Yesterday I was at my local guitar center looking at smaller house amps (selection was super slim). They had what I assume is the newest spider amp and I gave it a try. I was honestly shocked, it was not complete garbage like the one I had years ago as a beginner. I only tried some high gain settings on it, and I didnt spend a ton of time tweaking, but its amazing how far these small modeling amps have come. I would like to try a katana and mustang gtx as well, but they had none in stock. Any other recommendations for small home amps, or general opinions around the topic welcome.
How long have the spiders not sounded like complete garbage?
- Thread starter jimman
- Start date
PFDarkside
of the Forum
I thought I heard the latest generation Spyder finally had an upgrade in the modeling department, coming from the Helix generation stuff.
PFDarkside
of the Forum
And wait for Moore’s law to kick in.
They already have enough power that more won't help amp quality. In fact, the only thing that's sounds better about the fractal fx3 is reverb quality.
The fender gtx may be new top dog. Either that or katana. Try both.
I've tried cheap ones and more expensive ones. Outside of absolute grind, they feel terrible to play, and have absolutely no touch-sensitivity. I used to have a small earlier version as a lesson amp (which I eventually donated). One of the schools I teach at has a more modern verson, and that is pretty compressed and flat sounding on almost every setting.
80's_Metal
Underglazed Hair Metalologist
Katanas are pretty legit amps for the money.
The possibilities are endless for working through tones and effects.
The possibilities are endless for working through tones and effects.
ErikH
Well-known member
The only modelers I've used extensively are those from Vox. Had an AD50VT for 10 years or more and gigged with it all over the place. Held up great. Sold it and have been using a Vox AV30 ever since. It's a loud little amp too for a 30W 1x10 modeler. They market it as an analog amp, which it is, with 3 digital effect. One of the best sounding amps I've played through.
The Spider V is a huge upgrade over previous versions... as long as you get the version that has an actual guitar speaker instead of the cheapest model that has a terrible attempt at an FRFR setup with a tweeter. The terrible speaker has always been the single biggest problem with the Spiders, moreso than the modelling.
I will agree with this, but even the V has its issues, unless you only ever play with a ton of preamp gain with an aggressive noise gate. Clean & barely overdriven sounds still aren't very good, and feel terrible to play. But it was a huge improvement over the other Spider III I used.
Oddly, I've always felt that cleans were the strongest part of the Spider line; very clear and clean, maybe "sterile" but they get the job done just fine. Barely overdriven is still the weakest part of the line, though, I agree on that (but it's still a LOT better than the III or IV, and really probably better than the cheap solid-state practice amps that made the non-Spider bottom-of-the-line when I started learning ~15 years ago).
The speaker was always the biggest problem, though. The Spider heads into a decent cab weren't anywhere near as awful as the cheap combos, but obviously no-one who is serious enough for a big head + cab setup is going to get a Spider head, so the point was kind of moot.
The speaker was always the biggest problem, though. The Spider heads into a decent cab weren't anywhere near as awful as the cheap combos, but obviously no-one who is serious enough for a big head + cab setup is going to get a Spider head, so the point was kind of moot.
Demanic
PenultimateTone Member
Demanic
PenultimateTone Member
Not exactly. It's a modeling amp front end going into a tube power amp. It does also have quite a selection of on board effects as well as an actual loop that can be used if those aren't enough.
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I used mostly cleans, and 'sterile' is a good word. Like if you plugged your guitar directly to a PA system. Other companies do the clean modeling so much better. I think the Spider is for people who like a lot of gain, as it does that pretty well, in a 90s death metal kinda way.
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