Line6 Bass Pod Xt Live

So, I traded an old EKO I refin'd against a Line6 BassPod XT Live.
It was an itch I had, since with one band I play with we rehearse with headphones. Electronic Drums, and I plug into a studio preamp directly. I figured it would be better if I could have some control on my tone, and volume.
The itch was even more important once I tried the ElectroHarmonix Slammi Plus and discovered the ability to control the modulation effects with en expression pedal.
Anyway.
Plugged it at home, reset all factory and tried it with headphones.
It's fairly old, so I thought the sound would be a bit of bullshitty. It's not.
I have to admit that I was not impressed by the effects (still have to tweak a bit to find out how to make those work, I've never been an effect guy); but the amp and cab simulations... damn. Really great.
I mainly toyed with what I know, Sunn, Acoustic and SWR of course. It's fairly close to the real thing. This will allow me to have a better sound, for sure. Better as in "dressed up" and with more control over my EQ. The concept of a Stomp pedal to add some beef with an overdrive/Comp; plus the modulation pedal to add choru and such, plus assignment of some characteritic to the expression pedal make it very great.
And it's fairly easy to understand, too.
Time consuming to tweak, but fairly easy.

 

True story, I went to a George Michael show, it was amazing. Great bass sound too, and you know he played songs from different eras, so different sounds. His bassplayer and I were some sort of Skype buddies, he is Warwick Endorser, so I asked him after the show what amp he was using.
Line6 XT Live

 

Very flexible tool for the job. I always pick the SWR setting on my Roland Cosm modelling combo too. More punch.

 

REALLY ? Damn. I never thought it could be THIS good. I only heard it through the headphones, and I was pretty pleased with the result. I guess that once you learn all those tweaking possiblities, you can achieve what you want.
I saw the Helix video with Billy Sheehan, and given the amount of stuff this guy need to get "his" sound, it seems Line6 really have pioneered a great way to modelized the sounds.
I never thought that this would be a thing you take on the road for a Pro musician, just a toy for Studio wannabes... I stand corrected.
It's a shame they don't do "specific" bass stuff anymore. I guess it's easier to market a single product to both population.

 

He never claimed it was THIS good. I've tried, didn't worked for me. However, he needed many sounds, and the alternative was a huge rig with all the issues. He did a great job with XT. In the end, the sound is in the...

 

hands of the sound guy ?
When I say THIS GOOD, its, good enough for an international level show, live. Which is far more demanding than a bar with 12 people, including the dog.