TS808
July 4th, 2008, 06:42 AM
In my search for a good home amp that sounds decent at moderate volumes, I came across a used Flextone III XL on ebay that was in excellent condition that I was able to land for $280. Yes, only $280. The auction ended in the middle of the afternoon and for some reason there were only two bids....
Something is wrong with this picture right? A HOME amp at 150 watts???
I figured I'd give it a shot and if it was too loud, I could easily sell it and get my money back. I got the amp, cleaned off the dust, plugged it in and WHOA! I found this amp to be a good amp to play at a moderate volume. I can set the master to about 11:00 and the channel volumes to 11:00 and it's not overly loud. If I crank it more than that it can get blistering loud as I found out when I first plugged it in, since the previous owner's presets were still loaded in the amp...it almost knocked me on my rear-end.
So far, I'm loving this amp and don't understand why so many people knock Line 6 products or digital amps so much. I bought an FBV express foot controller, and have the twin reverb for cleans, AC-30 for crunch, JCM-800 for moderate distortion, and the Cornford for heavy distortion.
The "feel" of this amp is excellent and the tones are incredible...It sounds a little more dynamic than my Vox AD50VT 212 with more sustain, more effects, etc., and you can get good tones at low, moderate, and high volumes. I don't find the amp to be overly muddy as some people describe it, and it DOES take some tweaking to find the right tone for each amp model, but once you find it, the sounds are great. I'm sure the previous owner broke-in the speakers pretty good judging by the volume of his presets, and the noise gate is very good for the high gain settings.
I'm pleasantly surprised by this amp...the volume is very manageable unlike the Duoverb that I once owned...the Duoverb is MUCH louder and I couldn't get the master above 8:00 without peeling paint. This is definitely a keeper.
I keep hearing that these amps are being discontinued, and it's a shame..definitely a good value new or used, and the tones are very good.
Something is wrong with this picture right? A HOME amp at 150 watts???
I figured I'd give it a shot and if it was too loud, I could easily sell it and get my money back. I got the amp, cleaned off the dust, plugged it in and WHOA! I found this amp to be a good amp to play at a moderate volume. I can set the master to about 11:00 and the channel volumes to 11:00 and it's not overly loud. If I crank it more than that it can get blistering loud as I found out when I first plugged it in, since the previous owner's presets were still loaded in the amp...it almost knocked me on my rear-end.
So far, I'm loving this amp and don't understand why so many people knock Line 6 products or digital amps so much. I bought an FBV express foot controller, and have the twin reverb for cleans, AC-30 for crunch, JCM-800 for moderate distortion, and the Cornford for heavy distortion.
The "feel" of this amp is excellent and the tones are incredible...It sounds a little more dynamic than my Vox AD50VT 212 with more sustain, more effects, etc., and you can get good tones at low, moderate, and high volumes. I don't find the amp to be overly muddy as some people describe it, and it DOES take some tweaking to find the right tone for each amp model, but once you find it, the sounds are great. I'm sure the previous owner broke-in the speakers pretty good judging by the volume of his presets, and the noise gate is very good for the high gain settings.
I'm pleasantly surprised by this amp...the volume is very manageable unlike the Duoverb that I once owned...the Duoverb is MUCH louder and I couldn't get the master above 8:00 without peeling paint. This is definitely a keeper.
I keep hearing that these amps are being discontinued, and it's a shame..definitely a good value new or used, and the tones are very good.