Pod Pro (rack mount) Review

Well I thought since I own (9) guitars now and use a Line6 Pod Pro almost exclusively (for now) that would be a good candidate for my first gear review. Let's jump right in shall we?

Fact sheet
Company: Line 6
Model: Pod Pro (rack mount)
My Cost: $500 (3 years ago including a Line6 floor board)
Street Cost: $100-$250 used (as of May 2008)

Initial Impressions
I have to admin that I was drawn to this unit initially by the look. It's almost a Ferrari red which looks great and really stands out in a rack. That being said it's loaded with pros and has its fair share of cons too.  

We'll start with the pros.
It has surprisingly good tone for a 100% digital unit. You can get the warm and fat strat tone, razor thin SG tone, extreme chunky Les Paul tone and everything in between. It really doesn't even matter which guitar you connect to it.

There are 16 amp models and 16 effects. However since some of the effects are combined together such as delay + chorus. delay + flange, etc.. It also has a very nice wah wah and volume pedal but you need the Floor board to access that.

There are (9) banks of (4) patches.
For example 
1A, 1B, 1C, 1D
2A, 2B, 2C, 2D
and so on until it reaches 9D.

Each of these presets can be modified and saved. You also have the usual "drive, output, low, mid, hi, etc.. and you also get an "effect tweak" which is a fancy name for effect level or mix. It doesn't tweak anything; it only adjusts the volume of the effect in the mix.

Messing around
One day I sat down with my Les Paul Standard and started goofing around with the amp models. My Les Paul sounded like a strat a few times and I even got it to sound like a Hollow Body Jazz guitar with 12 gauge strings (I use 9's). I could easily make my guitar sound very 70's, 60's, 50's, (80's was a breeze) and the grunge sound was also a snap. The effects are quite good even though they are hard to dial in (more on that later) but they do sound excellent. The flange is extremely nasty and the rotary speaker sounds great too.

Studio Application.
This is probably where it really shines the most. It's compact, rack mountable, extremely quiet and versatile. It has XLR and 1/4" outs (mono or stereo) and has a front mounted input 1/4" input and also one on the back in case you want to keep it really clean on the front.  You also have an input clip indicator and great (and I mean great) sounding headphone output via the front mounted 1/4" stereo jack. Also has a cool digital tuner which can be accessed via the floorboard or front panel (very handy live).

The Cons.
The good stuff is really good and the bad stuff is really bad. For example, no USB so you can forget about connecting this thing to your PC to store/download patches. However the XT has that capability (mine is an older model). This unit also has midi connectors which allows you to connect it to your PC via a midi box.. which is impossible to get working.

Also the way you have to adjust any effect is very clunky. For example if you want a delay but you need to adjust the delay time or feedback you need an extra arm and really bright light to see the faint text for the "tap hold" function and turn 1 knob while you hold another down. I know it sounds simple enough but trust me, it's not.  Maybe the newer versions are better but it made me long for a simple Boss delay pedal.   

Final Thoughts.
Even with the obvious UI flaws it's still a solid unit which is built well, sounds great and is relatively easy to use. I've used mine for recording, practicing, jamming and just messing around and it sounds awesome every time, regardless of which guitar I'm using.  I would recommend the newer models simply for the lack of USB connection which would allow you to expand the patches > create > save > upload > downloads others patches, etc. So I do highly recommend the Line6 Pod but would not consider it without the floorboard (which has 2 foot pedals.. 1 for wah and 1 for volume) along with various buttons to scroll patches, activate the tuner, add effects, etc..

Looks great, sounds great, clunky interface, a bit pricey but in my opinion well worth it.

Thanks for reading my 1^st review and I’ll do a video review soon.

~ VB