Revisiting the Line6 POD 25 years later!!! 

The real deal vintage one! Those warm rich harmonics! They don't make them like this anymore

Sounds pretty damn good to me. I'd love to see you do the test with bypassing the cabs and using modern IR's.

Funny thing is if you use one of these with *only* the amps sims and a good IR, they're actually pretty useable LOL!

The fact they came out with a rack mount version, and simultaneously three separate racks per flavor (chorus, delay, and filter) which are still the best out there speaks volumes.

I gigged with one for a couple years in late ‘99-‘01 running into the fx return of a Randall 100 watt half-stack and it was great! I had the floorboard for control and the POD sitting on the amp neck to my wireless. It was the simplest and easiest rig to setup/tear down and NEVER had a single technical issue. I got so many compliments from sound guys who could easily get a great mix. I kinda miss the thing......🤔

The first BANG CAMARO record was made almost exclusively with two of these. We fattened up some of the rhythms with mics on cabinets but it's probably 80% POD back in 2005.

Still have and use mine as well as a Bass POD, and floorboard. Have recently created several Tonex IR's of both and uploaded to Tonex.

I remember when Korn released Follow The Leader. There was an MTV news segment where Jonathan Davis was holding one and talking about how they used 'em on the album.

What a brilliant product for its time! I had the “Chibson”-copy version, the blue Behringer V-Amp 😆

I have a POD XT Live, which I bought when I traded in my Digitech unit late 1990s (which was constantly eating midi cables). That unit did years of gigs and never let me down. Absolutely bullet proof and always powered up when I needed it. Haven’t used it since I went back to lunchbox amps but I need to do the same and fire it up, just because.

Dude! The lead guitarist in my band in HS had the pod and I was so jealous. A lot of those sounds still hold up. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Had one back in 2000. Ran it straight through a powered mixer with a boss 7 band eq. Man I miss that sound. Also had the Flextone head running through a Marshall slant and a Genz Benz G flex. They don't make them like that anymore. Thanks for the memories

Great video. Line 6 was so much ahead of its time. Now I am sad that my PodXt is dead.. Would have liked to try it again with good IRs ( your Two Notes packs are killer)

I think I started at that GC just after you left, was always great seeing you walk in as a customer! I still have the V1 Pod that I bought off of Ralphie that day that you and he came by my place (and I bought that AT3060 from you!). I use it as an additional FX unit for crunching stuff up, etc. This was definitely a break-through unit at the time. It was so under wraps that instead of using the name of the unit when people called the company, they simply were transferred to that dept on line 6 on the telephones, hence the name.

Woo Hoo!! Still have mine on the desk and the large floorboard (on the floor)!😂I enjoy using old gear. Thanx Michael.

Wow!!! I have both the guitar and bass one. They both still work! I just used my Bass Pod the other day!

My POD was the first effects unit I ever tried (08 ish) and it’s still sitting pretty on my board today! Never gonna get rid of it.

Pod 2.0 allows you to kill the cab (alt function on Effects knob) and use a modern IR which makes a huge difference.

My grandfather had one of these around the time I started playing guitar. He only played old timey gospel music with LP’s on a Fender Twin in Chet Adkins/Les Paul style but for some reasons would buy every new Line6 product when it came out? He never ventured beyond his typical settings and he was always surprised whenever I’d set this thing to STUN lol

I loved mine, I also was working at GC when these first came out, we were obsessed with the display model haha. Good times. Still have some of my Line 6 stuff like the xtlive and hd400.

Great video as always

I’ve still got one of those and the floor board 😆

Like every other piece of technology, knowing how to use the piece of gear matters. It is entirely possible to get some great sounds out of these things, knowing how to dig into and get those sounds out goes a long way to getting a better sound. Spend some time reading the manual and hooking it up correctly will make a difference and as others have said, using it with IRs helps too.

Used one on so many tracks for TV and video in the early 2000s. In a track totally works - still! Hilarious! Watch prices go up on reverb - POD vintage modeler 😆

I still play mine all the time. Write with it often. I’ve got a wall of awesome vintage 70s tube amps and still crank THIS thing. Into a carvin power amp. Or plugging in direct. Cmon man… Delay swell?!Love it. I got it when I worked at a guitar shop in the ‘00s. Learned to do the gain boost and treble boost tricks from our NY line6 rep. Forget the guy’s name but he had the coolest hair and shoes. After all These years; I finally got a floorboard for it.

All of these tones would work in the right mix. Good stuff.

The "Line 6 Layer" model is one the coolest bass sounds ever

I just found a brand new one in my storage, can't wait to try it!

It isn't the tools, or gear, it always comes down to the playing and songwriting. No one cares what is used if it sounds good. Good to the average listener isn't what nonsense us guitar players think is good. You have to EQ the shit out of actual analog gear to get it to sound good anyway, you might have to do the same with this type of gear.

Getting some "How Soon is Now" vibes there on the end jam!

I've got an original POD as well and I really love it! I use it every day!

I was at the record plant when these came out and people were showing up with these very excited.

I toured and recorded with one in the early 2000’s - in the studio I went DI, mic’d up through a JC120 and also ran a Peavey TubeFex rack preamp DI’d for some more layers. Once I got a Vox Tonelab SE it replaced my old Pod 2.0 and floorboard. I’ve always wanted to revisit that one with some good impulse responses.

I gave mine to my daughter, it makes a good practice amp with headphones. When i was in a band supporting Wynona Judd, the two guitar players had PODs as their live sound through a monitor! The dirty sounds are passable, but it's not hi-fi! Lol

Ran into a band at a Microbrew tap house, the guitarist said he toured with a Pod and would tell FOH to plug into it & FOH Guy was tripp'n because that was it, nothing else. lol

First season of Metalocalypse in a kidney right there! Just an XT version through a UA 6176 and you're good, haha!

Still have mine as well. And it is amazing! It is really nice through my original Hughes and Kettner Redbox. 4x12 sim only of course.

I bought an X3 bean in December 2008. I didn’t realize it was old even at that time. I still use it until I get an Ampero II or something similar. I do a lot of headphone practice/playing.

Still have my original. Gigged it all over back in the day. We all got them at the time! Will have to dig it out! 😂

Reppin Vermont! That old POD rocked my world back in the day. This is pure nostalgia.

Awesome for the time, the only hicup was the Digital Dithering that took place on the DAC. Thanks for a great demo 🤘🤘🤘

The 2.0 is the best one I have three of them and you know it’s better than anything else out there.

I used to have the Pod Pro plugged into a Peavey Classic 120 poweramp, I loved it and actually preferred the tones of the Pod over the Digitech GSP1101 (which was pretty new at the time). I’d happily use one again

never had this, but the Pod HD PRO X was my favorite amp sim ever. I know not everyone likes it, but I thought it did a lot of stuff really well

I got called for a session once, but I didn’t have a lot of my regular gear available. I used a POD into the effects return of a Peavey Bandit, which I ran into a Marshall 4x12. I used the JCM800 model. It sounded awesome.

Micheal i still have the original Spider I Red Faced 50w combo amp that has some of the amps and effects of the POD your reviewing in this video,i made my amp sound much better by using a Eq with a cut in the lower frequencies and i also use a Behringer OD300 overdrive and or tube screamer type OD in front of the amp,i get very good tones with the fender amp models and the Mesa model,another tip is to use the hidden features for boosting the EQ,OD and Distortion,on my amp you have to hold down the Tap Tempo Button while turning Volume and or Drive or Treble control knobs,this made a big difference in getting a much better tone out of my spider amp!You should check to see if your POD has these hidden features for improving the tone?

I have never used one, but Lincoln Brewster toured and recorded with these things and his tones are always amazing. Though he can make anything sound good.

My first real rig was a pod pro rack into a marshall 9005 power amp then a 1936 lead 2x12. Sounded glorious. After a brief stint with a Vetta combo, I went tubes and never went back. There is some tubey goodness that just isn't there but you can get good usable sounds out of them.

This type of content is what we live for.

Messugah actually toured at one time using nothing but PODS.

At least once a year I fall down a rabbit hole of watching every live video of Craig Ross' "Believe" solo on RU-vid.

It is my base unit , I use it everyday , but I add other things and it is unlimited. I keep the recorder going and I photographed knob settings because I come up with major surprises and I want to remember how I did it.

About 20 years ago, a friend of mine bought a used Soldano Hot Rod 100 (prototype) for next to nothing. We asked the guy why he was selling it. His response was "I got a POD!" I'm sure that guy regrets selling the Soldano.

I like that the amps/efx are right there. And the standard amp layout of the EQ, gain, etc. Just in my little opinion, all processors should be laid out that way. The sounds are quite good. If too dull as is, in a DAW track with a channel strip, warmer such as free Vintager Toy, a vst tube compressor, and a vst tape sim, once dialed in, I'm pretty sure it would "come to life" and be perfectly usable and even really good. I even find myself considering going on Reverb to maybe grab one of these. Good overview; thx for the demo.

LOL I still have my POD from 20+ years. Still works. I recorded my first guitar album with it.

Maaan.. I used to have the little pocket pod and it was unbeatable for travel. Hearing this vid definitely gives me a good appreciation of how far digital sound has come but I bet if you use this live, 99% of the audience wouldn't know the difference between it or an AxeFX III. Michael, I want to hear this running into something like a Fryette power amp and a good 4x12. I still have my old Korg G1 distortion processor (the red thing that J from White Zombie used) and it still works, sounds kinda ehhhhh going DI but running it into the power section of my SLO and into a cab hilariously isn't that bad.

It was not meant to be a floor or rack mounted unit (although those versions exist). This was to be a desktop amp simulator and it was great at what it did. I loved the rotary speaker effect on this thing.

This was all over XTC's Venus Apple, and Wasp Star albums. Vocals, drums, guitars, basses, everything

Ola did a vid like this except he used his own IR and it made a huge difference. Try that and you'll find the amp models are actually quite good.

I have 3 POD XT and a POD Pro - there are some legendary amp sims on them and with good IRs they are freaking killer.

I still have my pod in my desk drawer.

Where it's at in the Pod 2.0 was the Brit High Gain with either Delay/Chorus 1 or Delay/Chorus 2...

i have the pod xt pro...actually a good sounding unit...running into a rocktron velocity 300 and 2 4x12's

I still use a 2.0 for headphone practice. The jcm800 models are my faves.

Can you do a series of videos on how you set these devices up in your system? Probably like some of us we have equipment but need some tweaks to make it sound better. If you can take a pod and make it sound like this, I'd like to see how you set it up.

Speaking of GC - I remember selling a set of the rackmount versions of this thing to Godsmack's road manager when I worked for Mars. Then put the guy in touch with our Line 6 rep. For a backline/live sound solution these were good. To your point, there's something kinda missing with these things but 20 years later technology has made some advances.

Im still using mine!

I have the very same one still .....still use it occasionally ,.stills works good ... good headphones helps.

Gave mine away a long time ago. Did make some nice recordings with it. Doug Rappaport has a killer clip ripping thru one. You'd never know it isn't an amp on his clip, if he didn't mention it.

I still use mine to this day ( I have 3 of them) and I use pod ui software, that is modern software that connects to the pod, and allows you to change all the deep dive editing via midi and computer interface

I'm not saying it makes sense, but.... It was made to Mount on a microphone stand with a heavy iron base like the old school microphone stands. The little notch where you have your finger was intended to lean the guitar against by the back of the neck. I have my original pod with both version one and version two firmware eproms, and I have the microphone stand mount with the rubber standoffs still. The version 2 eproms had vast improvements in some areas. I remember dialing in extremely passable early Van Halen tones when combined with the right power amp and speakers.

My behringer v-amp with modern cab IR sounds really good.

I never used the original, but eventually got the black HD bean sometime after 2010. I struggled with it, but remember getting some epic bass tones. Sold it, but also eventually regretted selling, like always. Edit: I did record a couple of albums withe the Line5 Pod farm plugins though around that time. I liked those.

I’ve been thinking a lot about solid state front end with tube back end set ups. Seems like most of the early hybrid amps like Peavey and Music Man built a lot of amps that way. There must have been some wisdom around that. Clearly later tube front end was the thing. Now with all of the Fractals, etc, using tube power amps with those is a thing. Since you are knowledgeable power amp guy, I nominate you to make a video on the subject.

That outro jam sounded good! The trick with this thing is to bypass the awful cab sims and go with a modern IR loader. Leon Todd did that, if I’m not mistaken.

I never had a Pod, but I remember getting a Line 6 Guitar Port just because it was on sale for so cheap; had to be like 2003 or so. I was a kid, and the only thing I could afford to record with was a cheap Tascam cassette 4-track and the dual... (I think?) MXR condenser mics that everyone bought at GC because they were $99 bucks. Crazy enough, in hindsight, I made some crazy good recordings on that Tascam using only cassettes and cheap mics, not even SM-57s yet. lol. Would do 4 tracks for drums, and bounce it all down to 1 single track on the tape, then using the other 3 now-remaining tracks for bass, guitar, and either another guitar or keys. Then bounce that all down to make room for 1 or 2 more final tracks to add vocals and/or whatever else. Then, browsing in GC I stumbled across this for like 20 or 30 bucks on a discount rack, and was like.... woah, so I could just plug my guitar into this, and then send it straight to the computer?! It was the first time I was able to actually afford something that allowed me to record w/ a PC and it, while obviously not great, sounded surprisingly good enough and opened me up to a whole new world (while still having some of the old school analog tools in my back pocket). I forget how I was getting drums into the PC at the time. I honestly may have still been using the Tascam approach, and then using some bassackwards way of bringing that into whatever DAW I was using at the time. Man, being a poor and 13 y/o musician circa 2002 really lead to getting incredibly creative with trying to record at home. It was a time when analog really was on its way out (totally out for professionals, but still hanging by a thread because of hobbyists and home enthusiasts. My guitar teacher at that time actually made brilliantly engineered albums using one of the better Yamaha cassette consoles simply because he preferred it). while digital was **mostly** out of the price range for people like me, but starting to get affordable enough to allow for.... welll... things like I described above lol. Anyway... what a time. Still consider it my prime haha. I don't think I'll ever be that creative again, even if my skills are far more developed now

I still have a pod xt pro with a tube works 962 power amp. Use it moast for soldano and deluxe reverb sounds

I went the Johnson Millennium route With that in the late 90s. Sounded good for the time, but I feel it’s the same as special effects in movies. When you were younger you thought land of the lost looked real, now it makes you laugh.

Ha, I left a comment on one of your videos, I don't know, 8 months ago or so, suggesting you get a hold of old gear like this to do some demos/songs of it to see how it has held up. I specifically mentioned the old red kidney bean Line 6 POD and wanting to see you record a little instrumental with it. You replied saying you still had one in your garage. And here we are.

Great booster into sounding solid state amps......dude did you ever get the stand holder?

This thing broke both the brain and the industry, getting the same vibe from the Friedman JEL, Killer shit. 🦁🎸⚡️⚡️⚡️

I liked the small Fender amps on this thing.

Still have mine as well as the Pod pro , both sound great and have very useable sounds , many albums recorded with the Pod during its time !

I go the same. Stumbled upon some YT comments, remembered it, wanted to throw it away, but decided to play it first. I mean, yeah, of course it is digital and dated. But. For a lightweight traveling solution, plus a headphone. Any day. Kept it.

With a good IR, they sound great

Love the kidney bean.

Outro was freakkn nice

Very cool idea for a vid -- For some reason I have the Behringer copy of this in rack form. Picked it up along the way -- other than the Recto and Brit patch it's pretty terrible. Interesting piece of info -- Ty Tabor of King's X fame used the rack version of the POD to record a majority amount of the guitar tracks for the record Please Come Home Mr Bulbous circa 2000. I love the record and think it sounds great -- different for him at the time but made me really want one, but never pulled the trigger. Man -- 20+ years has just seemed to fly by -- lol!

Didn't 3 doors down record their first album with the original Line6 HD100 which was basically a POD with a power amp in an amp head?

I still find it hard to believe that Ty Tabor used one of these for the "...Mr. Bulbous" album👍

That was fun. Can you do the Rockman next? haha

Had a Johnson J-Station. Didnt get into a Line 6 until I got a Floor XT-Live

The strength was the low cost, variety and straight forward interface. The weakness was the tones. High gain was fine if you were just mashing... But no nuance at lower gain / lighter touch. Was still happy to put up with my low variety tube amp and sold the pod after it sat unused for a few months

I had one of these-it was decent. But I used the Zoom GM200 way more!

All hail the mighty kidney bean!

I remember I had a vox cause they did something similar with the “amp modeling”. Their rectifier was called Nu-Metal lol

My Soldano Astro 20 came today. From the newest tech to the oldest. Haha. 🤘🏻

Tommy Shaw still uses a rack pod as a preamp connected to a Palmer PDI-03. The palmer goes to FOH…the unfiltered outs go to the fx return of the Marshall heads

As an engineer i had alot of issues dealing with pod guys. They sound ok on their own but super tough to EQ in a mix. I usually let them do it, but caught a DI and reamped without telling them. To be fair alot of bands that used real amps were even harder to deal with because of room and bleed issues. I often tried to get them on a POD to record the drum tracks with headphone monitoring then made them re record through a real amp individually. Either way, people were not happy. Glad the industry has progressed to the point that even luddites can grasp these issues. I had to work my ass off to learn this stuff back then

I think a lot of the flatness comes from less detailed IR's, which in this case are probably just eq curves based off real IR's. I thought the fuzz actually sounded great, and I find that to often be a weak point in modelers. I tried out an old Fender Mustang modeler and the fuzz was a highlight there too. Unfortunately, the high gain didn't hold up to a modern amp sim, even going through the same IR.