Line 6 Flextone II Plus

Yes it may offer a bunch of different sounds but why bother if none of them are good!
I have owned a Fextone II Plus, Vetta and Spyder and all I have to say is Line 6 is for fags! Don't believe the hype!!! These amps DO NOT sound like what they claim to be. Yes,they may be reasonable facimilies at low volumes but crank it up and uh oh! You're lost in the mix. I have the pleasure of owning tasty vintage Fenders, Marshalls, Hiwatts, Voxes, Soldanos, Boogies and even have a friend with a Steel String Singer and trust me these are not akin to a Line 6.


I play with a dildo who I sold my Flextone too and he is cluless that his sound is terrible. It's probably for the best because he sucks anyway.

Crappy crud. Do yourself a favor and buy a decent tube amp. You can have a Fender, Marshall, Peavey, Carvin or hell even a Crate tube amp for the same money or less and will sound MUCH better

My brand new Vetta died after 2 weeks the replacement 4 weeks later. The 3 y/o barely used Spyder died a year ago after I sold it to a friend. The Flextone has held up best so far but has had memory issues.

These are not amps that vintage dealers will be selling 20 years from now, sratch that 5 years from now. I feel the Line 6 craze has run it's course (thank god). These are mearly disposible amps that will be disposed of within a few years.

Spend your money elsewhere. You do not need a million sounds try one good one. Think of all the famous guitar god heros (the ones that really play(ed)). Clapton, Van Halen, Vai, Satriani, Dimebag, May, Paige, Lynch, Nuno, Beck, Frehley, even the modern non soloing idiots, not much variation in sounds. They find what works and stick with it.

WORST AMP EVER - LINE 6

SOO MUCH UNWANTED REVERB AND ECHO/DELAY IN THESE AMPS. lINE 6 ARE BEGINNER AMPS FOR SURE.

Built like a tank. So what. Sounds like a tank.

Been playing Metal style for 4 years. I've owned a Marchall AVT 100 that was great. A VOX ad60vt that sucked and didn't even work. A Soldano Hot Rod Head which I want to have sex with I love it soo much. And just got a bare bones Fender blues Jr. which has NO distortion. I hook up my Boss Metal Zone and Tube Screamer to that and Bamm! Tube tone..... I also have EMG ZW pickups which are worth the money.

I'm so sick of effects amps. I've realized it's ones attitude while playing and not the amp. This last set up I have is all you need to play heavy. === A tube amp, distortion pedal, tube screamer and EMG active pickups. Fellow Musicians - create your own attitude and personality through your playing style. DON"T RELY ON THESE EFFECTS AMPS.........

This amp is a gigging musician's ultimate piece of gear, especially when said musician is on a tight budget! Sure, we'd all want a slew of classic amps and stomp boxes, but who has the money for all that?

With 32 amp models, 16 effects, cab models and serious tweaking capabilities, this amp is arguably the most versatile piece of music equipment on the market.

I use a Les Paul Standard and a Mexican Squier Strat with a Fender Red Lace Sensor in the bridge, and Texas Specials in the middle and neck spots. As a general rule, you won't get a great sound out of the Strat with this amp if you're going for a hi-gain sound (Metallica, Godsmack, etc, etc...). But with the Les Paul...it's the shiznit, man! I use the Soldano model for my high gain rock stuff and it is spot on. And while that amp was made famous by the 80s hair metal genre, you can tweak this model to suit your tastes. Wonderful.

This is the amp's only downfall. I broke the on/off switch like so many, and that was a pain. Also, because the amp is basically a computer with a speaker attached, you'll have electronic problems from time to time. Sometimes my floorboard will jump into edit mode for no reason, and that can be a pain for live performance.

Haven't really dealt with them, but via the Internet, they are pretty on top of things.

Again, this is the best bang for your buck you are going to get. I play in a band that covers anything from Tom Petty to Chevelle, and without this amp, I'd either have to tweak crap between every song, or buy a lot of effect pedals just to get that core array of tones, not to mention all the other effects you get (tremolo, chorus, delay, compression, flange, rotary speaker...). If you are in a gigging band, you need this amp.

Without a doubt one of the more versatile amplifiers I have used. The inclusion of 32 usable amplifier effects along with all of the different cab and effects models create almost limitless possibilities of what you can do.

I play 2 guitars, my main axe is a Kramer Nightswan loaded with dimarzios and a floyd rose tremolo. The other is a 1969 Fender Stratocaster with single coils (the one i play when my dad isnt looking cause it's his!). I play a wide variety of music but mainly modern rock such as default, linkin park, cold, 3 doors down, nickelback, our lady peace. I play in a church band, and we play a similar style of music to those bands. I find this amp to be well suited to the task because of its versatility. I found that the single coils work well for only bluesy type music. The humbuckers give it a really nice crunch for hi-gain stuff and are overall better suited than single coils for this amp.
First off... there are a variety of good tones avaliable in this amp for BOTH clean and hi-gain applications. My favorites include the models of the AC30TB, the Dual Rectifier, and the Marshall JCM, but it is possible to achieve good tones from almost all of the amp models if you spend the time to fiddle and tweak. The key is to SPEND SOME TIME playing around with the amp! I can't stress this enough! After i had it at home for a few days I was ready to hate it cause i thought it seemed limited in the amount of good usable amp models it had. Now after having it for about a year and a half it has really grown on me, and I have experienced that to find the many good tones in the amp you need to play with the various settings such as the cabinet settings and the presence control. Rarely does simply selecting an amp model and cranking everything to 10 result in a good sound. When you spend the time with the amp to find the settings you like (and make sure to save them!) it becomes a good-sounding versatile amp, good for quiet praise music at church and then coming home and winding up some rock!
One thing I don't like about the amp is its lack of headroom though. On anything hi-gain with bass dialed up the speaker begins to "fart" around half volume. This annoys me but I get around it by using a 2x12 extention cabinet, which gives me way more volume and headroom without the farting noise, and the power increase with an extra cab (from 60 to 100 watts) actually works pretty nicely. With my settings it does a pretty nice dual recto imitation when its wound up! ;)
I see a lot of people complaining about how the flextone II doesnt exactly nail the sounds of the amps it claims to emulate or how it doesnt sound like a tube amp, but what seems lost on a lot of people is that this amp costs far less than many of the botique amplifiers that it comes reasonably close to emulating. In addition it offers what many of these amplifiers do not, versatility. The onboard effects are well done and are all quite usable (except for the "compressor" which I found to be crap!)
Sure, this amp is no expensive tube amp... I have played on many of those and the Flextone II just does not have the warmth that a tube amplifier offers. That being said... it absolutely kills solid state. The other guitarist in my band uses solid state amplifiers and compared to his my tone cuts through far better even when his is turned up twice as loud! So overall i would give this high marks for sounds, but i warn that if you were raised on expensive tube amps or you only need 1 or 2 good clean or distorted sounds (and no effects) then you should go and buy a tube amp! Each have their niche and it is unreasonable to expect this amplifier to compete with the cleans of a real fender blackface or the punishing distiorion of the real mesa dual rectifier. So people who trash it because it doesnt outperform or sound better than ALL of the amps it models, shut up! What did you expect?!?!
I would highly reccomend this amp to any beginning guitarist and would expect many intermediate guitarists to like it as well for its versatility. For all you pros out there that are maybe intrigued by the "digital" hype(im a beginner) i would say steer clear of this one and buy a tub

The thing is pretty well built except for a lousy power button that is easy to break off (as I did) but I fixed that easily with some glue. The only other problem that I encountered was a blown fuse, but that was my fault as i tipped the thing over pretty hard onto concrete! again i fixed it easily myself! Overall this is a reliable amp and I would feel confident gigging without a backup (and i do cause im poor!)

I asked a few questions and was emailed back promptly. But cmon only a 1 year warranty!? Line 6 you can do better than that! Oh and $300+ canadian for the footswitch>!>!?!?! rip off thats all i can say so i change my rating from a 10 to a 7 for that.

I love its versatility, I love its effects, I love its versatility... but.... I hate how tube amps are louder! (although my friends tube DSL marshall started to crap out at about the same volume...) and I hate how i sound great until my uncle brings his paul reed smith and his expensive tube Boogie mkII out and makes like Santana... :-(
If it was stolen i would find the guy who took it and get my brother to rough him up cause my brother is a big hockey-playing mofo and because stealing is wrong. Then i would go save up (or steal) money to buy a Mesa Triple Rectifier (and a hotplate!) because it sounds better and is hella lots louder. But if I did that i would probably have to spend a couple hundred on buying effects too... not to mention like 2 grand on the amp!!
In the end: good digital amp beats solid state but expensive tube amps sound better than both - so if you have a lots lots of money buy a tube amp, if not then the flextone II is a nice find.

Well laid out, limitless choices.

Two negitives. Manipulating the sounds is easy until you have want to play with the 17-32 amp sounds or change to a different cab while you are wearing your guitar, i prefer to keep one hand on the guitar when messing with my amp and you'll need both hands to do this... Second, you can't see what you have for a setting. Once you have created and saved a sound you like, write it down. There is no way to see what your presets settings are unless you MIDI into your computer.

I've run Les Paul's, Jackson, Fender, Gretsch and PRS through the amp playing everything from Zeppelin, Ployd, VH, and Rush to Nickleback, STP and Rage and the occational basic blues, jazz and classical.

Amp sounds great at low to middle volume. Models seem dead on.

However, when cranked the modeling becomes a bit thin. This amp is not for you if you need raw power, run it through a PA or with the 100w exteranl cab option for this.

Also speaker seems to waffle a bit at middle/high volume with bassy sounds

No problems with the amp

I've been very happy with this amp, but i'm not a hard core giging musician or tube purist. I enjoy having choices and mucking with my sound, this amp is great for that.

This is the Flextone II Plus amp from Line 6. 4 channels on it's own(36 with the Floorboard), direct stereo or mono XLR out's, MIDI interface, and a headphone jack for silent practice. Not sure what year this one was made, but I think it's pretty recent. It is very versatile for my style. I play at a church which does some pretty progressive stuff. It would work very well for a cover band type setting I believe. The XLR outs are very handy for me, and the single 12 inch Line 6 speaker is plenty loud to use as a monitor for myself. The sounds are all software driven, the manual says it's not a solid state amp, OK. But it doesn't use tubes pre or power. I give it a 9 because nothing is perfect.

I use a 2003 Carvin Bolt Single-Single-Humbucker. I get anywhere from a slight to a very prominant buzz on most high gain settings when using the single coil positions(Nothing that would be undesireable though), the humbuckers are pretty quiet. The blues sounds are very good, but not quite tubey perfect, but what is? Most tube amps aren't either anymore. You can cover pretty much any part of the spectrum from Metal to pristine clean. Some amp models sound great, some sound not that great. The one's that I am familiar with seem to be very close to the real thing, others I'm not very familiar with and probably won't use. Very nice versatility, that's why I went with Line 6.

I've had it for 3 weeks now, and played several services at church with this guy, it seems reliable, and I take care of my stuff like it's my child. I need a cover and a Floorboard yet. I think the amp will be OK. I'm scared of the Floorboard after reading some reviews though.

I haven't dealt with them, but some friends have and like their service. I've heard their good, but can't comment on what I haven't had experience with.

I've been playing guitar with a few multi-year breaks in there for about 18 years, probably 10 with the lapses taken out. I'm a child of the 70's and 80's so I grew up with solid state, I know tube amps sound great, but they are kind of finicky and need to be kept up quite often. I like reliability, and personally, we all know this, in a crowd of 100 people, only 2 or 3 is really going to care or notice if your Marshall sound is authentic or not. Plus I like alot of the "synth-y", "air-y" sounds that you can achieve with it. You'll be able to fool plenty of people with this guy. It's solid, sounds decent, and is reasonably priced now. Flex 3 is going for $800-$900. I got a good deal. And for what I'm using it for, it's excellent.

it had alot of features but none worked that well

with a strat it was noisy sometimes it didnt sound bad (bedroom volume) giging it sucked bigtime it would forget your settings if you got close to the amp big noise!and it wasnt because it was a strat
it did alot of sounds but none well

cant depend on it .wouldnt use it to gig with it sucks

i called the company and they sent me a new chip i put it inand it was a little better but still not gig worthy

been playing 25 years ive used manny amps. mesa fender marshall currently fender i wouldnt have another line 6 amp if you gave it to me in the store this amp lied at low volumes (real low) not bad thank god i got rid of this piece of crap lost 500.oo dollars doing so

Everyone else has done a great job of detailing the features, so I won't put you to sleep by listing them again. However the features
are pretty extensive, so I have to give it a 10.

I've owned a lot of amps. One of my first ones was an all original early 1960s silverface Fender Princeton Reverb, and I've also owned Laneys, Marshalls, and everything in between. So I know tube amps, and I have to say it makes me want to cry now that I've bought my Line 6... because it sounds just as good as all the tube amps I've ever bought and costs about a third of the price (I got mine for $230 used including shipping from someone who didn't have the sense to charge a reasonable price)!

Unless you've got a Dumble or one of Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page's original 1960s Marshalls, you're not going to get better tone than
the Flextone II Plus...that might sound like a bold statement, but
I've owned some of the amps my Line 6 models, and when you plug the
Line 6 into a 4x12 extension cab right next to one of the amps it simulates I swear you can't tell the difference on most of the models. The exception is the vintage amps, obviously the Flextone II's simulation of a vintage Marshall Plexi will never sound like the original, but as far as the newer amps that are modeled like the JCM 800, Mesa Boogie, etc., the sound is right on.

This amp definitely shines more on the high gain models, the clean amp simulations require some EQing to get a full, rich sound, but they're still pretty damn good for an amp that you can get for an average of around $300-$400 used. Plus, as other reviewers have already covered, you could NEVER buy all the actual amps this thing
models for the price of the Flextone II Plus. It may not model every
amp it simulates perfectly, but it gets close enough that it's very
hard for the average ear to tell the difference.

Also, this amp is ridiculously simply to use even though it has a lot
of features, and with built in effects you don't have to worry about toting around rack gear or pedals....just plug in and you're ready
to rock. Not to mention the fact that it saves your settings, and
puts most other amps in its price range TO SHAME!

To be honest though, I really bought this amp for the Insane preset,
one of my guitar teachers at the Atlanta Institute of Music who's a
totally sick shredder (he teaches the rock performance class) was sitting around jamming one day on the Insane setting and I liked the
tone so much I went online and bought one. To me it's the best preset on the amp, it kills the Mesa Boogie simulation and to be honest most of the other ones too...it's got tons of gain and loads
of sustain, so it's great for playing Steve Vai style legato or tapping licks and George Lynch style runs as well as vicious power chording. It's the preset I use 90% of the time, and people always compliment me on my tone. I'm headed into the studio to cut a CD soon
and I'll be using this amp exclusively on all of the tracks, because nothing else I've owned (except for my '60s Fender Princeton Reverb) even comes close. But since no amp is perfect (except for Dumbles),
I'm going to give it a 9 instead of a 10 in this category.

To me, this is the big downside to Line 6 amps. It doesn't seem very sturdy, so if you gig a lot you need to be careful because I have a feeling that if you dropped it you'd be screwed. A lot of other amps I've owned have withstood tons of abuse without any problems so I've
never really had to worry about anything except changing tubes, but
I'm going to really have to baby this amp and handle it extra carefully because I think it could get messed up pretty easily.
I've never had a problem with it breaking down so far, but I've heard
of other people having power amps blow up on them or other issues
so I'll have to wait and see how this thing holds up.

I've never had to deal with customer support, plus I bought this used so it doesn't have a warranty anyway...so I doubt I'll be talking to them.

I've been playing since I was 15 (I'm 21 now), and I've bought so many guitars and amps over the years it would take too long to list them all...but they include Fenders (Princeton Reverb, Twin Reverb),
Marshalls (too many to list), Laneys, Vox (AC30), and Peaveys (Deuce VT). This is my first Line 6 but I doubt it will be my last. As far
as guitars, I'm pretty much a Les Paul kind of guy which I guess is kind of boring, but I've bought a lot of other guitars to balance out
my LP collection including custom made instruments, a Fender '68 Vintage Reissue Strat, several Jackson Custom Shop and Dinky models,
a USA made BC Rich Warlock with EMGs, and I've also played a few PRS
guitars (Santana signature model, Custom 22, etc.) but to be honest
(call me crazy) I like Les Pauls better than PRS guitars so I don't
really play PRS guitars onstage or in the studio that much.
To me the best guitar ever made is the Gibson Historic Collection 50s Les Paul Custom Reissue, IT PLAYS ITSELF! :) Like I don't even have to think about what I'm playing, the notes just flow because the neck on that thing is so smooth...and the pickups just kill.
But to get back on the subject, yeah the Flextone II Plus is one of the best amps ever designed, if you don't believe me just go play one and you'll end up buying one for yourself TRUST ME. The only thing I hate about it is it doesn't have a closed back cab, and the
construction isn't particularly solid compared to other amps I've owned. If it had a closed back cab it would be perfect, plus I think it should come standard with one of the higher end Celestion speakers. If it was stolen, I pity the guy who'd take it because I'm
a brown belt in karate and I'd leave him so black and blue his own mother wouldn't recognize him. Once he woke up from unconsciousness, I would definitely drag him to the nearest music store to buy me a new one. But seriously, yeah if it got stolen I'd buy a new one without any hesitation. The reason I bought it is because compared to other amps, this is like a Ferrari or McLaren F1 compared to a Toyota Supra.

The Flextone II Plus has 32 different amp models of which includes Mesa-Boogie, Marshall, Vox, Fender......and many more.
There are onboard effects. 4 channels for storing your own sounds.
There is a Headphone Jack which is handy for jamming away at early hours. This amp is everything I have ever dreamed seen as how I upgraded from a 10W Squier amp. Also included are 16 different Cab simulations so you can play for example a Mesa-Boogie through a Marshall Cab.
I bought the Flextone II Plus with the extension Sattelite Cab which extends the sound from 60W - 100W and the speakers can be placed apart for full stereo sound.
A great feature of this amp is the XLR output for direct recording and the Studio-Live switch with silences the amp so recording can be done in the early hours (a Hobby of mine he he).

I am using a Squier Strat (I have not upgraded yet due to splashing out on my Line 6) and I can get it sounding amazing, whatever style of music you play u wont go wrong from Jazz to Death Metal, personally I love the Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier Head through a Marshall 4x12 cab, and the Vox Ac30 Top Boost Model. As I play mostly Rhythm guitar I can get a really warm Full sound. Also the onboard effects are great there are many different types of Flange,Chorus,Delay,Compression etc.
Also the reverb for each amp model is based on the type of revervb that actual amp may have eg. Room reverb or spring reverb.
Each amp model behaves in the same way as the real amp would when the EQ and Reverb are tweaked.
Overall the Flextone II Plus has everything I look for in sounds and I have not yet found a downside to this amp!!

As I have only had the amp for a couple of months I cannot comment on the reliability!

N/A

If this amp was stolen or lost I would definitley buy another!
I have not found a downside to the amp but I'm sure someone will.
Overall it is definitley worth investing in and is great for Studio use. I have not tried it onstage yet but have tried it at half volume (I would get abuse if I turned it up any louder from my neighbour hood)

This is a follow-up to my 3/31/03 review. I just changed out the Line 6 speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30 (60 watts, 8 ohms) and it has made a substantial difference. The sound is brighter, more definable, not muddy like before. The Celestion website says this speaker is known for its definition - individual string definition is better even on high gain settings. Line 6 says this will void their manuf.'s warranty, but if yours is over 1 year old, warranty is already out. Go for it - a good investment. Found the 10-year old Celestion on ebay for $50. It is nice 'n broken-in. They say to expect new ones to sound "constipated" until they break-in.