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Line 6 Floor Pod Plus

 

Review of the Floor Pod Plus by The Man in the Jar  

Features of the Floor Pod Plus

Construction - The casing is made to look like its enamelled metal but it is in fact plastic. It's certainly robust enough for normal stage use but try to avoid impact damage from other gear while you're travelling and setting up. The footswitches and rocker pedal are also very robust looking but the greatest danger for damage are the knobs across the top of the unit. Some effort has been made to give them some measure of protection by the installation of a raised metal bar in the centre of the unit, but still be mindful of the roadies' Doc Mar's.   

Ins and Outs - These reside on the back edge of the unit and from left to right are Input (standard jack), Aux Input (mini-jack), Stereo Output in the form of left and right standard jacks (use the left only when operating in mono), Phones Output, Midi In and Out and the power inlet.

Power - Line 6 provide an adaptor and advise you to use nothing else.

Controls - To the top left of the unit is the status panel which displays the identity of the selected preset. Flanking that are two soft-touch buttons, one to save your own preferred settings to a spare memory slot, the other to knock the unit into manual operation. In manual operation the array of knobs on the control panel proper come into operation. Below the status panel are three indicator lights that comprise the in-built tuner.

Directly below this are two footswitches labelled Bank Down and Bank Up. These toggle through the 31 presets stored in each of the four memory banks. Below these are four other footswitches marked A, B, C and D that choose the preset memory that is active for toggling. Pressing both the Bank Up and Bank Down switches together activates a different mode and the four Memory Bank footswitches become dedicated on/off footswitches for Amp Model, Solo Boost, Effect and Delay giving greater flexibility in manual operation.

Next to the Memory Bank switches is a fifth footswitch which is the Tap Tempo. Tap this a few times to set the preferred tempo for delays. Hold this footswitch down to activate the onboard tuner. On the extreme right of the unit is the footpedal that acts as a Volume control and a Wah-Wah. Simply press the toe down firmly to toggle between the two. When completely back (heel down) the pedal acts as a useful system mute.

Front and centre of the unit are the real meat and gravy controls. Along the top is the Drive control (more Drive gives more dirt), Bass, Mid and Treble tone controls (that act in an appropriate fashion for each amp model) and the Channel Volume which is used to balance volume outputs between saved settings.

Below these are five smaller knobs that control the Compressor, the Noise Gate, Effect Tweak (controls the amount  of whatever effect is selected at the time), Delay and Reverb.

Below these are three large knobs that select the Amp Models, Effects Models and the type of Delay.      

 

Sound of the Floor Pod Plus

A quick tour of the amp models is always a good start. Each Setting has a red and a green light setting:

Line 6 Clean - Red - A lovely crisp clean sound for chordal works, jazz and lone rehearsal;
Line 6 Clean - Green - Clean with an edge of grind, perfect for Country rockin';

Line 6 Crunch - Red - Nicely overdriven and bluesy, could be used for understated soloing in rock music;
Line 6 Crunch - Green - Good Boogie sound for driving chords;

Line 6 Drive - Red - Excellent heavy rock staple tone. Good sustain for solos;
Line 6 Drive - Green - A mellower, bluesy kind of a drive;

Line 6 Insane - Red - Bonkers high saturation, huge sustain and fat power-chording. Easy to find harmonic feedback;
Line 6 Insane - Green - Another moderate Driven sound, useful for rock rhythm guitar;

Small Tweed Red - Based on Fender Tweed Deluxe - This is a lovely overdriven sound that seems to bark at you. Great for grinding rock and boogie rhythms;
Small Tweed Green - Based on Fender Tweed Champ - An airier more spatial sound than its Deluxe brother;

Tweed Blues Red - Based on a Fender Bassman - Gorgeous bottom end that just begs to be riffed;
Tweed Blues Green - Based on a Budda Twinmaster - Another fat bottom sound full of blues possibilities;

Black Panel Red - Based on a Fender Deluxe Reverb - Another beautifully spacious and tonally rich Fender amp tone, possibly my favourite so far;
Black Panel Green - Based on the Fender Twin Reverb - A gentler, more laidback Fender tone but still tonally full;

Modern Class A Red - Based on a Matchless Chieftain - The Matchless setting is always my favourite on my own Flextone for seeking out classic rock sounds;
Modern Class A Green - Based on Vox AC15 - Super gritty overdrive with bags of presence. I confessed I lapsed back into a bit of Dr. Feelgood with this one!;

Brit Class A Red - Based on the Vox AC30 - This is my "standard" setting on my Flextone. Can't be beat for blues or boogie!;
Brit Class A Green - Based the VoxAC30 (Non Top-Boost) - A nice variation of the basic Vox sound;

Brit Blues Red - Based on Marshall JTM45 - Excellent classic rock tones with a big fat and satisfying bottom end;
Brit Blues Green - Based on the Mesa Boogie Mark II (clean channel) - Searing top end and middley scoop which can be overdriven very nicely;

Brit Classic Red - Based Marshall Plexi - This is a monstrous heavy rock sound with bags of tonal depth and presence;
Brit Classic Green - Based on the Mesa Boogie Mark II (drive channel) - A very metallic, 80's flavoured overdrive;

Brit Hi Gain Red - Based on the Marshall JCM800 - Towering Marshall authority in a classic heavy rock voice;
Brit Hi Gain Green - Based on the Dumble Overdrive Special (clean channel) - Excellent clean definition for jazz or ballads, terrific high end definition;

Treadplate Red - Based on the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Tremoverb - Very high saturation and unbelievable sustain, the beginnings of Guitar God territory;
Treadplate Green - Based on Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Head - Higher, deeper and longer;

Modern Hi Gain Red - Based on the Soldano X88R - Although certainly oversaturated there's a tightness and an element of control about this setting;
Modern Hi Gain Green - Based on Soldano Super Lead Overdrive - Still a tightly controlled sound but with scope for soaring sustain with the Drive cranked;

Fuzzbox Red - Based on the Arbiter Fuzz Face - Just play the riff from "Satisfaction", go on, just play it;
Fuzzbao Breen - Based on Based on the Dumble Overdrive Special (drive channel) - Highly defined ecstatic overdrive with crystal highs, very addictive;

Tube Preamp Red - Mimics a valve preamp to use with any signal, vocals, drums, keyboards etc.;
Tube Preamp Green - Based on a Roland JC-120 - This is the sweetest and cleanest Jazz sound you can imagine.

Don't forget you can mix and match these basic amp sounds with different cabinet configuration, tweak EQ and Drive and add effects. What effects I hear you ask. Well...

There are six types of Delay:
Tape - Straight forward tape style delay with degeneration of signal as the echoes progress;
Multi-Tap - Much like the Tape but with a kind of a stutter;
Digital - Echo with the Nazi-style clarity that only Digital things can offer;
Reverse - Same as Digital only backwards;
Sweep Echo - Somewhat like the Tape delay with an added Phase-type effect;
Analog - A scummy vintage-style version of the Tape echo.

The Compressor is fairly straight forward, levelling out the dynamic range in varying degrees. A touch of compression always adds a touch of vitality to the sound I always feel.

The Gate is useful to cut out the background noise that is inevitable with some of the high gain models. The range of this gate goes from zero to a sufficiently high setting to eliminate the sound of the guitar!  -  Ah! the sound of silence...

There are two Chorus effects based on different wave forms. Both are lush and have good scope using the Effects Tweak knob.

There are two Flanger effects, one the inversion of the other, both credible and useable.

The Rotary effect emulates the Leslie Rotary Speaker system, a lovely subtle auto-wah kind of thing.

The Phaser is based on the MXR Phase 90, a very subtle effect especially nice for funky, choppy rhythms.

The U-Vibe is a strange beast, like a watery auto-wah.

The Obi-Wah is a strange and disruptive effect. It must have some use, but it sounds a bit like a dodgy cable connection to me!

The Tron Up is a triggered filter auto-wah. This is an excellent 70's disco sound, if there could be such a thing.

The Octave Fuzz is fuzz plus an octave. If you've ever wondered how Francis Rossi got that sound at the beginning of Pictures of Matchstick Men then this will set your mind at rest.

The Sub Octave is like the Octave Fuzz with the octave in the other direction, and sounding better for it.

Comet Trails is a Line 6 creation with 7 filters applied to the signal. This gives a quite harsh and complex resulting sound.

The Ring Modulator has nothing to do with Hobbits or Colonic Irrigation, Line 6 describe it as "torturing the computer".

The Otto Phase is somewhat like the Tron Up with added Phasing.

The Swell is a fantastic device that allows you to do "violining" without wrapping your little finger around the volume knob like a prehensile mad thing. Also you don't need to buy a violin.

Ahhh Tremolo - Everyone who owns a guitar with a "trem" should be forced to use this effect for ten minutes every day and then write the word Vibrato one hundred times in different colours.

OK, so what's left? Well there are 124 presets ranged over four banks. I could of course tell you what I think of each of them, but I'm getting towards the bottom of the page and I can hear my food bowl rattling. Instead I shall direct you to the Line 6 samples page where a nice man has recorded a selection of presets.      

 

Overall Impressions of the Floor Pod Plus

I love this modelling technology. How else are you going to play through a Vox amp that was made in 1960?  Who's even heard of a Dumble Overdrive?  As a box full of guitar experiences there can be little or nothing to match the Floor Pod Plus. Read through the features and tell me what else you actually need, besides a decent power amp and some speakers. Formidable!  

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