Line 6 Spider 112 Combo

I rate this catagory a 9 because for the price it's as versitle as you'll find. 50 watts, 4 user defined preset channels, 6 modeled amps, Chorus, Flange, Tremelo, Delay, Tape echo, Ping pong, a rich reverb, stereo headphone/direct out for recording with cabinet simulation, also features "hidden" functions such as Volume boost, distortion boost for extra dirt, built in noise gate, and a function which allows you to visually see the knob settings for the 4 preset channels, and finally a channel volume to individually adjust the volume of the presets. (oh yeah, also compatable with the line 6 foot controller which boosts your number of presets to 12). I'd have given this catagory a 10 if it included an effect loop but then again I usually prefer my effects in front of the amp anyway.

Ah the sound. It floored me. This is apparently the second review of this amp on the database and I have to say I'm very surprised that the one other review ripped this amp. He gave the sound a rating of 1! I wholeheartedly disagree. He stated the amp sounded good, real good, in the store, but totally sucked in the real world. I have no idea what that means. The music store I frequent is located in the real world so my amp sounded just as good at home as it did in the store. Clean channel in modeled after a Dumble amp according to the manual which is a high end amp I've never had the pleasure of playing so I can't really compare but I can say it sounded full and rich. I nailed the clean sound of the intro to "Torn" by Creed dead on. Twang channel is my least favorite of the 6 channels but I'd probly like it more if I played more country. I bet it sounds great with a Tele. I play a Aria Pro 2 guitar by the way. (Humbucker in bridge position, Single coil in middle and neck with 5 way switch.) Can't remember the amp it's modeled after. Blues channel is great from clean to rich overdrive. Can you get SRV's tones on this amp? No, but 90% of his tone was in his fingers so no amp can give you that, but it can give you a textured complex sound for you to work with. Once again I forget the amp it's modeled after, but Line 6's web site can tell you all that, I'm more interested in the sound itself. I know that the Crunch channel is modeled after a Marshall Plexi, and I know it sounds very good. My favorite of all is Recto, which of coarse is based on a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectified. I LOVE this sound and it is what sold me the most on this amp. The cabinet simulater on this channel does a very good job of sounding like a 4X12. Mind you this is a 50 watt combo with one 12 inch speaker so no, it doesn't sound EXACTLY like a Boogie. Physics won't allow that. It does, on the other hand, sound like a Boogie on a CD played on a quality stereo, and finally the Insane channel. The name says it all. As the manual states this channel has ridiculous amounts of gain. Screaming totally saturated sound that maintains definition even at it's highest setting. A boogie with a distortion stomp box. I auditioned several amps before I settled on the Spider. I only had 400 to spare and I wasn't patient enough to wait until I saved more to buy a more expensive amp. Well, modern technology has come a long way, and I have an amp that sounds better than some of the 1000 dollar ones I tried out just for comparison. Tubes are great. Side by side with the spider, If you only cared for one particular sound, such as a Marshall, or Fender or Boogie, go with the real deal. A Marshall JCM2000 has a very georgeous sound with killer distortion, but no matter what you do it will sound like a Marshall. Not a bad thing, but I wanted a full pallete of sounds without breaking the bank.

This is where I had a bit of a problem. 5 minutes after I got it home and turned the volume up, the thing started cutting out on me. The sound would go from loud to almost silent, especially on distorted tones. Apparently, by the looks of the box it came in, FedEx played soccer with it. (see customer support about how this was taken care of.)

I called the store I bought the amp at and told them of the problem described above. They did not have another one in stock for me to exchange so they called Line6 to inform them of the situation. After about 5 minutes a customer rep from Line 6 called me and apolgized for the problem and said they would FedEx me a brand new one directly to my doorstep and pick up the defective one. Not bad. Better service than you'll get at some of the more established Amp manufacturers, that's for sure. They also answer e-mails promptly.

I've been playing for 15 years off and on. I've owned a Gibson Les Paul Custom, Marshall JCM900 2X12, countless stomp boxes, and multi-effects galore. Other than the Les Paul, (which I had to sell during some hard times) I feel this is the best purchare I've ever made. If it were stolen I would definately buy it again, unless I could swing for the Flextone. Sound, versatility, not too big, plenty loud, it's all I need right now. Sounded better than Crate Digital Modeling amp. As well as several other non-modeling amps, don't know about the Johnson modeling amps, I don't have a local Johnson dealer.

Line 6s' ehtry level offering. 6 original Line 6 models (4 presets), is capable with the floorboard for a total of 12 presets Built in Chorus, reverb, delay(s), flanging. In theory this sounds pretty good but read on

In the store it sounded good....real good. In the real world it was CRUD! I tried humbucking and single coil guitars with it, couldn't find a good setting at higher volume levels. "Insane" sounds like a bad Soldano type program...the typical thin high gain preamp type tone lots of people like (including myself) in a good tube amp. "recto" Boogieish but unbearably anemic. "Crunch" wasn' t the slightest bit crunchy. "Blues" well this one was ok but one dimensional. Twang" was unmusical and one dimensional. "clean" sounds like a bad K-Mart amp.
50 very quiet watts, no cutting ability. Some amps are one trick ponies but they do the trick REALLY WELL (ie Marshall 80 series and loud high gain) the Line 6 Spider is a 6 trick pony that forgot the tricks.
Pathetic

Returned it after a few days. Seemed VERY flimsy though.

? don't know

Crap, the worst amp I have ever used (and I used to have a solid state GK) Unmusical, flat and generally terrible. This is not a good first amp either, the clean channels are truly bad and a beginner will spend all their time on "insane" missing all their mistakes. This amp is useless. the Flextone and higher models are quite good values generally speaking but this amp is truly bad. Before you buy be sure the store you get it from has a rrefund policy cause anyone with real amps will return this debacle. I did