The controls are quite simple. There are buttons for volume up and down, a selector for on, off, and play-only modes, standard tape transport-style buttons (forward, back and play), a Mark button for adding index points so you can easily come back to a riff, and a Play Mark/All switch so you can either play only indexed riffs or go through the whole thing. There’s a USB out for transferring the files to your computer, and in addition to guitar input and output jacks there’s a headphone jack. Notice there is no record button. The BackTrack records everything you play, so as long as you have it plugged in between your guitar and amp, you’ll capture your idea. I mean, what’s the point of a device designed to capture inspired one-off moments if you have to go out of your way to make sure it’s recording, right? Line 6’s decision to have the BackTrack record all the time is so simple and obvious that it’s kind of amazing that such a device hasn’t been around for years. This device is a godsend for me because whenever I’m noodling away in the lounge room someone says “Hey that was cool, play it again” and it’s already zoomed straight out of my mind.

The first thing I looked for when I plugged into the BackTrack was the amp modelling. This is Line 6, after all, creators of the venerable Pod. But amp modelling is nowhere to be found. If you really wanted to use it to record riffs as you noodle on the sofa, consider placing a Pocket Pod between your guitar and the BackTrack. If you record a riff you like and you don’t want to hear it back as just a clean guitar part, simply play it through your amp, and a properly-impedence-matched version will shake through your bedroom or rehearsal studio as if you were playing it yourself live.

You can hook this little puppy up to your guitar strap or even Velcro it to your pedalboard so you can record rehearsal-room inspiration, but if I was to buy one (and I think I might), I would use it for live gigs. I tend to improvise most of my solos, but occasionally, if we record a gig, I find an improvisation I like, and then learn it as the permanent solo. With the BackTrack I can have a permanent record of all my live solos, so I won’t be bound by the economic realities of which gigs we can afford to multitrack, or the technical limitations of a handheld camcorder.

This is such a cool idea that it belongs in every guitar case or gig bag, whether you’re a guitarist or bassist, and while its main use is to record guitar parts through the direct input, it can also be a very handy way of keeping a record of the full band in the jam room.

More information: Line 6.