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Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modeling guitars, amplifiers (amplifier modeling) and related electronic equipment. Their product lines include electric and acoustic guitars, basses, guitar and bass amplifiers, effects processors, USB audio interfaces and guitar/bass wireless systems. The company was founded in 1996. Headquartered in Calabasas, California, the company imports its products primarily from China. Since December 2013, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation.
Line 6 launched in 1996, with their first digital modeling guitar amplifier, the AxSys 212. (This is disputable: even though Line6's 'about' page says the same, the first product they released was the original Flextone - a single 12, 60 watt, combo amp. Within six months or so, the AxSys 212 was released.) The company underwent a rapid expansion in the early 2000s (decade) due to the success of their Pod product line, which isolated modeling circuitry from the AxSys amplifier.
Digital modeling attempts to recreate the unique characteristics of musical instruments and pro audio gear. Early Line 6 products used digital modeling to emulate the signature tone of a guitar amp/speaker combination. Further development of Line 6's modeling technology has extended the emulation to include numerous guitar amplifier / guitar cabinet combinations, guitar effects, microphones, and even different guitars and other fretted instruments themselves. Digital modeling offers countless virtual combinations of a variety of music gear, but only as emulations, however convincing as they may be.
Though Line 6 began with a modeling guitar amp, their breakthrough product line was arguably the POD guitar processor line and its later variants,[3] but this modeling technology has been the foundation for most of Line 6's products, from guitar amps to software and computer audio interfaces. Line 6 has an active user community, and provides software that allows users to easily download and share patches or device settings for many of Line 6's products. In early 2008, Line 6 acquired X2 Digital Wireless, who had introduced digital wireless systems for guitar. Further developing this technology, Line 6 developed and introduced a family of digital wireless microphone systems in 2010. In December of 2013, it was confirmed that Line 6 was to be bought by Yamaha Corporation, to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary with the internal management remaining the same.