#199 - 27th October 2024 - Smallest amp

Line 6 POD Express Black

In the past three weeks, my diary blog entries were often centered around the question of how to build an inspiring live setup with a sufficiently small foot print.

Synthesizers aren't the issue here.

For guitar though, the only real alternatives to a tube amp used to be Kempers, Fractals, Quad Cortexes etc. - the big guys.

To me, Line 6 has always been Tier 2, albeit many people seem to love the Helix.

I still have the classic red kidney POD...somewhere! I'm certain. And that one caused more trauma than fun.

But the new line of POD Express pedals alreay sparked my curiosity when the red and bass ones were released. Now, there is a new "black" version. A metal version. And they are all very affordable.

My requirements list for what I'm planning to bring to the stage goes (roughly) like this:

small foot print.
little weight (no tube amps and cabs).
not too much functionality. I've had Kemper and QC, they are fantastic but too complex for my needs.
A super clean sound, a very crunchy, slutty, nasty, driven sound (Soldano?) and a Peavey'ish or Diezel'ish chug chug sound.
A volume pedal or TRS input for an expression pedal that would modulate volume.
an octaver, a fuzz, a delay, and a reverb which could all be coming from existing pedals in my line-up but only in case crossing all the items further up this list does not result in taking too much space.
icing on the cake: balanced output.

Considering this list, it seems like the POD Express Black would fit my needs. The clean sound is from the PRS Archon, Crux is Rockerverb, Avant is a Revv and one of the others is supposedly a VH4. There is sufficient choice of different cabs, there is a fuzz, delaby/verb and an expression input.

I guess I'd throw my OC-5 and DD7 in front of it, plug an expression pedal in the back and be very happy with a Metro20 sized pedal board.

I gotta give it a try.