Grumpyrocker

Pod Farm is Line 6's guitar and bass amp/fx modelling software supplied with a variety of its devices. The software is also available as a standalone version if you wish to register it with an iLok dongle. My copy of the original Pod Farm came free with the purchase of a UX1 USB recording interface. Since I bought the UX1 I also added several of the expansion packs - but the basic software came with plenty of amps and fx to play around with.

But onto the new version? Does it bring enough to the table to warrant the upgrade? Certainly my $49 upgrade seemed a complete bargain. But after the jump I'll discuss how the software compares to rivals such as Guitar Rig and Amplitube.

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For the guitarist keen on replacing pickups on their electric guitar there are a wealth of choices. Well known names such as Seymour Duncan and EMG are hugely popular with musicians looking to improve their instruments.

However many of this pickups can be very expensive and if you're working on a budget, or trying to improve a cheap stock guitar these pups can seem like overkill. Is it really worth putting £200 of active pickups in a £100 guitar?

What's needed in cases such as these is a range of pickups that vastly improve on the tone of cheap stock pickups yet at the same time doesn't break the bank. Such pickups do exist and some of the best are made by IronGear.

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Well I finally decided on - and bought - a new amp.

For a while despite the "cheap and cheerful" nature of this purchase - to get it passed the wifey - I did toy with going for something more expensive such as the new 20W Blackstar.

I also toyed with getting a custom build. But the builder I approached didn't seem interested in fitting a feature pictured in nearly every photo on his bloody website, or that interested in my custom at all. You'd think folks would be more friendly when they would be making over £400 wouldn't you?

So spurned by the rude custom amp bloke I returned to the idea of cheap and cheerful. And a larger retail company was much more polite and even price matched for me. So I've taken the controversial move of buying a Bugera V22.

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In my review of the Peavey Vypyr 75 I pointed out that to get the full functionality of the amplifier you would need one of the two Sanpera pedals. The larger and more feature rich version - the Sanpera II - is the feature of this review.

The pedal board is housed in a sturdy metal chassis that feels like it could cope with some hard gigging. The two expression pedals also feel tough and all the foot switches are solid. It certainly seems a sturdier system than one might imagine at this pricepoint and the build belies the slight silliness of the design.

While the Vypyr allows you to store and recall 12 presets, adding the Sanpera II opens that up to 400 presets. The Sanpera also opens up the functionality of the looper and gies you pedal control over volume, pitch shift and wah.

The looper functionality is somewhat disappointing but Peavey has promised to address this in the next firmware update for the amp. The problem is that the loop always play back too loud, even almost muting it via the volume pedal while recording is not ideal. This isn't an actual problem with the Sanpera II though, and the pedal controls for recording/play and stop/reset work perfectly well.

So to do the other pedals which allow you to change the delay tap tempo, move memory banks up and down, and choose from one to four presets in each bank. Pushing forward on the volume pedal allows you to enter tuner mode. The other pedal is initially inactive but pressing down on it enables the wah, or pitch shifter if that's what you've selected via the amp effects section.

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Modelling amplifiers are becoming an increasingly common option at the less expensive end of the guitar amplification market. Previously if you wanted to emulate more expensive amps you would have to buy some kind of effects unit and footpedal that you would connect to your amplifier.

Now companies such as Line6 with its Spider amps and Peavey with the Vypyr series are offering all in one solutions that aim to provide guitarists on a budget with a selection of tones they could only previously dream of.

The Peavey Vypyr 75 combo modelling guitar amplifier is an interesting beast. Though it does not feature vacuum tubes it is not a wholly digital device, distortion sounds are created in an analog fashion via Peavey's transtube solid state technology. The practical upshot being that the distortion and overdrive on offer sounds much more warm and natural than many rival digital-only offerings.

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