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Yes, it was relatively quick. In fact, there are only two shops that were worth visiting, and one of those was a huge disappointment (Piens Music Planet). It used to be the biggest music shop in Belgium, and I went there first partly because they don't show prices on their website so I wanted to check them out before going to the other one (Key Music), where it was more of a known quantity. When I got to Piens, though, I was very disappointed. It's not that big a store, and although they had a nice selection of guitars which I had a little browse around, they had very little in the way of amps and most of that was brands that I'd never heard of. They seem to be selling cheap copycat brands rather than the real things. Also, none of the staff showed the slightest interest in me, so after a few minutes I decided to move on.
I skipped the other little shop in Ghent where I bought my guitar because I know they don't carry a lot of different amps, and went on to Key Music. Now, that is a real music shop! It's huge inside, the biggest music shop in Benelux, they said, and they have a great selection. They have loads of guitars, including a whole "custom shop" area with some lovely, very expensive ones. But I wasn't there to gawk at guitars, I was there for the amps.
They have a good selection of amps too. They had most of the Line 6 range (not the Spider Jam, which was on my list, but they do have the Spider IV which is the same amp without some of the extra features like backing tracks). They didn't have the Fender Super Champ in stock, but the guy knew it and said that it's a great little amp with a big sound, although it doesn't have much in the way of features. They do have the Peavey Vypyr VIP amps, but not the Vox VT40 - apparently there's a shortage of those on the market and they don't expect them before the end of the year.
The sales guy also showed me a very nice Blackstar amp, the ID60, which has quite a few models and sounded very good. Definitely recommended for an audition if anybody else is reading this for tips on amps. In fact, if I hadn't been rather blinded by what I ended up buying, that probably would have been my choice.
The sales guy quickly realised that it would be better for him to demonstrate the amps, and he played the Blackstar and then played a bit on the Line 6 DT25. As he said, the tube sound really does make a difference, and the DT25 sounded great. He then played the Spider IV and the Peavey Vypyr VIP, and although they sound good, there's an immediacy to the sound from the tube amp that the digital ones don't seem to reproduce. It's hard to describe, but when I heard the DT25 it sounded like the real thing, whereas the others sounded a bit....distant.
They also had the Pod pedal boards on display next to the amps. They weren't connected into an amp, but they had headphones, and so I played around with the HD500X for a while, just trying out some of the preset sounds. They are staggering - the range is huge, and there are even some really way-out effects in there. I seriously contemplated just buying the HD500X, because for home use, if you want to play with headphones, that's really all you would need.
I also asked about the Variax guitars, and whether it the amp & pod really needed to be used together with one of them. He said not at all, and that although the Variax is a well made guitar, he himself doesn't like guitars with active electronics. They had them all on display, but I wasn't there to fiddle with guitars (you could spend days in there playing with everything they have in stock!) so I left them on the wall.
I asked for the price of the Pod, and if they could do me a good price on both the pod and the amp. They didn't reduce the price but they offered a free gig bag for the Pod which normally costs 90 euros (I was quite shocked when I saw that price!).
By now, the result should be obvious. I bought the DT25 and the HD500X, and they are currently sitting in front of me waiting to be set up. I'm off to do that now, and I will report back later on the results!  |
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Author: GloopyJon
25-11-2019 21:34:32
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