We are blessed to be living in the era of amps that pack in more effects and features than anyone ever thought could happen. As such, today’s players have come to expect a fair amount of flexibility from their gear. Line 6 has been on the cutting edge of amp modeling, and of making amps that are way packed with tone choices. The Spider IV 75 is the fourth generation of the company’s popular Spider amp series, and it lives up to its heritage pretty nicely.

FEATURES Just the numbers here are overwhelming, and here they are: 16 amp models, 300 presets created by 50 rock stars, 20 effects (four at once), 64 user presets, 4 channels, 1 tuner, 75 watts of power coming out of one 12" Celestion speaker, and only 36 pounds of amp to lug around. One additional – and very cool feature from Line 6 are the almost 200 song-based presets, which are a ton of fun. You can dial up “Crazy Train,” “Cliffs of Dover,” “Tush” and BAM there they are. Amp models are not specific, but rather “inspired by” various amp types. Line 6 labels the amp types as; Clean, Twang, Class A, Blues, Crunch, Hi Gain, Metal and Insane, each with two distinct flavors. The effects include all the usual suspects, and I won’t take up the rest of the review naming all of them. Suffice to say most any sort of effect you want is there, including a 14-second looper. And by the way, the Spider series has seven combo models plus a head/cab available depending on how big an amp you need.

SOUND AND EASE OF USE Some modeling amps have a sort of funny feel when you play them—leaving you feeling a step removed from the sound you are playing. Not so here; the sound is immediate and in your face. The 75 watts seem to deliver some good punch. It took me quite a while just to play through the presets, and I have to say this amp does require some investigation. You just can’t have this many features without a learning curve.

 

That said, you can plug and play through many sounds and have some fun right away. It just takes some time to decide your likes and dislikes, that’s all.

I found the song presets to be a mixed bag. There were ones I thought were dead on and others that I just didn’t think were quite there. And yeah, there are some songs I simply didn’t know, so I can’t say if the sound was right. But even in some of the song presets I didn’t find familiar, I was able to find sounds I enjoyed and would find usable.

For example, there’s a preset called WINDCRIESMARY, which I suspect may be trying to sound like Jimi Hendrix… perhaps? I played it with a humbucker-loaded guitar and it tweaked the tone in a Strat-like direction, and was pretty darn good. Being a fan of the ’70s, I also got a kick out of CATSCRATCHFEVR, which gave me total Nugent-o-rama with that Gibson Byrdland upper-mid squawk that makes the sound. Other enjoyable sounds

evoke David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame, SRV, AC/DC and more. They list them all on the Line 6 website, so take a look for the full list.

A big test for me is how an amp sounds just clean. Let’s be totally honest here, you can always buy another stomp distortion box, but there aren’t any “clean” boxes. The Spider IV 75 actually gives you a nice variety of clean tones. There is a preset by studio and jazz great Lee Ritenour that evokes his Gibson L5 sound, and it’s good. I was surprised but pleased to get a very jazzy archtop-sort-of tone from my solid body. Let me be clear here, it does not sound exactly like an archtop through a tube amp, but it gets you some of the way there and would be good enough for most of us.

Programming your own sounds isn’t too hard, but without the advanced guide you’d probably never figure it out. And, unless our sample was unusual, you have to download the advanced guide from the Web site. Once you do, you have to push a few buttons and name your sound and you’re set to go. There are 64 user-writable slots available to you.

You can use this amp on it’s own, but gee… why would you want to? I tested the amp with Line 6’s Shortboard footswitcher and it makes it much easier to operate. The shortboard is very solid, and allows access to all the stuff you need in the amp with 13 stomper buttons and a multiuse pedal that can control volume, wah and a variety of modulation effects.

Both the amp and pedalboard seem well made and roadworthy. The amp has large plastic corners that should offer good protection, and a heavy plastic handle. Plus the amp is only 36 pounds, so it’s pretty easy to cart around and quite suitable for your rehearsal studio or small club gigs.

IS IT FOR YOU?
At a combined street price of about $500.00 for the amp and Shortboard you can get a world of rockin’ tones in a very small space. For the bedroom rocker, a near perfect amp. Loads of preset sounds, so if you just want to noodle along with your favorite CDs you are all set and ready to rock and roll. As I said, the song presets alone are a ton of fun and would probably be enough for many players without any ability to program. For the pro player, the Spider IV 75 is a darn good little unit with a zillion sounds at a stupid low price. Sixty-four user slots to write your own sounds into should be more than enough for anyone. Did I mention you can also use FBV Mk II pedals to download future firmware upgrades for your Spider IV? To an old analog guy, all this seems like a miracle.

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IN A NUTSHELL

• 300 rock star presets
• 64 user programmable slots
• Almost 200 song presets
• 36 pounds
• Built-in tuner
• 4 channels

 

 

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