Spider Valve - Impression Summit - Part I

Spider Valve 112 – Impressions Summit…

Got my Spider Valve 112 delivered Thursday afternoon. My wife phoned me at work I wanted to stop working, go and take it for a spin. As a sidestep a funny thing that occurred to me while writing these first lines of this impression report is the phrase “taking it for a spin” In different languages, words can have different meanings and since my native language is Dutch. Spin actually means Spider in Dutch, go figure…

While completing the whole workday I constantly thought and wondered about the Spider Valve, how it would sound and feel. Luckily it was rehearsal night with the band I play in so I had the time to take it out and play it the same day. Coming home I couldn’t wait to open the box and see it, power it up and play it.

The Looks and Smell
First thing you’ll see is the looks of course, it sturdy, well build impression is what you get out of it. The leather hand strap is a nice touch and gives it a leathery smell. I know you don’t judge the amp by the smell, but it struck me as nice and quality. The navigation button looks at bit strange and seems a bit odd. I know how it works since a similar type of button (but far more smaller) is also present on my Pocket POD.

The different knobs all turn quickly and smooth, without ‘clicks’ so you can set it to everywhere in between without a problem it seems. The Bogner logo is nicely placed and isn’t too obvious when you first see the amp. The power cord is there, to be certain I checked if it had the right voltage displayed on the back of the amp. But wait a minute, there are some real valves in here, I can see two Sovtek valves and two smaller ones that I can’t make out directly but there sure in there.

There’s a power amp in and a power amp out connector as well so I can use different gear with this amp. I can try PODxt in the loop perhaps. I try that, maybe not tonight but surely soon. Now where’s my guitar..

Plug in but warn the neighbors first
I recently bought an OLP Lukather that I really dig, yeah I know it’s a cheap copy of the real deal but I really liked it from the moment I picked it up at my local dealer. The V shaped neck feels very comfortable and it’ll get me from stratlike clean to a darker grainy tone. Turned on the power so the amp will warm up and it’s still on standby, the little switch hasn’t been flipped yet…

Got my cable out, plugged it in turned down the master volume to 7 o’clock or so and flipped the standby switch… I’ve read some reviews online from the lucky people who already played one and they all said this Spider Valve is loud. I can tell you it’s Freakin’ Loud. I had connected the FBV short board and quickly turned the volume pedal up to bring the volume down. If you’re in a fight with your neighbors this is a nice amp to throw at them. But if your relationship with them is good, be sure to turn down the volume when firing it up.

Presets and Volume
This combination of modeling and real valves has different advantages over a ‘normal’ valve amp. You can actually play it a low volumes without real loss of tone. Sure it’ll alter the tone a bit and it doesn’t have that Fletcher Munson correction like it does on my Vetta but I think it would be very difficult to get there tones at this low volume from a ‘pure’ valve amp. I must say this didn’t occur to me at first since I’m playing modeling amps for the last couple of years.

Maybe another part to consider if you would try this amp in a music store is that all presets have their own ‘stored’ volume, meaning there are some variations that might surprise and / or scare you. As many different guitarist have different tastes, playing techniques and guitars were they’ll make there own presets with they vary in some I like and dislike as I guess it will for the next player. Read on

Source: Vettaville.nl

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