Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
yousef213, on february 24, 2012 3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 180
Purchased from: Gutiar Center
Features: This amp, being that is a digital amp, was made to be filled with effects. It has 4 programmable channels, EQ, chorus/flanger (unfortunately no regular chorus), phaser, tremolo, delay, echoes, reverb, tuner, headphone jack. This amp basically has it all, except nothing that it has sounds all that good. The factory settings on the programmable channels are pretty bad, but you can change them. You first dial in your own setting then press and hold which channel (A, B, C, or D) to program it into. I just use one clean channel and another as clean with reverb because my distortion pedal (Jekyll And Hyde) FAR outclasses this amps distortion.
Basically this amp has a ton of effects, but each has so little controllability that they are worthless. In addition, there is no way to readily switch channels without buying a $100 pedal that should have come with the amp. This amp has a pretty decent clean sound, despite it being a digital amp. Another annoying feature is how sensitive the master volume knob is. I will give features a 7 because it can be useful to starting guitarists before they want to dish out $50 or more per effect. // 7
Sound: I use an Ibanez 350DX with a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde pedal (amazing pedal by the way) and I play all kinds of rock, from Beatles to Led Zeppelin, to Green Day. I also play christian rock at my church. I basically none of the amps built in effects, other than reverb, because the distortion sounds really bad (so I can't have a bit on all the time) and there is no other effect that you can really leave on the whole time. The clean channel, as I said before, is pretty good considering it is a digital amp.
The amp also advertises being able to distort at low volumes (unlike tube amps), however the distortion sounds really bad until you turn the volume up. I am not sure if this is my pedal or the amp itself. // 7
Reliability & Durability: This amp has never failed me. However I would not take this amp to a gig because its sound quality is not that good. I have played tis amp everyday for about a year and this amp has never messed up. Being a fidigital amp, it can take much more abuse than a tube amp. // 10
Impression: This amp is an okay match for my style, but most effects go unused. It was my first electric guitar amp, so I did not have the experience to know that a smaller tube amp would be better. If I lost this amp, I would probably go and buy a Fender tube amp. This amp may have been better if a channel switching footswitch was included with the amp. // 7
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
joshmckinnon, on december 25, 2009 4 of 8 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 300
Purchased from: long & McQuade
Features: This amp is a brand new 2009 model. It has 4 channels, and a built in tuner as well as several different distortion settings and effects. I play mostly rock and some blues and this amp is well suited for this. I use this amp for practice and gigging. I recently played in front of my school in our big double gym and I set the volume at around 4 or 5 and people at the far back could hear it, even with the bass and drums hooked up through the P.A. system. It is very reliable and has not failed me yet. // 9
Sound: I am using this amp with a strat with single coils. It is very versatile for all music styles and I can adjust the distortion to whatever I feel like. It has several distortion/overdrive levels. It has Blues od/dist. Crunch od/dist. Metal od/dist and Insane od/dist. It also has two different clean chanells and two different "twang" channels. The clean is too clean for me and insane it too dirty, but that's just my opinion. And it has the whole spectrum of sounds so you can tailor it to your wishes. It also has six different effects. They are in groups of three. There is Phaser, chorus, and tremollo in one group, and tape delay, digital delay and sweep echo in the other group. You can tailor the fx and dist. To your tastes and then program them onto each channel. It also comes with an option of two foot pedals, a scroll right/left one for 40$ or a 4 button and wah/volume pedal for 140$.
The only problem I have with it is the buzz caused by my single coils but that's the price you pay. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I can totally depend on this amp. The only problems that I had so far are with my cables and that was my fault. I gig with it without a backup and it is pretty solid so I don't think that it will break on me anytime soon. It is a great solid-state amp and it is extremely reliable. // 9
Impression: I play blues and rock and this amp matches these all well. If this amp were stolen or lost I probably would not buy it again if I could afford something more specific to my tastes like a Fender bandmaster but otherwise I would definitively buy it again. Maybe even a louder more powerful one like the 75watt. I can compare this amp to the Vox valvetronix ac30 and it sounds the same, if not better. I wish it had a post EQ noise reducer for the strat singlecoil buzz but otherwise it rocks! // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
Acap0624, on february 11, 2011 4 of 10 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 200
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: The amp was probably made in 09. The amp is pretty versatile (even though not every sound you get out of it is enjoyable). It has 12 different sounds and 4 progamable user preset channels. No effects loop. It does have a headphone jack. Its got a whole bunch of on board of efects. Chorus flange, phaser, tremolo, delay, sweep echo, tape echo, and good ol' reverp. All of which sound terrible. I used it for practice and to try to play over a drummer once. It didn't have enough power to get over a drummer and still sound good. It is solid state. // 8
Sound: I have a Schecter Damien-6. I changed the pickups to Seymour Duncan Distortion's. I play metal, metalcore, deathcore, and love to mess around with blues. The amp is never noisy, since it has an on board noise gate. The amp has 12 different sounds, none of which pleased me though. The cleans were okay. But not spectacular. The blues channel was useless to me because I used the clean channel with a little bit of grot for that. The crunch channel sounded absolutely terrible. Couldnt get that good ol' Marshall crunch sound out of it. The metal red channel is ehhh. No 6505, 5150, or Dual Rec. But somewhat tolerable. The metal green is useless since the mids sound terrible if you have the knob at anywhere other than 12'0'clock. The insane channels suck. Too much gain. The green insane channel had a weird fart-ish sound whenever I palm muted and chugged a little. Since it's a 3/4 closed back cab, high gain channels sound kind of blah. // 4
Reliability & Durability: Hasn't broken or not worked ever. I wouldn't use it at a gig since it's only 30 watts. Pretty reliable due to the fact its solid state. Construction isnt the best, though. I can't see it lasting a lot longer. It probably wont work in 10-20 years. They don't make stuff like they used to. // 7
Impression: I hate it now. Once I got a 6505+ (I'll be getting a mesa recto cab soon, can't wait!) I haven't really touched it except to take it apart. It sounds terrible. I've played for 3 years, but I'm a gear head and I'm obbsessed with getting new gear. Over all, if you're learning to play guitar and are trying to find what genre you want to play and stick with, this isnt a bad amp. But if you like to sound good, it is. I hated the sound. I cringe when I go to local shows and i see kids with spider heads and cabs. It's terrible. // 4
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
prosong12345, on september 07, 2011 1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 249.99
Purchased from: Long & McQuade
Features: Line 6 Spider IV 30-watt amp, made in the late 21st century, is one of the most basic, yet versatile, do-it-all amp. It features up to 4 channels with 12 distortion models, 2 per effects; Clean, Twang, Blues, Crunch, Metal, and finally, Insane. Just like a normal 30-watt amp, it is more than enough to use in almost anywhere; a private dormitory, small gigs such as BOB, etc. This amp is a solid transistor amp, most able to withstand a lot of distortion abuse. I use almost every single features on this amp, due to the fact that I concentrate on almost every single music genres, from classic rock to modern heavy metal, this amp does just about anything. While others buy separate effect pedals, I'd buy this do-it-all amp. The features I wish it had were an on-board expression pedal, so that I could create controlled wah-wah effects, and the ability to easily toggle channels and distortion levels without having to re-adjust the tone controls. // 8
Sound: The guitar I use is a Fender Jaguar HH, equipped with Dragster pickups (produced by Seymour Duncan), this amp is useful for just about everything, from soft jazz to heavy metal, although I mostly play heavy metal. The amp is normally noisy when you only switch the amp models and/or channels without re-adjusting the tone controls, or if you are within a controlled, small area. If you are in an outer area, then the sound is similar to a 15-watt amp, which is small. Channels and amp models alone, you are limited up to 6 amp models, but with tone controls, there are many ways to customize the sounds. Myself, I maintain my controls as follows to protect the transistor:
Drive (Gain): 75%
Bass: 25%
Mid: 50%
Treble: 75%
Channel Volume: 62.5%
Reverb: 50%
Clean channel is very slightly distorted at high volume/gain, but is not enough to affect the entire amp system. Also, the distortion is EXTREMELY brutal, EVEN WITH using single-coil pickups of a Fender Stratocaster I've tested back in the market. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This amplifier is most reliable from all amps I've tested back in the market. I'd really love to use this amp in a gig without a backup, assuming that the transistor is still in good condition. This amp has never broken down on me, and it never will. Other than a few simple adjustments, I never had to do any extra hacks on this amp. This amplifier screams on you to rock on even more! // 10
Impression: I mostly play almost every single music genre imaginable, and this amp is a perfect do-it-all amp compared to other amplifiers I've seen in store. I've been playing with this amp for over 3-4 months now, starting from when I've popped my First Act amp while I played an Ibanez RG350MZ. Before getting this amp, I would've asked for a Roland Cube-30 amp or a Fender G-DEC amp, but this Line 6 amp had more top-notch features than those amps. If this amp was stolen or lost, I'd search the entire universe to find the amp back, even if it means of getting rid of anyone who stole my amplifier. I love this amp's top-notch do-it-all feature, but Line 6 should have more control over tone controls when switching amp models/channels. Comparing from other amps in market, Line 6 amps had better top-notch features. The only thing I'm wishing this amp had? On-board expression pedal and the tone control customization. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on july 18, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: € 190
Purchased from: Rock'n'Roll Katowice
Features: I bought this amp in December 2010. It's my first amp, cause I've played the classical guitar before. I play classic rock. Something like Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. The amp has 12 different amp models and four user preset channels. The sounds are: clean red/green, twang red/green, blues red/green, crunch red/green, metal red/green and insane red/green. It has a headphone jack output and no effects loop. The amp has a whole bunch of effects: flanger/chorus, phaser, tremolo, delay, tape echo, sweep echo and reverb. I never use the tremolo so I can't tell how does it sound. But the other effects are pretty good, especially reverb and delay. The amp has 30 watts, what is enough for me, since I'm more a singer than a guitarist. But my friend used it and it was perfect for the gig. // 9
Sound: I play the Brian May Guitars Red Special. It has 3 Burns Tri-Sonic, which are single coils. It suits my music style almost perfectly, I only have trouble while playing Jimi Hendrix. I simply can't get the sound right. I found really nice settings to do the solos and to do the AC/DC kind of music. The amp is really versatile and does great job. I have comparison, since I played also the Epiphone Les Paul Standard through this amp. It also fitted really great. In my opinion, one of better sounding solid state amps. // 8
Reliability & Durability: The whole thing looks pretty solid. I have the amp for 8 months and I've had no problems with it what'soever. I would use it on a gig without backup. It has fallen quite often and I sat on it when my strap broke and it looks brand new. It's unbelievably reliable. // 10
Impression: I play classic rock like Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix or Rush and it's really a good match. I've been playing for over 3 years but I've got an electric guitar for 8 months. I have a Brian May Guitars Red Special and a Vox Pathfinder 10. If it were stolen I would buy it again or get a tube amp. The greatest thing about this amp is the versatility. The worst is in my opinion the built-in tuner which isn't really clear for me. I compared it to the Laney Prism P20 and Vox DA20. I chose this one because it had more power and sounded just as good. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
JamesEatWorld, on july 18, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 150
Purchased from: PMT Bristol
Features: The Amp is very versatile, with 12 different preset distortion options covering most genres pretty well, and 4 custom channels that can be saved for easier access. It comes with various delay effects and phaser based effects, but in honesty I rarely use them, preferring a less "gimmicky" sound from my amp, but that's just personal preference.
One of the best features this amp has is a slot for a 3.5 mm jack, meaning with a male to male lead you can play your music through your ipod on this amp, this sounds fantastic and goes pretty loud. It also has a headphone slot which is also useful. I use this for practicing both with and without the band, but I would not use it for gigging, if it was a bit more powerful sure, but 30w is not enough for an event. // 9
Sound: When playing with my band, I use an Ibanez SA260FM, with a HSS set up, and rack up some distortion. This sounds great, works really well for practices, but could do with being a little louder. I also use an SG (twin humbuckers) and my custom stratocaster (HSS) these also work very well for all other genres. I play hardcore with the band but also play lots of ska and Indie for fun, and the amps cleaner setting work great.
The feedback can be a bit of a problem, but can be solve by turning down the Drive a little, otherwise the squeals can be pretty deafening. The various range of styles this amp can cover is very impressive, and I would recommend this to anyone, but especially metal heads. // 9
Reliability & Durability: It is very reliable, I travel a lot with it and it hasn't broken down on me yet. I wouldn't gig with it, as 30w just isn't loud enough, but if it were louder I wouldn't have a problem with gigging with it. Reliability is not an issue for it. // 10
Impression: This amp is great for everything I play, and the versatility of it is unrivaled in my opinion, it saves me having to have a couple of amps to get the sound I want. To be honest, I wish I got a more powerful amp, to get louder when playing with my band, however for personal use it is fine; and more than enough for a practice amp.
If it were stolen or lost, I would definately buy a Line 6 spider, but I might possibly get another model, just to shake it up, and definitely get one 75w+. I love its 3.5 mm jack slot, that is VERY useful, and I occasionally use it at parties and such. This amp is a bargain and definately worth the buy, but consider something louder, its my only fault with it. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
TylerM262, on june 24, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 200
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: Its a 4 channel solid state modeling amp. It suits my needs (I play mostly metal, rock, classic rock). It has a choice of 3 delays (Reg Delay, Tape Echo, and Sweep Echo) and/or 3 Effects (Chorus Flange, Phaser, Tremolo). It has a tempo tap button, which activates the tuner when held, that sets the tempo (loop speed) for the the effects. I don't play live, I'm soon to buy a Peavey 6505+ combo for live play, but it gets loud enough for my bedroom. // 8
Sound: I use a Dean C250T, or a Dean Vendetta 2.0 through it. The amp can make just about any sound I can think of, I've gotten blues, clean, 4 kinds of dirty tones. If you want a good clean tone det the amp model knob on Red Crunch and kill the gain. It has a great Marshall vibe to it. "How brutal is the distortion?" LOL. // 7
Reliability & Durability: I'm not gonna use it for a gig as it is onle 30 watts, but If I had to, I would. I've spilt drinks on it on multiple occasion and its fine. I'd say its sturdy. // 9
Impression: Said previously I play Metal and Rock. I've played for 1.5 to 2 years depends how you look at it. I should have gotten a tube amp. It it were stolen I'd be pissed caues I just got the footpedal for it. I wish I had compared it to other products. // 7
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
rebornmaster9, on april 14, 2011 1 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 200
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Features: I've had my Line 6 for almost a year now, and its gonna be hard to write an unbiased review, but I'll give it a try. The Line 6 Spider IV 30 is a versatile, powerful, and durable amp. It comes with 6 different settings ranging from clean to insane. All settings have 2 separate tones and all of them can be tweaked to your desire. You also get 4 channels you can save your tones in and can be accessed by simply hitting the button or using the petal. You also get a few effects along with it, you get a flanger/ chorus, a phaser, and a tremolo effect. You also get a digital delay, a tape echo, and a sweep echo. This amp comes with loads of features that cater to every guitarist. // 9
Sound: As a metal guitarist this amp delivers, the metal and insane settings work for every form of rock and metal you could think of. The clean and twang work well for your quiet passages and weather channel music. Play an LTD ex-50 and an Ibanez RG gio through it and I get the best metal tone I have ever heard. I also use a Fender strat through it and get a nice clean tone. A problem I've had with past amps is if I bring up the volume to high my tone starts to give out, not with this amp, you could blast it on 10 and you get the same sound you get on 3. Its powered by a celestion speaker and all I have to say is its the best speaker I have ever used, the only 2 complaints I can think of is the crunch could have been a little better and this amp can hold against a drum set, but not as well as say a 75 watt amp, I wouldn't advise cranking up to 10 to often. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This amp can and will get you through what ever you throw at it and has never broken down on me or messed up in anyway, but thats also cause I take care of it like its a newborn child, and regularly inspect it and make sure everything is in working order. // 10
Impression: I played a Spider III in my guitar class and decided that I wanted one of my own, well I was blown out of the water when I played this model, it sounds well for all my different styles of music and has never let me down, I wish the build in tuner was chromatic so I could keep my tune on low tunings but I have a tuner for that so its not a big deal, if someone had the nerve to steal this amp, I'd take a baseball bat to there face and knees. I see myself in the future buying a bigger Line 6 amp to piss my neighbors off even more, the only thing I wish I had was the petal that goes with it, I've used one a few times and it makes life SO much easier, over all I give this amp a 9 and thats cause I'm not biased at all. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
fishmunky, on february 15, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 100
Purchased from: Long And McQuade
Features: Not sure when it was made, but its the newest model so sometime in the last 2 years I imagine, I'll be the first to put it out there, I like the Line 6 stuff, I like the versatility, as I'm primarily a guy who plays at home having an amp that deal with my general musical schizophrenia just by using the little pedal board my Fiancee bought me is pretty nice. I Jam with some guys from work, and the musical styling is all over the map so having something that can do cake, the cure, the darkness and tom petty without buying a mess of stomp boxes or costing me a couple of grand is a pretty sweet idea.
It's a digital modelling amp, and that's more or less what what I use it for, if you take advantage of the tips that Line six has on their site in terms of messing with the channels and what not there's a lot of emulation you can make happen. I'm not saying it'll beat out a Marshall or Mesa or whatever amp suits you're playing style better, but if you like having some quick and dirty versatility this amp is excels in that area
All that being said, there are definite issues with the presets, the cleans out of the box are too bright for pretty mch anyone to use, and the insane channel while great for the lauhs and masking of flaws it provides, is way too saturated on the distortion to reasonably use anywhere outside of your own bedroom // 8
Sound: currently I'm playing a early 2000 model Jackson RR3 and a 2003 Peavey Wolfgang through the amp, while my sensibilities tend to run on the harder edge, using each guitar through various setting can let you emulate a wide variety of tones.
The amp rarely lets me down or prevents me from finding the setting I want, and while I'm not normally cranking it at 10, there's never a noise issue, unless I'm at practice and the terrible microphones are causing feedback
again for me the key is to able to switch sounds and setting without having to do much tinkering, so I like the amp for that reason, being able to play pop, to rock, to metal, to country without really messing around is a great ability for style of playing. // 9
Reliability & Durability: These things are tanks, I've dropped this thing more times than I care to count but it keeps on trucking, no issues with reliability. While the knock on them is that they may not be the greatest sounding amps, no one will accuse them of being poorly constructed or fragile.
Being solid state means never having to worry about tubes, and the breaking and care that is implied with that. // 9
Impression: Stylistically this Amp does everything I want it to do, I think the Spiders get a bad rap for all the uber-metal kids who crank on the insane channel and pull the look what I can do stuff, but the reality looks like this, if you take the time to learn about this amp and how to properly use its features, its a great toy to have.
This isn't going to be the last amp I ever buy, its highly unlikely I'll play shows with this amp, but for messing around with some buddies or in your home this thing is hard to beat for being able to mix things up.
It might not be the popular choice for "serious" guitar players, but what I play I could ask for a more agreeable amp at an agreeable price. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
OwenFrusciante, on february 10, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 180
Purchased from: Electro Music
Features: Made in 2010, this amp has 4 channels that you can preset, which is a good feature, as when used with the extra FBV footswitch you can quickly swap between four different sounds mid song. Its quite a versatile amp, excels in the choice it gives with effects. However, it doesn't give particularly good effects, all are mediocre, and its impossible to get any tone out of this amp. It is very dull and monotone, and the EQ on it doesn't really make much of a difference.
Perfect for beginners to use at home, but struggles at high volume to make any discernable sound, just sounds like mush on high volume distortion. // 5
Sound: I use a Fender Strat and a Tele on this, and play all kinds of music. For practicing at home quietly, I find this amp convenient when I can't be bothered to fire up the old Marshall Valve, but it shouldn't really be used for band practice or gigging. Distortion is ok, but the clean becomes really muddy at high volumes, and trust me, I have fiddled around with the settings for hours on end. This was my first proper amp, and would recommend it to anyone for their first amp, but nothing more. For the job it is designed for, its pretty good. // 6
Reliability & Durability: Never broken down, never had any problems with it in a year of use, no drop in tone or anything, would give this a 10 but I really wouldn't gig on it, and feel shame for the people who do. Although if your on a tight budget, what else can you do? The FBV footswitch is a pretty cool little cheap channel selector, and I got it for £20 which is ok I guess. // 9
Impression: I play rock, alternate rock, think of all the styles the Chili peppers play, and also tiny amount of metal and Acoustic fingerpicking and the like. For the versatility I needed when I first started playing, it was perfect, but as I now own a decent size pedalboard I have all the effects I need. I now rarely use this, and I wouldn't buy it again if it were lost, as I have outgrown it. Perfect amp for a beginner, but really wouldn't like to gig on it. // 6
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on may 05, 2010 0 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 300
Purchased from: Mother's Music
Features: This 30 watt solid state amp comes with 4 savable channels. 12 different amp models, seperated into 6 categories. Clean, Twang, Blues, Crunch, Metal, and Insane. All with overdrive and distortion channels (red and green lights.) It has a headphone jack, line out cable plug in, built in tuner, and can be used with pedals. The recommended pedals are Line 6 pedals. It has 6 different effects. Flanger, phaser, and tremolo on one knov. Delay, tape echo, and sweep echo on the other. It comes with Drive (gain) treble, middle, bass, and reverb. Plus two volume knobs, master and channel.
This amp is great for what I use it for, in my room I use it at very low volume with my ipod plugged in and it never falters. I also use it with my friend while he drums. I use it at just above 1/4 volume and it stands up well against the drums. // 9
Sound: I play my ESP LTD Alexi 200 with its stock pickup (will be replaced for EMG ALX HZ soon) and it really works well with the amp and my style. I play predominantly metal with the odd clean song tossed in there when I'm bored. It works perfect for me, I have played my guitar recital with it and it blew away all the other amps there.
The distortion is amazing for what I play, and on the Line 6 website I can find the perfect settings for what I need. I usually use the "LAid to Rest" setting or the "Nemisis" settings. (Yes Lamb of God and Arch Enemy) It has never failed me at high volumes, and it really keeps its sound quality no matter what I'm playing through the Ipod. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I have smacked the amp on a few walls and car doors as I transport it from my room, to the car, to various houses. Only one mark but that's the price you pay. I can depend on it for sure and I would gig without a backup. Its never broken down even though I don't take the greatest care of it. // 10
Impression: I play metal and it is great for it. I have been playing for about 7 years, only seriously for about a year and a half now. I play it with my ESP LTD Alexi 200. If it were stolen I would probably buy the 75 watt version, because, well power is great. I love the variety of sounds I can get and the help I get on the settings from the website is great. With my last amp I could never find good settings. I hate the tuner on it though, I can never seem to understand what it's trying to tell me. I haven't really tried it much though. My favourite feature is the line in cable plug in. I like to solo over my ipod and I don't have a stereo that can match this amps power so being able to plug them both into one is great.
I wasn't available to compare it to other products but I'm sure I would have stuck with it. I wish it had a few more savable channels because I love having as many options as I can. // 9
Spider IV 30
Reviewed by:
amijayt, on april 20, 2012 0 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: £ 160
Purchased from: GAK.com
Features: Bought this brand new from GAK (Guitar Amp Keyboards) online. The Spider IV was my first amp, and I was told it was a 'good starter amp'. It has a wheel to choose one of 6 amp options, 12 if you include the dirty/clear option for each of these. 3 of them are clean channels (clean, twang, and blues, although blues can also be distorted) and 3 are distorted (crunch, metal, and insane). It has a very simple setup for an amp like this, losing the small computer panel that appeared on the III and IV 75w and opting to just use knobs to choose your effects. It works off presets, but one thing I noticed is how unreliable they could be: they never sounded exactly like I'd set them once turned on and off, and if you saved them with any of the effects active, the effect would be changed when turned on again (example: the tremolo setting would no longer be active, except it was audible separately in the background). Obviously this became very annoying, but is not too bad because the effects themselves are terrible.
It has 3 primary effects: chorus flange, phaser, and tremolo. The chorus flange is alright but nothing special. The phaser is WAY too loud, drowning out whatever you are playing, and the tremolo is too slow and sounds bad anyway. The delay settings, due to them not being editable, are not great either, and the ones I was hoping to use most (just plain 'delay' and 'tape echo') were again, too slow. However the reverb is actually not bad at all, and with a bit of patience I got a nice psychedelic sort of sound when mixing the reverb and 'sweep echo' delay. Overall this amp's features are not user-friendly enough to bother playing with but if you really have to, you can probably get something you like out of it. // 5
Sound: I played through this first with a Westfield SG replica I bought second-hand, and I have also played through it with my current guitar, an American Standard Telecaster. When I first started playing it, I was instantly put off by the muddy 'clean' channel, I had a hard time getting a nice sound out of it, and from the times I used it to practice with a band it was tinny and weak. The other clean channels are barely worth mentioning, with 'twang' being way too quiet, even though 'blues' was occasionally satisfying. The 3 distorted channels are also not really worth mentioning: 'crunch' has no depth to it, 'metal' doesn't really sound THAT metal and 'insane' is obviously limited in use, but was the one I used most prominently. After a few months I realised I needed a pedal so bought the obvious choice of a Boss DS-1, which made my replica SG actually sound pretty cool when put through the clean channel. However obviously this instantly makes all the other settings completely useless, with me only using the clean channel with the pedal. The amp is pretty quiet even for a 30w, especially the twang setting. Even though I have since replaced it with a Fender Mustang III, it still makes appearances at band practices when we have no other choice. My band plays a mix of music rooted in punk, but also drawing inspiration from general rock and alternative, reggae, ska, and some other styles where I require to switch between clean and distorted. In all honesty, I hate using this amp for practices and it often hinders my playing. Very glad I upgraded as it would not handle a gig at all. In terms of sound and variety, this amp really is weak. // 3
Reliability & Durability: It seems fairly durable although I couldn't really say because I haven't exactly taken it many places, but it seems sturdy enough to I'll give it credit for that. It hasn't broken down on me ever (unlike my bandmates' Spider III which often breaks down mid-practice...) but again I can't really say because I haven't used it in many different environments. // 6
Impression: To be frank, this amp has never left me feeling fulfilled or particularly excited after a long jam. The only good sounds I ever got out of it was through my DS-1 pedal. It would have been nice if I'd not been so brash and just bought it from one friend's recommendation, but I was pretty naive when first starting out with guitar. I should have saved a bit more and just bought the Fender Mustang III straight off the bat and not wasted 160 pounds. If you are just starting out, I suggest not buying a 'flashy' effects-based amp, and just get yourself a nice basic solid state Laney practice amp or something and maybe a pedal too, you will get a lot more mileage out of that than with this thing. If it got stolen would I buy it again? Most definitely not. I'm giving it a 3, and personally I think that's being pretty generous. // 3
no dude. i just got this amp for christmas, and my god, its a beast. mine cost £200 and its worth every penny. it doesnt even need the extra add ons, even though they might help.
no dude. i just got this amp for christmas, and my god, its a beast. mine cost £200 and its worth every penny. it doesnt even need the extra add ons, even though they might help.
wait you received it yesterday and you are already saying it is a beast? i dont know how i can argument against that. seriously.
i do use the pickup selector to get rid of the buzz but i like to use my bridge pickup more than the rest. and i have had this amp for a while and i find that it suits my style completely. And it was three hundred dollars CANADIAN back when our dollar was really only 80-85 cents american so it was really only 240 dollars american. good tone, cheap. and loud. i like it.
I am new to the guitar scene, bought this amp with an epi vintage g-400 from GC. I honestly had no problems with this amp, but did not know much about them either. After reading and taking advice from the guys on here, I exchanged it for the Peavey Vypyr 30 within my 30 days, so it cost me nothing extra. The Vypyr blows this out of the water. More options, sounds better, and its the same price. For that reason, I would not recommend this amp.
I tried this Amp for about a hour, if you are into Heavy Metal forget this Amp it just won't do it, you can't even got a good mute with the 5th and 6th strings with this amp even on the insane setting, the Clean, Twang and the Blues settings are pretty good. The Spider 3 I think is a much better Amp especially if you are into Heavy Metal Music.
what part of 'hold this button for tuner' don't you understand?
Rofl, man yeah. I'm considering of buying this amp, or should I buy the Roland Cube, the 30 watt version? what do u say?
Just try 'm both!
I like mine for practicing and maybe just playing with some friends... it has a lot of effects to play around with, which is what won me over! The standard presets kinda suck so it's worth it to play with the buttons...
this amp is alright, but just so you know, the peavey vypyr is way better and the same price. its got 5 effects at once and 22 editable effects. and way louder and less feedback. just look at some vypyr reviews and see how many people are glad they got it instead of the line 6
I bought the spider IV 30w over the cube 30x. both sounds good, but I liked the distortion on the spider. The spider can sound good even in very low volume too. And the saving of presets was a big plus..
I'm new. I picked up my first acoustic a year and a half ago. I 'm passionate about the blues, huge Hendrix fan, but I love a lot of heavier rock, some funk, older metal like Sabbath, etc. I bought my first electric (Gibson LP studio) this time last year. I picked up this amp to go with it for $200 at GC. I have to say I've outgrown it in just a year. The clean tones are very poor and muddy. There is a lot of buzz. I have found all the effects options difficult to work with. Seems like one minute I get the sound I want, and the next time I play its I cant quite. The preset modes are decent if your testing it out at the store, but those have their drawbacks also. Once you select one of the preset modes you cant tweak it. It takes it off that setting and goes to what you have the knobs set to. This sucks, because if you like one of the presets, but just want to tweak a little less reverb or a little more bass you cant. Very frustrating.
This amp is very loud... the blues and twang channels are decent for when you want to play a little muddy but I get frustrated. Especially when I plugged my Gibson Les Paul into my friend's Fender tube amp. I have a good guitar and the clean tones from the tube amp are otherwordly and orgasmic. I'm scratching my funds together and eating rice and beans for a month to get decent tube amp. They just dont compare.
Based on my experience I would rate this amp a 5. Its loud, has some versatility and could do enough things that I was able to better understand what I wanted more of in an amp and in my playing. For $200 (ish) its a solid starter amp. Buying an $800 tube amp for your first guitar doesnt make sense for most.
Also I'm going to keep the Spider around. Its managable enough to bring places, and worst case all the effects are fun to play with when your stoned. Its got its limitations but I do think its decent bang for the buck.
The tuner is a cute feature, but only does standard. If your tuned down a half step its useless
I just bought this amp. Boy does it have huge balls. When looking for an amp I just wanted somethingthat is loud, has clean cleans and dirty dirties. And this 30w does the job. You can more than easily play a gymnasium with it. I play in an alternative band a la lifrehouse and it is perfect. Great starter amp. The best even. Got it at GC for 217.49 for my washburn electric. Not for very experienced players. But its great. The people who are downing the amp are eggsagerating whereas those who are praising it are not. The people who don't think its dirty enough must not be very good. Cause it gets nasty. Great amp. If you have the $ and want want the bells and whistles and the sound.... this the amp to get. Hands down.
Ive played these and for a solid state they have pretty good tone, I actually like these better than their higher watt counterparts.
Its a great beginner amp if you don't know how to tweak settings or set up effects. I suppose their are guides online but its nice to have it right there in front of you.
sounds like to me theres alot out there that needs to lern there gear ,i have using line 6 for years and i can get any sound im looking for ,as i have said befor learn your gear you mite learn some thing .
In my humble opinion, 30W amps are kinda dilemmatic: not too loud for a small gig, much too loud for practising. Their only use seems to be band rehearsals, because, otherwise, either you're unable to use it and get heard by public, either you're unable to use its full amplification (and we all know that amps work better as we come closer to their highest output).
I've checked out this Spider IV 30 in my music shop, when I was looking for a combo suitable for one-man gigs in small venues. First of all, I found it too expensive. All Line 6 products seem to me over-priced.
It's also too much electronics in a Line 6, and sound doesn't come so natural as you've expected from an above-average product. There are many "extra-amp" features, but most of them are useless for a more experienced player.
For instance, the tuner and the effects. The tuner is not a chromatic one and it's even less precise than most of the guitar tuners I know. Since a good Korg is only 17 euros, why would you use an inferior built-in tuner? Same problem with the effects: all of them are inferior to any common pedal (like Boss or DigiTech, to give an example). Since a good distortion pedal costs less than 100 euros, why would anyone use a lousy built-in effect? (I feel I have to stress it's not a problem of Line 6 exclusively: it's a general problem of moddeling amps. They all offer DSP effects, but none of those effects is usable for semi-pro purposes. Line 6's problem is the price, one of the highest among modelling amps!)
As for the actual amplification job, it's OK. It's a very good utility amp, with decent clean and quite impressing distorted sounds. The first and the third review have over-rated it, while the second has under-rated it, IMHO. If we make an average between the 9,3 and the 6,5, we get a more precise rating for this amp.
Why does everyone have to attack this thing? We all know it can't hold a candle to even a cheap tube amp, but seriously... as far as a beginner's or practice amp these combos are not bad at all. I smell a bandwagon.
OMG this amp doesn't sound as good as a $1000 tube amp why would anyone buy it? (sarcasm).
This is a great little amp for practicing at home, and not having to deal with hardware failures and over priced tube amps. Quit comparing this to something expensive and saying this sounds like crap. It's cheap, what do you expect? LMAO.
OMG this amp doesn't sound as good as a $197 Peavey Vypyr 30 30W 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp why would anyone buy it?
The Vypyr is a great little amp for practicing at home, and not having to deal with hardware failures and over priced tube amps. Quit comparing that to something overpriced like a Spider and not noticing the Spyder sounds like crap. LMAO.
For the record, I'm an unhappy owner of a "Marshall" MG30DFX which might be even worse than the Spyder. It does OK as a cab for my tube amp at small venues, but most of the time at home I just play through a VOX DA5 whose .5 - 5 watts sound better than any Spyder despite the small speaker. If I had to do it over, my first amp would have been a VOX Valvetronix, or maybe a Vypyr.
A line six is good if you live in a small place, like an apartment. I wouldn't recommend doing anything with it other than practicing. They're not good jamming amps.
I like them for practicing though, thats it, their interfaces are very easy to use.
Compared to the Peavey Vypyr, the new Roland Cube XL, the new Vox VTs, and the new Fender Mustang, the Spider IV is easily the worst of the current-gen big name practice modelers.
I have the Spider IV 120 and its a beaut so this one must be good, just a little quieter.
All amps perform better when you push them to the limit (after 10 year of playing on a Vox, I know what I mean). Most of the good solid states - and I'm only interested in good equipment - have an emulation circuitry which mimicks the behaviour of an all-tube amp. Even those who don't have one (try the Vox Pathfinder 10 and 15, for your own pleasure) work much beter cranked up than at 1/3 of their volume.
I kinda understand your frusration (because, if you're good, you know you don't own a professional amp, not even a semi-pro), but unfortunately choosing a modelling amp means paying for useless extra-features, while choosing a Line 6 means only paying more than you pay for a common modelling amp. It's one of the best of this kind, no question about it. But it still remains a toy, compared to a HiWatt, a Carl Martin or a Laboga of the same output. Even a Kustom HV 65, with the same useless DSP features, sounds better and costs less.
I don't know how anyone could say these are reliable amps. My friend had one and the not on the input jack is cheap plastic that would always come loose. It eventually became stripped and would slip inside the amp every so often an I would have to unscrew the whole thing just to fish it out. Definitely not worth the money.
This amp is fine, I've owned the halfstack for over a year and had no problems with it at all. I listen to everything from death metal to jam bands and I love the diversity this amp gives me.
I shouldn't even be commenting on this since I have not played the 30watt. I have the IV HD150 head and cab. Its differences are the stand alone reverb, and obviously the wattage. I have been playing guitar for 15 years. Im 32 years old. I can get any sound out of my amp I want. All my friends want my amp. My buddy who I jam with all the time has a peavy vyper 75 watt and wishes he had mine. When he leaves the vyper at my house I play on it all the time. I dont like it as well as my line 6. Hes had his for 2 yaers longer than me so Ive had much more opportunity to use his. You just have to play with your settings. They are all customizable. Every effect can be set differently. For example the delay when not messed with can be very choppy. The delay is set too far apart. I use my delay just to get some drive, so the factory setting had my notes playing over and over again for a minute. I changed it, now it rocks. The spider IV is 20 times better than the 3 as far as tone. I played the III's and I hated them. Line 6 did something with the IV, and I get badass tones with it. Just takes ALOT of time to mess with them to perfect them. So, I'd rather have the diversity of tones, knowing I can effect them any way I like, than spending $1000 on pedals to find the tone and pedal setup that I want.
i love this amp! ive used both the spider III and now the spiderIV and this is by far one of the best amps ive ever owned... only problem i have is with distortion pedals as it doesnt sound right when switching from clean to distorted via pedal. other than that this is a great amp and i will forever use line 6 as my choice amp for gigs and practice...
And I want your amp.
Anyways, all the Spider IVs are great with a huge range of tones. I currently have the IV 75, and I can get anything from my death metal to my NWOBHM.
I also have the Line 6 HD150 halfstack and it has the best sound of any non-tube amp I've ever played.
Also, they're cheap, quality, reliable, versatile... I mean there's nothing bad I can say about Line 6. People hate on them because they think the tone is too processed/unnatural, but if you sit and tweak the settings enough, you can get a pretty good natural distortion tone out of it.
Tube amps are the way to go (if you can afford them), but Line 6 is one of the best alternatives out there.
I don't know how anyone could say these are reliable amps. My friend had one and the not on the input jack is cheap plastic that would always come loose. It eventually became stripped and would slip inside the amp every so often an I would have to unscrew the whole thing just to fish it out. Definitely not worth the money.
I had the same problem with my Spider III 75w. I used to have to poke around with a slim wooden stick to try to get it back out through the input hole, then hold it with enough pressure to put a patch cable with the plastic nut on it inside so I could have stability when screwing it on. Before I sold it I lined the nut with superglue so it wouldn't come off again.
The amp sounded like super ass too. Know matter how much I or my even more experienced guitar friends tried to get a good metal path, everything always sounded fizzy. That amp was the biggest waste of $300 I ever made.
This is a very good amp for amateurs who don't make the difference between a real amp and something which only sounds LIKE an amp. In the same range of price, you can get other superb hybrid amps, with tube pre-amp and a sound 10 times better. Even the Kustom HV 65, despite being provided with the same stupid electronic DSPs - way off what an effect is and should be, in terms of sound -, sounds much better and has 35 extra Watts to deliver for someone who doesn't want to get ruined because of the equipment, but meanwhile intendss to come closer to the real pro sound.
Line 6 should stop entirely: they're falsifying the entire concept of rock'n'roll with their cheap effects and stupid Variaxes. I haven't seen something more useless in my entire 30 years of playing.
I have heard people get good sounds with these at bedroom level, but seriously you're better off with a Vypyr. It's cheaper too.
The amp tone sounds extremely flat and for a lack of a better word, more like noise than anything else.
The Spider amps all in all are okay if you're a beginning guitarist. Just okay.
If you want to get into guitar amp modeling get a Vypyr(Peavey), Cube(Roland), or Valvetronix(Vox). Hell, try software modeling like Amplitube, Revalver, Guitar Rig, or even Line 6's Podfarm. I use these when I play at night because my amp is a 6505+ head and those things are too loud for the night time.
Seriously, 80% of the people hating on this amp have only tried the Spider II's, which sucks compared to the Spider IV's. Get off your bandwagons.
Not at all...My friend has this exact amp and he hates it. I even hate it because the distortion sounds like trebly farting and if you ever tried to play lead on this it's even worse. Probably the only good thing about this is the speakers. The 120w version of this is n't bad though.
Seriously, 80% of the people hating on this amp have only tried the Spider II's, which sucks compared to the Spider IV's. Get off your bandwagons.
Not at all...My friend has this exact amp and he hates it. I even hate it because the distortion sounds like trebly farting and if you ever tried to play lead on this it's even worse. Probably the only good thing about this is the speakers. The 120w version of this is n't bad though.
You and your friend don't know what your doing then.. if anything this amp has too much bass and can get muddy.
I don't know how anyone could say these are reliable amps. My friend had one and the not on the input jack is cheap plastic that would always come loose. It eventually became stripped and would slip inside the amp every so often an I would have to unscrew the whole thing just to fish it out. Definitely not worth the money.
I know this isn't the same amp, but I have a Line 6 SPider III 75, and I'll second the post above. The input is really bad it works loose very quickly and if you're a bit careless (like me) and you knock it, it easily snaps. But otherwise I don't mind my Spider, I'd rather get something a bit better but I'm not in a band anymore, so I don't think I'd be getting the best out of a valve amp in my room
I tried this Amp for about a hour, if you are into Heavy Metal forget this Amp it just won't do it, you can't even got a good mute with the 5th and 6th strings with this amp even on the insane setting, the Clean, Twang and the Blues settings are pretty good. The Spider 3 I think is a much better Amp especially if you are into Heavy Metal Music.
Yea I'm looking at all these reviews wondering how the Spider IV is so awful for metal when my first amp was a 15w spider III and personally I think it gets a great metal tone for the size and price of it. But apparently the Spider IV is a completely different amp.
I tried this Amp for about a hour, if you are into Heavy Metal forget this Amp it just won't do it, you can't even got a good mute with the 5th and 6th strings with this amp even on the insane setting, the Clean, Twang and the Blues settings are pretty good. The Spider 3 I think is a much better Amp especially if you are into Heavy Metal Music.
Yea I'm looking at all these reviews wondering how the Spider IV is so awful for metal when my first amp was a 15w spider III and personally I think it gets a great metal tone for the size and price of it. But apparently the Spider IV is a completely different amp.
oh my god... are you serious?
You rated this amp above 5??
why the hell do so many people hate Line 6? this is a great practice amp. I find nothing wrong with it.
To be frank, the small versions of these amps do sound pretty bad. But the bigger ones, played at louder volumes, and LOW GAIN (I cannot stress this enough, anything past the mid point on the gain knob sounds like poo) aren't so bad.
Heck, the Spider tube amp was pretty decent for the price.
To be honest, I was going to get this amp, but after a play around, I strongly suggest the Roland 40XL over this amp,
10 more watts, power squeezer, on a lower volume the the Line 6 has a nicer clean tone but the Roland can actually handle some actual gain.
Not to mention the built in effects are just epic
jetfuel495 m :
To be frank, the small versions of these amps do sound pretty bad. But the bigger ones, played at louder volumes, and LOW GAIN (I cannot stress this enough, anything past the mid point on the gain knob sounds like poo) aren't so bad.
Heck, the Spider tube amp was pretty decent for the price.
POSTED: 04/14/2011 - 03:16 pm / quote |
DiaryOfJane :
I don't know about the Spider IVs, but I had a Spider III - it broke... then I bought a Peavey Vypyr.
Much Better amp.
POSTED: 04/14/2011 - 05:39 pm / quote |
megadethfan 666 :
i have one and it sounds great
POSTED: 04/14/2011 - 06:54 pm / quote |
telebuckley :
To be honest, I was going to get this amp, but after a play around, I strongly suggest the Roland 40XL over this amp,
10 more watts, power squeezer, on a lower volume the the Line 6 has a nicer clean tone but the Roland can actually handle some actual gain.
Not to mention the built in effects are just epic
POSTED: 04/15/2011 - 09:49 pm / quote | wrote:
To be frank, the small versions of these amps do sound pretty bad. But the bigger ones, played at louder volumes, and LOW GAIN (I cannot stress this enough, anything past the mid point on the gain knob sounds like poo) aren't so bad.
Heck, the Spider tube amp was pretty decent for the price.
The spider valves are insanley overpriced how do you in any way see them as decent for the price lol.
I've got a Spider IV 15 watt, It's a hell of a lot louder than my Lead Guitarist's Marshall 10 watt and has got a lot beastier and fuller tone...as long as you keep it on metal or insane. The 15watt has only Clean, Crunch (which serves well for punk/grunge, but really gives that nice, muddy tone for rhythm-blues playing), Metal and Insane. The riffs that I belt out have so much power and throw themselves around like a Firetruck....yet when I try to solo it always sounds thin and empty, absolutely no tonal capacity at all. No guitar, from an SX strat-a-be to Highlander/Schon Mix can keep any sort of solo going without making your ears bleed.
If you're a rhythm guitarist who likes making the occasional pitch squeal or harmonic to spic up your riffs, this amp is perfect..., however if you're a soloist, I recommend you back away, as far as you can get. Rhythm gets an 8.5, Lead about a 4-5. Ive used it plenty of times in gigs and had ir for over a year so I've tried everything to get it to solo, but its as stubborn an ******* as I am and won't help me solo in the least. :\
I've got a Spider IV 15 watt, It's a hell of a lot louder than my Lead Guitarist's Marshall 10 watt and has got a lot beastier and fuller tone...as long as you keep it on metal or insane. The 15watt has only Clean, Crunch (which serves well for punk/grunge, but really gives that nice, muddy tone for rhythm-blues playing), Metal and Insane. The riffs that I belt out have so much power and throw themselves around like a Firetruck....yet when I try to solo it always sounds thin and empty, absolutely no tonal capacity at all. No guitar, from an SX strat-a-be to Highlander/Schon Mix can keep any sort of solo going without making your ears bleed.
If you're a rhythm guitarist who likes making the occasional pitch squeal or harmonic to spic up your riffs, this amp is perfect..., however if you're a soloist, I recommend you back away, as far as you can get. Rhythm gets an 8.5, Lead about a 4-5. Ive used it plenty of times in gigs and had ir for over a year so I've tried everything to get it to solo, but its as stubborn an ***** as I am and won't help me solo in the least. :\
This is actually a really accurate summary of this amps uses and the same thing goes for all of the spider amps. While I, personally would never buy a spider amp (I'm not close minded to a Vetta II though, so don't call me a bigot please), for a beginner who wants to play around with tones and see what they can get, the smaller spider amps would be a great choice.
I've got a Spider IV 15 watt, It's a hell of a lot louder than my Lead Guitarist's Marshall 10 watt and has got a lot beastier and fuller tone...as long as you keep it on metal or insane. The 15watt has only Clean, Crunch (which serves well for punk/grunge, but really gives that nice, muddy tone for rhythm-blues playing), Metal and Insane. The riffs that I belt out have so much power and throw themselves around like a Firetruck....yet when I try to solo it always sounds thin and empty, absolutely no tonal capacity at all. No guitar, from an SX strat-a-be to Highlander/Schon Mix can keep any sort of solo going without making your ears bleed.
If you're a rhythm guitarist who likes making the occasional pitch squeal or harmonic to spic up your riffs, this amp is perfect..., however if you're a soloist, I recommend you back away, as far as you can get. Rhythm gets an 8.5, Lead about a 4-5. Ive used it plenty of times in gigs and had ir for over a year so I've tried everything to get it to solo, but its as stubborn an ***** as I am and won't help me solo in the least. :\
i coudnt have said it better!! dat was jus perfect!!
I've got a Spider IV 15 watt, It's a hell of a lot louder than my Lead Guitarist's Marshall 10 watt and has got a lot beastier and fuller tone...as long as you keep it on metal or insane. The 15watt has only Clean, Crunch (which serves well for punk/grunge, but really gives that nice, muddy tone for rhythm-blues playing), Metal and Insane. The riffs that I belt out have so much power and throw themselves around like a Firetruck....yet when I try to solo it always sounds thin and empty, absolutely no tonal capacity at all. No guitar, from an SX strat-a-be to Highlander/Schon Mix can keep any sort of solo going without making your ears bleed.
If you're a rhythm guitarist who likes making the occasional pitch squeal or harmonic to spic up your riffs, this amp is perfect..., however if you're a soloist, I recommend you back away, as far as you can get. Rhythm gets an 8.5, Lead about a 4-5. Ive used it plenty of times in gigs and had ir for over a year so I've tried everything to get it to solo, but its as stubborn an ***** as I am and won't help me solo in the least. :\
Bought this amp, 3 months old, second hand
for $ 100.= New price in Holland $ 240,= so not to expensive. Playing for 45 years, at the moment with a PRS 25th anniversary 24 custom, I think it's a hell of an amp for this price. Maybe too little for a Woodstock gig, but anyway.....I love it.
I've got a Spider IV 15 watt, It's a hell of a lot louder than my Lead Guitarist's Marshall 10 watt and has got a lot beastier and fuller tone...as long as you keep it on metal or insane. The 15watt has only Clean, Crunch (which serves well for punk/grunge, but really gives that nice, muddy tone for rhythm-blues playing), Metal and Insane. The riffs that I belt out have so much power and throw themselves around like a Firetruck....yet when I try to solo it always sounds thin and empty, absolutely no tonal capacity at all. No guitar, from an SX strat-a-be to Highlander/Schon Mix can keep any sort of solo going without making your ears bleed.
If you're a rhythm guitarist who likes making the occasional pitch squeal or harmonic to spic up your riffs, this amp is perfect..., however if you're a soloist, I recommend you back away, as far as you can get. Rhythm gets an 8.5, Lead about a 4-5. Ive used it plenty of times in gigs and had ir for over a year so I've tried everything to get it to solo, but its as stubborn an ***** as I am and won't help me solo in the least. :\
but why would you use a a 15w amp for a gig?
I own this amp myself and think that it is good for a beginner amp; I've had this for over a year and caught up with no major issues with it. If people don't like the onboard preamp/distortions, then they can stick to the clean and use their own stomp-boxes, or they can swap out the transistors with something better. I myself think that Line 6 is pretty decent for beginners, but for pros, no, definitely not. For those who use this amp as a starter amp, I'd recommend that they stick to the amp for now, and then once their budget rises or their amp pops, then they can but a new amp. I have actually used this amp as an introductory usage to distortions used in many songs.
Cheers,
parhelia_0000
