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Line 6 Spider III 120 2 x 10" Combo Guitar Amplifier

 

Review of the Line 6 Spider III 120 by The Man in the Jar

This little monster is certainly an upgrade from the late lamented Spider II. Certain functionalities are the same or similar, but the major change is the addition of a huge bank of 250 artist presets and a further reservoir of 150 presets based on popular guitar-based songs.

Let's start with the control panel:

Starting from the left of the panel we have a single guitar standard Jack input paired with a mini-jack auxiliary input for a CD player or MP3 player. After that is the Amp Model selector with six labelled positions: Clean; Twang; Blues, Crunch; Metal and Insane. But there are actually twelve positions available and the indicator light next to each label changes from red to green as you move the knob around. There are no click stops on this control so you need to reference the light every time you change models.

The EQ section has Drive (Gain), Bass, Mid and Treble. The last knob in the EQ section is Channel Volume which is used to balance the output of amp and effects set-ups that you might store in the channel memories. The four buttons above the EQ section offer four channels to store your favourite sounds. Each channel is loaded with a factory pre-set to give you a head-start.

Next comes the Smart Control FX section. The first rotary is 'off' when turned fully counter-clockwise. Turn it slightly to the right and the Chorus/Flange light activates. Turning the knob further increases the intensity of the effect until you reach 10 o'clock where the effect switches to Phaser. This in turn increases in intensity until you reach 2 o'clock where the Tremolo is activated, increasing in intensity for the rest of the knob's sweep.

The next knob in the Smart Control FX section works in a similar way but activates Delay, Tape Echo and Sweep Echo. All delay settings are set to time by the Tap button next to the Delay knob (hold down the tap button to activate the onboard tuner).

Next along is the Master Volume and after that come the input for an optional Line 6 FBV Foot Controller (FBV2, FBV Express, FBV Shortboard), a Direct Out or Phones socket and the on/off rocker. 

Above these is a small LED display and next to that is what I like to call a Nipple Control, you probably would recognise it as a multi-way controller similar to that used on Playstations. Jiggling this controller left and right pages through the presets in a particular bank, jiggling it up and down toggles through the memory banks. 

There's nothing on the open-backed rear except for the AC inlet and a chunky heatsink. This model is loaded with two chunky 10 inch Celestion speakers.

Sound of the Line 6 Spider III 120

Clean Red - This is a basic clean sound with an excellent crisp, jazzy tone;

Clean Green - This preset delivered a flatter more middley response that emulates clean tones of the 60's;

Twang Red - This channel is based on mid 60's Fender amps and begged to have a Telecaster to play with. The best I had to hand was my Jim Reed Strat which hit the spot perfectly;

Twang Green - Based on a combination of Fender Tweed, Fender Bassman and Gibson Explorer. This is a killer rock 'n' roll tone but you might want to wind off some drive when you're not wearing your drapes;

Blues Red - Based on a combination of Marshalls, Fenders and Supros. There's a nice edge of drive to this channel for powerful blues chord work and solos;

Blues Green - Based on a Vox AC30. This is an excellent standard rock tone, drop the drive back a bit to clarify the tone and you've got a gorgeous blues and blues-rock sound;

Crunch Red - Based on the Marshall Plexi 50 Watt, this is a glorious boogie crunch. Think of Quo's Caroline intro and you won't be too far off;

Crunch Green - This channel delivers a level of overdrive which simply reeks of ACDC at their best;

Metal Red - Based on a Mesa Dual Rectifier. This is Very Metal, a very high gain Modern Metal sound that is tight and well defined, making it easier to control than the Spider II version;

Metal Green - When this preset is selected the Mid knob on the EQ adjusts the character of the distortion produced, from something like a Fuzz pedal, through modern high gain to honeyed Class A tones (the last being completely gorgeous);

Insane Red - This is another version of the Metal Red but with more intense mid-range;

Insane Green - This takes the level of distortion as far as Line 6 dare take it without driving you madder than a box of farting parrots.

I ran the clean channel flat to test the Effects in isolation:

Chorus/Flange - This is a nice unimposing effect to use in the low to mid-ranges of he control's sweep where it adds a great shimmer to the sound. In the manual Line 6 admit that the full-on settings of all the effects options are likely to be "tone-mangling overkill". The full-on Chorus is indeed a complete "psycho-wobble";

Phaser - On its lowest setting this gives a barely perceptible shift that I could live with as a permanent enhancement to my sound. Mid-way it has an endearing "cat-yowl" effect. Even full-on it has a nice auto-wah feeling about it;

Tremolo - In my opinion this is one of the least easy to use effects because of its association with early rock 'n' roll ballads. But having said that I've just listened to a Robert Cray track where he uses tremolo with great aplomb. In any case you'll want to stay in the lower reaches of the knobs sweep on the Spider;

Delay - A straightforward repeat that marches off into the distance in a predictable, digital sort of a way;

Tape Echo - Does the same marching trick but loses a bunch of frequencies each time it takes a step. This emulates the sonic degradation inherent when audio tape rubs against playback heads. Dialling clockwise increases the number of repeats;

Sweep Echo - Adds a frequency sweep to the delay which has a kind of wah-wah effect on the tonality.

The A, B, C and D channel presets provide really good versions of a crunch, a blues, a clean and a metal sound.

Finally the artists' presets and song-style emulations will take up at least an afternoon of your time to noodle through (it certainly did me). But these are what sets this little box apart from everything that has ever been carried up a fire escape and set up on a stage that smells of wee. Imagine never, ever again struggling to find a good guitar sound. I don't think I'd live long enough to write a critique of every one of the 400 presets (but I can tell you I spent a happy 10 minutes strutting around in Paul Weller's Peacock Suit), rather I shall just direct you to the Line 6 sample page where you can actually listen to a couple of dozen of them. Scroll down the page for a full listing of all the presets.

 

Overall impressions of the Line 6 Spider III 120 

This is a truly amazing piece of kit that overflows with useful resource for the gigging and recording musician. But that also makes it perfect for the play-at-home hobby guitarist; Simply chose a song preset, learn the song and then wow your Aunty Eileen when she pops round on Sunday. If you have this amp, at what ever level you play, you will never be lost for a fantastic guitar sound to suit any occasion. Seriously, it's that good. 

Buy the Line 6 Spider III 120

Note: As with all amps equipped with headphone sockets, turn the Master Volume to zero before plugging in the 'phones. Beware that channel memories may be saved at drastically different volumes. Be careful when switching between memories, especially if using headphones. 

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