Line 6 Bogner Spider Valve review

[BadgerDave]

Contrary to the advice of many (which I very much appreciate) I decided to audition a Line 6 Spider valve 1-12 combo. Since M-fiend offered it with a 30 day money back guarantee, I figured this was a low-risk opportunity.

Some background: I owned, and very much liked, the Line 6 Duoverb combo. I’m not much of an effects user and I thought the clean and old school models on the Duoverb were quite good. Unfortunately, the Duoverb was more power and more weight than I needed and it tended to lose much of its appeal at less than stage volumes.

I was prepared to be disappointed in the Spider Valve. Most of the user reviews and the opinions expressed on this board were negative. I agree with the following criticisms:

1. The effects are “all or nothing” and sound cheesy. This is true of the Flange/Chorus in particular which is irritatingly swooshy and kerrangy at its minimum setting. It’s pretty much unusable. The other effects are OK. The reverb is actually pretty good.

2. The presets are pure $hite. This is absolutely true of the bank of “Artist” presets. I found a couple that were OK, but the overwhelming majority are over-processed and gimmicky. Most of them sound just plain bad. I suspect this is generating many of the negative reviews since these are the sounds that are immediately accessible. There is, however, another bank of presets that may not be apparent to someone who just plugs in at Guitar Center. These are grouped by decade (i.e., 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, etc.) and there are some really nice offerings. Some real stand outs are Hard Days Night and Day Tripper for the (obviously) clean Vox sound, All Right Now for classic Marshall tone, some great Fender tweed and blackface variants and even some (relatively) restrained Mesa Boogie lead tones. Line 6 should be advertising these presets front and center. 80% of them are usable and many are strikingly good.

3. The high-gain models are lame. Probably true. The ones I’ve listened to seem to lack any “organic” quality, but I am not an expert. My idea of “high-gain” is Santana or Van Halen. Yes, I am lame!

Overall, the amp works well for me. In 15 minutes, I was able to find, tweak and store 4 presets as the first bank that will serve my purposes 90% of the time. These are: an AC30, a Blackface Fender, a Plexi Marshall and a Boogie lead tone. With the Shortboard controller that I had from my Duotone days, I can access any of these without any scrolling. Another advantage is the volume pedal on the shortboard. Turning down the volume with the foot pedal doesn’t affect the tone of the presets – so, your Marshall tone doesn’t get cleaner as you pedal down the volume. On the other hand, the models are sensitive to input volume, so you can clean up that Marshall tone by backing off on the volume control on the guitar. VERY Cool!

One big disadvantage of the Duotone was the difference in volume levels between amp models. If you switched between a Fender Tweed model and a Triple Rectifier, for example, the Recto could be twice as loud. This required some fancy footwork with the volume pedal. The Spider Valve solves this issue with a “channel volume” control. This allows you to set the individual default volume levels on all of your user-saved presets. You can have everything the same or add a preset boost to your “lead” preset if you prefer. Again VERY Cool!

I am impressed with the quality of the basic amp models – at least the ones I use. The Duotone had a half dozen really good amp models and these are slightly changed in the Spider Valve. You get a generic Blackface Fender rather than a choice between a Deluxe and a Twin, for example, and a single Vox instead of an AC30 and AC15. Still the Vox, Fender, and some Boogie and Marshall models are very satisfying.

The Spider Valve works better at very low to moderate volume levels than the Duoverb. I haven’t cranked the volume yet, but from everything I’ve read, the Spider Valve gets better as it gets louder and the advantages of the tubes really kick in.

I’m keeping it!

[jisham]

I'm gonna have to check out the presets by decade...I never even saw those. Sounds like it's working for you, and that's all that matters.

[DavidE]

I saw some good reviews and heard some good clips on The Gear Page. Could be interesting.

Despite the availability of 128 presets on my HK Switchblades, I set up 4 and they cover 99% of my needs. With many gigs under my belt with the HK head and a couple with the HK combo, I find that these 4 presets, my Timmy and a lead boost are all I use all night. I do reach back to the amp to turn on the flanger and chorus three times during the evening.

Maybe I'll put together a second bank for those tunes.

I should spend more time with my Flextone III to see if I can get anything good out of it. The sounds I got after spending several hours with it just didn't sound the same as a tube amp to me. Just didn't sound "real". Maybe I should keep the floorboard for the Spider Valve. ;-)

[SteveB]

It would be nice if they had a head the size of a Boogie Mark head.

[Mindseyes]

I had one at the house for a week and never seen the presets by decade!.........may have to check it out agin.

Thanks for the nice review!!

[BadgerDave]

Here's a list of the Spider Valve presets:

Spider Valve Presets

[Jeff R]

That list of presets looks very similar to the ones that were in a "regular" Spider 2x10 combo I had at the house for several weeks earlier this year.

Many of those presents were actually pretty good sounding in that amp and if they are somewhat unchanged in the new amp, I'd assume putting them in a tube-y platform would only enhance them.

[BadgerDave]

The Spider Valve incoroprates the same presets as the Spider III.

IMO, Line 6 would do themselves a favor by eliminating the "Artist Presets" entirely. Or at least placing them somewhere where they are less likely to be accessed by a first-time user.

The immediate access banks have some really dreadful presets. They really should be putting the "decade" presets in the "plug & play" location.

[jisham]

Are you using a foot controller...if so, which one?

[sirDaniel]

I never pass up a good reviewer doing an amp review. Thanx bD. I think for now I'll skip my urge to own that one.

[BadgerDave]

Are you using a foot controller...if so, which one?

Jaye,

I'm using the FBV Shortboard. IMO the amp loses most of its appeal without the Shortboard, especially if you want to use it live, or even in a basement jam situation.

Dan,

I think you'd like this one. It has a "Brian May" preset!

[jisham]

I'm going to see if I can download the manual, but besides switching presets, what else can the shortboard do? I know the pedal serves as volume/wah but can you toggle individual fx on/off for example? I called my local GC and they have no foot controllers to try out with what they have in stock.

[sirDaniel]

Dan,

I think you'd like this one. It has a "Brian May" preset!

I AM a Brian May preset...

[BadgerDave]

I'm going to see if I can download the manual, but besides switching presets, what else can the shortboard do? I know the pedal serves as volume/wah but can you toggle individual fx on/off for example? I called my local GC and they have no foot controllers to try out with what they have in stock.

Yes, the Shortboard has individual footswitches for toggling the modulation, delay and reverb off and on. Plus a toggle for effects run through the amp's effects loop. And a tuner!

[jisham]

I went back to GC last night where they now have a half stack (Spider Valve head and 412 with V30s) set up in the glass room (no shortboards tho). I initially ignored the presets altogether and just played with the knobs; I took my black Standard Custom (had LOTS of peeps drooling over it but I digress).

Bottomline is that it sounded WAY better than the little combo I dicked around with a few weeks back, probably because I didn't use the artist presets, although the "decade" presets sounded pretty good with a little tweeking here and there. As DavidE mentioned I think, turning it up helped ALOT, like any tube amp. I was able to crank it up which really seemed to open it up and overcome some of the digital feel of the amp.

If I was touring the country, I don't know that it would be an amp for me, but for a local cover band it might just be the ticket. I could see setting four basic tones and running with them all night I think. It's still a modeller but getting four distinct tones from one amp, with a tube power section is very appealing. The cab sounded great to my ears as well.

Plus, it's CHEAP. $799.99 tagged which means even less out the door.

I'm going to download the manual this morning at work and start reading....

[BadgerDave]

Jaye,

The Spider Valve manual is a bit light on content. For example, it doesn't have the list of presets

or much detail on the Shortboard. I found the Spider Valve fourm on the Line 6 website to be extremely helpful. Spider Valve Forum Link

BTW, I forgot to mention - the shortboard also has a "tap tempo" footswitch for the Spider Valve delay. I just checked Musiciansfriend - they have blem and "B Stock" shortboards starting at under $200.00.

[DavidE]

I saw some good reviews and heard some good clips on The Gear Page. Could be interesting.

Despite the availability of 128 presets on my HK Switchblades, I set up 4 and they cover 99% of my needs. With many gigs under my belt with the HK head and a couple with the HK combo, I find that these 4 presets, my Timmy and a lead boost are all I use all night. I do reach back to the amp to turn on the flanger and chorus three times during the evening.

Maybe I'll put together a second bank for those tunes.

I should spend more time with my Flextone III to see if I can get anything good out of it. The sounds I got after spending several hours with it just didn't sound the same as a tube amp to me. Just didn't sound "real". Maybe I should keep the floorboard for the Spider Valve. ;-)

Dave:

I'd love to try your tweaked presets if you've written them down. I have a Spider Valve 1x12 on the way.

Thanks.

I'm going to see if I can download the manual, but besides switching presets, what else can the shortboard do? I know the pedal serves as volume/wah but can you toggle individual fx on/off for example? I called my local GC and they have no foot controllers to try out with what they have in stock.

Yes, the Shortboard has individual footswitches for toggling the modulation, delay and reverb off and on. Plus a toggle for effects run through the amp's effects loop. And a tuner!

I understand there's also a lead boost switch that gooses the front end of the amp to provide more gain and volume. How does that work?

Oh, and did you find the "hidden" univibe effect sound???

[BadgerDave]

My advice is to avoid the "artist" presets completely. The "lacuna coil" preset that McChris mentioned is a nice medium overdrive setting and one of a very few exeptions to the "artist presets absolutely suck" rule. The "era" presets, on the other hand are very good, and the names tell you exactly what you're getting. In the 60's bank, for example, "George" is a dead nuts clone of the Beatles Vox tone. I tweaked it a bit and renamed my preset "60's Vox" (because I have no imagination). The 4th preset that McChris alluded to is based on a Santana lead tone. I call my version "Mesa Lead".

Your initial reaction to the modulation effects is going to be strongly negative. The effects are very obtrusive, very "80's" and not very adjustable. There are a couple of good usable sounds, however. The chorus on the minimum setting is OK and theres a "hidden" rotary speaker effect right where phaser intersects tremolo.

Go to the Line6 website and spend some time on the Spider Valve forum. Just about every initial question has been addressed there.

[DavidE]

My advice is to avoid the "artist" presets completely. The "lacuna coil" preset that McChris mentioned is a nice medium overdrive setting and one of a very few exeptions to the "artist presets absolutely suck" rule. The "era" presets, on the other hand are very good, and the names tell you exactly what you're getting. In the 60's bank, for example, "George" is a dead nuts clone of the Beatles Vox tone. I tweaked it a bit and renamed my preset "60's Vox" (because I have no imagination). The 4th preset that McChris alluded to is based on a Santana lead tone. I call my version "Mesa Lead".

Your initial reaction to the modulation effects is going to be strongly negative. The effects are very obtrusive, very "80's" and not very adjustable. There are a couple of good usable sounds, however. The chorus on the minimum setting is OK and theres a "hidden" rotary speaker effect right where phaser intersects tremolo.

Go to the Line6 website and spend some time on the Spider Valve forum. Just about every initial question has been addressed there.

When it comes to effects, the simpler the better for me. My HK Switchblads have spider like controls for the effects as well and I like them. As long as there's a setting that gets me the ONE chorus sound I want, the ONE phase sound I want etc..., I'm happy.

When it comes to chorus, I think Andy Summers.

When it comes to phase, I think EVH or 70's funk and Doobie Brothers.

I rarely touch flange, but an EVH Ain't Talkin' Bout Love or Rush Spirit of Radio sound does it for me.

I never touch tremolo, but if I do, I want something like Creedence.

Pretty simple really. I like my Line6 modulation modeler just fine.

Thanks for the tips!

[jisham]

The "boost" function doesn't increase volume but is more like slamming the front end with a Tubescreamer. It's much more noticeable under lower gain than the high gain.

The "Message in the Bottle" preset nails Andy Summers chorus setting IMO. For the life of me, I can't replicate that chorus setting on my own by twisting the knob so I took that preset and tweaked it a little for some other patches.

[DavidE]

My Spider Valve arrived today.

I plugged in my Monaco Elite with WCR Crossroads pickups and my FBV shortboard.

I agree that most of the artist presets are useless. But several had promise. Some surprised me as they evoked the original songs pretty well.

But I went to the era banks and was able to garner enough starting points to put together the two banks I need for my gigs. I must say that I'm shocked at how good this amp can sound. I've tried the POD, POD XTLive and Flextone III XL and I couldn't make any of them work well enough to take out of the house. The Spider Valve is definitely different.

I actually plan to take it to my gig Friday night. I think I got it sounding better than my Switchblade, but we'll see how it is with the band.

There are a few things that gives it props over the Switchblade:

Built in wah

Built in volume control

Built in tuner

Compare function

Wider variety of sounds

Univibe sound

Phase shifter

Noise gate

Wider variety of delay tones (but I couldn't make the tape echo work for me)

Stomp boost effect

Individual on/off for modulation, delay and reverb (the HK lets you hook up an effects on/off footswitch, but it's all or none)

Easier access to change tubes, change speaker, bias tubes ...

POD direct out (if it works)

While it doesn't come with the footswitch, it's cheaper than the HK even after buying the Shortboard

Things the Switchblade has over the Spider Valve

It's not a Line6

It's not a "Spider"

Better sounding effects and adjustability of effects

German engineering with Farfegnugen

Comes with the footswitch

More presets (but I only used 2 banks of 4 for my gigs anyway)

We'll see how it goes Friday!

[DavidE]

Oh, the Switchblade does not have a phase shifter effect, but it has separate flanger and chorus effects which are better.

[DavidE]

I arrived a little early at my gig last night to test the Spider Valve in the club. My home patches needed a little cleaning up and tweaking but that took 2 minutes before everyone else showed up.

The amp sounded great on stage. Responded great too. It really gave me everything I wanted, though I need to do a little more fine tuning before the next full band gig.

A friend in the audience said it sounded very full, but the gain sounds were more gainy that he was used to hearing from me and he thought they sounded squished out front. He didn't think the sound guy used a compressor on it. I was thinking that maybe I should turn the gain back a bit myself, but I wasn't sure. I do think the highest gain stuff probably sounds compressed, but I didn't use that sound too much.

He also didn't like the chorus because he hates chorus. I told him that I used it on 2 Poison tunes and Purple Rain only, but he thought I used it more than that. Curious.....

I take it as a good report for the first gig. My low gain crunch sound is pretty full sounding. Maybe too full, but we're essentially a 3 piece band and I'm trying to make us sound big. I told my friend that my favorite sounds take a 4x12 cab to achieve, so that's why he's not used to hearing that big of a sound from me. But I think the Marshall models on the SV include some 4x12 cab modeling so I can get that big sound I can't seem to achieve with other combos.

[Craig S]

Guess what amp is review in Guitar Player this month? Sound like DavidE's review is consistant with theirs

[BubbaVO]

Congrats on a really well written review. It has spurred some very interesting dialogue.