line6 spider II head questions

[livingtodie]

so i recently bought a line6 spider II head with a B-52 cabinet,
i can't afford any of the expensive peavy/randall/marshall heads
so i settled for that one.
anyways, i've noticed while jamming with other musicians, their
amps just seem to easily overpower my amp (even a 212 marshall combo amp)
my amp just sounds flat. Is it because my amp's a valve-state?
or is it because of the cabinet?
or is it because the head's a piece of shit?
I've seen other musicans use this amp and it seems to be tweaked fine.

 

[Hexer]

your amp is not valve-state, there are no valves (tubes) in it, its completely solid state

and I guess your last sentence is the answer to your problem: you need to tweak your settings

 

[guitarguru777]

I have had some success with this amp but not much ....

If your in a band and competing with tubes amps your fighting a losing battle. The B-52 AT-100 would have been a better choice ... but i digress
Here are some suggestions ...

#1 Dont sccop out the mids. Having the mids on your amp anywhere below 5 is "im not gonna cut through a mix with a chainsaw" territory.

#2 DONT use the Insane channel .... Too much distortion = MUD

#3 Stick to the Marshall or Rectifier settings but keep the gain at a moderate level. Between 5 and 7 should be enough.

Other than that theres not much you can do ... Solidstate amps just dont cut through in a mix. Especially modeling amps.

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

My guitarist uses one of these heads, and while it doesn't quite have the clarity and power that my head has, he still manages to cut through pretty well and get a decent tone from it. The suggestions that guitarguru777 gave are pretty spot on. I know alot of people like that scooped midrange sound but the lack of mids are really going to inhibit your ability to cut through especially if you're using a very saturated distorted tone. I think if you just try tweaking it a bit, cut back a bit on the distortion and crank the midrange (and volume) up then you might have more success. Good luck.

Also, from my experience, most B-52 cabinets sound pretty decent. No it's not on par with a Mesa cabinet or something of that caliber but it should be okay enough. I also agree that the B-52 heads will give you a bit more bang for your buck compared to the budget model Line 6 amps.