Line 6 Flextone Duo

Bought the amp for $800 mostly because of all the gizmo's. It's a solid state 2X12 100watt combo running two line6 speakers. it's got a bunch of different amp models and just as many effects. All though Most are pointless. Chorus 1 and chorus two for example? Who really would use both of them. The tap tremlo is the best feature of the amp. It allows you to set speed of the effect you have selected. Gave it an 8 because chances are oyu won't use all the features.

I'm running a standard strat into it and if I'm on the bridge pickup it can get pretty noisy with the noise gate off. But with it on you can turn the amp all the way up and hear nothing at all. But the filter Cuts down on sustain and it's hard to keep feedback going if you want it. With the gain all the way up on the rectifier or marshall setting you get that cheesy solid state sound but if you roll back the gain to about 3 (which took a year to find out) you get a nice smooth tube emulation. Sort of. Clean channel is ultra clean all the way up. Only problem is when you start to crank the amp the speakers peeter out. if you wanna play loud this isn't the amp for oyu. YOu could always get the AX12 from line6 if you need more umph. If you like to send it in every couple weeks to get fixed.

never broken down once. It's nice because i beat the crap out of it

nope

I've been playing for about 3 years now. After getting ripped off on my first amp I assured myself it wouldn't happen again. I was over come by all the cool toys on the amp. Now I use the marshall setting and that's it. I should have got a jcm 900 with a 1960 cab

I believe my line6 was made in 99, but I purchased it in 00.
Since I like to play many styles of music rangeing from classical
to all out burn your mother metal this amp was a no brainer. It has 4 channels, that each can be set up to meet your own personal likes.
It has chorus, flanger, tremelo, reverb, distortion, and three types of delay. All of these effects are able to be set to your prefs.
The amp has 50 watts but I have a newborn child that keeps me from turning it up past halfway. Thats plenty loud for a small gig inside a bar or any such environment. One thing that I didnt like were the preset models, although like I said earlier, you don't have to ever you these because you can change the sounds so well. I would also like more treble response even though it does have a presence boost it just sounds a little muffled. There is also some other hidden features like noise gate, decibal boost, and extra distortion, these make playing around with this amp very interesting. I almost forgot the reason I bought this amp, it models several of the best sounding amps in music history, very well I might add. I have tried the floor pedal, that is made by Line6, with this amp and it adds even more options although working it can be tricky.

I use several types of guitares but my primary three are a B.C. Rich,
a Kramer and an Oscar Schmidt acoustic. I know its not an acoustic amp but I really like the chorus with my acoustic. The B.C. Rich makes the distortion really scream, while the Kramer makes solos sound like your playing in a studio. With all of these varieties of guitare I found only minor defitioncies in sound quality, usually from too much bass.

I have only had the amp about 7 months but have not had any problems with it yet. Now a friend ordered one through the mail from a reliable retailer and when he plugged it up it started smoking. The retailer replaced it free of charge.

have not had to deal with them fortunately. I am hoping to not have any technical difficulties with this amp.

I,ve been playing guitare for 10 years now and must say that this is definatly one the greatest combo amps I have ever played. If it were to ever need to be replaced I would probably go with another Line6 but I would probably go with its bigger brother the Fleckstone or AX212 because they are even more versatile.

I've had the 100 watt amp for a little over a year, 2x10 16 tube tone modeled amps.

I've been playing for 30 plus years and have used everything form classic fenders before they were classics to Ampeg V4's in the 1970's and even some Mesa Boogie Mark 1's. The versatility that the Line 6 offers alone makes this is a great little amp. True the amp simulations are not exact but they certainly do not hinder the creative juices either. I also don't have to speand a great deal of time searching my floor layout for the right combination of effects.I see this amp as a workingman's pack it up and go rig. For the more discriminating musicain stay with the racks and roadies. I play everything from classic rock to blues to jazz. I use a combination of guitars with the flextone, everthing from a Fender to a custom Carvin and my favorite 1967 Les Paul and they all sound great.

With over a year of use it's never so much as hicupped. No tube's, no maintenance issues.

Never needed them wouldn't know.

I still have my boutique amps but find that that I have more fun just experimenting with the various combinations. I realize that this is not everyone's cup of tea but as I've already mentioned it's done the job for me regardless of the venue. My only negative comment is due to the lack of an extension speaker jack it would be nice if the folks at Line6 added one to this model. Based on my experience with this amp I will continue to use the Line6 series and would replace it with another if it were stolen.

This is an update to an earlier review. After much consideration I have decided against using this amp for gigs. I have to say that this amp really lacks in the bottom end. On a large stage the sound is very brittle and weak. I recently played on a 2 12 Flex and the low end was much fuller. For direct recording, I still like this amp, but I could have bought a POD instead. There is a variety of sounds, but I only found about five useful. And at high volume when the bass dissapears, many of the models sound the same. If you like the sound of a Flextone in the store I definately recomend a model with a 12 inch speaker. I recently bought a Tech 21 Trademark 60 and for much less money this amp is far better. It is pretty loud and has a low end thump to it. I will post an separate review soon.

i think the amp has features enough to please anyone and i have no adverse comments in that dept, although it is a pain that one has to buy the v. expensive pedaslboard to fully access all features. i believe this make the amp too expensive and into real ( and better) tube amp teritory

for a bedroom player, there is no better amp. However for serious musicians who intend to do gigs; THINK AGAIN; This amp is rubbish at loud(er) volumes. There is no bottom end at all, and to, me this amp sounds like it is playing through a samlll wind tunnell, with the any sound simply not going anywhere. I had this amp for 4-5 weeks at home and played with all types of guitars and then one day I had a band practise; Boy, what an eye opener that was. The next day , i traded it in and bought a marshall, and lost a lot of money. I would implore anybody thinking of buying this to seriously think twice. No amp in the world will give you EVERYTHING; despite the hype; If you want rock, go for marshall; if you want clean go for Fender, and so on. You will never get it all but at least what you have will sound good and be gigable with

I didn't have it long enough to have a ny complaints

again i had no real dealings

I would never buy this amp again. If anyone is reading this who intends to buy one AND gig with it, please test it thoroughly at loud gig type volumes, or better still don't bother. Read the other eviews here, from gigging players and you will see a pattern.....

brand new 2x10, 100 watts, 16 tube tone modeled amps, 16 effects!

This amp has every sound from a clean acoustic to a roaring Mesa Boogie. You can dial in anything you want...for not having tubes it makes my partner (Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10) jealous.

only had it a little while but I would rely on it.

haven't contacted

I've been playing guitar for about 10 yrs. Acoustic Rain is my current project, I traded in my Fender Acoustisonic SFX for the Flextone. I was a little reluctant about getting a better sound on the new amp but it surprised the **** out of me. It sounds incredible, I would recommend any Line6 product to anyone.

This has any effect or style that I could ever want. I'm not one to sit around and tweak amps for hours on end, so this is perfect for a guy like me who doesn't have patience to mess with amps for all important tone. I also have the floorboard which I don't know if I could do without it.

I play rock or blues based rock. However, we do get trippy sometimes so the variety of tones on this guitar is outstanding. As I said earlier, it's perfect for a guy like me. The other guitarist in the band has a tube amp and we can't tell the difference in tones.

I've only had this amp for 8 months , but so far, no complaints.

They have a great website with lots of patches, but besides that, I haven't needed support.

I've been playing for about 7 years - 5 years electric. I would definetly buy another if this one was gone. I highly recommend this amp, you can't go wrong.

Everyone has heard the hype. Digital amp modeling...built in effects...user friendly...two very loud ten inch speakers.

I use a Fernandes Thinline Tele copy, Fender American Standard Tele, Ibanez Talman, and a reissue Dan Electro. This amp is extremely flexable. Allthough the controls appear to be simple SPEND TIME LEARNING TO PROGRAM THIS BEAST! With different guitars, the different amp models shine. My favorite models off hand are the Mesa Boogie, Soldano, and Marshal JTM-45. It is true that many of the sounds fall short (ex: the Vox and Matchless models are below par), but the over all tone makes up. Due to a built in noise gate this mother is silent when you're not playing. There is some background noise on some of the higher gain models, but not any more than the original amps had. The Fender amp modes were far too mid-rangy for my taste and there is a defect concerning mode switching between Fender and some other models (see below for more).

I regularly gig with this amp. It has been tossed around in the back of a truck and withstood outdoor shows in humid rainy weather as well as hot and dry. With the exception of the "Fender defect" (see below), this amp is 100% reliable.

There is a factory defect when switching from a programed Fender sound to a programed Mesa sound and back again. When you return to the Fender sound it is much brighter and more distorts differently. I contacted Line 6 and they sent me a new chip to install within a matter of days. This chip updated some aspects of the amp, but the problem remains. I contacted them by e-mail and got a response the same day.

The only negative aspects of this amp are the "Fender Defect" and that a 10 inch speaker can't push as much low end as a 12 at higher volumes. I shoped long and hard for an amp this flexable and played an many other companys products before deciding on this amp. I've owned amps by Fender, Marshall, Roland, Crate, and Peavy. This amp beats them all hands down. If you do decide to purchase a Line 6 though, I would recomend the 2x12 version. That model was not available when I bought the duo.

It's a solid state, modelling amp so essentially it has many channels,
not just 2 or 3. But are any of them good? It has almost any effect
you would need built in.

The sounds I got were OK, but not lush or particularly
expressive. The upside is that I could get some nice sounds, but the
downside is that they were very, very specific. For example I could get
a setting that worked well using the bridge pickup on my G&L Skyhawk
and playing blues licks, but it wasn't that cool for
rythmn or on another pickup. Also there was a one dimensional feeling
to the sounds; they didn't respond to my playing.

Here's a huge beef with the way this thing works. A quick primer:
a master volume circuit is provided so you can turn the channel up and
get a saturated tone and turn the master volume down to get
this sound at a reasonable volume. On the Line 6 Floorboard, the
volume pedal attenuates the signal BEFORE the pre-amp. This is
just like turning down the volume on your guitar. This is not the
way a master volume knob or pedal should work. When you back off
on the volume pedal your great distorted tone gets clean. Why
even have a volume pedal? This alone was enough to make me send
it back.
I play pop, rock, blues and some fusion and finger style. I've
been playing for over 40 years and have become a tube amp lover. Not
on principal, but because I continue to evaluate every new amp
that comes out; the modeling amps just don't have the warm sound
and "feel" of a good tube amp. I use a Pittbull 45 combo and just
ordered a Pittbull 50 head with a 2x12" cabinet. The downside is that
they are heavy and expensive, but playing is a pleasure.
The positive side of the Flextone is that it's an OK sounding amp
and has everything built in, and is relatively light.

If you're reading this you probably know what this amp's about - 11 individual classic amps recreated by computer modelling, with some useful "standard" effects, 4 hybrids (like, combinations of different elements of some of the amps), and an Arbiter Fuzz emulation. I bought the floorboard after a while, and paid for this by selling several now-made-redundant effects units.

I play an Ibanez Jem 555 which I bought because of the versatility of its sounds - nice Fendery mixed positions and powerful juicy humbuckers. And it looks classy but flash! This amp matches the guitar's versatility, and the combination of the two together lets me get a huge range of sounds with just one guitar and one amp. I play in a blues band (The Bagmen - plug!) and in a Reggae/Salsa/Soca/African/Grunge/Indeterminately-Ethnic dance band (Caramba!). As you would imagine, versatility of tone is a big factor here. For the blues band I've settled for a clean Fendery tone for one preset, a Marshall, a Mesa-Boogie and a Soldano for the others. The Soldano distortion is just creamy! And the most wonderful thing is that I can now hear how wonderful my Jem is! Whatever Flextone setting I'm using, it responds to the guitar - pickup selection, volume pot, etc..

Can't afford a backup, but absence of glass tubes must be a plus.

Not availed myself of their help.

Been playing guitar for 23 years, most dedicatedly for the last four. Done loads of home recording, only been with bands in the last four years. BIG LIVE NOISE beats home recording hands-down! I've used mostly Zoom products, but started off with a Strat copy, a Big Muff and a Jim Dunlop Wah. Never got to know valve amps (played a borrowed Valvestate for a while), but I know the Flextone has improved my playing, as fellow band-members and other friends have told me. And that's what it's all about after all.