Line 6 Spider III 15 watt Combo

It's a pretty good amp for beginners, I think this is a good amp for the price. It's a very loud amp too, for 15 watt, half volume is enough for playing with a drummer. I like the clean channel, it has a pretty nice clear tone, crunch channel is OK for blues and rock'n roll and stuff, metal channel is OK, but sounds very cold and bassy and hurts your ears, it could also have more distortion. I think the insane channel just sucks, it's so extremely noisy and just sounds ugly in my ears, I never use it exept for making fun with some tapping which goes realy easy at insane.
I give it a 7, becuase it's a nice amp for beginners, and it's not expensive.

I use an Ibanez RGR321EX, I use the metal channel 90% of the time, and it sounds pretty cold and bassy, it has realy got that sound which hurts your ears at volume past 2, insane channel sucks in my opinion, it has much distortion, more then the metal channel but it's just super super noisy. With this amp it's realy the thing the more volume, the better it sounds.

Nah, never had problems with it.

Never dealt with that guys.

I've been playing for like 10 months, but I play like 3-6 hours per day. I wouldn't buy it again if it would be stolen. I love the metal channel for the price of the amp, I hate insane. I love the clean channel too.

15 Watt RMS Digital Modeling Guitar Amplifier. Includes preset amp models and adjustable effects (can use two at once), channel volume, Master volume, tone controls, 8 inch speaker, open back. Can save some of your own settings. Sturdy construction, seems well made. For home practice or rehearsal , but you can probably PA it if you really want to. one guitar input, one auxiliary input, one headphone out, power switch.

The clean channel preset by itself is worth the price of the amp. Plug your guitar in and enjoy that rich ringing tone and controlled effect distortion. This little amp can get pretty loud, but digital control and master volume combined with channel volume allows late night bedroom practice, until you get that temptation to turn it up again! Like any digital amp, you might notice that digital fizzing at times, but this is a state of the art modeler,and you can get some gorgeous tones out of it, especially if you use multi-effect boxes in line, and a decent guitar. Tone is a bit more clinical and clean than the equivalent amp from another big amp company whose name begins with M, but still some great solid state sounds. Crunch model is fairly OK - might require humbuckers, Metal preset passable even with single coils, Insane Preset at full volume will probably bring the law to your door.

Looks like it will last a while with normal use at home.

I am new to Line 6 products

Have been playing all sorts of guitars on and off for many years. had loan of a big Fender Reverb for a while, warm valve sound but fuses kept going after short intervals so gave it back to owner. Currently play a Tokai Strat. Have a Marshall MG15DFX (definite Marshall sound even out of these little boxes) a Vox 30 watt Valvetronix (another nice amp with valve sound characteristics, if you can be patient with the flakey volume control), and numerous stomp boxes and multi-effects. The Line 6 Spider 111 15 Watt amp is great value for money at the moment - it might make your guitar practice more enjoyable, and keep you away from overpriced and impractical valve amps that you cannot crank to high volumes unless you get an attenuator built in or bought separately, or lug the amp to a separate practice facility so as to avoid neighbour conflicts.

So this mine is a 2007 model Spider III 15watt, and from what ive seen, it is fairly solid. I has four basic channels, Clean, Crunch, Metal, and Insane. Solid state of course, 6 different effects, and none of the really awesome modeling features of the 75 and up watt models. This is the barebones, line 6 practice amp. Headphone jack doubles as a line out and has a line in auxillary port, for mp3 players or cd players. Good practice amp for when ur at home, but if you try to play it loud enough to play over some drums you will be a little disappointed.

If you want to play clean or crunch, look somewhere else. This amp just plain and simple cant play them. I've played it with some high end guitars and low end ones, and the clean channel sounds flat and you get a better crunch tone by turning the drive to 0 on insane then the crunch channel itself. The metal channel sounds waaaay to bassy and tends to make you think you are playing in a cave, and just plain needs more distortion to be called metal. Insane, is just about the only one that has much in the way of value. I actually think the insane mode should be the metal channel. With the insane channel and the EQ, you can get some real deep death metal tones and you can also get a good thrash tone out of it too. All in all this is good for metal, on one channel.

So far I havent had many problems, except I noticed all of the cables that I use in it get corroded really quickly. I've plugged in fender cables, monster cables and ernie ball cables, and the only one that still has a good solid contact left on it is my no-name 2 dollar cable.
I dont know why, but the amp end plug contact corrodes. Other then that, it turns on every time and I've never had to get anything adjusted.

Well when it comes to their webstie, I have never said, "What the ****?" so many times. On the box it says you can find artist settings, but this amp isnt even listed there. The Spider III 15w seems to be the red-headed step-child line 6 likes to keep in the closet, and so I give customer support a 2

Overall, if you want a solid state practice amp from line 6 with good features, save up a little longer for a 75w model. the 15-50w models just dont have enough behind um.

4 channels from clean to insane, (not footswitchable)
Two simultaneous effects with Tap button for time based fx.
Knobs for gain, bass, mid, treble, volume, and overall master volume.

Would be a 10 for features if it had channel footswitch capability, and a built-in tuner.

DISMAL!

Seriously, I'm not sure how anyone can justify a high rating for sound - must be a bunch of newbie kids raving about this toy!

I tried this amp with very familiar guitars (to me): an Ibanez RG1570 Prestige, and a Fender Lonestar Strat. Every channel on the Spider III has a very synthetic sound. The clean channel is very dull & dead sounding, like a cheap transistor radio. The crunch is missing dynamics and has absolutely no bite to it at all. The recto & insane channels are highly compressed (in a bad way), and also lack any bite or dynamics of a real amp. Line6 makes reference to the amps they studied to get these sounds - Well they've failed miserably!!!

I've been playing guitar for over 18 years, and gigging on and off for about 12 years. My main rig is a rack setup with an Egnater preamp + TC GMajor + Ashly SRA2150 power amp into a Marshall 4x12 cab. My secondary rig is a Fender Prosonic combo with a couple of pedals.

I wanted to pick up a small practice amp for jamming at the office, out on the deck, possibly small gigs, etc. So far I have tried the Vox DA5, Roland Microcube, Fender Superchamp XD, Fender Vibrochamp XD, and Epiphone Valve Junior combo. All were quite bad, except the VJ has some nice tones if you're into blues & 50's rock. However, I wasn't able to get a decent lead sound out of the VJ with any of the usually available pedals in the store. I will definitely revisit the VJ with a couple of decent pedals.

4 different sound groups can be saved (4 channels) Also a half a dozen basic effects. The ability to save your customized sounds (INCLUDING VOLUME) to each of the 4 channels by pressing and holding the channel buttons (like a car radio). Headphone jack and also a jack to plug in a cd or mp3 play etc.

Line 6 is without question leading the field here. The sound quality is typical Line 6. Very nice and without a doubt, one of the best, if not the best, in the solid state world.

Line 6 has been very reliable in any of their products I have owned over the last 10 years. But for less than $100, lets be real. It is disposabal, like a dvd player or a toaster...

Very knowledgable tech support, but they can take a while getting back to you...

I've been playing for 25 years. I've seen a lot of gear come and go in that time. This is no BS, I have owned practically EVERYTHING that has come out over those years. I don't usually get attached to my gear, hence the turn over. I'm a Marshall guy, but those days of toting around heavy gear are long gone. My main amp now is a Vetta combo. I do like some of the other modeling gear as well, like the Fender Cybertwin SE (the first cybertwin sucked). and I also own the Boss GT-10. I'm a sucker for Boss effects. I love them. Anyway, I digress.... People this amp is an AWESOME practice amp!!! It doesn't take up much real estate, is flexable in the sounds from clean to insane and you can save YOUR sounds. WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR FOR LESS THAN $100?????? Again, I have owned so much stuff over the years, everything has it's place. But if you want a STOMPING practice amp, look no further. The Spider is it.
If you need something to practice or jam with your band with, you will need something bigger. This does what it was designed for PERFECTLY. I can not express enough, the value this is for less than $100!!!

The nicest thing about the features are being able to save over the 4 presets. Also, the ability to plug an mp3 player in is nice. Downside is not many effects.

Sounds very shrill and muddy. Highs and deep lows are completely missing. Best if your young and just want to make a lot of noice with the crunch levels (which are pure digital sounding). I could barely tell the difference in what chord I was playing in the higher crunch modes! Poor tone is a really bad thing to get from a practice amp for a newbie and this thing is completely uninspiring. I was lucky (or stupid?) enough to get audited by the IRS which resulted in them oweing me an extra hundred so I went and got a Vox AD30VT instead, now that amp has great sound!!! The line 6 does a decent clear channel but the tone is just too bland. It's like having a singer that can hit all the notes but sounds flat. I bought this amp used but it was only a month old. I guess the guy before me didn't like the poor tone either. I'm giving it a low rating and it should probably be even lower, it just sounds miserable especially when the person playing is bad or just starting out (like me).

One of the pots has some crackle when turning but does not effect it when playing. Seems solid enough and I haven't heard anything bad about reliablity. But I don't have any real time on this amp (1 month) so I'm not giving a rating.

For someone older with means to pay more and less time to regret get something else (unless you already have better and just need a small amp). This amp is probably the best in its class for features so in the price range it is OK, but considering its poor tone I would say to save up and get something you'll enjoy (not sure of the next best alternative). Amps and pickups probably play the biggest role in how well you sound more than the guitar (humbuckers to humbuckers), so get an amp that at least has a fighting chance of sounding good.

This amp has really nice features. All the channels are at diferent volumes, so it will scare the **** out of u if the volume is low and u switch it. All u have to do is go to each channel then turn down channel volume then hold down channel button to save it. The channel can also be reset. Its like a car radio haha. The built in noise gate is damn nice too. The effects are pretty good actually, and the tap tempo button is nice to have. It has a headphone jack which i just used today and a record out AND a cd in! A lot of nice stuff. 9 just because some effects dont realy effect ur playin, they just sort of play themselves.

The four channels are chill, especially insane. The insane channel gets surprisingly good, solid distortion! Metal is cool, lots of bass. Crunch has a wide variety of sound, just turn the gain knob till u get wat ur lookin for. Clean is ok. Great for me tho, i play metal.

Well my speaker is blowin out. Any palm muted note shakes the **** out of it! THis is my fault tho, playing on 10 chan vol and 10 master vol for a long time.

I have never dealt with them, and i think there warranty is 1 year.

If it got stolen i would buy a 15 watt marshall, just for the sound. It is a really great amp all in all.

The features have already been listed so I'll pass on that. There pretty good for a 15 watt solid state (tube emulation) practice amp and are good for what this little amp costs. I'll give them an 7 though because there could still be more control over the effects and seperating them a bit, plus having 4 actual preset places you can use for whatever amp modeling instead of just the individual modelings. I'll get into that more in the sound quality section.

In sound quality for the price when you compare this amp to so many other little solid state practice amps it's a good deal even though I change my speaker out on mine. Line 6's amp emulation aren't a true hi-fi tone quality as a real tube amp, but there still better than any plain old solid state amp.
There's just a warmth and thickness of tone, plus reaction that is another level. Kinda like frozen pizza to a quality freshmade.

Out of the box it's a good little amp for what it is. For the amp modeling the clean is a good warm and smooth clean that is completely useable and is nicer with some of the effects.
I'll say that others may like the different modeling sounds more as tone is very much wrapped up in one's taste, but the crunch channel is pretty much unuseable to me. It's just too mushy and I can't find a sound out of it I like. That goes the same for the Insane channel. Maybe if I was a teenager still, but I'm not and have been playing for over almost 20 years, professionally and not. It's just too over the top for me and I can't wind the gain down to a useable level with finding a quality tone.
The metal modeling and clean is about it for me and that's fine.
My style is mixed with neo-classical, blues, hard rock, folk and jazz these days, but I still like things simple and just prefer two to three channels of quality tone where I can wind down the gain and treble for different parts and styles with my volume and treble knobs on my guitars.
That where even though the crunch and insane channels are useless to me the clean and metal channels fill my needs pretty well for a small solid state practice amp which the 15watt Spider III is to me.

For the effects Line 6 has always been pretty good at compared to what's out there, but your can't really expect top quality and control over them for what your buying here. It's just a 15watt SS amp with some benefits compared to other choices out there.
For my taste I basically like delay/tape echo, a light chorus effect with clean some times, compression and reverb.
The chorus/flange is too much for me but others should like it and it's useable if you do, same with the Phaser and Tremelo. I don't have any use for them though and turn them off on all preset saves.
The sweep echo and tape echo are not bad to me and useable, but since I can't use them with reverb I don't. That's where it would be nice to have some more control and separation, but for the 99 bucks + tax that I paid for this little thing and use it for it's fine. I found the reverb not bad and found a nice setting that I've used on my presets.
That's fine, because I prefer to practice with my performance effects which are basically just a Visual Sound H2O Liquid Chorus and Echo, and a Maxon Compressor.
There excellent quality made and sounding pedals and beat the Line 6 effects easily.

Ok, as I said the sound quality is good for what you pay for one these and the amp modelings are far from regular solid state sound, but one thing I learned years ago and do in my tubes amps if needed is change the speaker/s.
The Line 6 amps are no different and having worked at Guitar Center and Mars (before they closed)for years I've played alot of amps besides owning quite a few.
On most low price amps regardless of what a manufacturer trys to hype, they always cut corners on the speaker.
This is no different. A speaker needs a certain size magnet to support the bottom and balance of the tone. The out of box "custom" 8 inch was mushy and muddy. Alot of people overlook how much the speakers are to your tone. There what voice and project it and are very important.

So which I tryed for this amp and highly recommend is a Ted Weber 8s Signature Series ceramic 4 ohm. It's a straight drop in and will just cost you another 25 bucks plus shipping, but delivers superb clarity for this amp with a much brighter high end that the amp was suffering from and a thick warm bottom but no mushy or muddiness.(tedweber.com)

So far, so good.

I've never had a problem with Line 6 CS, but I really haven't needed it much beside some info and I don't really need alot of breakdown for controls since I've had sessions with the great Line 6 rep "Spanky" many times. (he looks like Spanky from the Little Rascals if you didn't get it) (:-))

Overall for the money I rate it a 7 for what it is. With the speaker change,...the sound quality of the amp modelings go up to a 9,.....for what it is of course. It's not a SLO 100 with a 4 -12 cab running GE and JJ tubes and 4 Weber California's after all.

4 Different Preset Configurations you can set to your liking
Distortion channels are ridiculous
6 Effects on 2 knobs
CD input, Headphone jack
You should read the manual on how to work the thing if you get it

Can be pretty versatile but its good mainly for people who love metal, distortion etc.
Clean is alright, can get a little noise on high volumes.
Using a mim fat strat with it, and produces some ok tones on clean. Pretty good on distortion.. but on distortion all guitars will sound the same probably.
I play some blues, rock and such and its fine for a practice amp.

I've only had it for a month but no problems so far.

Shitty website, said you could find settings for specific artists tones.. not there for this amp.

Pros: Good distortion
Alright effects for size and price
Preset settings

Cons: Average clean tones
Not much depth to the sound

If it was stolen, I'd be pissed only because that was my 90 dollars gone. I'd probably go buy a nice little tube amp to replace it.

Brand new 2006 15 watt version of the Spider series
Versatile yes
4 "channels" or pre-sets
built in effects
headphone jack and CD input
It was supposed to be "loaded with atrist settings " or whatever
It was intended for my daughter to use in her room but no....
plenty of power for practice or home use
If you don`t know already this is a SS digital amp
The advertised features are mis-leading so it gets a six.

Good variety of sounds really but you need to do some tweeking.
Basically for a practice amp it sound very good
My kid has an Epihone SG 310

The First problem is the factory pre-sets will make you jump out of your pants when you switch from one to another due to the volume variances. But you can fix that.
The second problem is when you try to locate all the "Insane Rock Settings" to program into this thing they don't exist.
In fact when you go to the Line 6 Spider III 15 page they even say "It???s all up to you." so you or your kid in my case are left wondering what the hell they are talking about on the box etc...
Buyer beware.
I it it was for me, I could tweek the shit out of it and svae the settings for what I like but for a kid who is expecting to be able to easily dial in their favorite artists tones forget it.
A six for Line 6 here !

Its going back to GC ASAP so we'll never know but one of the reasions why I thought it was good is that the thing really feels solid for a small amp.
The pots and switches feel very solid without slop etc...
It is very well built.
An upside down six for Line 6 here !

I gotta slam Line 6 here because of the mis-leading advertisements of available settings for the 15 watt version.
The manual does provide blank templates for writing in the settings that don`t exist except for two Slipknot and four Evanescence settings.

I spent two hours combing through the Line 6 website trying to find the non -existent pre-sets to program into this amp. What a waste of time.

OK,
If you want a small, well built SS digital amp to tweek to your own liking then this is worth a look.

If you are buying for a kid that expects what the box says on it, think twice.

The pre-sets are wacked out as far as the volume jumps when you switch form one to the other, The effects are ok for a $99 unit.
I'm returning it and looking at other options for my kid which may include the Spider III 75 watt version (too loud) which has the artists pre-sets built in.
Or I might check into the Guitar Port thing by Line 6 instead which my kid expressed interst in when I showed it to her on line, It goes for the same price as the Spider III 15 but is a much different path for her to learn how to play including on-line lessons etc... for $8 a month subscription fee.