More on the Spider Valve

[TS808]

I went amp shopping today...decided to get rid of one of my Flextones. Thought I would look for a tube amp that I could play at home. While at GC I thought I'd try the Spider Valve just for the fun of it. I tried a few other amps too, but they were either too loud or I just didn't like some of the features..one amp I checked out was the Hot Rod Deluxe, but the volume knobs on the Hot Rod series make me crazy...I hate how they jump and it's hard to control the volume on low settings...

Needless to say, I walked out with the Spider Valve 212, and after reading alot of mixed reviews. People either seem to love them or hate them.

My initial impressions after about 2 hours on the amp today: Pros: I really like the tones. Some of the models though are useless for me, such as the higher gain settings, and the amp is a little bit "bright" on the higher gain models, but once again, I really don't use them. The clean tones (twang especially) are very good, and I like the "blues" and "crunch" settings. I wouldn't say that the amp has that 100% "feel" of a tube amp, but it's close.
The amps sounds good at low and medium volumes, and I dare not crank it yet...don't want to piss of the neighbors the first day....but definitely the louder you play this amp, the more it comes alive.

The downside of the amp is that I would have liked to have seen Line 6 incorporate the versatility of the Flextone into a valve amp. Although there are a ton of presets, I haven't tried them yet, and also like to dial in my own tones.

I'll post more on the amp after I get more playing time on it..but so far so good.

[Spudman***]

Funny you say that about the volume on the Hot Rod Deluxe. I've never noticed any issues with mine but I did experience that same effect with the Spider Valve that I tried. Weird. I couldn't find a quiet or medium volume that I was happy with.

I'm glad you like yours and I'm sure we'd all love to hear some of your favorite tones after you get settled with it.

[TS808]

For me, when I had my HR Deville, the thing about it was that the volume really jumps between 1 and 4...it seemed to go from quiet to a roar. The Spider Valve seems to be pretty good with the volume. I am finding that the Spider Valve doesn't take as much tweaking on the EQ as the Flextone III XL I have. You can pretty much dial in alot easier. I played on the amp more tonight and found some nice sweet spots.

[Robert****]

Do you think the AD50VT 2x12 sounds better than the Spider Valve?

[TS808]

Do you think the AD50VT 2x12 sounds better than the Spider Valve?

I like both amps....but right now I give the edge to the Spider Valve. I realize it's still the honeymoon period, but it's more dynamic, livelier, has better bass and treble response...Once you're able to dial in your tone, it really comes to life. I haven't even used any of the 200 presets at all.

I like the fact that the Vox has the different amp models though.