Anyone play the Spider Valve at home or on a gig?

[disassembled]

I had one for about a week and enjoy it for home jamming at low to moderate levels. I checked out the guts and the tube portion is very well made with some hefty resistors along with a seperate bias control for each tube. This amp is in need of a tweaker and not someone that is used to using the models emulated as a starting point. I will say this: the feel is great, the volume is there, and the tone is dialable.

I was originally thinking about getting a recto pre or possibly find a cheap Recto head to give me that tone but this amp actually provides a fairly close rendition of a Recto head. I have to run the gain at 0 on one of the Recto channels but with the gain at 0 it's about what i would run it if I had the amp infront of me (which is a little bit less than 12 o'clock on a recto head).


The biggest negative for this amp are the mod effects but I rarely find the need for effects so it works out fine. The delays are fine and the verb is fine. The cleans are hurt by the V30 speaker as you are forced to scoop the mids or else the cleans are too in your face.

The biggest tone in this amp is a Plexi jump panel that just sounds great with a touch response that rivals a good amp and tone that is huge. It has that "greasy" tone that reminds me of SRV but you can dial that out if it's not your thing. This is one of the brighter preamps in the Spider Valve which I think is a great thing for cutting through a mix.

The amp sounds huge for an open back 112 40 watt amp but I would honestly rather take this to a gig than my rack and 112 cabs for ease of setup and the ability to get great tones. My rack has better cleans, much much better effects, is stereo, and uses EV speakers in my cabs but the Spider Valve is just as toneful all by itself.

I bought the amp used as a blem item from MF.com and when I received it the previous owner's presets absolutely sucked so I could see why they chose to sell it. If you try this amp in a store you are more than likely going to be disappointed unless someone that knows the amp tweaks it for you. I suggest if you have the means and are looking for an all in one amp you buy it with a 45 day return policy and give it a full run. Another downside of the amp is the lack of footcontroller included. It would have been nice to include a 4 button pedal but it's a small investment to have a complete rig.


Greg

 

[Guitarzan]

Played one at a local store...I would use it as a practice amp...that's about it.

 

[disassembled]

Played one at a local store...I would use it as a practice amp...that's about it.

So you played it in a store at low levels?


Greg

 

[Turumbar82]

I played one yesterday at GC for awhile. I tried a lot of guitars through, mostly all humbucker equipped guitars.

The plastic on the volume and presence knobs was cracked and broken

For the tone, I thought it was suprisinly good! I played through the 2x12 cab. The cleans sounding pretty good but I had to equalize them a bit to really find it. The mid regions of distortions sounded good but I didn't love them. The high gain region I thought was very very nice especially for the price. The insane models didn't sound as buzzy and fizzy as they do on other Line 6 stuff. It had a nice crunch. One thing I notice with modelers is if you put in on a high gain model and use the lower end of the gain knob it sounds bad. With the spider valve I loved doing this. I put it on insane (amber) and turn the drive all the way down and it gave me a very nice crunchy rock tone. I really liked the high gain models overall. They sounded heavy, and had good articulation and decent sustain.

The effects were decent. I mainly was interested in the amp models

As for this amp, I think it's like most modelers. I think they can do clean tones and high gain tones well, but I think the inbetween sounds aren't up to pair quite yet. I think copying the tube sound in mid gain regions is the toughest because there is so much sensativity with pick attack and volume and gain. I think they will eventually get it perfect but as of now I still think it is slightly lacking.

After all of that, I will say I liked the amp a lot. It was fun to play and I could get a lot of tones out of the amp right off the bat that I liked. I was able to turn it up pretty loud. I thought it had plenty of volume and the tone got better as I turned it up.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Guitarzan]

Played one at a local store...I would use it as a practice amp...that's about it.

So you played it in a store at low levels?


Greg

Oh no we cranked it... It's a loud 40W but you can still hear the modeling taking place. It responds like a tube amp should and there is a way to turn the noise gate off for more expressive dynamics. I didn't like the sound of it when cranked. I might have to go back and plug it into a cab to see if that helps. Like I said...It's a great practice amp!

 

[Turumbar82]

Yeah it definitely is a loud 40 watts. I thought it sounded good by itself. As we all know things change when you are in the mix of a band. Practice amp...definitely!

Guitarzan is right about the noise gate though. But i have had trouble finding a good noise gate that I didn't feel ruined dynamics.

 

[disassembled]

The first tones i dialed in were mid gain. My favorite is the crunch blue with the gain about half, bass at '0', mid around half, and the treble set to taste but is more than half for me, master at half, presence at half, and master volume to taste. I turned off all effects, verb, gate, and the OD. I think these tones blow away anything I've dialed in with the Mark IV or TA as far as midgain goes.

You really have to try odd settings to find the better tones. For the insane channels I do exactly what was described above and keep the gain on 0. Most channels require the bass to be set on 0.

I am not saying this amp replaces anything else I own but for an all in one unit this amp holds it own. I guess I don't really care what the amps modelled are supposed to be I just know I can coax a good tone out of it.

Unfortunately i forsee many purists not even trying this because it says Line6 on the front and that's all that really keeps people from making an unbiased decision.

Greg