Line 6 - the end of an era

Fretwired

Looks like the Pod 2 has finally bit the dust .. I still use mine and I know Bill Nelson still records albums with his .. I bought one of the first Mk 1 units to hit the UK. And you could get some decent tones ..

monquixote

I've played loads of gigs and recorded loads of music with a POD2. 

The first true classic of the modeling era. 

Fretwired

Looks like some other stuff has been discontinued although that could be the new totally crap Line 6 website. The designers have gone for the space hogging, yet trendy flat website design. It's total pants.

Drew_TNBD

Post edited by myself, not by the mods - Drew

John_P

I thought they had stopped making the pod 2 when the xt came out?    

iirc correctly xt users were complaining that the jcm800 models were more fizzy than the 2 and the treadplate model wasn't as good...


I'm still confused as to why the new amp they are raving about has way old xt technology - very weird unless they are saying that it all sounds the same anyway ;-)

timmysoft

Pod2's are now going to become the classic modeller. You'll see them in Vintage & rare shops for £2000. 

I give it 2 months before Bonamassa releases a signature gold pod2 with a gold express footpedal and it'll be £1700.

EdGrip

It's weird. Because, I dunno if it's just me, but...

...it feels like Line6 - and modelling - is winding down, coming to an end. And that's bizarre, because the computing power at our disposable now is many orders of magnitude greater than when the first POD came out. I mean, AxeFX and Eleven Rack have their respective cults, but they're very expensive. There's no AxeFX Pod. What gives? Has the market vanished in the face of ever-increasing internet forum-based tone snob cork-sniffery? "It's t00bz or nothing" they say. So unless you can get Bogner to stick some t00bz in your modeller, might as well just give up now? Is that it? 

Cos, like, I was looking forward to modelling getting better and better. I was looking forward to simple knob-based amps like the DuoTone and the Flextones getting better and better. Is that all finished now, credits roll, send in the ushers to sweep up the popcorn? Because that's a shame. It's a shame if the forums have killed modelling with digital Ludditery.

Handsome_Chris

@Drew_FX, my grumpy chum, you've got your wish already.  Line 6 have just been bought out by Yamaha. I believe that things were not going well for 'em.

Drew_TNBD

Handsome_Chris said:

@Drew_FX, my grumpy chum, you've got your wish already.  Line 6 have just been bought out by Yamaha. I believe that things were not going well for 'em.

It's a band-aid guv. Yamaha don't really have a history of pushing their tech or subsidiaries to progress. More HD500's for EVERYONE!!

*yawn*

Handsome_Chris

Well come to the guitar show on Saturday and I'm sure Clarky will let you play with his Axe FX II/Marshall big rig.  He is a left hooker too, so that may be something else you can talk about.

Drew_TNBD

I've got plans on le Sat.

I've tried an Axe. They're great, but complicated. I have to deal with complication at my job and when I make electronic music. When I'm doing guitar, I like to keep things simple. I've got enough savings right now where I could easily go and buy an Axe FX Ultra and just use it for FX.

Still don't wanna

octatonic

I wonder how long before hipsters start collecting them?

Drew_TNBD

Hmmmm.... They do look quite a bit like VCR's.

Fretwired

EdGrip said:

It's weird. Because, I dunno if it's just me, but...

...it feels like Line6 - and modelling - is winding down, coming to an end. And that's bizarre, because the computing power at our disposable now is many orders of magnitude greater than when the first POD came out. I mean, AxeFX and Eleven Rack have their respective cults, but they're very expensive. There's no AxeFX Pod. What gives? Has the market vanished in the face of ever-increasing internet forum-based tone snob cork-sniffery? "It's t00bz or nothing" they say. So unless you can get Bogner to stick some t00bz in your modeller, might as well just give up now? Is that it? 

Cos, like, I was looking forward to modelling getting better and better. I was looking forward to simple knob-based amps like the DuoTone and the Flextones getting better and better. Is that all finished now, credits roll, send in the ushers to sweep up the popcorn? Because that's a shame. It's a shame if the forums have killed modelling with digital Ludditery.

The Axe-FX is a niche product sold in low numbers. Line 6 products were bought mainly by kids who noodled in their bedrooms and semi-pros who played in their local church or down the pub. Their products were made to a price point.

Line 6 have been in trouble for years - they over extended their product line. Too many products not enough focus on their core product line which was the POD range. As I said in another thread Yamaha will rationalise the product line and focus the company back on modelling products.

The POD 2 continued in production with some minor tweaks - the gear heads rate the early PODs which are warmer than the newer ones which is due to a change in the processors. You couldn't make this up ... Bill Nelson swears is old POD 2 is better than his new one. And yes I think they will be collectable.

cruxiform

I still use my original 2.0, in fact I was jamming at a friend's house recently with it. They're bomb proof and easily pop into a rucksack. There's pretty much a tone for everything in there.

ThePrettyDamned

Drew_fx said:

I've got plans on le Sat.

I've tried an Axe. They're great, but complicated. I have to deal with complication at my job and when I make electronic music. When I'm doing guitar, I like to keep things simple. I've got enough savings right now where I could easily go and buy an Axe FX Ultra and just use it for FX.

Still don't wanna

Basically this.  

Protest The Hero recorded their last album with an Axe FX II and it sounds amazing.  But even though you can get their exact patches, I just cannot be bothered.

The kemper looks a bit more suitable for me, but even then, I doubt it's quite as easy as it looks...

Drew_TNBD

Really happy with where my rig is right now. I don't foresee it changing for a while. The only thing I might add is a looper.

p90fool

EdGrip said:

It's weird. Because, I dunno if it's just me, but...

...it feels like Line6 - and modelling - is winding down, coming to an end...

....I was looking forward to modelling getting better and better.  It's a shame if the forums have killed modelling with digital Ludditery.

I'm not sure they have tbh, things like the Zoom G3 seem very popular online amongst quite a few others.

I think Line6 have simply had their market share diluted, either by everyone else catching up, or them simply no longer having their hype believed.

I gigged with a POD for a couple of years, but the newer generation Line6 stuff hasn't really moved on that far, and if you want a simple, natural-feeling amp model with zero effects or reverb, I think other companies just do it better.

Mick

I was considering getting a Pod 2, still am if I can find one.  I did bid for a couple on ebay a week or two back, but missed out on those.  Will keep looking though.

digitalscream

I think the main problem is that there have been too many failures. Line6 stuff has been somewhat fizzy since the XT range, and since the X3 it's tried to be too clever and lost the usability factor. The AxeFX is very much a niche product; there aren't many around, really, and it's got a massive price tag.

The Eleven Rack was supposed to fix all these things, and it did a brilliant job - but then Avid killed it by essentially abandoning the product (it didn't help that it was designed for recording, but only worked properly with Pro Tools).

Boss...COSM. Need I say more?

Then there's Zoom - they had an awesome product in the G9.2tt. It really did everything you could want and sounded head and shoulders above anything in its price range (Line6 flagship products included), but it was again one of those products that was basically abandoned and lost a lot of ground against subsequent generations from other manufacturers; if they'd released an updated version with the G3-class modelling and abandoned the useless valves, it would've basically ripped Line6 a new one in the sub-£500 market.

Now, modelling is more of a commodity thing, I think. It's no longer really the focus of a unit - "hey look, we've got a great new modeller". Things seem to have moved on to "hey, our product does this and sounds like that". I think that's why we're seeing a lot of things like TC's TonePrint range and the Zoom stomp effects units. Also, and this is a bit of a finger-in-the-air thing, guitarists seem to be a lot less concerned with how an effect does its job and more bothered about what it sounds like and how it fits in their rig.

To me, that's most definitely a good thing. Of course, we now have to deal with Boss and their bonkers new digital pedals like the Tera Echo, but I'm pretty confident the market will sort them out in pretty short order

Cacofonix

One upside to Yamaha buying is quality. One thing Yamaha has traditionally been known for is quality at its price point. The only thing that put me off the M13 is the quality concerns due to so many button replacement issues/reports and power glitching threads. Otherwise it seemed an amazing product for the price.