I need some advice on amps....

I've been getting really tired of my shite 15 Watt amp, and have been looking around for a new one.


I've found these



http://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer-V-Tone-GMX212-2X60-Watt-Stereo-Guitar-Combo-102533791-i1145422.gc



http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-Spider-III-75-75W-1x12-Guitar-Combo-Amp-103944773-i1168992.gc


What do you guys think? I'm looking around in the $200-$300 price range, so if you have any suggestions, please tell me.

line 6. its just an adaptable amp.

Yeah, I've heard nothing but great things about them. I played through a Line 6 Spider Valve in the Guitar shop I go to, and I thought I was in heaven. Of course, the guitar I was using was a G&L Tele, so that probably helped.

I have that behringer, the exact same one... it's awful... the effects are basically noisemakers and have no practical use, and the speakers are terrible, it's a really bad sound compared to what else you can get for that price.

If you're after a lot of built in FX and are only playing at bedroom levels then you could get the Line 6. If you're going to be in a band situation where you have to crank it up - I advise you don't. It gets really thin and digital sounding at the top and doesn't give any dynamics. I'm pretty sure that tone-wise you can get a much better amp.

The Spider Valve, I hear, is a lot better than the full solid state Spiders - so don't let that amp rush you into buying this one. And if you've never heard anything bad about the Spiders then go drop a thread at a forum with more members (like Ultimate Guitar). Although I agree they are harsh and a lot of people tend to jump on the Spider hating bandwagon... you will not hear a good thing about the amps. And I agree with most of what they'll say.

And yeah, I've also heard that the Behringer is a bad amp.


EDIT: What music are you going to be playing with it?
What is your price range?
Are you using it to gig or just to practice?

Don't buy line 6. Save up another $100 ($400 total) and buy a 50 watt tube amp (peavey). Once you try a tube amp you'll never go back. Those amps are basically digital effects pedal with speakers attached.

i agree with doz and league. scratch the Line 6. they are no good for gigging and are no good for developing your own sound...its a modeling amp that, in my opinion, just sucks. behringer makes great bass amps...but the guitar amps leave much to be desired.

Well, if you want solid state then look at the Roland Cube 60 or the Vox AD30VT (technically a hybrid, but arguably hybrids sound pretty much solid state). They're both a tiny bit more than what you want to pay but a lot better, in my opinion.

Or, as Leage said, you could go tube. You could get a low watt tube (don't let this put you off, tube amps are a lot louder than solid state amps per watt). It's likely you'll need to get pedals aswell to get the right sound and it may cost a bit more than those amps but in the end you could achieve a tone you won't need to upgrade... and if you do you can be flexible by getting different pedals. A good pedal will always sound better than a modeling amps effect.

If you tell us some more information, such as what you'll be playing then we could give some good suggestions. I actually missed the bit where you gave the price range in my last post. But yeah, I think you could do with saving a bit more money. What's the absolutely most you'd pay for a new amp?

i agree with gs, doz and league lol. line 6 generally is kinda expensive. i dont know much bout amps, but when i looked to buy my guitar, i played on a couple, the line 6 was my least fav. the voxad30vt ant the ad5vt are both gr8 and at about 150-250. tube amps will give a better, fuller richer sound, and if u playing gigs thts wut i would do. never even heard of the other kind lol.

those cube things amazing little buggers. the only thing i dont like about them is they lack tonal variety. but they are amazing amps. the first time i played through one i was shocked at the incredible sound that came from such a small amp.

i just returned my peavey 5W valve king for a AD30VT. pretty loud and
extremely versatile. 11 amp models & 11 effects.can definately hear that
tube crunch to it when the gain is low. it does have a valve in there.
good cleans and very heavy distortion levels if you need it. it has a
wattage control pot on back,effects level adjustment which also doubles
as a scondary adjusment when the bypass or tap buttons are held down
to adjust attack,polarity,speed..etc depending what effect your using.
also has 2 user presets to save your favorite settings. built
like a tank,very heavy. i'm very happy with it.

Well, I've been thinking about getting a tube amp, but I'm not quite sure. My music is that of a brit-pop/pop-rock kind of sound. As for my max price, I'd say about $300.

GS: Yeah, I have one of them (the 30) and it does me perfect for bedroom practice. I also have a Spider... and side by side the fullness of the Cube destroys the Spider.

And as for the amp you should get... I say Vox. They're supposed to be good at a crunchy, middle of the road type of rock sound. And I think the 30 watt one should be fine.

ye the vox ad30vt is good, about 250

This one?: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Vox-Valvetronix-AD30VT-30w-1x10-Guitar-Combo-Amp-102640802-i1145735.gc

Looks pretty cool.

thts the one. thts the one id get. also check out some marshall's and others for comparison. dont just go out and buy it. bring ur guitar to the store and play it, if they let u. try all the kinds, including the line and the berkinbach thing, somtimes different amps sound different on different guiatrs. (lol 3 differents)

Yeah, make sure you try out an amp before you buy. Also, don't let the shop assistants effect your judgement to much (they're most likely looking for the best profit). Since the amp accounts for more of your tone than the guitar, as long as they let you play a similar guitar to yours in store you won't need take your own. Unless you really want to, I suppose there's no harm in taking it.

They have my exact guitar in the store, as well as others that I'm looking to purchase (Epi LP-100).

no 2 guitars sound alike, id still bring it.

EMB: there's not going to be a noticable differance between two guitars of the same model. Skold, you only need to play the one in store. I mean, their will be hardly any differance as long as it's a real similar guitar (pickups, wood, weight). I mean, there is likely to be a slight differance... but unless you've been a tone freak for longer than time itself you aren't going to tell.

As far as I'm concerned, the amp does all the work. The guitar just needs to stay together.

Not *entirely* true, but mostly. The type of pickup and gauge of strings effect the sound. The type of wood effects characteristics like sustain a lot. But you can't go far wrong trying a same model guitar when testing amps.

ye just make sure they got same parts, and in rare cases same guitars sound different. i tryed 2 fenders, same brand, price, everything, the tone, and pitch was different.

Lol, Fender is the brand... and just because something is the same price doesn't mean it's the ame model. :D

lol u no what i mean, i ment the model lol

Haha, "2 fenders, same brand". That made my night.

i would tend to disagree with that statement. a lot, and i would go so far as to say, most, of your tone comes from you as a player. there are exceptions, like people who just jam on power chords...well thats self explanatory, or players just dont care about tonal variety will all sound the same. myself, if i want a different tone, i can achieve that by picking different or fingering something different (remember guitars dont have perfect intonation, its just not possible-except steve vais' guitars, he has custom frets which are actually slanted). its all in how you play my friend.

I agree with GS, I've played loads of different guitars of various price and quality, and quite a few different amps over the years. I sound just as crap on all of them!

Even with those things taken into account GS, the amp still is responsible for a lot. Lets just imagine we're talking about an all rounder on guitar because to be honest... he can't change who he is to go and try out an amp anyway, so it doesn't matter to him what his own tone is like since he can only improve that with time.

well i gotta say that i bought a new amp yesturday. I went into the shop looking to buy the spider valve. it is a good sounding amp to me. it is a valve amp with amp models programed into it so you can get alot of different sounds at the touch of a button from all the presets. but most of the guys at the shop were against me getting the line 6 and were pushing a fender. i ended up getting a used fender twin. not sure if i made the right decession but the fender twin sounds nice too. the line 6 in my opinion sounded just as good. the differnce came down to people telling me that the built in effects of the modeling amp were neat and flashy but i would eventually wish i had got a "real" amp. the fender is a more vintage type peice of equipment so it is cooler per say but really if you think about it to get all the different sounds that the line 6 can make i would have to buy a bunch of effects pedals.

Have you considered running something like a digitech GNX guitar workshop system through your new amp? The amp modeling and normal effects will probably sound much better run through a quality tube amp like a Fender than anything a line 6 can produce. Of cause, it's going to bung the price up a bit.

i have a a digitech rp150.

http://www.digitech.com/products/gnx4.htm

You got a good quality amp there. I also think that later on you'd want an upgrade... but now you should be fine with the quality of that.

Sure, the Line 6 has a lot of effects, but effects pedals can do them better.