Line 6 Pocket Pod

so just to clarify, you guys rate the pocket pod well?

I'm thinking that I want to practise more at home, but with a tired and emotional wife, and a tired and emotional 7 month old daughter, me staying up late playing into the night is not going to be a good thing.

The options for me are:
1) a tiny little vox thing I saw in a music shop: the Vox Amplug, for about AU$60. It's got three dials (drive, volume and tone), a jack that plugs into the guitar, an input for an mp3 player, and a headphone jack. Cheap, but would do the trick. It's meant to replicate a vox amp, but has no other sounds/effects.
2) Pocket Pod, for AU$189 (rrp AU$239). This has the potential of giving me some effects to use when I play live as well, but would it adversely affect the clean tone of my amp? say if I was playing through the clean channel with a bit of tremolo, would the pod make the tone go weird?

And can I plug an mp3 player into the pod, to play along with my favourite songs?

thanks for your help.

I don't have a Pod, so I can't comment, but I'm glad you added a link to the Vox Amplug. Pretty cool little product.

The Pocket Pod is definitely a lot more flexible that the Vox thing you are looking at....AND is a platform for recording on your computer as well as editing tones from your PC/Mac. You can definitely front end a amp with it....There are actually specific features to tweak it to a specific amp (as far as output, EQ, and even presets). You'll probably want to keep the amp very clean or perhaps only use the pod on a clean channel and bypass it to keep the overdriven tones of your amp. As instructed by Line6, when you front end your amp with a pod, you are optimizing your signal chain to make the sounds on the Pod louder.... but with experimentation, I've also used my Pods to authentically wah-wah and "Tube Scream" a Fender Champion 600.... Its a tool in the bag.

To say that the "Pocket" Pod is "live" effect processor is a bit of a stretch....simply because its too small to get at the controls to switch tones in an efficient manner without a footswitch. I have a few Pods, and the one the gets the most use is the Podxt Live....simply because its got all of the foot switches and a Variax Guitar input. They all sound identical. If I don't need to switch tones for a performance, I can easily just use the regular Pod I have to jam with (and not only you can plug an MP3 player into it, you can probably download the tone of the recording you're playing along with off the Line6 website...Some of the notable tones are the classic rock ones, like Angus Young, Rush, EVH, etc....down to the specific song...and it will adapt your pickups from single coil to humbuckers, for example.) I have spent hours....if not days simply playing with the software to design tones and downloading "cover" tones....its a lot of fun, and certainly worth the low price of admission. Does it sound as good as a Badcat or a Matchless? Probably not, but you'll fool the 99.9% of the people who have no idea what a Badcat or a Matchless are.

Also, I'd suggest getting the AC adapter. On batteries, these things eat coppertops.

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Is the AC adapter a brand specific one? Because I have a generic AC adapter that I used to use for my effects pedals, which is now gathering dust in a cupboard.

So the pod will be heaps more versatile. I doubt that I'd use it through my amp, since I've owned it, I've stopped using my effects pedals (mainly overdrives and distortions, with a chorus/flange and a cheap and nasty wah) because I've been so happy with the tubey clean sound that it gives, and the drive channel is adequate.

I guess I just need to decide whether I want that versatility, or just something to plug into ...

Nope....its a specific Line6 AC Adapter....they even sell a separate Aussie one, that I've looked into if me and the guys ever get our butts in gear to tour downunder.

If you just want something to plug into, get a Champion 600.

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