Line 6 Spider III Amps

There are two basic types of Spider III amps: Type 1 and Type 2 (See Below)

The Line 6 Series amps are DSP digital emulations based upon 40 years of guitar amplifier design. Because of this you can instantly select sound at a touch of button. Many of the sounds in these amps have been recreated to sound like tones used in certain songs for that matter. Line 6 had a number of popular guitarists create their own sounds using their amplifiers and store them in presets.

There are two basic types of Line 6 Spider III amps. The first type is found in the models 75, 120, 150 and HD150. These amps feature 12 basic amp models, 7 effects, headphone output, CD/MP3 input, built-in tuner, 250 artist’s presets, 150 song presets, and 36 user presets. The song presets are based on some of the most popular songs. The user presets are access via banks of 9 banks of 4 presets (A, B, C, & D). Some of the more popular presets are the ‘back in black’, ‘red house’, and ‘meshuggah’. There are many popular guitarists who have created their own presets for this amp series. The song based presets are from the top 200 guitar rock songs of all time and are organized into banks by genre.

The second type consists of the amp models 15,30, & HD75 which feature 4 basic amp models, 6 effects, headphone/direct output, CD/MP3 jack, and 4 basic presets. These amps sound just as good as the first type without as many presets and effects.

More info on the effects: Even though the Spider III series models 75, 120, 150, and HD150 have 7 different effects they can only playback three effects plus a noise gate simultaneously. They are controlled using three knobs: Smart FX A, Smart FX B, and Reverb. The Smart FX A knob selects the modulation based effects like chorus/flange, phase, and tremolo. Smart FX B selects delay type effects like echo, tape echo, and sweep echo. There is a dedicated reverb knob. On models 15, 30, and HD75 there are 6 basic effects of which two can be played back simultaneously. They are accessed through two knobs: Smart FX A which controls the modulation based effects, ie. chorus, phase, tremolo, and Smart FX B which controls the time based effects, like delay and reverb. Each of the effect knobs varies how intense the effect is from mild to very powerful.

The noise gate is enabled/disabled by holding down the TAP button and then turning the reverb knob. If you go past 12 o’clock on the dial it’s enabled. The noise gate is used to turn off the output when you aren’t playing your guitar. There doesn’t seem to be a way to change the threshold but it seems to work just fine for most presets.

There are also three optional foot controllers available but not every Spider III amp can use all three so check the amp specs. The footswitches connect to the amp via an RJ-45 cable which is a CAT 5 network cable like that found for connecting your computer to your cable modem for instance. If you need a longer cable than the one included then you can simply go purchase one. The footswitch comes with a cable. Note that the Line 6 Floor Board and FB4 foot controllers will not work with Spider III.

The FBV2 foot controller has two buttons that are used to scroll through the four channel presets (A, B, C, and D). The FBV Express foot controller has the four single switches used to select Channels A, B, C, and D. You can also set the tempo of your delay and other tempo based effect by tapping on the selected channel at the tempo of the song. It also has an expression pedal which operates in two different modes: Volume and Wah. To change the function of the pedal move the pedal forward until you hear a click. At this point the pedal’s function will change. There are two lights: Volume and Wah which displays the current function of the pedal. Almost forgot there is also a built-in tuner that is accessible when you press both the A and B channel switches at the same time.

The third and most useful foot controller is the FBV Shortboard. It has the four single channel select switches which allow you to set the tempo via tapping on the channel switch. There’s also a Bank Up and Down switch that allows you to gain access to the 9 banks of 4 (A, B, C, and D), otherwise you only have access to bank 1 with no FBV shortboard connected. As with the FBV express to change the function of the expression pedal you move the pedal all the way forward until it clicks: Volume or Wah. You can also plug in another expression pedal in the back panel of the shortboard to have both Volume and Wah pedals at the same time. With the dedicated TAP button you can set the tempo of delay based effects. Also holding down on the TAP button turns on the built-in tuner. There are four dedicated buttons that enable/disable the effects: Stomp, Mod, Delay, and Reverb. The Stomp turns on the Distortion Boost.

Line 6 Spider III 15 Amp
The Spider III 15 is the least expensive amp Line 6 makes. It still has some of the great tones found in their larger amps but in a much smaller package. It comes with the same DSP based processing system as found in the model 30 and HD75 but only puts out 15 watts in to an 8 inch speaker.

Line 6 Spider III 30
The Spider III 30 is a 30 watt DSP based guitar amp that is great for practice and playing small gigs. This is one of the best amp’s for the money. It has 4 basic amp tones which can be modified as well as 6 different type of effects of which two can be run simultaneously.

Line 6 Spider III 120 Combo Amp
The Spider III 120 is a 120 watt Stereo DSP modeling based guitar amp. This amp is great for small to medium gigs as well as recording. It comes with two 10 inch custom Celestion speakers. It also features a built-in tuner, 12 amp models, 7 digital effects (up to 3 running simultaneously), 400 presets, and 36 user programmable presets.

Line 6 Spider III Jam
The Spider III Jam is a similar to the Spider III 75 with it’s 250 artist created presets, 12 amp models, 7 effect types, 75 watts of power, and 12 inch speaker, with the inclusion of a loop based multi-track recorder. It’s great for learning and creating songs.

Line 6 Spider III HD150 Guitar Amp Head
The Spider III HD150 is a 150 watt Stereo DSP based guitar amp. It comes with 12 custom amp models with the ability to run three of the seven effects simultaneously. One great feature is the number of presets: It comes with 400 song and artist presets as well as 36 user presets.