I haven't used both, but I can tell you that I'm a big fan of NI's Guitar Rig. I can also tell you that I'm still waiting on pictures of the studio! :D

I have the POD in my studio for visiting players (and myself), and it works quite well. But lately I've had a couple of players in who had that Tonelab pedalboard. I think it's laid out well, easy to use, reasonably sturdy (the onboard pedals are much better quality than what POD has available), and the sound....Vox nailed it pretty darned good. It really boils down to $$$ and how much you can spend. The last time I saw a used Tonelab it was for around $450.00, which is about what that new POD Live pedalboard would run. I'm probably going to get the Tonelab for the studio and leave the POD at home for personal use.

moonbaby wrote: The last time I saw a used Tonelab it was for around $450.00

That was probably the Tonelab SE (the floor pedal version). You can get the non-pedal Tonelab for about $300.

If I can't mic an amp -- my preferred option-- I'll use either Tonelab, NI Guitar Rig 2 or the digital out on my Fender Cyber Deluxe. The Vox and Fender devices go a pretty good job of emulating their namesake hardware. Guitar Rig is better for emulating high-gain amps, I think (although I often need to EQ out frequencies to get it to sit in mix nicely).

One thing Guitar Rig 2 is great for is adding cabinet sim to lined-in bass guitar. It's new Ampeg and Bassman sims are very usable.

I've never been too keen on the POD. Something about the note sustain seems too "un-amp-like" for me. Just my taste. Plenty of people put it to good use.

My two cents.

For the sake of sharing information I need to post an update to this thread. I decided to purchase the VOX Tonelab (desktop version) for $299.00. A friend came over last night who is an excellent guitarist and owns the Pod XT Live (floor board version) we compared the two and there was a WORLD of difference!!! I cannot express the difference in quality between the two. The VOX won HANDS DOWN TWICE! The tones were so real and close to a mic on an amp it would be hard to tell the difference in my opinion. The Pod was lifeless and lacked the tonal character that the VOX displayed. Needless to say my friend was extremely bummed and stated "we'll looks like I need to sell my Pod!"

This proves that marketing works - for the VOX Tonelab is so much better yet the Pod is so much more popular...silly us!

The Pod does offer more sounds but if realism is what you are after pick this thing up - it rocks!

Hope this helps someone else.

I'm running this same debate. I play heavy metal... Can someone make a recording of the sorta mesaboogie style patch for me?

Thanks!:D

Oh... on the tonelab, sorry!

well, the tonelab does have a tube in it, so it will have a more natural and appealing sound. the pod is all digital, so it will sound all digital. i have played the pod, and didn't like it too much. never played the vox, but ive heard its pretty good for a modeller

There's always the ADA MP-1 for around $300.00 used. I paid $750.00 for mine in the '80s. 100% analog, programmable midi controlled, all tube, and /or solid state signal paths.
Simply kills as a guitar preamp for the types of sounds it gets.

Voodoo amps in Ithaca NY has a special modification for it.

Yeah I liked the Tonelab for some things too.

There's something nauseatingly wrong with the sound of Line6 products, all in my humble opinion, of course.

Hi, I've been playing electric guitar for 13 years and I have both theese modellers in my studio.
None of them is as good as mic'ed cabinet but with a bit of tweaking you can get fairly good results - best thing is to run their outputs thru valve pre-amp.
One thing though!
POD is good for high gain distortion and Tonelab is good for clean and crunchy sounds!

Sorry so late in this thread, I just registere like 2 miutes ago because I wanted to respond here.

I have a Tonelab SE, and for the tie being it is my rig. I have owned more Mesa amps and more rack systems than most guitarists ever get to actually see in their lives. The TLSE, for what I use it for, is just phenomenal. If you would like to hear a few TLSE clips, listen to either of these two recordings. Both are 100% improvised first takes over backing tracks from another guitar site and I make no claims to guitar greatness or anything, but hear the tones the TLSE is kicking out!!! Ignore the player, hear the Tonelab!!!

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