I bought this with the intention of having a good practicing system. The fact that I can just clip on a headstock tuner plug in a 3 foot cable to it with headphones and batteries was the biggest selling point and that I could use it as a light traveling rig was also a plus. I do not use a lot of effects so I was not really concerned with the limitations.

When it first came out I was not too excited about the default settings but since Line 6 released the edit software for this thing you can really pull the potential out of this but it more or less still for me remains a set it and forget it kind of pedal but for a really simple set up it has enough compression, enough drive, enough emulation, and enough effects. All this with DI output, headphone jack, tuner and the ability to set this up with your phone or tablet to more or less making it the ultimate travel kit/ practicing kit.

I use the HX Stomp as my primary system but this for me is like taking the complexity of that and whole set up and for country/blues/singer songwriter stuff I really do not need anything special but this thing is special.

Pros -

A respectful amount of emulation and effects in a small unit.

Every thing is bright and easy to see on stage or in a darker practice room.

Light and portable.

Line 6 editor allows you to really get in there and tweak the amp emulation and every thing else

Fantastic output /input options it functions as a DI, practice kit, or it can just be a pedal in your chain or a standalone.



Cons:

Its plastic, feels cheap.

The learning curve is a bit steep when trying to figure out what each set of effects does and the complicated color way system is confusing at first. Especially if this is your first digital pedal.

While you can set up presets that allow you to chain the same effect family together its complicated in the edit software and while you can do it without it that is even more complicated. However, once you figure out how to change up the amp sims say you want to use overdrive and fuzz or overdrive and distortion you can set up a preset that adds overdrive to your amp and then separate the fuzz or distortion which again it means you are somewhat limited with the minimal headroom/ram but you can still get some decent sounds but you have to creative in the editor.

Overall for the current price, I would pick this any day over similar products even half the price.

After seeing all the mixed reviews I decided to try this as a one-pedal-only experiment.

At first it was confusing and not very intuitive — I almost gave up on it. The different switch modes, alt button and push-button options take some time to get used to. But after going through the manual and watching a few YouTube demos things started to click, and I realized how much this little unit can actually do: amp models, overdrive, distortion, fuzz, compressors, chorus, phaser, delay, octave effects and even a looper. The USB connection is a big plus too — you can plug straight into a computer or phone and record without needing an extra interface.

It may look like a plastic toy at first but don't let that fool you. Once you get past the learning curve it's a very versatile all-in-one pedal for experimenting and exploring sounds.

And if you want later, you can always go down the rabbit hole and start building a pedalboard with individual units.

Great FX pedal for the price...

I'm a guitar player trying out bass (FYI, it is super fun). Instead of trying to build a whole pedalboard from scratch, I thought I would buy this do-it-all multi-effects pedal. It is powerful and pretty easy to learn. Not all the sounds are usable (delay is kind of impractical for bass), but many of them are super cool. I like the "growl" synth a lot. The pedal is a good way to experiment and decide what dedicated pedals you might want to buy later. Plus, it has a tuner, a looper and works as an audio interface if you want to record on your computer. Super versatile. Couple of things make me knock off one star: as you may have read, it's made out of plastic, not metal. I dont gig with the bass so thats OK, but be aware the sturdiness of the hardware may not be what you are used to. The volume control on the side also feels flimsy, but unless you are listing with headphones, you won't be touching it much. Finally, it runs on AA batteries instead of the standard 9V, so now you have to carry two kinds of batteries if you have other pedals. But all-in-all, its a lot of fun for a new bass player and a fraction of the cost of individual pedals. A great value.

I don't love it. It works but I'd recommend saving your money for something better

This pedal has some OK sounds out of the box, but just couldn't dial in the sound. I was on the fence about keeping it until I found the editor you can download from Line 6. I downloaded the editor and connected the pedal to my PC, and WOW! This pedal sounds amazing now. This pedal has everything from clean to dirty sounds and some really interesting sounds for when you want to get weird.

This thing is pretty impressive.
I typically like a good distortion and chorus, with a Sansamp (mostly on at all times).
When I opened this doohickey, go to give her a go and my Sansamp died...
Well, I set it aside and just used the L6BPE and I was very happy and honestly floored at the fact that I didn't mind the absence of my Sansamp.
Limitless possibilities with this one!

This versatile little box can do pretty much whatever you want it to. The computer/phone app is key! Customizing all the details is so easy through the app and you can dial in exactly what you're looking for.

This rig is great. Sounds great. It is like a Rockman portable battery powered amp for headphones with a focus on the needs of a bass player. The major issue is that they went with a delay effect instead of an ambient reverb. Why a delay for bass? So I can play Pink Floyd One of these Days? An ambient reverb would have made this a five-star pedal. Otherwise, it is as good as the standard (red) Pod Express for guitar. Great practice box for direct input from instrument into headphones.

I lead music in church, play in a community jazz band, and play bass in a cover band. Simply amazed at my tone at church, boosted signal that works great with my upright, and the variance of sounds I can create when I am running through top 40 bass lines from the 60's through the early 2000's. I have really only touched the surface of what the pedal can do and I am beyond impressed. This pedal is incredibly underpriced and should be in your studio.

I like it for plugging in an aux and earphones to play late at night, but that's about all. I get a lot of distortion on the majority of the effects, so I cannot use it for gigging.

The POD Express Bass pedal is the best effect pedal I've ever owned, better than even past multi effect rack devices I've had. It has all the fundamentals - 4 types of compressor/limiter, 3 band EQ and 4 distortions-including Rat and Muff Pi style. It also offers 7 AMP models which offer an even WIDER range of tones. It also has modulation / delay effects and even a tuner and looper, and holds 21 presets. Solid!

But the coolest feature - even cooler than any of the Guitar versions of this POD- is the SYNTH section. If you've ever wanted a QTron filter tone, select GROWL and you've got it. But the biggest life changer was the OCTAVE effect. I've never owned a bass octave pedal before, but the POD gave me the deepest tone I've ever had, with accurate tracking. Using it with distortion gives you all the fuzz you could want on top while keeping you well grounded with the lower octave.

The two coolest modern features are digital— it can connect directly to the computer/DAW for recording using its USB C connector- no interface or direct box needed. Second, it has an extensive visual editor that you can access either via a web browser when connected to your desktop or via the POD Express Edit app on your mobile that lets you modify your sounds at a deeper level- like noise gate threshold and release times, the LFO speed of the modulation effects, and more.

tl;dr The POD Express BASS pedal is the multi-genre, all in one, portable bass tone solution I've been looking since I started playing, and it's under $. Get it!!

I didn't expect this to sound as good as it did, but this pedal sounds HUGE. It has a super deep sub octave and crunchy fuzz and distortion choices, without ever losing the clarity of the pitch. I couldn't be happier with this pedal. Fantastico!

After I spoke to the people at Yamaha music corporate headquarters they suggested that I go with the line 6 pod Xpress bass. So I called Sweetwater music spoke to my appointed sales rep Kyle what a great guy easy to talk to easy to understand and also understands me and what I am looking for. I bought it shipped to me I couldn't wait to get it plugged in to my bass, and as I described to Kyle what I was looking for I said I want my face to sound like a Harley road king when it starts there is no mistaking that sound that's what I want from my bass and it delivered and then some I am still playing with and figuring things out to change certain settings but there is one setting that no mistaking it with this Bass is fired up you'll know that there is more, and the more is the Pod Express Bass. I highly recommend to every bass player out there that is looking for something and you just can't figure it out well line 6 I was taking a guess work out of it and you can get them right here at Sweetwater music I am not a paid endorser I am not a paid musician I just love to play bass but I know what sound I'm looking for I want that punch in the chest sound not just a thump thump thump but a holy moly that is what I'm been looking for well that's what I was looking for and I can't say enough good about it this is great high-quality, made very well. If you decide to purchase one of these you will not be sorry the line 6 pod Xpress base is probably what you're really looking for and it is compact that's the one of the best parts I hope you buy one soon you won't be sorry.

PROS: Price, thoughtful/efficient layout, features (e.g., headphone amp), wide variety of really decent sounds, no scroll menus. CONS: While it manages to pack a lot of functionality into a tiny space, it's usability is pretty low. Blinking lights, sensitive knobs, etc. I can't imagine depending on this thing at a gig. It's a pretty cheapo plastic box, especially the volume knob on the side.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I started playing a few months ago and wanted something to expand my sound a bit. I saw this, figured "eh, it's pretty cheap and it's got plenty of effects, if I don't like it I won't be out a whole lot of money," and went ahead and ordered it. My indifference to it changed the moment I plugged it in an started playing around with it. The controls are pretty intuitive, the sound quality is surprisingly (at least to me after reading some of the more negative reviews) great, and it's also quite durable, seeing as I've inadvertently stepped on it in the dark and it still works perfectly. Overall, I'm incredibly satisfied with it and would highly reccomend it to anyone else who is just starting out.

I'm curious to see if it would function well enough for a guitar, lol. The one for the guitar doesn't have the synth mode. That aside, I'm impressed with the ingenuity behind it, well played Line 6!

Let's clear the air: Yes, it's plastic. But so are gun holsters and truck bumpers. Unless you're chucking your pedal in the back of a U-Haul or smashing it with your P-bass, it's plenty rugged.

Now to what counts: The POD sounds great! I started with the Tonex One due to its size and tweak-ability. In reality, the required software was a bit glitchy and the bass tones were quite limited, unless I wanted to spend even more money on decent captures. And honestly, I was tired of having to boot up my computer just to tweak. The POD has all of that right in front of you. There are 7 great amp/cab sims with the ability to mix and match the amps and cabs. You can reassign the switches to taste (octave and chorus for me), and creating presets is the secret sauce. The "punch" sim (GK head with Ampeg 4x10) sounds just like that same combo that's sitting in my basement. I know some market this as a "budget" or "practice" option, but seriously, this is a great silent-stage solution with extra features that make it worth twice the price.

The -1/2 is due to the distortion settings. The effects sound good, but as the volume increases with drive, there's no independent control to bring the volume level back down to match the overall output (like a typical drive pedal). The best solution I've found is to create a drive preset with decreased overall output, then swap between drive and clean presets when you need to "kick it in". Or, just add one of your 5 drive pedals to the front!

PROS: It's a lot of tech content for the money. No scroll menus. Tuner works well. Nice array of sounds and effects that are all pretty decent, but some are pretty goofy. Headphone jack works well. It can be powered by batteries, and it actually *comes* with batteries. It has recording capabilities. MIXED: The user interface is well-considered and functional, but if you're looking for a simple, straightforward, low-tech interface, this is not it. It's a very lightweight pedal, especially with no batteries insides. It will easily flop all over the place unless it's mounted to a board. CONS: The disparate volume levels across effects and amps are a white hot mess. It would be quite a project to get this thing carefully set up to be gig-ready with normalized volumes. The volume fly wheel impacts external volume. It doesn't come with a power supply. It looks nice, but it's a pretty cheap plastic box overall, and it feels like a toy. The volume fly wheel feels particularly cheap. OVERALL: Not a bad buy, especially if it's just for fun home use or very casual gigs - but you'll need to work a bit to dial in your stuff. For anything beyond that, not recommended.

I got this pedal to use with other bass pedals on a board. While utterly by itself, it sounds pretty good and fairly usable, when you try to make it work with other pedals, it's a bit of a pain. The volume output being the main problem with this pedal; it basically acts as a master output volume for the whole signal chain. Because of this, it is hard to balance effects levels with other pedals on your board, especially if you're using a bass preamp/DI pedal. I got the Express Bass in hopes of using it as an easily changeable distortion for heavier parts of songs or as a modeler with different modulation effects. Now, I'm thinking of using it as just an "always on" boost or something. It's too much of a hassle to try to change quickly between presets or anything because of the volume balancing issues.

Basically, the effects individually sound good, but it's not practical to use as part of a live setup.

Don't waste your money on this thing, The only way I could get any sound out of this was I had to amplify the signal through an amp simulator, then I tried the headphone jack on the side and could NEVER! get any sound out of it no matter what I did. When I did manage to get a signal it was distorted and sounded horrible no matter what setting I tried they all sounded like crap (I was using a BRAND new bass guitar and brand new cables). I don't understand because so many glowing reviews made this pedal sound like it was pedal of the year, so I was really shocked at the results I got and kept thinking I'm doing something wrong, but no matter what I tried, this thing just kept sucking worst every time. This is the worst guitar pedal I've every bought and took it back, very disappointed by my first impression of this product and their brand name and will never buy anything by "Line 6" again.

For cheap money you get a bunch of different effects. in that way its a bargain. And it does record well when you have time to get it set up. For a live performance it's really pretty useless. There's no way to access the presets on the fly. You have to step thru them until you get to the one you want. All the amps sound great but all of them are a different volume. Some are so loud you have to stop and turn something down. That little volume wheel on the side is hard to get to and not gradual at at all. You would think they would have put a knob that's easy to get to. You would also think there would be some consistency in the volume between the amps. There's none. It's all over the map. Some are so loud they clip the input on my amp. Some are so soft they can be barely heard. Not well thought out at all. I used it for one set last Saturday night. I got so frustrated with it I unplugged it. It's just not good for live unless you set it up for one sound for the night and leave it alone. It takes way to much time between songs to to dial it in for anything else. I'll keep it for recording and maybe for practice. It's a toy, nothing more.

I don't have any other bass pedals, but this has everything, especially if you need a specific tone or an effect, plus all the cabs and amp models where you can mix and match. Lets you explore lots of possibilities with bass before buying any other more dedicated pedals that do one thing exceptionally well.

My two gripe with this is a lack of ON/OFF switch. Once the instrument cable is plugged in it's on and starts draining the battery. And two, the housing is made of cheap plastic. I wish it was $30 more expensive but was a lot sturdy

While there are some usable effects in this versatile bass pedal, they are significantly overshadowed by the lack of a proper volume control, plastic case, noisy electronics, insufficient control over effects parameters, and poor quality of many of the amp models and effects. Some of this comes down to "you get what you pay for"; however, the are plenty of sore spots that are more to do with the design and execution of the pedal. The small plastic thumb-wheel volume control on the side may be appropriate for the Headphone output, but it is also the master volume for the main pedal output jacks, including when the pedal is disengaged via the footswitch: There is nothing even close to true bypass here. And, without a separate expression pedal for volume control, it is not possible to adjust the effect pedal volume relative to the dry "bypass" volume, as the silly thumb-wheel volume changes both at once. I really don't like any of the bass amp models (I found them boomy, muddy, grungy, nasal, etc.), so presetting the "amp" volume relative to the dry or "bypass" volume is not a meaningful alternative. And, as the compressor effect options significantly change the volume, there is a real need for a proper volume control to compensate for this. Could Line 6 really not find a way to include one more pot for a proper volume control whilst still keeping the pedal affordable? Also, the headphone output, even when the unit is powered by a 9-volt DC power adapter and volume cranked, is insufficient to drive any of the three headphones and ear-bud options I tried (high-quality BeyerDynamic DT-770 Pro studio headphones, basic CAD studio phones, and good old Apple ear buds). I could hear the un-amplified bass strings nearly as well as the sound in the headphones. The four compression options are all noisy -- amplifying hiss that's *not* coming from my bass guitar (I've thus far tested with two different basses, one with EMG pups and active controls and the other one fully passive with humbucking pups). The fuzz and distortion are scrappy at best, the octave effect is muddy on the low notes, and the other three synth effects are lacking much needed balance between dry and wet signals. This leaves me with mod and delay effects in a plastic box that I'm not sure are worth the $180 expenditure. The Sweetwater video for the Guitar version of the same pedal made a convincing case for it, but that was not the Bass pedal. While the POD express is clearly in a very different price range, I have a hard time believing that this el-cheapo product is made by the same people as the Helix, which is a very solid and vastly superior product. It seems that in their quest to make the POD Express Bass affordable, Line 6 have cut so many corners that there's not much left. Or, perhaps it's just that Line 6 need to stay focused on tools for 6-string guitars, and leave the realm of bass guitar to someone else.

I've had the device for a week or so now, and honestly I'm incredibly pleased with it. It'll fit my needs as a simple always-on dirt pedal but I can actually use a lot of the effects on the unit. The pass-thru USB-C for phone-in audio, headphone output, and tuner make this thing the ultimate at-home practice tool. I also feel like the suite of amp sims brought new life to instruments I don't often use, for example a U-Bass and a short scale. I get the best results with my American Jazz. A partscaster P-bass I recently put together is the only instrument I've tried that I didn't get stellar results from, however, when it's heavily distorted and I'm using the Grit or Punch amp settings it sounds perfect for hardcore, metal, or doom music. I will absolutely use this to track bass at home going forward because it beats fine tuning plug-ins, the tuner will help there too. These "it's great for beginners" comments should be taken with a grain or salt, unless they're solely focused towards people using sims. There are more than enough usable tools in this unit making it suitable for seasoned players. I've got multiple decades of experience under my belt, I've only ever needed some dirt, once in a great while a chorus, an octave, and when I played heavier music a phaser/fuzz for feedback and noise. This does all that and more. This product is great for folks who just want simplicity and don't want a ton of devices in their signal chain. It's built well and is easy to use. I'm happy with it.

I think they released something cool with this one. It's easy to edit and save effects compared to something like the Boss Gt 1b. The string and delay effects aren't very good. However the distortion, fuzz and compression are fairly nice. And about the same price as a decent single distortion pedal. It's definitely worth the price. I do wish they would have used a metal body instead of plastic but we'll see how it holds up over time.

We got this for our praise team at church. We were running into the issue of having different levels coming out of different pedal boards and multi-effects from our bassists. This allowed for everyone to plug in without bringing extra effects. The amp sim sounds good. I like the studio and pushed sims. Only complaint is that it would be nice if it included a power supply, rather than making you purchase it separately.

There is so much going on in this little unit all accessible from two foot switches 21 programmable presets plus a tuner and a short time looper. It has a plastic case but it is a sturdy at a low price point it is a win win deal...

The line6 bass pod express in short there is 21 programmable Chanels and a whole array of different effects to choose from there is so many choices for tone making all accessible through two foot switches. True it is in a plastic case but well built and sturdy at this price point you can't beat it. There is a high pitch signal tone that is barely noticeable I use a noise reduction pedal with mine to clean up any background noises. The headphones output sounds fantastic bringing that new feature to headphone practice there is even a tuner on this thing and a looper to boot, all that for under $ it is definitely worth it...

There is alot going on with this one 21 programmable settings plus a tuner and a looper for the price you can't beat it.

I luv the line 6 Bass version. Still getting it figured out there is so much versatility. But I really recommend this pedal for your arsenal. I am in a Worship band. But this pedal goes across the spectrum of sound. Luv it thanks Sweet water. Very good price as well

Line 6 has made a fantastic product, you can use it for practice, and live performance!

I've taken this out for a few live performances already and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for clean, easy to use tones.

Great and simple product to use.

As a newer bass player, I don't have the need or education for a massive pedalboard. This thing has all the different sounds that will help me figure out what I like should that day ever come. One could honestly get by with only this though! Thanks to Richard Granger for his following up and assistance putting this bad boy in my collection!

I've been using the Iridium for a few years on my direct to PA/interface guitar pedal board and thought "Wouldn't this Pod Express for Bass be a great way to capture some bass recordings". Well, so far so good. I'm getting good sounds thru a keyboard amp as well as thru an interface into the DAW. Haven't really gone down the effects rabbit hole, but the compressors and the chorus sound pretty good. The SVT, Punch, and Studio amp models are great. Really brings the Precision to life.
A big Thanks to Delvin W and crew! Awesome service as always.

I am totally impressed with this pedal. Tried it out in an auditorium gig. Had a lot of gain power with amazing sound quality. I had been using another higher priced pre-amp effects pedal and this blows that one away. Highly
recommend. Great sound. Easy to use. affordable.

I would love to see or do a video for the bass version of this pedal before purchasing. Guitar and Bass will respond differently to pedals so having the guitar video under the bass pedal is kind of pointless.