Tmidiman

The POD X3 had issues with the input jack. It's not supported properly in the housing and it becomes easy to crack the solder joint that holds the jack to the circuit board. You can try lightly pushing up or down on the guitar cable while it is plugged into the X3 and strumming your guitar. If you all of a sudden find the sound coming in and out you've found the problem. You can take it to a repair person if you don't know how to solder, but in time the problem will come back. I need to research a way to better reinforce the jack, as I don't know if Line 6 will ever admit to the problem or offer a solution.

What you are looking for Is a "Holdsworth" tone. This means picking an amp with a good ringing tone and to front end that, not with a distortion or overdrive, but a clean boost. Then you need to EQ the back end and drop the highs. On the X3 I would recommend the Boost + EQ stomp into the Line 6 Tread Plate. W/ 2X12 67 wishbook. 0 the bass and treble and leave 16 on the mids. Drop bass and treb. on the boost too, but not to zero. I turned off the parametric at the end, but you can dail in whatever you need. Oh, and roll you volume and tone to 7-7.5 on your guitar. I'm going to go into this in detail with audio examples when I relaunch my website later this year. Enjoy!

Line 6 seems to have forgotten about tone. It's too bad. I used to buy their gear all the time, but now I just pass it by. But like I said the gear tat is still out there works and sounds great! That's why I bought a second original POD. I've turned musicians who lived and died for that pure tube sound on to old Line 6 gear, but now it's time to stop. Soon you won't be able to get it at a great price on eBay any more. Even Line 6 realizes how good it sounds. That's what they still sell POD 2.0. But some how they forgot how to capture good tone. If they are like most companies these days, the original engineers either left or were cut and they took their secrets with them. Oh well, I have one more original POD to purchase and I'm done.

wcmexbm, I hear you brother. For mr the new HD models have no soul. Every time I'm in a different store I demo the HD line and nothing I hear makes me want to buy one. They just don't sound good. But the X3 sounds great and way better in not only my opinion, but others as well. Great sound and lots of amp options for guitar and bass make it an easy choice. And the POD 2.0 has a few sounds that the X3 or HD PODs can't even touch. That's why in my studio I have 2 original PODs, a POD 2.0 rack, and an X3. Since you have a good ear for tone I recommend trying the Zoom G5, or maybe the MS100-BT as something to add to you setup. I'm not saying the amp models are better than the X3. But what you would gain is the ability to call up , for example, 6 delays or choruses, or 3 dual band parametric EQs. The Zoom units are great for tone shaping.

The Original POD and POD 2.0 have a sound that no other POD or emulator has. A lot of people don't know that yet so keep it to yourself. Shhhhhh. But as far as what to do you'll have to use your own ears and get what works for you. When getting an amp head and a distortion pedal/overdrive remember that it's not about a brand name, but about the right combination of the two. Some heads sound best with only certain types of pedals. Best thing to do is ask a guitar store to let you bring in your speaker and head and try all the pedals they have till you find the right one. You may find that you only need a booster if the heads preamp sounds great already and it just needs a bit of a push to sweeten it.

My Pod X3 had this problem and it wound up being a cold solder joint with the input jack. I had to open the unit and re-solder the joints. I've had to do this several times. The unit is in a non-stress environment and that input jack is just plan crap. I love my Line6 gear, but the downward trend in quality has hurt their image in my mind.