The Line 6 vetta WOW!!

[69strat]

I,m a tube man but holy!@#$ they sound good. What do you think?

 

[HeeHaw]

I have a friend that gigs with a Vetta and 2-4x12's. It sounds pretty good to me. For the most part me and other drunks cannot tell, or even care what kind of amp he's playing.....just that the band is rockin'!

 

[Mastervolume]

Originally posted by HeeHaw
For the most part me and other drunks cannot tell, or even care what kind of amp he's playing.....just that the band is rockin'!

pretty much says it all.

 

[straticus]

I had a Flextone 3 for a few months. I found a lot of tones that I really liked but there didn't seem to be much in the way of dynamics.

I couldn't deal with that so I sold it.

 

[69strat]

Yea, I know what you mean about dynamics, as I said I,m a tube man but I think they are getting close. Maybe a tube pre or power amp hybrid Doh!!!!!!

 

[Jemlite]

I had a Vetta. It was a fun at home amp, but live it didn't cut it for me. Easy set up, but things were a pain to dial in from room to room. It usually sounded decent right next to it, and was an ice pick to the ears 20 ft away. You never knew.

I was pretty good at getting around on it (programming), but it was still a pain. Just too much going on, and everything would change from one room to another, and from one volume level to another. (And just try to dial it in between songs live... I dare ya)

If someone was using the Vetta head into a closed back cab for heavy rhythm playing it would probably be fine... just chunk away. There are some good metal sounds. (The combo with L6 cruddy speakers is too ear peircing). For leads though, the Vetta really lacks heart and can't breath like a tube amp. The clean sounds were good, but inherently solid state and cold. The stereo feature, and amp on amp were fun, but didn't make up for the bummers for me.

Once the high-tech coolness factor of all it does wears off, you're left with another one dimensional solid state amp that you'll spend more time programming than playing.

YMMV.

 

[malabarmusic]

I could have written Jemlite's post myself. He really nailed it! The only thing I'd add is that the effects are weak to my ears. They are NOT the same as the L6 stompboxes, and though I tried mightily, I could not coax a decent modulation sound noway nohow.

I'll add one more thing: the floorboard controller is brilliant!

- DB

 

[Leonc]

Jemlite - couldn't have written the critique much better myself. I enjoyed my Vetta and felt that I was able to get some really great sounds out of it. At home, always. At the gig...sometimes.

The two problems which were insurmountable for me were first and foremost, the amount of dicking around that I found myself doing with it at gigs. Second, it just never felt quite right...the responsiveness of tubes wasn't there. It was an improvement over its predecessors...but still fell short of "the real thing", though it was capable of some great sounds.

 

[LSchefman]

Why bother when you can have the real thing, unless you need to do a cover band thing and cop a lot of different sounds on the gig?

 

[Leonc]

Les have you ever been a computer nerd or gizmo freak?

 

[carltonh]

I've always been able to tell the difference when I play it, and I don't like it for my style. Especially if you have a blues sound in your head, I was trying to get a BF Bassman sound and it couldn't even get in the ballpark.

That said, some players who use it sound great because they're style just works with it. Take Symphony X, which I love, they use it and have a great prog metal sound. I love their tone when I listen to their albums, I like them more than Dream Theater, but that's not my tone.

Bottom line: Line 6 don't play the blues. Blues don't play Line 6.

 

[Profklamen]

I would like to get a bunch of amp connoisseurs together and do a little blind testing. The players don't know what amps they are hearing - it's all behind a curtain or scrim. I would be very curious how many of us could tell what was what when we are using someone elses amps in an unfamiliar room (myself included). I cannot honestly say with confidence that I could tell what was what. Maybe some of you could.

I have a Vetta and about 25 other vintage amps. It can get quite close to some of them. I also have 3 early superleads, and each of them sound different from each other too.

Admittedly the Vetta may take a lot of tweaking - but then I just hit "save" and it's there next time. My Vetta is also the loudest amp I've ever played.

 

[JoeB63]

Originally posted by carltonh
I've always been able to tell the difference when I play it, and I don't like it for my style. Especially if you have a blues sound in your head, I was trying to get a BF Bassman sound and it couldn't even get in the ballpark.

That said, some players who use it sound great because they're style just works with it. Take Symphony X, which I love, they use it and have a great prog metal sound. I love their tone when I listen to their albums, I like them more than Dream Theater, but that's not my tone.

Bottom line: Line 6 don't play the blues. Blues don't play Line 6.

I agree with this assessment. I have an old Line6 Flextone amp and a POD XT Live. I can get a nice clean out of the Flextone (but not the POD XT) and great heavy tones from both, but I really can't get good blues tones out of either of them. It can't be done. I saw a guy I know on a gig with a Flextone III recently and he got one absolutely great medium heavy rock solo tone out of that thing (in a live band context). Nice, fat and singing - I was surprised. But blues tones, no.

 

[Leonc]

Yeah, most digital stuff will do a good clean, maybe a great clean...and a lot of these boxes will do killer heavier stuff...it's the "in-betweens"--where there is lots of complexity but more tonal subtleties at play--where they tend to disappoint. I think the Vetta could do a pretty good Billy Gibbons kinda tone.

I did this recording with my Vetta.

 

[HeeHaw]

Originally posted by Mastervolume
pretty much says it all.

I'm just saying that in a live situation, I don't feel that it makes any difference if it is a tube amp or not. Most of the people in bars are liquored up, and could give a crap less about whether or not you are playing a real tube amp or not.

 

[carltonh]

Originally posted by HeeHaw
I'm just saying that in a live situation, I don't feel that it makes any difference if it is a tube amp or not. Most of the people in bars are liquored up, and could give a crap less about whether or not you are playing a real tube amp or not.

Let's put it this way. You may not notice at first, especially if liquored up. But subconciously, you've probably already noticed, and the more people listen to you, especially you listening to yourself, the more you notice. Think of it like your wife/girlfriend slowly gaining weight. All of a sudden, it dawns on you, She got fat and ugly! In actuality, she was already fat, but you were horny and didn't notice at first 'cause of the liquor.

 

[69strat]

LOL!!!!!

 

[Tone_Terrific]

L6 Duoverb here. I don't really care for the transition into medium distortion on any of the models, but the light distortion is OK, and the clean is very, very good. Thr light breakup is available at different levels, too.

So how often do YOU get to crank up a very good clean amp to the level at which it delivers its best distortion tones?

Pretty rare, right? So, what we have here is another great platform for pedal players who can pick the OD box of choice and have it well represented by a really good clean amp. (not unlike running a Twin with pedals)

 

[bjm007]

I was an early adopter of the line 6 stuff. POD, etc... Had one of the first Vetta's ever made. Owned it for a long time... Finally ended up selling it...

The concept is great, but they are a few generations away from perfecting the technology.

I'd give them about 3-5 years to nail it, and I might buy one again just for grins. The tone was really hit or miss. Some stuff sounded awesome, some awful. The effects we're not up to par at all.

Worst of all... No mojo... Was not an amp that inspired me to play better.

 

[walshb]

Jemlite said it best. The constant tweaking when going from room to room, and lack of dynamics are what have killed the whole modeller thing, for me anyway. Yes, you can get great tones out of them. But, the more gain used, the more they seem to disappear in the mix.