Customer Reviews

Line 6 Spider III 15-Watt Guitar Combo Amplifier

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A few days ago I borrowed a Spider II 15 from a friend, I was impressed with it , and since I had to borrow an amp you should get the idea that I needed a new small practice amp... while many adequate small amps (10-25 watts) exist they tend to be small sounding and shy on features, or the effects are substandard and don't sound like high quality stomp boxes at all .... The Spider II proved to be an exception to this notion, I knew within an hour that Line 6 would probably be the maker of whatever amp I ended up buying...This was my first hands on with a Line 6 product, by the way....

So I began to search for a baby spider of my own ... I found a great deal on a Spider III 15 at Guitar Center and rushed to town to snag me one of my own ... I bought the very last one at the store, they sell very quickly I was told by the salesman ... Lucky me !!

Cosmetically the spider III looks almost exactly like the II, the features are the same, but the III has been noticeably tweaked to the consumers benefit .. The effects sound a bit better and the mids are allot better, and they were already pretty darn great on the Spider II!

Its loud for a 15 watter ... sounds clean for a small amp even at rather high volume, very solidly built for any amp but extremely so for under 100 dollars, the effects sound right, like high quality stomp boxes rather than cheesy amp based effects .. like I found on my old Crate 15 watter, for instance, The custom made 8'' speaker handles the sound very well this is simply a best of its class unit in every aspect of its being!

One complaint about the Spider III 15 is regarding what some folk consider misleading claims on the packaging description about the artist presets. True the settings are hard to find at the Line6 website but with a little searching there are a few pdf documents demonstrating a bunch of artist settings for a number of songs.... and the nobs are great fun to fiddle around with anyway, very responsive as well!

All in all I could not recommend this product highly enough, and I recommend this amp to anybody needing a high quality small amp at a very reasonable price ... Its the best of its kind I have ever used, and I have used, borrowed or owned a bunch of small amps over the last 30 or so years..

My next big amp will likely be a Line 6 product as well .. They really seem to have a knack for rethinking design and technology and use these innovations across the entirety of their product lines, plus on the low end they have a good sense of which bells and whistles to leave out and which to include for the highest quality sound, highest level of functionality and biggest bang for your buck!!

Length:: 7:51 Mins

the spider III 15w in action

I actually won this amp in a music contest and, given the very low price, I frankly didn't expect much. Was I ever wrong!

This is a great little amp. Compared to my 70's vintage Fender Sidekick Reverb, it's light as a feather still manages to give a great, clean sound. And the volume isn't anything I'd use for stage work, but it's still loud enough to drive my wife to distraction and I'm usually relegated to keeping it a respectable level. Which, by the way, still sounds great. And the special FX are fun that my aforementioned Fender couldn't have dreamed of.

The four presets and six FX are fun to play with and you can easily get your self wrapped up just playing scales and fiddling with knobs. The four factory presets are interesting and you can use them to program your own favorite settings (the manual says) but I really haven't played with that particular feature. And the presets, at least for me, aren't all that different. I can't tell that much difference between "Crunch" and "Metal" but maybe it's just my cheesy playing.

Another reviewer has mentioned the "song based" presets, but the 15w doesn't offer this option. As near as I can tell you have to be into the Line 6 Spider III 120 Guitar Combo Amplifier range before the cabinet is even big enough to hold the necessary panels and buttons and stuff.

Still, that's not what this product is designed for. It's a fun amp for practice or play, but not pro.

Length:: 4:44 Mins

Great price for an amp with effects, and it gets pretty loud too. Easy to use, which may seem odd to mention for some who hasn't shopped for an amp, but trust me it makes a difference. Sound quality is... well, not as good as everything else I've mentioned. First, before anyone goes naysaying, I'm not playing on a squier or something, I'm playing on a PRS SE, and I've been to guitar center manhattan, and I tried every amp with this guitar. At 15w, this was among the best overall, but the clean on this amp is atrocious. It sounds hollow and tinny, and yes, I am accepting that I only paid 100 bucks for this, and yes, it is only 15 w, but other amps outperformed its clean setting. And most people will be using that the most.

i love this amp, sounds so good!!!

Clean channel: It's really good, i use it for any style i want, pre-drive can give you extra volume. I use my digitech RP12 on this channel most of the time.

Crunch Channel: wow, i didn't like this channel before... but now i know how to use it! you can play stuff like blues, o Brit rock, or even stuff like red hot chilli peppers style. Remember to use pre drive!

Metal channel: ok, i don't like this channel, ii doesn't have enough gain for metal, but it's ok to play solos.

Insane Channel: my favorite one! is perfect for heavy metal, prog metal, but not heavy enough for core metal and that stuff... If you use pre drive here it becomes more insane!!

The Effects:

Chorus / flanger: it's ok, i don't like flanger that much, i mainly use chorus, and sounds amazing!

Phaser: Ok, i love phaser, but this one sounds REALY GOOD, but it's really limited too! :S

Tremolo: i never use it, but it sounds ok to me. If you put maximun Tremolo, you will sound really similar to "audioslave - like a stone".

Tap Echo / sweep echo: it's really limited, so i never use it!

Reverb: ok, this is GOOD, i like it, i use it mainly in the crunch channel...

I bought this amplifier 'cause i'm tired of using my regular rig to practice... with this amp, i just "plug and play" :D

I am an experienced guitarist, having played on professional-level equipment for many years. Sold my rig a few years ago, and just wanted to pick up something that would be good for playing solo at home.

This amp is perfect for my needs. I read all the great reviews, but was still nervous that the amp's sound quality would be poor, or that it wouldn't have enough juice for me (to crank it up when my wife and kids are out).

This little amp does the job and does it well. I never have needed to turn it up past maybe 40% and that was *loud* (for the room I'm in anyway). The distortion variety and quality, the effect variety and quality (chorus flange, phaser, and tremelo on one dial - sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb on the other dial), the capability to combine two effects at a time, the EQ (3 dials - bass, mid, treble), all give me all the versatility I was looking for, and far more than I expected for the price.

Great amp for the price - no matter if you're just starting out, or getting back in to playing. Highly recommended.

About a year ago I made the mistake of buying the Dean Playmate Pack- but that's another story. I bought the Line 6 Spider III 15 in hopes of an amp that was worth my money.

If you are somewhat constrained financially, rest assured that this is the best amp in its price range. If you're looking to play in your room, this is one's a safe bet. Take this baby outside the house and it sounds, well, terrible. But it will sound great in your room.

In my opinion, the amp is the most important part of the package- without it all you have is a quiet acoustic guitar. Especially if you are a beginner, you want an amp that won't blow out on you, one that will make you excited about playing. I digress.

The amp has four channels- clean, crunch, metal, and insane. To be honest, Clean sounds like crap. It sounds tinny and scifi-ish, like you were using the phaser on a normal clean channel. This is why I had to give this amp 4 stars instead of 5. But Crunch and Metal make up for it. Crunch sounds like a normal clean channel but with a harder edge, a Zeppelin-esque sound that is quite versatile. When I'm looking for a harder sound, perhaps Mettalica or the Sex Pistols, I go for metal. I love this channel. It sounds just like EVH's guitar on Eruption without any add-on effects. Naturally, it's awesome for soloing. The last channel, Insane, is only good for humor value ("let's see what this sounds like on Insane!"). It's just too much- a great way to annoy the neighbors.

But overall, this is a great little amp. I've played punk, classic rock, metal, and electric blues on mine- and it hasn't blown out yet.

Bought this for my son to use with his 1st guitar and my brother and father (who've both been playing since about age 11) love it - they both were shocked at the features it contains for such a low price -- definitely worth the money and a good buy. Great deal all around!

this is my second amplifier after the Esteban, this is millions better and the effects are great, you don't even need another gadget to go for more fancies... I love this amp..thank you guys for the honest reviews and really appreciate all of it. most of all the arrival was on time and you can track it down.