The Line 6 Spider III 15 guitar combo amplifier is a 15 watt solid state guitar amplifier with built-in amp and effects modeling. It's a good samll amplifier for a starting guitar player, and makes a great home practice amp for more experienced players.
Featured review by:
andy_h04, on february 10, 2007 8 of 10 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 159.6
Purchased from: Cranbourne Music
Features: The Line 6 Spider 3 is a superb amp for it's price. It is a 4 channel amp with 6 effects (up to 2 at a time). It has a headphone jack and a CD/mp3 slot so you can play along with your music. This amp is pretty sturdy so it won't break easily. I like to play metalcore music (Atreyu, Parkway Drive) and with this amp set on insane it sounds perfect. There is 4 choices of sound clean, crunch, metal and insane (my personal favourite). On the downside though this amp needs to be up quite loud to get the right tones. // 8
Sound: I am using an Epiphone Les Paul 100 with stock pickups. It fits perfectly with my style of music (lots of crunch distortion). This little 15w amp can get extremely noisy when on full, but choose the wrong settings and a lot of feedback comes in. The amp can make pretty decent sound when you have the tremolo and phaser on creates a futuristic kind of sound. Sometimes if there's too much treble/bass or mids the distortion kind of takes over the amp. The clean at high volumes doesn't distort (thankfulyl) but when you turn the amp off and on the clean has a phaser effect on it which can be annoying at times. // 7
Reliability & Durability: Yes I could depend on this amp at a gig but it would require a few backups for its voltage. The amp hasn't broken down yet (thankfully) because I only got it today so I don't know how much service it would require. But this amp still is quite sturdy the outer body is very hard to break. // 9
Impression: I love playing metalcore. This amp is basically a perfect match. I have been playing 6 years now and have never seen a better amp for its price, I own a Behringer Gm 108 (good starter amp), compared to that this amp is in a league of its own. If it were stolen I would definately go back to the shop and buy a new one but if I had the money I'd upgrade to the 75w version with pre set tones in it. I absolutely love the distortion in this amp can't get any distortion like this amp. I had a choice of this or a Fender (can't remeber what model) tried them both out but this one was a lot better. But I wish it had the pre sets like in the 75w model. // 9
Reviewed by:
Snuffles, on july 09, 2007 4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 109.81
Purchased from: Steves Music
Features: This amp was made in 2006. I love this amp because it tends to all my needs, it also has many effects which are actually used, not just the bad ones that nobody uses. It has Phaser, Chorus/Flange, Tremelo, Sweep Echo, Tape Echo and Reverb. It has Clean, Crunch, Metal and Insane. Insane being the most distorted and Clean having no distortion. It has a headphone jack but it needs a bigger metal rod then 1/8. I've used all the effects in a song one time or another. It has 15 Watts but when it's on Insane it seemes like a lot more. This is the best amp I've ever owned. For real. // 10
Sound: With my ESP F-50 I have its factory pickups, ESP LTD-150s. I play a lot of metal and I always use the insane setting and it works fabulous. I havn't turned it loud enough to have any major distortion problems or a lot or feedback. I can really fine tune the essence of some bands becausethere is 5 setting knobs, you can capture basically any type of band sonds. // 10
Reliability & Durability: This amp is extreamly durably, I can depend on it for anything. I brought it to my friends one time in the rain (never do that, I did anyways) and it didn't break or get fuzzy or anything. It hasn't broken down yet and I doubt it ever will unless I drop it or if I spill liquid on it. // 10
Impression: Like I said before I play a lot of metal and rock, it matches it great mainly because of the 5 setting knobs and the channel buttons. I've been playing guitar for about a year and I own (like I said before) an ESP F-50 and they suite eachother great. If it was stolen I'd definatly but another one but maybe a 30 watt. I love all the setting, I can't think of anything I don't like. Well I was about to get this Peavey amp but this one costed less and has a lot of settings that I'd use. The thing I lave most is that I can use one patchcord because I don't need a petal anymore, this amp should be worth 300 dollars, it's extreamly good. // 10
Reviewed by:
gigson111, on july 09, 2007 2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 126.4
Purchased from: Steve's Music
Features: I think this amp was made in 2006, It is I think the newest version of it so I'm not complaining. I play from rock to post hardcore and this amp is good for all of it. it's got 4 channels, insane, metal, crunch and clean. But the clean, I don't think is always perfectly clean, it might be my guitar but it always has a tiny bit of distortion on it unless I use the neck pickup. it's got a headhone jack and an mp3 jack so you can plug your mp3 player into it and it will play like a CD player. I only use this amp at home right now, it's definitly got enough juice for me. The only think I don't like about this amp is that you have to take your hand of your guitar to change the channel, if your not using a pedal. it's also really good because it comes with factory presets for each channel, and you can save your settings for each of them. I think the only setting that can give you good pinch harmonics is the insane. It has really good features on it though. // 9
Sound: I am using and ESP guitar with their factory pickups, they sound pretty sweet from what I've ever played on this amp. I've never used Emgs or anything like that. It suits my music perfectly and has great tones to it. Sometimes though if you put the treble and mid too high it will get all feebacky and annoying. I think the clean setting is distorted at higher volumes, but it might just be my guitar I'm no quiet sure. The distortion is the best that I've ever heard. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I can definitly depend on this during a gig, but I probably wouldn't use it because it wouldn't be loud enough. This has never broken down and I don't think it will. It is very dependable though. // 9
Impression: This is a good match for any type of music that uses distortion. I've been playing for a couple years now, and it's the best amp I've ever had. If this was lost or stolen, as soon as I had the money I would run out and buy another one. The only thing I wish it had though was a pedal to change the channels. // 9
Reviewed by:
TheOrangeRift, on february 17, 2009 2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This solid-state amp was made in 2006. It's great for hard rock and metal, and nails the sound of bands like Metallica and AC/DC well. it's fifteen watts are more than enough for bedroom playing and practicing in a room full of other people playing guitars. It features four amp model channels: Clean, Crunch, Metal, and Insane. There is no channel switching by foot; you have to press the channel buttons. It includes effects like a chorus flanger, phaser, reverb, sweep echo, and tape echo. These are decent, but I rarely ever used them. It also has a headphone and MP3 jack next to the power switch. I mainly used this amp at home and school, but it's pretty heavy so I wouldn't recommend lugging it back and forth regularly unless you plan to work out your biceps anyway. // 8
Sound: I used an Ibanez RG120 with mainly both pickups when playing with this amp. It can roar like mad if you want it to, so if you want to wake up the neighbors and shatter your eardrums with metal beastiness, you can!:) The clean channel is kind of sub-par, though - it's duller compared to other amps I've tried out, and when I play it makes a plucky sound that I really don't prefer (yes, I made sure I played chords clearly). One thing I want to make clear for a lot of people is, at first when you turn on the amp, the clean channel is slightly distorted with the flanger. This can be easily fixed forever by turning up the chorus flanger knob to the max, then all the way left so it's off. That gets rid of the flanger. Then, press and hold the clean channel button until the light blinks, saving it's settings. Your clean channel should be without the flanger from now on.
The crunch channel didn't impress me. It sounded fuzzy and like a real bad version of the metal channel, no matter whether I cranked up the overdrive or lowered it. The metal channel is ideal for clear, face-crushing high gain tone. That's probably the best thing about this amp. The insane channel is basically the metal channel, but more distorted and chaotic, as intended by Line 6. it's tone is very nice, but it is EXTREMELY sensitive to string touches. Every time you take your fingers off the strings it will sound like a pull-off if you're not careful. // 6
Reliability & Durability: I'd say it's pretty dependable, since I brought it back and forth from school for a week without ever failing to turn on. I'd definitely bring a backup if I were to play a gig with this, though. Better safe than sorry, as the uber cliche saying goes. The back is always open and mad exposed. For instance, if someone Who hates you walks up and kicks the back of your amp, it'd probably be gone right then and there. Other than that, it won't spontaneously break down on you. // 8
Impression: After a week of owning this amp, I returned it not because I didn't like it - it was too big to fit in my school locker! Plus, it's quite heavy for a practice amp, so I don't think you'd be able to walk around with it all day without putting it down. If you ask me, I'm big on portability when it comes to 5 - 15 watt practice amps. If I were to lose this amp or if it were to be stolen from me, I'd be pretty annoyed, obviously, but I'd definitely go and buy a smaller amp with more features. Those are definitely worth the extra twenty or forty bucks. // 7
Reviewed by:
heavyheavyheavy, on december 17, 2008 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99.95
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This amp has 4 channels to choose from and channel switching. It has 6 effects with loops. A headphone jack to. I do whis it had a gain knob otherwise it very, very good. I use this amp everywhere! it's so loud you can use it at a huge gig and everyone will hear it! // 10
Sound: I started using it with Fender single coils, but now am using EMG humbuckers. My style of music is basicly metal, clean sad songs, blues, and rock. it's only a little noisy on the crunch setting-the fuzz type blues sound-but not that much. There is a thing called hidden features that has a noise gate to block out any extra noise. The 4 channels are clean, crunch, metal and insane in that order. the Clean is very good and can get very good ehcos with the tap delay on and it is very good with the reverb to. (yes it has reverb.) the crunch is very good for blues but really matches many led zeppelin songs. The meatl is really just awesome overdrive, but there is no gain knob. The insane is a very high distortion, good for metal. And the distortion will make your ears bleed if you turn it up I mean really they did a very good job with the metal and insane settings. It is also very, very loud and good for small and medium size gigs. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Yes I would use it without a back up! this thing kicks ass!! You can always depend on it. plus this thing is a tank and can stand up to being kicked off stage and being trampeled (don't ask)its never broken in my life either. it's reliable and durable (very) // 10
Impression: I play music that requiers all settings it's an awesome match. I have been playing for a year and a few months, and you can see my gear on my profile. I would buy this again I really would because it is very reliable. I do want to upgrade to one of them with the like 250 different presets but I gotta wait for the money.I mostly stayon the metal setteing and clean setting but I do use them all. I still wish it had a gain knob. I highly, very highly recomend this product for a practice/small-medium gig amp. Get it. // 10
Reviewed by:
jrayz13, on december 15, 2008 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 78
Purchased from: Mozart, Dubai
Features: Made in 2006, according to the back of the amp. I think the amp is suits my style of playing, because I play a lot of metal and the amp gives a great distortion sound.
It has 4 adjustable channels. Clean, Crunch, Metal and Insane. It has 6 effects, 3 on each knob, Knob 1 - Chorus Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo. Knob 2 - Sweep Echo, Tape Echo, Reverb. Has one Headphone Jack, and one CD/mp3 input. I wish it had a Switch board making it easier to Switch between 4 channels. I don’t use most of the Effects in the amp, but I do use all the channels for different tones of bands. I use the amp at home although it is really loud and my master volume is always on maximum 2 so I guess it should be able to play small gigs. // 7
Sound: I'm using the amp with an Ibanez GRG270B and factory pickups. It suits my music style as it has a Metal channel (For that Metallica tone) and an Insane channel (For that Slayer tone). It is pretty noisy in the Insane channel but I guess that’s why it's called Insane. The amp came with factory tone settings which made the amp sound horrible. The Clean channel had Tape Echo and Phaser activated whenever you change to the Clean channel, The Crunch channel had too much Bass and very less Mid, The Metal channel had less Mid, the Insane channel was alright. But when you tweak with the EQ and get that right tone that you’re looking for the amp is great. I think it's got a lot of variety, with the 4 channels. The clean doesn't tend to distort even at high volumes. The distortion can get really brutal in the Insane channel, full on Gain kind of stuff. The only turn off is the factory tone which really was horrible, but I you press the preset button (clean, crunch, etc.) for a while, it will save your settings. It also has a built in Noise Gate which is very useful (It shows you how to activate it in the manual). // 7
Reliability & Durability: I don't think I would use this at a gig without a backup, because it’s only a 15 watt and I think I would use something bigger and better at a gig. Hasn't broken down yet, and looks durable enough to last for a while. It is pretty heavy for a 15 watt but looks tough enough. // 7
Impression: As I mentioned before I play a lot of Metal and in my opinion this amp suits it well.
I've been playing for around 7 months now and I own an Ibanez GRG270B and an Ibanez V70 Acoustic. If it were stolen or lost I wouldn’t buy it again, I would probably get something bigger and better. I love the Insane and Metal channels, but I hate the factory tone it came with. My favorite feature would probably be the amount of Gain you can achieve on the Insane channel. I compared this to my friend's Marshall MG15CDFX. His had a better tone actually but mine had a lot of variety, as well as 6 Effects while his had 4. I probably chose this amp because I liked the Insane channel and it had a good price. Overall it's a good practice amp, not that good for gigs although it would probably have the volume for a gig but not the sound. // 8
Reviewed by:
zunizoon, on march 19, 2007 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Long & McQuade
Features: The year the amp was made I'm not sure, but it is recent. Amp is very versatile, for me at least. I play stuff with lots of distortion (From First to Last etc etc). It has four channels, Clean, Crunch, Metal and Insane. It comes with 6 effects (2 at once). Clean/Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Sweep-Echo, Tape-Echo and Reverb. Channel siwtching is not available, but a headphone jack and an MP3/CD jack is present. Features I want is a channel switching input jack, but that is on hte 30W + models. I use this amp in my room (basment) and it has more than enough power. For 15W it's loud. // 9
Sound: I use a Gibson SG (humbuckers) with this amp and a Squier Strat (single-coil) occasionally. Suits my music style (hardcore->From First to Last etc)perfectly. I love the distortion on the amp. This amp has a lot of feedback at high volumes, but that can be fixed if you just hold the strings on your guitar. It's more of a nuisance. The clean channel is exactly that clean. Even at high volumes. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I can very much so depend on this amp. Very rugid. I would use it without a backup, but I'm a safe person, so I always have a backup, in fact this IS my backup:D. The amp has never broken down, but I don't abuse it so. It is also very lightweight, easy to cary around, but I find the knobs a little bulky, jabs into the side of your leg when you carry it around. Other than that, it's excellent. // 10
Impression: As mentioned, I play hardcore, emo, screamo types of music, mainly From First To Last, Alexisonfire etc. This amp is a good match. Good distortion, loud, pretty versatile. I've been playing for 2 and 1/2 yrs now. I use a Gibson SG and my other amp is a Peavy Backstage and a Line 6 Spider III 75W. If it were stolen or lost, I'd buy a new one. Good backup amp for the price. I love the distortion on it and I hate the fact that everytime the amp is turned off, the settings are reset unless you save it. This amp and I have a love-hate relationship. Sounds great, but everytime I turn it on, it's a different sound. // 9
Reviewed by:
jaypalthrasher, on november 17, 2008 1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: Solid state amp, not sure what year it was made. It has 4 channels (clean, chruch, metal, insane), 6 effects (chorus flange, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb), 2 of those effects can be played simultaneously, headphone jack, and a jack for a CD/MP3 player. It's a very vertisile amp, but it's best suited to play rock and metal. I like to play all kinds of metal (anything between Black Sabbath to Slayer) and it's good to play that kind of music, but it kinda sucks when you want jam along w/your friends because it just isn't loud enough. If you have annoying parents or pesky neighbors, it's a good amp to have just to practice with. Also, when you go past 6-8 on the master volume, you tend to get too much fuzz and distortion and then you can't even tell what it is you're playing. // 8
Sound: I use an Fender Strat with stock pickups. Not the most ideal guitar to have to play metal, so I got this amp thinking that I could get some insanely good sounds out of it. To tell the truth I was really dissapointed. The clean channel is ok I guess, but I rarely use it. The crunch channel is good to use if you're playing stuff like Sabbath, it gives it that nice dark feeling to it. The metal channel is my favorite, but it could be better. It might be my guitar, but when I start to play stuff like Metallica and Slayer, it just doesn't seem to sound right on this amp, like the tone is lacking abnd just too much distortion.. The distortion on that channel is killer, but it might be a bit too much. The insane channel is practically useless, way to much distortion to hear yourself play. It has some cool effects, but I think all that extra stuff takes away from the quality of the sound, but that all depends on your personal preference. // 7
Reliability & Durability: I've never used it to for gigging, but I've used it to jam along w/my friends and stuff, and it can hold it's own if whoever your playing with doesn't have an amp that's insanely better than yours. I've dropped it a few times, but the drops were only like from 1 or 2 feet onto pavement and stuff, and the amp only suffered minor scratches, that's all. // 9
Impression: I love playing metal, and it's meant for that, but there are way better amps out there. I've been using this amp for about a year and I've been saving up to get something better. I've tried out a few Peavy Valvekings, and some Vox Valvetronix, and they just blow this thing out of the water. If I were to lose it, I probably wouldn't care. I'd get something better. I wouldn't recomend you buy this unless you're a metalhead living in a tiny apartment w/annoying neighbors or something. I just wish that somebody would've told me that this thing was a "semi"-waste of a hundred bucks before I got it. // 7
Reviewed by:
KirkRocks, on january 05, 2009 1 of 3 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100.00
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: Features are decent IMO. As the title says, the amp is 15 watts. You have four channels, all of which are terrible (imo). They are: Clean, Crunch, Metal, Insane Clean is obvious. Crunch you would use for songs like Smoke on the Water. Metal is obviously for those cool metal riffs. Insane would used in shredding. The distortion is just flat in every channel. It always sounds like a jumbled buzzing sound. One thing that bugs me is when you Switch to the clean channel. For some reason the amp always automatically turns on echo effects. You have to turn them off each time you go clean. This will become very tiresome after awhile.
Onto the effects. Some of these are pretty cool, but it still isn't worth buying the amp. You have to effects knobs One has Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, and Tremolo. The other has two echo effects and reverb. You can use up to two effects at once but not from the same knob. Basically you could use Flanger and Reverb together, but not Flanger and Phaser. These effects will fool beginners into buying this amp. Don't be a victim. // 4
Sound: This is where the amp fails the most. The clean channel is so-so. The distortion channels, on the other hand, are among the worst I've ever heard from an amp. Trust me that I can back this up. I played a 2, 500 hundred dollar Fender Strat on this thing, and then I played my 400 dollar Epi LP. Guess what? They sounded EXACTLY the same. The sound is just so digital, and it makes for a very unpleasant playing experience. You can shift power chords from the top to the bottom of the fretboard, and the sound will barely change at all. It only sounds good if you have never played any other amps before. // 2
Reliability & Durability: I don't know how long it will last, because I am taking it back. As for gigging, you will never be able to use this thing... ever. It just sucks too badly. It's even bad for a practice amp. Plenty of better options in the price range. Again I say to save your money and get a better amp. // 2
Impression: Make sure you play or have the salesman test other amps out for you. That way you won't get a crappy amp. It would appear that a guitar center salesman has tricked me again, bought a Fender frontman the first time (this thing is even worse) My own fault for not reading reviews. The amp is simply lacking in everything except for it's effects which are nothing impressive. I play metal and rock, and I only bought this because it was on sale. Do not waste your money on this little piece of crap. Go with a Microcube instead. // 2
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on january 06, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 150
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I bought this amp during one of Guitar Center's Christmas sales a little over a year ago. It has the standard setup of an inexpensive amp. It has bass, mid, and treble dials, two knobs to control effects (you can run two effects simultaneously), a master volume, a Drive dial to control distortion, a channel volume, and your standard guitar input, line input, and headphone output jacks. You can select from one of four distortion levels: clean, crunch, metal, and insane. // 9
Sound: I primarily use a Jackson with EMG Hz pickups with this amp, and the sound is overall very good. I typically play a mix of metal, hard rock, and classic rock. My L6 Spider III has even done some duty hooked up to my acoustic. The sound leaves something to be desired when compared to the rich, clean classical sound that a dedicated amp would have, but it is acceptable.
There are lots of possible combinations with all the effects on the amp, but honestly, unless you play some very avant garde style, most of the time you'll be sticking to a basic preset. All in all, effects on amps are good for fooling around, but for serious playing you need a pedal board to change effects on the fly, rather than stopping to adjust the amp. The effects here aren't the things of which unique tones are made.
The Clean channel is distorted at nearly all volume levels. The Crunch setting is muddled. The Insane setting is chaotic. I leave it on Metal most of the time, as it matches the distortion needed for most metal and hard rock. It's tough finding much in between metal distortion and the clean sound. Overall tone quality is good for a digital in this price range. I played in large halls to several hundred people with this amp on a few occasions, and it proved itself capable every time. I'm sure a more powerful amp would be better, but at 15W, this amp can go a long ways, and it's not even maxed out. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I knocked this amp around an awful lot in the past year and abused it, but it still works fine. I relied on it without a backup and it did not let me down. It's a solid amp that performs as expected every time. It can stand being knocked around in a trunk or jostled on a subway car or bus; that's a testament to how well built this thing is. // 9
Impression: I typically play metal, hard rock, and classic rock. I wanted an amp that would sound good, be usable for the odd gig here and there, and provide a minimum of hassle. The Line 6 Spider III 15W fits the bill, and is a pleasure to use. It's easy to find an amp that sounds better if you step up the price ladder (especially if you go with a tube amp instead of digital), but in this price range, the amp delivers, and then some. The only real knock against it is the effects. I believe that effects are best resigned to pedals and such that can be operated on the fly, rather than dials and buttons that take time to adjust and break the rhythm you build up while playing. I'd rather Line 6 focused more on presets if they wanted to put variation in this amp, but you have to spend considerably more money on a much more powerful amp before yoiu're afforded that luxury.
Overall, the Spider III 15W is a reliable and good-sounding amp for metal and hard rock players that's good for practice and light gig work. // 8
Reviewed by:
rscp1050, on august 29, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Features: Overall a very nice solid-state practice amp. Comes with built in effects including reverb, tremolo, chorus flanger, phaser, tape echo, and more! I wish it had delay and wah, but it doesn't. It has a headphone jack, guitar jack, and a CD/mp3 jack to jam along with. It also has 4 channels, clean, crunch, metal, and insane! // 9
Sound: The sound is really good. It can get extremely loud and extremely soft. The distortion on the insane channel is you said it, insane! The clean channel does not get distorted at high volumes. It is good for heavy metal and rock. If you select the wrong settings at high volumes, I get a ton of feedback which I did once and scared the crap out of me! // 8
Reliability & Durability: It is very reliable. I would use it without a backup No Doubt. It has never broken down but after a lot of use it tends to heat up in the back. I love this amp. It was totally worth it but the only thing I would change is I would put a guard or something on the back to guard against sweat if you are playing at a hot venue. // 8
Impression: I use this amp with a Mexican-made Fender Standard Stratocaster. It sounds amazing. If it was lost, I'd definitely buy it again. My favorite feature is the tremolo and the 4 channels. The only thing I wish it had is built-in delay and/or wah. This amp definitely packs a pretty good punch for being so small. The 4 channels are definitely great to have and the amp is amazing for the price. // 9
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on october 10, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Music123.com
Features: This amp is loaded with features that you wouldn't expect with it's low price. It has four pre-set amp models (clean, crunch, metal, and insane), each with varying levels of distortion. The Insane setting is perfect for what I play (mostly thrash). For inputs, it has a standard plugin for a guitar, and it also has a CD-input and headphone jack. The power button is nicely concealed so you won't accidentally turn it off, but is still easy to flip when you need to. Even for only 15 watts, this amp is LOUD. I'd have no problem using this at a small gig. It sounds better and better the louder you set it. It is solid state, so it doesn't quite get the sound I would like, but for the price, I think it's the best you can get. // 9
Sound: I'm using a custom-built guitar with EMG 60 and EMG 81 pickups. It sounds absolutely perfect playing nearly anything. There are so many presets, that it will sound great no matter what. Thrash? Set it to Insane and rock on. Classic? Set it to clean and have fun. And just to let you know, I play quite loud. This amp even has a "noise gate" to cancel out the humming and buzzing of pickups. It does, however make your guitar slightly quieter. But, it's worth it not to get a massive buzz when you let go of it. The distortion on 'Insane' is so crazy, that if you don't know what you're looking for, it will sound like random noise. So turn down the overdrive/gain control if you can't tell. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This amp has always served me well, and I have a feeling it will for quite some time. It has a completely accessible speaker (with a Line 6 model number for easy identification), so if it ever does bust out the speaker, it can be replaced with little effort. Mine has spent most of it's life on 'Insane' and is still sounding great. I've had it for close to eight months and it has not even hiccuped on me yet. Personally, however, I would always have a backup amp anywhere I go. You never know, all good things must come to an end sooner or later. // 9
Impression: Overall, the 15-watt Line 6 Spider III is a great choice, weather you just play for fun or play in a few small gigs. it's quiet enough to be played in the house so only you can hear, but still has the capability to crank out some serious noise, despite it's 15-watt rating. I have to say, that when this amp breaks down, gets stolen, or otherwise becomes unusable, I will return to the Line 6 Spider III series, just in a higher wattage. Overall, a great amp for a great price. // 9
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on january 21, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 150
Purchased from: RockShop
Features: Quite a good amp, I would say. Not sure about the year it was made. The Amp is really sturdy. I kinda dropped it on a concrete path 3 or 4 times and it has not broke. It has 4 channels, going from clean (with no distortion) to insane (which has so much distortion you can make out the individual notes! ). // 8
Sound: I use a unheard branded guitar which doesn't sound so good(I'll remedy that when I have enough money, lol), yet this amp transforms it all. It sounds awesome with all different kinds of music, ranging from stairway to heaven to canon rock, then to heavy metal, and even some classical pieces like Spanish Ballad. Overall, it's the best amp I have ever had. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Never broken, dependable, sturdy. Only problem is that if you poke it hard enough, it leave a mark forever. I don't think it will ever break down, though. Unles I get a sledgehammer and bash it on the speakers about twice a second, then maybe, I say maybe, it'll break (Who would wanna do that anyway, huh? ) // 9
Impression: Overall, it's the best amp I have ever had. If it were stolen, I would find this person's finger prints, find out Who he is, stalk him for 10 days to find a good time to stike, then I will get the amp back and have him marry michael Jackson. Although I think the amp would be better if it had a pedal to Switch channels, like the bigger versions of this // 10
Reviewed by:
Crazylegs11, on march 20, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100.00
Purchased from: Amazon.com
Features: The Line 6 Spider III 15 is a 15 watt guitar amplifier with an 8 inch speaker. One of the key features of the Spider III 15 is it's four preinstalled tones consisting of clean, crunch, metal, and insane. However, you are not just limited to these tones. The Spider III allows you to create your own tones and then save them as presets. Being a small amp the Spider III 15 isn't a good amp to go out and gig with. It's more of an amp to practice with in your bedroom. Another key that makes the Spider III 15 a great practice amp is it's MP3 jack, allowing you to play along to your songs giving you the ability to match tones and tempo. One of it's limitations is it's one guitar input, so if you want to jam with your friends they better bring their own amp. // 8
Sound: The sound of the Line 6 Spider III 15 is excellent. For a low costing amp I believe that the sound cannot be beat. I use my amp with both a Fender Stratocaster and Tradition S20. My Fender has three single coil pickups and the Tradition has two humbuckers, meaning that the amp sounds good with just about anything. Also, this amp is good at almost any style of music, but I would say that it finds it's true home in the genres of metal and hard rock. The Spider III 15 has two built in rock settings-metal and insane. The metal tone is a thicker crunchier sound whereas the insane sound is fullbore distortion. However, this amp does have a feature that allows you to block the static that comes from playing with incredibly high distortion. Finally, if you're more of a guy that enjoys quieter music the clean channel is perfect. It sounds crisp and fresh, and I have never heard any distortion when playing the clean tone at high volumes. Of course, I play it in my room, so it's not that loud. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I got my Spider III 15 for Christmas, so I haven't owned it very long. From what I've seen and heard so far this is a very reliable amp. I wouldn't use it in a gig simply for the fact that it is so small and I wouldn't want to blow the speaker, but for a practice amp I see this as a great buy. // 9
Impression: My overall impression of the Line 6 Spider III 15 is that it is a great amp that finds it's specialty in the role of practice Tool. I've been playing for five years and for it's size this is the best amp that I've played on. If something were to happen to this amp I would definetly go back to the Line 6 Spider III series. I would just get a bigger size. My favorite feature is the MP3 jack because I love to play to my songs on my Ipod. If your an up and coming guitarist, I would definetly look at the Line 6 Spider III 15 as your next practice amp. // 10
Reviewed by:
wchurchill, on march 25, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 68
Purchased from: GAK
Features: I've had this amp for 3 months now, and I think this shuld be a good time to write a review, it's a solid state modeling amp, 4 channels clean, crunch, metal and insane, all of which is programable. Effects, chourus flange, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo (sweep and tape echo have tap delay time) and reverb it also features cd/mp3 in which is a cool feature and a record out and head phone input. And yet there are more fetures, this has a really usefull hidden niose gate and a hidden distortion boost! So I say these are decent features for the price and when you compare it to other amps. // 9
Sound: This is my main amp, I use for pratice and band pratice. I'm using it with a Ibanez RGR321EX. The sound has a verity, clean is clean crunch is a Vintage sound but this is very muddy metal is my favouriteand insane is overly distorted but it's good for solos. Getting in to more detail the effects are quite good but the tremolo is a bit of waste and is not really usefull. Now, the neagtive sides pf this is that the amp is to digital I have tryed the Marshall MG15CDR and compared to this amp the distortion on the spider just dosent have that wide analog feel and also the sound feeling of this amp seems to change every now and again when I sit down for some practice the sound like changes on you, sometimes it perfect and sometimes, it's to classy and stiff:s. And before I end I do wish this amp would work nicely with pedals cause when I tryed out a few pedals once they didn't work out that good. But lets end on a postive, this amp is loud, very loud. // 7
Reliability & Durability: Well, believe me this is a bulid very solid, and it's once fe; l down the stairs and worked fine it's even had a bit of water spilt on it and still worked. I don't really need a back up, but a back up might be an idea but I don't have much money so I rather just stick with this for what ever the reason. // 9
Impression: Over all this amp is pretty good, but I thing something is missing and they could improve, a foot Switch would be nice and a design that would work with pedals a lot better would be brillant. But it has it's good sides, like it has good distortion (well sometimes) and it's loud, louder then something twice as big and could be heard with the drummer with the volume at 3. If this was stolen I might get something s bit more upper class. // 8
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on april 27, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99.99
Purchased from: music123
Features: I bought this year in 2008. The amp was my first amp as I only then began to play seriously. It has 4 channels and a ton of built in effects. It has an input jack, head phone jack, and a mp3 in jack. It is a solid state with effects such as flanger, reverb, tremolo, two types of echo. You can add gain, bass, treble, mid, and control channel volume. I only have played seriously for a year from march 08 and so only in my bedroom. // 9
Sound: I use a Gibson Les Paul with 490r and 498t. I play classic rock, some blues, led zeppelin, gnr, Velvet Revolver, the eagles, Green Day etc etc. It is not really good for classic rock, more for metal. Basically the channels form..fake clean, light distortion (crunch) more distortion, and just useless unless metal. That is the insane channel. After the volume is turned after 12 o clock the amp produces feedback. // 7
Reliability & Durability: One thing. This amp in my opinion will never break unless you like really screw it up. People suggest that you should not unplug your guitar without turning off your amp since it may damage your amp, but I have been doing this for well over a year and it is fine. Whilst the sound sucks the amp is solid, it is like a brick. I have dropped it like 3 times and it has remained safe.. The amp has never broken down and neither do I expect it to. It is very dependable though not in terms of sound // 9
Impression: If you are a beginner, sure, go ahead, this amp rocks for that. If you play in any band, do not buy this amp, it cannot cut through drum sounds, and it will produce feedback at high volume. I hate this amp. It has no foot Switch and sounds terrible with pedals, I am buying a Marshall MG100DFX or a Vox ac15 to replace it. If it were lost or stolen, since I am not a beginner I would rather play unplugged than use this amp. All in all for a beginner this amp is perfect. If you have played more than a year or if you have played for less than a year but know that guitar is something that you will not drop easily then treat yourself and buy a better amp. You will not regret especially with the cheaper tube amps that you can get now. Eg Epiphone Valve Junior stack or combo for 200-250. // 7
Reviewed by:
jarred_kenny, on february 13, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 200.00
Purchased from: Long and Macquaid
Features: This is a nice amp, but there are a few improvements that could be made. There are six different effects, but you can only use two at once. But most of the effects I don't use anyway, I use pedals for everything. One of the pros is that it has four presets, clean, crunch, metal, and insane. I use all but the crunch, I find it useless. In the end, it's a good practice amp. // 6
Sound: I use both single coils, and humbuckers, and it's pretty much the same with both. The only difference is there is less feedback with the hambuckers, but this is because of the humbuckers, not the amp. On the other hand, my guitars are not new anymore either. // 4
Reliability & Durability: This is a pretty durable amp. The other say I was walking to my friends house for band practice and it was snowing. When I got there I just wiped the snow and water off with a towel and was all good. I haven't dropped it yet, but I don't thing it would withstand falling from anywhere over five feet. // 6
Impression: This amp looks nice and is light weight, but when you consider it is only 15 watts, it's only worth buying as a practice amp. I only use it for practicing at friends houses and stuff, but it is still a lot better than the Yamaha I used to have. The only thing Line6 could do to really start selling these amps is offer them in different colors. // 6
Reviewed by:
lao123, on january 27, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Features: The amp was either 07 or 08. It was purchased at the start of 08, so it's safe to assume it's an 07 model. The amp is very versatile, and the 4 channels (clean, crunch, metal, insane) make it very easy to change between different sounds. I tend to play alternative rock, and pop-punk, and this amp works rather well with these. It has built in FX, but these are rather mediocre, and FX pedals are much better and in my opinion more convenient. I do wish the distortion channels didn't have so much buzz which is annoying. I use this amp for practice and gig, but most gigs are just school things, so I don't think a Marshall stack is neccesary. // 8
Sound: I use an Epiphone G400 with the standard pickups. The guiar gives a great sound but I don't really like any of the amps sounds apart from clean. On the insane channel, the sound I like but buzz is horrendous. It can produce a very wide range of sounds and FX, but I now use a Boss OS-2 overdrive/distortion pedal, and PH-3 phase shifter. I recommend anyone use a quality distortion pedal with it if you can afford it. The clean sound is good, but it would be good to get a more natural less layered sound. // 7
Reliability & Durability: I would gig without a backup, but if the venue offered it's own Marshall stack, well this amp is pretty useless. I can rely on it to always work, and have had no problems. It is very well built and solid. If it did break down I would be disapointed, and would hope it to be possible to replace it with another amp. // 10
Impression: It is a good much for my style of music, but the sound isn't the best quality. The FX are mediocre and you can't modidy them much. The chorus and flanger FX are alright for what I need, but I very rarely use them. I have been playing for 5 years and at my level of playing it is very suitable. Were it stolen or lost, I would rather buy a Marshal MG series amp or something else with higher wattage and no FX. I don't really have a favourite feature, but I hate the buzz having it on high distortion gives. I didn't try any other products, but I know wish I had. I could've gotten something better. If you are wanting an amp in this price range, I would steer away and look at Marshall and Fender amps. Overall it is an average amp which could be a lot better. // 7
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on january 06, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: Holy hell! This amp has many crazy features. It comes with a tremelo, phaser, flanger, reverb and a couple other switches. Although these are nice, not many of them are actually used. It's kind of a pain to have to constantly change switches. Pickin' up what I'm putting down? // 8
Sound: Wow. Despite the vast amounts of sounds, distortion levels and switches; the sound is crap. You start out with a clean setting, but this is plagued with delay, and the only way to get rid of the delay is to press a button that's veeery touchy. Next is crunch, which is just a clean setting with a slight distorted sound. Then come the hammers. Metal is an extremely distorted sound that sounds way to low and crunchy. Finally, is INTENSE! This setting is actually okay. It has a heavy distorted sound but has body to it. It tends to remind me of Pantera's sound. So unless your into that sound, STAY OUT! // 5
Reliability & Durability: Reliable? Hell yes, durable of heck and I haven't had a single problem, (except the horrid sounds, ) with this amp over the 2 years I've owned it. Durable, I know I said before; YES. Has yet to ever overheat, get crunchy and fail. This is one of the best things about this amp. // 9
Impression: Now I play metal, and the distortion settings and built-in effects made me squeal with joy. This was anhilated with terrible sounds and hard to control, built-in delay. I've been playing for 3 years now, and I can distinguish good from bad. This is bad. Lost or stolen, I would never buy it. I suggest you buy a Fender Frontman 15w with Reverb. Great distortion setting, wonderful sound. Peace out. // 7
Reviewed by:
flyingrazors72, on august 28, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I don't really know the year the amp was made but it's a great amp especially for the music I play, I usually jam to Metallica and it's metal and insane channels suit it very well. This amp comes fully loaded with four programmable channels, the downside is that you can't Switch between them with a pedal, the amp doesn't allow a channel switching pedal to be plugged in. I honestly wish it had a Wah Wah feature, I use all the features on it except the tremolo effect, I think it's useless. I use this amp at home and for band practice and it's awesome. // 9
Sound: I'm currently using a B\.C\. Rich Bronze Warlock with the factory pickups and it sounds excellent on this Line 6 amp. It's also a really loud amp, at home I'll set it at volume 2 and at practice I'll put it at 5. This babe comes equipped with 6 effects of which you can only use two at a time, these include chorus flanger, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo, and my personal favorite, reverb. Sometimes the clean channel will sound distorted at high volumes especially if you put a lot of bass on it, other than that the clean channel sounds beautiful. Now the distortion is massive, specifically if you put in the insane channel which offers a big helping of distortion and the quality to back it up. The crunch offers a sort of a like Led Zeppelin or AC/DC kind of distortion. The Metal channel would give you a Metallica type sound, the distortion kicks ass. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I could definitely depend on this amp without a backup, but knowing me I always have a backup because you never know what could go wrong. The amp has never broken down, I've owned it for a couple of days now and it's pretty sturdy and strong, it's gonna kind of hard to break unless you spill liquid on it or leave it in the rain. // 10
Impression: For the heavy metal style of music that I play it's the perfect match. I've been playing guitar for the last 3 and a half years and this is the best amp I have ever owned. Other than this amp I own my B.C. Rich, a Boss distortion pedal and a Dean Markley 14 watt amp, (I know it sucks). If I ever lose this amp or someone takes I'll buy another one. I love everything about it except the tremolo feature, god I hate that. Honestly when I went to the Guitar Center, I tried a Raven amp, a Fender amp, and Marshall 15 watt. I ended choosing this one and if you do, you'll know why. If only it had a Wah Wah effect, that would make it 100% perfect in my opinion, so check it out, for $100 it's definitely worth the buy. // 10
Reviewed by:
elgranmapache, on january 06, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: € 100
Purchased from: Local store
Features: This bug was made in 2008, I think in Korea. I normally play hardcore and all kind of metal, though I still like some punkrock and blues. Should I say this amp fits all those styles of music? NO. This amp is aimed just to metal, and maybe some blues if you add a bit of gain to the clean channel. There are four channels: Clean, Crunch, Metal, Insane. Clean is quite good, crunch and metal so so, Insane is cool, but I'll explain about this in the sound category. It has some cool effects; thery aren't great, but still they can make you have some fun messing with them. you have tremolo, phaser, echo, chorus, reverb... You can use headphones with this, and there's no way you should use this amp for nothing else than practicing in your room. Don't you dare to use this near a drummer. // 10
Sound: I play this through a ESP Ltd EC-1000 (Seymour Duncan humbuckers) and a Fender Custom Telecaster (Evolution DP), though I normally play just the ESP. I'm being fair when I say it sounds OK through this amp. Clean channel is nice, you can get a warm sound here that will satisfy most players. I don't like crunch channel, it sounds too dirty and sharp to get a decent tone from there so forget about that Foo Fighters or QOTSA sound. I find the metal channel a bit useless, since is very distorted but in the bad way, too much sharp; picking sounds ok, but chords sound terrible. However, the insane channel is good; it has more gain than any human being should ever need, but it's funny as hell and it sounds surprisingly acceptable. Therefore, it will satisfy those of you who like a nice warm clean sound and a brutal distortion. A good thing is this amp is extremely quiet. No buzz at all. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Never had a problem with it, and it seems pretty solid, so I don't think I ever need to fix anything about this. I must say that it never goes out of my bedroom, excepto a very few times I could take it to a friend's house, so I guess it should last for a long time. // 10
Impression: Ok, here it comes the important thing. This is not a good amp, but I'm rating it with 10/10, for a simple reason: it's great at what is has to be. If you are looking for a small amp to play you crazy metalcore stuff or whatever in your bedroom, this is your amp. It won't sound awesome, but it sounds heavy, raw, crazy, and that's at least all I need for the amp I play in my bedroom. Of course, you can find a thousand amps which will sound better, and maybe for not too much money; but I've been playing for 6 years, through many amps, and this amp will satisfy any average metal users when it comes to play metal music sitting on his bed. The only amp in this price I could compare this bug to would be the Microcube (Roland), but still, whis would be my choice. Seriosly, this bedroom amp won't disappoint. // 10
Reviewed by:
666-JoE-666, on june 26, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 70
Purchased from: PMT Technology
Features: I Have no idea what year this Amp was made it, maybe 2006. I mostly play rock and metal like Slipknot, Papa Roach, Black Stone Cherry and Nirvana, and this Amp is pretty decent for what those styles. It has 4 channels, clean, crunch, metal and insane. The crunch is abit thin but the other channels sounds nice. This amp also includes effects, it has 1 dial which has chorus/flange, phaser and tremolo, and another dial with sweep echo, tape echo and reverb, all of which sound pretty decent if set up correctly. // 10
Sound: I am currently using a Dean ML through this amp, which has 2 open humbuckers, which makes the tone very powerfull. As I have said before, I play mostly rock and metal, and this amp can accomodate them, aswell as other styles such as blues, funk and jazz. This amp isnt very noisy, it has a built in noise gate which can be turned on or off by holding in a button whilst powering up. Supprisingly the clean channel stays quite clean even at high volume, but the distortion fuzzes up, especially on insane. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I have only had this amp a few says so I can't really comment on the durability of it, it looks pretty solid built to me, with rubber coated corners, I should think it will be able to take a few bashes without any damage to the electrics. I would use this on stage without backup, not that I'm planning to, but time will tell nhow tough this amp is. // 8
Impression: My overall impression of this amp is that it seems quite good, I can't think why other users of Ultimate-Guitar dislike them, It sounds okay to me, and it has effects to play around with. The only problem I have encountered is when changing channel, the volume jumps to quite loud, meaning you have to tweak it again. If it were stolen or lost, I think I may save up for an Orange amp, but I do like this amp alot, and I think it's a good peice of equipment for £70. The Chorus and flange on this amp can make a very boring peice on clean sound nicer, and the phaser on the metal channel also works quite well. // 9
Reviewed by:
RerouteToRemain, on august 06, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99.99
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: First of all I'd like to say that I bought this amp after playing a cheap Fender amp that I bought for 800 kwai ($100) in China, and frankly anything might have sounded better. But regardless, as soon as I plugged my Masterpiece Bich in, pressed that appropriately titled 'insane' button, and started tearing through some Killswitch riffs, I knew I had made a good choice. Being a substantial metal fan, I long for that wall shaking bellow that is the result of a palm muted open 6th string. I know I am not alone in this Quest, well, my ex Quest. It ended with the purchase of this amp. Moving on to more important details, the amp also comes with a convenient array of presets, each with it's own unique sound that makes the amp very versatile out of the box. These presets include 'clean', 'crunch', 'metal', and 'insane'. Clean and Metal are relatively self explanatory while Crunch and Insane bring extra flavors to the table, Crunch gives an easy 70s rock tune, rather than tweaking with your settings on other amps, this is available at the touch of a button. Insane is a very, very overdriven sound that comes with the amp without having to buy a pricey crazy distortion pedal.
The presets work great if you're a newbie to tone, hell even if you are critical about your tone the presets are great, but if you're like me and you MUST make tone your bitch before you start shredding away, then you may find a little bit of trouble with this model. There are the standard knobs that have your basic 'treble', 'bass', 'middle', but that's about it. I found myself turning the knobs back and forth without finding my perfect tone, I found good tones, but I couldn't effectively make my own that sounded unique enough to my liking. Basically what I am trying to say is, presets good, tone meddling bad. Fortuntely enough, the presets are good enough that I don't mind using them, but after a while a longing for grittier sounds emerge and you are forced to either buy a pedal, or a new amp. Now there are some extra features on the amp that are a definite bonus, and make the amp worth your money. The addition of the effects knobs make it an interesting buy, with the ability to use two effects at once, you save money not buying a pedal to play around with these effects. Each knob comes with it's own unique effect, like delay, reverb, and phaser. However it is not easy to Switch in and out of these sounds, for the turning of a knob is necessary to go in and out of sounds. So like I said, you can have some fun playing around, but eventually you will need a pedal for more efficient use.
Along with all of these other features, there is also a Headphone Jack, the ability to record, and a very handy port where you can play your own music through the amp, and play along with it. Overall, this amp is jam packed with features that make it well worth the price, it is an extremely good buy. It's a good starter amp for beginners, and a great travel amp for road trips, it's small size and reltively light weight make it easy to carry and efficient for quick car movements. The absence of technicalities are the only things keeping me from giving this a ten, the ability to create a better tone and save it as my own would be very useful, but nonetheless it's a great buy. Good amp, great price, even better buy. // 10
Sound: I accidently wrote everything under the "features" category. But, I use a B.C. Rich Masterpiece Bich with factoroy humbuckers and they scream on this amp. I'm usually playing Coheed And Cambria, some Killswitch Engage, some As I Lay Dying, some Megadeth, some Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix, Guns N' Roses etc. This amp suits every one of those bands and can nail almost every sound but your own as stated in the "features" section. The clean channel gets a little to twangy at times, but is pretty consistant throughout. The distortion is more than brutal. // 9
Reliability & Durability: A very durable amp, I've dropped it, bumped it, spilled beer on it and it's lasted me through parties and many jam sessions. I've never had to worry about reliability, it's about as reliable as your eyes are, when you wake up, you expect them to open. As far as the amp breaking down from neglect, I couldn't tell you because this is pretty much my primary tool. // 10
Impression: This amp matches any style of music and is great for any aspiring guitarist. I have been playing long enough to know good sound when I hear it, and this is good sound. This product is pretty straighforward, you get what you see on the box with no surprises. If this amp was lost, broken, or stolen somehow, I would definitely buy another one, hell I might even buy two just because it's such a great buy. Squels, heavy chugging riffs, some shred, blues rock, this amp throws it all out without the hassle of tweaking and twisting around with knobs. The only thing missing from this amp is the ability to make unique tones that suit your own style of music, other than that though you've got everything else under the sun. If you're a beginner guitarist, or need a small travel amp, or have nevr owned a Line 6 before, this is definitely the way to go. I reccomend this amp to just about everyone. // 10
Reviewed by:
ShrimpthePimp, on august 17, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This is good amp at a good price. It's my first 'real' amp, since my last two were pretty cheap. It has 4 channels, and on each of the 4 channels you can pick up to 6 effects, using 2 simultaneously. It also has a headphone jack. It's very powerful and also very loud, I never turn it past 2 when I'm playing alone. // 8
Sound: I play Rock and Jazz, and this amp can definately keep up. When I'm playing Smooth Jazz, I can use the "Clean" and when I want to play some Metal, I simply turn it to "Metal". It has the most bass out of all the settings, and I love it. When it comes to solos, "Insane" is all I need. Although, Insane is pretty noisy, I don't really have a problem with it. People complain about the pre-sets, saying that they don't like the way it sounds. But what most people don't understand is that you can change the pre-sets and save your changes! You just have to read the manual, but I don't think most people do. The only thing that stops this from being a 10 is the fact that "Insane" is noisy. // 9
Reliability & Durability: This amp has never broken down on me, and it's pretty durable. I have even knocked it around a couple times (on accident) and it's held together nicely. This amp is very tough. The only problem would be that you would have to stop and press buttons if you would want to Switch channels during a gig. That's the only problem I have with this amp. Other than that, it's perfect. // 10
Impression: I have been playing for 6 years, and it could be that this is my first really good amp, but this amp is very good. If this ever broke down on me (which I doubt very seriously, it's a strong amp) then I would probably buy the same one again, or maybe even the upgraded version of this for $200. All in all, this a good home/practice amp that will last you a long time, and it's a good deal for only $100. // 9
Reviewed by:
Kyle_Daoust, on august 29, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Tom Lee Music
Features: This amp is very versatile and a suitable practice amp for all styles. It has 4 different amp models clean (self explantory. Crunch suitable for blues/early classic rock. Metal suitable for well metal and heavy tones. Insanes is absolutly awesome for high distortion, not as deep and heavy as the Metal settings. There are also 6 effects, chorus/flanger, phaser, reverb, sweep echo, tape echo, and tremolo. There's nothing on this amp that I don't use. It has plenty of power, it may be a 15 watt but it is loud. There is a headphone jack and a line in slot. Its features are great. You can adjust the setting and save them on the amp models if you feel yours is better. The manual tells you everything. // 9
Sound: I use humbucker pickups on this amp. I played my friend Strat that has single coil pickups and I find that distortion doesn't sound as rich anf full as with humbuckers. When clean single coils and humbuckers perform beautifully on it. It suits and style but it is more catered to metal and rock. This amp is dead quiet. When your not playing it makes very little or absolutly no noise. It has an incredible variety of sounds (see above for a full list of effects). The clean channel becomes slightly distorted at high volumes, (mind you I tried it on my other guitar and it sounded cleaner, so I guess it depends on the guitar how distorted it gets). The distortion is brutal. I love it. The overdrive will make it heavier even when using the insane channel. // 8
Reliability & Durability: You can depend on this amp. I wouldn't go to a gig with the 15 watt model of this amp just because it just doesn't have the power to get loud enoguh. If I had a larger version of this amp I would use it in a gig without a backup. My amp has never broken down (mind you it is a practise amp). // 9
Impression: I play metal and rock and it is a great match for that. it's is an adaquate match for anything else. I Have been playing for 3 years and own an Ibanez RG350DX. The people who sold it to me told me everything I needed to know. I would get the same amp if it were lost or stolen because well, it's awesome. I love the amount of distortion and different amp models on it.I don't hate anything about it. I compared it to a Marshall 15 watt. I chose this one because of the range os sound and tones. I wish it had a few more amp models but the larger models like the 50 watt have that. // 9
Reviewed by:
jo3myster, on may 29, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: First off I'd like to say that the Line 6 Spider III 15 is a very great amp to use all around. What I liked about this amp is that it has channel switching from, clean, crunch, metal and, insane. I like insane the most though because, well it sounds insanely awesome. The thing I wish it had the most is a built in tuner because I do not have a tuner of my own yet and my guitars are out of tune and usually always are out of tune. I also don't like the echo control or the other stuff that can make it sound weird. I also like the power for its small size. // 9
Sound: For now I'm using a Squire Mini Strat. I am not really sure what types of pickups they are but they are not any thing new they're the ones that came with it. This amp suits my style of music perfectly, because I play allot of types of rock. I play, metal, screamo, emo, alternative, and some punk (it's better for most types of metal) As specially types of metal were it is all deep and low sounding. Other than low sounds it can also make like some weird noises like echo and phaser or something like that. // 8
Reliability & Durability: The spider 15 is pretty durable for it's size, and no I wouldn't use it for a gig because I don't think is loud enough for a gig. But if it was a little bit bigger I would use it for a gig. I have just gotten it recently so it hasn't broken down or blown out yet so it's pretty reliable. // 7
Impression: My over all impression of this amp is that is a stupendous amp to play rock on or any type of metal, because all of the channels are meant for some sort of rock. I have been playing this for almost a month now and it still as like brand new. This amp is so good that if I lost and or got it stolen I would buy in a heart beat. I also love that it is very easily stored and takes up very little room for such a small amp. // 9
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on june 19, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 65
Purchased from: Guitar center
Features: I got this amp used at guitar center it's 15 watts 4 channels: clean, crunch, metal and insane with 3 band eq and 6 fx:chorus\Flange, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo and reverb. There is no fx loop the poepl at Line 6 probably thought that with all the fx that people wouldn't need them and there is no footswitch only a headphone jack and record out (idk Who would record with this amp) and master volume. I use it as a practice amp in my small room and never turn it past half way on either volume control. The distortion is very digital and I am getting a Boss ds-1 to get over that. // 8
Sound: I am using a Squier Jagmaster with stock humbuckers and is not modded right now I play mostly classic rock and blues with some grunge and noise rock it sounds very digital no matter what settings you use I never use the metal or insane channels so I don't know about them as I don't play metal and the clean channel buzzes really bad despite the humbuckers and noise gate on. Out of the effects I only use the reverb and chorus the others I don't like and the sweep echo is useless. // 7
Reliability & Durability: It seems very reliable I got it used from guitar center I don't know how much abuse the previous owner put it though but I treat it gently and never use it outside of my room I would not use it at a gig it is way to small to use I know people that have used it and they had to mic it in a 2000 square foot room to get heard above the drums and bass it's an 8 only because it has never broken down. // 8
Impression: As I said above I play classic stuff and it suit's it pretty well I have been playing for 1 year I started out on Acoustic and this is my first amp the only reason I got it was it was cheap and I couldn't afford a bigger amp but I've gotten some more so in the fall I will be selling it for a bigger Marshall or a Fender the bigger spider amps are just as digital and fake sounding only louder if it was lost or stolen I've just get a bigger amp sooner and would feel sorry for who stole it because it's a terrible amp. // 6
Reviewed by:
actaderock, on july 03, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 200
Purchased from: La Colonial
Features: I don't know where the amp was made (I threw away the box). I think it fits every genre, with the no distortion it's really cool to play arpeggiated/chord progression style stuff, you know, Pynk Floyd, U2 but even Guns N Roses and Blink 182. The next level is called Crunch, it is perfect for AC/DC, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, its tone is awesome. The next level is called Metal and I think it is really good for Metal and Punk, this one is my favourite. The last one is called 'insane' because it is insane for sure, I just tap with it or bother with it, it is the one that is less matters, but still cool. The amp its self has a lot of reverb, flanger, etc. and more etc. effects, so I think that by nailing you can get perfect tones.
It has 4 channels and it does have channel switching, you can even Jam whith the mp3 by connecting it to your amp (but I prefer jamming with the mp3 in the computer, or sometimes the guitar pro file and removing the guitar track, but it would be really good for places without a computer, like minutes before the gig).
Sincerly, future wise, I can't expect more of this amp.
I use it mostly to Jam home, or to make crappy home recordings, but I also lent it to some girl that was preparing a coreography, she said ''lend me your guitar amp, it has SO MUCH POWER'' I also use it to practice it with my band and it does get over the drums without putting it to FULL BLAST. One time, I was jamming/recording at a friend's house with it and its volume was below 2 and it was sounding at a decent volume for jamming, when he saw it wasn't at 7 as he thought he said ''let me lay to this amp dude.'' // 9
Sound: I'm using an Epiphone SG Special and has 2 double pickups in it. After experimenting with it since April, I've found out really cool stuff, for example, with semi-full blast in the amp, but having a low tone in the guitar gives a kickass tone for hard rock lead jamming (combinations are infinite)
It suit's every style as said before, I've found it really good for hard rock (I'm getting to it a lot lately, so it is what I'm playing the most, but nothing to do with the amp actually, it is just me). It is not noisy! I don't know why people say that, maybe it is their guitars or something like that, but I haven't had noise problems with it. You have 6 effects, 4 channels, mid, treble, bass, 2 volume knobs and even the option for a noise gate and another thing (I don't remember the name) that the harder you strumm the more distortion it will have. So I'd say combinations are a lot (plus what ever you can combine with your guitar knobs).
The clean channel sounds kinda distorted at high levels, but it will sound distorted if you want, by strumming hard and having on the option I mentioned in the past paragraph. But anyway, that volume is something that you don't imagine, you don't need that volume to Jam at home.
The Distortion is the best distortion I've ever seen and it doesnt't sound as ''artificial'' as with a distortion pedal. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I've had this amp only for 3 months, but it does look really solid, I haven't used it at gigs, just because they have other amps there, but I would use it.
As said before, I've just had it for 3 months, I hope it never breaks down, but it looks pretty stable. // 9
Impression: Pop Punk, Hard Rock and a little bit of Reggae, it fit's EVERYTHING! I've been playing the guitar for 2 years and I own an Epiphone SG Special, a DigiTech Delay Pedal (for gigs, but this amp has a delay in it) and some crappy, cheap Acoustic. I'm not sure if I wouldv asked something else. If it was stolen, lost, I'd try something new, not because it is bad, just because I like new stuff, I'd probably buy the 30W. I love the ''Metal'' channel, it is great, if I lower my guitar tone, it fit's perfectly hard rock, if I have it in the middle, it fit's punk and it sounds soooo coool and sincerly, I don't hate anything about it. I did compare it to a 30W Laney, but this beats it HARD. It fit's more styles, specially the ones at the extremes (super hard, super soft). // 9
Reviewed by:
anjayloo, on april 03, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 77.3
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: The Line 6 Spider III is a great amp for a beginner guitarist. It has 4 channels: clean (which sucks because it has a flangy phaser sound that makes it sound awful), crunch, metal, and insane (my personal favorite) and it has 6 built in effects (chorus flange, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb: 2 simultaneous). If only this amp had some type of autowah or touch wah I would give this amp a 10 for features. Otherwise, it's a great amp for the beginner guitarist because it's not too expensive, but it lets you experiment with different types of effects and sounds before you decide on buying a better and more expensive amp. Other features on this amp include the headphone jack that allows you to play without disturbing your neighbors and the CD/mp3 input which allows you to play along with your favorite tunes. This amp is best for heavy music like metalcore, emo, hardcore, hard rock, etc. It sounds pretty good when you combine the insane distortion with a little bit of the reverb. I don't like the metal channel that much because a lot of the notes seem dull and there is very little lead. One last thing. This amp is loud. Don't underestimate the 15 watts of power coming out from its 8" speakers. I put this amp next to my bookshelf and turned the master volume up to 75% of it's max and once I started playing a few chords, some of my books on my shelf started vibrating and fell off my shelf. // 8
Sound: I use a G-400 Deluxe with humbucking pickups. For the most part it sounds great for heavy music, but once you start playing other types of genres like country, jazz, etc. it sounds horrible. Sometimes the distortion sounds too fuzzy and muddy. Also, sometimes if you try picking notes with a lot of distortion, you get an electrical humming noise that sounds awful. I found a way to get around this problem. I bought a DigiTech Grunge distortion and turned the amp on the clean channel. It sounds 5 times better than the amp's preset channels. This amp is great to use with most effects pedals as long as you turn the amp on the clean channel. However, if you only use the clean channel and no other effects, it makes a noise that sounds like a combination between a phaser and flange which makes the worst clean sound possible. Also, the sound on this amp sounds too dull and warm unless you turn down the bass on the equalizer. However, if you turn the bass too low, it sounds very stringy and thin. My favorite settings are when the bass is relatively low with a high mid and semi high treble. This amp should only be bought buy either a beginner guitarist Who wants to experiment with sounds or someone Who likes playing music with a lot of distortion. // 7
Reliability & Durability: I've only had this amp for about half a year. So far it hasn't broken down. I've accidentally crashed the side of this amp into a doorknob, but nothing seemed to have happened (Not even a scratch). It seems very durable and well built. Also, if you travel a lot it should be no problem. I've brought this amp back and forth many times from my house to my church and it's still fine. // 10
Impression: Overall this amp matches really well with my style of heavy metal. I've been playing electric for about half a year now after playing acoustic for a year, and piano for 8 years. I like the great lead I get with the DigiTech Grunge distortion pedal I own. If I had the chance to buy this product again, I would not. It is a great beginner amp, but I'm sure there's plenty of other amps out there that can top this one. I made a mistake by choosing this amp because I did not experiment with the clean channel before buying it. The clean channel sucks, but as you add more and more distortion it sounds better. // 7
Reviewed by:
myearshurt, on september 14, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: SamAsh
Features: It's a 15 watt amp, with a crapload of features. Like most have said, it has 4 different channels, clean, crunch, metal and insane. It also has 6 awesome built in effects, chorus/flanger, phaser. tremolo. delay echo, tape echo and reverb. This amp suits what I need perfectly, I play a lot Red Hot Chili Peppers stuff, so I'm almost always using the clean channel. Adding the chorus in makes it sound even better, the effects are really high quality. This is an extremely versatile amp, I forgot to add that there's a also treble, bass, mid, Drive and channel vol knobs. The Drive basically sets the gain level on the distortion channels. The crunch channel seems a bit weak, and sounds like my old amp's crappy distortion. The metal is too down the low end, and unclear. The insane channel is the best of 'em, but still not perfect. This amp gets loud enough for people to hear me 2-3 houses away, but it does tend to get a bit noisy, even with the in-build noisegate turned on. Also, there is a headphone jack and a CD/mp3 input for playing along with your favourite songs and recording directly to your computer. // 9
Sound: I'm using a Fender Standard Stratocaster (all stock). With the volume low, the pickups don't get noisy at all, which is great. It suits my music style great, I love the different interesting tones I can get using the effects with the clean channel. The amp gets noisy if you turn it up loud (the noisegate can cut out some of it though). This small amp makes a LOT of different sounds, thanks to its 4 channels and 6 effects. The distortion is crazy on the insane channel, but on the crunch, is super weak and bad quality. Same on the metal channel. // 7
Reliability & Durability: Yes, I can depend on it, but not for a gig, due to the fact that the volume knob moves really easily at the slightest touch, and dramatically raises and lowers the volume if you move it one degree. This amp is for home use only. It hasn't broken down on me yet. // 9
Impression: I've been playing bass for about 2 years and guitar for half a year. My strat and this amp is all I own now (I used to own a Fender Active P-Bass). IF this were stolen, of course I'd buy it again, it's only $99.99! I love the fact that it's cheap and has a lot of quality features. I compared this to the Fender Frontman 25R (which I was going to get), but I like this better. Wish it had better distortion channels, and maybe a footswitch for the effects and channels. Pretty annoying when you get to a distortion part of a song and have to press the channel button. // 8
Reviewed by:
ColCommunism, on december 27, 2007 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I got this amp new from Guitar Center in December 2007. It's a solid state 15 watt amp. It has four effects channels, clean, crunch, metal, and insane. Contrary to what you might think, crunch is the cleanest. Clean actually has a weird echo effect. Metal is an excellent high-gain channel, but insane is something of a waste. It has probably the most distortion possible, and is really fuzzy and awful. The amp has all the regular dials, drive, bass, mid, treble, and so on. For effects, it's got flanger, phaser, tremolo, sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb, all of which sound fine. It has a standard line out jack and a CD in, which is a 3.5mm jack that lets you use it basically as a speaker with two inputs. This amp gets extremely loud, I use it for bedroom practice, and almost never take it above 2. For metal and classic rock, this amp has the perfect effects and distortion. The Insane channel is enough of a waste, though, that I have to give it an 8 in features. // 8
Sound: A lot of people say this amp sounds really digital, but it sounds fine to me. Maybe my ears not developed, but it sounds warm and authentic enough, at least for a $100 amp. I've got a Fender Highway One Stratocaster with three single coils, and it sounds great. Again, though, the Insane setting just sounds ridiculously bad for most songs. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I haven't had this amp for very long, but it seems like it would be reliable enough, although I'm not sure how it would handle very high volumes. For gigging, I would probably take a backup (it is a 15 watt amp, after all), but I would consider it for a primary amp. // 9
Impression: Again, for classic rock and metal, this amp is a perfect match for a practice amp. If you're looking for a concert amp, keep searching, but if you want a cheap bedroom practice amp, or even an amp for band practice, try this out. If you want a quieter amp for a little more and with a few more features, check out the Roland Micro Cube. Personally, I'll stick with the Spider. // 9
Reviewed by:
longman240, on may 20, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 69.00
Purchased from: Professional Music Technology (Birmingham)
Features: This amp is perfect for a beginner, it's not too complcated but it's not too simple either, there are 4 preset modes on this amp these are: Clean, Crunch (My Favourite), Metal and Insane. All the channels provide a good sound and do their job flawlessly. A plus point to these settings is that if you want to tweak the sound you can do so by tweaking the respective knobs and then save your own setting under that name by holding the button for that mode down. I am a bedroom guitarist Who mostly plays things with a hint of wetness and distortion (Nirvana, Hendrix, Deep Purple, GnR etc.) and for me this is the perfect amp, it has just the right amount of each type of sound and is not too loud if you're someone Who likes playing quietly. It has a headphone jack so that you can rock out in private, and output slot so that you can record to your PC and you can also use the headphone jack to plug your MP3 player in and Jam along with your favourite tunes. There are also 6 effects including, octaver, delay, chorus and phaser(perfect for the Machine Head stuff), of these you can apply two at any one time. The main competition for this amp would be the Peavey Vypyr 15 (worth checking out), but I didn't think it was worth £20 more and it has been reported to be unreliable. // 9
Sound: I mainly use the Crunch channel and I find it brilliant as it gives the riffs that warm tone as well as the wetness and distortion for the required effect, the Metal and Insane (only found on Line 6 amps) channels have a huge amount of distortion and are perfect for playing Metallica, Slipknot and Machine Head tunes, even through the distortion the sound is pretty good it's highly recommended on sound quality. One qualm I do have with this amp is when playing on the clean channel there is a delay which is annoying as I find it off-putting when trying to play Stone Sour or Snow Patrol however this can be adjusted by tweaking the knobs for treble, bass and other sound stuffs, I can't remember the exact settings but you should be able to find them on the internet. At high volume the clean channel distorts quite a bit and can give a huge amount of feedback, but that's only at the topmost volume, at mid-top it is fine. // 8
Reliability & Durability: Obviously this amp was not made to be used at gigs but it could be used at a small venue, I.e. Schools performances and pub gigs. It is extremely durable as I have dropped it a couple of times once halfway down the stairs and the other time when putting it away behind the bed, and it has had no damage what'soever, it doesn't get dusty quickly and is easy to store away because of it's size and it is very hard-wearing. Very Good Quality. // 9
Impression: I play this with a PRS 22 Turtletop copy, and it sounds awesome. It has a bounty of features and is a match made in heaven for a beginner guitarist looking for an amp, I tried this amp and a Peavey Vypyr 15 and found this to be superior but I would consider looking into the Peavey, however the Peavey is VERY complicated whereas the Line 6 is bish bosh straight out of the box, if it was stolen I'd mourn for two weeks then buy a new one! I love the fact that it's really easy to setup and play and is good for jamming with others, if there's one thing I wish it had it would have to be built in backing tracks so that I wouldn't have to plug my MP3 in all the time, apart from that it is perfect. I highly recommend this amp and would take a serious look into it before choosing which amp to buy, and it this price it's a steal, I think it may have gone up to £79 now I'm not sure, but still a steal. If possible, try it before you buy because everyone has their own preferences. Solid amp, with a solid sound. // 9
Reviewed by:
dgw2jr, on may 18, 2009 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I believe it was made in 2008. The amp was not versatile enough for me so I returned it to the store in exchange for a Vox AD30VT. 2 channels, no foot pedal option on this one. I wish it had more tone and a bigger speaker but hey it's 1ess than 100 bucks so whatever. it's got some effects but they are kinda hard to dial in just right. // 6
Sound: I'm using an Ibanez RG3EX1 with "Designed by EMG" pickups in the neck and bridge. I used another Ibanez at GC to test it out and it seemed ok but when I got it home I think my pickups were a little to hot for this little amp. The speaker sounded like it was going to rip itself apart and I didn't even have it turned up very loud. The clean channel is awful. In any pup position the speaker would buzz terribly when playing notes A through C in any octave. I assume this speaker has a resonant frequency somewhere in that range and the speaker cage vibrates with the cone, making a wretched sound. The Insane mode was cool for about 5 minutes. The metal and crunch tones have no feel to them at all, it truly feels digital. I suppose it's ok for someone Who is just starting out and wants to play Slipknot and nothing else. // 4
Reliability & Durability: I returned it, so therefore no I would not use it at a gig or anything like that. It doesnt't have the power to play a gig anyways unless you were playing in a tiny coffee shop somewhere but even then the audience would tell you to take your toneless 100 dollar amp and GTFO. it's got an open back so the speaker and wires could be damaged quite easily I suppose. // 6
Impression: I play all kinds of music, from Johnny Cash to Led Zeppelin, Slayer to Pearl Jam, and even some classical like Paganini. This amp is not a good match for people like me Who enjoy playing all styles of music. The sound it produces is just far too soulless. Everything you play makes you feel the same you did when you first started playing back when your first guitar was a cheap Cort that had 5 strings and playing it through your buddies RCA home stereo that he found in a dumpster. Everything sounds like utter crap and you doubt you'll ever be any good so might as well quit. Of course, the moment of jubilation comes when you play a real guitar through a nice amp. Everything sounds just right. This amp will not give you that feeling. I recommend it for young kids or people just starting out, that way they have something to look forward too when they get their chops up. A much better amp in the future... // 4
Reviewed by:
dviv17, on june 09, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 95
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This is a great amp, and excellent for the price. It has 4 channels, clean, crunch, metal, and insane. If you want to just play louder and cleaner, just turn up the master volume control and keep the channel volume down all the way so you don't get any of the echo from the clean. There's a headphone jack, a CD/MP3 jack, and the headphones is also a recording feature. This amp has plenty of power for practicing, which I mainly do at my computer. // 8
Sound: I've used a Squier Strat and Squier Tele and they both work fine with it. I play mostly classic rock and some heavier stuff, like Black Sabbath, and the metal is great. I like the Drive knob, and it works well. The amp has a ton of variety, and their are 6 different effect, and you can vary their effect. The effects are: Chorus Flange, Phaser, Tremolo, Sweet Echo, Tape Echo, and Reverb. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I think you can definitely depend on it. I don't do gigs so I wouldn't really know how that would work out. It hasn't broken, and seems to be in full working condition. I haven't got good sound recently, but that's because I need a new cable. Hopefully once I get that (anybody have a suggestion?) I should be able to get great sound again. // 10
Impression: It handles all kinds of music well, and I can usually get the tone I want by fiddling with it for a little bit. If it was stolen and somebody gave me the money I paid for it then, yes, I would buy it again. My favorite feature is probably the effects, since I'm a beginner guitarist and had never got to use effects before, besides distortion. I mainly chose this one because I liked the features it came with and I could get it at a great price for the Memorial Day sale. // 8
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on april 24, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 94.8
Purchased from: Archambault
Features: The amount of features this 15 watt solid state amp had drew me to it. There are four channel switches (Clean, Crunch, Metal, and Insane), a knob for Drive, 3 EQ knobs, a channel volume knob, two effects knobs (one with chorus/flange, phaser, and tremolo, the other with sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb), a tap delay time button, a master volume knob, a 1/4" headphone jack out and a 1/8" CD/MP3 player in. There is also a distortion boost and a noise gate that can be activated by pressing buttons in combination with turning knobs. Each channel has a "memory" that includes effects, distortion, and equalization settings. The factory presets can easily be overwritten. Because there are so many channels and effects, it would be nice if there was the option to attach a footswitch to this amp. The cost of adding a port to attach a Switch is probably minimal and I wonder why Line 6 didn't do it. I can't think of any other amp of this size and in this price range that has nearly as many features and so it rates a 9. // 9
Sound: Line 6 is famous for amplifier modeling amps, and this little practice amp contains some of those features. The 'crunch' channel is based on a 1968 100 watt Marshall Plexi; the 'metal' channel is based on a Mesa Dual Rectifier. Does this amp give a convincing replication of either of those? It doesn't, but try finding me a Vintage Marshall head for around a hundred bucks. That said, it's a good sounding small amp and is excellent for practicing. I mostly play metal on an Ibanez S-series through this thing and the amp suits my playing style well. The 'metal' and 'insane' channels manage to provide a decent amount of tonal variety while offering high gain distortion. I don't use the 'crunch' channel often because of my playing style, but it gives a good classic rock sound. 'Clean' does what it says on the box and can be jazzed up with some effects. Though the built-in effects were one of the main reasons why I bought this amp, I don't find them as useful as I expected. It's annoying having the reverb effect on the same knob as the two echo effects because I can't play with both at the same time. Some of the effects are completely useless to me. I mean, Who really needs a phaser? There's also not much control over the effects. Because of the knob system, if you want an effect you have control only over how much of it you want. There are no options for feedback levels, depth of effects, or any of the other features you'd get on a dedicated pedal. Again, you have the question of quality of the features versus the amp's price. A Boss DD-5 delay pedal costs more than this amp. If you're serious about effects, you're better off buying an effects processor or pedals; if you want more variety with your sound than a regular practice amp will give you, this Line 6 is great. The amp puts out plenty of volume. I Live in an apartment and have neighbours to contend with so I rarely have the thing turned up much past '1'. I've cranked it up once before and tested the headroom on the clean channel, it distorts with the knob all the way up. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I've only had this amp for a month and a half and haven't had any problems with it yet. I have friends Who have owned other Line 6 gear and they've never had any problems with it Line 6 is a company with a good reputation for making quality products. I wouldn't gig with it because it doesn't produce enough volume for a Live venue, but it seems reliable. // 10
Impression: I'm just getting back to playing guitar after a few years of not playing it because I was traveling. I got rid of most of my gear, but used to play an SG through a Marshall JCM 900 head and 4x12 cab. Including the break I took from the guitar, I've been playing for around 15 years, and I've played through a decent variety of gear in those years. That said, this Line 6 amp is a great amp for what it is. I used to practice through a Peavey Blazer 158 and there is absolutely no comparison between the sound of these two amps: the Line 6 wins hands down. It of course has limitations, but find me a 15 watt solid state practice amp that doesn't. It says a lot that one of my "problems" with the amplifier is that it has more features than I actually need--you won't find that on any other amp in this price range. I wish that I had one when I was starting to play. // 9
Reviewed by:
littlec, on february 27, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Features: First of all I do not own this amp. My friend does. So when we jam this is the amp that he uses. He has left it at my house and I have had plenty of time playing around with it so I think I have a definite feel for it and its capabilities. Now as for features this amp has got it all. If your a beginner, this amp has everything you would want pretty much. It has about 5 distortions, a master EQ, and some basic effects such as phaser, flanger, trem, delay, and reverb. All are adjustable and some are combinable. One thing that is kind of annoying is whenever switching channels or distortions some of the effects get turned on even when the dials are all the way off. It makes no sense to me why they would incorporate that into the amp. So as far as features I give it a 9. // 9
Sound: I myself play with a Fender Telecaster. My friend(Who the amp belongs to) plays an Ibanez with an EMG in the bridge and the stock pickups in the neck and middle. Both of the guitars sound decent through the amp but not great. But that just seems to be the nature of Line 6. I have never been impressed with their sound and I have played through a number of Line 6 amps. The clean channel sounds pretty good but the distortion(any of them) have a muffled tone to them that you cannot get rid of. It sounds very digital. But then again that's what it is. It's a cheap solid state amp and you get what you pay for. As far as tone, there is not much versatility here. I have played around with this amp a lot and it is pretty basic with the tones you can get out of it. The effects are nice and they work. They aren't great but hey, that's really all that matters in a practice amp. I give the sound quality for this amp a 4. 10 being great, 5 being average, and 4 being below average. It just honestly does not sound good at all compared to other amps you can buy in the price range. // 4
Reliability & Durability: As I don't own it I can't really say much about the reliability but nothing has ever gone wrong on me or my friend Who owns the amp. I guess the only problem with it really is the fact that it turns on the effects whenever you Switch channels or distortions. So for reliability and durability I give it a 9. // 9
Impression: Basically if your a beginner and all you can spend is $99 (the common price for this amp) then go for it. But if you think you can spend up to $150 or even $200 then you can get something much better. You might not get all the goodies that come with this amp but you will get a much nicer sound out of most other practice amps. Bad sound bores me and it's not very inspiring. I own a Crate 15 watt amp and it blows the Line 6 out of the water in terms of audio quality. I payed $150 for it and in my opinion it's one of the best practice amps you can buy. Anyway like I said if your budget is constrained then by all means by this amp. But overall it isnt that great. // 5
Reviewed by:
Keethran, on april 10, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This amp is loaded with features, for a $100 15w amp. It has four different amp models, clean, crunch, metal, and insane. It has two effects knobs, so two can be on at once, and the effects are good standard effects one should have in their arsenal in my opinion, like reverb, tape echo, sweep echo, chorus/flanger, tremolo and phaser. It has a headphone jack for anyone who needs to practice in a quiet or household environment. It also has an eigth-inch input jack, for plugging in an mp3 player, CD player, any kind of stereo system you'd want to. // 10
Sound: The amp has four different amp models, clean, crunch, metal, and insane. I don't use metal or crunch too much, because just by turning the gain down on the insane channel I can get different distortion settings on it. The insane channel gives me all the distortion I could ever want, and I like playing metal a lot. I use clean a lot when I'm playing jazz or acoustic type songs, and the clean channel gives good tonal range. // 8
Reliability & Durability: Reliability-wise, I've never had a problem with this amp. Nothing has ever broken down on it. It's a very durable amp, I've transported it to practice places, and it's fallen down in the trunk a few times, but nothings ever happened to it. It's also been knocked down in practice a few times by our bassist Who's rather clumsy, but again, nothings ever gone wrong, it's a very durable amp. // 10
Impression: I play a lot of rock, metal, and jazz stuff, and this amp gives me nice tones for each of these genres, plus a buttload of effects I can use for whatever I want. It's the only amp I've owned so far, but from what I've heard of other amps and what I've checked out at places, for the price, it is an amazing practice amp in my opinion. A great buy! // 9
Reviewed by:
AwesomenessFTW, on august 02, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: The Spider III 15 Model Amp by Line 6 is a great bang for your buck. It's the cheapest in the series of Spider III's, but it doesn't let down on anything. There's a headphone jack, 4 channels, and it has recordable capabilities. You can play really anything on this amp. The four channels, Clean, Crunch, Metal, and Insane, are easy to Switch between(I find I usually play on Insane, because I'm in a punk band). All you have to do is press a button to get a different style of music. This amp is great for playing small gigs, because with its relatively small size (easy to carry) comes a huge sound. People can definitely hear this amp! There are also two effects knobs. One has the effects chorus/flange, phaser, and tremolo. The other has Sweep Echo, Tape Echo, and Reverb. There are a lot of possibilities with this amp. You can Switch from blues to death metal just like that! The only thing I wish it had was distortion control. It has all other settings knobs, except distortion. I guess you can never really have a perfect amp. // 9
Sound: I honestly use a First Act while playing on this amp. But it really gets the sound that a Gibson would make! This amp can turn anything into a great instrument. It's very controlled soundwise, even on the Insane setting, which has a lot of distortion. The clean channel stays clean at every volume. The only pet peeve I have is, if you put this amp at a high volume on clean, crunch, or metal, when you switch to insane, you get horrible feedback. It might be because of other electronic devices, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the sound on this amp is versatile and caters to a lot of different styles, including classic rock, blues, metal, hard rock, extreme metal, and acoustic. I would play this over an expensive amp any day. // 8
Reliability & Durability: One can really depend on this amp. Even if you neglect it or use it as a backup, it'll still be reliable and will never let you down. I would use this amp at a small gig without a backup, because it is very tough. Mine has fallen many times on accident and it sounded exactly the same afterwards. It will probably never break down if you take care of it. // 9
Impression: As I mentioned before, I play punk rock, and it really gets the edginess that I want in an amp. But when I want to play blues or something like that, I can get that nice clean bluesy sound. Overall, this is a great amp. I've been playing it for a couple of months now, and that's all I need to know it'll never let me down. I love everything about it and I would definitely buy it again if I lost it. It's the cheapest in the series, but it's probably the most reliable. // 9
Reviewed by:
NICKmetalP, on august 19, 2008 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: This is an incredible amp for the money. Most amps this price only have one level of distortion and no effects at all. This Line 6 model has four levels of distortion(Clean, crunch, metal, insane) and four effects (Flange and chorus, tremelo, phaser, and three different delays) making it a great amp for just about any musical style, from the calmest of blues to the heaviest of metal. // 9
Sound: I use an Alexi-200 with one EMG Blackout pickup, and with some of the amps brutal distortion, it sounds incredible. I play just about anything and with the amp's wide range of distortion, gain, Drive, bass, and treble, I can find a perfect sound for any style. The volume only adds distortion to distorted settings, and the clean always stays clean. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I haven't had this amp for very long, so this model's durability hasn't been tested yet. No problems yet. I don't have much to write here, but I can't submit this review until I take up some space here. // 10
Impression: Overall, probably the best amp you can get for a price this low. It matches any style well due to it's many effects and distortion settings. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably buy a more expensive amp with better quality, but if you're low on money, this is the amp to buy. // 9
Reviewed by:
Malintention, on march 20, 2007 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: 15 watts, solid state amp with an 8in custom speaker. I don't know when it was made. It's got four channels: clean, crunch, metal and insane. 6 effects (up to two at the same time), flanger/chorus (depending on if you have the intensity maxed out or what), phaser, tremolo, sweep and tap Echoes, and reverb. Intensity levels an be adjusted using the knob. There's a master and channel volume. Gain, treble, mids, and bass controls to fine tweak each channel. The four preset channels can be reset and then you can store your desired tone. You an activate the noise gate, distortion boost, or control delay time for Echoes. Word to the wise when using the clean channel the echo turns on, to avoid this and any other auto effects, hold the insane button while turning the amp on. Headphone jack, and CD/mp3 jack. I play in my bedroom, and around the house, if you have your channel volume maxed out, don't go past 2 with the master volume. Great amp, totally worth it. Of course as you get better you'll want better, but for a while this works great. // 10
Sound: I've got two electrics, Fender Duo Sonic dual single coils, and an Epiphone Les Paul Special 2 dual humbuckers, and a Dean ML coming. Gotta tell you this amp is great with both, I also tried it out with a Dean-O-Flame and a Gibson Les Paul. This amp is great for them all. Clean channel stays clean no matter how high. Gets noisy with Insane and sometimes metal depending on if you've maxed out the gain, throw on the noise gate, problem solved. The distortion on this thing is great. This amp works great for what I play, mainly heavy metal (Pantera, Black Label Society, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Kiss]and hard rock [Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd) and even grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) and black metal (Cradle Of Filth, Amon Amarth). // 9
Reliability & Durability: Definately dependable. Seems sturdy enough to use without a back up. This thing weighs like 30 pounds, so it ain't much too lug around. Haven't broken it, yet, only had it for two weeks. So in the mean time, it's still kickin' and my guitars are screamin'. // 10
Impression: Like I said earlier I play heavy metal and this is a good match. For the price hands down this is the greatest amp. Dude, if this thing were to be stolen, I'd find the moron Who stole something from me, and show him the back of my guitar solo. If it were to break, I'd cry. But, yeah I'd definately get another one I got together the cash. I've tried the 120, and 75 and 30 watt versions, don't go for the 120, and the 75 you might wanna reconsider, as you might be able to get something with tubes and more/better effects. I love the effects, looks, sound and price. If you don't have it, and got $100, run to your nearest Guitar Center, and getcha pull. // 10
Reviewed by:
JakoSnako, on april 10, 2007 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: musiciansfriend.com
Features: This amp was made in 2006, and is a great amp. It has four main settings which are clean, crunch, metal, and insane. These settings are chosen with nice rubber buttons with an orange LED light behind each. It also has direct access to bass, drive, channel volume, MIDI, and treble with high quality chrome painted knobs. This amp has 6 effects as well making it even better. These are: phaser, reverb, tape echo, tremelo, chorus flange, and sweep echo. Each effect has a chrome painted knob that lets you specify the amount of each effect. Each Main setting has a programmable feature that keeps all tone setting and effects in it's memory, whenever you restart your amp, or change sttings, it reverts to these. It also has a jack that allows for recording directly from the amp, and a jack that allows you to play a CD through the amp and play along with it. // 10
Sound: The Clean setting offers low buzz and great bell-like sound. This setting reduces distortion to none, and all your notes are crisp and clear. The Crunch setting is not an ideal setting as there isn't much point to it. It can have an interesting sound though. The Metal setting is more of a muted insane setting. Not the best setting either, but at least Line 6 gives us variety. The Insane setting is where this amp shines it's brightest. This setting screams bloody murder when set up correctly. The Chorus Flange seems to have no effect on any setting except crunch, which really sucks because the crunch doesnt't sound too good. The Phaser can add some awesome effect to any setting, but sometimes it doesnt't sound too good. At lower settings, the phaser goes slower. The Tremelo does exactly what it needs to, the sound comes in as clicks when it is set all the way up, but each note is still discernible from the rest. At lowere settings, the volume swells and lowers. The Tape Echo captures each not very nicely, but it doesnt't last as long as you would hope. The Echoes seem to fade away to quickly. At lower settings, the Echoes are at a lower volume. The Sweep echo adds some nice sound to any setting, but it's not always desirable. Once again, the Echoes fade away too quickly. At lower settings, the echose are at a lower volume, as is the case with the tape echo. The Reverb is a great effect for anyone that is going to play Live in an auditorioum or the like. This effect gives a perfect echo that will help you get ready for any room. It will let you preview how your guitar will sound with the echo of a closed in area. Overall this amp sounds great, and delivers what you want. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This amp can stand up to a lot of abuse. It has fallen 10 feet and it didn't suffer a scratch. I play on it at a very loud volume and it still sounds brand new. None of the knobs or buttons are worn out at all, and each effect and setting still sounds perfect. I wouldn't bring this amp to a gig without a backup as it just doesnt't have all the things you might need, but I wouldn't need a backup because of broken parts or the like. // 10
Impression: I play a lot of heavy metal and this amp is just what I need. The insane setting has perfect distortion and scream. The clean setting allows me to play and soft mellow songs like Sanitarium, Nothing Else Matters, and Too Late. I love mostly every aspect of this amp. // 9
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on june 16, 2008 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 99
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I don't know what year the amp was made. This amp is very versatile, but that being said, it adheres to the cliche "Jack of all trades/master of none." I play metal, hardcore, and rock. I stick with bands such as A7X, Atreyu, Smashing Pumpkins and others. Between the 4 channels (clean, crunch, metal, and insane) I can usually get the sound I want but, only after I wrestle with the thing for a minute or two. I use the headphone jack sometimes when I play late and it sounds so clear that sometimes I have to check to make sure the headphones are actually plugged in. One thing which hurts this amp badly is that it doesn't have footswitch compatibility. This is a big miss for Line 6. Another thing is that some of the presets have some obnoxious amounts of echo and phaser on them that you have to adjust everytime you use the channels. The amp is loud and powerful if you are going to be playing in a bedroom or 1-2 car garage you will never turn it all the way up. // 6
Sound: I'm playing on an Ibanez RG120. The amp suits my music style quite well and its versatility is vast though not convenient. As I said before the amp has several presets. The clean channel is what it is. There is no breakup whatsoever. The crunch and metal are two degrees of the same thing. The insane channel however is only good for lead guitar. Chords tend to get washed out in it. Playing chords on insane preset is probably where this amp reputation for being digital comes from. Both of the echo effects, the tremelo, phaser, flange, and reverb, don't sound like they should in one way or another. This is especially true on the clean and insane channels. // 7
Reliability & Durability: This amp seems sturdy. I haven't throw it around or anything and I probably wouldn't even if it were made out of steel. As for reliability. I haven't had any changes in performance after heavy use. I would take it to a gig if it weren't for the fact that it's only 15 watts. // 9
Impression: This amp is a good match for the style of music I play. However, there are several things that have lead me to dislike this amp: the lack of footswitch compatibility, the poorly engineered effects (phaser, echo etc.), and the clumsiness of the interface make this a regrettable buy. I haven't owned for long, but the issues are so intolerable that I'm spending another $100-150 to replace this amp. Instead of this amp I recommend the Vox pathfinder 15 watt or the Vox AD15VT both or Roland Cube X15 all of which are footswitchable. And if you don't care about the footswitch then forget the those entirely and go with Crate 15X. // 6
k90728
: The clean sucks on it. Insane is the best setting on it and it brings a pretty good distortion without any pedals. POSTED: 02/14/2007 - 07:35 pm / quote|
andy_h04
: yeah the clean setting is s**t i hate the presets though very annoying always having to change them when you turn the amp on... POSTED: 03/16/2007 - 12:44 am / quote|
Born 2 Slash
: My friend owns the 120 watt Spider III and I have a Marshall AVT 100 watt, and I have to say the Line 6 amps are not so bad. POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 10:57 am / quote|
BlackHawkA4
: Line 6 blows! Digital is crap ; too much break up on the high end. POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 11:24 am / quote|
GuitarJunkie
: i have the flextone i love it (line6) i hated the spider II but havnt played the III yet...anxious too though, just curious to see if the spider tech got less digital POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 12:56 pm / quote|
arondadi
: what's the diffrence between a spider II 15 and spider III 15? POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 02:53 pm / quote|
what's the diffrence between a spider II 15 and spider III 15?
for the spider III's they added in the special artist presets on the bigger models.as far as the normal presets on the smaller models(clean,crunch,metal
,insane), they're the same as the spider II I THINK.im not sure though and would actully like to knowi would actully like to as i have the spider II 210 and was intrested in the spider III's but im not guna sell my own and get a III if its just for the artisits presets which iv played and arnt that great,i mean there are some decent ones,but youve got to find them among the not so good ones shall i say :P POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 08:48 pm / quote|
haha why cant my 210 model be so light almost ripped my arm out my socket last time i picked it up :P POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 08:51 pm / quote|
k1ng_pooh
: peice of shit, god damn it i hate spiders. My band members spiderII 120 watts one broke, when ever he playes it goes lower and higher at randum and even when it wasn't broke at high volumes it jsut sucks my marshall dfx-50 kicks the shit outta it POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 10:20 pm / quote|
franc0ph0bic
: rofl andy_h04 made me laugh a lot during that review
i own this amp, and almost all of his complaints were on things that you can actually change if you read the fcking manual. The default effects for any channel can be changed by holding down the button for that channel. You do not need to turn it up any louder than barely audible to get any sound, as it is solid state and will sound the same at every volume. If it doesn't its a defect.
Also, the cleans are ok, but it just plain cant do overdrive/light distortion. The insane channel has so much gain you cant distinguish between any notes no matter what you are playing, which makes the channel almost completely useless. The effects are terrible and you pretty much get one setting for each one, which is not usually the one you want. POSTED: 03/19/2007 - 10:31 pm / quote|
chubb666
: yeah i bought the spuider II 3 months before they released spider III i should ahve done my research POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 09:48 am / quote|
IROBOTInferno
: a lot of people don't like the digital aspevts of this amp but i's really versitile and records VERY good. POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 12:14 pm / quote|
chiliwillifreak
: Wouldn't be bad for just practice i guess. POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 08:03 pm / quote|
H_ngm_n
: I have a Spider III 120 watt and it's a pretty awesome amp, my friend has a Marshall DSL 401, and he actually likes my amp more than his. I think Spider makes a pretty solid amp at a good price. POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 08:21 pm / quote|
though I believe you, very much...
we get the idea-----SPIDERS SUKK!!
so go w/ a ROLAND CUBE 60!!!!!much much better amps!! am I right or am I right?? heh? heh??
yeah thats what I thought-you better walk away...foo.
LOL!!--- really thouhg, CUBE 60!!!!! POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 09:51 pm / quote|
though I believe you, very much...
we get the idea-----SPIDERS SUKK!!
so go w/ a ROLAND CUBE 60!!!!!much much better amps!! am I right or am I right?? heh? heh??
yeah thats what I thought-you better walk away...foo.
LOL!!--- really thouhg, CUBE 60!!!!!
C_majzer
: if you can find anything that's better.... you could HAVE my PRS! POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 09:56 pm / quote|
C_majzer
: NO I don't really have a PRS... but if I did, you could have it--IF you can find an combo amp better than the CUBE 60 from ROLAND. POSTED: 04/03/2007 - 09:57 pm / quote|
Kunundrum
: Vetta is better POSTED: 04/04/2007 - 12:33 am / quote|
JakoSnako
: wow, its amazing how some people go on to most of these reviews simply to tell everyone that this or that sucks, i mean seriously get over it. no one cares about all ur opinions. POSTED: 04/11/2007 - 06:19 pm / quote|
S.D.M.F.
: hahahahaha man im with JakoSnako! your a bloody legend mate POSTED: 04/30/2007 - 06:17 am / quote|
megadeth_online
: for 15 watt...
its the best amp in da market...believe me
uptheirons17
: nice amp if your simply just using it to practise and record songs at home, i wouldnt play any gigs or band practises with it. And for the price who could go wrong. POSTED: 05/19/2007 - 04:10 pm / quote|
what's the diffrence between a spider II 15 and spider III 15?
i find the spider 3's have more bass to the sound, to the point where it sounds horrible unless you crank it up.
the noise gate has to be the best thing about this entire amp, cuz otherwise it hums and gets feedback like crazy. if you take some time with the eq clean isn't bad, and i find that i lose a lot of my picking definition in insane mode. plus it seems too thick and muddy. metal's ok, not quite as thick. crunch, as previously stated, sucks a$$. note that this is from home practice. we'll see how metal and insane hold up when i get with my band in a couple weeks. i have to use this until i get enough cash to get a cube, which will be about 3 weeks from now (mid-month payday).
does anybody else find that it sounds better through headphones? POSTED: 06/21/2007 - 10:20 pm / quote|
nice amp if your simply just using it to practise and record songs at home, i wouldnt play any gigs or band practises with it. And for the price who could go wrong.
well...the spider II 15 sucks and the spider III 15 sucks more..not good value for money...roland cube is the way to go..... POSTED: 06/30/2007 - 10:43 pm / quote|
520EXIIIFP
: Yo dudes xD, I got the Spider III pretty recently, in April or something. The first one i got was broken so I got reaaaally pissed off Had 2 wait for 2 weeks berfore I could get a new one, but when i finally got it i was impressed like h-ll, Couldn´t stop playing, I just love it thats why Im gonna buy a Floor Pod from Line 6, it really is the best 15 watt amp u can get on the market right now so shut the f-ck up and stop with your complaints just because its better than a da-n roland POSTED: 07/08/2007 - 12:58 pm / quote|
Snuffles
: I forgot to mention some features, if you hold the tap/delay button and crank the drive button past 12'O Clock it has a distortion boost or hold the tap/delay button and crank the echo/reverb knob past 12'O Clock and you have the noise gate POSTED: 07/11/2007 - 03:54 pm / quote|
nick11link
: The Spider III 15W is probably the best 15W amp on the market. It's affordable and sound nice, especially if you set it right. And it's an excellent practice amp. POSTED: 07/12/2007 - 04:58 pm / quote|
mister bass guy
: I WAS GONNA GET A ROLAND CUBE AMP, BUT THE GUY AT GUITAR CENTER SAID THIS IS BETTER. HELP ME OUT WHICH ONES BETTER? POSTED: 08/09/2007 - 09:03 pm / quote|
mister bass guy
: u can NEVER trust guitar center people... POSTED: 08/09/2007 - 09:03 pm / quote|
TheDisturbed78
: ive had this amp for 8 months and i dont see why ppl hate it so much, it sounds fine to me. POSTED: 08/29/2007 - 04:11 pm / quote|
trendkill-
: i got the 30 watt modle
its got a jack for the wah un like the 15 watt POSTED: 08/30/2007 - 03:35 pm / quote|
blackdeath1523
: I don't really like this amp. It has alot of feedback and it sounds like it has some cheap distortion. The insane channel sounds like crap because its got alot of feedback if its past like 5 volume. Whatever you do, i mean seriously, DONT GIG WITH IT! My spider III 75 watt can over power it on 3 and thats 1/4 of the way up. POSTED: 09/08/2007 - 07:40 am / quote|
rancidryan
: im thinking of getting this amp does anyone know of a similar one with a pedal jack? POSTED: 10/04/2007 - 02:08 pm / quote|
dextery
: Compared to Marshall MG15DFX, which one has a better sound quality? POSTED: 10/14/2007 - 02:40 am / quote|
Digitronix
: Do any pedals work on this amp? except Line 6 pedals???
btw, awesome stuff... get real, its a really cool amp 15W c'mon, i take it half way through and i dont even hav to call all my neighbourhood to come for a visit POSTED: 11/26/2007 - 06:46 am / quote|
Compared to Marshall MG15DFX, which one has a better sound quality?
The line 6 blows the marshall equiv out of the water, much better distortion, less break up and a more renouned tone. But thats my opinion. Best thing is to go to your local music shop and ask to try both. POSTED: 12/09/2007 - 01:44 pm / quote|
Metalic Demon
: This is one insane amp, i use a cort x6 and they go together like 2 pieces of lego
goldbuddist wrote:
you can use the drive knob to change the distortion effect on the insane and metal channels lol
(who the hell reads the instructions?)
im thinking of getting this amp does anyone know of a similar one with a pedal jack?
yeah the 30 watt version of this POSTED: 02/07/2008 - 03:12 pm / quote|
ironmadman87
: the truth is this amp really isn't that good, not even as a practice amp. I don't know why everyone is having an orgasm over this. There are waaay better products out there. The only feature that stands out is the clean mode, and the "insane" setting gets tiring quick. For beginners, it's an OK practice amp to jam on. For intermediate and advanced players, this amp just doesn't cut it. Like I said, there are way better distortion effects out there than this conveniently built-in modeling amp. POSTED: 03/13/2008 - 10:32 am / quote|
clyne39
: READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL. If you hold down the button for the channel it saves that channel for whatever settings you have on. So, you turn off the chorus effect on clean, then hold down clean and it stays like that. POSTED: 03/24/2008 - 08:29 pm / quote|
Do any pedals work on this amp? except Line 6 pedals???
btw, awesome stuff... get real, its a really cool amp 15W c'mon, i take it half way through and i dont even hav to call all my neighbourhood to come for a visit
it depends...it doesn't have a normal footswitch port in the back but any wah wah or eg boss/behringer distortion/overdrive should work fine with 2 leads POSTED: 04/16/2008 - 04:11 pm / quote|
the truth is this amp really isn't that good, not even as a practice amp. I don't know why everyone is having an orgasm over this. There are waaay better products out there. The only feature that stands out is the clean mode, and the "insane" setting gets tiring quick. For beginners, it's an OK practice amp to jam on. For intermediate and advanced players, this amp just doesn't cut it. Like I said, there are way better distortion effects out there than this conveniently built-in modeling amp.
for example? POSTED: 04/16/2008 - 04:12 pm / quote|
tried a boss metal zone an it didnt work.. then i tried some other cheap pedal. dont remember the brand an it worked...
thx anyway POSTED: 05/03/2008 - 08:03 am / quote|
dlmahtani
: how wud u get a pedal to work on the 15W??? POSTED: 05/06/2008 - 10:21 pm / quote|
Digitronix
: u plug it in like any normal pedal...
apearantly, not many work, however POSTED: 05/07/2008 - 07:19 am / quote|
iamironman000
: for all you people who are complaining about turning off phaser to get the perfect clean sound all you have to do is after you put it on clean is save that setting by holding the clean button after you got it to the clean you want. POSTED: 05/15/2008 - 05:49 pm / quote|
danny_page123
: I have this amp it is awesome! I can play loads of amazing songs on there coz there is loads of effects and shizzle. Anyone who has this amp play stairway to heaven on clean with full reverb and turn it to chorus flange. its sounds nice also u can use that setting to play enter sandman it sounds OKAY!!
Danny_page123 POSTED: 06/01/2008 - 11:54 am / quote|
Wigert
: This amp is a great one. Especially for its price. Get over yourself OMG-I-HAVE-A-MESA-BOOGIE-FOR-3000$ people. POSTED: 06/04/2008 - 04:14 pm / quote|
m4l666
: I have this amp as well. I agree that it's annoying that you have to turn it up so much to get better tone. I have solved this problem by playing with headphones. POSTED: 06/09/2008 - 01:07 pm / quote|
Carl_Barks
: i have a Marshall MG15CDR and having played a lot on the 30W version of this i am in second thoughts if i should have bought this one... anyway, the buying occured 2 years ago, now if i am going to buy sth new, it's going to be a Tube. Moooooneyyyyy (it's a crime! ) POSTED: 07/01/2008 - 12:16 am / quote|
dean749
: Need help...
Im meant to be getting a Roland cube 15x
which is good
but a guy who i know says to get this amp the line 6 spider III
i play rock/heavy metal music
Need abit of advise??? POSTED: 07/06/2008 - 07:00 am / quote|
Compared to Marshall MG15DFX, which one has a better sound quality?
The line 6 blows the marshall equiv out of the water, much better distortion, less break up and a more renouned tone. But thats my opinion. Best thing is to go to your local music shop and ask to try both.
I doubt it though it isn't much worse and the price is almost half of the Marshall 15dfx which I had which was as good or better though for practice the Line 6 is more practical. POSTED: 07/27/2008 - 12:52 pm / quote|
Features: The Line 6 Spider 3 (15/75/...) are the best amps i ever had used for it's price. It is a 4 channel amp with 6 effects (up to 2 at a time). It has a headphone jack and a CD/mp3 slot so you can play along with your music. if you ever hase played on it but don't have it you will kill someone for it// 9
Sound: I am using an fender squizer stratocaster. It fits perfectly with my style of music. This little 15w amp can get extremely noisy when it stands on full power, but choose the wrong settings and a lot of feedback comes in. The amp can make pretty decent sound when you have the tremolo and phaser on creates a futuristic kind of sound. Sometimes if there's too much treble/bass or mids the distortion kind of takes over the amp. The clean at high volumes doesn't distort (thankfulyl) but when you turn the amp off and on the clean has a phaser effect on it which can be annoying at times. // 8
Reliability & Durability: now i know how it work without pedal (15w isn't is suported for pedal's what isn't is nessacerie) i whant i bought the 30w with pedal :p // 9
LoveIsHell
: This is prolly one of the best practice amps on the market...however i think the crunch and metal channels are awful!!!...for me its all about the insane channel which is awesome for metal!!! POSTED: 08/28/2008 - 12:58 pm / quote|
psss
: ok this amp provides no good tone and dont be fooled that it does ok. although great for beginners it provides no use for anyone. its only good for beginners because its cheapish, and has a got alot of features but you must understand that its NOT a good sounding amp. Go learn about tubes and other amps before making a foolish desician like buying a line 6 POSTED: 08/31/2008 - 08:07 am / quote|
Rugby Rocker
: ive got this amp and i play a squier stracocaster Showmaster NLT HSS through it. i play rock, indie and some metal through it. it handles these all fine. its a good amp for home and band practice for people who want different effects on a tight budget. i paid between £60 and £70 for it and i feel that it is a bargain for what you get. i wouldnt play live with it purely because it is not powerful enough. so can everyone please stop slagging it off when you hav an amp that cost £500 upwards. it is a cheap versatile amp for god's sake! POSTED: 09/06/2008 - 09:05 am / quote|
ocap02
: is the clean good and can you choose how much distortion you want it to have¿? can you record with it connecting it directly to the computers, with no need of a mic? POSTED: 09/17/2008 - 07:19 pm / quote|
is the clean good and can you choose how much distortion you want it to have¿? can you record with it connecting it directly to the computers, with no need of a mic?
the cleans are good in my opinion, not great but very usable. and if i can remember correctly, i think there is an input for recording.
i agree with LoveIsHell! POSTED: 09/22/2008 - 11:50 am / quote|
Thenextlennon4
: I have the same exact amp, 15w and all, and i love the three but not clean. Its all echoey, which i fixed, but it still sounds generic. I got mine for 99.99 at alto music in middletown. POSTED: 10/12/2008 - 02:20 pm / quote|
RequiemofDemons
: I got mine for X-mas since my older practice amp died...and I would have to say I love this amp. Brought it to unvirsity with my to use since its just the right size to fit in my tiny ass room. Live and during practice I use my flextone III plus but this amp getst he job done when I'm chillin by myself and just want to lay down a couple of riffs here and there..definatly worth the buy for the price POSTED: 10/17/2008 - 02:09 pm / quote|
severalwills1
: do pedals work on this thing? I have it but I havent tried it yet b/c I'm grounded. I'm scared to try it. lol POSTED: 10/25/2008 - 01:17 am / quote|
guitargod...not
: why does everyone pay so much for this amp can get one for £60... =)
wow, its amazing how some people go on to most of these reviews simply to tell everyone that this or that sucks, i mean seriously get over it. no one cares about all ur opinions.
these are reviews buddy, they're a cleverly disguised way of saying "opinions". If you don't like opinions, don't read reviews. Just read what the manufacturer says because then EVERY amp is amazing! POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 11:28 am / quote|
Soroki
: The Insane setting is TERRIBLE. It hurts my ears whenever I hear someone playing the Spider III at Guitar Center. The tones are hideous and unprofessional. You have to be partially deaf to think that crap sounds good. It is so distorted it sounds horrible.... POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 12:16 pm / quote|
mafropetee
: These are the Spiders that are actually worth something. I don't understand why they bothered to make high watt versions when these amps should be meant for practice only. They sound great at low volumes, but once you turn them up to band practice or gig levels, they break up and sound like crap. That's why they made the Spider Valves, which really do sound awesome in a band situation. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 12:27 pm / quote|
mafropetee
: Disclaimer: all of the things I said in my previous comment are IMO. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 01:09 pm / quote|
HeavyDT
: def amazing for the price imo the presets are good but you can tweak them. to the people who hate the insane and clean models. why complain you dont have to use the take the distortion out of the insane and save it that way. the amp great gets loud and i got mines for 80 buk you just cant beat that. The roland cube may be good as well but can you get it for 100 buks POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 01:52 pm / quote|
DeadlyKombat
: i own this amp, and i dont really like it. the distortion sounds more like a "buzz" than a "rip" sound. i use the clean channel to support my distortion box, which sounds so much better than the metal channel. this is just IMO though. this anp doent suit my personal preference. (btw, it was a gift lmao) POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 03:20 pm / quote|
fLYinGV23
: Haven't used this amp, but I have an Line 6 Spidervalve 112, it kicks ass! POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 04:11 pm / quote|
Haven't used this amp, but I have an Line 6 Spidervalve 112, it kicks ass!
I own both, this is a very terrible amp compared to that(though thats not a far comparison).
To anyone looking to buy one of these, please don't. I know its not gonna sound fantastic seeing its a 15w practice amp, but you can find pretty good ones. This is not one of them. Get a peavey vyper, not this, im not just jumping on the bandwagon, I own one and the only setting I can even use is the clean, which isn't that great. The distortion is so horrid on the 15w amp. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 05:14 pm / quote|
puppetmaster93
: Quit arguing. This is a good amp. i picked it over the Peavey Vypyr 15. So if you want it get it, but if you don't like it keep it to yourself. Everybody has good and bad amps. it just depends what tones you want and what your preference is. it makes noise, and thats enough for me and whoever else wants it. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 08:27 pm / quote|
trendkill-
: you can get a way better amp for the same price, the sound of it is dreadful....I had one.
the spidervalve is pretty good, if you know how to eq it properly. but the spider III blows. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 08:39 pm / quote|
trendkill-
: sorry for the double post but the reviews giving it a 8-10 evidently haven't played on many amps, roland cube is a billion times better and not much more than it.
ham-of-god
: To digital it sound like micro-chips in ones and zeros POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 10:10 pm / quote|
xicetraex
: an epiphone les paul 100 is perfect for distortion? lol POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 11:42 pm / quote|
Mondo Generator
: I've been pretty happy with mine so far. the clean channel sucks hard, but I have a nice guitar and pedals, which can help mask that. I really like the Crunch and Insane channels. Metal's kind of bland. POSTED: 12/17/2008 - 11:50 pm / quote|
LonelySyn
: Best amp for it's price, tuner, mic jack, instrument jack, effects(if you're into that cr_ppy stuff), clean and built-in distortion that is definitely better than any other. The best 15 watt PRACTICE amp! Not gig, PRACTICE. Some of you must be on some hardcore drugs, worse than the guy who brought his little 30 watt spider to a 200 watt contest, wth. And to you who comment on it's tone... one, it's a combo amp, two.. read an amp book, please, and then go cry in a corner about how naive you once were, thank you. POSTED: 12/18/2008 - 06:12 am / quote|
I love the distortion on the amp. This amp has a lot of feedback at high volumes
Yes, it is, but the ampli offer a "Noise Gate" that stops the feedback. The gate is on when holding the delay button and turning the reverb knob up past twelve o'clock, the insane channel light come on..
I have a love-hate relationship. Sounds great, but everytime I turn it on, it's a different sound.
Many reviews say this..this ampli allows to save the sound and the settings that the user creates, just holding the channel button for 4-5 seconds..
nemjeff13
: It's not a horrible amp if you play crazy metal ...but it disguises the character of ur guitar, no matter what my tele and rg sound similar on this amp which is very digital POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 11:09 am / quote|
AndreaAmott wrote:
I have a love-hate relationship. Sounds great, but everytime I turn it on, it's a different sound.
Many reviews say this..this ampli allows to save the sound and the settings that the user creates, just holding the channel button for 4-5 seconds..
i have the 120 watt version, and i swear the sound changes slightly every other time i use it =/ ( i'm not a noob i know how to save my settings on the amp ) i haven't tried the 15 watt, but if it's anything like the 120 watt version, the sounds alright i guess, but you have to tweak around with it a bit, instead of just flickling through all the presets. 400+ presets and they're all mediocre =/. anyone wana buy my spider? LOL POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 02:37 pm / quote|
Dacons13
: stop talking about your 120, 60, or 30 watts. this is about the 15 watt.
and i dont really like this amp, id go with the peavey vypyr if you want a digital, has way more settings, and sounds a shitload better to me. POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 03:18 pm / quote|
RHCPROCK!
: ... at least i was talking about the same brand ... POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 03:30 pm / quote|
tomo123321v3
: this amp sounds horirbleand is toneless it sounds digital and fake.It's ok for beginners who play nothing more than metal but even for than nothing beats a crnked tube amp and some sort of tube scremer pedal.
Camikrazy
: the sound is ssoooo crunchy, but it does nothing else good! all the effect are pretty limited tone wise ( they just don't sound right) youre better off buying a plain small marshall or a vox 50, that wont have all these useless effects but make lots of good noise, and then get a pedal or a pod. this might be a cheap solution for begginers, but as soon as one looks for the smallest amount of tone and alright sounding distort, this amp really isnt good enough. plus, it seems to lack..... base, or nmaybe not base but.... that deep thing that makes Vox and Marshall so much better. POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 04:02 pm / quote|
stratdud39
: its a good metal practice amp, but the cleans suck @$$ POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 05:09 pm / quote|
PedroLesPaulVM
: These amps are delicious, I like to have 2 for breakfast with jam and butter. POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 06:22 pm / quote|
enselmis
: why in the hell would anybody ever buy 120 watts of solid state... absolutely retarded.
2 of my friends have this amp and i have to say it's quite terrible. Ive messed around for a few hours on this thing and everything sounds sharp like a knife. hurts your ears, and then if u roll down the tone, it sounds like a mud bath. anybody in this review, get a damn tube amp or a regular solid state, not digital shit. U DONT NEED EFFECTS ON A PRACTICE AMP!! why would u buy a junk heap thhat u will grow out of in a year anyways once u realise what a junk box it is. POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 06:29 pm / quote|
Cilla Black
: for the price, it's a great amp! POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 09:45 pm / quote|
Cilla Black
: for the price, it's a great amp! POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 09:45 pm / quote|
shadowclone1030
: great amp but mines clean selector seems to have a chorus effect even with all the effects off POSTED: 01/05/2009 - 10:20 pm / quote|
Gnomestar
: Heard this amp for the first time today, blew me away, the insane channel is killer and super ****ign heavy, the clean channel suprised me, it was actually pretty good, obviously it's not a tube amp but for the price it's sweet and a damn site better than the amp i had to learn on!! POSTED: 01/07/2009 - 08:14 am / quote|
vinnie-watt5
: i've got that kind and its not bad and im a beginer
and its pretty cool than the other amps POSTED: 01/09/2009 - 08:22 pm / quote|
beno_guitar9
: This amp is great.Every channel is great. I like the insane 'cause I play metal stuff. I saw some people complaining on the clean channel. they say it has much feedback noises. Well guys... that is true but only if you're using a guitar with single colis. is a total different story if you're using a guitar with hubuckers.
lao123
: Man I wrote a review it was late at night so my grammar and typing was horrendous! POSTED: 01/27/2009 - 03:40 pm / quote|
kaciorq
: Well... this is not a bad choice for that price. You can set some sounds and write it to 4 independent cells. There are hidden functions, like:
additional gain (keep pressed TAP DELAY TIME, and move DRIVE to the right, after 12 o'clock - it's on, CLEAN lights. or before 12 o'clock - it's off, CLEAN doesn't light)
or noise gate (pressed TAP... and move ECHO/REVERB to the right, after 12 o'clock - it's on, INSANE lights, or before 12 o'clocl - it's off, INSANE doesn't light)
Sound is hmmm... not bad for 8-inch speaker. It's good choice for home practicing. POSTED: 02/21/2009 - 12:55 pm / quote|
aktoastmaster
: The amp is ok i guess.
But I hate the clean channel though and its not good with pedals at all... =(
the insane channel is pretty cool though POSTED: 03/20/2009 - 02:26 pm / quote|
arctic pancake
: Well I own this amp because the Peavey Vypyr (Which is clearly better with the exception of it not turning on sometimes) is not available in my country yet and this was the closest I could get for the price. Now I just don't understand why people keep bashing this amp. Firstly it's a great beginner amp or practice amp for a bedroom setting. Perhaps it doesn't give you the best tone but it does give you good variety and that's important for a beginner so they can decide what they like, don't like, need and don't need. So maybe the effects aren't that great but for a beginner it gives them the opportunity to test out which effects they like and would buy pedals for later on for another amp. Besides all that a beginner wouldn't be able to pick out that "digital dry" tone that people keep complaining about, so it doesn't actually matter. For a beginner variety is more important than quality of tone which they wouldn't be able to pick out anyways. Secondly some people WANT that kind of dry digital tone. Ever heard of industrial? Some people don't want tube warmth, a band like Coldworld just wouldn't sound right if it didn't have that crazy distortion and cold dead tone. It's meant to be like that. If this amp doesn't sound the way you like then buy something else. Personally I didn't like the Roland Cubes I didn't like the tone and I wanted effects for variety. I didn't like the Marshall MG and the Peavey isn't available here yet so I bought this and I'm very happy with it. You guys need to stop bandwagoning and stop bashing an amp just cos everyone else is, and stop saying tube amps are better, good tube amps aren't $99... The Peavey is better but for some people (like me) this is either the only option or for some its a better option. Tone is kind of a subjective thing. POSTED: 04/11/2009 - 08:48 am / quote|
why in the hell would anybody ever buy 120 watts of solid state... absolutely retarded.
2 of my friends have this amp and i have to say it's quite terrible. Ive messed around for a few hours on this thing and everything sounds sharp like a knife. hurts your ears, and then if u roll down the tone, it sounds like a mud bath. anybody in this review, get a damn tube amp or a regular solid state, not digital shit. U DONT NEED EFFECTS ON A PRACTICE AMP!! why would u buy a junk heap thhat u will grow out of in a year anyways once u realise what a junk box it is.
I got the 120 watts and it kicks ass if you can actually play and I've been playing for quite some time now. You're clearly just one of these people who jumps on the whole "tube amp bandwagon". Good tone will come from the amp. The best tone will come from your playing though. I will agree that like a 1/4 of the presets do BLOW, but the amp is built for versatility and giving the user plenty of options, the band I play in plays lots of different metal genres so this is perfect for me.
In my opinion, if you say that this amp is crap and so are other solid states, you must value tone over the actual music or just have an insane idea of what good tone is. Because at least in my playing experience, a good guitarist will make any "half decent" amp sound great by playing great music. POSTED: 04/24/2009 - 01:37 am / quote|
ncl1994
: I have this amplifier and I really like. I've really found a lot of usage for the different effects. I think it compliments my Fender Tele quite well also! Good going LINE 6! POSTED: 04/28/2009 - 12:12 pm / quote|
wchurchill
: i dont think this amp is a pile of garbage , i use for pratice and recorded and even band pratice , i might get a bigger version for gigs though POSTED: 05/09/2009 - 03:28 pm / quote|
longman240
: Right, I've written a review which i'm waiting to have published on here, but I'd like to say that although I'm in love with this amp, one of my friends doesn't like it as much and another friend moderately likes it, this is because it's not abount what sounds good to others it's about what sounds good to you, if you like it buy it if you don't, leave it. POSTED: 05/19/2009 - 04:49 pm / quote|
randomnessISfun
: This was the very first amp I tried out and it was cool (clean sucked) but insane was awesome!! POSTED: 05/22/2009 - 10:43 pm / quote|
Yegor95
: Ive got a kramer striker and this and when i play a powerchord, it sounds like the tremolo is on, even when it's not. Whats's up with that??? POSTED: 05/28/2009 - 07:53 am / quote|
sewoo55
: one of my friends have this amp, and i tryed it.
..... the distortion sounds fake POSTED: 05/31/2009 - 02:33 am / quote|
HoyoDeMonterrey
: I recently purchased this amp. I will be returning it. I don't usually expect much from a cheap amp but I expected more based on the reviews here. It really doesn't live up to the hype.
/ my profile 
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lol
almost ripped my arm out my socket last time i picked it up :P
Had 2 wait for 2 weeks berfore I could get a new one, but when i finally got it i was impressed like h-ll, Couldn´t stop playing, I just love it thats why Im gonna buy a Floor Pod from Line 6, it really is the best 15 watt amp u can get on the market right now so shut the f-ck up and stop with your complaints just because its better than a da-n roland 
15W c'mon, i take it half way through and i dont even hav to call all my neighbourhood to come for a visit