When it comes to amp and effects modeling, most people think of Line 6 first. And with good reason — the company has been on the forefront of modeling technology for many years.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]I recently sat down with Line 6 founder Marcus Ryle to talk about the company’s achievements and how Line 6 continues to evolve its technology under ever-increasing competition.

“We’re all about finding ways to harness technologies to enable musician’s creativity,” Ryle told The Loop. “Modeling is one of those ways.”

I visited the Line 6 headquarters a couple of years ago and saw the amp room. This is where the engineers model real tube amp circuitry and transform it into amps we can buy as part of Line 6’s Pod Farm 2 software. To say the collection of vintage amps is impressive would be an understatement.

The modeling done in products like the Pod X3 Live that I use has gone even further with the company’s newest line of Pod HD products.

“We believe Pod HD is the best modeling we’ve ever done,” said Ryle. “It’s the result 15 years of experience building products.”

The results of the Pod HD 500 have shown in sales — Ryle said the device is the No. 1 selling multi-effects pedal on the market.

There are a lot of guitar players that don’t want to move to digital modeling, but Line 6 is making some new products that could appeal to those holdouts.

The DT50 amp is a monster of power and tone. It combines a traditional tube amp with the integration of Line 6 HD modeling. The amp was designed by Line 6 and Reinhold Bogner, so you can combine the two technologies or go heavier on one side or the other. The choice is yours, depending on the tone you want to achieve.

“We provide a huge benefit with everything together,” said Ryle. “The DT50 takes it to the next level.”