Boss GT-6B Vs. Lines 6 Bass Pod XT Live

[Nacho-Dread]

guys i am analiyzing a future purchase and i want to get some advice, wich of this units do you recomend? if someone can tell it´s bennefits and disadvantages of each unit that would be great!

[patrickj]

Boss: comparable to merging individual pedals into a single board. Lots of knobs just like the actual pedals. Not sure if it's usb-able.

Line6: more holistic approach. Does the same thing, but everything is menu driven (can be harder to use at first - gotta get used to it) but allows both a bit more precision and flexibility (routing, etc). Does a lot of computer stuff too.

Both will give you the same performance and ability once you learn to use them.

[g00eY]

You can buy a midi to USB cable and then download the GT-6B software that someone on this board (sorry, I forget who) is hosting on their website. I don't use it because I don't have a midi to USB cable, but I downloaded it and played around with it before. It's definitely usable.

I haven't actually used the Line6 bass version, but I have used the guitar version. I don't know how helpful that is. The Line6 is, I think, harder to tweak on the fly because each patch/footswitch can be a completely different sound. If I press footswitch A I can have a clean sound with no effects, but if I pressed the B I could have a totally modded out sound.

The Boss, on the other hand, will have me on a patch, and then I can add onto that patch as I go. Say I want to start the song on clean, want overdrive in the chorus, and then want flanger for the instrumental. I can add these one by one and stay on one patch the entire time.

I'm going to take a bet and say that the presets are weak on both units. You're going to have to be prepared to tweak if you want the GT-6B. It'll take a while to get used to, but after about 1/2 a year of use I can change sounds on the fly without too much hassle.

The GT-6B has some good basic sounds. The compressors, parametric EQ, OD/distortion, delay, chorus, etc... are all good. When you start trying out stuff like the SOS (kind of pointless... who needs a 2.8 second loop?), defretter, synths, wah, etc... is where you are going to hit rough patches. You might be able to get good sounds out of these, but they will require much more tweaking than the other basic effects.

[Pbassred]

You can also down load patches for the Bodxt live. You can also switch effects on and off. The trick with patches is to swap the patches around so that they make sence to your songs. you get 16 groups of 4 so I have:- a rock group, a soul group, one for funk, jazz etc. 15 is a group of patches I use for one particular singer some are the SAME patches as elsewhere. 16 is my sandbox. Fonget editing live. put it on a table so you can twiddle easily.

The line6 is reputed to be a good modeling amp but that concept is pointless to me since I don't think the audience knows or cares! I just want.... good. Modeling effects leaves me just as cold. The Choruses seem weak to me, but the delays are good and the synth effects combined with others can produce some nice sounds.

The DI out is not a balanced line out with is just plain anoying on a LIVE pedal. the foot swtched seem to be layed out wrong (to me). Surely you want the patches on top so you don't need to step over them to hit the effect on/off.

They spoiled it for the beginner my making the factory patches stark and randomly distibuted. The instruction book would benefit from more menu diagrams. Another thing about line6 as a company:- depite all the hype about how easily they made the process of software upgrades, They have neve issued one ....... ever.

I know that this sound like i'm ripping it apart but bearing mind that many of them might be the same as the Boss. Overall, for all its faults the line6 sounds good and has a lot of functions.

[audienceofone]

If price is an issue, you can get a GT6b on a couple of sites for $250 brand new.
I won an auction for a GT6b for $173 as price right now is very important to me.
I would love to play with either the GT10b or the Pod X3live, but those are out of my price range for a while.

One thing that I like about the GT6b is that you can arrange the pedals for the most part in any order you want, I have used a POD xt and don't remember it being able to do that.

the link for that editor software is:
http://gtx.tinfoilmusic.net/

[Guiseppe]

I've had my Pod XT Live for quite a while. As I started out being a complete effects noob, it took me a while to train MYSELF to listen and get what I could from the various functions.

First off, the presets are trash. I spent a lot of time listening/fiddling before I came up with the "holy grail of effects" - for me. A lot of people don't like the effects/modeling, but after investing some time into the gear, it's been worthwhile. With one of the bands I jam with, it allows me to plug straight into the PA, no schlepping gear aside from the rig itself and my bass. Not a bad deal.

Now, as far as what the future holds for it, who knows. If you look on the Line 6 site they don't even offer a dedicated page to the rig...seems as though they're trying to phase it out (even though they're still selling it). Any of you Line 6 afficienados know any more on the BP XT Live?

[stoneboy26]

Guiseppe - given the X3 Live does the lot (guit/bass/vox), I can't see Line 6 putting too much more effort into the XT models, whether guitar or bass, live or pro or bean.

Cheers