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Line 6 Pocket Pod

 

Review of the Line 6 Pocket Pod by The Man in the Jar

This thing is smaller than an X-Box controller...!

This unit is labelled "The Ultimate Tone for Mobile Guitarists". The kidney-shaped, palm-sized plastic Pod requires 4 AAA batteries or you can plug in the optional PSU for when you're near a wall socket. Joining the PSU inlet of the top edge of the Pod is the input jack for your guitar, a mini-jack for a direct out to a recorder or headphones, a standard jack outlet for your amplifier and a mini-jack input for CD or MP3 player.

The topside of the Pod has a display screen with a four-way rocker selector control, four dual purpose knobs marked Drive (and Bass), Effects (and Mid), Delay (and Treble) and Channel Volume (and Reverb). Below these are two dual purpose buttons marked Save (and Hold for Alt Features) and Tap (and Hold for Tuner).

The Pod only gets turned on once a guitar jack is inserted. So I fired it up and checked out the tuner which seems to be exactly the same type that's loaded into the foot-controller of my Flextone. It's chromatic and indicates very clearly with "stacked arrows" how far you are away from pitch and what you need to do to rectify it.

Unlike most other pieces of Line 6 kit I've come across the manual is very succinct and contents itself with a few simple diagrams as guidance. Basically the Pod is a collection of presets with the option to tweak and save your own variations. Pressing the top section of the four-way-rocker pages through the categories of presets. Once the category you need is displayed, choose it by pressing the right-hand side of the rocker. You can then page through the library using the up and down section of the rocker. Hitting the left-hand side of the rocker takes you back to the categories:

Browse by Band: Here you'll find bands such as Ash, Maroon 5, Project 86 and Razorlight amongst a dozen others. Choose a band and click the right rocker to browse their sound presets;

Browse by Style: Page through seven styles including Clean, Heavy, Effected, Bass and Song. The Song category is the most fun because it has the guitar sounds from instantly recognisable classics such as "Brick in the Wall", "Brown Sugar" and "Cocaine" amongst dozens of others, both old and new (God help me! Smoke on the Bloody Water!);

Browse by User: This is where you store your own variations and creations (the method is explained fully in the manual).

Perhaps the fundamentally most useful section has been denied a browse function - to select straight amp models you need to hold down the Alt (Save) button and press the top part of the rocker switch. This pages through the 32 amp models available that range from Jazz Clean to Line 6 Insane. All of them are priceless.

To adjust the amps overdrive use the Drive knob and balance the output with the Channel Volume. To adjust EQ you have to hold down the Alt (Save) button and adjust the appropriate knob for Bass, Mid and Treble. 

In order to add effects to your sound you need to hold down the Alt (Save) button and press the left or right side of the rocker. This pages you various connotations and combinations of Chorus, Tremolo, Compression, Delay, Flange and Rotary. Choose Bypass to disable effects. When running an effect use the Effects knob to tweak the parameters of the modulation (what this knob does is entirely dependent upon which effect is running - you'll have to use your ears). When using a Delay effect the delay level is adjusted with the dedicated Delay knob. The Tap button is used to set the speed of all effects where appropriate, including Delay.

The output for an amplifier is specifically tuned for an open-backed guitar combo. However you have the facility to change that to a variety of open- or closed-back options or tune it for direct-inject to a mixer or recorder.

Two final little cherries in the pie are an optional noise-gate and inclusion of a USB connection lead for PC connectivity (no drivers required). The latter gives you access to a ton of Line 6 goodies and downloads over the internet.        

 

Sounds of the Line 6 Pocket Pod

I used a pair of iPod headphones for this test and by adjusting the output volume of the Pod I was enjoying excellent personal sound quality. I also plugged into the clean channel of my Flextone and took the Pocket Pod's presets all the way up to gig volumes with no problem.

 

Overall impressions of the Line 6 Pocket Pod 

I'm once again floored by the scope and quality of the sounds Line 6 have managed to cram into such a tiny box. As I said the amp models are priceless, especially for home recording where they'll add enormously to your tone palette. The addition of the artists' presets form a great base from which to develop your own unique sounds as well as a really easy way to nail the right sound for cover versions. The effects list isn't exhaustive but all the main suspects are present and correct. What more could you possibly want out of a single handful...? 

Buy the Line 6 Pocket Pod

Note: As with all amps equipped with headphone sockets, turn the Master Volume to zero before plugging in the 'phones.

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