Brazzy

Hey Thanks for the update. When I use the Spider Jam I turn down all the inputs I'm not using so when I want to use them again I have to readjust the levels, this prevents me from accidentally making loud unintentional noise or blowing my speaker or ear drums. It also keeps my ability to navigate through all the settings fresh in my mind making me more proficient at it. Have Fun. Cheers

There are settings for the levels of these volumes, kinda hard for me to explain right now but you can control them. Happy New Year BTW.

I do beleive that about says it. Thumbs Up!

radatats has a good point about "before you spend your money try the L2T or a pair of powered monitors with the HD500". I do beieve running the HD500 into a good pair of powered monitors via the XLR's is a good way to go. I seem to remember many guitar players saying that the HD 500 really sounds great that way. I wanted some tube generated sound thats why I got the DT50 Head and Cabinet, I never had a tube amp before and I really like this one but I don't haul this beast around to gig after gig. I really think if I was going to play live I would try to go with the HD500 and run direct to the house just so all I had to haul was the HD500 and guitars. I realize there might be problems with it but isn't there problems with anything? Also, geppert with the DT25 stuff has the right idea ('cause he has experience) about uses of smaller cabinets as compared to hauling around a 4x12. Using the smaller cabinets gives versatility in that you can position the individual speakers in a room in such a way as to achieve different sound direction, not sure if I worded that right but I think you know what I mean.

Any speaker cabinet with the right impedance and power handling will work. The sound produced will vary but that's subjective. I run an HD500 via L6 link and sometimes into the front of a DT 50 Head with a Jet City JCA12+ Speaker Cabinet (open backed) which has a 16 Ohm 100w Eminence speaker in it. Sounds good to me but I play at moderate levels most of the time. I did crank it up indoors a few times and it sounded really good to me.

UPDATE: I went with Beyerdynamic DT990 (600 Ohm) and after playing with them for a short time I'm starting to like them. These are geared for the Lows and Highs and cuts the Mids a bit. They sound good to me and I'm happy so far. They work fine when using the HD500 as my sound card when listening to music and videos. They work great for some heavy metal chugging making riffs for those dirt bike vids. As far as the accuracy for montoring when developing patches for live use I still have to do more work. But when I record digitally the headphones sounds are very close to the end result. Just got a Schecter Omen 8 and been loving it. After playing it for while and then going right to a 6 string I feel like I'm playing a twig compared to the branch your holding when chording the Omen 8.

Just aquired the Omen 8 and have been playing it through he HD500 monitoring with DT990 Beyerdynamic headphones (600 Ohm). This thing is a chug machine for sure. Before this most excellent aquisition I was playing with the Devil Custom Schecter made a bunch of years ago, this too is an excellent build by them, and affordable too. The pickups might be a bit noisy with high gain patches but after playing around with compressors and hard gates I've got something usable through the phones which BTW IMO are very good for this stuff. I've seemed to learn a little more about setting up patches. I still play with the Devil Custom often and have to say after playing chords on the Omen 8 for a few hours and the going right to the Devil Custom the neck felt like twig, LOL, but in a good way. my playing has greatly improved since the Omen 8 aquistion. Amazing what playing a "branch with strings" can do for your guitar playing, LOL.

I was in the market for an attenuator but changed my mind when this update was released. I have way more control since the "HD 500 Master Volume L6 Link Control" addition. So I'm right there with Ya! Nice Post BTW.

Glad to hear you have the answer and got it going. Thanks for the update Blubarb.

I'm not sure whats going on there with your conversion, sounds like your doing it as right as you can. Maybe you should try to record the song directly to the SJ and then save it as a wav file to the SD Card?

Ok, I do believe the WAV file must be in Mono. Make sure it's a mono wav file, I made this mistake the very first time I tried it. Also you can play your songs from your iPhone,Mp3 Player, iPod or other source through the CD/Mp3 port and might be able to capture the song with the Spider Jam and then save it to the SD Card as a wav file or the other file (JM4). Just make sure when you use the CD/Mp3 port, Aux. or Mic Port that the levels are adjusted to were you need them. Do this by making sure the level is turned down and work your way up so you don't blast yourself. Before you record you need to press and hold the record select button and choose which path to record by selecting one of the 2 options by turning the wheel.

I don't think it's too hard but I do have experience building, repairing, fabricateing, and manufacturing many types of products. I think anyone who has the determination to learn can get the right tools and do it with confidence. Take your time and read alot, ask questions and learn as much as you can so you can be confident in yourself. There are other threads and this might be one of the first. >>> Biasing Thread by whiteop

Yamaha makes good dirt bikes. Been using them since '76.

Hey thanks for the tip.

I have this hiss (white noise?) the OP has but in a DT50 and am prepared to replace the tubes, but I've been using it and it sounds ok. This has been there since it arrived by UPS about 1 month ago. At first I thought it was normal and it might be to a certain extent (tube amps nature etc., lol).) Also when I first fired it up and first turn the standby on within a few minutes I heard a fizzy noise that lasted a few seconds and slowly fizzed out and said to myself "WTF was that, lol". Had a few more fizzes since but just kept playing since that's what I have it for. Which tubes did you use geppert?

You may need to reflash the firmware. I haven't had any wierd things happen when I use my X3Pro.....Yet. Hopefully I don't but if I do I would probably reflash. Or try rebuilding the patch.

I use my UX2 and HD500 like that sometimes. I just plug my amps send into the guitar input of the Pod or UX2 then output into the return of the amp. Works good fo me and it's simple.

Hey Thanks Stumblinman, I'm always learning something new with this stuff and having fun doing it. For instance I was trying to record from the DT50 XLR Direct out into the Mic of the Spider Jam and I can't seem to get it to work, lol. It seems I have proper levels but it just wont playback. I was reading the manual again to brush up on it and played around with it for a while but didn't get to work. No big deal though I have other ways of recording, lol. I'm gonna give a break for a while and try again later. Updated: 12-30-2013 Was having trouble with recording from DT50 Head XLR Direct Out into Mic input of the Spider Jam. Thought I had the levels high enough to record, which I did except if your playing with the Master Volume too low the mic input "will not" be heard. Think I was a tad bit lower than 10 O'clock or around the 25% position. Basically I was trying to be quiet. Played with it for a bit and was hammering myself trying to figure it out, almost did a factory reset when I didn't need it. Instead I came back fresh the next day and figured it out in short order. Thank God, lol.

This is what happened to my DT50 Head when I was having sudden voltage drops. It would suddenly turn off then back on and cycle though it's srart-up mode, So I would have to quickly turn off the head 'cause these voltage drops were reoccuring every five seconds, crazy. After the transformers outside were replaced this went away for the most part. I don't know exactly what is happening to yours though.

Maybe when you reset the the amp you undid the Boost. I snipped out part of the manual that may help you.

I've been rereading the manual brushing up on this stuff and forgot you can record the song using the CD/MP3 jack and save it to the SD Card for later. I think you may want to delete it from the internal memory when your done and have saved to and SD Card as to make the most room possible for recording. Changed underlined 12/15/2013 I've snipped a few parts of the advanced manual that i was reading.

You can copy a .wav file to the SD Card and the Spider Jam will play it. I sometimes convert songs to .wav file with Audacity. When played back on this amp they sound really good.

That's all you do. If you are at the screen in the picture I uploaded the tone is working. If you can't hear it gradually turn up the master volume 'till you hear it. What I do is turn the amp on with the master all the way down. I hook up my guitar and make sure the volume and tone knobs are turned up all the way up. Choose an amp model. Then while the master is still all the way down I make sure all the knobs Drive, Bass, Mid, Treb, and Volume are turned all the way down. Then I turn the master up to 50% and start by turning the volume knob up 'till I get sound, then I turn up the bass,mid, and treble to my liking. Then I add drive slowly till I get what I like and then readjust volume and fine tune the tone stack. Whenever I switch to a different amp model I make sure I turn the master down before I touch that knob so I don't accidentally blast myself. After a while I just know what to do. This process gives me an idea were I stand and I know better what the knobs change in relation to what I hear. If your running a stomp box into it make sure the levels on those are turned up as well. Most of the time i just make my own presets adjustments.

I don't recall mine making any noise on startup, then again I usually start it up with the master turned all the way down.

I use my Spider Jam with my Schecter Elite 5 for practice when it's convenient. About 5 years ago I was skeptical about using the bass with my guitar amp, but as I learned more about these things and became more confident about what I was doing with the level settings I ended up using it no problems. Yeah, it's not a "Bass Speaker" so you can't push it to the same limits but you can definitely get some good practice tone for home use. I've been using this Spider Jam for 5 years now and it still sounds like new to me and the people around me so I must have not done any harm so far.