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Hello. My Spider Valve HD 100 suffers from the black bars of death syndrome (8 black bars display on the lcd and no sound). I'm from Portugal and the authorized repair service told me that Yamaha (line 6 owner) told them that the problem is the dsp / main pcba board, but unfortunately they no longer have this replacement part, so the official repair service is unnable to repair the amp. That sucks big time, and is a big downside on Line 6 the costumer service. Does anyone know where i can find a dsp/main pcba board for a Spider Valve HD100, or how can I get in touch with Line 6 parts department? Or can anyone tell me if this Line 6 50-02-9325-1,Main PCB with DSP for Spider Valve 112 MkII, can do the job on my Spider Valve HD100 (first generation)?? Link: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/209041-Line-6-50-02-9325-1 Thanks in advance. PR

Edit: Appologies in advance for the long post :) Thought I would post this since I haven't seen anything on Helix and the Spider Valve. After running Helix through all of my guitar, bass, and PA gear, as well as various 3rd party and my own IR's, I was reluctantly starting to look to expensive FRFR solutions. This weekend, I stumbled across and picked up a "broken" Spider Valve MKII HD100 from a pawn shop for $80. The display was messed up and the amp was crackling, popping, volume cut out, and the master volume knob was a mess when you turned it. But i plugged straight into the power amp input in the back and that worked fine, so with Helix in mind I said "what the heck, I've blown more cash on far less" and went for it. I got it home, pulled it apart, blew out the dead bugs and droppings and a little Deoxit in the master volume pot and it was good to go, except for the display. The SV PC editor works fine with it if I ever wanted to use the built in modelling and effects (doubtful). To cut to the chase, all of the Helix amp-only models into Spider Valve power amp input into my Mesa Recto 2x12 cab sound AMAZING!!! I have never heard that Mesa Recto Celestion V30 cab produce such a diverse range of tones with such clarity. It's really nice to just run a single 1/4" cable back to the SV. I cannot imagine anything sounding better for electric guitar, and I have been experimenting obsessively with Helix, physical rigs and IR's, and researching clips and videos A LOT!!!. I might go so far as to say I have never had a better guitar tone, but I need to get through a few gigs to make that claim ;) To keep life simple and tones beautiful and consistent between stage and FOH, I will probably just IR the SV power amp and Recto 2x12 with one or two mics for a Helix FOH PA signal path, and say screw a bunch of other cab/mic models and IR's...at least for live use. I may even post them for this week's th-IRs-ty Thursday free IR's :) The Helix Amp+Cab models into the SV into my Mesa 1x12 & 2x12 bass cabs sound really good too but a little boomy. So SV HD100 might make a good pairing with a passive FRFR cab. But then again, I'm not compelled to chase Helix tone options any further at this point. The 100W 6L6 power amp of the SV is so clear, dead quiet and tons of headroom (dare I say almost FRFR)...go Bogner! It sounds SO much better than Helix through ANY of my other power amps (Mesa 2:90, Mesa 20/20, Marshall 100/100 EL34) or effects returns of any of my Mesa heads (Mesa Triple Rec, Mesa Stiletto, Mesa Mark V). Crazy, I know...busted-a$$ $80 "POS" pawn shop amp sounding better than my Mesa gear that I have sold my soul for several times. I feel really dirty and wrong liking it so much. I have always previously drank the L6 Kool-Aid and have owned the Pod XT Live, X3, and last gen dream rig JTV/HD500x/DT50/L2M and had never gotten tones I fell in love with from any of them. Actually at the end even ran some of my tube pre's (Triaxis/JMP-1) into the DT50 effects return and didn't care for the power amp. Anyway, I ended up selling it all off for a good price (luckily before Helix was announced) and went back to my physical rigs. After researching the Spider Valve and reading the manual, it seems that it was designed to be used with any Line 6 modeler (Pod X3 & future) into the power amp in as well as the built in Spider models. All of the Line 6 SV cabs used V30 speakers and i love my Recto 2x12 w/ V30's. I much prefer 6L6 tubes to El34's in my Mesa amps. So it makes sense why this 6L6 SV/Recto 2x12 is sounding so good to me. Honestly, I had always thought SV sounded like crap as my other guitarist had one 5 years ago. It did not cut through the mix and my Mesa Tremoverb 2x12 combo blew it away. He was always frustrated with it. He ended up getting a Marshall half stack to one-up me ;) Even now. playing through the front end of it with the old built-in Spider Models still sounds like poo to me, especially when compared to Helix into the power amp in. The SV HD100 is quite a bit smaller and maybe lighter than the DT50 was. It's also a little smaller than my Mesa Recto heads. Styling is pretty similar to my Recto 2x12 and it looks good sitting on top. The pilot light and backlit plexiglass logo look dang cool too, and almost match the Helix lighting! I'm liking it so much that I think I am going to order the metal Line 6 SV cab logo and replace my Mesa logo on the Recto 2x12! In summary, I would highly recommend that anyone without a lot of cash, not fully in love with Helix + whatever, looking for a good Helix pairing consider the SV series. Especially if you are not feeling the FRFR path with Alto powered PA speakers or more expensive options. SV's are about 1/2 the price of the DT series, and might even sound better with Helix to you if you generally prefer 6L6's and V30 speakers. I would bet the super clean SV 6L6 power amp is somewhere between solid state FRFR and the DT series amps, or other tube guitar amps. Heck, you might even come across a "broken" SV for a steal too. No telling what Line 6 and Bogner are cooking up as an amp solution for Helix, but for now with the SV I am FINALLY happy with my rig and excited and inspired to 100% play again instead of 90% tweaking/experimenting and 10% playing.

I had a recent problem with my Spider Valve MkII HD100 head - it would randomly switch channels for no reason. I removed the shortboard and took all my effects out of the effects loop and the problem still occurred - about every10 seconds it would switch channels a couple times. I spent some time searching/reading forums to see if anyone was reporting similar problems. I saw two things Thermal problems with the HD100 MkI Someone suggested that if you play loud, sometimes the vibrations can cause the amp to think you are moving the knobs - suggested turning all the knobs to zero. I decided to take the amp apart and inspect it. Nothing seemed obviously wrong, but I hoped that disconnecting and reconnecting all the cables to the digital section might magically fix the problem. No such luck. Problem still existed. I decided to turn all the knobs to their zero position - I wasn't playing loud, but had nothing else to try. BINGO! Turning all the knobs to zero and the problem went away. I played for about 20 minutes with no phantom switching - previously it would switch every 10 seconds. A little more investigation, and I noticed that when I moved the Drive or Bass knob, the channel would switch. Looks like some cross talk between the first three knobs (first 3 knobs are Channel, Drive, Bass - in that order). None of the other knobs cause any problems. So now the amp is usable - although I am a little hesitant to use it in a gig. It still doesn't work right, but I don't actually use the Drive and Bass knobs much if at all. QUESTION #1 - anyone seen phantom channel switching like this? QUESTION #2 - anyone got any suggestions for how to fix the problem I have with the Drive and Bass knobs causing channel switching? Note: I bought another HD100 amp so I can play gigs. I had to buy it used since they don't make new ones anymore. Huge bummer because I think this is a fantastic sounding amp - and great for me since I play in a cover band and I need a versatile amp. QUESTION #3 - if they don't make the HD100 anymore, what is the replacement in the Line6 product line? Jack

Hi, Preface: I kind of browsed the forum but couldn't find anything matching my problem. I bought a Spider Valve HD100 Mk1 to use while my main amp is being serviced. The seller went through the paces with the amp and informed me the master volume didn't work. being as it was super loud and controllable through channel volume I still bought it. I plan on keeping it as a backup so id like to see if I can fix this issue. Issue: Master Volume sounds to be at about 7 id say compared to other 100 watt amps ive used. I can turn the knob from 0 - 10 and no change in volume, no static, zero response. The volume can be controlled by the channel volume but switching presets will blow ears out if not careful. Could this be remedied by a simple pot change or could it be something more. Looking on suggestions on troubleshooting the circuit maybe? I have some electronics experience so I know about high voltages etc going into the amp. Thanks

Hi all, I have a question regarding the circuit diagram of the Spider Valve 112 MK1 (I attached a screenshot from the manual). As I read it, the “All-tube power amp” section consists of the pre-amp tubes AND the power amp tubes. However, the “Preamp out” is right before that section where the pre-amp tubes are. And the input to this “All-Tube Power Amp” section is labelled “Power Amp In”. So, when I go with an external signal (in this case from Hx Stomp pedal) into the “Power Amp In”, I still use the preamp and poweramp section of the Spider Valve, correct? Although the section from “Guitar in” to “Preamp Out” is completely bypassed. I’m confused…

I remember having one of these - the half stack as my first tube amp. I loaned it to a band member who was gonna buy it after I got a Carvin V3, but ended up not paying me for it and stole it. Lesson learned the hard way - sometimes the ones you trust the most, like your band mates, will screw you over! Anyway, I loved the sounds, effects and headroom on this amp. I was really hoping that Line 6 would've taken this product a little further, like adding a full blown effects processor a la' Helix - where you can program which effects went in the loop and which were in front of the amp (virtual 4CM). Essentially a tube and effects processor all in one. No more pedals, pedalboard (except to control the amp) or racks. Just a real tube amp head, built in FX processor and a floorboard for control. Anyone else have the same thoughts?

HI, I tried to connect the Pod HD500 to my Spider Valve MKII HD 100 using the Fx Loop. But I don't get it working properly. Can anymone give me advise how to connect them using the 4 cable method and what I need to change in my POD tones in order to make it working in the FX loop? Thanks for your comments ;-) Best regards Carsten

Can anyone help me with this. I bought the Line 6 Helix and I am really wanting to get the closet possible sound to the preset on the Spider Valve HD100 MKI called Lov of Vai. Can anyone assist me in this please? I am under the understanding that I cannot plug the head into the computer and view the settings. If I am wrong, please let me know and explain what software is need to view those settings please? Thanks everyone!

This is my first post hear, looking for some advanced user advice. I have 2 identical mkii heads, each with a full stack of top/bottom cabs under them. I have one mkii shortboard controller, currently being used for stack one. I just purchased the second head/stack, and read somewhere, perhaps on this forum, that I could control both heads simultaniously, with one shortboard, and using a midi cable out of stack one with the shortboard controlling stack one, and running the midi cable into stack/head two. I have both heads programmed the same, My questions are, will this actually work? chanhing patches, presets, etc.. on both heads at once via midi? my main goal was, if indeed this is possible, to have the same patch on both heads come on, and be able to have the smart harmony on each head, with slightly, reprogrammed settings come on, so I will be playing in true stereo, and be able to have stack one have root note, plus 2 harmonies, on one side, and stack two hve root note with 2 diff programmed harmonies on the other side just for a neat special effect trick, and a full rich tone. basically, I want to get the rich 5 note sound like the boss gt100 and gt-10 showcase with there dual amp/dual harmonist capability. I adore my line 6 amp/tones/effects, and I dont want to buy a boss gt100 just to get the dual harmony effect. I realize I could make it simple and buy another mkii shortboard, but, in a live situation, it would require a lot of tap dancing. if anyone here has heard the boss dual harmonist, it is pretty cool, but theres not much of a way to use just the harmony effect as a standalone with there device, and I cant afford an EVENTIDE, and i am happy with the smart harmony in the line 6 head, Just hoping I can program the midi in Head one to simultaniously control Head two, so I can change the patches, nothing complicated, just change head two to stay in sync with head one. and I will take care of changing the harmony notes manually in head two, to get my desired sound. wow, there it is, any takers? If not, it may be all trial and error on my part. also, since this is all new to me, I am assuming I will need to have my guitar signal split into two, to be able to go into each heads input? IF I USE THE POWERAMP OUT, it would mess up my desired harmony goal, I was thinking guitar split, left/right into each amp, then amp head one with mkii/and midi out into amp head two, for patch changes only.. sound logical???? I am excited to try it out, and hear the wall of sound of two mkii stacks roaring in stereo, into 16 twelve inch speakers, "2 stacks" someone tell me this will all work, and be awesome..... augie

Hi all I'm not sure if this is the right category to post this topic, but here goes.. I've got a spider valve 112 MKii and an FBV shortboard mkII. I also have the UX2 sound card which I use with pod farm 2 software. Now I use the shortboard to do all the good things I can do with the Spider Valve, but I also want to use it as a controller for the pod farm. I've read the FBV manual and I've seen I can do that and also save setting patches for the FBV. My question is this, if I connect the FBV to my computer and farm2, change settings and save a patch and then unplug everything and plug the FBV to the Spider Valve, will it work as before? Or do I have to save a special patch for the SV somewhere and load it everytime I want to use it with my amp? I guess whatever the answer is, the same would be true for the FBV Express mkii, right? Thanks in advance!!

Hello Everyone! I've been recently experiencing some issues with my spider valve hd 100 mki head, and I was wondering if any of you have experienced similar problems or might have an idea as to what is going on. Basically, i play in a ska/punk band, so it requires a lot of switching between my clean and distortion channels with my pedal. Sometimes, when playing live, i will go to execute a channel change with my FBV express pedal, and it will either not switch channels at all or switch to a random channel. If i flip the amp on and off again, it will temporarily solve the problem. I took the cable and pedal into guitar center and was fooling around on some of the solid state line 6's for an hour/hour and a half with no problems at all, so i can conclude it is not the pedal or the cable. Any suggestions? Thanks

Forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong section. After 10 years of being ont he sidelines, I'm gigging out again. I have the SPider Valve MKI and I love my tone in rehearsal. In a live venue, the tone turns tinny and harsh after about 25 feet out. I'm looking to mic the amp, but I'm wondering if I can use the direct out and run to the sound board. If I do, I'd still like to be able to hear my amp on stage. Does the DO cut the feed to the celestion speaker or does it act like a true cabinet extension? Thanks in advance, Matt

Ok so a few weeks ago my amp started making popping noises so I decided to replace the tubes. Both sets of tubes were replaced with the recommended tubes stated in the manual. Upon firing up the amp and letting it warm up for 10 or so minutes I kicked the standby switch off and the amp made one pop and then no sound at all came out. I've checked the 2 known fuses that I know of and they are fine. Soooooooo what is going on??? Why am I not getting any sound? Thanks much, CF

Picked one up on the cheap in "like new" condish. I must say that I am glad I took a flyer on this unit. It's exactly what I need in my current and immediate future. Doing a 80's Metal Cover band and this thing has every single thing I need in one box. I was using a XXX with about 6 pedals and now it's just the Shortboard. I have a very cynical and precise ear and these so called "digital artifacts" people talk about? I don't get em. I am a tweaking veteran so I was able to dial in excellent tones in under an hour and set up my whole night in under 2. I did find however that it likes to be loud which is fine with me. One question for you real SV veterans out there though that I can't seem to find an answer to any where is how does this thing manage to sound so much bigger than it really is? This thing makes my XXX sound like a little Crate Combo and my XXX is in perfect working order. I'm talking as far as fullness of sound not sheer volume. Hoping someone can shed some light on this as it amazes me. PS. I was a HUGE Line6 detractor before I got this amp. This is not a honeymoon thing either, I really love the heck outta this amp! I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't get it for 100 smackers WITH the shortboard. Glad I did.

I have a spider valve 212 amp which was bought used in 2012. Original mk1, It has served me faithfully as my main gig amp ever since. I typically let the amp warm up for about a minute and a half, cool down for the same. For about 2 months now I have been having a problem with the distortion cutting out on me and replaced with a loud buzz replacing it, still getting notes out but it sounds fizzy. It also gets pretty hot when this happens. Amp was taken to a tech. He told me tubes weren't the issue. He also said "I work on amps, not computers" humph, at least he didn't charge me a lot of money. Please help, God Bless! -Easy E.

How do I access the preset tone settings? I tried doing what the spider valve manual suggested by holding down the tap button and turning the amp model switch but I got nothing. What am I missing?

Hello all Is there any way to keep the lcd screen showing the position of the knobs instead of the preset name when operating the amp? When playing live, and especially when using the venue's cab you have to tweak the EQs of each preset for the venue..and time for soundcheck is not always ideal... As a result sometimes you just have to fine-tune EQs on the fly in the first songs, but this is very difficult since you dont know the actual position of each EQ for the current preset. For example, if you want to add a liitle bass, the actual bass knob may be at 12 o'clock but the preset position may be at 9, so in order to add a little bass you have to roll the bass knob down (provided you remember that it was initially set at 9)...confusing eh? If you could see the preset knob position in the lcd screen you'd take this as your basis and know what to do.. Manual mode is a good work-around if you only play with one preset OR if you only use one amp simulation. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem.. Alternativelly, is there any way of bringing the position of the virtual knobs on screen without changing any of the EQs or volume? Thanx in advance.. PS. I know this has been mentioned in other topics, but no solution has been given and I find it to be a major issue, so I decided to open a dedicated topic on this.

I currently use my computer via midi connection and the spider valve mmii edit software to edit my Spider Valve MKII 112 & 212. I would like to my my stage setup more streamlined (without my Macbook) and use my iPad. Can it be done? If not, I am curious about other stage setups via Line 6 hardware & software.

I have owned a HD100 Mk II for a little over a year now and I am having problems with it for the second time. The first occasion the amp would run but there was no sound. I sent the head back to Line 6 and the motherboard was replaced under warranty. It was explained the stock motherboards were faulty in the early Mk IIs. This evening I have run into my second issue. I turned it on and got low volume from a clean channel. Moments later, a very loud distorted feedback began to ring through. It was at piercing volume and even after turning the volume all the way down, the amp continued to scream and buzz. I put the amp in stand-by mode to relieve my ears and turned to my computer. All of the sudden it began to scream and buzz even in stand-by mode. I am not sure what is causing this. Immediately I assumed tubes but given the problem persisting in stand-by mode, this must be something else. Any suggestions out there? I think I should have gone with a Marshal stack and Line 6 pod vice the SV. Apparently there is too much going on with a Line 6 head to function reliably. Now outside the warranty, I could use some help before dropping cash on tubes and techs to tell me Line 6 will have to fix it. Regards, Lee

I apologize if someone has already posted something like this, but I couldn't find it... I recently bought a Spider Valve 212 mk1 from a friend. It was in good shape except the tubes, and so he bought some for me to use so it would be in perfect working order (as he didn't want to sell me something that didn't work.) I replaced the power tubes with Sovtek 6l6's, which work perfectly fine, and sound pretty good. They work well with the stock China preamp tubes. He also gave me a matched quartet of Sovtek el84's. I tried both matched pairs in succession, and neither are working. I get a ton of sound coming from the XLR line-out, but I can't coax anything out of the speakers. Both the 6l6's and the el84's are lit, but still no speaker sound. If I put the chinas back in, the speakers start working again. Is there a compatibility issue with el84's on this amp? I work with electronics quite a bit, but I honestly know next to nothing about tubes.

HI there. I absolutely love the tone I can get out of my Spider Valve MkII 112 combo. I've had it for two years and I keep coming back to the amp. I've owned the MkI 212, and I have tried the DT series - but I still like the feel of the SV MkII best of all. However, I can't help but be frustrated when it comes to trying to use this in a live setting. When I am at home, I can play with the knobs all day and get very usable tones. And if I leave the amp in Manual mode, I can play the amp as if it were a single-channel amp that's easy to negotiate when playing live. But I want the preset capabilities to be useful for me! In a nutshell, here's what I run into: Presets sound different in a bedroom setting than they do in a live setting. I totally get that. In a live setting, I may need to start tweaking the tone knobs. HOWEVER, I don't know the current position of each tone knob on a preset unless I go into the LCD screen. As I start to tweak things, I tend to get lost and mentally lose my reference point. In a live setting, I may also need to re-calibrate the channel volumes for each of the patches (so that patch-to-patch transitions have consistent volume.) But I face the same challenges as I do with the tone knob - PLUS - the Master Volume tends to rattle-and-slide during performances. When that MV position changes on its own, so does the perceived volume deltas between the patches. As I make changes, you want the settings to stick around the next time you get to that preset. That forces you to save your preset every time you make a tweak. In my case, I wind up having to re-save presets multiple times in a session. Once again, I kind of lose my reference point. I know I can have a "base" set of presets in one bank, and have my "changed" ones in another, but it requires a whole bunch of button-mashing. I think many of us know about the challenges with the MV knob by itself (scratchy at low-volume adjustments, linear-taper makes it hard to dial in something between whisper-quiet and stadium-loud, etc.) - and haven't really heard about any solutions here. At present, I use the Volume pedal in post-position and roll off volume to help dial in some in-between volumes - not ideal at all, but kinda works in a pinch. Clearly, if the SV MkII's panel was laid out a bit more like a conventional multi-channel amp (DT series included), you can avoid a good chunk of the pain above. But I really enjoy playing through this amp and would hate to swap out my rig just because I struggle with the control layout. Aside from my complaining here, I'd like to hear what experiences you have had with the amp in live situations (where extensive button-mashing isn't an option when you're trying to reduce/eliminate dead air in-between songs). Am I missing something here? Do you have a better approach to how to tweak things on-the-fly? Would love to hear your thoughts - thanks!

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