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

[Jeffblue]

I plugged the Line 6 amp in and I wasn't blown away. I am sort of a tube snob. I planned on using this amp strictly for acoustic guitar. I plugged my VHT Fryette Valvulator 1 into the amp and I was pleasantly surprised. I then changed ALL of the user preset settings to clean and plugged a tube overdrive pedal in front of the Valvulator and now this amp is useable for electric guitar and sounds really good. Good sounding tones.

 

[Securb]

I do not think there are many "bad" amps out there I think some amps are just more limited than others offering less flexibility in tonal options. I am glad you were able to find something in the Line 6 you find useful.

 

[Mincer]

A gift amp is a gift amp. I bet I'd find some good sounds in there.

 

[Aceman]

With anything that comes with presets:


Step 1 - Delete them and build your own.

Step 2 - There is no step 2.

 

[Jeffblue]

With anything that comes with presets:


Step 1 - Delete them and build your own.

Step 2 - There is no step 2.

Yes sir. All user presets are now clean and I'm using an external tube overdrive which is routed into the input of my Valvulator. I have deleted many of the effects in the presets and changed the one's that do not sound very good. With the tube overdrive and the Fryette Valvulator, the amp is sounding pretty good and perhaps useable.

 

[Aceman]

Yes sir. All user presets are now clean and I'm using an external tube overdrive which is routed into the input of my Valvulator. I have deleted many of the effects in the presets and changed the one's that do not sound very good. With the tube overdrive and the Fryette Valvulator, the amp is sounding pretty good and perhaps useable.

It's all about dialing in the sounds you want. Not sure what year that is, but anywhere after 2005 or so...if you can't crank a good sound out of something with all those models, it's you.

As always, less is more; Less Effects, less level, less extreme EQ, less gain etc.

I have an old Digitech RP200A I get good sounds out of. All about how you set the knobs. As many will attest, these things are built to sound good to 13-18 year old in a Guitar Center....

 

[Jeffblue]

It's all about dialing in the sounds you want. Not sure what year that is, but anywhere after 2005 or so...if you can't crank a good sound out of something with all those models, it's you.

As always, less is more; Less Effects, less level, less extreme EQ, less gain etc.

I have an old Digitech RP200A I get good sounds out of. All about how you set the knobs. As many will attest, these things are built to sound good to 13-18 year old in a Guitar Center....

You are right. I am getting some great tones out of the amp. The effects are nothing special for sure. Running vacuum tubes in front of this amp certainly helps.

 

[FuseG4]

Don't look a gift amp in the speaker grille...?

Haha. A lot of clean amps can sound pretty good with pedals that is what I would have done too.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I've always thought the models on the Spiders were at least usable. Yeah, they're not last-gen Axe FX quality, but I mean, you can do far worse.

For me it's the poweramp/speaker/combo that don't really do those amps any flavors.

The poweramp is really loud, but it also gets harsh and kinda farty really quickly. The speakers are basically Seventy 80's which aren't fantastic and break up really easily, contrary to what their wattage rating would make you think. And the cab is like as open back as it can be, which doesn't really lend itself to good high-gain tones, IMO. Add all those up, and yeah...

 

[Mincer]

I was gifted a Spider practice amp that I now use for lessons. It has an excellent clean sound that is fantastic for pedals.

 

[Jeffblue]

I was gifted a Spider practice amp that I now use for lessons. It has an excellent clean sound that is fantastic for pedals.

I agree. The clean tone is superb and the amp does work well with pedals.

 

[Jeffblue]

I am running a TC Electronics Hyper Gravity compressor pedal into my Fuch's Plush Valve Job tube overdrive which is slamming into my Fryette Valvulator and it is sounding really good. The onboard effects in the Spider amp, not so good.

 

[zionstrat]

Congrats! Glad you found an immediate use.

Give it some time and you might find more...

I'm also a tube snob... but in a live mix, it's practically impossible to differentiate decent models from tubes...

The reason? Masking...

All those low grumblings and rich harmonics that we love at home end up mixing in with the bass on one end and the cymbals at the other...

It's pretty easy to prove... Come up with a simple black face or crunch patches and A B with tubes when you gig.. record the band with a high quality mic from audience side, and if you do it right, no one will be able to tell which is which.

And this leads to the advantages of modelers... they are also a lot easier to move from gig to gig when you need fast set up, maintenance is non-existent and your tone doesn't change when you vary the Master vol

And to complete the circuit from where you started... I have a black star hd pedal with a single tube... Can go anywhere anytime and immediately get a great sound with it plugged into anything.

So my lightest rig is a single tube, my overkill is 2 tube amps with a fader pedal in the middle and modelers fill the middle.



​

 

[8eezrule]

I have a Line 6 Spider Jam, cool little amp, I like some of the pre sets, mostly make my own though. But no modeler or solid state amp will ever "feel" like a tube amp does, or react to your playing like tubes. But they are fun to fiddle around with. So, enjoy your gift man! Have fun with it!

 

[Jeffblue]

I removed the Fuch's Plush Valve Job pedal out of the chain and instead added my Tech 21 Flat rig RK V1 while staying with the clean amp models on the Line 6 for amp nuances. Adjusted the delay on the Fly Rig for slapback and all adjustments to optimize tone. Basically using the Line 6 as a power amp with some presets with effects used lightly. Sounding mus=ch better.

 

[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.