Pod X3 Live vs. Vox ToneLab LE

My buddy, who plays guitar or cruise ships, is tired of lugging his pedal board around and is thinking of getting a multi fx unit. I recommended the PodX3 Live as i have the pod alone version, but i have heard great things about the tonelab. Anyone played both or A/B'd them or have experience with both? Any and all input is appreciated, peace.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Line-6-POD-X3-Live-Guitar-Multi-Effect-Pedal?sku=150377

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vox-Tonelab-LE-Guitar-Multi-Effects-Pedal?sku=150246

My buddy, who plays guitar or cruise ships,

Playing a cruise ship must be pretty awesome. I imagine they are a pain in the butt to haul to gigs, though.

So what does he intend to use the pedal for? Is he just replacing his pedal board, or does he want to plug in direct to the PA and not bother with an amp anymore?

he wants to replace his pedal board. the ship usually provides the amp, which has been a twin reverb or similar.

I have the Vox Tonelab LE. I run it thru a Tech 21 cabinet so the tone is not colored. It has worked just fine and does exactly what I wanted ( good Vox AC 15/ 30 and Marshall Plexi models ). It is built like a tank and has a tube in the preamp which warms up the tone a bit. As far as the effects, I have only used the reverb, chorus and delay. They worked just fine. I got it new for $ 350.00 + tax about a month ago and have had no issues with it yet.

if he is happy with the amp situation and just wants effects then the Line 6 M13 looks pretty cool.

Not used the tonelab, but as castpolymer says you have to be carefull with amp modeling not to colour the sound.

I much prefer using my X3 Live direct into the PA than through a guitar amp, having said that I have not tried one of the amps that are designed for modeling .. the Tech 21 and the atomic etc.

Cheers

BMF

He could pretty much flip a coin and still come out ahead. The Line 6 UX3 or the Tonelab pretty much run neck in neck. If the band is playing through a decent PA rig than he could just easiily go through the PA. A lot of people tend to trash multi-effects when they are put in front of an amp but I find they work pretty well when you tweak them properly and have the device set up for "in front of amp" operation. Just deactivate the "amp modeling" and your good to go.

I am really not a big fan of having an amp with modeling features because of the chance of the amp going south and losing the presets. I like to keep my houses seperate.

I never really liked the sound of a POD unit piped through a tube amp. There's too many technological eras going on there for me to keep up with - and I'm not sure they all work organically together.

My recommendation would be to pipe the POD output directly to the house PA system. In my experience - it's easier to maintain tonal control that way because the PA doesn't "color" the tone nearly as much as the tube amp does.

YMMV though and I've seen many people swear the POD sounds great through a tube amp. But I've never been able to get it to "work" quite as well as I could with straight PA.

he wants to replace his pedal board. the ship usually provides the amp, which has been a twin reverb or similar.

The ship provides the amp??? :shock:

What cruise line is he working for???

I used to play for Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and neither of them EVER provided an amp for me! I always had to bring my own (grumble grumble).

This was in the 80's and early 90's though. They didn't make POD's, and the like back then. As much as I dislike them - they would've been GREAT for the ships!!!

Edited to add:

DUH!!!

It JUST dawned on me.... POD through a Twin??? NEVERRRRRRR!!!

POD - or equivalent - into a PA, with decent monitor, or a keyboard amp, but NOT a guitar amp.

If he's looking to thin down his pedal board, he should just eliminate whatever is not absolutely necessary. I always used just a little overdrive, maybe a boost on top of that, and then a pinch of reverb. Nothing else needed.

I had my POD throught both a TRRI and a DRRI and I found that it sounded pretty good in both cases and was even complemented by people about my tone but then that turned to derision when they saw I was using a POD.:rolleyes: If you like the sound of pedals throught the amp thats fine but I never ran into any problems with tone when using my POD throug a tube amp. Granted I had to tweak with the overall EQ with the unit and tailor the patches to get the most out of it but it can do the job. I even unloaded a bunch of pedals becuase they pretty much much became redundent.

I still have a pedals and a JD10 but the POD sill gets used. I like the flexibility of having different patches set up with different delay, modulation, or reverb settings availble at my feet and just haing to step on one switch. You can't really do that with a lot of pedals on the market unless you have 2 or 3 of the type or a switcher and all of that starts to add up and thats not includng quality connectors and power supply.

I agree with playing with either Tonelab or Pod X3 Live through an amp like Fender Twin Reverb. (BTW, sweet amp!) If you want the true sound of the amp models, playing through PA is best bet.

I personally have a Tonelab LE and I think I like better than Line 6 X3 Live. Is much more straight forward to set up, but the Tonelab strength is amp modeling in my opinion.