Geared Up: Awake At Last Bassist Tyler Greene Discusses His Line 6 Pod HD Pro X

Delaware-based rock group, Awake At Last, are supporting the slick tunes off their latest recording, the Life/Death/Rebirth EP, which is due out on July 7th and can be pre-ordered here. Recorded under the guidance of Andrew Baylis (Sylar, Life On Repeat, My Enemies and I), the six-song concept record touches on topics of human personality and consciousness. With a solid mix of metal, alternative and atmospheric rock, we connected with bassist Tyler Greene to talk gear; namely his Line 6 Pod HD Pro X.

What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?
Tyler Greene: My sound comes 100% from my Line 6 Pod HD Pro X. Its amp modelling, built in pedals, and FX make it a complete package so that I don’t need anything else.

What about it makes it so important to you?
Greene: I am able to emulate all of my favourite physical amps and mix and match them to create a tone. My tone now is a mixture between a modelled Ampeg and a Gallien-Krueger amp head.

How was this gear used during the recording of your latest album?
Greene: I didn’t use my head to record in our latest album because our producer used PodFarm. Since my head is made by line6, PodFarm has a lot of the same amps and fx.

How do you recreate your album (guitar/vocal/bass) tones in your live set?
Greene: I created my live tone by blending two amp heads together. The first amp is an Ampeg SVT that I used to shape the high end and snap of my bass tone. Following that is a Gallien-Kruger 800RB that fills in the low end, and provides a lot of low-end punch.

What are the major pros and cons?
Greene: Pro’s for me is that I don’t foresee needing to buy a new head anytime soon, there are always new model packs through Line6 so I can try out different heads and tones easily. Along with that, any tones I like I can make presets for and use at my leisure. So far I haven’t run into any major cons(knock on wood). Because the amp is a digital amp that runs on presets, I have managed to overwrite and erase my tones a few times. Luckily I now keep backups of my presets on my computer so that I am always covered.

Do you have a backup for this gear, if so, what?
Greene: My backup for this gear is Line6’s awesome customer service. Live I useLine6’s G10 Relay wireless system and have been through a faulty unit, and a broken power jack, both times they replaced the units for me very quickly. It may show by now that I really like Line6 products.

How long have you had it, how do you use it, would you ever change it?
Xhelili: I have almost had it for a little over a year and a half now and use it as a part of my live setup and home recording setup. If I could change one thing about it, I would love the option to import custom cab impulses.

Give us your best “gear goes wrong” story.
Xhelili: My best gear goes wrong story belongs to my bass, it has been through so much and is still kicking. During the recording of our single’s Questions and Never Be A Memory, my bass fell off of a stool onto the hardwood floor, of the studio, cracking the body. A couple days later we went on tour and during our set, everyone was looking at me weird, so I was thinking me zipper was done or something. To my surprise, I looked down to see the lower end of my bass dangling by the wiring. For the rest of that tour, I had to duct tape my bass together until I got home to fix it.

Any final thoughts or comments on the gear?
Xhelili: I have had a lot of equipment throughout my musical career, but it has taken until now for me to have a rig that I am content with and proud of. With a press of a button its ready to go every night, and is versatile enough to make changes on the fly with ease.

Check out the band’s video for their song “Purgatorium”