Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Excellent amp with lots of power but as mentioned here the stock speakers are terrible. They sound good at low volume but when you crank up the volume they quickly lose definition and become muddy. Like another fellow who posted here, I took out the factory China made Celestrons and put in a set of Eminence Red Coat speakers. I elected to go with the Man O War which have a crisp high end. Now I can crank this amp up to 10 and get crisp and defined sound. It really made a huge difference! A must have modification if you are playing out in a band.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Along with the FBV Shortboard (additional cost), it's a great amp for home / band practice and a back-up. I played one small bar gig with it and the sound was not there. I am very experienced with Line 6 products and know what I'm doing. If you need to make adjustments on the fly, it's kind of a pain. Give me Marshall or give me death.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

As a long time Digitech fan since the 1980s, I must say this amp has high potential.

When I first bought it, I wasn't sure because with the stock speakers, it sounds everything like a modeling amp. Completely artificial. It has too much emphasis on the extreme high frequencies and extreme low frequencies. But not enough in between. I was ready to toss this amp out the window.

But then I realized that the speakers were chinese Celestions. That says a lot right there. I did my research and took a trip to my nearest music store to test out some speakers. I bought the Eminence Governor Red Coat speakers to replace the generic ones Line 6 so rudely installed in this amp.

That's when the amp became a completely different one altogether. Suddenly the effects went from generic tinny sounding to EXCELLENT in every way. You can get any tone you want from country twang to Angus Young. And it will do it all LOUD and CLEAR on stage. The bottom end punch is VERY surprising. Our bass player used the word "scary" to describe it.

I still believe Line 6 falls a bit short due to not having true "tone shaping" that Digitech innovated long ago. Else I would have given this all stars. Regardless, it is still versatile. But I don't think it's any good with direct recording unless your looking for that artificial tone. The new speakers do a great job at covering that up.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

It's a digital, modeling amp; it will never sound like a tube amp. You can tweak it so that it will sound close by adding reverb and slight delay but if you really listen the distortion will always sound digital.

Other than that it's a great amp! The speakers sound great, other than the distortions there really aren't any bad effects.

I don't know if I'd recommend this for a begginer, it's easy to get caught up in layering effects and if you don't know what you're doing you can get lost/frustrated.

I've been playing metal through it, I do the rhythm and some melodic accompiniments and it works out for me since I'm a bit lower in the mix.

I use it as 2x12 for practice and then hook into a 4x12 cab for shows and that works very well for me!

I only gave this 4 stars because the distortion is really digital sounding but for a modeling amp under $2k it is the best you're going to find!

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Peavey Vyper or Fender Mustang IV modeling amps would be a much better option.

Or get yourself quality effects pedals and a good Fender Twin Reverb , or Roland, or VOX amp and be done with it.
The sound quality of this amp is terrible. The amp modeling is only decent if you use the clean modes, once you dive into the hi-gain and distortion all the quality goes right out the window.

Line 6 likes to brag about all the modeling they offer.

Having 150 modes to choose from on an amp is not very impressive when most of them sound like garbage at any reasonable volume.
If you are not a compuer person, don't even think about owning this amp. All the ROM updates and documentation can only be found online, the standard users guide that they include is a folded one-page document which is nearly useless, and directs you to the Line 6 website anyway.. online you will find no less than 4 additional users manuals you may be needing, some of which are 80 pages long. So if you are printing these out on your inkjet printer at home, be prepared to spend another $50 in ink costs just so you can have your manuals. On an amp that retails for $800.00 - this is unforgiveable.

The online web links are corrupted... even on YouTube, and no one seems to care at Line 6. The audio on one is about a 2 on a scale of 10, so you can't even hear the tips you need to get started. On another, the sound works fine, but the video is blacked out.. not very helpful at all.

Finally, if that were not enough, my amp had a connector defect so the software patches would not recognize my devices, so I finally gave up and sent back everything. Ispent about a week troubleshooting the amp, and when I called Line 6 for an RMA, they said it was defective. I had a good friend who is a pro musician tell me Line 6 amps were always the worst amps for quality and returns, and I should have listened to him.

I'll never own another.
While the price seems reasonable, the amp is the last amp I would play on at home, let alone on the road.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

The documentation is very good, and the website is average. (it needs a lot of work)

The on board chromatic tuner seems to be badly engineered and difficult to use. I don't think it is accurate, I always have to use a standalone tuner to be sure my guitar is in tune... and that sucks.

Because it's all digital, many of the modeling presets are distorted and fuzzy, yet others (mostly the "Clean" presets are clear as a bell. My guess is, somehow, you'll find a few that will work for you.

The more distortion and gain of the preset, the more likely you will not be happy with them, as all the data overloads the chips they are using, and you end up with a poor sound,

My guess is Line 6 will eventually come out with higher memory and faster processors that can actually handle the distortion presets as they should have done to begin with.

(I'm sure it all came down to manufacturing expense, and getting these things out the door at the lowest affordable cost to the average musician)

All in all- you can't buy a better modeling amp, at any cost... anywhere else. If you need a good amp, get this one. I'll have my eye out for the next generation modeling amps from Line 6. No doubt they will be monsters. (And more expensive too...)
This amp has so many features and modes that it will take you a few weeks just to toggle through them all to see which ones you can use for your style of music, and which ones you like the best.

On top of the 16 presets, there are a bunch of presets for specific songs to choose from.

All of these features are fantastic.

You can get the FSB shortboard , (an optional add-on) and with that yyou can store your favorites, and call the up on the fly with your foot, rather than bending over your amp toggliing through menus and settings in-between songs, which would be very inconvienient.

With the stompbox you also get a USB cable, and you can download more settings from the Line 6 website, create your own, and share them with others.
The cloth front speaker covering is thin and vulneralble to kicks and trips, so be careful.

The inputs and dials and readouts are all fairly good quality.
On sale from Musician's Friend - this thing is a bargain.

If it were only sold at retail, I'd buy a tube amp, and live with fewer features.

A quality tube amp with give you better sound quality than this solid state unit could ever provide.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Overall this amp is the best i could find honestly. If you are thinking of getting this amp i'm personally telling you its worth it. Best investment iv ever made. I could not be happier with my choice because i know that the sound and tone this amp produces is exactly what me and my band mates were all looking for.
This amp is simply amazing. My parents got me this amp a week ago for christmas, and i cant stop playing it. The insane setting is so dirty, and is perfect people who love to play metal. The distortion is just so gnarly and i freaking love it. Not to mention all the pre settings. Super crisp clean, to As I Lay Dying's filthy distortion. I also love how i can plug my IPod into the back of the amp and play music through it, and then play my guitar to the music. That is totally my favorite feature.
The sound is amazing. I have heard some people say it gets a little iffy when you crank the volume and what not. But to me personally, i couldn't find a dang thing wrong with the sound. When i jam at my buddies house it does get loud, but this amp still sounds great.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Great amp. Great price.
Great amp. MORE than enough power to keep up with the Marshalls, Mesa Boogie's, etc,.. I have played with 2 drummers so far and also full band. This amp is a CHAMP. Be sure to get the FBV Shortboard MK II as well. This is the last guitar amplification rig you will EVER need. It does it all and it will communicate with your PC through the integrated software interface. I couldn't be happier.
Excellent tone!
Best value on the market.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

I have gigged with this thing for two years playing small venues and larger ones. It holds up extremely well for what I have put it through. Except the only thing that you should be wary of is where the jack is on the amp. DO NOT BUMP INTO IT WHILE THE CABLE IS PLUGGED IN. It will break and you will have to be putting it back together over and over and over for days to come.
The features on this thing are straight forward. It has almost anything you can think of, and a little more. Nothing wrong here.
With quality, you get what you pay for. A solid state amp. If you are looking for clean sound, this is the way to go. The clean channel is extremely crisp, and sometimes mellow when you get it right. Yet, when you try for the high gain, there is an extreme loss of bass in the distortion sounds. The amp will give you tons of distortion, but it is extremely "dry". I have fooled with this amp for about two years now and I still cant get a full distortion tone. Just be wary of that before you purchase this amp.
With all the features at this price, you can't go wrong.

Comments about Line 6 Spider IV 150 150W 2x12 Guitar Combo Amp:

Is this the same as a Marshall, Mesa, or Fender tube amp? Of course not. Those amps each do one or two things extremely well. This amp does hundreds of things good at a fraction of the price. It's easy to fire it up, play a little bit, and say this tone sucks, I hate the amp. You have to spend some time with it with your own guitars. Tweak it and you'll find what you're looking for. I've found tones on this amp where I didn't expect to. For example, for overdriven blues tone I prefer the insane model with gain dialed way back and I kick on the overdrive pedal effect. I love that tone far more than the "blues" tone that is preset. Like I said, there are hundreds of variables. Take the time and tweak it. I bought this because I play music from Hendrix, Cream, Metallica, Skynyrd, Zeppelin, Pantera, Sabbath, Ozzy (Randy), Ozzy (Zakk), Albert Collins, Albert King, SRV..... The list goes on. I like to get some tones reasonable to these guys' sounds. With this amp and the shortboard I can do that. I also like that I can tweak to the exact sound I'm looking for and easily store to pull up later.
I love that they made all the effects more editable in the newer Spider line. You can dial them into very useful tones. I added the fbv mkII shortboard. Without that this isn't really gig'able. What I love is I can dial in a tone with multiple effects to where I like it and stored it to be retrieved by one press of the foot. If you play a wide variety of music and not just one sound then a modeling amp like this is the way to go. Of course the amp models and effect models aren't quite the same as the amps being modeled and a huge board full of pedals but this simplifies your entire rig and no one listening will hear any difference.
I don't like the tolex. I think it's cheap and thin. I haven't damaged mine yet only because I'm very careful with my stuff. I never let anyone else load, unload, or haul it. I think if you bumped this into a wall or something you'd rip the tolex easy. The knobs are very cheap shiny plastic. I was thinking about replacing those. The pot posts are also plastic. If you knocked something against any of the knobs you might break it off. That would suck. Be careful.
You can't beat these Line 6 modelers for value. You really can't. Is it the same as owning all the amps and effects modeled? Of course not. Can you get some really nice sounds and literally hundreds of different sounds from this one amp? Yes. For this kind of money that value is hard to beat.