Line 6 Spider Valve

[scooteraz]

Has anyone actually seen, or better yet, had a chnace to play through one of these?http://www.line6.com/spidervalve/index.html

Just curious, how was it? Basically a POD through a clean tube amp (without the cabinet emulations), or something more? Inquiring minds want to know.

Anyone know how Line 6 got Bogner to work with them on this? Merely paid the guy or did they buy out a chunk (or all) of Bogner?

First saw that the amp exits today.

[Pepi]

Didn't know Line6 had any experience building tube amps Could be a big POS

[aznrambo481]

going after the vox AD-series market, eh?

never tried one, have stayed away from line 6 since steve howe bled my ears with them at the ASIA reunion tour... though recently arlo has some nice stuff coming out of a pod..

[KevinB]

Originally Posted by Pepi

Didn't know Line6 had any experience building tube amps Could be a big POS

Yeah, what would Reinhold Bogner know about tube amp design anyway

And unlike the Vox AD series, the power section of the Spider Valve amps use 6L6s (with 12AX7 preamp tubes and Celestion 30 Vintage speakers).

For more, see http://www.vettaville.nl/vvspider-valve.html

[Wally]

"Anyone know how Line 6 got Bogner to work with them on this? Merely paid the guy or did they buy out a chunk (or all) of Bogner?"

Well, you can be sure that money was involved.
Quote from the movie 'Thank You For Smoking'...."to pay the mortgage"

SS has been promising to deliver tube sonics for over 4 decades now. I guess this is one way to move in that direction?? Yowsir! (8^)
I remember the first time I heard a POD. A customer demo'd one from a local store and brought it in to see what it would do through a tube amp. IT sucked the life right out of a great tube amp. YMMV...

[Pepi]

Originally Posted by KevinB

Yeah, what would Reinhold Bogner know about tube amp design anyway

And unlike the Vox AD series, the power section of the Spider Valve amps use 6L6s (with 12AX7 preamp tubes and Celestion 30 Vintage speakers).

For more, see http://www.vettaville.nl/vvspider-valve.html

Just bookmark this thread and in a year from now we can return to see who can say "I told you so"

[scooteraz]

I started this thread because I have a love-hate relationship with Line 6 myself. Bought a POD II back when. Use it at church because we really want to have everything in the PA, and our stage area is too small and too close to the congregation for even a 5 watt amp (though I keep trying to get a small amp in there). Then we added another guitarist, and I got a POD XT Floor, which is a better unit than the II. Niether, however provides the really cool tones that I get from my "real" amps. On the other hand, the congregation doesn't seem to notice.

I believe that on "Back to the Blues" Gary Moore used the II for a couple of tracks, but I don't know which ones. Guess that either tells you 1) how talented Gary Moore is, 2) how bad my ears are or 3) how good the POD II is. Don't know.

Of the amp emulators, I think Line 6 is as good or better than anyone else out there. And, we can get reasonable (if not fantastic) tones out of ours. There individual effects series seems to have a couple of winners, I have a Verbzilla that is nice and I am told the rotary speaker emulator is good too. And, yes I think Reinhold Bogner knows how to make an amp. However, if the tube amp he designed is really clean to let the digital amp designs shine, then who cares; it is just a tube PA.

On the other hand, it is probable this is made in China on crappy PC boards with just barely acceptable wattage components. Like Pepi, I am wondering who will be laughing in the future.

[chickenpicker]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As far as I can tell, if you get a good valve amp or a good solid state amp, you don't need much else, and you certainly don't need to chop the guitar's signal up into a million pieces then reassemble it later inthe hope that it'll sound like something else.

You may have gathered that I'm not a fan of modelling effects...

[KevinB]

The appeal of modellers, for me, is their versatility. I'm certainly not totally sold on them. I can plug my old Tele into a BF Vibro Champ and get a fabulous tone, one that I really can't replicate with a Pod no matter what I try. But the Fender amp can't really do much else and I'm not so crazy about a Ric or a Les Paul through it. A Pod XTL can do a lot of things, especially if you use a Variax with the Line 6 software that lets you build and store virtual guitar models, and save amp and FX combinations and settings.

Good things are being said about Pods with Tom King's Atomic tube power amps, so I'm not surprised that Line 6 has brought out their own valve models. Whether they will succeed or fail who knows, but they have had a reasonable amount of success with their other products. Of course commercial success and critical acceptance don't necessarily go hand in hand.

Like it or not, modellers are here to stay. Ten years ago, very few predicted that film cameras would almost become extinct. It's a good analogy.

The bottom line is that it's a very personal and subjective thing, and all that matters is how these things sound to you.

[showard44]

I know this thread is old, but thought I would breath life into it as these things are supposed to be available this weekend. I am really tempted to just go buy one.

Line 6 modeling is great in my opinion, however the models do seem to be unnatural to a point that I have always veered away, but now to think those models will be going through a Bogner endorsed valve amp with Vintage 30s, it can't be bad can it? I really want to get my hands on one of these.

[11 Gauge]

This isn't the first time that Bogner has allowed name dropping.

First time around, it was the Hafler Triple Giant preamp.

Much like the Spyder Valve, the Triple Giant was supposed to be the next big thing. Where are they now?

If you dig their stuff, Line 6 is certainly legitimate. The SV will be just one more product for Line 6 lovers to enjoy.

If you aren't sure, I suggest you hold back, and keep your wallet in your pocket. YES - time will tell. If the SV is here a year or two from now, and there isn't a blatantly obvious reason why an improved SVII should/will be released, then it's probably worth a shot.

My experience with Line 6 was relatively painless. I bought a Spyder II shortly after they came out. At the time, I was having an inordinate number of tube amp reliability problems, and this pushed me over the edge into the wonderful world of modelling amps. The honeymoon period was great - turn a few knobs, and save one of four custom amp patches. No blown transformers, failed tube rectifiers, leaky filter caps, crackling, hum, etc...

...When the honeymoon period wore off, I found myself spending more and more time tweaking the amp than I did playing it. In the end, I found myself trying to tweak certain things that were untweakable, and futzing with tube amps actually required less time, at this point.

The worst part was when I tried to sell it. I bought it for $300, and was letting it go for $100. I got one call, and the guy didn't even come over to check it out. A month later, the Spyder III came out, and it became clear that I couldn't give my II away...

So, I basically paid $300 to learn that (low end) Line 6 products aren't for me...

If you're on the fence, give it some time, IMO.

[showard44]

part of my thought process on this is the fact that I could get into a Spider III fro a heck of a lot cheaper if the tube amp thing isn't going to do much for me with the modeling, cause the modeling is the same as the Spider III.

But you know how it goes, I'm not going to really feel a tube or a SS amp out in a music store. I'd have to be on stage with both rigs side by side A/B them and see if you can really hear a difference with the modeling over the top of tubes.

Ive got a Fender Vibrolux that I really like with my standard stomp boxes, but when getting a real clean crunchy sound, a clean fender amp isn't going to sound like a Boogie no matter what pedals you throw at it. And spending $2000 on the boogie isn't an option.

[hwestman]

Originally Posted by Wally

"Anyone know how Line 6 got Bogner to work with them on this? Merely paid the guy or did they buy out a chunk (or all) of Bogner?"

Well, you can be sure that money was involved.
.

Obviously! Do you think he should have done it for free or what?

[InstituteOfNoise]

Had nothing to do with money, in as much as it had to do with Reinhold's longtime association in other ways with Line 6. He has always supported them by hand picking amps of his they modeled. Reinhold likes to take on cutting edge challenges. I'm looking forward to trying these out over the next week or two myself. Will it be enough to cause me to stop using my stereo Atomic Amp rig? I doubt it, but I bet it will sound pretty cool. I've talked to a few of the guys I know personally form the little sneak video clip they posted. They told me offline it really did sound awesome!

[wierdOne]

well....

i was the first on the block to have a vetta... then the first to have a variax.. Obviously they had their flaws...

i love technology... but... the vetta proved to be too loud, too heavy, and WAY too complicated for live use... however, I LOVED it in the studio..

The variax was a different story... I'm glad I owned one, because it taught me an unexpected invaluable lesson.... what I found was that when dialing in the electric guitars, the variax would sound (very much) like a strat.. or les paul... or telecaster... we all know that... but... I would actually play each guitar differently... I'd get really bluesy on a strat... twangy on a tele.. rockin on a les paul... rockabilly on the gretch... well... because I was poor... and couldn't afford all those different guitars, the variax allowed me to explore the different genre's of music easily... Being able to easily dial in SRV's sound, helped me in learning that style of playing MUCH more quickly than I would have had I only had a tele....... now... i've got alot more experience under my belt, and I have learned the different techniques that make up each style... so I've long since dropped the crutch of the variax, and now attempt to do it all on a tele... (I never said I was good at it... but I can fake it alright sometimes)...

I hope that this amp helps people that can't afford to get into the "real" tube amp market achieve good tones.... I'm very interested to see what happens...

[georgeb4]

Supposedly Line 6 is coming out with an all-tube amp next year. No modeling. Not exactly an original idea but I'm curious to see how it turns out.

[tele_jas]

I played one the other day at a local music store for about an hour. The clean channels were really nice and full sounding, maybe not 100% representable of what they model, but they did sound really good. The distorted models sounded much better than any other solid state or modeling amp I've ever played though, but still a little less responsive and "over gained" at the volume I was playing at than a "real" amp..... I did crank up the Boogie Rectifier model and chunk on it, and it cleaned up pretty good at a moderate volume and sounded more like a "real" amp then.

I think I'm going to start saving my pennies and nickles for one of these next year some time, there sure to be on ebay for around $450 by next summer. It'll be a really nice grab-n-go amp.