I have two Vol Knobs! Confused!

[burton4snow]

I bought a new amp Line 6 Spider IV 75w. I know:facepalm: I have tube amps also I just like the versitility of my Podxt w/ headphones so I though this would be fun to play around with. I have always wondered whats up with the two volume knobs. I have another amp, a Vox valvetronix, with two. One is Master Vol and the other just Vol. On the Spider it is Chan Vol and just Vol. How do these interact with each other and what is the best way to set them?

[the_gunslinger]

On most amps, one volume is dedicated to the whichever channel, the other controls the overall volume output of the amp(master). But on an old Marshall JMP, you have 4 inputs, 2 high 2 low, both having independent volumes. Vol 1 would control input set 1, vol 2 would control the other input set, unless you did a cascaded gain mod, in which case volume/input 1 set would not be affected to the mod, but on vol/input set 2 the volume 1 control acts like a gain control, while vol 2 still regulates the volume.

But its not uncommon for amps to have several independent channel volumes, take for instance the 5150 III. I believe it's three channels, each with its own volume, and no master. To answer your question though, what I would do is crank the channel volume to drive that channel, then govern the output of with the master. Thats IMO the best way to use your amp.

[ubernerd]

I have a Flextone, so I imagine your Spider works the same way. The Volume is the master volume. When you create presets using different amps models, you use the Channel Volume to get the models at the same volume level. Say you have the Volume set at 5, the Mesa model might be really loud whereas the Tweed model might be quieter. Once you have your channel volumes adjusted and presets saved, you use the Volume to control the overall loudness.