• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Your opinions on Line 6 gear...

#21
My main bass is a Variax 5 string, and I love it. I have some other L6 pedals, and I built a Flextone fom surplus circuit boards I bought online. I also have repaired many amps, guitars and effects as I was a Line 6 authorized tech for a few years. One problem is that most repairs consisted of replacing entire circuit boards. With discontinued products, parts are not available long, so replacing discrete components becomes necessary, and I am among those who aren't crazy about working on surface mount components. (At 60 my hands aren't steady enough anymore for fine work, not to mention my eyes.) As much as I enjoy Line 6's products and innovation, the reality is the individual products likely will not survive road rigors forever.
 
#22
I use a POD HD500 for guitar and love it. I treat my gear very gingerly, so even when gigging there's no rough handling. It's been a good tool for me, better than any guitar amp I've used from Boogies to Fenders to Marshalls.

As far as using it for bass? No way. Sounds terrible. For me, bass tone is more about clarity and moving air, and not coloring the sound with "tubey" circuits. I have, however, recently started using it for an effect here and there and it does as well as anything else I've used.
 
#23
Bought the original Bass Pod Bean unit when my old band all went direct to the board with no onstage amps and liked everything but the Chorus, not enough tweakability for me.

Bought a LowDown 175 when I joined my next band and it was OK but felt it didn't project enough of my on stage sound into the room. It's currently for sale.

Bought an X3Live pedal board to use with a couple of my side projects where I need some effects. Each project has their own bank of 4 settings. It is also the perfect solution for me practicing at home silently. Line my computer in, plug in my bass, snap the headphones on and I'm good to go.

With all of these products it took some time to dial in the sounds I was after. The X3 has an incredible array of tone options. I do all my tweaking with laptop through Gear Box quite easily. Adjusting the parameters via the pedal board itself not so easy.

My guitar player bought an M9 unit and loves it.

My next purchase is a G50 wireless.

I am rather disappointed they have pretty much left the bass community with their new product offerings and honestly don't see me purchasing anymore product after my wireless, even though I've been satisfied with everything so far.
 
#25
Wireless...good.
Variax guitar...sounded neat but I couldn't get it to set up well physically.
Basspod...some ok sounds, nothing to write home about. Synth was pitiful.
M13 and XTlive...too much for my fat fingers, weak eyes and itty bitty brain to handle.
 
#26
Used a bass pod as a preamp for a short while....used it on the Eden setting,until I traded it in for a real Eden amp....I honestly would not recommend the pod for bass.

Obviously.Line 6's best results have been with guitar players..
 
#28
Variax bass = love it
Variax guitar = love it
Pod XTLive = love it, but it needs tweaking. You can't just pull up a preset and play, that loaded tones are mostly just silly. I read about a lot of people just using them wrong also, modeling an amp and then plugging the Pod into another bass amp... that will sound like poo every time.

Also - the PodXTLive is built like a rock. Never a worry about breaking it.
 
#29
I've got three Pod XTs, a Pod XT Bass (bean) and a Pod HD (bean).
Takes a bit of fiddling (and ignoring the factory presets) to get what you want out of them, but once you've done that, they're golden.

I have the Variax Acoustic 700 and the older 500 Electric model. The latter was never the best built guitar in the world, but the sounds are more than usable (again, once you understand how to use them) and the Acoustic 700 is a real gem.

I'll be picking up one of the JTVs later this year to replace the 500 (which will remain as a backup); far better guitars *as* guitars. I've got my eyes peeked for a 705 bass; great pieces.

The wireless units at the top of their line are very good units, and they've pretty much taken over their range.

I have no idea what's in GC's collective head at any given time, and wouldn't want to descend into that snarl to find out.
 
#30
I own a Line 6 Lowdown LD300 Pro combo amp. I bought new 5 years ago and I will say that it's been excellent. I tried the LD150 & LD175 versions before I decided on the LD300 Pro and they couldn't keep up. I've used this amp many times in the studio and for dozens of gigs and it's been great.

What I like about it is; it's size, tone, flexibility (modeling or not), built-in tuner (great with 5-string), 1/8" MP3/aux input, 1/4" headphone jack, loud as hell, very well built.

You can use it in the modeling mode or not, you're choice. I like both modes. My only complaint about it was its weight of 89 lbs, but I made a dolly for it which has eliminated that issue. BTW, I use the LD300 Pro when I don't want to haul my 810 and tube head out to a gig.

TD
 
#31
zachoff said:
Just wondering if I'm the only one that doesn't really like anything they have to offer & seems weird to me that Guitar Center pushes them so hard.
Click to expand...

If GC pushes them, it's because GC gets a good margin on them, and not *too* many returns. Nothing to do with quality or musicality.

I absolutely hated the first generation(s) of Line6 pods for guitar. It's hard to describe objectively, but the tones were consistently thin and "plastic" sounding. A guitarist I know has one of their high-end signal-processing combo guitar amps, though, and I have to say it sounds really good. Not cheap, though.

The one piece of Line6 gear I use personally is their G50 wireless rig, which works almost flawlessly, and is almost certainly the best value in guitar/bass wireless. I believe that the story there is that they bought the company that did the design, and had the good sense not to break it.
 
#32
Formerly has the Lowdown 400 2x10 combo. Currently have two Lowdown 400 heads, POD HD300 and a UX1 digital interface.

The UX1 is great. I use it for direct recording, and silent practice at home with headphones. Pod farm software is very good - but you can't trust presets. If anything use their presets as starting points for you to edit from. Their Avalon & Eden models are spot on. It also makes a fantastic "soundcard" for your pc and powers my 5.1 home theater rig exceptionally well as a preamp.

The POD HD300 I use on a regular basis purely for effects in the loop of my heads. If you use the software to tweak the settings on your Laptop while you have it plugged into the amp you can get really great settings. The modulation effects again are the winners, reverbs and delays/echos are serviceable. Overdrive settings suck and would not recommend you use any amp models. It's about as good an effects processor as you can find in my opinion. main thing is NEVER tweak your settings with headphones. They will sound incredibly weak when you go to the amp.

The heads & combo are also very good as long as you do your own tweaking and don't go crazy with the overdrive. Eden & Fliptop models especially good. The Eden tone in fact is damn near flawless. You can also put it in "manual mode" for use without modeling and they will sing and the overdrive is great.

The combo worked as well as the heads (no difference really) and the speakers were outstanding.

Are they as good as the real thing? No. However - for folks in cover bands that need access to change up their tone on the fly they are fantastic.

Using Traynor & Eden tube heads now but never go out without this. At the very least it's a very dependable solid state backup that will cover most anything with enough power to fill a room easily.
 
#33
Sid Fang said:
The one piece of Line6 gear I use personally is their G50 wireless rig, which works almost flawlessly, and is almost certainly the best value in guitar/bass wireless. I believe that the story there is that they bought the company that did the design, and had the good sense not to break it.
Click to expand...


Yup - they bought out X2 for wireless...


- georgestrings
 
#34
I've been using the PODXtLive with the Bass expansion (I also play some guitar)for a couple years with a Mackie 15" Thump full-range powered P.A. speaker. The whole band plays direct to the PA. The guitar player uses a similar rig and drummer uses a Roland kit with 'real' cymbals. I use the SVT sim for most songs. The Adam and Eve for thumb-popping and have several presets for special purpose. The trick is to do your own presets from scratch and remember that the speaker you use is just a 'monitor'. I even face the monitor in front of me, facing away from the audience. It sounds GREAT!!! I can keep my volume down and I'm sure that the audience hears great bass tones because I walk out there, occasionally, with my wireless, I also work the tone controls on my Ibanez SR 505 a lot and am able to get almost any tone I feel like.
At my church gig, I play through a Peavey Mark V with four tens. It sounds great! But I get a lot more tones through the PODXtLive and can hear all my nuances through the Mackie monitor.
Also, my Stagg EUB sounds great through this rig. Had to write a preset for it and am still tweaking but it seems to want to have the tone controls on almost any sim set to close to flat.
 
#35
PS - Steve Howe is playing all Line6 Gear for several years now - including a Variax. Started with Vetta's and Now using the Bogner designed 2x12's.

He can play with and get an endorsement from anyone he wants. If he depends on them - they have to be good to go.

LINE6_DT50_SteveHowe_11.jpg
 
#36
My guitar buddy has owned two of their amps (one head and one combo) and both have died within 6 years of ownership... I'm kinda wondering if that's where the name comes from - they flatline after 6 years :p He only gigged them a couple of times and he never abuses his stuff. I think their gear is fine, but their longevity doesn't seem to be too great.
 
#37
Reliability of some models does seem to be a problem, my guitarist has 2 of the 25w valve 1x12 combos and they are both currently in for repair under warrantee.

Never had a problem with the Pods, the wireless, the floor boxes or the LD400 combo I had however, so I suspect its a fault with that particular model of combo.
 
#39
I have a lowdown 110 that I've use for a practice amp for a few years. Works ok in that capacity and can still rattle the windows.

Otherwise, the MP3 device input went out, and once in awhile I can hear the driver crackling along with some air leakage around the speaker mount.

For all the years I've had it, and for what I spent (not retail), wasn't a bad investment.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back