digital amps?

darnright

RepententRodentologist
Is that a swear word? I have several Line 6 digital amps and for my playing (only at home now), they do very well. I have a Laney all tube, a '95 Hughes and Kettner Tri-Amp combo (only 500 combos made) and a Peavey classic 50 w/4x10 as well as some others, but the 2 Line 6 AX2-212's and the latest, a Vetta II, sound pretty good for digital (non-tube) amps. Does anyone else use these? Also has anyone listened to the new Line 6 Spider valve amps?
 
Re: digital amps?

I plugged into a few of these, and for me they're like multi-fx units. I simply can't figure them out and have no interest in trying to. I want to plug my guitar into an amp and with a twist of the volume, treble, bass, and mid controls, get a tone to die for. I also don't usually switch sounds in the middle of songs. If I do it's something like a Zeppelin tune and it's between clean and dirty. That's quite rare, though.

Within 2 minutes of plugging into a Vox modelling amp way back when I was looking for my first amp (played out of my dad's Roland JC-60), it was extremely agitating and I wanted to throw it out the window. Millions of sounds but almost all of them awful.

I also went to an open mic last week and a buddy of mine got me up and told me to play something. He had a nice Japanese Strat and one of those Fender Super Sonic amps (very unimpressive by the way, another pretend Fender, along with the Hot Rods, but totally opposite. Hot Rod amps are muddy and dirty, this one was sterile and clean with no low end). Anyway he had some sort of multi fx on the floor and he attempted to explain it to me.

Number five is a clean sound with chorus and delay. Number six is overdrive. Click - volume jump and nasty digital type distorted sound. Number seven.. click.. now nobody could hear anything over the guitar and everyone was looking at us like we had two heads. I just wanted guitar>amp. That's it.

I'm sorry for the rant but I can't understand why anyone would want to play guitar out of a computer. Besides hearing the 1s and 0s they're just so much trouble.
 
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Re: digital amps?

Yeah, they are a lot like multi-effects units with speakers.
I don't mind the rant, I am looking for everyone's opinion.
I too, love the sound of a hot tube amp pumping it out, I mean there is nothing else like it. It is hard to do that comfortably in my basement with an amp that doesn't have a master volume. So I compromise by using digital amps. No, they do not sound the same, not nearly as lush or full or deep. They do a decent job for a hacker like me.
Honestly, if I played really good like a lot of you do, I probably wouldn't like a digital amp either. Plus, they have improved a lot, I got my Line 6 Axsys-212 in '97, then bought a Vetta II last year...worlds apart, the Vetta is so much more articulate, good bass, mids and highs.
thanks for your info, I do appreciate your ideas.
 
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