Line 6 Spider III 30: Bargain Priced Modeling Sounds
Written: Oct 26 '08 (Updated Oct 26 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Cheap. Good tone and effects for the money and beginner.
Cons: None, really. It does what it's designed for.
The Bottom Line: The Line 6 Spider III 30 is a competitively priced modelling amp for beginners. It's versatile and loud enough, given the solid state price.
There's a vast number of entry level amplifiers out there and the question is "what's a poor mother to do?", especially if that poor mother is being dragged to Guitar Center or Sam Ash by a twelve- or fourteen-year old who is planning on being the next Joe Satriani but only has $200 or so to spend. Or, maybe you're a pro looking for a small but versatile amp to take to practice sessions. Or maybe you just don't have much money. The Line Six Spider III 30 modelling amp is worth a look for those folks.
Coming in at $199.99 at Musicians Friend and the big box stores, the Spider III 30 certainly qualifies as bargain priced. Now, for that kind of dough, you're not expecting a tube amp that blasts vintage sounds, and you're not going to get it. But you do get a reasonably capable solid state modeling amp that will suit any beginning rock player and a lot of other guys who are looking to goof around. At 30 watts, it's loud enough to jam with in the basement but you're not going to gig with it.
The Spider III comes with four of Line 6's standard amp models: Clean, Crunch, Metal and Insane. The Clean will give you, well, clean sounds suited for standard rock, jazz and country. Play your Strat through this. Crunch is modeled on a 68 Marshall and is good for vintage 60s and 70s rock. The Metal and Insane are modeled on Mesa Dual Rectifiers and are appropriate for modern rock and metal tones. Control your sounds via the Drive (gain), Treble, Mids, Bass and Volume controls. The amp is powered by a single 1x12 Celestion 30 speaker. It's a versatile speaker that provides nice highs and plenty of bottom end. For the money, you'll be getting an amp with good articulation and sensitivity to pick attack.
The Spider III is equipped with six effects: Phaser, chorus/flanger, tremelo, sweep echo, tape echo, and reverb. You can use two simultaneously. A control lets you affect the intensity but that's it. The Tap button lets you set the timing of the echo effects. Mess around with the controls and you can also access a Distortion Boost feature that mimics a pedal with the distortion knob set low and the output set high. There's also a noise gate feature to cut down on hiss.
There is also a headphone/direct out jack and a CD/MP3 input for playing along with your favorites. The amp is light and at 18x17x9, pretty compact.
Who should buy this amp? Like I said, beginning musicians and guys on a budget. Coffeehouse players who need a back up amp. Pros who are going to practice sessions and don't want to drag along a sixty pound combo (just plug your rig into the Clean channel and off you go). For $200, this amp is competing in the more expensive micro-amp range and favorably so. It has good volume and enough effects to keep somebody amused for a while. It's well constructed and built to last. It's a good buy for the money, as long as you realize you're getting solid state sound.
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