Opinions on Line 6 Vetta II?

[Brody]

Hey guys,

I have been using a modded Peavey XXX for a long time now through a Basson cabinet. With the pedals that I run in front of the amp I can get a really awesome tone for sure however, I am really getting tired of tap dancing for effects. I can't afford an Axe FX right now so I have been looking into the Vetta II's. I know The Faceless used them up until just recently live, and obviously Meshuggah was using them for a while.

What are some opinions on this head/what is it capable of if you have any first hand experience? For rhythm I am going for a Planetary Duality-esque tone. Keep in mind though that we play 7's in drop F#, so the live translation of notes is rather important!

 

[ZXIIIT]

I still use a Vetta II for live and recording, I don't run it trough a 4x12 though, I use one (for now) active PA speaker, sounds really good and is plenty loud.

 

[mot666]

ive got a vetta 2, it kicks butt regardless what people say about them. havent heard planetary duality(?) so i couldnt say that itd get what youre after but i rekon you could. theres what 80 amp models tones of cabs and with armins mod you get all sorts of colours out of your tone. hisssy crunchy bitey whatever. not that the stock cab such eithers.

plus you get a line 6 quad and you can play in stereo getting wild tones and effects. im looking at getting a second quad box for max stereo drool factor.

 

[SSK0909]

Vetta's are great for the price and very versatile.

However the tone is the typical line 6 pod/toneport tone. Personally I was never happy with the tones i got from my Vetta compared to traditional tube amps. But that's my preference in tone and not necessarily yours.

Let it be known that I'm more of hard rock/ old school metal guy and I'm really not a fan of the tone of Meshuggah etc. And I guess for the Vetta's tone is far more suited for those genres than the ones i prefer

 

[USMarine75]

I have had one for awhile and love it... some thoughts: The stock presets mostly suck. One of the biggest reasons people who test drive one and hate it is because of this (or the crappy cabs). I own a few of the real amps (Soldano, Engl, Peavey, etc) and it sounds fairly accurate to me. Not 100%, but the idea for me is that I can have 80-90% of 80 amp models that I can blend or have play in stereo as if there were 2 guitarists playing... plus all the effects and cabs, too... and you can DI it and record.

And as far as live playing is concerned and especially through mains there is no way you can tell the difference between a Vetta II and a real Diezel, 5150, or Budda... unless you are a tone geek. My friend stopped gigging his Bogners because he could just bring the Vetta.

But... I would look into the DT50. It seems to be the replacement, as they dont make the Vetta series anymore. And it has the whole hybrid thing going with the 12AX7 and EL34 tubes. Plus you can plug in the POD HD500 directly and now you have a super-Vetta!

Give one a spin and see what you think... but don't play one through a Line 6 cab they are the worst trash I've ever heard! Ever. Worse than stock sheffield speakers in a 5150 combo. Baaaad. I brought my Vetta and A/B'd it through one at a local store and it sounded terrible... then I switched to a used Mesa and was in heaven.

 

[USMarine75]

^ Basically, if you test drive a real tube amp like an Engl or Diezel its easy to get a great tone within seconds... in fact it's hard not to! With hybrids and modeling amps it takes some time to dial it in to what you like. (The manual for the Vetta is a small textbook)

 

[budda]

(sheffields don't sound bad...)

anyway. RTFM. Start with a blank patch and everything at half - see if you dig it.

 

[Mordacain]

I've really been digging the Flextone III XL. I've replaced all the stock presets, trying out different ones from Custom Tone (Line 6's community website). The models in the Flextone were derived from the Vetta series and many of them I'm quite pleased with. You have to dial in the tones in a different way than you would an amp. You might find you have Presence and Treble cranked to max, have mids run low and bass almost non-existent on some models to get a good tone (for instance) but there are definitely excellent tones there.

The Vetta series is obviously better than the Flextone (since those were Line 6's midrange model to the Vetta's flagship).

However, I have played the DT50 and its a beautiful tube amp. Its nowhere near as versatile as the Vetta's or PodHDs. The DSP on the DT series is only meant to replicate the pushed tone of the DT's amp voicings at lower volume.

 

[Benzesp]

It sounds great by itself (if you are the only guitar player in your band) but if you ever play with somebody else that has a High end tube amp you'll hear where it falls short. I'm not dis'n the Vetta by any means, it's pretty awesome.

 

[ZXIIIT]

I tried with a 4x12 at practice on Wednesday, sounded terrible (faulting the cab too ) I used it yesterday through an active PA speaker and it sounded awesome!
I dare not fantasize running it through a Mackie HD 1351

You might want to consider a PA speaker too, cause running it through a 4x12 will greatly color the tone.

 

[Rick]

I would go with the Line 6 POD X3 Pro and pair it with a poweramp.