I recently purchased a Line6 Spider Jam amp. It is a pretty sweet tool for all of us who are still in the beginner to novice levels. It has a zillions of amp models (digital simulations of other amps, such as tube, bass, etc.) fully custamizable effects, and optional footswitch to control them all. However, the icing on the cake is "Jam Tracks". They are simular to what you find on this site here in the "jam Station" but are full on recordings of live musicians, not MIDIs. It also has a drum machine with real recordings of a drummer with many different styles that you can speed up or slow down. It also has a digital recording loop. You can record your jams and solos with a simple button, (or footswitch button if you get the switch) and store them on an SD media card. That is supper handy for working out your chops. If you mess up, hit the delete button and crank out a new one. With 75watts output, you can really rattle the windows.
You can download, purchase, or make your own backing tracks, save them to an SD card and play them back on the amp so you can jam along. There is a million other things you can do and tons of other features too that you can read about on the Line6 Website http://line6.com/spiderjam/
All of this does come at a price a bit higher than a lot of your starter, or practice amps, but all the very handy tools are well worth it! New they usually sell between $400-$500. I got mine for 499.99 at guitar center.
Pros: Built in tuner, drum machine, jam tracks, recording, effects and models. Great for practicing, speed building, or working on your chops.
Cons: It's like a Swiss Army knife, a million different tools that get the job done, but in the end, a spoon is still a spoon, a fork a fork, and a chainsaw is still the best way to cut down a tree. If you want the perfect tube amp sound, a tube amp is still the best way to get it.
Try one out at your local music store.
