Pod Go vs Helix- Which One Is Better For You?

The use of guitar amps in the music industry is not new. They have been around for decades and are a must-have instrument for every guitarist. Essentially, they take weak signals from your guitar and amplify them.

While enjoying a guitarist’s performance at a concert or listening to an already recorded song, you may think that it’s the fingers and guitar strings that do all the magic. However, it is actually the guitar amp that is making the guitarist heard.

Line 6 is a household name in the music industry. The company has been manufacturing quality guitar gear for a long time and has earned a great reputation over time.

Pod Go and Helix are two incredibly popular guitar amps that are manufactured by Line 6. They are both comparable in terms of features and price, which is why users often find it difficult to choose the right one.

If you have just started playing and are looking for the perfect guitar amp, this article is for you.

Comparing The Pod Go vs Helix

Let’s have a closer look at the Pod Go guitar amp first.

Features	Pod Go	Helix
USB interface	Yes	Yes
Component modeling	Yes	Yes
Price	$499.99	$1,599.99
Weight	5.5 lbs	14.6 lbs

Pod Go

Starting with Pod Go first, it is an exceptionally-built guitar amp with tons of cool features. It features a simple plug-and-play interface, making it easy for you to get started right off the bat. It comes with an intuitive and simple layout for the best playing experience.

Compact Design

Pod Go is a compact yet powerful guitar amp. It is small enough to fit in any gig bag or a backpack, making it an excellent on-the-road companion for your gigs and rehearsals. It comes with six buttons for choosing an effect.

Footswitch

You also get a big footswitch and a few knobs at the top so you can choose any sound level according to your preferences. The USB interface ensures a good re-amping, recording, and even live streaming experience.

Technology

The Pod Go guitar amp uses the same component modeling technology that is used in the HX guitar amps. They are known for their ability to recreate the sound and responsiveness precisely.

This means that the music coming from the Pod Go won’t just sound authentic; it will also feel authentic.

Although the Pod Go features the same component modeling techniques used in the HX family, it’s the Pod Go’s layout that makes it super easy to use. Its single path simplifies tone building.

The large color LCD, eight footswitches, and five push encoders take its user-friendly interface a step further.

Performance

The Pod Go guitar amp comes with two views; one for performing and one for creating tones. These views are play views and edit views. The play view is usually used when performing in a gig or jamming.

On the other hand, the edit view is used for creating tones and adjusting presets. To toggle between these two views, all you need to do is just press the home button. It’s that easy!

With the Pod Go guitar amp, you also get two modes for footswitches, i.e., preset mode and stomp mode. The preset mode gives you easy access to all 256 presets by using foot switches labeled from A to D.

You can also use the up and down foot switches to get more banks of presets, ranging from clean to high gain. This is a great way to start off with to get an idea of what the amps offer.

Pressing the mode footswitch will switch you between the preset mode and the stomp mode. The stomp mode is similar to the behavior of a traditional pedalboard. In this mode, the footswitches LEDs tell you which effect is assigned by color code and also tell you whether it is active or not.

The snapshot mode offers you even greater control and smooth transition between sounds with four variations of a preset. With up to 64 parameter changes per snapshot, you get all the control with a single footswitch.

Now coming to the edit view of the Pod Go guitar amp, a mere press of the view button will simply take you to the edit view. The upper knob and lower knob in the Pod Go amp enable you to create and adjust the presets as per your liking.

The Pod Go saving preset is another highlighting feature of Pod Go. It allows you to easily save the presets to the effects so you can play or edit them later on. Apart from that, the Pod Go’s quick wireless start also saves time and effort.

Construction

The Pod Go comes with a rugged matte finish that not only looks stunning but is also durable. Dust and debris won’t be a problem for this guitar amp, and it can even handle those minor scratches resulting from your shoes.

Helix

Helix is another highly popular guitar amp manufactured by Line 6. From professional guitarists to weekend warriors, it is a go-to choice for thousands of guitarists. With its innovative features, it takes the ease of use and sound quality a step ahead.

Thanks to the HX modeling, the Helix guitar amp is known for its authentic sound and feel. The HX effects model and loading stay pretty much the same throughout the entire Helix lineup, and they all are sonically identical.

Performance

Performance-wise, the Helix guitar amp is as good as anything. The ten button switches give more liberty with the preset effects, and you can try new tones and effects. The LCD screen is also a bit bigger as compared to Pod Go, and the floor switch is also embedded in the body.

The USB interface enables you to save effects and use them later. The sound quality is also a bit better than their Pod Go counterparts.

The Helix boasts a huge color screen and capacitive touch footswitches for greater convenience. It has all the features that you’d expect from a flagship-level guitar amp.

It has an impressive dynamic range with an analog impedance circuit. The two returns and sends feature can give you the mono and stereo effects loop and can also be used as additional inputs and outputs for processing keyboards.

In addition, you also get stereo XLR outs, stereo quarter-inch outs, a headphone out, a VDI connector, a USB audio interface, and a digital out, which could either be AES/ABU or a line 6 link. The input and output features allow for seamless integration with the instruments.

If you want to bypass an effect in a live setting, you can assign the effect easily to a footswitch. With the touch-capacitive footswitches, simply touch the footswitch, press “Ok,” and it will assign the effect to the footswitch

To see all assignments, press the home button to see the performance view.

Construction

The square-shaped Helix guitar amp has a sound construction for high durability. Although it is bigger and heavier than the Pod Go guitar amp, its sleek design gives it a cool look. It weighs around 14 lbs, which is more than the Pod Go but is still pretty manageable.

Final Verdict

Manufactured by Line 6, Pod Go and Helix are two widely used guitar amps. Both boast lots of innovative features for the best playing experience. The Pod Go is a great choice for traveling since it is compact yet powerful enough.

On the other hand, Helix is a flagship-level, highly advanced guitar amp with more effects and better sound quality. However, its weight could be a problem for some users. All in all, Helix wins the battle, thanks to its features and better performance.