Comments for Rowbinet - Rowbi's Guitar & Recording Blog

Comment on Line 6 JTV59 Review – One Guitar, Many Personalities! by Rowbi

Rowbi — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:29:56 +0000

hey thanks for commenting.

Looking at it objectively, I personally have never had issues updating, nor have the few people I know who own JTV’s. That said, I wouldn’t ever update any of my gear if I’m close to needing it for a gig… just in case some features change that I may need.

Comment on Line 6 JTV59 Review – One Guitar, Many Personalities! by Graham English

Graham English — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:00:56 +0000

I’ve got a JTV59 and JTV69. Both great guitars. I agree with your 9/10 verdict. That being said, I had an issue updating the 59 to firmware v1.8.2 and it bricked the guitar. It’s a fragile process. The cable can’t be too long, the volume mustn’t be at 0, choose the right USB slot, plug things in at the correct order, it feels a bit like DaVinci cryptex. I probably did something wrong and no amount of troubleshooting with Line 6 support has been able to fix it. Fortunately, they’ve been really supportive — and fast — and are paying the shipping to get it fixed. But I’ll be without it for 2-6 weeks. Again, I have a second Variax, but situations like this confirm that it probably won’t be my main guitar.

Not that it couldn’t be my main guitar. Just don’t update on the road or without extreme care. And have a backup ready. That could be the same for any rig though. Even pickups and tubes fail sometimes.

But even with my story, I still wholeheartedly recommend a Variax and especially the “dream rig.” Throw any guitar in front of a Pod and DT amp and you’re guaranteed to pull some sick tones without even trying. But put a Variax in front and it gets amazing. And consider that the whole package costs less than $3,000 USD! No, it’s not cheap, but it is inexpensive. Especially when you consider the alternative, 20+ guitars, 20+ amps, 100+ effects, the value is insane!

Comment on Roost by Ruthy Gentle

Ruthy Gentle — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:51:27 +0000

Anyone know how I can contact Terry Bateman? He used to work for us many moons ago at TIm Gentle Music.

Comment on Marshall 50th Anniversary JMP1 Specs by Rowbi

Rowbi — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:04:41 +0000

Hi,

Thanks for your comment.

No it’s not a joke, but I think you’ve misunderstood what is meant. I’m glad there’s no master volume, and I was highlighting the fact that unlike a lot of modern amps, it’s great to see these 1 watters haven’t got a master volume. Of course with the 0.1w switch they hardly need one either, but with some manufacturers, that wouldn’t have stopped them putting one on there.

Cheers

Rowbi

Comment on Marshall 50th Anniversary JMP1 Specs by Todd

Todd — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:09:25 +0000

“still no master volume in sight!” Is that a joke? Why would you want a master volume when you have a .01 watt switch? If you used a master volume you wouldn’t be able to hear the amp over the sound from the strings.

Comment on Line 6 DT25 Review – Little Brother or Little Devil..? by Keith Marriott

Keith Marriott — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:25:17 +0000

I’m used to 50 watt valve amps or 250 watt (with Pod XT) transistor power amps!

Comment on Line 6 DT25 Review – Little Brother or Little Devil..? by Scotty Burford

Scotty Burford — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:27:49 +0000

A 25 watt valve power amp has plenty of headroom. I have played in auditoriums for 1500 people with an 8-piece band since buying this and had no problems with the amp remaining clean in this instance. And with the DSP-voiced pre I have found that I can push the clean harder than previous all-valve amps I have owned without it breaking up.
I would guess that you have not set up the amp to perform at its best. Channel 4 does not have to be ‘extremely distorted’ to begin with. I have created some patches that are slightly crunchy and that is all.

Comment on Line 6 DT25 Review – Little Brother or Little Devil..? by Rowbi

Rowbi — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:22:39 +0000

Thanks for your comment. Yeah Chappers and Lee (and Paul in the DT25 vids) in those Andertons videos are some cool cats! They certainly show what the dream rig can do!

Comment on Line 6 DT25 Review – Little Brother or Little Devil..? by Rowbi

Rowbi — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:21:36 +0000

thanks for your comments. when you start to drive power tubes the sound starts to compress and distort a little more. that’s the same for every tube amp out there, but some of the larger 100 watt amps, you can push them a lot louder before that happens. So I@m guessing maybe in the past you’ve either used higher wattage tube amps, or solid state amps (which would likely sound more similar at any volume).

Sometimes different gear works for some people, but not for others. for me I like the extra grit when cranking the master volume, and don’t find that confusing (it’s meant to happen). But that may not suit everyone. If you want more clean9ish) headroom, the DT50 would give you that for sure.

Comment on Line 6 DT25 Review – Little Brother or Little Devil..? by Scotty Burford

Scotty Burford — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:17:25 +0000

I have used my DT25 with a Hotcake Pedal driving Voicing 2 (Park). Sounds fantastic! With my Ibanez I get a great heavy overdriven tone that just sings. With my strat I can get very close to the legendary Eric Johnson tone (far closer than with any other combination I have owned or tried). I also have a Les Paul Traditional set up for slide and this channel offers up some really great ballsy tone with plenty of bite when going for that sort of thing.
A really great amp. Certainly loud enough for gigs. i used mine at 6 gigs in 7 days when it first arrived and didn’t even come close to pushing it to the max.
And at some gigs I have even resorted to using the low volume switch because I needed to drop the volume and retain the tone ( a couple of jazz guitar gigs in particular where I was very much in the background of the club).
Only just learning now about the POD HD500 but the Anderton’s video is so impressive I am sure it will be great.