A Surprising Tone

[TheWinterSnow]

Ok I will reveal the results:

Amp A = 5150
Amp B = Line 6 Spider II (HD150)

Using the same cabinet (Genz Benz 212) and mic/mic position (Beta58).

I have to say that this is the first time I have plugged in my Spider since I bought my 5150 almost two years ago. Its amazing how my perception of what low end amps can deliver a good tone and how well they can actually sound mic'd if you know what you are doing. Shows how much I have learned from this forum. The Spider was so much easier to dial in in terms of eq in my DAW as the 5150 needed more work to sound decent. I find it even more ironic that for practicing I prefer the sound of the Spider much more over the 5150.

The spider actually does looser more bluesy tones better that the 5150. I was playing around in the neck pickup and went back to my 5150 and noticed that the tone was just too fizzy and loose and didn't sound as drastic when going from the neck to bridge, the neck position just sounded like a looser (in a bad way) version of the neck. I definitely can't wait to modding my 5150 to deal with the ridiculous amount of fizz. Its the 5150's fizz that made the Spider a lot easier to work with.

At the end of the day I kinda feel like Sturgis , and now I can kinda see the reasoning behind using Line 6 Modeling over a real (or tube) amp. Really goes to show under the right circumstances, just about nay amp can sound decent if not killer and even confuse some advanced ears as well.

 

[AllanD]

Wow...


I choose the "correct" amp, but still shocking.

 

[jipchen]

Haha nice. Does your 5150 have the bias-mod?
Also: How loud were the amps? A friend of mine owns the SpiderII also and it sounded good on low volumes and on it's own. We jammed a little (I used my 6505+) and eventhough his amp was dialed a lot louder, the Peavey was still more present.
And: The louder you turned the Spider, the shittier became its sound.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Haha nice. Does your 5150 have the bias-mod?
Also: How loud were the amps? A friend of mine owns the SpiderII also and it sounded good on low volumes and on it's own. We jammed a little (I used my 6505+) and eventhough his amp was dialed a lot louder, the Peavey was still more present.
And: The louder you turned the Spider, the shittier became its sound.

Yes my 5150 is biased modded, at its biased to 70%.

Volumes where a bit louder than bedroom practicing (around 1.5 on the 5150). I noticed doing test clips of my 5150 previously that the tone doesn't really change until you hit 3, and you get a mild high end/fizz rolloff coming from your DAW which takes away from the fizz (which you can't hear a difference with the amp in the room because the volume difference has obscured your hearing).

The Spider being a Digital/SS amp is linear in sound until you hit maximum volume, which it will begin to distort the poweramp, causing it to sound like shit and shortly later begin volume fluctuations and within 5 minutes start shutting down on you. If the amp is sounding like shit, its a sign you are pushing it way too hard, its only a 150 watt SS amp and the design is extremely poor/unstable, you can't expect much from it.

In the end though when it comes to playing shows or recording albums, the 5150 will provide the best result. For bedroom quiet demos, practice/rehearsal and live backup amp, nothing that I know of can beat the spider at least for me.

 

[jipchen]

Yeah, the Spider is great for rehearsing. Also the clean tones deserve the name "clean" and the FX are a nice gimmick.
I believe he's got the 50 or 75 Watts version, but that should suffice for practising

 

[UnF]

Nooooo ! I've made the CORRECT GUESS for the non-5150 amp (Line 6 Spider) but I've chosen the wrong letters

Congrats btw. It was really hard to guess. I thought 5150 was B because of the low end during palm mutes... But A is cleaner and more defined when single notes and harmonized melodies blend together. The perfect song would be a mix of the 2

I own a Spider II and as you guys said, it's pretty good at low volumes, until it gets eaten by 5150 as soon as master volumes are higher and tubes can wake up. I had this discussion some years ago with a man who had to borrow a Spider II for a live performance because his 5150 broke just before... He was very satisfied with the tone and gave me some nice settings.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I am surprised. 62% of voters preferred the Spider over the 5150 in a blind test. I remember a day when I though my tone sucked because I didn't have a real tube amp and that the spider was garbage, man how times change.

 

[donimoines]

edit;
to late hahahah, was wrong though

 

[Brandon E.]

 

[jipchen]

 

[UnF]

Well you should be surprised by your mixing skills, because THIS is what fooled us Congrats again.

Listening to a recorded/mixed track isn't the same as being playing in a room at full volume. I still think that a 5150 will sound better than a Spider 2 in most cases. But modelisation shows its true capabilities for recording IMO.

Good thing is that your test will hopefully show everybody that everything is possible with good ears and skill... And that today's beginning guitarists are the most lucky guys of all times because they can achieve pro-like sound with only a few bucks.

Last but not least, your blind test made me play with the Spider after years without touching it! And like you, some time ago I wasn't satisfied because it wasn't a tube amp