Digital newbie tries the Line 6 Pod Go | Can this $500 modeler replace my $1500 rig of amp + pedals?

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My first proper go with a modeler! I recently was lent the Line 6 Pod Go by the fine folks at Yamaha Germany, and these are some of the first sounds and explorations I’ve made with it – including a rather eye-opening shootout against my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 amp and a couple of my favorite pedals!

Get the Line 6 Pod Go here:

Now, I’ve always been an ‘amp and pedals’ kind of player, and I dislike diving into endless menus for hours to tweak tones… which is why I’ve never had a big modeler like the Helix, the Axe-Fx or the Quad Cortex. But the almost plug and play nature of the Pod Go – as shown to me by the mighty @KrenarCilkuGuitar at the 42GS Three Event – persuaded me to take the plunge.

For this video, I gave myself 15 minutes to set up a couple of Pod Go presets that would sound similar to my tried and trusted amp/pedal tones. The results are pretty fascinating. I aimed for a decent clean tone, a medium crunch, a heavier overdrive, and a metal sound, and I then went through some riffs in my favorite styles (pop, folk, indie, classic rock, punk, metal, and more) to test them out.

I decided to not tell you which rig is which until after the playing part… can you guess which one is which? Leave me a comment about it, as I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:14 Intro and what we’re doing today
01:31 What is the Line 6 Pod Go?
01:57 Pod Go vs Black Spirit 200 and pedals

Clean Sounds
04:00 Reference chords on all pickups
04:39 Poppy barre chords
05:12 Blues progression
05:39 Country ballad arpeggios
05:52 Country lead sound
06:07 Droning indie chords

Medium Crunch Sounds
06:28 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
06:59 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
07:22 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
07:55 Groovy classic rock riff
08:22 Another AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
08:58 Classic rock riff
09:15 Indie rock rhythm chords riff
09:44 Droning indie rock riff
10:09 Indie rock octave chords riff
10:37 Indie rock barre chords
11:02 Indie octave chords

High Gain Overdrive Sounds
11:27 Classic hard rock riff
12:03 Hard rock riff
12:20 Glam rock riff
12:48 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
13:23 Alt rock riff
13:49 Pop punk riff
14:16 Pop punk melodic lead sound
14:32 Punk rock power chords
15:01 Progressive rock riff (Drop D)
15:34 Chunky modern rock power chords (Drop D)
15:59 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy rock riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion Sounds (all in Drop D tuning)
16:31 Metal chugging riff
17:04 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
17:29 Hardcore punk riff
17:45 Thrash metal riff
18:05 Lead sounds
18:30 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

19:04 My thoughts
19:30 Which rig was the Pod Go?
19:49 My first experiences with the Pod Go
21:41 The presets I created
24:07 Amp vs Pod Go: the differences
24:45 Option paralysis
25:26 Do I need to buy 3rd party IRs to get the best tones?
26:16 The sounds: clean tones
27:11 Crunch tones
27:46 High gain drive sounds
28:26 Metal sounds
29:48 The Pod Go is a practical tool
30:42 Pod Go: what I like
31:01 Pod Go: what I dislike
32:40 My conclusions: could the Pod Go replace my rig?
34:05 Pod Go plans: feedback wanted!
34:52 Final thoughts and goodbye


My setup was as follows: I ran my Epiphone Les Paul into my H&K Black Spirit 200 head, using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. The Pod Go went straight into my Mac and Logic. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to the other bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Greer Lightspeed:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!):
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#Line6 #Line6PodGo #PodGo #HughesAndKettner #42GSThree #Line6Helix


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