
Being a "hybrid", this amplifier uses both solid state digital and analog tube circuitry. The valves used in this amp are a pair of 12ax7b preamp tubes and a pair of 6L6 power tubes, producing 40Watts of power.
The 12" speaker used is a Celestion Vintage 30 rated at 8ohms. The V30 is one classic guitar speaker that sounds bright and makes lead and overdriven guitar tones cut through the mix of a band.
http://line6.com/spidervalvemkii/specs.html
This particular amplifier needed a re tube and a power amp biasing. I replaced the stock Chinese no-name 12ax7b tubes with a pair of smoother sounding 12ax7a / 7025 Sovteks. Then, I replaced the old 6L6 sovtek power tubes for a pair of 6L6WXT+ tubes from the same company.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/sovtek_roehre_12_ax7_wa.htm
http://www.thomann.de/gb/sovtek_roehre_6l6wxt_paar.htm
Biasing:
I gave the power amp a proper biasing using the internal trim pots, a small flat screwdriver and a DMM(digital multimeter).
Here is a how-to-bias video for the Line6 spidervalves:
So, how does it sound?
This amplifier is a proper tube beast. I've played with tube and hybrid amps from Randall, Marshall, Blackstar etc. Blackstars also use hybrid technology: solid state analog circuit parts and tubes. I can say that the SpiderValve mk2 is a tone machine and it sounds far better than my Randall RG50tc all tube amp. It's versatile, easy to operate, it stores quite a few sound presets and it sounds like a high-gain all tube amp. You'd never know it's a hybrid amp on a blind test. The clean sounds are fenderish due to the 6L6 40W power amp design. The OD/Dist tones sound full and powerful and there's plenty of gain and lead on offer. The amp doesn't sound muffled or muddy even at high gain and volume levels and that's something you don't come by very often when using all tube amps.
Here are a few pictures of the amplifier:
-Thanos
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