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Anyone ever use one of these pod clones?

They go cheap on ebay sometimes & a lot of the reviews say they give you a lot of what a pod gives. There also seems to be pod->vamp patch conversion software out there so you can get pod patches.

Do you plug these modellers into your amp via the line-out?

The interesting thing I find about these is that people upload their patches of particular sounds, be interesting to know how close they come to the actual sound of an artist/amp.

I tried one out when I was looking at getting a POD, and to be honest couldn't tell a lot of difference between the two, they were both good. Didn't try the software with it though. Only bought the POD cause it was more fashionable at the time

I don't use my Pod through the amp much at all, purely practice and recording, when I have used it, I use it as a preamp and take it into the amp via the FX Return.

Check the specs out carefully and try both. With the XT everything is firmware based and upgraded on a fairly regular basis (yearly). You can also choose to buy further amp models including the new Bass pack (I found this a bit dissapointing so returned it), these are available on a 30 day return basis.

Another point worthy of note is that most of the comparison reviews to the POD is based on the POD 2, not the XT.

offender wrote:Anyone ever use one of these pod clones?

They go cheap on ebay sometimes & a lot of the reviews say they give you a lot of what a pod gives. There also seems to be pod->vamp patch conversion software out there so you can get pod patches.

Do you plug these modellers into your amp via the line-out?

The interesting thing I find about these is that people upload their patches of particular sounds, be interesting to know how close they come to the actual sound of an artist/amp.

Just sold mine. They are really good, but I have never compared them head to head with a Pod. I was impressed with mine, and it was quite cheap. I used it plugged into my Behringer GMX212 V-Tone amp, so that I just used the power amp, bypassing the front end of my amp. I found it to be very versatile and had some real good sounds.
There are heaps of patches to download from the net, but you need a midi / usb cable to hook up to your PC. I didn't have one, but apparently they are available for around $80.

However .... I have replaced that gear with my Vox AD50VT, and some pedals.

bluesgeek wrote:Another point worthy of note is that most of the comparison reviews to the POD is based on the POD 2, not the XT.

As was mine, and I forgot to mention that

well the difference between the XT and Pod 2 is chalk and cheese really, you have more models/cabs and silly geeky options like mic placement etc.

The other option of course is Guitar Rig which is up to version 2 and getting better all the time - though I like having a red kidney bean

Grant wrote:There are heaps of patches to download from the net, but you need a midi / usb cable to hook up to your PC. I didn't have one, but apparently they are available for around $80.

This is interesting, did you not have one because it doesn't come standard with the unit or because you got a unit without the cable (2nd hand?) Thats really most of the reason I would consider it, just to see what some of these downloadable patches are like.

patchtronix has "patches" (i.e. settings people have posted) for the VT series, but most of them are for the more expensive VT60 & VT120 (love the blue cloth on those) which have quite different features. The few that are there for the cheaper VT series (AD15/30/50/100) don't really have what I'm after though I guess it does grow over time.

But mainly I'd want to grab the unit & be able to start trying out these patches off the web...I'll Have to see if the POD's come with the cable

bluesgeek wrote:Another point worthy of note is that most of the comparison reviews to the POD is based on the POD 2, not the XT.

The XT does look like a major step up from what I've read...does it come standard with the cable & software to get going with patches straight off the bat??? Is the software good (doesn't munge windows up does it?)

Yep you get everything you need, the software is updated regularly too. But it depends what you want it for - its pretty much overkill for headphone practice If its just pracitce/recording, it might be worth looking into a Guitarport instead?

I think the Pod XT would be going a bit far looking at its features/price (Even 2nd hand). I do already have quite a cool headphone amp, really its to explore the patches that are out there & see what sort of tone they give.

Having owned a PODXT I can tell you that it's a bit funny to play through one. None of the patches are very dynamic in any kind of nice way. They seem to do spanky clean and reasonably heavy distortion, but if you want a crunchy/cleany sound then they don't seem to do it very nicely


just my experience


have never tried a V amp

you need to spend time giving it a good tweak (oo-err), its not as 'accessible' as the Pod 2.

If you just want to mess around with patches and stuff, have a look at the guitarport or guitar rig (I could spend hours playing with that program...) I'm sure theres one or two guys here with a guitar port?

Yeah guitarport definitely looks like it might give me what i want. I couldn't quite 100% confirm if the downloadable patches have AC/DC stuff, there seems to be an outdated page off guitarport.com that looks like it has patches & I assume they simply load into the guitarport software. Whether or not you have to pay the monthly subscription to get those patches I'm not sure, but the montly subscription looks like it gives you access to some interesting stuff anyway.

If only they'd make an AC/DC pedal, but I guess it would kind of be a parody of itself

I found with the POD xt that its fairly impossible to get that "Lots of bite but rings clean" overdrive that angus young gets. You really need to get some kind of marshall with no pre amp gain knob. And then turn it up really loud.

yeah you just need the stack

I subscribe for a month every now and then and there are some good tutorials and stuff. Plenty of tones as well, not sure how it works with the guitarport. Line6 have a pretty good forum though, might be worth an ask?