Line 6 Pod HD 500

[mkh02]

Hey guys been getting some great advice on new pick up purchases from the forum. I am going to be purchasing 4 sets of pickups in the new year and thought I would give something back to the forum.

Last year I changed my amp to the Carvin Legacy II due to my desire for an exceptional clean channel, more headroom and because I love Vai!!

To be honest the clean channel is one of the best I have heard on a rock orientated amp but I have been chasing a certain sound all year in regard to overdrive distortion. i just felt the amp never cut it in the gain department! I have purchased 12 pedals in this time and I have just not been satisfied!!

Bought the Pod HD 500 as the latest addition to my quest and I am amazed! If anyone is considering purchasing this dont hesitate!! Just buy it! The quality of tones available when used through a good tube amp is unmeasuarble in words.

I am an exceptional guitarist at the top end of skill and feel and I can honestly say once you sit down and start creating some of your own preset tones it will make you smile ear to ear.

Not a concise review at all lol but I just wanted to convey my elation and hopefully persuade anyone who is sitting on the fence to dive in!!

[Madsakre]

I tried one in a shop. Sat down with it for 20 mins. and i could not even find a damn amp on it :P actually noone could. Some customer had made some serious $%&#up with it i think :P anyway. PLEASE send us some clips

[Ian Price]

I am an exceptional guitarist at the top end of skill and feel

I'm looking forward to those clips already 

[JacksonRR]

Clips please. Requesting: "For the Love of God" by Steve Vai and "Party All the Time" by Eddie Murphy.

[mkh02]

At home in Scotland at moment lol.. never recorded guitar for internet before I could try. I play a few Vai songs in my band as well as Malmsteen, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen...

All I wanted to get across is that this is an incredible piece of kit. If played through a quiality amp and speaker the tones will amaze you! They did me!

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is better than a real one! I have two modded ones and the one on the Pod kicks them to pieces in terms of warmth of tone and dynamics. The Mesa Boogie on it is absolutely incredible as well.

If you try one out I will admit that the presets are shocking....don't know what they were thinking when they programmed them! But don't let that put you off.

[Nadz1lla]

It seems to be a Line 6 trait, that the presets on all their amp modellers are fairly hideous. Take 30 mins to have a tinker around and usually you can find the tone you're after. It's a shame, as I have to wonder how many people try them out in shops and write them off on the strength of the presets.

I wondered about this pedal when I saw the release announcement, but was really underwhelmed by the soundclips and videos I saw of it. Again, I have to wonder whether they just used the presets for these demos.

Thanks for the rec though dude, would be great if you could upload a clip at some point. Pretty simple to do, if you grab a free bit of recording software off the internet. All you have to do then is plug the Pod into the line-in on your soundcard and BOOM! Insta-record!  :D

[Dr. Stein]

It seems to be a Line 6 trait, that the presets on all their amp modellers are fairly hideous. Take 30 mins to have a tinker around and usually you can find the tone you're after. It's a shame, as I have to wonder how many people try them out in shops and write them off on the strength of the presets.

I wonder sometimes how much of it is the rest of your gear. Modellers don't tend to produce 'good with any guitar' type sounds, so you inevitably need to tweak depending on what guitar you're using. Whoever does the presets can't factor that in...

[mkh02]

Think the thing that really sells it for me is the computer software that comes with it.

So quick and easy to add or remove different effects and the tweakability is amazing.

I had the opening to smoke on the water absolutely exact within 10 mins!

[Elliot]

I am an exceptional guitarist at the top end of skill and feel and I can honestly say . . .

Do you write the reviews on Harmony Central by any chance?  :D

[mkh02]

No lol!

This this is the first time I have actually had the impetus to go online and give a recommendation on something.

In my lifetime of playing I have never come across something so dam good lol!

One thing I have noticed is that so many players are so up their arses with tone originality, I bet on a blind test the vast majority of people could never tell the difference between some digital modlers and the original thing.

Oh Merry Christmas everyone!!

[Elliot]

I suppose that if you actually wrote the reviews on Harmony Central you would say 'I have been playing professionially since 1965 and I have over $200,000 of gear.  All who know me credit me with having a 'golden ear', so when I say that this .99c Pifco battery makes pedals sound much better than average Duracell's I am unquestionably right' or something like that.  Joyeux Noel!  8)

[Matt77]

I can offer a counter argument here. I tried one on christmas eve. It was poo

[Matt77]

^ Ermmm... Brandy anyone?
The presets aren't very good.
For high gain you can get some decent sounds depending on what you put it through.
The effects are all pretty good and useable

Work means I'm going to be living in a hotel in the week for a few months and wanted to try something that might do similar to my current home rig.
I'm still looking..... :(

[Nadz1lla]

Of course the preset guys don't know what's going to be played through it, but having played the preset patches through my BKP'd guitar, a high-end strat and a high-end Les Paul, I can safely say that it didn't really make much of a difference. Of course they all sounded different in themselves, but as for the sound quality of the presets, no matter what I plugged into it, they sounded poop.

However, once you have a good tweak for an hour or so, you can come up with several patches that really own. It's always well worth taking your own guitar to the shop, testing the POD out, and fiddling with a user patch to create your own sound. That way you get a much better understanding of the unit's potential. I have the XT Live, and the next step for me is either the Axe FX or the new Pod HD (depending on how much I can save, heh.)

[BigK]

I got one of these as a present when I had to move in with a mate as I got a new job in stoke and couldn't take my Powerball and 4x12 with me.

 You can get some OK tones out of it with fiddling. Through headphones or good computer speakers/monitors its better than a pod xt and you can get some reasonable tones out of it but it still doesn't have the 'feel' anyway near that of a valve amp.

I find to get a good high gain tone you quite often have to cut quite a bit of bass using the EQ to stop it getting muddy, also the JCM800 sounds like an angry legion of wasps which is very dissapointing.

It does sound way better through a valve power amp and proper speakers but then that kind of defeating the object for me as I use it for 'quiet' practice and if I'm going to be using a valve amp I would use the Powerball.

Yes the presets are shocking and it does sounds better with the volume rolled off a bit on my Tremonti's as it doesn't seem to like hot pickups.

The dual amp mode is cool, I like to mix an Uberschall and Dual Rec together and it does sound pretty good. and using the dual amp with the same amp with different cabinets and/or mics is a good way to fill out the sound a bit.

Basically without getting an axe fx there isn't much better out there. But for the price I probably wouldn't buy it if I was paying for it.