Hi

Which SV MkII did you get?

I can't help you much with the specific questions you have about MIDI I'm afraid - yet

The lag in changing presets that you're noticing when doing this via MIDI is probably inherent within either the SV or your MIDI controller, so you *may* need to live with it.  If your controller works well with other MIDI devices, it may be due to the responsiveness of the amp.  I have got a fairly rudimentry MIDI foot controller in the form of a BOSS FC-50.  I haven't tried this with my SV MkII yet as I have the Shortboard MkII.

I would assume that the switching on/off of the looper by MIDI control is possible, but don't know for sure, so at the moment at least I can't help you with that

I've also read your newer thread requesting that Line 6 release the old SV MkI presets for the SV MkII.  Good call.  It would be very good.  If you had kept your SV MkI (and I undertsand why you didn't) you could probably have A/B'd the two and used Compare Mode on the MkI to see roughly where the controls were positioned.  The SV MkI I believe used one of two reverbs and I think those were either Spring or Plate and which was used where would depend on what was fitted to the amp being modelled - the equivalents to these two in the SV MkII would be Lux Spring or Vintage Plate - that's what I think/believebut I may be wrong.

Whilst they're not based directly on settings from the Spider Valve MkI, but instead the factory presets from the Spider IV, I have accurately copied quite a few song and artist presets from those supplied with the Spider IV using Spider IV Edit to Spider Valve MkII Edit and effectively put them into Spider Valve MkII format.   I've uploaded them to Custom Tone. I have renamed them slightly from their original Spider IV names so that you should still be able to see exactly what they are, but I didn't want them to be at all confused with any potential future official Line 6 releases.   I have uploaded about four original tones too, but these should be considered 'work in progress'.  They are what they are and your mileage may vary.  I do think that some do sound a little brighter on the SV MkII than they do on the Spider IV, but tweaking the overall brightness may be as simple as turning down the Presence control on the SV.   I've just produced a selection so far and these are not necessarily specifically tones that I would use myself in their factory preset form if I use them at all.   I can and may do more if there are any that you specifically want from the SV MkI and that exist in the Spider IV.  You'll need to update to the latest firmware to be able to download tones from Custom Tone.

I have a few amps and some of them are Line 6.  I have a Spider III 150 and a Spider IV 150, a Spider Valve 112 MkI with Strymon SVpre and Celestion G12K-100 and a new Spider Valve 212 MkII which is stock.  I had the urge to buy a new MkII last week and originally went for the 112, but it was faulty (almost certainly bad output tubes) so took it back and swapped it for the 212.

Regarding the warmth of tone, I felt that the original firmware (1.17) installed in the SV 212 MkII was very warm sounding and not a lot different to my SV 112 MkI.  I felt than when I first installed firmware 1.50 (Infusion), that some of the b*alls had gone from the amp - but to be fair I've only used it at fairly low volumes so far and given what Scott Waara has said the new update has been tweaked to perform better at higher volumes and to allow the amp to 'open up'.  I have found it's not too difficult in most cases to dial in a bit more bottom end and drive where necessary to get some or all of that b*lls back.  We are treading on very subjective ground now though, and I'm very aware that everyone hears things slightly differently before even getting into the fact that each and every amp is individual in how it sounds despite supposedly being identical to all the other amps of the same model type in the same series.  I view amps the same way I view Fender Stratocasters - they all look the same, but you can try twenty supposedly identical Fender Strats before you get to one that feels and sound exactly right for you, or if you're Eric Clapton you can buy six and swap all the necks, bodies and electronics around until you have maybe one guitar of six that is the guitar that suits you best - Blackie for example.

OK - going back briefly to the solid state Spider III 150 and Spider IV 150 amps.  Some of the factory presets on the Spider IV have the same names as those on the Spider III.  I A/B'd the two amps side by side when I first got the Spider IV with its original firmware installed because I felt that the Spider IV lacked warmth and felt too spiky compared to my Spider III.  In my comparison exercise it was fairly evident that I wasn't imagining the differences in tone.  The first firmware update though improved the Spider IV's tone and although the factory presets still sounded a bit different, the Spider IV's tone was warmer.

Why am I going on about the Spider series amps?  Well, the DSP section in the Spider III is virtually the same as the DSP section in the Spider Valve MkI, whilst the DSP section in the Spider IV is virtually the same as the DSP section in the Spider Valve MkII.  I don't pretend to know all the specific differences between the two generations of the DSP sections in the Spider III/Spider Valve MkI and Spider IV/Spider Valve MkII, but I do understand that the Spider III/Spider Valve MkI DSP section is based on POD 2.0 technology, whilst the Spider IV/Spider Valve MkII DSP section is based on POD X3 technology and if you have ever compared the sounds of the POD 2.0 against the POD X3 the differences are pretty clear.  I still have a POD 2.0 and still have a soft spot for how it sounds.

Basically, aside from the stock Sovtek 5881 power tubes and 12AX7 inverter/boost tubes, you need to factor in the differences in the DSP sections of the SV MkI and SV MkII.

I installed the SVpre and a Celestion G12K-100 speaker in my SV 112 MkI - not because there was anything wrong with the original stock amp or speaker in my particular amp, but because I like tweaking my sound just like everyone else and like pretty much every other guitarist on the planet, I'm always looking to make my sound better

I never experienced the 'ice-pick' sound with my SV 112's original Vintage 30 speaker, but I don't dispute that some users might have experienced this phenomenon.

I have only ever experienced one major problem with one piece of Line 6 gear I've ever owned, and even though it was only mine for about an hour and a half, that problem was with the Spider Valve 112 MkII and it was definitely tube related (power tube red-plating, crackles, pops, squeaks, really horrible thin nasty sound).  Personally, I don't believe that there is anything wrong with the basic electronics in the SV MkII series amps.  I don't know about the glassware though.  I believe the amps are transported with valves pre biased and installed and I would assume that the quality of the amp's ride from factory to customer will vary quite a bit.  I would imagine too that the factories that make the tubes make them within specified tolerances and that sometimes tubes that make it out of the door may be near acceptable tolerance limits.  I think that all tube manufacturers are capable of producing turkeys - and they probably do, but where some tube manufacturers and end-suppliers gain credibility is in the selection and matching of known good tubes which is only achieved by fairly rigorous testing pre-sale and this all adds to the price.  Of the nineteen different bits of Line 6 gear I own, the reliability and quality of all has been very good so far - my original SV has been gigged and taken a fair bit of stick in the process - but is still on its original tubes - which BTW, appear to be the same as what's fitted in my new SV MkII

The Spider Valve MkII has four FX model banks from which one effect each can be selected at any one time with an amp model: Stomp, Modulation Delay, Reverb.   The Stomp FX bank contains overdrives like Screamer, compressors like Red Comp, Blue Comp and pitch FX like Smart Harmony amongst others.  The approximate contents of the other three FX banks are fairly obvious I think from the names.  You can find a list of all the effects in the SV MkII manual and FX Infusion update documentation

After playing through a new speaker at higher volume levels for approx 30 hours or so, the speaker's cone material will soften slightly and this will equate to the speaker being 'broken in'.  This breaking in will change the character of the speaker's sound - whether you consider that an improvement or not is subjective, but a lot of people do think that a broken in speaker sounds better.   I don't know if this is true or not, but I read somewhere that the late John Entwistle of the Who used to have the speakers in his cabs rotated 90 degrees every couple of gigs or so because he believed that the effects of gravity on the voice coils and the magnets caused a 'sag' in the physical balance of the speaker and he could hear the difference apparently..  Like I said I don't know whether that is true or not, but it certainly sounds like a valid albeit a bit extreme thing to do.

I know that metalhd77 has been suffering a bit with his new SV MkII .amp not delivering the sound he wants/needs which is a shame given this amp he's currently got is his second after his first was faulty, and I know first hand what that's like, but I don't think it's necessarily a widespread issue - although nevertheless unfortunate for him - particularly with this popping he's getting when switching presets.  I would say however that there are undoubtedly slight differences in how the SV MkII sounds when compared to the SV MkI, but that the basic amp models can be tweaked by Line 6 to compensate for this in future firmware updates.

Nick

Hello,

    Sorry about the automated message.  We are still seeing this question and will definitely respond.  To answer your original questions:

  1) Gap in channel switching on SV Mk II: I put a SV Mk I and SV Mark II right next to each other and switched between presets within a bank, and I was not able to get any noticible time difference switching presets on the two units.  Please remember that more effects active may have a slight effect on the amount of time it takes to load a preset.  I will look into this situation further and let you know if there is anything else I can find on this situation.

  2) Controlling looper via MIDI: We have no information on if the looper can be controlled via MIDI at this time, but I will look into this as well.

  3) Stomp button: This pedal activates "FX 1" on the amplifier, which are the traditional "gain" based and harmony effects on the Mk II

  4) Are the Mk I amps going to be released in Mk II: I highly doubt that the original SV MK I amp models will be released on MK II, as the hardware and processing is so different that it would not be compatable.

  5) General tone points:  We reccomend setting your cleanest tone at 90-95% of the channel volume, then balancing your other tones against this tone.  You can use a FKV Volume expression pedal to help lower the overall output of the amp, or you can put the amp on standby and run into a mixer using the XLR if you need silent recording/practicing volume.

  Creating and Balancing Tones

  http://line6.com/community/docs/DOC-4537

  Studio Tone vs. Live Tone

  http://line6.com/community/docs/DOC-3787