I’ve played guitar for around sixteen years and attempted to record music through various methods for probably around ten years in all. During this time I’ve read various tricks and tips for recording musical instruments and made various ill informed equipment purchases in order to get a better sound.

For quite some time I just plugged my guitar into some effects pedals and then straight into my recording equipment, which saves the hassles of ambient sounds interfering with the recording and having to turn the amp up loud so that it sounds good enough to record. This approach is ok for ‘bedroom recording’, but generally I’ve found that I can’t get diverse enough sounds from the guitar to suit a number of tracks, which makes you’re demo sound a bit samey, i.e. the same guitar sound and style on each track like most other amateur bands.

The solution to this is to use an ‘amp modeller’. This is a digital signal processing unit, much like any other effects units, which can simulate a range of different amplifiers and speaker cabinets, as well as having some other processing capabilities and built in effects. This allows you to make your guitar sound like you’re playing through that Marshall full stack you always wanted, but without blasting everyone in your street – maybe just monitoring through headphones for practicing.

The most popular amp modelling products are made by a company called Line6. They make all sorts of studio and live gear, but are best known for their POD range signal processors. The POD range comes in various different models, from the ‘Pocket POD’, the standard desktop POD, and the rack mount POD Pro series. These are also tailored either for guitar or bass.

I found my Line6 POD Pro on eBay for around half the price of the original RRP, and I can tell you it’s worth every penny. It features 32 customizable amp models, 16 digital effects, direct audio out via XLR as well as standard ¼” jack, and digital out via S/PDIF. It also has capability for external digital clock sync and MIDI in/out so that you can change patches via another MIDI enabled device.

The POD Pro series are 2U rack mount units, the front panel is metallic red and the whole chassis is made from metal which makes it robust should you wish to use it live. There’s a handy switch on the front which is effectively a live/studio switch – this selects either the guitar input on the front, or the line input on the back which enables you to use another preamp or plug any other audio source into it.