Okay - I have lived and I have learned. I am ready to rescind my accusation for now that stated that Line 6 sucks. Here's the deal...
After about a two week stint of anger and frustration, someone finally posted on the Line 6 site about my problem, which was that the head was shorting out. It was really simple, and someone with more exp. with half stacks would have known better, but nope - not me - I've always used combos, and until our band decided to heavy up on our sound/style, I thought I'd never need one.
So, anyway - it's simple - I was plugging in ONE SPEAKER CABLE, left from the head and into the left input of the cab. This is what I was shown AT THE STORE, and the store had it set up that way before I got there. What none of us knew, thanks to crappy documentation in the tiny maual for this amp, is that the head is intended to be connected to the cab IN STEREO ONLY - in other words - by only using the single connection, the amp is actually 4 ohms, not 8, which I guess is bad.
The rep didn't know it because it's not mentioned in the manual AT ALL - in fact, there is no word in there of how to connect the head, anywhere!
NOW, I have a brand new rig - the store replaced the head and cab for me, and in all honesty, I really love the sound of this thing and it has PLENTY of power for me - It actually seems that I could play loud enough to drown out the rest of the band by a lot, though I haven't tried it. I only need to play at 4.5 volume and it blends perfectly with whole sound.
All this being said, it's been a hassle, but it was solved without too much difficulty, by a tech and a member of the LIne 6 forum, in a relatively short time.
I have also always been a fan of vintage - obviously, MOST things, not just guitar gear, but MOST THINGS OVERALL, were built better before our entire existence became molded plastic and computer chips. I bought this half stack with a need for one that exceeded my budget - I really didn't have the money to buy it at all, and wouldn't have any time soon. So, I went with a product that typifies the words cheap and modern. I have to say that it does EXACTLY what I wanted a half stack to do, and it was VERY affordable after my trades, so in that, I'm happy.
To those of you out there that actually hate the sound, I guess you must have GOLDEN EARS - this thing is not only infinitely tweakable, but I played it side by side with my friend's Mesa halfstack, and it sounded JUST AS GOOD. Different, yes, but fine nevertheless, and that was my friend and his bandmates that said so - they were all very suprised...
After all, Line 6 has been working on this digital modelling for a long time - the whole purpose of it is to create a mirror image of classic sounds, from every type of amp/speaker combo known to man. You can't deny that they have made tremendous strides in the quality of the sounds, and even people on the Line 6 site seem to agree that the Line 6 sounds are ALL very similar, from the bargain stuff all the way to the high end VETTA II stuff.
Oh well, more than enough said. If it dies, I'm going back to the tried and true - probably a Marshall tube head + cab, with a Boss Metal Zone and
a Bad Horsie Wah. It's all I would really need. I just have to sell one of my kids into salvery to afford it...
