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This page: POD Pro: Amps, Effects, Operation

POD Pro

POD Grows Up

 

The Line 6 POD Pro offers extensive front panel control (click for a close-up)

The original POD was the VW Beetle of guitar devices. Oddly shaped and cute enough to bring a smile to a wizened rocker's face, it nevertheless packed enough of the good stuff -- tone -- to be taken seriously.

POD Pro builds on POD's good will, but adds features -- including enhanced analog and digital I/O, and a better front panel programming interface -- that put any talk of POD as mere toy to rest.

Amps, Amps, Amps

Like the POD and the rest of Line 6's amp modelers, the POD Pro offers a wide array of models based on both vintage and modern amps. Marshall, Mesa, Fender, Vox, and others are well represented, and there are also several "Line 6" settings -- sounds based on no one vintage amp. As you might expect, the gain and tone controls behave differently depending on the model you choose, and one area in which the POD really shines is how distinct the different models sound. For example, both the Black Face (Fender) and Brit Class A (Vox) models can get a flavor of glassy clean tone, but each responds to your guitar in a different way and overdrives with a different harmonic emphasis when you push the gain control.

Each amp model is mated by default to an appropriate speaker cabinet. Or, you can select among 15 choices that include 1 x 8, 1 x 12, 2 x 12, 4 x 10, 4 x 12, and no cabinet. These have a major impact on the tone, and one of my favorite ways to explore the POD Pro was setting up an amp and running it through a variety of cabinets.

Effects

Although the effects sound excellent, the POD Pro's effects section falls a little short in flexibility. You get Wah, Distortion, Reverb (always available), Delay, Noise Gate, and a choice of other effects, including compressor, chorus, flanger, tremolo, and rotary speaker. There's no phaser or pitch shifter. (I'd love to hear an octave-divider with one of the POD Pro's fat Marshall models.) More disappointing is the limited number of effects that can be combined. You can have compression, or flange, or chorus, or rotary, or tremolo, but not at the same time. I would have liked to combine compressor with chorus for that tight '80s rhythm sound, but that wasn't an option. You can, however, combine compression or chorus or flange or tremolo with delay, and the POD Pro offers a stereo effects loop for bringing your favorite outboard processor into the mix. You can use MIDI or tap tempo to sync the effect's speed to your music.

Operation

Of all the modeling preamps I've tested, the POD Pro most resembles a normal amp. The rackmount chassis lays the controls out in a traditional front panel design, and most important tweaks are of the grab-and-twist variety. Unlike the original POD, many of the POD Pro's (and the POD 2.0's) hidden features can be accessed via the front panel (hold the tap key), and these second-layer parameters are clearly labeled on the front panel. Operation is intuitive: POD Pro's wordy but well-written manual makes for a fun read, but after a quick once through I was able to set it aside and concentrate on playing the guitar.

Line 6 supplied us with the optional Floor Board, which provides direct control of effects (including realtime volume pedal and wah), channel switching, and more. Though it's not a necessity, I would recommend the Floor Board if you're planning to use the POD Pro onstage.

Next Page: POD Pro: Computer Connection; Tone and Feel....