Re:preamps

["William R. Walker," <chillyb@cruzio.com>]

 I have the first version pod pro. I have had to spend many hours to get
the presets to sound like I want them to. I chalked that up to Line 6
targeting a much younger demographic than my middle aged bad self. Most of
the factory presets were way over blown, but that seems pretty typical of
any signal processor designed for guitarists, ie.. "let's impress the
kiddies with this triple overdriven,bi-flanged shred tone with the carlsbad
caverns reverb"  That being said, I'm pretty happy with the pod pro. Very
versatile and easy to use. Can't say much for the built in modulation
effects, but since I've never used the sound driver software to fine tune
presets, and I typically like my modulation either very subtle or very
extreme, I figure they would probably sound better if I spent more time
fine tuning. I really dig the leslie effect, though. One thing about the
new pod that I don't find too appealing is they left out one of my favorite
effects in the swell/delay patch. What gives Line 6? Also, I have heard
from some circles that the original modeling algorithms sound better than
the latest versions from Line 6, but I haven't had the time to a/b them
myself. The new Pod XT seems to have more versatile output routing,
particularly  for digital interfacing to computers. I know that you can
still get first generation pod pros at blow out prices. All and all, tone
is so terribly subjective, everyones tastes are different, try it all and
see what you like.
Bill