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The Line 6 AMPLIFI 30 is a 30 watt compact practice amp. It's controlled via Bluetooth on your phone/tablet by the free app. The app has a phenomenal range of customizations. I'm going to pair this with my new XVive wireless guitar system and play in my living room when I don't want to go to my practice room.
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As I run my beer machine (Grainfather) via bluetooth from my iPhone I may have to buy one! Brew day could be Brew-'n-Tunes day!
LOL!Quote:
Originally Posted by renderit
My first go at it was a mixed bag. First, there was a firmware update (more on that later), and I had to connect my iPad via Bluetooth. Before I did either, I simply attached my XVive wireless dongles to a guitar (pictured) and the amp and voilą -- instant music.
But "muddy." Using the built-in controls I was able to adjust the tone and volume, but achieving a "clean" tone was a bit of a hassle.
Then I connected the iPad. HOLY MOLY! This thing's got more controls than Carter has liver pills. Just using a finger to move the multiple -- and I mean multiple -- sliders caused amazing adjustments. And did I mention it has jam tracks? That's right, a range of styles, and multiple play-along tracks in each style. One can download tracks from a community, and Line 6 even has videos and instructions on how to set the amp to sound like certain artists (Gilmour, Hendrix, Van Halen, Andy Summers, et al). The number of settings is impressive: amp type (a selection of American and/or British), cabinet type (4x12 blackface, 4x12 tweed, etc.), modulation, reverb, stomp, and more.
I'm going to be spending an amount of time learning its capabilities. At the same time, it's ready to go out of the box, as I played it for a while last night before updating it.
That's the last item: the firmware updates via the iPad over Bluetooth, so it can take some time. Line 6 says 40 minutes or so. I just let it run overnight, and this morning did the final step: a factory reset (power off, power on holding the power and tone buttons until the power-up is complete.
It's pretty nifty. I chose this over the THR-10 for a number of reasons: it was $50 less, but more powerful and feature-filled. Yes, it's solid-state and the THR-10 is designed to mimic a tube amp, but I never played a tube amp, so the difference is lost on me.
Pretty cool. I'll post more if and when I find something helpful.
Oh, you NEED a tube amp. But this thing is pretty cool. But I am building an inherent mistrust of anything software related though because at some point down the road there will be no more support for this iteration of hardware on either your pad or the amp or Bluetooth will go away. I have a closet full of old recording gear based on midi stuff that has not even had the correct interface on the driver for 15 years on a Mac, and it was hellacious expensive stuff, now worthless unless I fire up a 17 year old machine...
Actually, I have a tube amp. It's a Monoprice 15-watt 1x12 combo amp with Celestion speaker & spring reverb. Here it sits atop my Fender Mustang IIv2.Quote:
Originally Posted by renderit
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I'd like to know why you feel that way.Quote:
Originally Posted by renderit
I have some lovely tube amps that I've played for years and most are gathering dust. You know, of course, that most of the amps you see at a modern rock concert are stage props.
Tube amps are fun but are becoming dinosaurs for live performance.
Case in point -My stage rig has a DRRI and a Fractal and a PODPro. The DRRI is mic'ed and pushed through a processor on the loop. The rack gear is mostly so I can switch from a brown sound for Jamie's Cryin, to a Trainwreck for a Paisley tune, to a Plexi, etc., and almost always a closed-back sound. Ain't no pedal in the world going make the difference you get switching cabinet types or heads.
I guess if I was EVH and had the roadies and sound guys on the payroll he does it would be fun to have a Bradshaw rig and all that gear available, but I'm not.
I find I spend more and more time into the rack and less and less into the DRRI. For recording, a tube amp is a nightmare. Mic placement, iso cabs, etc. and you still get the bleed-over leading to loss of separation in the mix. With the rack you DI to the console and all is well, saving lots of time.
Another case, one of the bands I play in has another guitar player who *HAS* to use his SF Super. Well, loading up for a gig last month he tipped it over and broke a bottle. He shows up and I told him, don't worry. We gave him a 30W Line 6 Spider set it to green clean and told him to plug his pedals into the fronton it. He was smiling all night. He couldn't believe a $200 amp with no tubes sounded better, cut better and had better volume control than his prized vintage Fender. He is continuing to use the amp we lent him to this day, so now I'm out a deuce and I loved using that little amp's headphone into my board to record!
We live in a world today that so much of the sound is post that the amps are almost only for stage monitors anyway. Even small bands playing through a 6 channel board have lots of onboard effects available and are wise to mic the amps and use them.
Software, No big whoop for me. It works. Well. Your car has software and you trust your life to it!
Besides, I'm PRETTY SURE the modern software stuff is AT LEAST as reliable as a vintage tube amp, LOL!!! Or even most modern tube amps.
To each is own and do whatever makes you happy, but for me - the realities of being a musician in the 21'st century make tube amps more "fun" items than necessities for me.
YMMV, that's cool. My opinion are mine, you get yours too.
OK, I'll tell you why I feel that way. I like them way better than simulated. Richer, fuller, more harmonics.
In My Opinion:
1) The sound independent of other noises blowing you out of the water is much better to ME. It is not based on "good enough" technology.
2) I am in control of my destiny on how long they live.
d) I am not playing in your level of a professional band. They are quirky. But I can always make them work. If not that's what a backup is for.
℞) If you don't have at least one to play for HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT SOUND YOU ARE TRYING TO GET?
I wrote software for years. It is VERY likely you are using some of it every day. Instead of being able to deal with something that goes wrong, you are at the mercy of somebody else that (after a few years) could frankly give a crap about the situation you are in. Used to do most of my own wrenching on my cars. Now I spend lots of money paying somebody to chase errant sensors and boards and the like. Much less getting tons of calls from GMC and Honda trying to sell me upgrades to nav systems that are a joke for accuracy anyways and I can still get FREE upgrades for 10 year old dash-top tech. Which I am sure will stop at some point.
If I were you I am sure I would feel the way you do. I am not (and with my talent I am sure I won't be). I think for what you are doing live you made the best decision. Reliability when the pure sound makes little difference because of the volume level.
I DO respect your position, but most everybody who plays on tubes loves the dinosaurs.
All that said, I will continue to buy some of these products. And I DO use a few. Two Notes Torpedo Live for instance.
renderit, that's a nice, cogent argument. I get where you're coming from.
That said, however, I'm not in total agreement. Let me explain:
As I've grown as a musician over the decades I've changed the way I listen to myself when I play. For most of the early years of my playing I was totally focused on how I sounded, what I was playing. The being the case, I was (I know now) overly concerned with my tone and probably played a bit too loud most of the time.
Now that I'm an old fart I've found I approach things totally differently. Many years of gigging and finally working my way into top level bands, along with doing a bunch of recording have retrained me to focus on now what I'm playing and not how it sounds to me, but how does it set in mix? My experience is that doing so will definitely take you into a different direction.
If you start to sonically dissect a bunch of iconic recordings, you'll start to hear that many of the guitar hooks and rhythm parts are far from classic tube-tone sound. That's what almost every rock lead guitar player in the world has a Rangemaster clone in front of the amp. To "crappy" it up. Listen to Hold on Loosely or Jumping Jack Flash. Those hooks have sounds no classic tube-tone freak would be caught dead with!
Plus, in the early years of processors and modeling amps things were not-so-good. But times have changed. At FOH volumes I defy anyone to tell me if I'm playing through the amp or the rack. In fact, some things the rack gear does immensely better than the amp. You get a presence from it that you can loose from an amp. I never have to worry about it farting out on me and muddying up the mids, I can have a solid OD for a ballad without being too loud, and more.
I guess what I'm saying is I encourage new players to try new things. Don't get caught up in the master narrative that approaches religious fervor for some folks regarding tube amps. Use what works for you and gives you the most bang for your buck.
I guess it's like muscle cars. Yeah, we all love that whoosh when the secondaries open, but when the day is done, fuel injection is just a lot better than a carb. Different, yes, but better. You learn to adapt to what's available to get the best performance. If you insist on staying with a carbureted big block V8, you're going to get passed a lot.
Chuck
Yes. I agree. I never got over how it sounded. I am still a "beginner" in my second arrival. I do, however, worry about the mix and that was always my thrust in the bands I played with way back when. But if anybody has not enjoyed the richness of a 59 Bassman down around 4-5 (not "driven") or a Pro's 15" glory with roughly similar parts they do not know sonic euphoria! A clean or distorted Matchless shimmer. The touch sensitivity of an octal based amp or a Comet. As I age these things bring a tear to my eye! Dad was an avionics engineer with many patents on tube design. He insisted at the time he could duplicate the tube richness with solid state. But I noticed his stereo amp stayed tube. Wonder why. Fast forward to today. Yes, I am using a Torpedo Live and it is fantastic at creating a believable speaker cabinet out of software and solid state and the mic and room part is awesome! But I find I have to adjust things from standard to get the sound of the actual. But with THAT part I can join the mix at any sound level AND enjoy what I like best. So that is what does it for me.
But if I actually had talent and was putting bread on the table I am sure I would be 100% in your wheelhouse.
The muscle car analogy made me giggle. I have an old muscle car I am putting fuel injection in...Like I said, I'm different...
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I love it!!! The Bug looks in great shape, too!Quote:
Originally Posted by renderit
It is, but I discovered a few things later that I am working on. And I knew before I got it the front fenders are wrong and the popes nose is incorrect (license plate light shroud). I have the proper parts now though. I just have to put it back together. Got disc brakes, lowered spindles, and a bunch of other parts so it will be Swedished. But everything is being done so it is reversible...Quote:
Originally Posted by OldStrummer
A little extra VWEEM!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renderit
That's awesome! Beetles are great cars, and the genesis of arguably the greatest car of all time.
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I've been a mechanic most of my life, and lived in a small town. My old boss, back in the 70's used to say, if he had all the money in the world, he would buy all the Volkswagons, and Corvairs, so no more mechanics would be forced to work on them. The biggest problem we had with VW's was no parts!
In the early 80's while laid off from the mine I took a short term job with a guy who was the (short lived) new VW dealer's service manager. He had obtained most of the tools, and books, as well as the parts inventory of the ill timed venture. I found they were a breeze to work on, if you didn't have to try to make parts! (Plus they had a generous labor time). (Of course at 6K ft. they still were under powered!)
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Try pulling stumps at 6K ft. with anything you can do to a VW pancake! A fellow who was our VW guy here in the 70's could build a short lived hot rod, but he didn't have a chance against any decent V8! He loved the air-cooled engines, and had a few turbocharged Corvair powered VW's, (he tried, but still couldn't outrun my 60 Chev panel truck with a 396!)
Several years ago we did a clutch in a VW bus, that had an Audi water cooled conversion. (Why didn't VW build something like that to start with?)
I chuckle to think what a newcomer to this site would think when they click on a link about a Line 6 amp and read about stump pulling and air-cooled engines! :wtf
We really need a "like" button!
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I assume the VW, "Burnout King" was a exibition car, and the late model Mustang was a prop! In true racing form, even bracket racing, the Mustang should get several lights.
No pics, my 60 panel truck was a driver, and boat puller, '66 396, TH400, had to put a posi rear end in it. Started out with a 68 Vette Tri-Power intake, but being young I had to try a Torker, (better fuel economy!) I actually went from 13 mpg to 11 mpg, and that was after several carbs, and mods to them. When we lost high octane fuel, I had to retard my Mallory dist so much, that I installed a HEI unit instead. Sold it, and went to a '66 4wd window panel truck to get around the lake better, (400 SB, TH400, with just a few speed parts, and an overhead A/C unit), my girls were happy with it!
You adapt or die. Does everyone still run flatheads? No. They sound awesome but they run hot and aren't much in the power department.
Look, back in the 70's if you had a 496 HEMI packing 450 HP you were king sh!t.
My four door daily driver today has a twin turbo v-6 with more than 450 HP, all-wheel drive, torque vectoring, paddle shift, and lots more. I recently sold my non-street legal Mustang. My daily driver will run in the 13's on the strip, and it was over 4 seconds faster than the Mustang lapping Watkins Glen (on street tires!). Less invested but technology is king. Modern stuff has better performance.
Same is true with guitars and amps. If you enjoy the sound of a vintage axe into tubes that's perfectly alright. Just remember you are nowhere near the state-of-the art. You're stuck in the past and not pushing the envelope musically. The "next big thing" in music will probably not be a guy with a Strat into a Marshall.
To me, the analogy between cars and guitars is a good one.
Take the Beetle pictured above. It was a great car for it's day. It's still a nice car, but - it evolved. That humble, low tech Beetle could have stayed the same forever but it didn't. It evolved. It got better and better and adapted to new technology. And it evolved into today's 911 Turbo RS.
Which would you rather own and drive? The Beetle or the supercar? That's why you need to try things and not just poo-poo anything that doesn't fit the master narrative.
Back when I was a young, musician's were famous for looking for a new sound. Somehow that got corrupted by a small band of guitar players on the internet. I'll once again re-iterate why I think that happened:
Sites like this showed up. There was a lot of cock-waving by competitive douchebags that wanted to brag about their prowess. Unfortunately, it takes some natural talent and years and years of dedication and discipline to become a competent, in-demand musician.
But anybody with a keyboard can brag about their "tone."
And that launched the SRV,KWS, ( insert three letter acronym blues player here ) tone obsession wars. Noses were bent, friendships and marriages were destroyed,members were banished and millions of dollars of gear was bought, sold and traded. A wise man once said on this forum, "Yeah, that's all great but it really helps if you can actually play the darned thing!" Still holds true.
All in my humble opinion and you may feel free to disagree.
Chuck
Yup. I edited a bunch of stuff out up above. It came out combative sounding. But I disagree with your premise. I have no desire to drive the supercar. I'm fine with my 60's tech. But this amp sounds neat. I may try some of the new fangled stuff. As I said above.
Another Like for the Offshore Angler!
A few months ago, a fellow I worked with before came by with his Dodge, wanting me to drive it. It is one with the cartoon character on the fender, and a 750 HP Hemi. Like you say, new technology! That car was the fastest, and quickest car I've ever driven that had a license plate on it!
Yes, I love tube amps, but I suspect the Line 6, and Roland Cubes are not the last of their line. Just as Hartley created a decent emulation for his inexpensive products, someday, no one will care if we have tubes or not!
I can't find it now, but I recently read a thread on how more and more guitar players are running their rig directly into the board, bypassing the amp altogether. Supposedly, there's a 15 year-old prodigy who when interviewed, said something to the affect, "I don't know what playing through an amp sounds like. I've never done it."Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Moore
Yes, I read that as well. Maybe a pedal then straight into the board. And apparently this AXEFX thing is wildly popular with touring bands and a lot of folks are liking the Kemper modeling amp. Hell, I'm being told the little Yamaha amps are a kick and the Boss Katana amps are great. I may have to try some new stuff. But I'll never admit is sounds as good. Somebody's gotta keep the kids off the grass!Quote:
Originally Posted by OldStrummer
The Two Notes Torpedo I have is built to put you through a DAW, board, headphones or whatever instead of the speakers. You can also plug directly into it (though I have never done that), or put you to the board and speakers. All of these let you use any amp and get it into the mix at the proper volume whether you are at 3 or 12. They now make a cheaper one but it is more like the Mesa Cab Clone in that it is less adjustable.
My AxeFX is completely amazing. Expensive - but amazing. Good news is they're becoming common enough you can start finding used ones for under $2k now. And you can buy one of those and upgrade the software.
But's it's still a heck of a deal. You get $100k worth of amp, cabs and effects a your fingertips. Rather than trying to hammer every song into the same amp and pedals you can bring up the authentic sound you need. It's a working guitar player's dream come true. And it sounds the same every night.
Something has happened to my AMPLIFi 30. I haven't used it in a while, but it's been sitting where I last had it in my living room, plugged in and waiting for me to turn it on.
Which is what I did today. To be greeted by a sound like a siren blaring out of it. No knob, dial or button would silence it. Plugging a guitar in or unplugging it did nothing. I moved it to another electric outlet to no effect. I did a factory reset on it, no joy.
I am not savvy in electronics, and even less so on solid-state electronics. I can't imagine what's happened. I have literally not touched it since the last time I played through it.
I said it sounds kind of like a siren. I can also imagine it sounding like electrical interference, in a kind of loud, scratchy way. I have tried to make sure it ISN'T electrical interference, but not knowing what or where interference could be coming from (and why now?), I can't be sure.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any ideas?