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Picked up 2 amps this weekend.
1st Gen Line 6 Spider I 2 x 12 with the Line 6 Longboard foot controller
No frills, barely any tweaking, no midi, no computer hook up, no software updates, no loop, no nothing. Its almost a plug in and dial in the basic controls type of amp. This is prior to all the deep editing that modelers have now.
How does it sound? It sounds great. It only has 5 sounds. Clean, Twang, Crunch, Recto, Insane. It only has a few different delays, a chorus, flange, tremolo and reverb.
I dialed in some great useable tones in minutes. The longboard footcontroller has a wah pedal and a volume pedal on it, 2 banks (8 channels total), a tuner and you can turn all the effects and distortion on and off when it is in manual mode. Amp also has a "hidden" boost switch, added distortion switch, noise gate and a presence control.
100 watts, stereo. I would do a small gig with this amp. I first played through one at a local live band karaoki contest. They had it up on stage and every guitar player that that showed up played through it. They had it mic'd. Everything from lady Gaga to Iron Maiden to Alanis Morsette. I used it for a Bon Jovi Song. I was very surprised on how good it sounded. Anyway, its cheap and it sounds really good and you don't need the owners manual and a degree in physics to figure it out. I guess you could call it a "vintage" modeling amp.
Next up is a Crate XT120R. This is a 2 x 12 combo. 120 watts, 3 channel, reverb and comes with a 3 button switch. Clean channel is excellent. Crunch channel is good. Not great. Just good. Totally useable for most genres of music. The solo channel is over the top Crate Flexwave type gain. It has as enough gain for searing guitar solos with the gain on 3. There is one thing about this amp that is worth mentioning. ITS LOUD. Holy crap. This is the loudest 2 x 12 SS combo I have ever heard. The clean has so much headroom that you could break your windows in your house and it won't break up.
This is an outstanding amp to leave at your bands rehearsal space. Its loud and can compete with any drummer. You could plug in an extention cabinet and the speakers on the amp stay on too so if you plug in a 2 x 12 cab you would be running with 4 x 12 speakers. It has one of those insert jacks in the back that you can plug a stereo 1/4" to two 1/4" mono jacks cable into so you can use it as a traditional effects loop. It also has a CD input jacks. I kind of dig the Crate Flexwave distortion circuit.
The amp cabinet has 4 sockets on the bottom of it to plug casters into. Very cool.
Anyway, there you have it. For the budget minded guitar player these are both great choices. I bought them to flip them and flip them I will. Hearing is believing so they will be easy to flip.
1st Gen Line 6 Spider I 2 x 12 with the Line 6 Longboard foot controller
No frills, barely any tweaking, no midi, no computer hook up, no software updates, no loop, no nothing. Its almost a plug in and dial in the basic controls type of amp. This is prior to all the deep editing that modelers have now.
How does it sound? It sounds great. It only has 5 sounds. Clean, Twang, Crunch, Recto, Insane. It only has a few different delays, a chorus, flange, tremolo and reverb.
I dialed in some great useable tones in minutes. The longboard footcontroller has a wah pedal and a volume pedal on it, 2 banks (8 channels total), a tuner and you can turn all the effects and distortion on and off when it is in manual mode. Amp also has a "hidden" boost switch, added distortion switch, noise gate and a presence control.
100 watts, stereo. I would do a small gig with this amp. I first played through one at a local live band karaoki contest. They had it up on stage and every guitar player that that showed up played through it. They had it mic'd. Everything from lady Gaga to Iron Maiden to Alanis Morsette. I used it for a Bon Jovi Song. I was very surprised on how good it sounded. Anyway, its cheap and it sounds really good and you don't need the owners manual and a degree in physics to figure it out. I guess you could call it a "vintage" modeling amp.
Next up is a Crate XT120R. This is a 2 x 12 combo. 120 watts, 3 channel, reverb and comes with a 3 button switch. Clean channel is excellent. Crunch channel is good. Not great. Just good. Totally useable for most genres of music. The solo channel is over the top Crate Flexwave type gain. It has as enough gain for searing guitar solos with the gain on 3. There is one thing about this amp that is worth mentioning. ITS LOUD. Holy crap. This is the loudest 2 x 12 SS combo I have ever heard. The clean has so much headroom that you could break your windows in your house and it won't break up.
This is an outstanding amp to leave at your bands rehearsal space. Its loud and can compete with any drummer. You could plug in an extention cabinet and the speakers on the amp stay on too so if you plug in a 2 x 12 cab you would be running with 4 x 12 speakers. It has one of those insert jacks in the back that you can plug a stereo 1/4" to two 1/4" mono jacks cable into so you can use it as a traditional effects loop. It also has a CD input jacks. I kind of dig the Crate Flexwave distortion circuit.
The amp cabinet has 4 sockets on the bottom of it to plug casters into. Very cool.
Anyway, there you have it. For the budget minded guitar player these are both great choices. I bought them to flip them and flip them I will. Hearing is believing so they will be easy to flip.
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