Line 6 Spider II 15 Combo

This amp has a good range of features

This amp has good sound quality for it's power/speaker size

We hav'nt had it long so can't really comment on it's reliability

We hav'nt needed any customer support as of yet

All in all this little line 6 spider 3 15 watt amp is a good sounding little amp for the price and i would recommend it for a first practice amp.I give it an 8 overall.

I rushed out and bought this after my practice amp broke down on me. It was super affordable and the price couldn't be beat. The four channels offer me lots of great choices when writing songs and testing guitars (I repair, sell, and trade guitars). I have a DIgitech DF-7 Distortion Factory, and it is the greatest pedal ever made, though I don't use it often anymore since I have my Line 6.

As I said, the sounds this puppy makes are awesome. From trippy 30 second to mars sounds all the way to nu-metal crunch this amp plays it all wonderfully. I've cranked it up and it holds it's own against most 30 - 50W amps, including Marshalls. I've run everything from a tele to a Schecter to an acoustic (on the clean channel), it passed every test.

This is a great amp for practicing and writing. It's light enough to move from the bedroom to the basement to the living room and then out to the deck with no problem. I've never had a single problem with it in almost a year.

My previous review(s) of this amp pretty well covers the features (see "Wulfblue"). The best feature of this amp, far as I'm concerned, is the ability to modify the stock sounds and store those mods. For example, the stock "clean" channel uses chorus and delay. I immediately reprogrammed that by defeating both chorus and delay and then tweaking the bass-mid-treble EQ and the gain and master and then adding a bit of reverb. Now, when I turn on the amp, it gives me a great thick clean sound with a hint of hall-type reverb without any of the "boing" of springs. The digital reverb on this amp is the first digital reverb I've found that I can live with!
It'd be nice if it had a footswtich jack but practice amps mostly don't have that.

My "go-to" guitar is an SX Strat with vintage Fender Alnico pups. Although I've long been a "tube head" and preferred the "fat" sound of tube amps, this little amp gives me back the sound I hear in my head when I play my axe unplugged.
I sold my first Spider II 15 to a friend who wanted it for his son after hearing me playing through it. I subsequently bought the Line 6 Spider II 30 with 12" Celestion speaker. It sounded good too but just din't have the "tightness" of the Spider II 15. So, it's up for sale and I bought another Spidser II 15 and reprogrammed it. Wow! The Crunch, Metal and Insane settings are icing on the cake. I'll tweak those soon and save those settings too. But right now, my reprogrammed "Clean" is all I need.
BTW, for all you "power" freaks out there, a 30W amp DOES NOT give you twice the sound of a 15W amp! All it does is increase the SPL (sound pressure level) by 3DB! Check it out on the net if you don't believe me. To increase the SPL by 3DB, you need to double the power. So, if at 15W, an amp produces, say 96db, at 30W, it will produce 99db at 60W and 102db at 120W. To double the volume, you need to increase the amp's power by a factor of 10 times! To get a sound that's twice as loud as a 15W amp, you'd have to have an amp with 150W output (all other things such as speaker size etc being equal)!!!

One thing to keep in mind: You can dirty up a clean amp but it's impossible to clean up a dirty amp. That being said, this amp offers you a range of sounds from ultra clean to super dirty. Up to you to dial in the sounds you want by tweaking knobs and then storing those sounds. Well worth the effort. The Line 6 website has all the instructions on how to do this if you don't have the manual. It even has a downloadable pdf manual available. By far the nicest-sounding (after tweaking) practice amp I've ever owned. All this for a lousy $75 brand new (S&H included). Like I said in my previous review, wish these had been around 20-30-40 years ago! And it only weighs 16 lbs.!!! AND you can plug a cd player into it and play along AND you can plug in headphones and not disturb the family/neighbours/pets/goldfish:-)

15 watt practice amp current model.
4 amp modeling + 6 (2 x 3) effects modeling
phono line-out/headphone jack, mini phono line in (labeled "CD/mp3")

no speaker out, but it would be easy enough to retro fit one.

4 amp models are "clean" ( sounds kinda roland JC/ Vox/Fender but not really), "crunch" which is apparently modeled on a 100 watt "plexi faced" marshall, "Metal" which is a Mesa Boogie dual rectifier model, and "insane" which is some Line 6 model that's supposed to sound like... buh? what? I don't know what but it's screaming pinch harmonic screeching mess of a sound, maybe your bag but not mine.

Each model has a gain, a volume and 3 band tone controls to model adjusting ...well.. the pre gain, channel volume and tone.

Finally there's a "master volume" that is not saved as part of the preset that doesn't affect modeling tone just the overall volume.

Effects are 1 bank of chorus/flanger + phaser + tremolo (only one at a time or off) plus 1 bank of sweep echo + Tape echo + reverb (again only one at a time or off) meaning you can have a combination of 2 effects, one from each bank.

There's also 2 "hidden" processors - Distortion boost (like a boost pedal) and Noise gate

You can change each models tone and effects and save them over that model's preset but you can't overwrite another model's preset (so you can't overwrite "insane" with a "clean" model preset)

I play "classic British" pop and rock (Beatles/Stones) and "indi style" (R.E.M. Stone Roses etc) and so obviously the Metal and Insane preset/models are a complete waste of space for me, particularly as you can't even hijack their preset buttons to write a new clean or crunch model preset.

also the effects are ... well... overly processed, or in the case of the reverb rather week... you can only adjust the intensity and with echo use the "tap time" button for echo tempo


all that said this amp is to me a practice amp for the 99% of the time I can't fire up my Vox AC 30, Laney VC 30, Fender twin reverb or Marshall JCM stack at home without having the cops at the door in seconds flat.

In that context it does everything I need it to do (give a close approximation to a Twin Reverb, AC30 or JCM) and does do that nicely enough.

the modeling processor is not really up to scratch with Line6's other units (pod etc) but it is better than just OK and close enough for practice, demo recording and small giging purpose.

I can't pull off a good enough replication of any of my valve amps to directly substitute them for recording but it does do a reasonable job in emulating the general style of sound without sounding nasty or overly processed or generating solid state distortion tones.
With the clean model the gain's a bit weak never really generating that "on the edge of crunch" but works nicely with the actual crunch model.

tone control is good - gives a wide usable range of tones... more so than the amps they are modeled on there's no way can I get my AC 30 or Twin Reverb to sound as muffled or as sharp as this goes without an Eq pedal.

the effects are too over done, I usually dial them down to the minimum or just turn them off and use pedals.

It's surprisingly quiet with my single coil guitars (Rickenbacker and Tele) except, not surprisingly, with the the Flanger effect.

Not surprising but 15 watts is loud, and it cranks not as loud as my Vox.. it can't compete but it only loses by a little... all very well and good except the box starts rattling at about 7 on the master volume and the internal speaker seems a bit poor to handle it melodically. As there's no speaker out to run it to, say, a 2x10 box so rather than crank it you'd probably want to use the line out or mike it up to your PA if you need extra projection at a show.

can't say ... only had it a few weeks.

the box is chipboard/partical board so it wouldn't hold up to regular giging without some sort of case to protect it in transit.

no idea, the music store I bough this through is my regular dealer and they take care of their regular customers so .....

Despite what I wrote above I'm actually going to give this a 10 here..
it's amazingly cheap but not nasty.
It sounds good even if it doesn't match my expectations of matching my valve amps with its sound modeling (at least to me with the clean and crunch channels Vs real AC 30, Twin Reverb and JCM).
Good for home recording if you don't need to nail an exact replica of a specific amp just the general sound.

I'd do small gigs (cafe type) with it and have used it at a backyard party playing with an acoustic guitar player and it cuts through nicely with out being cranked hard

I actually went in to the shop to see if the Peavey JSX Mini Colossus was out (it wasn't at the time and still isn't at time of writing this), decided not to wait and to get a cheap practice amp to tide me over until I've at least demoed the JSX Mini.
Tried Peavey, Fender, Marshall and Roland solid state amps in the 5 to 20 watt range they all sounded offensively shrill solid state, this was the only one that actually at least sounded like a valve amp so it was a no brainer purchase.

I'm happy enough with this that I'm actually considering one of the larger Line 6's (like the 210 or 212 - the ones with full modeling and preset management) as a giging amp for my cover band work - and that from a valve purist like me is something I thought I'd never say .

Alot of good built in features. The 15 watts of this thing kicks!!!
I have one HUGE complaint...Effects are pre-set on the Clean channel. So when you go from Crunch etc back to clean, some echo etc automatically are on(So annoying!). It is real annoying when you hook up the FBV express and the same thing happens.

I give this amp a higher rating only for its crisp ability to play loud! The overall sound I believe is not well tuned with a Epiphone Les Paul. If you love Metal etc, this amp is for you...

Very dependable....Well made

Haven't used it

It is a hardcore unit for rock or metal....If I could change one thing, it would be the stupid auto-effects on clean.

This amp is a PRACTICE amp. That being said, it has tons of features for an amp which can be had on ebay for under $100. I got mine for $75, S&H included, brand new in the box with manual and warranty. Read previous reviews for all those features. At the same time, keep in mind that if what you're looking for is a stage amp you can use with a band in large venues, well, look elsewhere.
I bought it to use for playing late at night in my livingroom without disturbing my sleeping wife or the dog or the neighbours. I wanted an amp that sounded good at low volumes and offered "plug and play" effects such as overdrive, delay, etc., without having to resort to effects pedals. I prefer getting the "spaciousness" of the room sound to playing through headphones but this amp offers both options. Oh, and it can get pretty damn loud if you crank it!
One of the problems I've had with other solid-state practice amps (eg. Fender, Crate, Peavey) is that the sound got thin when playing in the high registers above the 12th fret. This amp stays nice and thick up there!

4 preset amp simulations but remember that you can alter these and save your own preferred settings. In other words, with a little tweaking, you can dial in the sounds YOU want and store them and have them available at the touch of a button! Further, when selecting one of those sounds, you can, while playing, tweak a couple of knobs and change the sound without losing your stored sounds.
So, whether you're into blues or hard rock or country or whatever, with a little experimentation, you can dial in a sound that will do the job admirably. And once you've stored those sounds, the amp "remembers" relative gain/master/eq settings and gives 'em back to you on demand! Amazing!

I've only had it for a couple of weeks so time will tell. But Line 6 has a good rep in this department and the amp seems to be built to last. I don't anticipate any problems. As with anything electronic, it is incumbent upon the owner/user to exercise some care as to use/storage, etc.

I've been playing for 42 years. I've owned all kinds of gear over that time. Wish something like this had been available 20 or 30 or 40 years ago!
I A/B'd this amp, played clean without any effects, with my homebrew all-tube AC/DC "Little Wonder" (htpp://ca.geocities.com/jaluthier/myguitar) amp that my old tube-techie friend John Lansky and I designed and built last year, using my SX strat with vintage alnico pups, and this amp, in my book, rates 95/100 to the Little Wonder! Add the amp sims and effects which the Little Wonder doesn't have, well...
Ok, so it'd be great to have a practice amp that could read my mind and give me the sounds I hear in my head without having to push any buttons or whatever... Well, we're not there yet, technologically. That being said, in my book, at the price, this is the next best thing.
Lost or stolen, I'd find and buy another one in a heartbeat.

This amp is a PRACTICE amp. That being said, it has tons of features for an amp which can be had on ebay for under $100. I got mine for $75, S&H included, brand new in the box with manual and warranty. Read previous reviews for all those features. At the same time, keep in mind that if what you're looking for is a stage amp you can use with a band in large venues, well, look elsewhere.
I bought it to use for playing late at night in my livingroom without disturbing my sleeping wife or the dog or the neighbours. I wanted an amp that sounded good at low volumes and offered "plug and play" effects such as overdrive, delay, etc., without having to resort to effects pedals. I prefer getting the "spaciousness" of the room sound to playing through headphones but this amp offers both options. Oh, and it can get pretty damn loud if you crank it!
One of the problems I've had with other solid-state practice amps (eg. Fender, Crate, Peavey) is that the sound got thin when playing in the high registers above the 12th fret. This amp stays nice and thick up there!

4 preset amp simulations but remember that you can alter these and save your own preferred settings. In other words, with a little tweaking, you can dial in the sounds YOU want and store them and have them available at the touch of a button! Further, when selecting one of those sounds, you can, while playing, tweak a couple of knobs and change the sound without losing your stored sounds.
So, whether you're into blues or hard rock or country or whatever, with a little experimentation, you can dial in a sound that will do the job admirably. And once you've stored those sounds, the amp "remembers" relative gain/master/eq settings and gives 'em back to you on demand! Amazing!

I've only had it for a couple of weeks so time will tell. But Line 6 has a good rep in this department and the amp seems to be built to last. I don't anticipate any problems. As with anything electronic, it is incumbent upon the owner/user to exercise some care as to use/storage, etc.

I've been playing for 42 years. I've owned all kinds of gear over that time. Wish something like this had been available 20 or 30 or 40 years ago!
I A/B'd this amp, played clean without any effects, with my homebrew all-tube AC/DC "Little Wonder" (htpp://ca.geocities.com/jaluthier/myguitar) amp that my old tube-techie friend John Lansky and I designed and built last year, using my SX strat with vintage alnico pups, and this amp, in my book, rates 95/100 to the Little Wonder! Add the amp sims and effects which the Little Wonder doesn't have, well...
Ok, so it'd be great to have a practice amp that could read my mind and give me the sounds I hear in my head without having to push any buttons or whatever... Well, we're not there yet, technologically. That being said, in my book, at the price, this is the next best thing.
Lost or stolen, I'd find and buy another one in a heartbeat.

Purchased new this month in Nov of 06'. Bought this little amp for practice only. I needed something I can move easily into other rooms or out back when I don't feel like cranking up my half-stack. Also for low volume jamming at night when everyone is crashed out. I have a newborn so ya know how it is. Amp is versitile enough for me. Has good distortion on the Insane setting and gets pretty nice clean tones. I have to laugh when I read reviews of how this amp doesn't do the job or it has crappy distortion or yadda yadda yadda. Come on man, this amp is built for either a practice amp or for total beginners. If you want good tone go buy a $2,000 tube head. Take it for what it is and stop your bitchin....I'm gonna rate it a 10 for what it was designed for.

This is a little modeling amp so it emulates different tones from the big boys. I think the clean is fine but as far as distortion, I leave it on the Insane setting and it sounds really good for what it is. You can rip out pinch harmonics with ease and heavy enough to play metal so I'm pretty impressed. You can even hook up a CD player to it and jam along with whatever track you are trying to learn. I was actually gonna buy a Roland Micro Amp or a Vox DA5 and played both of them but wasn't that happy with either of them. I used to have a Spider 112 a few years ago so I wandered over to the Line 6 area to see what they had cookin and that's when I noticed this little gem. It was cheaper than the Roland and the Vox and sounded much better than both of them to me. Plus, it was cheaper....pretty much a no-brainer.

Just bought it so who knows. I will say this though, I never had a problem with my 112 Spider or any other Line 6 products I have owned for that matter so I don't fore see any issues.

Never delt with them.

I've been playing guitar off and on since I was 7 and I'm 38 now. I've owned various guitars and amps over the years and this is truthfully a nice little amp for practicing and nothing more. Like I said earlier if you want to play louder, practice with a band, or gig....better get something else, at least a 2X12 combo. But, if you want to get some nice sounds at low volumes for dicking around then this tiny amp delivers just fine. Nuff said.

Purchased in 2006 as a practice amp. I was attracted to all of the built in effects and modeling capabilities.

While you can shape the sound any number of ways, none of them will sound good. Actually it sounds like a toy. This is not an indication of the amp modeling and effects processing from other Line6 products (I also use a PODXT which is excellent). This is simply a CHEAP (both in price and sound quality) practice amp. You get what you pay for!!!

No problems since I will almost never use it.

Haven't needed any.

Don't buy this unless you are looking for a cheap amp so your kid and decide if he/she really wants to play guitar. As a mater of fact don't even buy it for that since there are so many better practice amps out there (both new and used) for just a little more money.

This amplifier was made in 2006. I bought this little amp to set beside my chair on a table, so I could "plug and play" through headphones mostly, or at least when the family goes to bed. I generally use a Line 6 POD through headphones only, but this thing was getting cheap enough at Hastings to justify buying another little amp. I only have eight or nine little practice amps laying around from the past years. But it was kind of cool...I have been watching these amps at Hasting's (Video Store/Book Store/Music Store) and they were $159.00 with an additional 25% off, but I didn't buy it. Finally one day I went in and looked and it had been marked down. I am sure it was a mistake, because it was marked at $40.00 with another 25% off, so I bought it for $30.00!!!

As far as versitility goes, I mean, it is what it is, a little amp with some decent effects. I love how so many people here give this amp a bad rating, because it doesn't sound like a $10,000.00 rig of guitars, effects and amps! Hilarious. This amp is fairly versitle as far as going from Clean to Crunch to Metal to Insane. You can mix in whatever effect you want. You can play along with a cd or listen through the headphones. It doesn't take up a bunch of space. It would be nice if it had it's big brother's footswitch or something like it.

This amp can make a great deal of sounds. It is difficult to get much midrange out of this amplifier, they tend to be scooped, especially on the metal and insane. The clean tone is fairly thin, yet it is pretty accurate for such a small amp and speaker (what do you really expect?) The clean channel stays pretty clean at higher volumes. The distortion is decent in any of the positions. Most of the reviewers aren't into the insane channels, as I am not, but it isn't a bad setting, just not what most people are into. The crunch channel is pretty good for blues based stuff if you lay off the drive knob. Some reviewer below said he "nailed the brown sound", I thought that was kind of funny, after years and years of Eddie Van Halen nailing his sound, this guy could do it with a hundred dollar amp and 5 minutes...lol...

I use a few guitars. My main guitars are an American Fender Big Apple Strat Hardtail with an EMG 81 and EMG 85, A Washburn X-81 Face Eraser (Jon Donais sig), Gibson Gothic SG with EMG 81/85 combo, Kramer Focus 3000 with Dimarzio pickups, Washburn X50 Pro with Seymour Duncans. I play mostly harder stuff, like Slayer, BLS, Anthrax, Shadows Fall, etc... This amp, for practice, suits my playing style just fine. I mean, again, it is what it is...however it is not a "tone monster"...no practice amp is, unless of course you spend ten times more. But still, for an 8" speaker and built in effects...its a pretty damn nice little amp. My main amplifiers are a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier (3 channel)solo head with a mesa slant cab, a couple of Peavey Combos (a 210 fx or something like that and a little 8" job), a marshall MGX 8", Fender G-Dec, Fender Acoustasonic Junior Efx, Peavey Classic 30, Music Man 212, and now this little guy. Depending on when, what style and where I play, I use different effects. The list is this...for cheap effects that I use at home, I like the multi effects pedals. I have a Zoom 505 (like everyone...lol), A Digitech GNX2, and a POD 2.0. When I play out, if I want a multi-effects, I use a Line 6 Pod XT Pro with the metal pack. It is amazing what Line 6 does with these things. With a GOOD amp, like the Mesa or the Fender, it is pretty rough to differentiate the pedal from the amp's distortion. It would take a pretty keen ear. Sometimes, if we are playing strictly hard stuff, I like to use a Zakk Wylde Overdrive, a Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, a Dunlop Hendrix Wah, a Dunlop Rotovibe and a EVH Phase 90.

So, back to this little guy. No, it can't keep up with a rig that you are used to hearing and have taken the time to completely master your sound. However, if you want some gnarly distortion without breaking up your sound or breaking the bank, youve got it. Not only that, but what is a practice amp anyway? This amp suits that purpose just fine.

Its a solid state amp with a good speaker. I own several Line 6 pieces and I am sure this one will hold up just like my other ones...

One year warranty. Have had Line 6 stuff forever...never had to use the warranty. Killer.

I have been playing for 22 years. Alot of my gear is listed above. I have some more acoustic gear too, a LaPatrie Classical, an Ibanez Acoustic/Electric, and a Garrison CE25 Acoustic/Electric. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably buy another one. I love the ease of use and the size of this amp. The only thing I wish this amp had was a footswitch. I compare this product to my Fender G-Dec. The G-Dec has more "stuff" and sounds a little better, but it is a completely different breed of cat. I really like this little amp.