Line 6 Or Fender

[BS123]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

My opinion is that single coil pickups sound sound sterile through modeling amps. You've already got the Variax, so I'd stick with tube amps, and move upward.
Not to knock Line 6 stuff, because they do serve a good purpose, but Brad Paisley struts out onstage in front of stereo Dr. Z's, not Flextones. Sell off some dead stuff and splurge on a nice Dr. Z, Blues Pearl, Victoria, or Fender. I've A/B'd those type of amps next to modeling amps, and the outcome would make you laugh. It's like a Mercedes next to a Hyundai.

You have a very good point Gearjonser - a very good point... I have the "Plus" model here at home right now. It does sound good on the clean stuff (especially the AC-30 settings); but it's hard to get it to "Keep" its settings. That seems to be a pain. The reason I am thinking about a Fender Hot Rod amp is because I have about $1000 to spend. I have the Peavey and it's a fine amp. I use basically 3 tones - Clean, gritty, and distorted. The Hot Rods can deliver them. Also, I use a Boss ME-33 for my effects. The Flextones DO NOT like them. I think it's because I have two preamps working at the same time.

[sweet_lou]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

this is better than both of them

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MESE:IT

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Gearjonser... I guess that's my que! I've heard almost every concievable boutique amp and if the player doesn't know how to dial it in for the gig, session, whatever, it's gonna sound like crap. I've heard guys playing a Peavey 30 right next to Soldano's, Vox's, Budda's, Tophats and it sounded great. And I can't stand Peaveys. Same goes for Line 6, which I happily endorse. Dialed in right, I believe it's more like a Mercedes and a Lexus, than a Hyundai.

Many times I hear guys can't get heard in the mix. Well maybe the EQ is never set right for the guitar they are using. Happens all the time! I have no problems cutting through with my Vetta HD II and a Genz Benz GFlex 212 cab. Never! Even running my PODxt in 2 Atomics in stereo... no issues.

I've got a buddy whose coming in to start his album and he plays through an AC30 and a Tone King Comet 40 (killer amp!). He asked me to keep my POD and Vetta HD on hand because he just can't get everything he needs out those. I've already handed out my patch libraries to some heavyweight engineers and producers to use for their Line 6 gear. I and I both bet you'd be hard pressed to decipher on their albums what's modelled and what's not.

Bottom line, I love great sounding amps, no matter what the are. Live I've said before, I'd prefer a bigger palette to paint from. Since you are in North Hollywood, I welcome you anytime (when it's not booked of course) over to my recording studio (in NoHo) to A/B against the Vetta just for the heck of it. Shoot me an email.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Butch, http://drzamps.com/ You've probably checked it out before, but check out their update.

[mjsever]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Since you are in North Hollywood, I welcome you anytime (when it's not booked of course) over to my recording studio (in NoHo) to A/B against the Vetta just for the heck of it. Shoot me an email.

Heckofa nice guy. I wouldn't pass this offer up! On my last project, I insisted on using my amp for the recording. The engineer kindly set up the mic, checked it in the mix, then said "let's split the signal, just in case". Next week, after a rough mix when he put my dry signal through the models and compared it to my amp, I laughed and didn't bring my amp in again. The modeled sounds were that much better. He said that every guitarist who comes in there insists on bringing their amp, then gives up after they hear how great the modeled sounds are.

[nuntius]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Institute of noise, I think it'd be a cool idea to do an A/B test mp3 but not tell anyone which is which and we have to guess.

That would mean we all could hear to some extent (ok maybe not to as much as hearing the thing live) the differences?

[BS123]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Institute of noise, I think it'd be a cool idea to do an A/B test mp3 but not tell anyone which is which and we have to guess.

That would mean we all could hear to some extent (ok maybe not to as much as hearing the thing live) the differences?

That would be pretty cool...

BTW, people keep voting and not leaving any comments. Someone just voted for the Flextone and I would have liked to have read their comments.

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Believe me I love any great sounding amp! I hope to see a Bogner Metroplois and a hard to find ADA Rocket in my stable some day. But heck I need tones fast and a bunch of em, and when time is of the essence. I just did some demo tracks for some instrumental pieces for a new National Geographic show called Extreme Expedition. For 1:30 minutes of music I ended up using 7-8 different sounds on my PODxt, that I no way could have gotten from even 2 or 3 amps. I had about 3 hours to write and track the guitar parts.

One of my other A/B tests coming up is for my buddy to bring in his Tone King and I'm gonna match that tone on both my Vetta and PODxt. Being that I have designed many patches for Line 6 for Guitarport 2.0 and I have a bunch of my patches now as factory defaults for their new model packs, I'm certain, I'm gonna nail the Tone King and have that in my virtual stable. The Tone King records fantastic! I want that sound now. It'll probably sound great pushed through the Atomic amp as well.

I offer anyone in the LA area, the same offer I made to GearJonser. Everyone wins that way. I gain a new sound I can share with all the other Line 6'ers and I may just win over a naysayer.

[Mkf411]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

I offer anyone in the LA area, the same offer I made to GearJonser. Everyone wins that way. I gain a new sound I can share with all the other Line 6'ers and I may just win over a naysayer.

Where in LA are you located. I'd like to see how to get good tone out of a modeling amp. I like my Valvetronix, but there is something about the distortion that's not quite right. It hangs there like bad BO. Maybe I just don't know how to set it right because lots of people are quite possitive about them.

Recently, I've been wondering about how much of the guitar music on TV shows are recorded using modelling. Like the music for American Chopper, for example?

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

I'm in North Hollywood. But we're gonna be having a Line 6 Usergroup meeting very soon, which will be at a rehearsal studio in the valley. Your more than welcome to check that out too. That will probably be the better place to compare. We'll probably be showing off some new stuff too. Focus will be tone dialing. The details will be posted on my site listed below. Bring your Valvtronix too and your fave axe to try it out. Some of our regular UG guys have the Valvtronix or Tone Lab, and while it sounds good, they still keep coming back to their L6 gear.

As far as TV stuff, I would venture a lot of guys use it for quick work. It just saves too much time in using the POD.

Here's a couple of those MP3 demo mixes below I mentioned about earlier, and I do mean demo mixes. First track is using a Line 6 Variax on the Les Paul Bridge and Lep Paul Jr bridge settings. The second track is a real Les Paul, a '96 Std that's more or less stock.

http://download.instituteofnoise.com/ion_xstream_bolero.mp3

http://download.instituteofnoise.com/ion_xstream_whacked.mp3

[ArtieToo]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

This is an interesting discussion. One of the things that I'm getting from it is, perhaps modelling amps lend themselves to studio work, whereas "real" amps may lend themselves to live gigs.

At least, to some extent.

[BS123]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

This is an interesting discussion. One of the things that I'm getting from it is, perhaps modelling amps lend themselves to studio work, whereas "real" amps may lend themselves to live gigs.

At least, to some extent.

I took the Flextone III Plus to a gig Saturday night. I didn't have to mic it. I went through the XLR output o the amp. The amp was totally quiet. Not even any hiss. The sounds were big and loud. The tones were rally nice. Some people say that modelling amps seem to fart out at gigging volumes. Color me crazy but his amp actually acted like a great tube amp; getting better as it got louder...

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Yeah butch that's another great feature. The XLR Direct Outs are great. I always use them! When I start gigging with my Atomic Amps with the PODxt again. I 'll run the FX sends directly to the board, which are in essence the L/R outs of the POD. Heck I've used just my PODxt direct in the board for some of the bigger rooms here in LA. Just relied on floor monitor mix for me. The sound guys were just floored with the sound coming of the FOH, and even more so if they system was really in stereo. The FX really come alive! My only caveat is get a good power conditioner, as some clubs have less than desireable wiring.

[BS123]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Funny thing is that with the board set up for my Peavey 50 watt tube amp, the Flextone was toooo loud. We had to bring that channel's levels way down....

Now my dilemma is that I have found a Variax 700 that I'm really falling for and I cannot justify the $700 difference between it and the Variax 500...

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Line 6 Or Fender

Butch, sonically they are the same guitar. Your paying for a better body and a better quality neck. The 700's are made in Japan as far as I know.