Line 6 Spider 210 Combo

It has a lot of effects and different amp settings you can play with. The amp settings and delays are great and the effects are fun to play around with, but with the effects knobs I couldn't ever really get the sound I was looking for.

I have a Peavy Raptor with single coils and It sounded ok, nothing like a tube amp though. Could get almost any type of distortion but you need to buy the stupid pedal for them to be really useful. I got rid of it because the speakers couldn't handle it when it was turned up 3/4 of the way, I needed a louder amp.

Didn't really have it that long but I noticed a weird buzzing sound from the headphone jack at all volumes at any pickup posision tried everything and it would go away.

didn't deal with them

I took it back after about two weeks and I have decided to by a tube amp, probably a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. You really can't beat tube amps. This is a really good starter amp, and if you play with a quieter band it would be ok. If I was going to buy one new, I would think about buying a 1x12 I have heard they sound better and cost less.

this is an update. i can't beleive how stupid and gay my other review was after i read it. this amp isn't as great as i made it seem. i was obsessed w/it when i first got it. don't get me wrong, it's a great amp for practice. but when comparing it to other sounds of other amps, it won't quite cut it for my sound. 6 fx, 4 storable channels, 6 amp models. knobs spin way too easily.

when i first heard it, it sounded unbeliveable. then, i heard other amps' sounds. i found that the clean gets muddy very easily. the distortion range itself is pretty versital. they are not heavy enough for me, but i still like them. the insane model could be a LOT heavier. everybody says, "oh insane is too much to handle." those people are retarded. there is no real warmth to the sound, because the "real tube simulation" IS A SIMULATION. and a bad one too.

it shut down a couple times, and i get a lot of static on the gain channels. once i put the volume on 5 and it started to cackle and shut down. i'd recommend to unplug it when you don't use it

never dealt with line 6. heard they're really good though.

i've been playing for like a year, and this amp is ok. i like it in some ways, and i don't like it in some ways. if it were stolen, i'd probably get something with a better distortion.

I bought this amp in december 1999 and I own a danelectro 56 - U3 and a 94 Fender american strat. I have been playing for 7 years and I play alot blues such as Zep, Hendrix, Big Sugar, and Kravitz. Everyone knows from the other detailed reviews about the 6 different amps it can emulate and of course the tremelo, chorus, and flange effects. The hidden features such as presence for example lets you customize your favorite tones but the other features are not worth mentioning (except for noisegate). This amp pretty much emulates all of the different sounding amps such as Fender, Marshall, and Mesa decently enough. If you are just starting to look for your first middle of the road practice amp then this is the perfect package. If you think you are going to do gigs with this you will be very dissappointed. 2 10 inch tubetone speakers at 25W each is decent power but these speakers sure do suck at high volumes. After comparing this amp with the Marshall VS 265R and the Fender Ultimate Studio Chorus, There no doubt that the Spider is better overall in the Features department but IT WILL ALWAYS BE AN EMULATOR

No matter if your using a danelectro, strat, or my buddy's LP standard the sound is always going to be like this: Once you really play with the knobs for a couple days, you will start to figure out how to get decent sounds out of the amp. The only problem is the distortion. The clean channels are fine, adequate for what I need, but the recto and insane is lifeless. I noticed this at higher volumes, you will hear a real muddy and degrated sound. Once I compared this amp to the Marshall and Fender I realized it was the cheap speakers inside that was giving me the poor sound. I would plug my $100.00 headphones and It sounded outstanding, I finally got the sound quality I am looking for. Who wants to listen through headphones though. So I decided to repalce the two tens for two 12's (celestion Vintage 30's). Volumes increased dramatically as well as sound quality due to the higher sensitivity. At high volumes there was not as much break up and the muddy sound became crisp and defined. It sounded closer to the old Marshall Valvestate sound in the early 90's (when they didn't use Marshall Goldback) than the new Marshall VS 2X65R. The clean tone is not as nice as the good fenders but that was not the problem. Thus, the two distortion channels will sound really bad if you don't spend time on the knobs, and expect a lifeless muddy sound at high volumes (3/4 gain 3/4 volume). This proceesor sounds as good as any of the other $500 combo out there. If you only use headphones the rating is a 10, if you replace the speakers with good ones the rating would be a 9, but if original then the rating should be 6.

I've smashed it a couple of time but no problems yet and its been a year.

never had to call them

I've pretty much summed this product up already but all I can say is they put the majority of the cost into the processor and cheaped out on some $20.00 speakers. It takes time to get the sound you want out of it but when you do, you can save 4 channels. The only downfall to this amp is that it does not come with a footswitch like everyone else includes. What are they thinking! If it was stolen I would probably buy another one, as a practice amp. No gigging with this one, unless you get some celestions.

I bought this amp a year ago and I've been playing for 2 years. This amp has a ton of features which alows me to play everything from thrash to mellow stuff. The added features such as noisegate and presence gives you more tonal control, especially at high volumes.

Two words. Cheap speakers! Once you get over 2/3 volume it really breaks up on the high gain mode but the clean channels are fine.

Never had a problem yet

Overall it is a pretty good all round amp which lets you discover which type of sound you like. It will always be an emulator but if you replace the two 10 icnh tubetones with celestion G12t-75 IT SOUNDS UNBELEVABLE

this amp is really cool. i play some hardcore, and a little bit of mellow stuff, and the channels are great. you can store 4 of your own settings, it has 6 amp models and 7 fx. but i wish the knobs weren't so touch sensitive.

even though i play a squire affinity which is a piece of crap, the sound of the amp is great. there are 4 or 5 types of distortion that you can get, from subtle bluesy sounds to ear spliting hardcore scream, and the clean can be great even though i had to experiment with a lot of different settings.

the amp seems to be durable, although once in a while it shuts down if you leave it plugged in for a long time. i would suggest to unplug it whenever your not playing.

never dealt with them

this amp is really great. if it was stolen, i don't know if i could afford another one cause i'm only 12, but i would definently get one if i could

I bought this amp in 2000. It is a very versitile amp. Historically, equipment has either been a "jack-of-all, master of none" or a "master of one". This is not the case with the Spider. In an analog world, getting variety, usually leads to compromises (making use of the same circuitry, etc.), but this modeling amp changes from "model" to "model" a leaves no trace of the previous model. Sweet! This amp has one input channel and also has three built in effect paths: (1) Flange or Chorus or Tremelo (2) Delay or Tape Echo or Ping Pong and (3) Reverb. All are done well and offer a wide rage within each effect (although the delay, tape delay and ping pong all sound nearly the same). A nice feature is that the amp model and effect settings can be saved in one of four memory location for instant recall. The down side is that there are only four memory locations. The memory locations become important because when you select an "amp model" the CPU ignores all of the knobs on the front (except Master) and sets each position and effect internally. That's sort of nice, but confusing because the knobs DO NOT indicate the current setting. The guitarist can change any setting by moving a knob, but you don't known where the original setting is (unless you do the compare function) so the initial move is a wild guess to whether your increasing or decreasing the effect. They use nornmal amp knobs to make things look like the amps we're all familiar with, but they don't really work that way and it can be confusing. It's OK once you figure it out, but an improvement would be an LED indication on the knob settings to show the current setting; then tone and effect adjustments would be more intuitive. After an initial learning curve to figure out how this amp works, it is great!

I use a fender copy with fender lace pickups, and an Epiphone Les Paul. This amp handles each guitar well. If I only had one of these two guitars and I was buying a typical amp, the amp selcted would be different for each guitar. The Spider amp lets me optimize the amp sound for each guitar, which is very nice. The noise is low, even at fairly high volumes, except the "insane" setting which seems noisy at even low levels. This is not a problem for me since I don't really like or use the "insane" setting. Otherwise, this amp sounds tasty using the other five models, and at high volumes the thing has punch and is full of life. When you take this amp for the test ride, ask for the manual and spend some time with it; it is like trying out six different amps.

Have only had this for a month. It has worked fine, but time will provide a better answer.

Although the amp hasn't had any trouble, I contacted customer support several times to check on the latest software version. I think they are all smoking weed! I've left several detailed messages, and I've gotten two replies; both said "hope it going well dude! give me a call back." But every time I call, I only get their voice mail.....arrrgggghhh!

I've been playing for twenty years, but it's been a while since I've played for a crowd. Got married, had kids, now returning to my first (but no longer the only) love. If it were stolen; first I would compliment the thief on his good taste and keen eye for jam capability, then I would smash him with my old amp and take the Spider back. This is a great amp. It sounds good and can make just about any tone you want. I've seen some reviews that say it doesn't have the power to play with a band, but they must be doing something wrong. This has as much power as my old amp, and it played "with the band" just fine. Playing with a group at high volumes requires different settings than playing at low volume. Don't let people who don't know how to use equipment, convince you that the equipment doesn't work.

2000 Model. This amp rocks. It sounds better than any amp I have ever owned (even the 5150 half stack and the Boogie). It is the most versatile amp ever for less that $700.00. When used with the Floorboard, it is very easy to set up and maintain every possible sound that you will need (up to 12 presets). Headphone jack doubles as a direct out for recording. I use this amp to gig with as well as record. It sounds awesome when mic'd through a PA.

I use Ibanez guitars, the Paul Gilbert model with the Tone Zone gets incredible distortion. Total meltdown on Insane. My 570 has an older Trembucker, I can go from the heaviest distortion to the cleanest clean without ever switching the pickup selector. I have found with the Tone Tone I can roll off the volume knob and get that AC/DC sound while using the Recto setting and leaving the drive at max. When using the Trembucker the clean sound never distorts even at full volume.

No problems at all

Never had to use it. Called in about replacement speakers, just in case, and people where very friendly.

For what this amp offers compared to the price, I personally do not think you can do better. I can't wait for the 2X12 to come out.

This amp was manufactured in 2000. This amp comes in very handy for my style of play, which ranges anywhere from Creed to Van Halen to Joe Satriani or Steve Vai. There are 6 different amp types, which you can tweak to a certain extent, but the thing that impressed me is the amount of effects built-in. Let's just say there are 5 or 6 pedals I don't need to buy now. The only thing really missing in my opinion is an included footswitch. The amp is plenty powerful for me, as I mainly play in my house or jam with friends. The amp is stereo with 2 10 inch speakers, which makes some of the effects sound really cool.

I am playing an Ibanez RG-570 through it, with the V1, S1, and V2 pickups, and it sounds great. I can get a perfect clean or a heavy, crunching distortion sound from it. The amp is incredibly quiet, I played a Squier Strat with the tone controls all the way to the treble side on the Insane setting and did not get much buzz, especially with the Noise Gate. The channels keep their properties at most volumes, they don't distort much at all when you turn it up, but if you use the actual distortion channels, you can get a heavy, thick sound that you can still control, not much feedback unless you are pretty close.

The amp seems pretty sturdy, but I try to keep my gear in immaculate shape. I don't gig yet so I can't say if I would use it with or without a backup. I have only had the amp a short time, but it seems to be easy to care for, just unplug it when you go to work.

I haven't had to deal with Line 6 yet, but the 1-year warranty seems to cover alot. I bought the amp from American Musical Supply, so they will cover it a bit too.

I have been playing for 3 or 4 years, I own an Ibanez RG570, a Squier Strat, a Crybaby wah, Boss flanger, Ibanez tubescreamer, and a little Fender Frontman amp, so this and the Ibanez are my nicer pieces of gear. The only pedal I use now is the wah, until I get the floorboard. If this amp were stolen or lost I would definitely buy another one. The thing I like the most about this amp is the variety of sounds and effects you can get with the turn of a knob. The only thing that bugged me was that the floorboard is extra. I shopped around for quite a few months, comparing to Crate, Marshall, Fender, etc., and this was the best amp I found in the $400-$800 price range. If only it had the footswitch, it would be the perfect package. All in all, I highly suggest this amp.

My amp was built in 2000. Versatility is great. I play a bunch of different styles, and need clean, jazz, blues, funk, and hard rock (but not metal). It adds more features than I ever had pedal space to support. Comes with 4 channels, chorus, reverb, tremolo, flanging, and echo. No effects loop. There is a headphone jack, but I've never used it. In fact, we plugged into the "house" using it, but naturally, the speakers cut out, so back to microphones again. Because there are 2 10 inch speakers, you have to move around a bit to find the sweet spot if you use it like a monitor like I do. I think next time I would get a single 12 inch, because I have to stand at least 5 feet away to hear myself in a live setup.
I wish this thing had a direct output. But on Line6's advice, I bought a HK redbox pro that feeds off the speakers, and has a cabinet simulator. With the HK, it works great live. I use this amp about half the time for practice, but all the time when on stage. It would be nice too if the knobs had some click. This thing has optical knobs, so there is no feel to them. You have to look at the front panel and see which light is on to tell what your settings are. Power output is fine for me, but on some settings, drive sets the volume while on others, it goes by channel volume - kinda tricky. The 210 has stereo, but I never use it. I bought it on the recommendation of someone else who likes the brilliance of the smaller speakers. There are no tubes, it's all solid state. I'd give it a 9 if the knobs clicked and it had a direct out.

I'm using a 1979 Fender Stratocaster solid maple. It is a very heavy guitar, so there is some natural sustain in there. The amp works well with it, and has some compression because you can hold a note forever without feedback. It has real good bite, which is good because we have a loud bassist, another guitarist, and 2 keyboards. My music style is basically Contemporary Christian, so it has to cover all styles from real clean to real dirty sounds. The amp is dead quiet, so you have to look to see if it's lit up. The crunch sound is dull, like there's no upper end, and the insane sound is useless to me. But I love that recto sound, it's good and fat. The blues tone is also week on the high end, but I use both twang and clean a lot. They combine beautifully with the echo and the chorus. There's no distortion that I can find, at any volume. It's a pain using the "tap" feature. Seems that if I want to change a setting with it, I'm practically leaning on the button. But for me, needing a performance amp that's flexible, not too overwhelming (like the Johnson) and can change a lot of channels fast, it's perfect.

I've had some minor problems with it that are my fault -- like plugging the guitar into the headphone jack, or a broken wire to the HK direct box, stuff like that. Whenever it acts up, I just power it off and on. I already use it all the time without a backup. It's never broken on me, but I've only used it since March. However, the case is real heavy (40 pounds) and there is nothing in the electronics -- I looked; there's one power amp chip and one DSP chip, period. the knobs aren't even potentiometers, they're optical to cut noise I guess.

All I did was e-mail the company. However, they replied a day later, which was where I got the recommendation for the redbox pro.

I've been playing off and on for about 30 years. I also have a 50 watt Mitchell and a 20 watt Marshall. If this amp were stolen, I think I would move up to a Line6 Flextone because I like the Line6 products. Maybe I'd ditch everything and just get a Pod. I love the quick setup of the Spider. It lets me copy tone setups between channels, then dial in-or-out the extra effects I need for that night's set. I hate the "tap" for delay, and theres no way to know where to start adjusting your knobs after switching channels (the channel could have treble cranked even though the knob is turned all the way off). I compared the spider to everything else in its category, and it clobbers all the switchable personality amplifiers in features for the price. I picked this one because it had fewer presets for me to mess up on stage, and two speakers for coverage.
Once again, I wish it had a direct out. We always go from one song directly into another with no time for fiddling with setups, so having channel volume switch with the channel is great. I also make a habit out of keeping clean on channel 1, chorus on 3, distortion on 4, and gig specific stuff on 2. Helps me keep it straight while playing. I use the FB4 to switch channels, and it has a real long cord, which is cool. I have to get myself a floor board though -- I'd like to have the volume pedal.

There are many, many features with this amp. Not only does it emulate six reconizable types of amplifiers, but you also get high quality flange, tremelo, and choruse -- not to mention three different types of delay. The "tap" button allows you to set how frequent the delays are set, and you can also adjust the amount of delay with the turn of the knob.

The best part about thi samp is that it doesn't lose much quality when it's set at a loud volume. The different effects sound incredible with a clean amp selected. No need for extra pedals here. However, this amp aint so hot with massive distortion. You'll love it at first, but it could be a lot better.

I've never had any type of problems, and everything is very easy to use.

Haven't had to use it yet.

This is a great, great amp for clean sounds. If you're looking to play with heavy distortion and palm muting, you may want to pickup a Metal Zone pedal to assist with the sound. If you're into hard rock, this amp handles that type of distortion very well. Give it a try, this is a great amp.