' of the amp/cab.

The other biggie is the way they clip. With a solid state amp you get hard clipping which creates very high frequency harmonics - this is something you never want to do because you can blow your speakers. Tube amps on the other hand exhibit soft clipping - basically the gain rolls off exponentially as the signal enters the clipping region creating a squashed sin wave type signal. As opposed to the solid states square wave speaker eating clipped signal.

This trait of the tube amps is what makes them so dynamic but it only happens when your driving the power tubes very hard and you have to find the sweet spot to be able to play in and out of this region with your pick attack.

These are both good traits for a guitar amp because guitars sound like absolute ass through a flat frequency response amp (aka. hi-fi or PA).

Those traits are also why different tube amps have their own unique sound signature. The manufacturer really means nothing other than marketing (take Krank amps for instance). Its the power tube type (EL84, EL34,6V6) + speaker combo which dictates the amps sound.

That being said most people when they practice at home don't crank their tube amps up loud enough to saturate them, they usually play with pre-amp distortion, which is just about always a 12AX7 tube. So your amp has two sounds clean and pre-amp overdrive/distortion. If thats your sound then cool.

But digital modeling provides you with a multitude of different sounds and effects. They may not be 100% accurate, but they do provide you many different sounds that could easily cost you $10K to reproduce with the tube amp/effects equivalents. If you cover songs of differing styles in your band, digital modeling is the ONLY way to go.

The pocket pod costs $130 and is intended to be used as a battery powered headphone practice amp. It's not meant to be used as a recording rig. Although you can, Line 6 has other better suited and even cheaper products for that (Toneport GX $70).

For the price this is one kick ass practice tool.

Oh yeah, 800 Watt tube amp? Good job on pointing out that you don't know jack squat about tube amplifiers. The author is a straight up POSER.

[Alvin @ Aug 6th 2007 12:36AM]

Oh man. I wish I could hit "+" more than once for your comment! I play through an old MESA/Boogie 50Cal (12AX7 preamps, EL84 poweramps) and, at only 50 watts, it's tons louder than my friend's 300W solid-state Marshall.

Not only would an 800W tube amp be completely unnecessary, but it would get DAMN HOT as well! I hope that extra 0 was a typo! ;-)

[SuprSpy79 @ Aug 5th 2007 12:33PM]

The POD is like any other piece of equipment. Put it in the hands of someone who knows what hey are doing and they can make it sound amazing. Put it in the hands of someone who has no clue and chances are t will sound like crap. I use it on almost all my projects I do i my studio, only a true audiophile can tell the difference.

I actually put my podxt and variax side by side with my strat and jcm2000 and they sounded IDENTICAL in an a/b switch.

[Mischa Lockton @ Aug 6th 2007 3:59AM]

Word, someone knows what is up. I have seen many professional musicians using the pod pro and pod xt, and bass models too. The modeling is top notch. Even more have toured with the DL4 delay modeler. Don't tell me about any Zooms Korgs, Behringers, etc.... Line6 invented this stuff. Put an XT-LIVE together with other pedals and then into an amp, say a Fender Twin Reverb, and it is f'ing brilliant!

[Seth @ Aug 5th 2007 12:36PM]

I had a $800 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe in a band for 3 years, and sold it after adding a $200 Line 6 Spider II amp.

The thing about tube amps is that there is only one thing to love about them - and that is the sound, and only at higher volumes where you can saturate the tubes.

The Spider II sounds fantastic at every volume, can take brutal road punishment, are obviously extremely flexible in the sounds you can create, are ridiculously affordable, have a great built-in digital tuner which is beyond convenient, and can digitally output for recording.

It puts the fun back into jamming with your band, no more hassles, just good times.

[H8fuck @ Aug 8th 2007 5:01PM]

The only thing I know, deep down, is that there is a special place reserved in hell for gear snobs.

[Mike @ Aug 5th 2007 6:06PM]

I've got a zoom G2.1u, it could do with a better displaybut it sounds awesome, completely progammable, multiple simultaneous effects and an expression pedal. Its a little more expensive than this, but I thought it was worth the extra, it even works as an ASIO device for digital recording. My 'guitar snob' friend sneered at it till he tried it, 'can I borrow this for our next recording?' - from a guy with a $2000 pedal setup.

[madamrobot @ Aug 6th 2007 3:06PM]

Aw comeon, Line 6 Tone is pretty fabulous...and sure, nothing beats analog, but you can put all the vintage tone in the world into a hacks hands and a great song it will NOT make.