Line 6 Review: Guitar Port

History:

Purchase: PURCHASED AT: Daddy's Junky Music PAID: $169 DESCRIPION: The Guitar Port is a small interfacing device to be used between an electric guitar and a PC. I had purchased it with an interest in recording my music, and to utilize the Web for skill expansion. COMPATIBILITY: Windows 98SE, ME, 2000. These are listed on the box. The Line 6 website for Guitar Port has an update announcement with a download link to an alleged Windows XP driver. However, when I ran this download, it was just like the Disappointed Musician review -it failed the XP logo test! Line 6 had sold me a line of crap, so I selected the driver's option button NOT to proceed with the program - IT INSTALLED THE DAMNED DRIVER ANYWAY! At least it didn't ignore my order to uninstall. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT IF YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM IS WINDOWS XP!

What I Like About This Line 6 Guitar Port: - Nicely designed, very compact device - Beautiful candyapple red painted finish. Since I don't have a good driver to install and use this device, I cannot testify firsthand for other features.

What I Do NOT Like About The Line 6 Guitar Port: - Bad compatibility - Blatant dishonesty (or amazingly sloppy software engineering) where compatibility is concerned - driver installation software disregarded my abort command For the time since XP has been the mainstream for home computers, you would expect a company like Line 6 to make that system a priority. Not only was this not the case, but their web update link was hard to find, and then turned out to be false. If I knew what I was looking for, I would have been able to shop around online. If you know of a similar product, try that one instead!

Line 6 Guitar Port Quality Rating: As stated before, I like the physical design and overall look. It looks very cool, it's small enough to be manageable, has effective traction to keep it from sliding over edges, and gives overall the impression of high quality construction. Unfortuneatly, this makes it no more than a nice decoration without competent software support!

Review Summary: It's a nice looking, nicely made gadget. It's made by Line 6, who did not put nearly as much into the driver support as they did with the paint job. Without good drivers, it's a hell of an expensive doorstop, and now the company disregards the importance of all Windows XP users. They must be living in the f*cking Twilight Zone! Since I can't get past the driver installation, the rating below means nothing, so I'll leave at the lowest.

Rating of this Line 6 product: 1

This Line 6 Guitar Port Guitar Accessories Review Submitted By: Sick of All Sloppy Software Weasels

Review Date: 2003-02-09