Line 6 Spider Valve MkII - Mucho GAIN demo!

[Robert****]

Having fun with tons of gain...

[mainestratman]

Gotta say.. I enjoyed the playing immensely, but overall not super impressed with the amph. The metal channel and metal blue were decent, but ther rest were.. not pleasing to my palette. :-)

[Robert****]

Keep in mind this is a real tube amp, and I played it at VERY low volume. This amp is quite loud, and I can't play it at "normal" volumes when people are home in the house. It will shake the walls... I still think it sounds great. It is the kind of amp you have to learn how to set up right for you. In this demo, I just set everything the same and switched between all the amp models - no tweaking was taking place.

[Ch0jin]

4:02 Nice stretch for those chords!

My favorite tone was the Insane Blue at the end, otherwise I'm with stratman.

I'm sure it's just that the volume had to be kept respectable for the demo and it sounds better IRL though. (although I'd probably walk right past it to the JVM410 if I wanted loads of knobs to tweak )

[Robert****]

Tough crowd.

[mainestratman]

Not really a tough crowd.. I was honestly surprised there were any sounds out of that thing I liked. I've never been a fan of Line 6, period... guess that makes me a cork-sniffer... lol

I would love love love to watch/listen to you play through my rig. Yeah, my gear is cliche, but if I sound good through it, I can only imagine your veiny greatness. :-)

[Spudman***]

Try moving the mic that is on the amph. Try it half way between the edge of the speaker and the dust cap. The tones may record better that way.

[mainestratman]

I really like having a mic as far from the amph as possible, just for that reason... :-)

[Commodore 64***]

Well, I'll show my uber n00bness. I like that demo and amp so much I was pricing it out at MF!

I do think I'm going to save for a while though. Would love to find vintage Princeton or vibrochamp. Afriend has a Princeton Blackface, it's very cool, and the perfect size IMHO.

[Robert****]

I think I need to do another high gain demo with a different setup. This amp just doesn't sound like it should at the volumes I were doing. When no one's home, I'll crank it up and then you guys will hear it sounds pretty wicked.

I think I'll make a demo with just a few select preset, with effects and all, and I'll use my Hagstrom or my Anthem guitar, and I'll go for creating the best tone I can. Not sure when though! I'm pretty busy for a while.

[marnold***]

I think I'll make a demo with just a few select preset, with effects and all, and I'll use my Hagstrom or my Anthem guitar

That'd probably help. Vintagey single coils don't do the high gain thing very well. Before someone mentions Yngwie, I'll add that his pickups aren't vintagey and he slaps a couple of DOD ODs in front of his amph.

So this is a tube amph, with both a tube pre and power amph, but does it have some kind of modeling associated with it or how do it work? Guess a little research would be in order.

[Robert****]

Well, exactly how it works, I don't know. However, I do know that the character of each amp model comes from the Line 6 tube modeling and then that hits both a tube preamp and power amp.

[Eric***]

Well, exactly how it works, I don't know. However, I do know that the character of each amp model comes from the Line 6 tube modeling and then that hits both a tube preamp and power amp.

Hmm, so it's kind of like a Pod (or other pedal) in front of a Bogner tube amp or something?

[Robert****]

Eric, I don't think it's that simple. Somehow, the effects are mingled in with the tube design in some clever ways.

You'll have to ask Line 6 for the details. I'm just a guitar player. See http://line6.com/spidervalvemkii/faq.html

[marnold***]

From what I've been able to glean from the Intarwebs is that it goes something like this:
Digital Preamp (think: POD)-> two 12AX7s (one of which is a phase inverter) -> two 6L6s.

They make a big deal about the tubes having "lethal voltages," I'm assuming to differentiate it from the Valvetronix ones, etc., that have a starved tube in there. Should be very similar to slapping a POD in front of a tube amph, although the tube amph part of it is specifically designed with amplifying a POD-like signal in mind.

Naturally there will be some who will condemn it as Pure Evil (tm) because it isn't all-tube, but if it sounds good . . .

[Ch0jin]

From what I've been able to glean from the Intarwebs is that it goes something like this:
Digital Preamp (think: POD)-> two 12AX7s (one of which is a phase inverter) -> two 6L6s.

They make a big deal about the tubes having "lethal voltages," I'm assuming to differentiate it from the Valvetronix ones, etc., that have a starved tube in there. Should be very similar to slapping a POD in front of a tube amph, although the tube amph part of it is specifically designed with amplifying a POD-like signal in mind.

Naturally there will be some who will condemn it as Pure Evil (tm) because it isn't all-tube, but if it sounds good . . .

Yeah thats what I got from reading it too. Like having a POD up front, but with the luxury of a proprietary interface, so the model stage and tube stage can be specifically matched. Effectively eliminating all the variables you'd get by literally sticking a POD in front of an amp. I think its a great idea for sure. I think line 6 probably make the best modelers out there and whilst I've never even seen a Bogner IRL, I hear they get great reviews.

Like Marnold says, some ppl will dis it because it's not "All Tube".

Then again I'd wager plenty of those people don't even know the meaning of the words "All Tube".

I bet there are plenty of Marshall owners out there who think their tone is "All Tube" when in reality there's diode clipping going on as well. Some JCM 800's (the 2205 for example) I think all the JCM900's and probably more all use clipping diodes to get more distortion. I think some JCM900's had opamp's as well.

Then there's reverb and FX drivers. Traditionally they would have been tube driven, but I'd wager most "All Tube" amps use FET's for Reverb and FX Loops.

Anyway, that was rapidly developing into a rant wasn't it

[Ch0jin]

Tough crowd.

But that's why you ask for our opinion right?

[Eric***]

Like having a POD up front, but with the luxury of a proprietary interface, so the model stage and tube stage can be specifically matched. Effectively eliminating all the variables you'd get by literally sticking a POD in front of an amp.

So I guess my random guess was pretty close...

Can you expand on what this matching of Pod and tube preamp is and what it does? Other than a smoothed-out user interface, I'm not sure that I understand what the benefit is.

[Katastrophe]

I think I'll make a demo with just a few select preset, with effects and all, and I'll use my Hagstrom or my Anthem guitar, and I'll go for creating the best tone I can. Not sure when though! I'm pretty busy for a while.

Gotta hear the Patriot on the Insane channel! I'm with Marnold, the Suhr, while the single coils are sound incredible with clean tones or Tube Screamer type overdrive, sound a little "overwhelmed" with the higher gain tones.

The playing, and presentation were top notch, though!