Which type of amp for a variax?

[toneboy720]

So my birthday's coming up soon and I'm thinking of replacing my guitar and amp. Since only play at home and the variax 300 seemed like a good choice for a 15 year old. The only problem is the choice of amp for the variax. Should I get a solid state amp, a tube amp or a powered moniter with a flat response? Also any reccommendations for each category would be appreciated. I play mostly classical, blues and rock.

[salvador]

have you considered the line6 modeling amps? i believe you can control the variax from them as well.

as for solid state i really liked the peavey bandit 112. good value too.

tubes; i never tried a peavey classic 30 but the general consensus seems to be that they are nice for blues / bluesy rock / rock.

 

good luck

[Valtyr]

 

I use my Variax through a Mesa F-30, even the acoustic models sound pretty good with this amp. I tried running the acoustic sounds through an acoustic amp (Fender Acoustasonic 30) and it didn't sound as good as the F-30.

[Dann'sTheMan]

I would recommend getting a decent guitar amp for your Variax. The vast majority of the sounds (guitars) in your Line 6 will only sound as they should when sent through a guitar amp. The acoustic models are obvious exceptions, and I tend to prefer to send them through the PA.

 

A few tube amps like the Mesa F-series will sound OK with both the electric and acoustic models, but at the more inexpensive end of the amp spectrum, such tube amps are rare. If it were me, I would probably look at the best Line 6 modelling amp that I could afford - this setup should have all models sounding pretty good; or I would look at a tube Laney or Peavey or Fender - some of the models would sound less convincing than others, but some will sound very good.

 

Big smiles,

 

Andy.

 

P.S. My Variax is very much part of my rig:

[clay_finley]

The Line 6 POD XT Live has a special Variax input and can switch the guitar/amp/fx all at once.