guitar port

[Al M]

Just wondering what people generally think of the guitar port? I havent heard much good or bad about it!

[mginty]

Hi,

I bought one last week and took it back.

The sounds are great, and you can use it to record into a program on your PC so you dont need to mic up a cab which is great for home recording.

The effects also sound great,


BUT i took it back when i saw that, to get the jam tracks, tabs, sounds and lessons of the pro's (like Vai) you need to join online, and pay every month.

I thought it was a rip off so i took it back.

Mark

[gomez1856]

I've had the Guitar Port for quite a while now and I love it. I think that, as long as your expectations are properly set, you will like it. A lot of people get it and think that it's a replacement for their existing amps or effects......it's not. It's a great pratice tool and nothing more. I have been playing for close to 20 years and I find the guitar port to be one of the best pieces of gear I've bought. Whether you subscribe monthly or not is your decision. You get a 10 day trial to see if you like it... Some do, some don't. Even if you choose not to, you can jam along with CD's, WAV's, MP3's, etc as wel as loop sections and play back 1/2 speed to learn tricky parts.

The online selection is fairly limited right now, but it's slowly growing. I like the inspiration that comes from having all the different styles of music with backing tracks at my disposal, even if they're not neccessarily the songs that I'd be playing live. There's a bit of everything.....classic rock, jazz, country, metal, and a bunch of Vai and Eric Johnson.

Rick

[WildWayz]

I have one and loved it... until yesterday when I went to use it and it denied me access :/

Said my CC had expired - it expires the end of this month, so fair enough I entered a new CC card into it.
Declined.
Entered another CC.
Declined.
Entered ANOTHER CC
Declined.

Gave up and called the US from the UK only to listen to "you are next in line for support" for 30mins before hanging up.
Dropped them a friendly email this morning about it all.

All my CC's are near empty so there is no reason for them to be declined.

James

[Jimi D]

I had one for about ten days - I bought it expressly for the on-line aspects of the thing (I have TONS of practice equipment without investing in a POD I have to attach to my computer, thankyouverymuch) and the on-line and software sides of the thing were so second-rate that I bowed out and returned the whole kit... There were lots of backing tracks on-line - fair enough - but only two tabs when I was there, and they were promissing additional tabs at about the same rate as any single decent Guitar magazine... Useless imho - maybe you guys want to figure out Bad Horsie by ear, but I don't... Also, the software feels like it's been patched together using 5th Gen tools and it just devours resources, and there are all kinds of problems with the on-line user interface: it's clunky as hell and ignores many common keyboard shortcuts available in all other browsers on the web (CTRL-C = cut anyone?). You may think "so what", but as a professional software developer, I can tell you that "little" things like that are BIG warning signs: EVERY decent Windows developer in the WORLD knows at a pre-cognitive level that they have to include a collection of common keyboard shortcuts for any text editing window they create on your screen - and the OS itself makes this an extremely EASY thing to do (all that Line 6 are giving you here is a "customized" windows-only browser, after all!) If these simple conventions are ignored, I don't even want to think about the crap code these guys are pushing behind the scenes, but you can be pretty sure they don't know what they're doing.... Anyway, the hardware side is interesting, but the software and on-line aspects haven't hit Beta yet - the code's buggy and the on-line stuff doesn't add enough value to make the crap code worth living with, imho...

[kirk]

I bought one of these about a month ago, and figured I would add my two cents in case anyone was thinking about buying one. So I am using my unholy powers to resurrect this thread.

The GP is great for practicing if you don't want to use your main rig. It's not a POD, but it does sound great.

Design flaw - plug into the USB, plug into your soundcard, out to your speakers. I've already got a huge mess of cables behind my computer and adding these is really a PITA. I have "Dolby 5.1" speakers, and the setup required for the GP to work makes placement of the GP peripheral a PITA. My 5.1 speaker cables are not long enough to reach the GP if I wanted to put it on the desk top or even on top of my computer's case.

What is the purpose of the GP peripheral? I think it is useless. I have a Live! Drive IR, which gives me the ability to plug my guitar into the computer. I don't need the GP peripheral. It's just a PITA. I suppose if you can't figure out how to interface your guitar and your computer it might be useful.

Why not just sell the software? They should offer the option of just buying their software. I think they would find that they would increase sales. $169 is a bit steep considering that this piece of equipment is probably geared more towards the practicing musician, more specifically the musician who can't afford a POD. I would buy the software alone for $60.

Online features are useless to me. If I am going to play someone else's music, I usually use my own sound. With obvious exceptions to necessary delays or maybe even flange or chorus which I can get pretty close by ear. Aside from that, my biggest qualm is that everything you buy today requires a subscription. First i lay out $169 for the unit. Then I have to pay for an ISP. Then GP? I think they could have made the same service available by means of a forum, like the LUP which is provided at no cost. But I guess additional charges for online features is all the rage - Sony PS2 and XBox are going to charge you for online gaming too.

Ease of use. Getting beyond the GP's drawbacks as previously mentioned is easy enough to do once you actually experience GP. It is very easy to use. Pick an amp, tweak it with the 5 or six "knobs." Pick a cab. Choose your fx and tweak them. Very simple. The sound is what you would expect from line six - not perfect, but impressive.

Bottom line. If you've got the scratch, it's worth the money, but I would recommend haggling over the price. You don't need to buy a practice amp if you've got a computer at your disposal. You don't need the POD, although it may be more versatile considering that you can carry it away and use it on your main rig. No headphones are necessary, you don't need to crank anything, you don't neend another set of powered speakers. GP doesn't get a 10, but maybe a strong 7, due to the cost of the package (and additional online service charges) and the poor design of the I/O peripheral.

Hope this helps out anyone thinking about buying one. I am glad I wrote this review, it reminded me to cancel my subscription to the online service (which is free for the first 30 days.)

[sniperfrommars1]

Since Im one of the few who play online regularly Id like to go over a few things about the guitarport myself. For what you pay you dont really get enough. The price should have definitely went down by now, but software has that way of still being pricey and the port itself is unfortunately a bunch of slow cables with a level and some firmware. Ridiculous. I would have been happier if they had made one with a firewire port. The only problems Ive found is the port cant track divebombs and some chords all that well. Its just a little bit too slow to track everything. As far as sound quality online, well thats really what it was designed for and thats where it shines. The tones are basically good and I would use it on a regular basis, except my korg works PERFECT, and I only have to use one cable, and I have a much higher quality of sound. All in all if your going to be playing guitar online youll like it. If your not you wont have a use for it, especially if you already have another processor

[Jimi D]

Well, this is a really well-timed revival of an old topic... I was toying with the idea of buying another one to see if the on-line aspects of the service had substantially improved with the latest software release and the five months that have passed since I owned my first... I really like the idea of the Guitar Port for learning a song IF the tab is available with the backing tracks on-line... The lessons are cool and fun (I like the little "do them anytime" lessons found in Guitar One and Guitar Techniques too) and tho' it doesn't sound all that good to me, it's good enough to practice with... Besides, have you ever tried to find a tab for "The Wind Cries Mary" anywhere besides GP On-Line? Impossible unless you want to pick up the whole JH Experience Hal Leonard tab book - so GP On-Line does have some cool exclusive stuff... I spend maybe $50 a month on guitar magazines, so the "subscription fees" to GP on-line don't faze me IF I'm getting my money's worth - spending most of my time on-line being pissed off at the software is not getting my money's worth imho... I'm just not sure if it's ready for prime time yet.

For the record, I don't have any other way of hooking up my guitar to my computer, and I don't really feel any compelling need to... I'm not big on home recording or anything like that

[dcord]

I actually have a TAB to "Wind Cries Mary" from GFPTM in my archives. From around 1988 or so...

[sniperfrommars1]

50 a month? Thats alot of mags, why dont you subscribe to all of them? your price would be substantially lower

[Jimi D]

Originally Posted by sniperfrommars1

50 a month? Thats alot of mags, why dont you subscribe to all of them? your price would be substantially lower

Actually, it's only a few mags... I buy the British guitar magazines for the most part - Guitarist, The Guitar Magazine, Total Guitar and Guitar Techniques - and they add up to over $65 CDN just for the four of them... But overseas subscription rates are no savings, so I don't bother...