Naetharu Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) Hi folks, I've got the chance to pick up a Line-6 Bass PODxt (the 'bean' shaped unit) along with the floor-board (the massive one with ten buttons and an expression pedal) for a [b]very [/b]reasonable price. Save for a quick mess around with a friends guitar POD when they first came out I have never used one, but I do like the look of it. So quick questions I guess - for those of you that have used one in anger, do they hold up? Were you able to get good usable sounds from it at gigging volume and is there anything that I should be aware of before picking it up? I did read the reviews where possible but since lots of them were from ten years ago when the unit first hit the shelves I thought it best to ask around on here to see what people think of them after having used them properly for some time. Any advice/recommendations/warnings/anecdotes would be most welcome All the best James Ok, and just to make things more complicated I've now come across a Line-6 POD HD500 also on offer from someone that lives right on my doorstep and at a great price. Any comparison between the Bass pod and the HD500 would be really nice. Cheers folks Edited November 9, 2015 by Naetharu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 I have one of these you could gig with it but would really ideally need the FBV short board to go with it - unless you plan on using just one or two patches to switch between songs or better still not change at all and just use as a DI/preamp straight into a power amp Sound quality and modelling is fine but on the fly control and adjustment is very impractical and unwieldy - personally I keep mine for home noodling and recording and prefer the accessibility of stomp boxes for gigging Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) [quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1447052255' post='2904345'] I have one of these you could gig with it but would really ideally need the FBV short board to go with it - unless you plan on using just one or two patches to switch between songs or better still not change at all and just use as a DI/preamp straight into a power amp Sound quality and modelling is fine but on the fly control and adjustment is very impractical and unwieldy - personally I keep mine for home noodling and recording and prefer the accessibility of stomp boxes for gigging [/quote] The one I have been offered comes with a floor board that has around ten buttons and an expression pedal. I assume that is what you mean by the FBV? The board is a separate item from the POD itself but I think it all connects together so you can use the pedal switches to move things around live. Out of interest, have you used the amp modeling etc. at volume? I'm after something that will work both for noodling at home, and as a live pre-amp/fx-board that'll be going up against a couple of noise guitar-hero types. Edited November 9, 2015 by Naetharu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 I've never used one but if it's second hand and at a reasonable price then I say buy it. Try it. If it doesn't work out for you then shift it onto someone else Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 I gigged with the rack version for a while, into a power amp and cabs. Worked very well indeed. Usual rule applies to all things like that though - bin all the presets and start from scratch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) ive used the amp modelling to different effect - when running it through my head i didnt particularly like the modelling so much - but when running it direct into a mix desk and through PA it sounded good one other thing which you can google and find out is the apparent flaw with USB computer connection - according to the handbool and all the Line6 blurb you 'should' be able to download patches and load them to the pod from the Line6 monkey software - but for some reason it never seems to work - plenty of complaints online about it but not one single solution - not a major problem if you want to design your own patches in the pod and store them in the pod but only a nuisance if you feel the need to back up or download thrid party patches ed- if for any reason i do run thru the head i just use the 'tube di' setting without any amp modelling Edited November 10, 2015 by steve-bbb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 The FBV is the Floor Board. I've used the guitar PODxt since they came out & love it for guitar. Wasn't overly impressed by the Bass version when I tried it, but if it's a good price, with the floor board, it's worth a punt. The thing with the POD, as with any Multi-FX, is to work on your basic sound first before adding effects (as you would with an amp), and maybe group your patches closely for the various songs / set list. IIRC, the HD500 is geared more towards the guitar than bass. If it was the PODx3 on offer, then go for it, as that has guitar, bass and acoustic models in the one package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Cheers for all the input folks. Alas I was pretty under-whelmed by the PODxt in the end and so passed. It was a good price (£100 for the unit with the floor board and all the tat that came with it) but the sounds were all just a bit thin - they sounded very much like amp models rather than the amps being modeled if you know what I mean. I also checked out the HD500x and was torn on it. It has one bass amp model...compared to twenty-nine guitar amps. Nice to know that we're catered for...but then it does allow interesting bi-amp patches and so forth. In the end though, it just seemed a little too guitar based to be worth the punt. End result: I ordered my self a Zoom B3 and had done with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Glad it wasn't just me who didn't like the Bass PODxt (especially after being so impressed with the guitar version). Think you'll be well impressed with the B3, I know I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted November 14, 2015 Author Share Posted November 14, 2015 [quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1447248824' post='2906090'] Think you'll be well impressed with the B3, I know I am. [/quote] Alas it went straight back. Way too much background noise for my tolerance. I did think the SVT model sounded great mind, but the hiss was terrible when used at volume. I thought perhaps it was me setting it up wrong but the audio engineer in the studio we practiced at gave it a once over for me and also came to the conclusion that it was just noisy. Perhaps I got a dud? Either way, I swapped it for a Ampeg SCR-DI since that was basically the model that I liked anyhow and all is well. Shame though as there was some nice stuff on the B3 for a great price otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Was the Zoom on its own power supply or shared with other pedals? I've found the Zoom units (and many other digital pedals in fact) to be hissy/noisy when on a daisy chain with other pedals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 [quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1448200199' post='2913587'] Was the Zoom on its own power supply or shared with other pedals? I've found the Zoom units (and many other digital pedals in fact) to be hissy/noisy when on a daisy chain with other pedals. [/quote] It was just a distortion/fuzz pedal that I've never had any issue with before and the zoom. The zoom was going to a mixing desk via an XLR cable and into an Ampeg Porta-flex 500 head via the output socket. It just all sounded noisy to me - it was ok when I was playing a noisy bassline, but for songs where I needed silence between notes it was not really usable. Alas, we have one song which has a long intro that starts with just bass and light drums and you could really hear the hiss with that. I may try picking up another at some point to compare as I never had the issue with the MS-60b from Zoom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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