Line 6 Flextone II XL

a vertual smorgasborg of tones and effects. almost too many...almost
only problem i saw......no phase shifter. gotta have phase shifting
for late 60's early 70's music.amp is a little heavy to pick-up.
weighing in at roughly 65 pounds. wheels ......anyone? would be nice
to use an extention cabinet (hint) other than that feautures-o-plenty

geez...where do i start...i use yamamha pacifica telecasters with
joe barden pick-ups. i do a top 40 gig. eveything from patsey kline
to motown to disco to back street boys..this amp does it all.
it's the musical equivalency of a chameleon. this amp twangs
like nashville.this amp is quiet (noise gate).check out the modern
class A setting.....i swear it's almost touch senstive. the black panel model.......scarey!!!!!!!modern high gain #2........LETHAL!!!
any of the rectifier models...orgasmic! and talk about clean.THIS AMP
IS REAL CLEAN.

bought the pod.a knob broke. i took it back and got a new pod.
traded it up for the amp. first gig broke the on off switch
called line 6. they sent me 2 switches.word to the wise ;if
you are giging....by the cover...real nice cover. this amp appears
to be very reliable...i like the idea of getting the same killer tone
anywhere...bedroom, small club, big club always the same....killer/

dealt with these people 2 times...very helpful and cordial
real professionals.....good warranty program . i have'nt had
any problems

i've been playing 20 years. i've owned marshall, boogie,vox, fender
and alot of other"junk". this is with out a doubt the most versitile
amp i've ever used. almost bought the johnson..it was too"digi-tech"
sounding. this amp has soul all through it. floorboard was strange at
first , but i caught on quick.all and all "the amp to own ".
in closing i would like to say.....go to a music store...play this amp
......buy this amp.......AND RUN LIKE HELL!!!!!.....this thing is a killer.

Made in 2000, it's most definitely one of the most versatile amps out there. I play EVERY type of music in my band Spastic Nytzzz (http://come.to/spasticnytzzz). From funk to jazz to all-out metal, and this amp can do it all. It has 9 banks, each with 4 patches in it, basically making it a 36 channel amp. My one complaint is that the effects loop isn't instrument level, so you can only put in rack effects. this pisses me off extremely, because I don't really care for the built-in effects; even though I like the stompbox on-off style switching on the floorboard. It has dual XLR outs, an effects loop, speaker outs (which disconnect the internal speakers.. bad idea guys), MIDI in and out for tonetransfer etc., foot control jack. This amp has waaaay too many features. Not that that's a bad thing, though!! So far I've played 2 or 3 gigs with it and it's been loud enough to handle clubs and outside gigs.

I use a PRS CE24 Maple Top with 2 humbuckers in it. The amp responds very well to it, it really lets the guitar shine through much better than the old flextones. The built-in noise gate can really help, especially when you're using the insane model (6 gain stages? hot damn.) I use all of the banks; 3 for live use and one for bedroom levels; the rest are for other artist's patches. Like I said, I don't care for the effects much, although they have improved them by giving the delay it's own feedback and level controls. I love all the models, but the effects are just ok, so I'll give it an 8.

I currently own a POD along with the Flex II, and I must say that these products are quite reliable, even though I've only had the Flex for a few days. The floorboard, on the other hand, is a completely different story. It pretty much does what it wants. I've taken it apart and stretched out the springs, but the buttons still only work when they want to. But this isn't a review on the floorboard; the amp itself gets a 9 based on past experience.

I've emailed the company a few times, and at the beginning they responded right away. However, lately I haven't been getting a response, probably due to the fact that all the Flex I owners have been bombarding them with new upgrade ideas.

I have been playing for 5 years, and I currently own a LOT of pedals, all BOSS; an Ibanez RG320DX; my PRS; the POD, floorboard, and this amp. This is the only amp for me. My style is so versatile that I need something to cover all the bases. I almost went for the Yamaha DG-130 head instead, but Nobody had it in stock for me to test out before I bought it, so Line 6 got my vote.

Made in 2000, this is a 2 X 12 100 watt combo with an open back. I used to own a 60 watt Flextone but it ran out of headroom too quickly.
It contain 9 banks of 4, all programmable by the user, unlike original Flextones. 32 amp models from Dumble to Mesa and Soldano to Fender, 16 cabinet sims, and effects including reverb, chorus, delay, trem, flanger, and compressor. If you buy the big floorboard you also get a wah and a dedicated volume pedal. Preamp is digital and power section is solid state. Rear panel includes XLR's for connecting outboard gear and/or direct recording devices, headphone jack, and stereo effects loop in a TRS configuration.

Using the amp with my '96 PRS Swamp Ash Special. First off, the amp is totally quiet thanks partially to the built in noise gate and the digital architecture. The sounds are wide and varied, I could probably find a use for all of them if I wanted to. I've basically got 5 sounds going...1 a rock program based on a Marshall Plexi, 2 clean based on a Roland JC-120, 3 over the top metal crunch from a Mesa Dual Rectifier, 4 a clean blues type thing from a Fender Twin, and a ballsier blues tone from a Fender. I've never owned any of these amps but what I will tell you is the versatility of tones is simply amazing. Whether or not the amp models sound like the orginals or not is not my point. My point is I can accurately cover a variety of tones by using one amp. The digital preamp doesn't interact with the guitar nearly as much as a tube amp does but I'll gladly give up that for all the sounds this amp can produce. The effects work for me, however the only effect it doesn't have that I'd like is a phaser. Maybe in the Flextone III ?!?!?

I've read other reviews with people having reliability problems of their Line 6 amps but so far mine hasn't had any problems. The used floorboard I bought had a flaky switch until I opened it up a tightend down several loose screws.

I love the sound of my Mesa Rectoverb but I don't love dragging around a combo plus effects rack. I have everything I need in one amp and I still can walk straight. I like plugging in and playing in less than 2 minutes. If you don't need effects, go get a tube amp. If you play in a cover band and play everything under the sun, ditch the pedals and a get this amp with the Floorboard!

This amp have about as many features as you would possibly want. I play oldies and rockabilly for a Florida Radio station and found many of the amp models to be very close to the actual. When you compare the Flextone blackface channel and a mid 60,s Fender Twin, it is amazingly close. I only wish that you could plug an extra cabinet in this amp without having to loose the internal speakers.

I am currently using a 59, Gretsch 6120, a 1955 Gretsch Country Club and a 79' Gibson LesPaul with all original pickups in each and I can get more bottom on certain channels than I can get out of out of my old 63 hot rodded Fender Bassman. I did find that alot of the Marshall settings sounded very muddy and would need alot of tweaking to sound like a true Marshall. The reverb in all settings are less to be desired but the slap echo is great and sounds just as good as any petal that I have heard.

I have had four different Flextones since 1-00 and I can safely say that the reliability on all of them sucked with a capital S! The first one I had was a 60W and I brought it home and plugged it in and it had a loud buzz in it so I boxed it up and took it right back to the store and exchanged it for another. the second one had a memory problem within 3 weeks so I took it back and exchanged it for a Flextone II XL and within a month, during a gig, in the middle of a song, my amp volume went sky-high and when I shut the amp off and turned it back on the amp sounded very thin and with no tone so I took it back and thats when I got the first Flextone II 100 watt to hit that particular store. I gigged with that amp since the ending of April of 2000 until 6-10-00 when the memory went. When the memory took a dump I was still unable to get a good tone in the manual stage. I took it back today on 6-11-00 and purcased a AX2. The only reason I keep using these amps is that I am addicted to the sound. I hope that the engineers has worked all the bugs out of the AX2.

I hate the recordings! It is hell trying to get a customer service rep.

I absolutely love the sound of these amps! I've been playing for 20 years and I've never found a more versitile amp but so far I cant find one to last more than a couple of months under steady gigging and first class care!

Just bought this amp after a long love affair with tube & or tube/solid state hybrids, and man, this is wild! And confusing! This amp has an unbelievable range of tones, drives, colorings, nuances - you name it, it does it; BUT, you gotta invest in a whole lot of time to figure it out, which I am doing in my spare time, because you just can't plug 'er in & go. I mean, you CAN, but if you tweek a knob in the slightest, it can totally change the sound! For example, the volume might be cut by 50% - I wasn't even messing with the volume knob! The manual is fairly easy to read, but if you take this amp out for a test drive, be sure you spend some time beforehand figuring out what it does. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so, and my test drive experience at a gig was mixed, at best. I would have to goof around between songs a lot, so that was distracting to my bandmates, and took too much time between songs, etc. When I would find a sound combination I liked, it would totally change with just a bump of a tone knob, or drive selector - frustrating.

The good news: this amp sounds unbelievable! The clean sounds are nice, though the Roland Jazz amp didn't sound like a jazz amp to me. It's too thin & shimmery for me - I don't know, maybe that's the way Roland amps sound, but I thought it sucked. The best for a traditional jazz sound was in the Blues Tweed (Bassman) setting, with the drive set at about 3 o'clock. Somewhat disapointing was the sound gotten when you jacked up the drive in this setting. It just seemed very bottom heavy/muddy - not what I was expecting. The Small Tweed rocks, with the treb & mid knobs each giving a ton of different variations on the tone. I found myself more often than not living in this setting, and the Black Panel, too. This model has a great twangy, surf sound, but doesn't "dirty up" enough for my taste. Cranking the drive seems to give it some midrange bite, but overall it stays pretty clean, which I guess is pretty indicative of the amp it's modeled after.

I use an old Strat and a ESP Traditional Strat clone. The differences using the two guitars was amazing! The amp is noisy in the neck & bridge pickup positions on both guitars, but absolutely noise free in the 2 middle ones. My band plays mostly blues, so there's a bunch of stuff on the amp I'll probably never use. The effects are nice, once you figure out how to tweak them, but you're limited using 2 at once. Not a big deal to me since I normally am only going to use a little delay. The tap setting feature is cool, too. The amp actually has 32 different amp models - I spent 3 hours the first day just touring them all! Amazing.

I can't say anything about the reliability, but it kinda scares me that you probably can't fix it with a new fuse, some duct tape & a soldering iron!

Line 6 has a nice website that promises easy access to service & tech support. I haven't had to use them yet.

Overall, given the things this amp is capable of, I don't see how a working musician could go wrong here. The price is right, too, if you consider the shear number of "amps" you get. I would never be able to afford (not to mention carry around) all the variations you get in one package, even if you're like me and only need a handful of the options. It's a big thumbs up from me!!

Without a doubt, this is the most versatile amp I've ever owned (with the possible exception of the Line 6 Duo I traded in for it). I have been playing for 25 years and have owned some great tube and solid state amps. I told myself a few years ago that I would never own another solid state amp. I guess I really haven't broken that promise. In the most literal since this is NOT a solid state amp. It's a digital amp and that's a completely different animal. I play all kinds of styles and that's what makes this amp so perfect for me. You can recreate virtually any guitar tone or style with this amp. I love the Sound Diver software, you can really "get inside" the amp and tweak it to it's full potential. If you get this amp you have to get a MIDI connection for your computer (their cheap), it's the only way to really get to all the bells and whistles. As far as power, believe me, you'll get all the power you need with this. The only thing I wish this amp had was the ability to run a second cab. The amp has left and right cab connections on the back, however, when you plug in an extension cab it cuts off the internal speakers?! What possesed them to do that?

As I said, you can get any sound you've ever tried to get out of this amp. You won't be able to tell the difference between this amp and some of the best tube amps you've ever heard.......I promise!! The real beauty here is that you can get those great tones at room level volumes. I live in a pretty tight neighborhood and can't really crank it up which was a real bummer with my 64 Vibrolux (no Master valume). And if you really want to blow your eardrums you can plug in a set of headphones and crank til blood starts flowing!!

I owned the Line 6 Duo for two years and never had a problem. I've only had the XL now for about a month but it seems to be just as reliable. Time will tell if it's a realiable amp, but at this point I have no reason to believe that it won't be.

Never had to use it.

Bottom line......you won't find another amp as versatile as this one. The effects are great, however, as one of the previous reviewers stated it would be nice to have a full time compressor. You can, however, adjust the threshold on the noisegate if you have MIDI connection to your computer. As I said, I've been playing for 25 years and the first time I plugged into a Line 6 I put my 64 Vibrolux up for sale. Nuff said!!

I feel this amp has enough bells and whistles for almost any guitar player out there. The most important thing for me is the 100 watt 2x12 config. , it gives me a ton of headroom. The amp models are as a whole very convincing. I primarily use the black panel & tweed stuff but will occasionally run a JCM 800 or plexi. The modelling technology was probably the main reason I stuck with a line 6 product after cooking two of the AX2 amps in a matter of weeks (more on this later). The effects section is ample, but it is not as tweakable as the AX2, thank God. My only two complaints would be, the need for a full time independent compressor and an adjustable threshhold on the noise gate. These are both available on the AX2. I love the dual XLRs for live setups, my sound man also digs 'em. They may be on to something cool here. I guess the other critical factor besides the 100w power rating would be the versatillity of the digital amps, to get the quallity and range of sounds would take a hell of a lot more gear than I would want to drag out otherwise.

The amp sounds very good, nice organic tones. I have owned some of the amps modeled, and while I haven't done an A/B comparison I am very happy with all except the Matchless channel. I primarily use an American deluxe Stratocater with EMGs and a Jerry Donahue Telecaster with tex mex pickups. Both sound as they should through the amp. My only complaint would be the lack of low end snap on the '59 bassman when the compressor is turned up. For a real thrill try your Les Paul through the JCM 800 channel with the gain cranked, WOW ! I am a country player, I do go to high gainsville from time to time during a show, and I'm sure the rock & rollers out there would have enough distortion to suit them.(I wish I had this amp at 14). But like I said I'm a country player, and I'm able to get some serious TWANG out of this amp! We play some fairly large rooms (1200-2000) and when the amp has to be cranked the clean tones don't go to pieces. I have owned the amp two months and so far it has been the prefect live amp. As for the studio I'll try it but may end up using the real McCoy.

Here's where it gets ugly. As I stated above I previously fried two of the line 6 AX2 amps. My first AX2 lasted ONE show my second lasted a bit longer but let me down in Louisville KY when my band was opening for Tracy Lawrence. Fortunately this was during sound check. I was and still am disgusted with the reliabillity of line 6 amps, but simply could not find anything on the market as versitile with the sound quallity of these amps. Kind of a catch 22 isn't it? This however does not make a fair representation of this amp. So far it has been right there behind me doing its thing. We'll see what happens.

It's still a little ugly here. Do you ever get mad when the switchboard operator transfers you to your reqested extention only to be greeted by "I'm away from my desk right now...."? Well that will never happen at line 6. Numerous times I called the company and was welcomed with "The switchboard operator is away from her desk right now...." COME ON! SOME ONE ANSWER YOUR PHONE!! at least they did'nt transfer me to voice mail. After a handfull of prozac & a shot of whiskey I called back and actually talked to a human being about my AX2 woes. His name was Patrick and he was very helpful. He agreed the AX2 had its problems and informed me that if I could wait a month and a half they would send me an advance model of the Flextone 2 which was not on the market at the time of my temper tantrum, which they did. So if your are a very patient person who loves leaving voice mail that never gets responded to I would strongly reccomend a line 6 product. Cool website though.

I've been playing 17 years and I can honestly say I have a love hate relationship with this amp. I don't think I've ever owned a better overall sounding amp, or a more versitile amp than the Flextone 2 XL or the AX2. That is the saving grace of these amps, even though I have wanted to shove it down the customer service department's throat (or voice mail to them) and may yet if it proves to be as unreliable as its predecessors. The floor board is an essential and pricey option of this amp, and it would be hard to do without it. I really want to reccomend this amp on the basis of tone alone, but I can't. Anyone considering a new amp should at least hear one of these for themselves, but be very willing to take a back-up amp with you to the gig. If your luck is like mine you'll need it.

The most versitile amp I've ever played!
Although it is a solid state amp, it sounds almost as good as any tube amp. It can be extremely hard to use at times, but once you understand the amp you can coax incredible sounds from it. It is extremely verstile, and with 100 watts into 2x12 inch cabs you will never feel left out.
There is one thing wrong though.... Too many options!!! You might find a perfect sound, but if you change it you may never be able to recreate it.

The sounds are great in numbers, but lacking somewhat in quality compared to the real thing.
Let me put it this way- you could buy all 32 amps, then get 9 effects pedals, then buy all the different sizes of cabs... and even then it would be hard to gig because you would have to switch your amps when you wanted a different tone.

I don't know... it seems pretty solid.....

A pretty good manual.....

I seriously suggest that anyone who plays covers should use this amp, because of it's cost-effectiveness, power, and almost unlimited tonal possibilities.