Guitar Port

 Simply Awesome
I purchased the Guitar Port from Amazon the other day, and when it arrived I was excited to see what my Les Paul would sound like though my computer. My old amp fried out a couple of years ago, and I have only been playing acoustic since. I was afraid that it might sound a little artificial. Boy was I wrong!

After only a few hours of use, I can tell you that this is going to reinvigorate my play. This product is much, much better than I though it could ever be. It sounds great! The ability to pick from 10 heads, 10 cabinets, and several effects allows you to create the exact tone needed for a given song. I have already saved 5 "tones". I can just pick from a list to grab a nice tube "warm" amp, to the heavy crunch I save for Metallica licks, to a sweet chorus with a bit of distortion for a number of rockers.

I also love the hum reducer which learns from your guitar, and removes almost all of the guitar hum. Between that and the noise gate, my guitar seems much cleaner than I have ever heard it.

A small but very nice feature is the tuner, which makes it pretty dead simple to tune your axe. There are a number of other features I have not used yet. You can play along with Mp3, CD, etc.

A previous reviewer mentioned that the online service is a rip-off and you have to watch "the fine print". I bought this product as an amp replacement, so I have not subscribed to the online service. You do not have to pay the online $10/month fee to use this product. All the cool stuff that I have mentioned is yours, forever.

All in all, this is the coolest guitar toy I have ever used, far better than any of the pre-amp pedals/effects that I have tried out over the years.

 The perfect practice amp
I bought my GuitarPort about 4 months ago and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to replace their practice amp.

The sheer amount of tones and effects means you can achieve absoloutely any sound you want, It is ideal for beginners but at the same time it has everything an enthuasiast could want, but the GuitarPort does have some minor problems. Firstly any instrument lead above 10 feet seems to cause a loss in sound, another slight annoyance is the noise feedback that is experienced with CRT monitors (not flat screen), but if you stand back from the monitor it will go away. Apart from this I could not fault it.

Another feature of the GuitarPort is GuitarPort Online this is an online community which costs 7.99 a month, it is full of tones, lessons and tracks that are tabbed out for you, it is very comprehensive and updated regularly but there is nothing here that you wouldn't find on the net. When you buy your Guitar Port you have a free trial of their online services so you can make you mind up for yourself.

All in all this is a very complete product and excellent value considering all of it's features, don't let the minor flaws hold you back.

 The Perfect Way To Record On The Cheap!
This is the perfect option for those who don't want to spend a fortune on equipment and software. You get the GuitarPort hardware along with software that will give you a ton of unique sounds. If I would've known about this when I bought my first guitar I wouldn't have picked up an amp (it's just been collecting dust while I use my GuitarPort). The sound is superb. It's very rich and sounds like it was recorded in a studio.

Set up of the GuitarPort was very simple and I was playing in about 5 minutes!

One important thing to note is that you cannot record with the software provided with the GuitarPort. But not to worry! Once you have the GuitarPort software installed you can go to the Line 6 website and download their RiffTracker software to record all the music you can make. One nice thing about the RiffTracker is the InstantDrummer feature which allows you to set the tempo and variation for different types of drums and match it with your style of play on the guitar. And the drums sound great!

GuitarPort($99) + RiffTracker Recording software($99) = Equals the perfect way to record your own music on the cheap!

 watch for the fine print
On the surface it sounds like a great idea- but there are so many catches and it is set up on the corporate end so badly it is just a scam to steal a monthly fee from you- read on- In order to download any of the songs you can play over you have to pay the monthly fee- in addition, you can't record yourself playing along with them- they have it fixed so you can't do it- plus, they try to sell you the most overpriced software I have ever seen to record yourself at all. And this is not recording you playing along either because, again, they won't let you. And here is the most pernicious part of all- if you don't keep paying the monthly fee it won't let you play along with songs you already downloaded anymore!! That's right, they cut you off. Their song selection sucks- it is almost all "hendrix" "clapton" old classic rock crap- there is no Fuel, nickelback, etc, no new bands at all. And most of the "songs" are really lessons. So unless you plan to pay a monthly fee forever so you can play along with "all right now" and "freebird" over and over, but not be able to record yourself doing it, save your money. The guitarport was a godd idea and could have been great- but the insane greed of Line 6 has ruined any possibility of that. Pass on this one.