Line 6 unleashes High Gain Black Edition of its Pod Express Format

I was quietly impressed by the original Pod Express, which I dubbed the ’My First Fisher-Price’ of Multi-FX - a really neat combination and topology of essential effects - with a supreme ease of use. It was indeed a really handsome device.

The new Black Edition looks very similar to the original but there are actually some very significant differences.

The only segment that is exactly the same is the Modulation segment (Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Tremolo) - but in a different place, we have slightly different Distortion Options top left, and a combination of half of the Delay and Half of the Reverbs of the original - in the bottom right hand corner. 

Then there is an entirely new Boost section - featuring Comp / Mids / Dirty / Clean in the top right corner.

The Amp Voicings are obviously markedly different :

Original Edition : Clean [Fender Princeton] / Special [Line 6 Litigator] / Chime [Matchless DC30] / Dynamic [Ben Adrian Cartograpger]/ Crunch [Friedman BE-100 BE/HBE] / Heavy [Line 6 Oblivion] / Lead [Peavey 5150].

Black Edition : Pure [PRS Archon Clean] / Dirge [Sunn Model T] / Crux [Orange Rockerverb 100] / Anvil [Line 6 Badonk] / Slay [PRS Archon Lead] / Mega [Dizel VH4 Mega], Avant [REVV Generator 120 Red].

Controls - Dist Voicings [Gain] : OpAmp / LED / Distort / Fuzz, Boost [Mid] : Comp / Mids / Dirty / Clean, AMP Voicing [Ch. Volume - Hold to Save] : Pure [PRS Archon Clean] / Dirge [Sunn Model T] / Crux [Orange Rockerverb 100] / Anvil [Line 6 Badonk] / Slay [PRS Archon Lead] / Mega [Diezel VH4 Mega], Avant [REVV Generator 120 Red], Mod [Bass] : Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Tremolo, Delays / Reverbs / Looper [Treble] : Digital / Tape / Ambience / Hall, Bypass Footswitch, Tap Tempo Footswitch, Both Footswitches together to Scroll through Presets.

Ports : Guitar In, L/Mono Out / R Out, Volume / FS 3/4, USB-C, 9V DC [-] 500mA, 1/8" Headphones, Headphone Volume.

I really liked the look of the original, and this one is great too - not sure I would have selected all those self same Amp Voicings if I had a choice - but there are plenty of decent options to be found.

And the price point is excellent - now at $179 / £179 parity.

For a Metal inspired / more heavy gain beginner - I feel this would be an excellent option - it really does give you everything you need in a really neat package.

Line 6 seem to be the champions of these kinds of devices - not just with the Pod Express varieties, but also the HX One, which I’ve kind of come around to after some initial scepticism.

The Pod Express format is genuinely a really smart innovation - beautifully executed - these devices really look the part! You can read up more on the Line 6 Website!