Which guitar amplifier?
Okay, I've decided on two amps. Either the Fender Mustang III modeling amp or the Line 6 Spider Valve. I've decided not go tube because of three things. 1. tube amps are pricey, 2. you can't get a good tone unless you play them loud, and 3. the amps that I mentioned are very versatile because they have different amp models and presets etc. I know the Line 6 has some tubes, but still has different amp models and such and the Fender doesn't, so would it be better?
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I was young once - so I recognise the problem here which is skewing your logic.
The key is in the line " you can't get a good tone unless you play them loud".
Your idea of "a good tone" involves overloading the output tubes. That's the sound you like.
There are two kinds of distortion from a classic valve amp, one is derived from overloading the pre-amp and one derives from overloading the output section.
The easy way to get that sound is to use a small valve amp with a resistor net attached to the speaker output so you can feed the signal into a larger amp for stage work. The large amp can be transistor or valve - it is amplifying the crunchy output stage of the small amp.
Forget those modelling amps, they all model the pre-amp to get what they describe as the classic sound. You will buy one and still be searching for that elusive tone.
Me, I used to have a Marshall Mercury practice amp that did the trick, but it was stolen. Then I had a Watkins Westminster adapted to do that, but it died. Nowadays I use an old Zenta mail order amp (12AX7 + ECL84) instead.
Looky, you also need humbuckers or assistance to get sufficient input to overload the output tube, a Strat with the volume set on 5 will not do it.
You need a small pre-amp to get the effect with a Strat, like an MXR MicroAmp. Go study Eric Clapton's Blackie and you will find there's a pre-amp on board (like on most of his Strats).
There's nothing new about the idea, it dates back to the 60s. Search for the Kinks "Green amp", they were the first to record that sort of sound using a 4W Elpico into a Marshall stack with a LP Custom driving the sound (all knobs set to 10).
You know what you want, nobody told you how to get it. Now I did.
Hello there,
If you have decided not to buy a tube amp and you have only the Fender Mustang and the Line 6 Spider Valve on your list, the choice is easy. The Line 6 Spider Valve is a tube amp. It has a tube preamp and power tubes. Valve is another word for vacumm tube. Your question does not make any sense. You say all the reasons you do not want a tube amp, but then say those do not apply to the tube amp by Line 6. Rubbish. I also do not agree with your reasoning whatsoever. But if you do believe that stuff, then forget about the Line 6 tube amp.
Later,
A couple things to mention here. First off, like Norm said, the Spider Valve is a tube amp. Second, the idea that all tubes amps are expensive and that they have to be cranked up to sound good is just incorrect. You can get some great deals on small tube amps that are adequate for home and small rehearsals. Also any tube amp with a master volume and a reasonable wattage can sound great at low volumes. If you are buying this for home use, a 100 watt amp is ridiculous.
You dont know what your talking about. Tube amps have a much better tone at any volume. Most of the amp models on there are modeling tube amps...
Personaly ive wouldve went for the line 6 spider valve because of how much things you can do with it. Ive used one in a guitar battle