The very first POD has received a lot of abuse – people dismissing the fact that it sounds really good. Josh Scott from JHS pedals points out that the technology inside the first POD, the sales numbers and the team behind it defy this logic.
The main developer of the original POD was Marcus Ryle, which Josh refers to as a genius. He was also the inventor of ADAT. The POD was the first of its kind – a digital processer that “felt” like a real amp. It sparked a lot of new technology that didn’t exist before.
It’s why I get annoyed when I see videos titled: “Line 6 POD VS. The World: Can Deep Editing Save the Bean?”
The title suggests that the POD needs saving when it certainly doesn’t. Referring to it as a “kidney bean” is kinda disrespectful, considering it was actually a great product with a “comic” feel that today’s technology fails to capture. Its user interface is surprisingly streamlined in comparison to modern units that require you to dig around in menus.
There also seems to be a misunderstanding that to get a “better” sound, you should run the POD through an impulse response. As the manual recommends, the POD actually enables additional processing for the headphone output. The main outputs are designed to be fed into a guitar amp.
The POD needs no saving and Josh from JHS proves it.
