Helix
Helix Artist Tone Demos Playlist
Helix Tips and Tricks Playlist
POD HD
- AC/DC tone – “Hell’s Bells”
- Steve Vai tone 1 – “They Animal” rhythm guitar
- Steve Vai tone 2 – “Ballerina 12/24” harmonizer
POD HD Tips and Tricks
POD X3 and POD XT era devices
New stuff! Check out the new BackTrack series of portable recorders coming soon from Line 6.
Release notes for POD X3 Pro, Lowdown amps, and looper station are here.
POD X3 Updates!
New Monkey, new flash memory, new firmware, new GEARBOX, new Workbench!! Read about it.
Take the test: can you tell the difference? (analogue vs. digital)
Take the test: can you tell the difference? (high sample rates)
Deals on Line 6 products
- Prices on Line 6 TonePort USB audio interfaces have been slashed
- Blowout deals on Line 6 Gearbox Plugin bundles
POD Tips and Tricks
Looking to get the most out of your POD? These articles cover some new ways to think about using your gear or just offer tips to use the old ways to do new things!
- Some speaker cabinets can be used with all eight microphones (4 guitar + 4 bass).
- Connections to use POD X3 Live for effects only (four cable method)
- Solo Boost
- Switching between amps 1 and 2 with a volume pedal
- Balancing Patch Volume
- Dual Tone Wah
- Phantom Power
- Create a rich stereo sound
- RTFM – Links to manuals
- POD X3 Pro MIDI CC chart has been uploaded
- How to send guitar and vocals (or bass) to separate POD X3 outputs
- Reamping POD X3: setup, results (both include sound samples)
- Ben’s POD Tweaking Guide: How to copy a famous guitar sound
- Looking to get a great sitar sound out of your guitar? Check out my demos of The Weapon.
POD Patches
How do I get the sound of my favorite band/guitar player? This is the place to start. Though these are POD patches, you can use the amp settings on any modeler or even as a starting place for tweaking your actual amp.
- X3 Dual Tone Tour (Part 1) (with sound samples)
- X3 Dual Tone Tour (Part 2) (with sound samples)
- spiritguitar official Dual Tone Tour
- Guitar World (June 2008)
- Guitar World (May 2008) (with sound samples)
- Guitar World (April 2008) (with sound samples)
- Guitar World (March 2008) (with sound samples)
- Guitar World (February 2008) (with sound samples)
- Guitar World (January 2008) (with sound samples)
- Guitar World (Holiday 2007)
- Guitar World (December 2007)
- Lincoln Brewster POD Patches
- A more detailed look at the guitar sounds of Lincoln Brewster
- Rhythm Guitar presets for “Stumpy Ron” (with sound clip)
- Lead Guitar presets for “Stumpy Ron” (with song download)
- Bass preset for “Stumpy Ron” (with sound clip)
- Live preset from first show with X3 (with video clips)
- Live preset: bass into keyboard amp
POD X3 Factory Preset Lists
POD X3 did not come with a list of factory installed presets. I posted these pages as reference. The lists includes the amp model (or models) used for each patch. The list of song based presets include which particular artists each patch is based on.
- Download the factory presets
- Download Gearbox compatible presets from Bass POD XT
- Acoustic and Vocal folders
- Blends and Pairs folders
- Songs and Bass folders
- FX Hvy Patch folder
- Lo Gain and Hi Gain folders
- User folder
Additional Line 6 Info
This information has a more technical side to it where the rest of the information on this page focuses on the practical use of your POD.
- POD X3 Technical Specs
- POD X3 vs. Bass POD XT shootout
- POD X3: FBV Pedal shootout
- POD X3 updates, flash memory 1.15 (release notes).
- Updating X3 to flash memory 1.01.1 (with pedal calibration info)
Other web sites of interest to Line 6 product owners
If you can’t get enough Line 6 info to keep you happy, check out these other great sites.
- Institute of Noise
- Malhavok’s World (my old site for POD 2.0)
- Rowbi‘s site includes some cool Line 6 related info
My Line 6 History
I have had a long and fulfilling relationship with the Line 6 POD series. I started off with the original bean back in 1998. POD XT came out in 2003 and I got one right away. The next step up was 2007 when I got my shiny POD X3 Live. As a bass player I have also owned and used a Bass POD and later a Bass POD XT. I used an ART X-15 Ultrafoot for controlling my early PODs but stepped up to the FBV Shortboard for my XT series units, but now I just use integrated X3 Live pedalboard. My computer gave thanks when I picked up a TonePort UX2 for it on Thanksgiving of 2005. You can hear Line 6 technology on almost every recording on this site and my personal site BenVesco.com.
21 replies on “Line 6 Amp Modelers”
Any chance of whipping up a Chris Duarte patch like in “My Way Down”? Very glassy sound, which he achieved with low output pickups.
For a very glassy sound I recommend starting with a higher gain patch than you think you need. Then turn your guitar volume all the way down and slowly turn it up until you just start to hear the sound. It will be a quite clean and quite glassy tone at that point. Also, for Chris Duarte’s guitar tone make sure to be rocking some single coil pickups!
I just purchased an X3 Live last week. I keep hearing about Gearbox, but when I try to download it from the Line 6 site, it says that I need to purchase a license, which doesn’t exist on the site. How do I get this?
Gearbox only needs a license if you want to use the plugin. Otherwise it is totally free. I just tried and the download started without requiring a license (but I did have to agree to the EULA).
Thanks! I just tried it and it worked. Cool program.
I’ve tried loading your Lincoln Brewster patches into Gearbox, but it says that they are unsupported patch types. I was, however, able to load them into my X3 Live via Line 6 Monkey.
I would like to switch use 2 stomp boxes or 2 mod or delay effects within in one signal chain without using 2 tones blended, Is there any way of doing that on the X3 live? For instance, I want to use the metal zone distortion and a octave synth after it in the signal chain… thanks
Hey BenVesco,
I use a PodXT Live. Do you know which of your articles on the X3 could be used on the XT as well?
And I must say, your articles on mixing have changed my life :D
Hi,
I am having problems getting ANY good tones out of my pod x3 live. sound clips and patches ppl have made sound great but when I put the exact same settings in MY pod it sounds rubbish. Any tone ALWAYS sounds slightly better thru headphones but when played through my power amp to monitors, the sound has to much treble or is too muddy. I have tried amps aswell and thats even worse! I am using a Jackson DK2 thru the pod thru a carlsboro powerline 300 and carlsboro EM10 monitors. I have heard some really great tones from the x3live but I must be doing something wrong here can you help me out??
Make sure you have the global output set to studio direct and not one of the live amp modes.
Hi,
yea both tones are set to match studio direct. I have tried all the settings before posting. im using the live outs from the back of the pod, would the xlr outputs give me a better sound??. the carslboro has unbalanced inputs and the xlr s are balanced, I have been told that because of this there was no point using xlr cables is that right? Any help you can give me would be really appriciated as im on the verge of giving up with the pod :(
just to clarify, the xlr s on the pod are balanced outputs, the carlsboro has unbalanced inputs. (lol but i suspect you already know that obe wan…)
stil cant set set up dual tone can anyone go through the procedure start to finish?
If you hold the “Tone 2” button do both tone titles show up in the display?
Page 4.4 in Rev E of the advanced manual describes how to set up dual tones. You can download it at http://line6.com/ in the support section under manuals.
thanx il try that ,then pod goin in dustbin if that doesnt work
yeah both titles show up but it doesnt sound like a blend ,just one tone