Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I'm a violinist and I just upgraded to a Line 6 Spider IV amp. I have no experience with amps and I need help setting some tones. I know they won't sound exactly like a guitar, but I'd like to get some different sounds from my violin. The Line 6 forum isn't very active and I've lurked here and have seen lots of good advice. Thanks in advance. Check out my page to listen to some of my experimental music.

I would like to get the following tones:

-Classic Blues
-Country Twang
-Something Chorus (for the pretty songs)
-Rock (probably clean distortion)

Here are the amp models on the Spider IV

Clean (Marshall JCM 900 or Hiwatt Custom 100)
Class A (Vox AC-30 or EL84 circuit of a Divided By 13 9/15 Model)
Twang ('65 Fender Twin Reverb or Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb)
Blues (’53 Fender wide panel Deluxe or Gretsch 6156)
Hi Gain (68 Marshall Plexi 100 or Diezel Herbert)
Crunch (‘68 Marshall Plexi 50 or 2005 Orange AD-30TC)
Metal (Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier)
Insane (Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier)

Here are the knobs in order from left to right:

Drive
Bass
Mid
Treble

Effects ( I can use one from each group at a time):

Gain
Auto Wah

Chorus
Phaser
Tremolo

Delay
Tape Echo
Sweep Echo

Reverb

Also, if you have a suggestion for one of the factory presets, I'd love to hear it!

Check out my Youtube (mostly bluegrass, but linked to my Metallica experiment with my old 15w Peavy and Digitech pedal).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhWRkiGtHVo

or my homepage

www.youtube.com/docandthelady

Sorry I cant give you any specifics. Even if I did they might sound like crap to your ear.
As for fiddling with amps (pun intended) your best bet is to experiment a LOT.
Dont make big vulgar adjustments. Move about your EQ and effects as if walking on eggshells. Remember it does not take too much exposure for your ears to reach a point of tone fatigue. Adjust- play back away for a while and do it again.

Best wishes.

I have a Spider 3 so the presets aren't the same. I found the best way to cycle through the presets was to have somebody else run through them while you play. Make a note of the ones that sound good to you and then you can go back and tweak them at your leisure. I love some of the tones I can get out of mine but the interface sucks. They want you to fork over for their big ass pedalboard so they make the entire control interface to your 400 presets about the size of a dime. A dime size button with 4 different functions depending on which direction you push it.

LOL Koolin hit that nail on the head.

I generally have others adjust the amp as I play it.
It's too much work to play it and adjust it for tone/volume/etc myself.

Comes out better when the others you play with set it, as you are going through your music.