Line 6 Pod Go vs Boss GX100 - Which Should You Buy?

I was asked which I'd pick out of the Pod GO or the Boss GX100 the other day, so I wanted to put together an honest appraisal of what I'd choose, and why, given how each unit performs in terms of Build Quality, User Interface, Functionality, and suitability for Gigging.

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

00:00 Intro
2:36 Disclaimer....No-one gave me any of this gear
5:10 Dual Amps and Parallel Paths
5:45 The Most important Difference for GIGGING
8:00 Power Supplies - Neither are Great
8:35 Getting Jiggy with It
12:57 Closer look at Spillover and Seamless Switching

[johnnathancordy]

So tones are probably not very easy to compare across these models, but I dialled in some tones that I'm enjoying with the GX100 and just put them side by side with some tones from the POD Go that I also use.

In the GX100 I'm using the Boutique Model and a "JCCab" IR
In the Pod GO I'm using the Litigator Model and the same IR

[TheRycooder]

Your playing is always just so amazing but I'm SO IMPRESSED with your sound on Youtube. NO ONE captures true sound on here like you do. What an amazing video. TY!!!

[alexbassi]

This is not the first time that I came across one of your comparisons...and as always happens, I got completely stolen by the beauty of your playing. Really, I'm always amazed by your great feeling and technics. In just 2 minutes (the duration of this instrumental intro) you make me wanna be a better guitar player!
Really inspiring.

[micwalt]

I got the GX-100 a few days ago, and I'm liking it much more that the POD Go. And as for the "no snapshots" issue, you can totally achieve the same sort of thing with the GX because you can assign anything anywhere you want. For example, I created a preset where CTL1 switches between the two amps, as well as toggling delay and chorus. So there's two snapshots there--one dirty rhythm sound and one clean sound with delay and chorus. Then, on the same preset, FS4 turns on a comp, delay, the amp Solo function, and cranks the level a couple db for leads. So that's essentially a third snapshot. Then I've got just delay on FS3 and just phaser on FS2, and I assigned amp gain to the exp pedal, instead of volume. It's so freaking versatile.

[jolyoncox]

Couldn't care less about the gear...I come for the playing! So good!

[averyhagaman]

Man that intro is AWESOME! Great reviews, and your playing is just always so stellar

[Scott__C]

Nice comparison! In the Boss stuff, the Control 1 and 2 switches can actually switch settings on pedals and turn stuff on and off. On the older stuff (GT-100) it allowed I think 8 that could be divided up between the Control switches. I used those to add gain, turn on delay and reshape EQ and level for a lead.

[ivanbalashov]

At the first glance the UI of the Pod GO seems so much better.

[illgottengains]

The amp channel switcher is the feature that attracts me to the Boss. I’ll always use a real amp where I can, so I see this as an effects pedalboard. I like the mastered sound of Boss effects so hopefully this will sort me out. Thanks for the video 👍

[peterblau]

Thanks for showing how the crossover feature works. Big plus and game changer for the Boss

[flashbak]

GX-100 is an amazing unit especially at its price point!

[johnwelk]

Boss really looks like they hit it out of the park on this one!

[l.g.]

The main reason i'll go with Boss is it's a new unit, has a few years of "life" guaranteed, for firmware and the possibility to be eventually sold for a reasonable price.

[longi]

The seamless switching on the Boss sounds lovely.

[rohanchettri]

Listening to your intro made me pick up my guitar and practice 🤘🏻. Awesome track 👏🏻

[guitardipu]

Whee!! Thanks for keeping my request!!

[dnahk]

Both are excellent for the money. I recently paired the HX Stomp with the GX-100. Really great for quick changes and stage functionality (GX) and terrific amp tones (HX)!

[markclearwater]

Fantastic tone and phrasing! I don't even care about the product comparison now!

[johnnytwo-shoes]

With the boss gx100 seemless switching approach using banks for songs and patches/presets instead of snapshots, is kinda the old digital multifx approach before snapshots/scenes were a thing. Units like the boss gt10, Korg ax1000 - 3000g, Digitech and old zoom units.

I get that your point is that it is seemless unlike the other units. I can't speak to the seemlessness of the old units as I sold mine but the approach is actually a really old approach to bank/patch(preset) design. People would use the HD500s like that too. Can't remember if you could assign more than one block per FS on that, since it's been a while since I've used mine
(Edit) Just checked you can turn multiple blocks on/off with FS on the HD500 but not parameter changes hence using the bank per song/preset in lieu of snapshots approach. Looper spills over, can't remember if verb/delay trails do.

You would have 4 patches per bank and use the banks for a single song with the 4 patches as different snapshots for song sections. These units also had a manual hold footswitch that then turned the patch into stomp mode so you could turn on/off individual effects but not parameters without bending down and editing with your hands.

Most would program using the bank per song/4 patches(presets) to get the parameter changes as well as effects on/off assigned to the 4 footswitches
eg
Song1
Bank 1A - clean |bank1B - crunch/clean with delay | bank1C - heavy gain | bank1D - solo + delay.
Song2
Bank 2 etc

[FranklinSW]

This video is about what I was looking for on the internet, thanks for that bro!!!