Line 6 Spider III 75

You can go to the Line 6 site to learn about the features of the amp. This is a modeling front end though with an interesting way of moving through the models and they are very logically laid out.

Since I have spent the last five or more years only playing through modelers, I am very comfortable with the sound. I use a Godin xtSA and a Les Paul studio with this amp. Both guitars sound great through the unit and it is plenty loud for rehearsals, which was the reason I purchased it in the first place. I play in an eight piece band and I have yet to have this amp past 12 o'clock on the master. You can imagine that with an eight piece that we cover a lot of styles of music and this little amp has no problem reproducing the tones that I'm after.

So far, so good.

Line 6 has a great website with forums that can be informative and "entertaining." The amp has a one year warranty.

I played a bunch of amps at GC before I bought the Spider III as I was looking for an amp to leave at our rehearsal room. This little guy not only exceeded my expectations when I took it to rehearsal, some of the other band members also commented on how good it sounded. I program all of my own tones and that maybe why modeling has always intrigued me. It appears that sometimes the players who are uncomfortable with modeling often use the presets and therefore feel that the amps sound "digital." I would have to agree with them. The warmth is actually there, but you need to program it yourself.

There is no reason to give this amp anything other than 10/10. For 199 pounds, the effects and range of sounds achievable is astounding. I purchased this product as a home practice amp and have not ventured out of the factory presets yet. No matter what style of music you play, i would be surprised if you could not find a whole host of sounds you can use straight from the box and/or mess around with. I have been playing for 13 years now, from dire straits, Slayer, Hendrix, Yngwee malmsteen to classical and many styles in between This amp can do it all, it has really put a smile on my face. There are many sounds which i will never use as they do not suit my taste but under the category of versitility, Line 6 have made something which will appeal to most players. And unless you live in the middle of a field, or have very very deaf neighbours, 75 watts is plenty power. It is also very capible of using in practice sessions and small venue gigs. A foot switch is available and may be an asset to this little set up depending on your intentions. I do not feel it useful to me.

I am currently using a Fat strat for most of my low gain work and an Ibanez RG 1570 For the faster heavier stuff. It sounds brilliant. Two of my favorite high gain setting are master of puppets and crazy train. Really are capible of good tight, solid rhythms and some really intense shredding with the characteristic harmonics thrown in for good measure. I have had no hissing from it when driven, and no cracks or breaking down of the sound through out the range of sounds and volumes. Celestion speakers are always an asset to any setup, this is no exception. I would also like to reinforce accuracy of the artist sounds, (the ones i know), in relation again to the very low cost of this amp.

I have not had this amp for very long and as with all my equipment, is treat with great care and attention. So reliability has not and i think will not be an issue. I am happy with the build quality. I have seen far worse in far more expensive amps.

Came with the standard 1 year guarantee. Speaking only from information passed to me from the shop i purchased it from, (friend of mine works in the shop which sold it to me), Line 6 are a very good company to deal with. I am not going to give a score on the grounds i have not had first hand experience. And to be honest hope that i never have, coz that would mean my amp had broken, and that would be a bit crap.

Rating is gong to be 10/10 again. What a fantastic piece of kit for the price. There are a lot of reviews i have read rubbishing the sound quality or whatever. What people need to realise it this is a budget amplifier and when you consider the options in this price range, this fella is boxing well and truely above its weight. To compare this amp to good quality valve amps is crazy, your talking about equipment 5 times the price. And valve amp competition in this price range is not exactly going to be brilliant now is it. I considered every amp in the 150 - 400 pound price range and tried most of them too. I was really trying not to like this amp, but lets face it, its excellent. The other main competitor for me was the Roland cube. Again a fantastic sounding amp for the price. I actually use the micro cube as my 'on the move' practice amp. But the Line 6 on my budget is simply better. If this amp got stolen, i would defnitly consider replacing it. However The new line 6 valve 120 would be a very desirable upgrade. But is is over twice the price.

I play some jazz, hard/classic rock, grunge/alternative, but metal is my thing (Testament, Overkill, Kreator, Old Metallica, Cannibal Corpse). This amp can cover all those styles (including blues), but the sound quality sucks! It does have channel switching, but you'll have to buy that separately. Headphone jack is a nice feature, but it sounds like crap (and I use $100 headphones, by the way). No effects loop, so you can forget about plugging in those effects pedals (I've heard that they sound like complete crap with this thing, anyway). It has lots of features and all the effects/distortions are adjustable (noise gate, distortion boost, digital tuner, phase, flange, tremolo, delay, tape echo, reverb, and various distortion settings). The tuner on this thing is actually pretty accurate. A whole lot of artists presets, majority of the presets suck. It's a pretty loud amp for its size! I'll give it a five because of all its features, but it will suffer the 5 points because of the sound quality.

I've hooked up my ESP with an EMG 81 bridge pickup, and an Ibanez RG series with stock pickups to this amp. As I mentioned earlier, metal is my thing. As far as distortions go on this amp, they suck. They sound "dead". Palm mutes sound like farts that come out of my 80 year old grandma's ass. I sat down, and played with all the settings, and I just couldn't get good sound of this thing. In fact, I didn't even like the clean sounds out of this thing. Not even my 15 yr old sister (who I'm teaching guitar to) didn't like the amp! It's pretty damn quiet at low volume, but it will, of course, feedback at high volumes. It does seem to loose its tone as you turn it up. In my opinion, the sound quality sucks. If you think otherwise, then write your own review about it. It only gets a 3 because of the adjustable effects (which sound alright).

Sorry, can't help you here, I took mine back to Guitar Center days after.

See RELIABILITY.

I'm a firm believer in playing your stuff as clean as you can. I'm 24 yrs old, and have been playing since I was 12, so I'm not a 16 year old who's into playing sloppy riffs/solos and nasty high gain settings. If this thing were stolen, I'd get pissed because I wouldn't be able to get a refund then! I like the features and the effects, but I absolutely hate the sound quality, including the crappy sounding artist presets. It didn't take me long to take it back to Guitar Center for a refund. I chose this amp mainly out of curiosity (curious about the artist presets). For a beginner, this thing would be perfect and a lot of fun. However, if you're in search for some serious tone, you're better off spending it on a nice tube amp. I got myself a Krank Jr half stack, and it suits me well. If you've been in the music business for quite some time, and are tired of lugging around your gear (AND willing to sacrafice sound tone) then you might want to look into this amp. Beginners, check this amp out. If you do get this amp, don't expect too much out of it, as far as sound quality goes (it's only $299, can't get everything for that price). Who knows, you might be an experienced musician and like this amp. It gets a three because the sounds suck.

I bought mine in 2006. When I first played it at CG I liked the sounds and tones I was able to get from it. I play classic rock mostly and I liked being able to drasticly change the tone from one click of a knob. I wanted a practice amp with some power that I could do indoor jamming with and I don't feel this fits the bill. It's nice if I am playing alone but at high volumes when practicing with a full band the tone becomes less desirable and harder to control. In fact, at times, it just sounds awful.

I have strats, an LP but mostly play my Schecter equipped with Seymore Duncun pick-ups. It is difficult to get the warm classic rock sound out of this amp and it is noisy at high volumes. The clean channel however is very nice and I can get my electric to sound accoustic. The distortion on amp is great but noisy at high volumes and very cold.

I have never had any issues with this amp and would never gig with it or reccomend it.

Customer support? I must say that GC is my favorite store but only because of the huge inventory. Although there are some expereinced qualified sales personel at the stores I shop at, I still find that many of them are not experienced or knowledgable of the products they sell. Guitars get put onto the sales rack without proper set-up. Many of the sales personel do not understand the functions of these amps. I am glad that this amp has never needed repair because repairs at my store only happen one day out of the week.

I have been playing for 23 years and I think this will be the last solid state amp I ever buy. Tubes are where the sound is and nomatter how hard these engineers try to model the tube sound, they have yet to achieve it. For the price I would reccommend this amp to beginners or for just practicing.

I've had this head for about 5 months now. It replaced my Marshall 3315 Solid state 150 watts head. Features are great but the lack of a foot switch makes it hard to use even for home use.

So I bought a FBV express floor foot switch for 100 bucks and it helps. They have a nice tuner built in so it was worth 100 bucks. I like the factory set for each of the 4 channels. It has a great distortion on the insane channel. I use the Uber Metal Line 6 pedal on channel 2 for a nice heavy crunch.

One big problem is setting the volume on the thing. Since the master controls all 4 channels you can't set them independently. So if you don't set everything up right when you switch channels - things can get loud really fast.

Finally the lack of an 8 ohm speak out is problem at high volumes if you only have an 8 ohm cabinet. It only has 4 ohm speaker out.

Excellent metal distortion sound. I like the clean channel although I don't play through it much. The only bad part of the sound is the reverb could be better. Where the reverb falls the tape echo and tap feature makes up for the bad reverb.

So far so good.

Have not used it yet.

Overall I would recommend this head if you are a home player. Since it is only 75 watts it's a big step down from my Marshall but the crunchy distortion is worth it for the price of the head.

400 presets are great feature for beginners or those who are learning making tones.
Very versatile and sounds great.

Especially I like crunch models.
It has very nice low end and punch.
You can literally produce pristine clean to brutal dist.

I just bought it yesterday...

Never dealt with them.

Great for practice amp and I think it will cover very well for small gigs.
And if you have plenty money, go for tube amps... and if you don??t buy this! (SPider III 212 is also great!)

It does have a lot of features, built in effects: flanger, chorus, delay, reverb, distortion. The problem is most of the effects are over the top, they can't be turned down enough to provide a subtle accent to the music. For the most part they are very overpowering and amount to special effects. There are times where this is appropriate, but for my tastes the flanger and chorus espcially are too much, the reverb and delay are OK.

Most of the built in sound model are terrible, and unusable.

This is the biggest problem with this amp, the sound quality is pretty bad. I am unble to get a good clean sound period, I've been trying for about 6 months. If you are into metaland like heavy distortion then I guess you will be OK. I want a classic rock distortion, and can dial in something decent, but I'm not happy with it, it is muddy and undefined. The sound is very flat and uninspired overall.

I haven't had any problems, but I know many other owners have, just look at Line 6's website, user groups.

I haven't tried. The owners manual is terrible though, doesn't explain how to do anything beyond the most basic functions. You have to go the the Line 6 user groups and ask them how to do it.

For $299 I guess you can't expect a lot, but I read a lot of reviews from people who really like this amp. I figure they can't afford any more than $300, or they are kids who like metal and don't know any better. There are other options at this price, Vox, Peavey, Marshall I've decided I need to spend more to get what I want, so I will sell mine and spend more for a tube amp that has better sound and less "features". I can't use most of the built in effects, and the sound quality is terrible, so I really have no use for this amp.

This has a fantastic amount of features for $300! You can go to the website to read about what features it has.

I give this amp a 9 on sound quality, its not a 10 because only a DSL50 with a 4x12 cab would beat the sound quality of this puppy.

It has a HUGE variety of distortions that all have their own unique sound and timber which can be tuned with the EQ's. Each EQ controls the sound to such a degree that you can totally change the sound of the distortion based on what want it to sound like.

The amp is EXTREMELY quite, it has a built in Noise Gate that really keeps down the buzzing.

I just can't say enough about the awesome sound from this amp... its by far the BEST $300 I have spent on an Amp ever.

I can't really speak on the reliability yet, haven't had it long enough to tell if it is going to be reliable.

All I can really say is that it has worked perfectly since I received it.

Haven't needed to deal with them yet so I don't have an opinion.

I give this Amp a 10 period. Best amp on the market for the money.

Very cool little box. I just purchased this a couple days ago after reading all the reviews, so I had to go the the store and check it out. For 275 you cant beat it. Built in effects, lightweight, a bunch of preset sounds and 75 watts of power. Has channel switching , mp3 input to jam along with material, and a headphone jack. Also has a celestion 12" speaker. Sorry, no effects loop. Would like to see independent controls for the phase/chorus/flange settings as well as the delay settings.

I'll give this a 9 also, only becuase its still not true "tube" quality. However, I think all the "pro's" you see snubbing this type of technology are missing the point. I have owned many tube amps, and still own a fender supersonic tube amp which I was using to gig with prior to purchasing this little ace. I think this will be my main gig rig moving forward, and no I wont be embarassed to have a line6 on the stage next to me, and here's why: 99% of the people in the audience cant tell the difference between a line 6 modeled tone vs. a mesa tube head or marshall or fender. I'm not playing to impress any guitar heads, I'm playing to entertain the masses, and believe it or not, I've actually had many guitarists and musicians come up during shows and compliment my band on how tight we sound , and how they've rarely heard cover's reproduced so accurately. I've been playing profesionally for over 25 years, and I've used all kinds of gear, but now that I'm older I used to dread packing my gear up for a show. It was taking all the fun out of gigging. I'm actually looking forward to it now, since all I need to take will be this little amp and my guitars and a footswitch, and I'll have plenty of tones to choose from. No more 70 lb amps, or cabinets, or huge pedal boards to lug around. I'll just mike up this puppy and go.
Some of the sounds preprogrammed into this are outstanding, and others need a little tweaking, but overall the sounds are great. I've only played 2 of my guitars through it so far, an american customized telecaster, and a vintage charvel model 5, and they both sounded great. I have a les paul, a strat, and a takamine yet to put through it.

Haven't had this amp long enought to rate, but if its like my other Line 6 flextone Head I had, it should last a long time. My old head still works fine, and so does the floorboard after a little cleanup maintenance. And for 275 bucks, if it breaks in a couple years, I can go buy another one.

I have to give them a 10 because a while back, I lost one of the nobs from my flextone II head, and called them to order one, and they just sent me one for free, didnt even charge shipping.
Good job Line 6!

Been playing over 25 years profesionally, 30 years total. I have a good ear for tone and playing ability, however I'm not a tone "snob" and don't let that dictate what gear I'll buy or use. Yes I like a nice tube amp sound, but I dont like to move them around. Hence, I'll probably leave my tube gear in the practice area unless we have a large gig (we do a lot of hall type gigs, and outdoor festivals) but mostly stay in smaller bars that hold less than 300 people. I dont need a stack of high end amps behind me to inflate my ego. I get plenty of guitarists and musicians approaching me at gigs to pay me compliments. No I'm not patting myself on the back, I just want folks that read this to understand, I'm not just some hack in a cheesy band. I am a top notch guitarist, and know where I rank among the local players. I play many styles of music from metal to classic rock, southern rock, and country. Don't let the naysayers sway you from even looking at this amp. If you like to hump around tons of gear, thats your choice, but most of the time the only one who'll appreciate it is you. Save your back and use it in the studio, and use something like this for gigging. That way your high end gear wont get stolen, or beer spilled in it.

The Good: Love the chromatic tuner. It has a good amount of models and decent effects. The artist presets are cool as hell. Makes you just want to jam along to bands. Haven't used the MP3/CD input but I might someday. The amp gets pretty loud for it's size and it's really lightweight. The grillcloth reminds me of a mesa combo and looks nice.

The bad: Won't accept standard midi for channel switching! The Noise gate isn't tight/hard enough for me, I wish I could adjust it. There's no effects loop in case I want to run a little EQ through it. The direct out is awful. I've heard worse but for me it's unusable. I could do without the space-aged-looking design of the amp. The speaker doesn't seem to sound very good when it's loud. I didn't buy this to get loud anyhow.

This is the best sounding amp this side of 3 grand. I mainly play death and black metal; the distortions are tight, balanced, and nearly perfect. I play an ESP baritone tuned A to A (standard) it's equipped with an EMG 81 in the bridge and it sounds amazing.

The insane model has been changed since their older stuff it's now actually usable. I use the CRADLEOFILTH preset and close mic with an SM57 it records fantastically. The lows can get a little wumpy at around 100Hz so I just EQ it out a touch after the fact.

I feel the Metal green was over-corrected since it was so bright in the spider II. They hacked a little too much out.

I have one guitar with passive pickups it sounds mediocre through the amp, but that guitar doesn't sound any better through other gear.

The only other amp I need now is an ENGL Powerball. That's it! Selling everything else...

Havne't had it long enough to tell. Has worked flawlessly so far.

I've called to ask what speakers came in what amps they jerked me around. Standard operating procedure for all customer service I suppose.

I've been playing for 15 years. I have a ton of crap. This amp is helping me pair down to the essentials. That's pretty awesome to me.

This amp totally owns the Spider II. I wish this amp had an effects loop and standard midi input. The direct out isn't at the same level as the PODXT cab/mic simulation.

This is better to me then a direct recording device. It's like the more analog version of a pod xt to me. You put the 57 right at the dustcap's edge and you're ready to record. It's almost as easy as plugging into a pod and it sounds more organic in the end.