I Was Gifted A Line 6 Spider 3 2X12....................

[El Dunco]

Hating them is basically a meme similar to the metalzone. There is no denying how insanely popular they were with kids in bands in the mid 2000s as they were the closest they could get for the price. Some of them were pretty loud too. I never had one. A bandmate in my first band did but had a bit of trouble not letting it get swallowed up by my 30watt tube combo. By the time I was ready for the stage it was Randall halfstacks or Fender Twin Reverbs with preamps/pedals (great for space economy in the back of a stationwagon).

What I remember of the spider’s sound, it wasn’t absolutely terrible, especially when they actually had decent speakers in them. A useable metal tone could be coaxed out of them, though they got pretty clanky with active pickups. Sure, they’re no tube amp but the people who had the most venomous hatred for them don’t seem to understand it wasn’t really designed for them in the first place.

[Inflames626]

My first amp was a Crate GX130C 2x12 combo, which I used in conjunction with an ART SGX 2000 Express digital preamp as a front end boost. Both are early-mid 90s tech and sound it. The GX130C had a great clean and stereo chorus option but sounded like boxy, clacky garbage distorted.

The amp would randomly switch channels from clean to dirty. We found out later this is because there was no cooling fan and once the solid state components reached a certain temp well--who knew what would happen!

Crate, based out of St. Louis, along with Peavey were usually competing in the 90s South in the low to mid tier gear market. They were the Spiders of their day.

My best friend from high school did electronics in the Air Force. He cut a circular hole in the cab for an exhaust/cooling fan (I forget which), and then the problem with the Crate stopped.

I later gave the amp to one of my students' father.

The cab itself was sturdily built and was certainly like a crate in that sense.

I used it for a coffee table for longer than I played music with it. Had cup ring stains and everything.

Moral of the story: if you don't like the amp, maybe you can use it as furniture.

As for Line 6, this takes me back to their high end amp of the period, the Vetta.

A Vetta 6 is listed in Sweetwater at $1699. I'm guessing this is when they were new.

A perusal of used units shows them going for $350-1200 dollars.

[Rex_Rocker]

The thing about those kinds of amps is they're pretty much computers that you play guitar thru. As much as a computer from 2010, those become pretty outdated by today's standards, especially since they were budget amps, and the tech they used wasn't particularly high-end.

Vettas were cool because the cabs were well made, and they used pretty decent speakers. The tech itself is kind of outdated, but it's great if you want those kind of ObZen tones.

I didn't Spiders were particularly good clean platforms because they were loud, but not very pleasant-sounding as soon as you got some volume to them.

[El Dunco]

I didn't Spiders were particularly good clean platforms because they were loud, but not very pleasant-sounding as soon as you got some volume to them.

I never thought “clean” modelling amps were a good idea for a pedal platform. Any unintended clipping in the digital domain literally means missing audio data.

[El Dunco]

My first amp was a Crate GX130C 2x12 combo, which I used in conjunction with an ART SGX 2000 Express digital preamp as a front end boost. Both are early-mid 90s tech and sound it. The GX130C had a great clean and stereo chorus option but sounded like boxy, clacky garbage distorted.

The amp would randomly switch channels from clean to dirty. We found out later this is because there was no cooling fan and once the solid state components reached a certain temp well--who knew what would happen!

Crate, based out of St. Louis, along with Peavey were usually competing in the 90s South in the low to mid tier gear market. They were the Spiders of their day.

My best friend from high school did electronics in the Air Force. He cut a circular hole in the cab for an exhaust/cooling fan (I forget which), and then the problem with the Crate stopped.

I later gave the amp to one of my students' father.

The cab itself was sturdily built and was certainly like a crate in that sense.

I used it for a coffee table for longer than I played music with it. Had cup ring stains and everything.

Moral of the story: if you don't like the amp, maybe you can use it as furniture.

As for Line 6, this takes me back to their high end amp of the period, the Vetta.

A Vetta 6 is listed in Sweetwater at $1699. I'm guessing this is when they were new.

A perusal of used units shows them going for $350-1200 dollars.

That Crate wasn’t the problem. It’s the same as the Ampeg heads the death metal bands were using. It was the speakers.