Hey!
I've had the Line 6 Spider Jam for a few weeks now and have enjoyed it immensly. When I first joined here I was only an acoustic player, then started getting into the blues guitar on electric, with a blues junior tube amp.
Now I'm at a place where I want to learn more "rock" type music, distortion, etc.. Anyway, I wanted an amp that would give me a palette of different tones to experiment with and also a taste of different effects.
The Spider Jam is the best practice amp I've had the pleasure of using. Yes, it doesn't sound as great as an all tube amp with a ts-808 for blues, however, for practicing and jamming, it hasn't been a big deal. I can get a great many clean and tube like overdriven sounds that almost anybody would'nt complain about unless you told them it was solid state.
What's unique about the spider jam is that it comes with a variety of backing tracks with a full band, or just endless drum loops. Now with the update from Line 6, you can add your own backing tracks via the sd card. You also have a built in 24 minute looper, so you can add your own loops and save them to the sd card. You can also change the pitch and tempo independantly on any loops or backing tracks if you want to slow down a lick to figure it out.
The xlr input for vocals is great. Going back to my acoustic playing, I used to have an acoustic combo amp so I could sing and play acoustic. Now with the Spider Jam, it has a second channel without any effects and I can save the trouble of bringing another amp along. The vocal channel has indepent effects, like reverb, which is a nice feature. I'm suprised they added this feature in, but it's been great for those of us who also sing and play guitar.
Other extras of course are the built in effects, like delay, tape echo, etc. It also has a built in tuner that is very accurate. And since I have two little children at home, it's been great to be able to practice with headphones at night.
I just can't praise enough how great this amp has been for someone who doesn't have the resources to "jam" with other musicians. I can practice with the built in backing tracks in different keys and genres, or I can just jam to some interesting drum loops. I can record any musical ideas I have from the guitar or vocals and save them to the sd card. Or I can create a chord progression myself and layer over that for some jamming.
All in all, this is the best practice amp I have purchased, and with all the features it comes with, I find that I'm not missing my old setup at all. I even find myself learning to play some Buckethead type tunes. :-)
Anyone who is looking for an all in one jammin setup and if you like to sing than this amp is the "one". I know you can also get the optional fbv express pedal which makes it a little easier to start and stop loops, and adds a wah/volume pedal, as well as the tuner feature from the pedal. I think that will be next on my list.
I didn't mean to type such a big review, just excited about this amp and if you have any questions let me know!
John
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