Music Man Luke and Line 6 Flextone III XL.

[Butch Snyder]

Butch I get what you are saying here.... I have heard Line6 stuff sounds fantastic.... and then I go and buy some.... take it home and spend a long time with it.... I get some great sounds that record very well and for most purposes will work great... no problems.... then I go back and plug into my old rig.... and the games over for me.... it just makes me feel so much better... I really do hope that someday soon I can find a moddelling product that will work for me in this way...

I honestly don't think technology will ever replace a great set of tubes. You can't replace the real thing. That said, I know Luke has had some great tones come out of a POD.

 

[Slingy]

Common knowledge is that the Pod's and Flextones lack dynamic and feel but sound great direct recorded.

You really can't beat the real thing, yet, imo. But when you add a semi neutral tube power amp without alot of break up and semi neutral speaker, like a 6L6 powered Atomic or HRD, then it becomes more acceptable for live use.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Common knowledge is that the Pod's and Flextones lack dynamic and feel but sound great direct recorded.

The POD, maybe....

But my Flextone's tone is very nice live or recorded....

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

The POD, maybe....

But my Flextone's tone is very nice live or recorded....

I agree!! I could not be happier with my Line 6 amp live.

 

[PBGas]

While I have used a pile of Line 6 gear over the years and still use it for recording, I've found that it just doesn't cut it for me at stage volume. If you put my current amp beside one, the sheer bottom end from my amp would knock it over. There just isn't a comparison. With the line 6 gear, I find that the speakers absolutely die with my JP7s...they flub out, even with the bass backed down. It's a problem they've had with their power amp/speaker combinations over the years. The newer Spider Valve seems better from when I tried it....still undecided on that one though.

 

[beej]

Have to agree- I found my PodXT to be a great recording tool but it always lacked something live. The feel & response was just different than a good tube amp- I never felt connected to it. Wish it wasn't so. Looking forward to playing a Spider Valve when one's around as I hear it's an improvement.

 

[Nulph]

I've been playing Line 6 amps for about five years now and I love them. I started out with the Douverb and have moved on to the Flextone III. My JP sounds great through it. It took some time to get some really good tones out of it, but when I started finding them, they started flowing.
Now for what PBGas said about having issues with his JP7 flubbing out, I have, in the past, played Les Pauls and SGs tuned down to B-E-A-D-F#-B through the Duoverb using the Solo100 amp model and had no issues about the bottom end either clean or heavily overdriven. In fact, I loved that tone.
Now, I'm looking forward to what the new Spider Valve will be able to do. A buddy of mine has played on one and loved it. So let's see what becomes of this new amp.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I agree with everyone that there is no substitution for the real tube deal. I would love to have a rig like John Czajkowski's; however, my budget won't allow it right now. That said, I have so many amp and cabinet settings in that amp that I use, if I were to replace it with the real thing, I would have to have a tone of different amps. It's kind of funny what it allows me to do....

 

[PBGas]

Now for what PBGas said about having issues with his JP7 flubbing out, I have, in the past, played Les Pauls and SGs tuned down to B-E-A-D-F#-B through the Duoverb using the Solo100 amp model and had no issues about the bottom end either clean or heavily overdriven.

Yes....I'll admit that tone sounds fine. It's very good actually and I agree with you on it!
Now try the same thing with the Dual or Triple Rectifier model and watch what happens to the bottom end. Flub......I just tried it on a friends the other day at a rehearsal and just like clockwork.....