Hey guys, I'm Aaron Lyon, I'm down here at
Better Music. Just doing a comparison between
a couple of practice amps. We've got the Spider
IV 15 watt and the Vox VT20. I'm just going
to run through some of the features on the
amp, on both of the amps.
So both of the amps have full range EQ, so,
pre-amp gains, master volumes on both of them.
Both have got built in effects, both of the
amps feature auxiliary-ins so that we can
run backing tracks and so forth through the
amps for play alongs, they've both got headphone-outs,
so great for practicing in your room.
Both amps also feature foot-switches so that
we can change between the effects and the
different gain stages, however they don't
come with those foot-switches so you have
to purchase them separately.
The Vox is a 20 watt it does feature just
a little 12AX7 in the pre-amp, so that you
can still get that great sort of valve sound.
The line 6 is just solid state, but they replicate
that valve sound quite good I think.
Vox does have some separate features, it has
a power attenuator, which is great, so you
can turn the power right down if you're practicing
at home, or you can run it on full wattage
when you're playing with the band.
It does have quite a few effects, so it's
got a few more effects than the Line 6. The
Line 6 has a few effects and does them really
well, easy to adjust, a few different buttons
on the front so we can move through our different
gain stages. So we've got clean, crunch, metal
and insane. The Vox has a similar thing, with
the chicken-head knobs, but it has a lot more
different amp simulators. We've got a clean,
we've got a cali-clean, the US blues, basically
copying some of our all time favourite amp
sounds there.
I'm also using the Lehle AB foot-switch to
switch between the amps, great foot-switch,
very easy to use.
So to start with we are going to do some clean
sounds, both of the amps set on the clean
channel with all the EQ's at 12 O'clock. So
this is what they sound like, starting with
the spider.
OK now I'm going to add a little bit of reverb
to both of them and we'll see what it sounds
like. We've got the classic strat sound on
the second switch, so neck and middle.
Ok so, you've heard the clean sounds on both
of the amps with the EQ all set at 12 O'clock.
Now we're just gonna start running through
some of the effects that they have. They are
pretty user friendly, both of these amps.
We are just able to turn on the effects simply
by using these knobs here. I'm gonna start
with the Line 6. The first effect that I have
here on the clean channel is going to be the
Chorus/Flanger. So just add the amount in...
that's with a fair amount of Chorus and Flanger
on there, probably a little bit more than
I'd normally use. Heading on to the Phaser
now. Again I'll set the phaser on about mid
way so you can hear what it sounds like.
That was with the parameter set at half-way,
so it was quite a bit, we could back it off a bit.
So, there are, I'm not going through all of
the effects. There's a lot more effects on
the Vox, just trying to use some of the more
user friendly ones at the moment.
OK, there's a couple of cool effects that
we have on the Vox, one of the ones that I
like to use a little bit is just the auto-wah.
So we can adjust the level, the amount that
we have in there, at the moment I've just
got it on halfway. Here's what it sounds like
with that.
The next one that I like and use a little
bit of is the octave.
that's the effects and the clean channels
on both the amps.
Now I'm going to try the gain channel on both
the amps, so, I'm just using one of my favourite
settings, it's sort of mid range to what the
amps can do, there is a lot less for obviously
blues and that type of music, but there is
also a lot more, so both amps can do heavier
gain that what I'm about to do. So, again,
starting with the line 6. I'm just going to
start with the neck pickup and then I'll use
the bridge. So, here's the line 6.
OK, so now I'm just going to use the bridge
pickup. I've got a DiMarzio rails pickup in
there, so this is pretty much like a hum-bucker,
so this is what it sounds like.
That's it guys, so, that's the Vox VT20+ and
the Line 6 Spider IV 15W. So both great amps,
really useable features, I've used them in
different settings before, they're great practice
amps, loud enough to play with a band, so
definitely check them out! Thank you.
