PODful Birthday

My birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, and I’m now having a decision nightmare. Here’s a little background first: the only mp3 player I own is a 512MB iPod Shuffle, and I haven’t bought any guitar gear in almost 4 years!

I can’t decide what I want for my birthday. I really want one of those new 60GB iPods (with video). But, I recently discovered a piece of guitar gear that could potentially retire all of my current pedals, and would prevent me from having to upgrade my horrid practice amp, a 50w solidstate Fender Princeton Chorus. This amazing device is the Line 6 PODxt Live. It models amps, it models the same delays as my DL-4 Delay Modeler, it models cabinets, it models synth and phasing and reverb. It would even retire my tuner and volume pedal.

So – I need help deciding. The funny thing is that I’m deciding between two totally unrelated “pods.”

The Contendors:

Apple iPod – http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html

GOOD
– I could carry around my 6GB+ of music, instead of only 100 songs with the shuffle
– I could download movies and watch them on the go
– I could bring my entire CD collection on road trips
– I could bring Jenny’s entire photo collection on road trips
– I really feel the need for a portable audio player that has all of my music readily available
– It would help with my career as a recording engineer
– I would be the coolest guy for about 2 weeks

BAD
– It is very expensive for an mp3 player
– I will never have 60GB of music
– I will struggle with not wanting to upgrade it to the next generation iPod, so it could be very expensive

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Line 6 PODxt Live – http://line6.com/podxtlive/

GOOD
– One pedalboard, instead of separate delay, distortion, volume and tuner pedals
– I could easily bring excellent effects along for any practice, not just important gigs
– It would work with my Peavey Ultra rig, but also my Fender Princeton combo
– I could plug it directly into a system and not even use an amp
– I could record directly into the computer, via a USB connection
– It would give me the opportunity to bring out my other axes (Yamaha AEX500, Godin SDXT) so I wouldn’t feel bad about owning useless, but expensive guitars
– It is a fair price for a floorboard version of the PODxt, and a fair price for a modeling pedal with that many options
– It would help with my career as a musician
– I would be the coolest guitar player for a while

BAD
– Although I love my Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler, I’m a bit wary of using modeled distortions and amps. In many cases, there’s nothing quite like the real thing.
– I might end up using it only for the effects, and not the amp modeling
– Line 6 is a great brandname in the prosumer world, but I prefer to have authentic pro gear (although I do understand that many pro recording artists like John Mayer’s guitarist use Line 6 gear). I might be tempted to put tape over the POD logo. Silly me.
– The sounds would no doubt be great, but will they be usable on each of different setups (live, practice, direct for recording, headphones for personal practice)? The POD is supposed to accomadate and adjust tone for those types of differences, but I would actually need to hear it.

Well, I’ve not made up my mind. You may think I being materialistic, but keep in mind that both gadgets have features that would help my career, as well as help me serve God. (Although I don’t think I’ll go as far as to say that I bought an iPod to serve God – I would be able to say that about the PODxt Live). PLEASE HELP!