Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

[Diego]

What a buzzy piece of crap!
It was a head + a Line 6 4x12 cabinet.

I played for 3 hours with it and I had to take the treble down to zero and crank the mids in the crunch setting to get something manageable. Otherwise it was just buzz.

It didn't deliver much in the way of low mids and lows, and the tone felt very dead to put it somehow, it had no sag, no flavor, no warmth.

Do they sound better with a different cab? I've read Line 6 cabinets are junk, and from my brief experience, I concur. I got a much warmer, natural, crunchy sound with my Cube 60, which has exactly ONE 12 inch speaker instead of four. Unbelievable.

Share your good experiences with these. Next time I'll choose the room with the Valvestate Marshalls instead... those are much better, honestly.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Line 6s are fine at low volumes but every time I've started to get one at good levels it morphs into a hunk-o-****.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Midrange is the key - for guitar and bass.

If even a Marshall Valvestate sounds better than that Line6, it must be truly appalling. :biglaugh:

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I like how the specs on a Line 6 always list about 500 killer amps, then you plug in and can't even get 1 tone that sounds as good as the worst amp on their list.

And every new product adds more amps, FX, and cabs to the list. How about making the first 20 sound good?

In all honesty, their high end stuff does sound pretty good nowadays. But their Spider series......I couldn't even believe they wasted Reinhold Bogner's time with the Spider Valve series. Line 6 contracts one of the best tube amp designers in the world, and throw their Spider preamp in it!! They should have put their Vetta software in it.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Line 6 amps and multi effecst stuff always look good on paper but when you plug it in, they suck.

Someone should tell SamusChief in the Guitar Room that paper isn't always true...
Supposedly Epiphone is making higher end guitars than Gibson.

 

[Diego]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Midrange is the key - for guitar and bass.

If even a Marshall Valvestate sounds better than that Line6, it must be truly appalling. :biglaugh:

Heh, to be honest I don't think those Valvestates are so bad.
They wipe the floor with all the entry-level SS amps by other brands, like Laney, Randall and certainly Line 6.
I dialed and got a pretty convincing AC/DC tone out of the Marshall, not bad for a cheap old amp.

I gigged with my Cube 60 and my Duncan-loaded Ibanez SZ, and the sound was way, way better than both the Line 6 and the Marshall.

It's truly horrifying how bad that Line 6 stack is; the sound thinned out instantly at rehearsal volume, and it wasn't even close to a gig volume; we actually rehearse at a pretty low volume so we don't have to bother with earplugs. My ears never ring after rehearsals, that's how low we practice and by those levels the Line 6 wasn't pushing.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I like how the specs on a Line 6 always list about 500 killer amps, then you plug in and can't even get 1 tone that sounds as good as the worst amp on their list.

And every new product adds more amps, FX, and cabs to the list. How about making the first 20 sound good?

In all honesty, their high end stuff does sound pretty good nowadays. But their Spider series......I couldn't even believe they wasted Reinhold Bogner's time with the Spider Valve series. Line 6 contracts one of the best tube amp designers in the world, and throw their Spider preamp in it!! They should have put their Vetta software in it.

WOW how I agree with this sentiment. Especially the part about using the Vetta technology. Line 6 is just in love with this Spider stuff and I don't know why. I gotta admit that my buddy's Spider 4 150 watt combo is a really good sounding amp, but it doesn't compare to the Judge Dredd Vetta I used to own. How I wished that amp had tubes!

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

the dudes at Line6 are looking at the numbers

HOT DIGGITY DIZAMN THOSE SPIDERS ARE SELLIN LIKE HOTCAKES THE PEOPLE MUST LOVE 'EM

 

[lex666]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I've tried many times to find a tone in a Spider that I liked.

Not a single useful tone in there. Very dissapointing. YMMV.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I bought my son some beat-up POS Spider III 15 watt combo at a pawn shop a few months ago. It's just an experiment, because he's been playing acoustic for a year now and wants to piddle with electric. I didn't want him wearing-out tubes in my tube amps, so I just grabbed the Line 6. After I got it home I regretted that decision, as they also had some Behringer Vampire amps there (1X12 combos) and I should have bought that. People here aren't in love with Behringer, but I used to have the Vampire head and the 1X12 combo for practicing and both kicked the crap out of the Spider III series. Shouldn't have sold the combo to a friend.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

What a buzzy piece of crap!

For sure! The high gain modes are unusable to my ears. I just set my son's Line 6 up in Crunch mode and dailed-back the treble, and upped the bass and mids and told him to play with that. The best I could do out of that thing...

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Maybe my ears are wierd man but I don't see how you can find the Line 6 buzzy and the valvestate not!? You guys give the Line 6 stuff way too much slack here.

I've been rehearsing for years in crappy places where they had nothing better than SS valvestate's, bandids, H&K's and whatnot. I'd wish they had Line 6 spiders in those days! I have a deep grounded passionate hate for those amps and the noisy, buzzy, hollow, narrow, mosquito tones they deliver.
The trick with the Spider is to dial it in yourself and not to use the pre-sets.
I've also played a few Roland cube's and yes they are very crisp and pristine but I wouldn't call it a warm sound at all. I found those to be rather lifeless actually.
After all those years playing on crap I finally got lucky to find a real studio where they would let my band practise. They had all kind of stuff there: Real Marshall's (JCM's), Mesa, Koch, Fender, London City, and yes Line 6.
The guy who runs the place has good ears and he can make a fart sound like an angel is singing with his studio stuff but he never get's any junk in the house. If it's bad he sells it. The Spider is still there and I've played it enough times just to be pleased that it delivered good enough tones so that I wouldn't have to haul my tube half stack with me all the time.

Man, they (Line 6) should pay me for this rant

One more thing, I've been testing those 4x12 with other amps and yes they suck really bad but with the Spider head it sounds not too bad, it's definately designed that way.

 

[woemoejack]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I'm with Red Label on the Behringer modeling stuff. I had a v-amp pro for a while and I kick myself for selling it. The amp modeling is better than Line 6 by far, IMO.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I'm with Red Label on the Behringer modeling stuff. I had a v-amp pro for a while and I kick myself for selling it. The amp modeling is better than Line 6 by far, IMO.

For sure. I actually bought the 1X12 Vampire for practice, and the Vampire head for gigging (after I'd sold my H&K Triamp Mk I thinking I was quitting gigging). Anyways... I tried the Vampire head at a gig and it sounded fine, but I was doing some country and it just didn't have the clean headroom for that stuff. Other than that, it was fine. I definitely prefer tube amps, but would have NO problem recommending them for practice and newer players.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I'm with Red Label on the Behringer modeling stuff. I had a v-amp pro for a while and I kick myself for selling it. The amp modeling is better than Line 6 by far, IMO.

I had one of those once, into a PA speaker the sounds it got were spot on and into the power amp of my tube combo at the it was amazing. I'm glad Dad got me into good amps from a young age. I've never owned anything line 6 and I always resented jamming with other kids who did. Even the rhythm guitarist in my band has a spider III halfstack which now no longer sees the light of day ever since I introduced him to Marshall JVMs.

 

[Diego]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Maybe my ears are wierd man but I don't see how you can find the Line 6 buzzy and the valvestate not!? You guys give the Line 6 stuff way too much slack here.

Maybe my ears are weird.

I found the EQ much more responsive on that old Valvestate stack I used than the Spider stack. Maybe the speakers are older and broken in after many years? It is old after all. Maybe the Marshall cab's got better speakers, I don't know but my ears dictate here.

I'm not one of bash on certain brands just because, but that stack really left me cold.

Oh and,

For sure! The high gain modes are unusable to my ears. I just set my son's Line 6 up in Crunch mode and dailed-back the treble, and upped the bass and mids and told him to play with that. The best I could do out of that thing...

Exactly how I dialed mine in.
Treble on zero, bass around 6, mids cranked, gain around 10 o' clock. Still very spiky and raspy.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I've got a Spider 112 that I've used for small shows consistently over the last 10 years and it's never let me down. It gets loud when I want it loud, I like the on board effects, etc. The thing is, though, I've never used the presets. You have to tweek them just a little, guys. And remember, moderation is the key. You can't dime the volume and just expect it to sound good. You have to do your homework.

 

[Diego]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I haven't looked at the back of the Spider Stack I've been using, but I see no presets in it?

Only 4 models: Clean, Crunch, Metal, Insane. It's pretty straight forward actually.
But not the usual Vox, Marshall, Peavey, Tweed, Red/Green channel flavor thing that Line 6 usually does.
Just those models that are very broad, to put it somehow.

In fact it's this one:

So I go straight to crunch, set the EQ and just leave it there. Dunno what else can be done, to be honest.
Help me make this thing sound good!

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

Maybe my ears are weird.

I found the EQ much more responsive on that old Valvestate stack I used than the Spider stack. Maybe the speakers are older and broken in after many years? It is old after all. Maybe the Marshall cab's got better speakers, I don't know but my ears dictate here.

I'm not one of bash on certain brands just because, but that stack really left me cold.

Maybe it came out harsher than I meant there bro. I just go :eyecrazy: when people praise stuff like a valvestate since every single one I've played/heard sounded noisy, awfull and tweaking seemed to make no difference. As a matter of fact I roll the treble all the way back on those things lol.

The Spider III surprised me because I could get usable sounds out of it. Before that experience I was a die hard tube snob.
The effects are a joke but I haven't played around with those that much.
I swear I have an old band rehearsal recording on Minidisc somewhere with the Spider III stack, I'll go dig in my drawer and post it later on so you guys can tell me whose ears are really weird .

cheers :friday:

 

[Hellion]

Re: Reheased with a Line 6 Spider III 4x12 stack the other day.

I really think that this goes back to what I've been saying for a couple of decades now. Your tone isn't in the guitar or amp. It's in your head and your hands. You can achieve the tone you want with any appropriate equipment, tube or SS, modeling or not, just mess with the knobs. You have to understand the limitations of the equipment in question, but they're all just tools, my friends...