Updating firmware?

[oscillateX]

I've had the Spider Valve Mkii 212 for several years now but have never updated the firmware. I remember reading a few years back that some users didn't like the changes, so I never bothered. I frequently use the Arachnophobia, Cifman (I think that's the name) clean, distortion, and lead, particularly. Is it worth it - or even possible - to upgrade? 

[DoomSDMF]

In short, I would recommend doing so. You get a bunch of new fx models which really pushes the MKII's to a jack of all tones. You also gain the ability to use the MKII Edit program for editing all your patches via the computer as well as loading patches downloaded from the customtone library and backing up all your current presets. To update the firmware you will need an FBV to bridge the MKII to the computer / line6 monkey. Now with all that said there are some things to keep in mind before doing so. Before updating any firmware I recommend you backup all your preset, updating the firmware wont erase your current presets but you never know what can happen and you may need to do a factory reset if you run into a problem. Its good to keep a backup of all those nicely dialed in presets. The 1.5/2.0 firmware does have tweaks to the tone of the amp models, a lot of user have reported the high gain models becoming fizzy and almost unusable. I had that exact problem but I found that doing a factory reset (This will erase all of your current presets) after updating firmware fixed the issue. I cant say that is an absolute fix but it worked for me. You can always rollback the firmware if the update is not to your liking.