How long have the spiders not sounded like complete garbage?

Good thoughts here, I only tried the spider with high gain so cant comment om the cleans. Reading about the Spidervalve makes me a little nostalgic for those things. I remember playing those and the vypyr tubes back when they came out and believing theybwere the future of modeling.
 
Makes me want to go out to the garage and fire mine up.

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A buddy of mine has a Blackstar ID Core 100W something-or-other.
I thought it sounded pretty decent.

I had one of the smaller ID:Core ones, I think 2x20 watts...

It had a selection of 6 different preamp "settings";

but I found that the clean's wouldn't breakup,
the breakup wouldn't clean up
And the high gain was.... very high gain and great for metal.

I really liked the onboard stereo reverb, four different settings- far superior to the onboard reverb on my HT-20 :o

Never tried a Spider though.

\m/
 
I had one of the smaller ID:Core ones, I think 2x20 watts...

It had a selection of 6 different preamp "settings";

but I found that the clean's wouldn't breakup,
the breakup wouldn't clean up
And the high gain was.... very high gain and great for metal.

I really liked the onboard stereo reverb, four different settings- far superior to the onboard reverb on my HT-20 :o

Never tried a Spider though.

\m/

Yeah, you’re right. Now that you mention it the cleans don’t break up and the amp itself isn’t that versatile.
But for my friend who is a beginner, it works for him. It’s a much better setup than I had when I first started.
 
Good thoughts here, I only tried the spider with high gain so cant comment om the cleans. Reading about the Spidervalve makes me a little nostalgic for those things. I remember playing those and the vypyr tubes back when they came out and believing theybwere the future of modeling.

I think your experience is common, as most people who buy the amp are only interested in high gain. It actually does that well, if not dynamically. I'd be happy with it if that is what I used.
 
Yeah, you’re right. Now that you mention it the cleans don’t break up and the amp itself isn’t that versatile.
But for my friend who is a beginner, it works for him. It’s a much better setup than I had when I first started.

Yeah. Not meaning to be overly negative :).

I've been playing for 20 years; so I¨m maybe very picky about ...well, what makes a tube amp great.

I'd love the ID:Core myself, if I was 13 years old again :).

\m/
 
I think your experience is common, as most people who buy the amp are only interested in high gain. It actually does that well, if not dynamically. I'd be happy with it if that is what I used.

I dont think the amp would work for me personally since I dont just play high gain, I was just testing an EMG loaded guitar so of course I was playing high gain haha. I am wanting to go back and test the Mustang GTX and the Katana, the potential amp purchase is more for the lessons I am teaching for my students to play on so it needs some versatility.
 
The Katana and Peavey's VIP series are much better alternatives at that price point than Line 6. Line 6 does do some things right (M-series effects, HX Effects, DL4 delay) but you have to spend some money. That sound doesn't 'trickle down' at all.
 
The only amps that L6 made that were awesome were the flextone vetta & DT series. The spider series was meant for beginners & sounded boring to say the least.

Those days tech21 had the trademark series of amps I believe which were also good. Then came the Peavey Vypry Tube series & Fender Mustangs which were way better beginner amps because they sounded great.

Nowadays there's much wider choice of beginner gear available that's affordable & sounds inspiring.
 
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The only amps that L6 made that were awesome were the flextone vetta & DT series. The spider series was meant for beginners & sounded boring to say the least.

Those days tech21 had the trademark series of amps I believe which were also good. Then came the Peavey Vypry Tube series & Fender Mustangs which were way better beginner amps because they sounded great.

Nowadays there's much wider choice of beginner gear available that's affordable & sounds inspiring.

I have a few Tech 21 amps- they knew what they were doing. No modeling there, though, just analog SS.
 
I had a spider with a cheap celestion 12" speaker about 15 years ago and it sounded great for a solid state amp. It was loud enough for bands too.
 
The only amps that L6 made that were awesome were the flextone vetta & DT series. The spider series was meant for beginners & sounded boring to say the least.

Those days tech21 had the trademark series of amps I believe which were also good. Then came the Peavey Vypry Tube series & Fender Mustangs which were way better beginner amps because they sounded great.

Nowadays there's much wider choice of beginner gear available that's affordable & sounds inspiring.

You forgot the best of the bunch, the duoverb


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One of these days, I'm going to run the direct out from my Microcube into the effects return of my Randall. I'll be sure to record it for posterity.

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Lately I have really been liking the Fender modeling amps. The Mustang LT25 is a champ for its size and price, and has a fantastic user interface. The Champion 100 XL is... a... champ... too... in a 100W 2x12 format with a simple dial for selecting the amp model. If I were giving lessons, I would probably use a Mustang LT25.

The new Tone Master Deluxe and Twin are the 2 best amps Fender has come out with in years. All the processing power goes to modeling just 1 amp.
 
Not a modeling amp, but have been more than surprised with the Blackstar Fly combos, at roughly $100 bucks for the package a 2- 3inch speaker 6 watt combo with a delay that has some really surprisingly nice tone, wasn't super impressed with the OD channel, but I wasn't expecting even what it was, and if nothing else make for some great laptop speakers :)
 
FWIW, I don't think even the current versions of the Spider amps use Helix algorithms. Hell, I doubt they even use the POD HD series algorithms. At best, they're using the old POD XT models from like 2002.
 
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