In the last conversation Gearwire had with Gee Davey's guitarist, DJ Pearlman, he waxed eloquent about his amp -- a Line 6 Vetta II Combo Amp. The band released their latest CD, She Sells Smiles in July 2008 and have been playing shows in support ever since.

Which specific amp do you use and why?

For all live shows I use the Line 6 Vetta II combo. After years of gigging with a full rack and a pair of 4x12 cabinets, it was nice to scale back to a simpler system that was WAY easier to move around. The fact that the Vetta wouldn't force me to compromise on my sounds and the way I use them, made the choice a no-brainer for me. But neither of those reasons are what led me to the Vetta in the first place.

Do you find that it works well with your Variax?

Not only does it work well with the Variax, it is actually designed to work with it. I'm not a total gearhead, so I’m not sure if that sort of thing actually existed before, but I had never seen a matched-set, as it were, of a guitar and amplifier before, and I was intrigued to say the least. I read about the amp as much as possible, it was still fairly new so there wasn't a lot of user feedback yet, but the tech specs were fascinating.

As with any MIDI device, (the amp is basically a complete bank of Line 6 effects with a built in power amplifier), you can program all your settings in different user patches that can be called up live with a pedalboard controller (I love my Line 6 pedalboard by the way, but maybe another time). But for me, the most important part was that when used together, you could program the model of the Variax in the effect patch, so that by switching channels on the controller, you could jump from a nice acoustic to a raw telecaster to a sitar with a toe-tap. Read that sentence again, and then imagine the possibilities for the live performer. Needless to say, I picked one up as soon as I found one (another b-stock, I love b-stock), and I haven't played a live show without it since.

Why the combo instead of the head / cabinet set up?

Simply for size and weight. It is just easier to transport and carry around. Some of the places we play in NYC for example barely have the room for the combo as it is. And it's fine on power. I have the volume knob taped down around four-ish. That's about as loud as any sound guy will let you be on stage anyway. But as soon as we’re in arenas (and someone else is carrying it for me) I’ll be happy to get back to my 4x12s and the Vetta head -- it just looks cooler than a 2x12 combo.

Do you use the amp in the studio as well as live?

Primarily, I use it for live, although I have used it in the studio, most notably for the beginning of "Last Song" on She Sells Smiles. There is a factory setting on the Vetta that's a representation of Led Zep's "Communication Breakdown," and it was exactly the sound I wanted, so I didn't even bother trying to duplicate on my regular studio gear. I just rolled the combo on in, hooked it up and tracked it.

The amp has another cool feature worth mentioning here, especially since everything keeps moving more and more digital in the studio. Since everything in the Vetta is digital (until it hits the amp, I guess), it offers a direct digital out, which, anyone with the capability to record in digital (like Pro Tools) might really like. You can also use the amp as an outboard digital effects loop if you wanted. I didn't, but you certainly could.

Tell me about the settings you use for your stuff, how you vary them?

The days of me using as many possible sounds in a single song are long gone. At some point, you really need to define a "sound" and then run with it. It took me months to fine tune the sound I’m at now, and my primary channel serves as the base for the bulk of the other sounds I’ll use. Of course there are always "special" sounds for certain songs, but for the most part I have four main patches; an acoustic, a clean electric, a heavy rock rhythm and my lead. I can get through any show with those four patches. It’s probably important to note that I cheat a bit. The pedalboard controller for the Vetta not only allows for the typical channel-change function, but it also has two expression pedals which I assigned to wah and volume, and then allows you to control the on / off of specific effects within your patch (like delay, reverb, trem, etc) and three "stomp box" effects (user-assignable) the likes of which made Line 6 famous in the first place. Oh, and while I’m at it, there's a digital tuner built in the Vetta that sends its digital display to the pedalboard.

What do you like best about the amp?

I don’t really know. I look at it this way: the Vetta does a TON of things, and I really only mentioned the things that I use all the time, all of which are important, if not imperative to my performances. So I guess what I like best about it is that it does everything I need it to do. And that about covers it.

Is there anything you would change, fix or throw out the window when it comes to this amp (features, things that do not work the way you want, etc)?

I’m sure all equipment has its problems, and the Vetta is no exception, however I’m happy to say that the problems I’ve encountered are either easily remedied or just don’t matter. First (and least important) is the handle. The amp, as I’ve said, is quite light, for an amp. But that means it's still a tad weighty, and the little screws that hold the combo's handle to the unit, have failed on me a couple times.

This has not really been a big issue for me because my amp now lives in its road case, and I haven't used the handle since, but in case anyone is interested, Line 6 says to just get slightly bigger screws and force them into the amp and the handle will be fine. I haven't tried that yet. The second and more important (and more amusing) problem is that the knobs on the top of the unit, like volume, will actually move from the vibrations if you are playing loud enough. That actually took me a while to figure out. I thought I was just hearing things, but yeah, I actually watched it move up and down during a practice. I called Line 6, and this is why they are one of the better companies out there. They said they were aware of the problem and immediately sent me out some heavier gauge knobs which I received within a week, at no charge, of course. I’m not sure if they are standard now on the newer units, but I would guess so.