A great jazzamp - to my surprise!

Little Jay · #1 12-30-2009, 09:04 AM

I just thought I'd share this with the forum:

Recently the small Fender amp in our café where we organize jamsessions (strictly jazz) gave up..... so a few players put down some money to buy a new one. We ended up buying a Line6 Spider III, 75W, 1x12" transistor modelling amp, because it was cheap and available. (I think it's a discontinued model, maybe therefore it was cheap).

Yesterday I was opening the session, so I had the change to set it up and play with it before the session started. Boy was I surprised!!! I ended up with a fine clean jazztone, "round&brown" but with clarity and a healthy "punch" that gave a great feel to my guitar (I am very sensitive to the feel an amp gives to your strings... don't realy know how to describe this).

I had never tried a Line6 before and frankly, they didn't speak to me at all... but now I think it's even better then the Roland Cube 30x and 60x, escpecially the reverb sounded much more natural and the Line6 didn't colour the sound as much as the Rolands do. The 75 watts and the 12" speaker delivered more then enough power to make it feel substantial and allowed me te keep the volume on my guitar low, I always like that. We played with a drummer, vibes, upright bass and me on guitar.

Needless to say I played a very fine session, inspired by the beautifull sound this unexpected little gem produced......

So it's definately added to my list of 'cheap-workhorse-amps-for-jazz', ranking over the Rolands...... worth a look!

Steve Z · #2 12-30-2009, 03:45 PM

I have used Line 6 amps since they first came out until just a few months ago when I sold my Line 6 POD xtLive to fund another item. I agree that they can get some nice clean jazz tones. All the presets on modeling gear these days are over distorted and heavy on the effects, but take all that away with just the amp model, a little compression and some light reverb... ahhh... really nice sounding amp for a bargain when bought used. They don't hold resale value so I would recommend buying used if possible, but then that is my motto these days for any equipment.

cosmic gumbo · #3 12-31-2009, 12:40 AM

I'm sure it sounded great, but I could never understand what the big hoodoo was about getting a good jazz tone. I find it's one of the easiest sounds you can get from about any small combo amp, cheap or expensive. There's not many amps that can't do it. If it's got the volume you need, you're all set.

itsall4you · #4 12-31-2009, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

I'm sure it sounded great, but I could never understand what the big hoodoo was about getting a good jazz tone. I find it's one of the easiest sounds you can get from about any small combo amp, cheap or expensive. There's not many amps that can't do it. If it's got the volume you need, you're all set.

I don't think that is true.. Any amp can produce a dark sound if the tone is rolled back on the guitar but without a good amp the notes will not have the definition it needs. Besides, a jazz tone doesn't mean the tone is rolled back either, a good archtop guitar with good pickups will not need rolling back of the tone the produce a good jazz tone this sound is hard to get without a fairly decent amp.

Big Ron · #5 12-31-2009, 10:04 AM

Have not had nor used Line 6 but have friends, one of which is an incredible teacher, who swear by them.

Speaking of the Incredible Teacher:

YouTube - Jimmy Smith Video

( Fair Warning: he's a little bit rock and roll, and his guitar is uppieside down and backwards)

AMP TONE:

My nomal routine for getting a good Jazz tone from an amp is to roll the bass on untill it is too dark and then add treble untill it brightens up enough not to be boomy dark, add a bit of reverb and let er rip.

Ron