NEWS: i played a POD today. incredible. really incredible. i've decided to delete this thread; it was just a flame about some of spider III's presets sounding poor. sorry.

This post has been edited by Asphyxia Feeling: Jul 1 2007, 09:29 AM

I agree with you. The sound is, uhm, a bit too "plastic" in my opinion. I have Line6 spider II, stopped using it though. Using an old music man tube amp wich I find much better.

I like my Spider II amp, and love my guitarport.

Line 6 makes some incredible stuff.

Yes, the presets don't sound exactly like the song they mimic, but then again, how many amps have presets like that?

I can make clean, twang, blues, metal, crunch rock, neo classical type sound, and add things like delay, chorus, reverb, etc and that's all with my one amp with no pedals, etc.

I was going for the line 6 for a while, but I've decided that my new amp is going to be a valvetronix ad100vt (2x12, 100w). However, I think some of the presets on the line six sound great, some not so great. For example, the ten years gone preset sounds awful and overdone, and you don't even really need any effects to make the song sound convincing. Others I thought sounded really good, like Cliffs of Dover, and purple rain was dead on the money.

Actually you Should probably Try it out, Before you give your Critisiams.
Because then you would have a Better Idea of what you're talking about.

I happen to Own the Spider 3 75.
And I find it to be Awesome Amp, especially for the Price ($299).

Now, Yes I agree with you on the Fact that MOST of the Built-in Presets sound Like crap. It's probably because since there's 400+ Built in Presets, they Ran out of Ideas.

But, there are some Really Awesome tones inside too. For me pretty Much the Only preset I play for Distortion is the "Whom the Bells toll"
Which sounds great with my Guitar, A nice Smashing Drive sound.

and It does have 12 amp Models,7 effects (which I find VERY high Quality-Trust me I know what low Quality effects are!)
And a 12' Custom Celestion Speaker.

It can Be Tweaked to get almost Any Sound you want, It all depends on How you Use it.

and again I find that for only $299 it's a Great Deal, For any Guitar Player.

Now what YOU should do is...
Play one for yourself, either go to a Store, or Buy one or whatever.

and THEN come on and Give your Opinion, instead of just what you think after you went to their Website.

It would Give you a Well Rounded opinion, and More of a unbias view on it!

btw, Everybody always talks about how the Spider 3 is ALOT better than the Spider 2. Like a Mega -upgrade.

One thing to recall in this discussion so far is that we are talking about the Line6 Spider series... which in my opinion do stink. But please don't use the Spider series to define Line6.

Once you upgrade to the Flextone or Vetta series your in a completely different ball park. I own a Flextone II XL and I used to own a $2500 rig running a Marshall TSL 100 head with a vintage 4x12 Marshall cabinet with (4) Celestion greenbacks in it. When I found out that I could PERFECTLY tune in my flextone II to the EXACT sound of my rig I decided to sell the rig. I mean you could close your eyes and not tell the difference.

The only thing I have yet to acheive with the Flextone Series is the same sustain... my Flextone II drops my sustain about a second before my Marshall did... but that was on like about a 10 second sustain which 99% of songs don't need sustain 10 seconds long or longer. I hear the Vetta Series has reproduced this with a single long-life tube transistor. Viola!

Try them and please don't compare them to the Spider. Spiders are icky

wow alot of those dont sound very good....but Line6 DOES make good quality products beyond spider...Heck...listen to Andrews jazz number on upload board....I believe he uses line6

Yes I use the PodXT Live and it is awesome for playing and recording ... sounds like the Spider may not measure up to the rest of Line 6 produdts as Hardtail said - useful to know.

This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Jul 1 2007, 04:09 AM

Also, I don't know if you know this or not Andrew (you probably do). But for PodXT users who want to perform live and get the same sound on stage they are getting in the studio, I'd highly recommend using a Flextone Amp, Vetta Amp, or a straight solid state rack Amplifier driving a Line6 Vetta or Flextone Cabinet (PodXT-SS Amplifier-Line6 Cabinet). The reason being is because Line6 worked with Celestion to create the flatest widest range speakers ever so that whatever Amp and Cabinet model you dialed into your PodXT it will be faithfully recreated on stage. If you are trying to run a PodXT dialed into say a Vintage Marshall 4x12 but you are running it all thru a 2x10 Crate amp then you will have conflicts of tone.

Hmmm I have made many posts about Line6 tonight which make me sound like a fanboy... I'd like to make one thing clear: if you are trying to play ALOT of different sounds with one device look no further than Line6 Products. HOWEVER, if you have zeroed into a single style... say BLUES, and you want to play that professionally... then PLEASE for the love of God go get a nice blues all tube Amp. It will be worth it trust me. Same goes for all styles. Just My Opinion.

Hardtail

I just bought the Spider III 75 Watt Combo Amp a few weeks ago and its great. So it may be a piece of crap, but i love it. Not as much as i love my new Les Paul!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0bktPejLi4

^ both in action

- Hemlok

I agree, I listened to a few of those samples but since I already have a guitarport and gearbox I am already familiar with most of them. I think Line6 makes some great products but I am not familiar with all that is available.
I only recenlty bought the guitarport as I tried it out first and liked it and the inlcluded software. I'm not sure if they are popular or not. It does feel a little guitarheroish, even though I have never really played GH, but hey it's fun. One thing for sure it makes practicing in front of a pc much more enjoyable.
How many others here use this kind of set up?

wow. suprised to see this be a semi-popular topic.

anyway, adding to the discussion:

~I've played Line 6's other products (vetta, etc) and i think they're great.

~I mentioned several times that i've never REALLY (like, longer then 5 minutes) played a Spider III several times in my thread. this is just based on the presets.

~i've seen people get amazing tones and in general do very cool things with PODs and the like, so no criticism there.

~i did say at the end of my thread that i realized this was a harsh thread, my apologies.

~compared to other amps in the price range, i'd say the valvetronix / roland cube series' are better deals. (i mentioned this in the thread too, but saying it again anyway)

~aside from presets, the only real upgrade between the II and III is the revamping of "mid-gain" tones and mid EQ. it says so on line 6's website.

concluding, i'm sorry if i've offended anyone with the thead. i'll be sure to try / buy(if i see the 75w for cheap on ebay) a spider III eventually, i'll write a real review on them when i do.

Yep, I can confirm that, Flextone is a much better amp. I own the same one - just not an XL. Good distortion, simple to operate, still trying to get some nice cleans out of it but I cant complain.

Interesting - I knew of course not to play the pod through a real guitar amp - I've posted on that many many times, but I never though of using a Vetta or Flextone cabinet - great idea, and of course makes a lot of sense when you think about it, as the Vetta is basically a pod + an Amp (although I think the Vetta can run multiple amp models at the same time). If/when I took my pod on the road I was going to buy a keybpard combo amp, but I think you've changed my mind - I'll go for a solid state rack amp plus a Vetta cabinet.

Having said all of that however, I also agree with your other point on flexibility. Over the months, MickeM has convinced me that I also need to try playing with a decent Amp and see what that can do for me tonewise. Im going to eventually have 2 complete setups:

Variax + Pod - for unlimited flexibility

Jem + Tube Amp + effects board - to home in on a particular signature sound

Best of both worlds !

This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Jul 1 2007, 03:02 PM

JEM+a good tube amp+G-Force effects processor and you have all you need.

Or a Rocktron Prophesy preamp - amazing thing!

I had a quick look at the prophesy on various websites - have you ever played with one?

I wasn't offended.

But my Point was exactly what I said, It's hard to give a Clear Review/Critisiam without actually playing/using one for awhile.

The thing is... I could give a Fair/Unbias review on the thing, since I've had it for over 5 months or so and I know the thing inside and out. I know it's limits and it's strong points. But probably no one would listen to me.

In Contrast, If I put a thread Bashing a Product.
Especially If I had barely or Never Used it, I think everybody would Start getting on Me.

Damn....Us Spider 3 owners don't get no Love

This post has been edited by Slammer: Jul 1 2007, 05:02 PM

Hehe Slammer. TBH my only experience has been with the Spider II and it didn't seem to have nearly the capabilities the PodXT or above had so i'm probably speaking with limited experience as well. DOH!

Hardtail

No Worries Dude

Carn't say im a big fan of the spider 2 sound,but it does it's job in the bedroom,with lot's of effects it make a good practice amp.