software

I know many people on here are tube purists. I DONT want to hear from you. I am interested in hearing from open minded people who will use anything as long as it sounds good. Now I just played a line 6 Spider 2 head and loved it. Has a lot of useless crap on it but the dist. and clean sounds are quite good. I am poor and this amp sounds wonderful. YES I do like the compressed distortion sound this amp gives. YES I like the effects infested cleans on it. YES I have played it up all the way. Now has anybody played it on here or own one and can give me some sound advice on it and its overall sound?

I dig the sound man, and for someone on a budget it is killer. I only wish they came with the 4 button pedal though.

the cleans are ok... the distortion is freakin AMAZING! it has tap delay too! a pretty cool amp... i don't really dig the cleans though

I don't own a Spider II, but I do own a Spider 112, the 50 watt model. I think it's a great sounding amp. Obviously they're not going to put any of the amp companies that they've modeled out of business, but they do very, very good impersonations. Here's what I have found out about mine. They're a bit anemic on the bottom end, which is something that's curable, but I always end up having to add a LOT of bass to balance the tone at high volumes. And, to the same end, I have to take out some highs. The open back is handy if my drummer is behind me, or if I'm in a small room (which is the only time I really ever use this thing). The distortions are really decent, as are the echo and chorus. And it can be VERY loud. My only real main beef with the quot;cleanquot; model, which is supposedly a takeoff of a Fender Twin or a Dumble, is that it isn't as loud as the rest. I can fix that to a certain extent by using the preamp boost in the amp, but it seems to suffer a little. Still, no complaints for what I do with it.

I'm gonna go try out some of the Spider II combos and the Vox Valvetronix combos tomorrow. I'm looking for a small combo for at home use and played quite a few tube amps today, Mesa's, Fender's, Marshall, Crate V-Series and they all had one thing in common - had to be beyond bedroom level to really sound their best IMO.

I guess for my needs I'm going to have to go SS but I've heard good things about the Spider II's and the Valvetronix' so I'm gonna give 'em a listen.

P.S. You know what is aggravating is that each is lacking a feature the other one has that I would really like - the Vox combos have a nice foot controller but no cd input (I like those Hal Leonard play along backing tracks). The Spider II's have the cd input but footswitching isn't as good unless you get the $250 shortboard (what a rip). Can't anyone design the perfect practice amp?


Originally Posted by stratovariusI know many people on here are tube purists. I DONT want to hear from you.

I've got a Line 6 Flextone I head. Probably sounds similar to the Spider. I dig mine; tons of sounds, great effects, and loud. Very usable sounds. You may be able to find an old Flextone head on ebay - I saw one go for $450 once. When I played live, people always said it sounded killer....

I liked the one I played but the fact that you have to buy the control pedal seperately killed the whole deal for me.


Originally Posted by TwilightOdyssey


LOL!

Seriously, the way I see it, there are much better amps in the price range like the Roland Cube series and Vox Valvetronix series. Compared to those, the Spider II just sucks IMO. But if you like it, go for it.

I have a spider, and I love it. No it isnt spider II but close enough. Line6 has impressed me every time they realease something new. Like everyone else, I just wish it came with the pedal. Budget that into your cost, at the low end figure an extra $70 on the price of the amp for the pedal, because if you dont buy it now, you will in a few weeks like I did.

i have the Spder II 30 Combo for bedroom practice and i really love it. The Distortion is great and the cleans are usable and with the 12quot; Celestion it it it geast pretty loud for it's size and Watts. Since i Got a footswitch together with my Vetta II i never thought about it but you really should get one.

haha TO that made me laugh! Don't worry man, wasn't a stab at you. I just knew many many people would come flooding to bash SS amps! I agree with some people, i did have to pile on the bass at higher volumes but it was plenty. The floorboard needs to be included guh, the 4 channel switcher is another 80 in ebay! But I usually use just one sound through most of our show cept for a couple of songs so it won't bother me near as much. I gotta say the distortion quot;insanequot; setting is killer!! Silent and compressed to hell which I love and with a little EQing you can easily make it your own. I will be running this through a homemade 4/12 cab with celestions which is closed back with some sort of bass routing thing, that part I didn't design so I dunno how to explane it. The line 6 cab left much to be desired in the thump thump area.

All I have to say is that this quot;tube puristquot; went through a lot of SS and modeling amps before getting to that point. To imply that I'm not open minded is pretty friggin' insulting.
Like my sig says, tone is subjective. There are a lot of tube amps that I don't like, too. If something works for you, that's great. If it doesn't work for me, keep in mind that there might be an explanation beyond lack of an open mind.

you should look into the behringer v-ampire. i have one and (imo) it blows the spider away. it has 32 amp models and (i think) like 15 effects, but everyone complements me on the tone it gets and i love it.

look around harder. i got my 4 channel footswitch for $68 and guitar center, tax included. you just gotta know how to talk to the people there. they have a lot of room to move. i told the guy that i found it on the internet for $70, and asked if he can do anything to make me buy it here.

behringer is great! I have a behringer bass amp. I wouldnt say they compare to line6, but they are worth looking at.

You think I can talk GC down from the 300$ they're asking for it? I'll be trading my BV in and a Digitech chorus pedal in to get money for it. Think that will be enough? Its a 60 watt Blue Voodoo Combo in perfect condition that JUST had the tubes replaced. The Chorus is the X-Series in perfect condition. What do you think I'll get for em and how much can I talk these guys down?

I far prefer the flextone series and vox valvetronix over the spider II series. It just sounded like kiddie garbage to me whereas the first two I listed sound pretty damn good.


Originally Posted by stratovariusYou think I can talk GC down from the 300$ they're asking for it? I'll be trading my BV in and a Digitech chorus pedal in to get money for it. Think that will be enough? Its a 60 watt Blue Voodoo Combo in perfect condition that JUST had the tubes replaced. The Chorus is the X-Series in perfect condition. What do you think I'll get for em and how much can I talk these guys down?

Nobody has any advice on this??