Boss GT-6b vs Line 6 pod xt live

[jimmykicker]

hey guys. Currently I have a Boss GT-6b and recently started playing with it and getting to know the menus and I'm really getting good sounds out of it. It was a beast to learn all the menus but once you get the hang of it, it really isn't that bad.

However, I got an avenue to a line 6 pod xt live (bass version of course). What are your opinions on one versus the other? The boss is pretty solid...and I'm a pedals guy and usually find multis compromising but the boss is really good. The synth tracks poorly so I use a Behringer synth pedal for that and I have that, a Rocktron Hush, channel switcher, and AT pedal wireless on a "sub board". I'd like to have nothing but that floor unit and my wireless. How quiet is the line 6? The boss lacks in noise reduction on overdrives hence the rocktron. Trying to streamline a bit.

Thanks!!

 

[BrentSimons]

Hi there,
If you are more interested in effects I would recommend the Boss. If amp modeling is your thing I would use the Line 6. I've owned both units before. Now if you like both check out the Zoom B3. It's a great little package.
Hope this helps,
Brent

 

[jimmykicker]

Thanks Brent! I just went ahead and bought the pod. It was a good deal so why not? My buddy uses one for guitar in our group. It's an HD series. It is pretty versatile all around.

I am gonna try them both the Boss and Line 6 side by side. The Boss really has good effects. Especially the chorus, wahs, reverbs and distortions/overdrives. The amp models aren't that great and I usually disable the amp modelers. So I see what you mean about the boss models. My amp is a GK Fusion 550 and it really sounds incredible to me so I don't really see the need to model as much. Thanks for your input!

 

[jimmykicker]

Used the BOSS for the "real" first time since becoming its bitch. One thing that I really liked was that basically all my distortions were too loud or not loud enough. The two knobs I'd need to make that adjustment are right on the face of the unit. Adjust, set pedal setup back to distortion off by default, hit the store button twice...? Done! Easy as pie to make adjustments on the fly. That I REALLY like. No more guessing as to where those knobs were on the Swollen Pickle (although that thing is CHOICE).

THe pod should be here today. When I have had time to play with it and become its bitch too I will post what I find good and bad about the two.

Yeah, I know they are both ancient in terms of modern processors, but they DO have a lot of bang for the buck at this point. Both processors cost me $255 total. Hard to beat that.

 

[BrentSimons]

Hi Jimm

Used the BOSS for the "real" first time since becoming its bitch. One thing that I really liked was that basically all my distortions were too loud or not loud enough. The two knobs I'd need to make that adjustment are right on the face of the unit. Adjust, set pedal setup back to distortion off by default, hit the store button twice...? Done! Easy as pie to make adjustments on the fly. That I REALLY like. No more guessing as to where those knobs were on the Swollen Pickle (although that thing is CHOICE).

THe pod should be here today. When I have had time to play with it and become its bitch too I will post what I find good and bad about the two.

Yeah, I know they are both ancient in terms of modern processors, but they DO have a lot of bang for the buck at this point. Both processors cost me $255 total. Hard to beat that.

Hi Jimmy,
You know I loved the Boss GT. The only issue I really had was that I could get it to clip too easily. Especially with active basses. I tried turning down the preset gains, adding compression or limiting and it still happened. I guess they fixed that on the GT-10b? But I've heard mixed reviews of the 10B that while you could adjust every parameter of EVERYTHING it was missing some of the magic of the 6B. If you mess with the blend on the distortions and overdrives you can find some pretty good stuff. As well as adding a tube amp model like the SVT or Bassman to go with it. I loved the chorus, flanger, phaser and wahs on the 6B. Also the Trace Elliot amp sim was pretty good to my ears. I really should pick up another one at some point just to have around. I became quite good at editing stuff on it but then moved on the Bass Pod XT and Bass Pod XT Live and then the Zoom B3. Hey if it works use it right!
Take care Man!
Brent

 

[jimmykicker]

Thanks for your input Brent! I haven't really had the clipping problem except with the preamp which I quickly defeat 95% of the time because it does clip. It's too much in front of a real amp anyway. You're right though, the TC is pretty good. As is the Acoustic 360.

Likes!
1. Great tuner!
2. Modulation effects every bit as good as individual boss pedals. Very BOSS sounding.
3. Octave ...especially with distortion and overdrive. Man that is BIG!
3.5 (edit). Wahs are fabu. The sweep on the pedal could be less drastic. Can that be modified?
4. Ease of "on fly" program adjustments. This is a LOT less complicated than any of the digitech floor units for sure.
5. The ability to assign the ctrl pedal and expression pedals for additional effects. I don't always need bypass. So having that flexability is awesome!
6. General construction is great. This thing isn't going to fall apart. And since it is BOSS, I can trust it. Nice to be able to add even another pedal or two if you needed it. I don't see needing that but it is nice to have.

Here is my complaint list.
1. Synth. Abominably bad. Terrible tracking and it is way too much work to get a sound that even approaches usable. My Behringer $36 plastic pedal is way...way better. Great pedal but really crappy construction.
2. Preamp/models Most of the modeling just sounds like crappy solid state clipping. I noticed that when I first got it. Thought there was something "wrong" with it. Most of the time I have the preamp turned completely off and it sounds much better. I've got a really good bass amp so I'm okay with just going with what it delivers you know?
3. Useless noise reduction. Maybe I am doing it wrong, but it's pretty poor. Any input on that? I have an outboard rocktron hush pedal that works amazingly good. Just HATE having to carry another pedal!
4. My feet are just too big. I hit the wrong pedals quite often. That's probably a me problem though.

 

[BrentSimons]

Thanks for your input Brent! I haven't really had the clipping problem except with the preamp which I quickly defeat 95% of the time because it does clip. It's too much in front of a real amp anyway. You're right though, the TC is pretty good. As is the Acoustic 360.

Likes!
1. Great tuner!
2. Modulation effects every bit as good as individual boss pedals. Very BOSS sounding.
3. Octave ...especially with distortion and overdrive. Man that is BIG!
3.5 (edit). Wahs are fabu. The sweep on the pedal could be less drastic. Can that be modified?
4. Ease of "on fly" program adjustments. This is a LOT less complicated than any of the digitech floor units for sure.
5. The ability to assign the ctrl pedal and expression pedals for additional effects. I don't always need bypass. So having that flexability is awesome!
6. General construction is great. This thing isn't going to fall apart. And since it is BOSS, I can trust it. Nice to be able to add even another pedal or two if you needed it. I don't see needing that but it is nice to have.

Here is my complaint list.
1. Synth. Abominably bad. Terrible tracking and it is way too much work to get a sound that even approaches usable. My Behringer $36 plastic pedal is way...way better. Great pedal but really crappy construction.
2. Preamp/models Most of the modeling just sounds like crappy solid state clipping. I noticed that when I first got it. Thought there was something "wrong" with it. Most of the time I have the preamp turned completely off and it sounds much better. I've got a really good bass amp so I'm okay with just going with what it delivers you know?
3. Useless noise reduction. Maybe I am doing it wrong, but it's pretty poor. Any input on that? I have an outboard rocktron hush pedal that works amazingly good. Just HATE having to carry another pedal!
4. My feet are just too big. I hit the wrong pedals quite often. That's probably a me problem though.

Yes I forgot the tuner is awesome!
Regarding the noise reduction. I don't really remember? I don't recall the unit being too noisy unless I had the drive cranked on a distortion patch and I believe the noise reduction certainly helped. The last time I had a 6B I know I had a Rickenbacker 4003 so I must have used it due to the single coils on the Rick? Hmmm. As far as the synth goes I had a hard time with that as well but from what I've read the 6B synth is more adjustable than the 10B.
Brent

 

[jimmykicker]

It was less noisy when I used it at practice the other night. Might be the crappy wiring in my house that caused it. Still think I might just slap the GT on a board with the other evil necessary pedals. Channel switch, Roctkron NR, Behr Synth and the stomp wireless. That way I never have to disconnect anything. Was hoping to get away from that brutal board. It's actually gonna be slightly bigger than before....Sigh. At least it will sound good consistently!

I like how the tuner can be read even from a distance in 3 different ways. Up/down lit up, display, and chasing LEDs. Smart!

 

[jimmykicker]

Just got the pod tonight. Man am I seriously disappointed! The amp models are pretty good, but the effects are really limited. Most of them I think are lacking compared to the Boss. Makes sense since Boss has been in the effects business forever I suppose.

Line 6 programming isn't very easy. The boss seems daunting at first but it really isn't bad. im sure the line 6 is the same way but I know I don't wanna scroll through menu while gigging. Also the display isn't easy to read from a distance and for my 44 year old eyes that's a real problem. There's no question whatsoever that the Boss is the natural performer's choice just for those reasons.

Plusses...it's built as tough as the boss. The wah sweep on the line 6 kills the boss. Really what I wished the boss had that. The models are pretty good. I hate to say it but that's all I could really find redeeming about it. I've got a Digitech BP200 I honestly think is a better unit.

This sucks. I thought I would be more impressed and the competition would be a lot closer. But the Boss wins. At least for my needs.

 

[BrentSimons]

Jimmy,
Did you say you got the Pod Hd? I think that only has one bass model the B15. It's designed primarily for guitar so you're probably going to need to do some serious tweaking.
Too funny my 44 year old eyes say the same thing!

 

[jimmykicker]

Nope. It was the pod xt live. Bass specific one. I just could not get a sound quality approaching what I was getting from the Boss, less effects and it was not that user friendly. Working with it on the fly was a lot more difficult having to scroll through menus with the two knobs. Not that you don't have to do that with the Boss, but the most used controls are right there on the face of the unit so I don't have to get on the floor and squint. The Boss display is a lot easier to see as well in general. Once you get used to it, the menus are intuitive to use until you really get advanced with the expression pedal and outboard pedals which starts to hurt my head. Course I don't really think I am gonna need to delve that deep. One thing I'd like to do that my Digitech BP200 does is allow me to set the expression pedal to control the level of distortion/effect so it sweeps rather than toggles. I know the Boss can do that, but I haven't figured out exactly how. That's really cool for dynamics control.

I put it on eBay the same night and it sold the next morning. Cost me $10 to find out I'd rather have the Boss...I knew that I probably could have spent some time with the Line 6 and got it sounding better and more useable, but I knew I'd never like the interface on it using it live. I almost sold the Boss before really taking it around the block. And that may have very well have been the case here too, but as I said at that point the interface and the front controls made that decision easy. The lack of easy control on the Line 6 was a real turn off. And after a couple of beers I'm lucky to be able to twist a knob and not f*ck up much less scroll through settings.

Thanks for all the info Brent. Anything else on the Boss you can add I am all ears!

 

[Barisaxman]

Jimmy,
Did you say you got the Pod Hd? I think that only has one bass model the B15. It's designed primarily for guitar so you're probably going to need to do some serious tweaking.
Too funny my 44 year old eyes say the same thing!

Just to make sure noone gets scared off. I have an HD500x and I'm having no trouble getting great sounds for bass. I may pick up the bass HD expansion, which adds SVT and GK amps, but I'm finding that I can tweak the Fender blackface model and a few others to work just fine for creating good bass foundation tone. It more than gets the job done and sounds very good. Plus when I want to pick up my guitar, I've got everything I need to create great tones on that side as well. The HD500x is more bass-friendly than it probably gets credit for.

 

[jimmykicker]

My buddy in my group uses the HD for his rig. Pretty good unit. Sounds really good and he can get any tone out of it he wants. That's why I looked at this POD xt. However, I find the setup on it is a little hairbrained to me (I don't know the interface on the HD). Ironically I initially wanted a unit like the POD that I could pull up individual patches with the individual foot pedals. After getting myself acquainted with the "stompbox" interface on the Boss I realized how smart this stompbox setup actually was. Being a pedals guy, it feels just like I've got the individual pedals without the power hassles, cabling hassles and constant adjustment and trying to remember "just how I had it that night" annoyances. They get set and they stay put. If I have to make an adjustment on the fly due to the room or the PA, I just reach down there and grab the knob. Two clicks of the save button and done. I can use the patches 1-4 to make copies for different basses using the same basic parameters...I really like that!! As said before, if you're looking for effects, the Boss has it killed. If you're looking for modeling, the Line 6 stuff destroys that utter crap (most of it) excuse for amp modeling on the Boss. I keep it defeated. I have a GK Fusion 550 so I'm pretty content with the tone on that. And for what I am doing a bunch of models really isn't that important. That's why the BOSS wins for me.

One other thing to note. The boss will allow you to run it in a similar patch mode too so you should desire like the POD with the ABCD buttons. I'd gotten over that desire by that point anyway and doubt I will ever use it like that.

On your comment. That is good to know. I was kind of wondering why Line 6 didn't come out with a bass specific unit. These days though, they ought to be for Either/or since it is all digital. You shouldn't have to buy any specific units. Sounds like L6 may be going that way. The Behringer V-amp PRO is like that. Has guitar and keyboard amp emulations.