Line 6 Spider IV 75 - Modeling 75W 1x12" Guitar Combo Amp Reviews

This powerhouse has been with me for 8 years, working as both my amp and a makeshift speaker. For the majority of the past decade, it's always been on (speaks more to my attentiveness as a kid) I love all the presets and the different sounds it makes, there's a lot to learn and fiddle with if you're patient, but the thing can do way more than what you'd expect to be paying for.

Don't compare this amp to the boutique amp market, this amp isn't directed towards that audience but if you are trying to grow, this is a good amp & I say that because mine came with a quality loop pedal & I really had fun improvising over top of it. Quality loop pedals can go as high as $200 if not more. A Spider is what, $300? It is also a great amp for beginners because of the chorus, flanger & distortion presets that educate you on what pedals do what for when you do decide to upgrade amps in the future. I give it 5 stars if put in the hands of a beginner.

Just got my amp two days ago. the first evening I only played on the clean channel. Last night I was fully into it and tried many presets. I was blown away. Even a novice player like myself sounded good with the many presents for different sound. I am fully satisfied with this amp and it has me playing my electrics again. I have been playing my acoustics most of the time, but not now. Many thanks to the folks at Sweetwater for a seamless transaction and fast shipping. Jul

All I can say is Excellent wow. For the money it's the best

I am by no means an expert guitar player and am still in the learning process, that being said this amp is great! The day after I got it I had our neighbors beneath us pounding on their ceiling for me to turn it down. In my defense...it was down as low as I could get it, but I love that it has a place for headphones as that is how I will be having to practice from now on haha. As far a it being confusing or difficult on how to use, I thought it was rather easy. I had watched a couple of reviews on youtube before purchasing this amp and using the knowledge I gained there it was pretty easy to figure out. Bottom line, this is a great amp, sound is great, feels like good quality and will last me far enough into the future that I probably won't have to buy another one until this gives up the ghost.

I will start off and say I am a relative beginner at electric guitar. With that said, I have to say I was blown away by this amp! First time I plugged it in and plugged in my Les Paul it just sang. I have only played around a little with some of the presets, but it's amazing how many there are. I know it'll take me a long time to go through all the tones. One of my favorites so far is the "Come as you are- Nirvana" one. The other thing I love is this beast is loud!! Buy this amp, you can't go wrong!

Ive had this amp several times before and sold it, but always come back to it because nothing else sounds as good nor is as easy to dial in a sound you like. This particular one I just purchased came with a 2.0 effects update on it that is just incredible. This made what was already an awesome amp, just over the top. It gets all the sounds I want from sparkling clean to bone crunching metal.

The Spider IV 75 amp is everything you need in a small but effective amp.
The 16 built-in amp models give you so many options combined with the 20 effects available. Ease oe and powerful at 75 watts. Love it!!

I've had this guitar for more than a year now. I remember how I was blown away by this baby when it arrived. It was not only beautiful to look at but also ruggedly-handsome. There's a little 'pop' when you turn this unit on. But other than that it's clean and quiet. But that is until you turn the volume control up. This beast is loud. And heavy too. I use a personal truck/cart when I have to move this. So you can tell that it has some serious guts inside. Although it has everything that I need, I use its clean channel most of the time, since I play mostly or almost exclusively Christian Music.I was already impressed with how my electric guitars sound on this amp. But an acoustic guitar with only a sound hole pick-up plugged on this amp was a revelation! I get compliments every time. The CD/MP3 input is a real big bonus especially when we do house church. This is where I plug in 2 vocal microphone mixers with 3 mic inputs each - a total of 6 vocal microphones. This amp is basically the central hub of our sound. I also bought one of its matching foot controllers which works perfectly. If this one gets lost or stolen. I will buy another one right away. Very highly recommended!

This amp is the ultimate for any guitar player to access any sound you could want although I am still learning the many differant sound tones and options I would and have recommended this amp to anyone very pleased with it performance virsatility sound quality and weight for transporting around.

I got this amp for some of the smaller to mid-sized clubs I play. And it performs fine ! I like the fact that Line6 kept their program patches the same on the smaller amps as well as their larger one's. Easy to program to find what works for you. And PLENTY of power for small to mid-sized venues. Well built,and light to carry. Well worth the money !

After a good friend of mine suggested I try a "Line6" amp (Knowing I'm a digital processer fan) I was Very impressed with this amp ! And since I am a working musician, I bought the "shortboard" controller and the MK11 also. The effects are clean and easy to customize. I think I spent about a half an hour setting up a few patches, then a few days later, had it on stage. After alot of good comments from people in the crowd, and other musicians. That made a believer out of me ! If your looking for a good solid Guitar amp for small to mid sized club venue's Buy this amp ! Its more than worth the money !

What an amazing amp for the money! I'd been playing on a Line 6 Spider ll{ borrowed from a buddy] and I knew I wanted a Spider lv ! This 75 watt rig sounds like it should be hauled in on a truck ! My sales Friend, yes, he is a friend now, ( Norby), went the extra MILE, to help me! Ordered on a Wednesday night, it showed up on Monday!!!!! How many Corperate businesses could learn from this type of service! Norby and Sweetwater will get all my business !Thank You again !

This amp was purchased as a replacement for another small boutique amp used in the studio. I was contracted for some live gigs and wanted something loaded with everything I need. Line 6 has produced some of the industries best floor effects so I borrowed my brother's Spider IV 75 and dove into the sounds. Right away I found that this little baby wants to take control (Napoleon Syndrome) I can hardly crank it past 2 or 3 without talking over the stage. It sits well sound wise in a variety of settings. The effects and modeling work wonderfully with my Line 6 guitar. I'm a very happy camper!

I truly am blown away by this particular amp. To be quite honest I played a line 6 amp about five years ago and the price point of that time was just too much for me but with the recent price drop and the recent upgrade to their line IV, I knew I had to pick one up.

I spent some time playing with it as mentioned in the previous reviews it doesn't come with a manual to show you all of the ins and outs but I spent a few hours playing with it and I have to say it's quite amazing.

You have to make sure that you also get the short board and then download the software that goes along with this amplifier as it allows you to tweak the software settings on the amp and even add your own settings AND add in some effect pedals from the guys over at line 6.

If that's not enough, you can actually download settings that other musicians have uploaded to the software and then apply it to the amp itself so that you have settings already set up for you such as the Ironman rock setting which if you know the song Ironman on your guitar is going to sound exactly like what they played decades ago. I love this amp!

I don't think I'll buy another line of amp as long as I live.

I was looking for an amp that had a lot of effects right at my fingertips.
I did a lot of reading on modelling amps, the pros and cons. What to look for, what to watch out for. Also which models seemed to give the best bang for the buck.

I had been using a 15 watt amp and it gave up the ghost. I can't complain, it served me well for 10 years. I was initially going to go with another 15 watt and had considered the Spider IV 15, but when I saw that by using the Shortboard MKII controller with a Spider IV 75 I could use USB and plug straight into my computer to download more tones and effects.

That appealed to me. I went and tested amps to be very sure of what I really wanted versus what I 'THOUGHT' I wanted. The Spider 75 turned out to be everything I was looking for at this point. I purchased the Shortboard MK II along side it.

When you come from a very basic amplifier to something like this Spider, it can be overwhelming. It was for me at first. One thing that can be a little irksome is the lack of a manual. It comes with a very basic pilot guide to start. Line 6 makes a PDF version of the advanced manual, as well as lists of all the presets available on the website so I would highly recommend looking at those before diving into this amp.

Once I really got going and spent some good quality time going through the settings and familiarizing myself with the amp, it is an absolute joy to play. It has really inspired me to keep playing, and to explore sounds I didn't think I would like but love playing with this.

I was so happy with this amp, I bought a Spider IV 15 for a relative who is just starting out.

I won't say the Spider IV 75 is the best ever, the best of something is so subjective. But I will say, it is the best for me, and if you are looking at modelling amps or a higher watt amp, it's definitely worth a look.

In the words of my 16-year-old son...."AWESOME". Great quality and so much for him to experiment with. Sam Rodgers was extremely helpful in recommending this item, and made sure I received the amp in time for Christmas. He was also very informative regarding the 24/7 technical support and offered to help us in the future for other needs - which we intend to utilize Sweetwater for accessories in the near future. Thank you!

My 15 y/o son liked mine so much, I got him one for Christmas and he was blown away!
Sweetwater is an awesome company! Great prices, free shipping, and tech assistance.
Thanks also to Paul Lea.

Amazing muti purpose amp. All the power you want, short of playing at the Coliseum. This amp pays for itself if you were to buy all the effects pedals that the Spider IV 75 has built into its system. No matter what your playing experience, I would recommend this amp to anyone. Its just too much fun, if thats possible.

Long term tube user who wanted to check out some of the newer technology available to us. I wanted inspiring tones at "basement-friendly" volumes, without all the fuss. The Line 6 Spider IV 75 delivered just what I wanted--without bankrupting me. I'm very pleased with this amp, (sounds terrific) and with my Sweetwater purchase. I'll be back.

There are many amp manufacturers. All of them strive to create quality amps. It is common to see an amp manufacturer make a quality tube amp, but when you try the affordable modeling versions they never live up. Line 6 has mastered the art of amp modeling. When it comes to buying an amp, tubes are superior, but the Spider 4 Line 6 amps are the only amps on the market today that produce sound quality as they do without a tube in sight. Thank you sweetwater and line 6

The Spider IV 75 delivers a great tone at a fantastic price. Dialing in presets, creating your own or just using the FX from stomp is simple. Buy the FBV mk2 short board for Internet connectivity and take full advantage of the updates and available downloads. In summary it's great.

This amp is tons of fun! I call it my "Barrel Of Monkeys".

I absolutely love this amp. It's small for the sound and volume you get out of it. I love the tones you have access to, if you get bored of the tones you're working with, you just look through the presets and find one you like. Overall great amp for the money.

This amp is simply amazing. The features on this amp let you pick or create sound you've got driving you nuts in your head. The Spider's features also make practice interesting so I keep on practicing...because there is always another knob to tweak and another sound to discover.
Something I didn't expect was Line 6 support to be so great. I can go up on line read the forums, talk to other owners and we can trade sounds we have created.

I am very pleased with my spider iv amp.It has everything,a built in tuner,a looping effect,downloadable effects and backing tracs.The built in effects are great sounding effects and easy to dial in the sound that you want.The price is very affordable.It is a very sturdy well built rugged amp.The 75 watts has more than enough volume to please any musician at such an easy on your pocket price.

I've owned this amp for nearly two years now. It's loud and reliable, and highly versatile. The amp models are pretty good. The green insane model sounds rather like the Ramones' second album, and the red metal model like their third album. The sound quality is good even when you crank it to 10. Speaking of which, when I jam with my band, the drummer plays very loudly so the other instruments and vocalist have volume to balance out the drum. Setting my amp to 10 is just loud enough to be heard clearly, but not more. So it has just enough power to get the job down, but if you want more, you need something bigger.

This amp does it all. The only drawback is that getting to everything could be a lot easier. With today's technology, a touch screen would make moving around all the options much more user friendly.

The Line 6 Spider IV is an absolute gem for the price. This amp has many effect presets of my favorite artists/songs, which is my personal favorite spec of this amp. This amp allows me to play variety of different genres, such as hard rock, classic rock, soft rock, alternative, grunge, metal, etc. I do not believe this amp would be able to handle gigging and live concerts, unless it is treated very delicately. However, I believe this amp is perfect for a person who would keep it for practicing and such.

Got mine three days ago, and I've been playing around with it 'til my fingers are sore! (Not used to playing my guitar this much!) While it was a bit overwhelming at first (lots to learn), I just jumped in and started playing with it. Tried a bunch of the artist and song presets, and actually found some that were useable for me. Took me two and a half of the three days I've had it before I figured out how to save the artist/song presets to the user area (I finally read the right part of the manual), but that was my fault.

The single MAJOR shortcoming of this amp, IMHO, is the looper. Fourteen second is just NOT ENOUGH TIME to lay down a backing loop, especially if I'm doing a 12-bar blues or something like that. It wouldn't have been much more expensive to expand the looper to several minutes.

Overall, however, it would take some serious pressure to make me give up my Spider IV 75!

Many thanks, also, to Phil Schwan, my sales engineer, for handling this order so quickly and efficiently. I'm STILL getting accustomed to the Sweetwater way of treating customers, and don't foresee EVER going back to those other people!

This amp is loud, so try it out and if having the volume at 10 o'clock volume is too loud, then this amp isn't for you or go in knowing you'll be using headphones the majority of the time (However even with headphones you still won't get the full tonal power as compared to using the dedicated speaker). This amp has every tone imaginable (Electronic, jazz, metal, hard rock, classic rock, pop, punk, surf, etc.) and has enough power to fill small venues to maybe even a small stadiums. Its preset banks is amazing if you're playing small scale gigs or any gig in general you can switch between tones for different songs/genres on the fly if you have it preset with a push of a button. You get a lot of bang for the buck in terms of effects, looper, tuner and tonal capabilities, however like I said above its loud so I wish they'd let you down the wattage to get the full Spider IV 75W effects at neighbor friendly levels or put the same effects of the 75W model into the 15W and 30W models.

VOLUME: First things first: this dude is LOUD!!! I guess I wasn't really thinking straight when I went for the 75-watt version simply because it wasn't a big price leap from the smaller one. It didn't really occur to me that this beast is 3/4 of a 100-watt face melter. This is not a giant problem and it's certainly not a "fault" with the amp, I just want potential buyers to be aware of the serious output on this amp. Unlike a tube amp, where you can really damage your tone if you don't push the tubes, and therefore you're better off not getting more wattage than you need, this all-digital amp will sound just as good low as cranked. But the tricky thing is keeping it under control as you change from sound to sound. I keep this on "2" pretty much all the time when playing through it at home. 2.1 hurts. No, I mean HURTS. If I have it dialed up just a tad on a clean sound and switch to a hi-gain, it can sometimes knock me backwards. So, this is a gigging amp, in my opinion, not a practice amp, simply because of the sheer output. Enough about that.

SOUNDS: You've probably watched the video. You may have played through other LINE 6 amp sims before, like a Pod. This is very much the same, in my opinion. It's not really better or worse than anything else LINE 6 puts out. Which is certainly very good. Until buying this to use for some live performances, I have been using VST plugins to do all my amp work. I've got a giant collection of sounds in Amplitube 3 and Guitar Rig 5, and I used to have the Behringer V-Amp 3. The Spider sounds better than Amplitube or Guitar Rig, hands-down. It has a lot less self-noise, and it saturates the tone in a "real world" way (I can't REALLY call it "analog" I guess) that is just more satisfying than Guitar Rig (which in itself is better than Amplitube, IMO). It's not particularly better than the V-AMP 3 for DI recording to my ears, but this is a combo amp, not just an amp sim sans speakers. If Behringer still made the V-AMPIRE, which I used to own, I probably would have just bought another one of those.

UI: The user interface is pretty easy to wrap one's mind around, though it's not 100% straightforward because the FX knobs are three FX on a single knob and there are also some "hidden" parameters accessible through other means. I don't fully understand it yet, to be honest, because I haven't cared to mess with it much. Each amp type also has two variants, distinguished by a red or green LED on the amp selector. Like me, you can choose not to bother much with any of that if you just like the factory presets, which I do.

PRESETS: Sort of a combo of the "sounds" and "UI" aspects, the presets are easy to access via the triumvirate of D-pad, knob and up/down switch on the right of the amp. There are some unsorted ones, some sorted by song emulation (which are cataloged by decade), and artist presets -- some of which I found a bit surprising simply because the artists are not that commercially known. Meshuggah having a preset was cool enough; to find that Minus the Bear has presets in this amp was downright mind-blowing. And among the 40 zillion presets on this, there are quite a few in different styles that sound really, really good to me. I'm sure that most people will have a similar experience. All these amp sim devices, whether hardware or software, always offer me way too many options, many of which either sound so similar I can barely distinguish or which are so esoteric as to not be useful. But as long as I can find 10 or so "go-to" sounds that I can use all the time, I feel like I got my money's worth. And the Spider IV has at least that many that I really like.

Ease of use and functionality would both be expanded even more with one of the optional foot controllers, and if this band that talked me into joining will ever actually play a freaking gig, I might invest in one of those as well.

one of the best amps i have purchased in the last 10 years. great tones,preset settings & able to create your own. line 6 spider iv 75 is a winner in my book.

With so many effects and amp-models, I was surprised at how well Line 6 made the user interface to this amp. It has remarkable power and I feel the sound is beautiful. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a modeling amplifier.

Kicks Ass, I love, LOVE!!! Line 6 products. I have a Spider III 75 watt with an old MKII which I use Live without any problems for 2 years now. Recently picked up the Spider iV form another guitarist who bought one too many amps. I love it!!! The looper is great!!! the intelligent harmonies are great. The overall sounds of this amp are great. The artist presets are really, really good, some I don't care for. The Cliffs of Dover sound is spot-on. Try it with a Strat!!!. But overall a very, very usable amp. Just needs a little tweaking on some sounds. But if you need thirty plus sounds a night as I do, this is the amp, no question!!! I use it with Parker Flys and it sounds great!! I wish you guys had an acoustic amp sound in this unit. Then the amp would receive a perfect score from me. Maybe I can tweak it with the download!! Anyone have any suggestions, I'm willing to listen.

Great tones, easy to use and loud!! Really comes alive when you have the shortboard (not the Express..the FBV!) 2 gripes: 1.) the volume taper is almost non-existant...it's off, or it's LOUD! Seems like this could be fixed with a software update. 2.) You really gotta have the FBV floorboard to work this thing on a stage situation. Otherwise you're standing my your amp half the time.

It is simple to use with the sounds I want for practice and performance. I am sure that in time I will discover more and more about this very useful and portable amp. I've tried other options and was not happy with the results and the amount of digging in to the options on the controls never seemed to quite capture the sounds I wanted. This is simple and sounds sweet.

This is a great Amp. I keep wanting to call it a great little amp because I was just looking for a good little practice amp. I love all kinds of music (guitar) styles, everything from Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, to AC/DC, Metellica, Pink Floyd and lots of stuff in between. I would love to have all the different kinds of amps these guys used, but just can't afford it. I had to sell my Marshall a couple of years ago, and needed to get back into playing,practicing, and needed a decent amp. I was convinced I needed a 100watt, 2 x 12 amp. I do love the sound of those things, but they are so loud for practicing. So I started looking in the 15 to 35watt practice amps. Then I found this and started reading about it.This is an awesome amp! The technology that has gone into this amp is amazing. I have always loved the sound of tube amps, still do, but I deify anyone to close their eyes when playing this amp, and tell the difference. You would be hard pressed! This amp gets really great clean tones, and can be driven to break up a little bit just like a tube! The Heavier/Metal sounds...Awesome! All the settings are easily user tweakable. I has a ton of preset songs/sounds and effects that are fun to play with and will inspire creativity. The manual is a little on the thin side for everything it has in it, but you can go online, and get more info. Also I feel like one down side is you have to get one of the foot pedals to be able to "update" or download new settings for this amp. I do plan on getting one of those soon anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. If you want a kick ass practice amp that covers about any style you want to play, this is it!! The 75 watts and the 12" Celestion give this amp a ton of "Ka-Chunck!"......I'm gonna go jam with it now.

As a hardline vintage amp user who only saw tube as a solution, it was a surprise to hear what this amp can sound.
almost everything I need to have on my finger tips really, If it had a user friendly interface and just a bit more straight forward updating for fx and firmwares, it would be a tenner to me.
I also bought the pedal MKII line6 a long which helped a lot.

Plenty loud! If you're playing big places, you are already mic-ing your amp, but for small clubs, this will suffice.
Almost infinite number of sounds with the Line 6 amp emulation and built-in effects. If you can't get the 'tube sound' you prefer from this amp, you are just not trying.
Make sure you get one of the FBV foot pedals so that the software and preset sounds can be updated.
Gave it a 4 instead of 5 because the software to update is very glitchy (see Line 6 support forums).

This amp is quite good. I am a tube amp guy, but I have always had at least one solid state amp around. I do need one for quick jams, playing gigs where I really dont want a prized amp in harms way, or just for a spare than can cover a lot of territory. This amp has a lot of presets, most good. If you know what you want to hear and know how to dial in an amp you can get a lot out of this amp. I like tones this side of high gain and have a very usable list of user presets loaded. I do have the shortboard II and recomend it to get the most out of this (or any) line6 amp. You'll always have it when you upgrade amps. I did install a nicely broken in Celestion GT100 and it was a definte improvement.
The master volume is more like a switch than a knob. It comes up quick and tops out about one Oclock.
The distortion effects are limited but you can dial in pretty good amp distortions. The other effects are quite usable. The looping is a very cool thing to have. Theres a lot of tweaking available, you just have to know what you want and to get there. It takes a while to get your head wrapped around it.
There's a lot of high gain tones and presets loaded and they are O.K. at bedroom practice levels but I dont think you would be able to gig with them. On the other hand you can get some amazingly good cleaner tones and at giging volumes.
I'm glad I decided to get this amp. It replaced a Fender Cyber Deluxe that I enjoyed but had seen better days and served me well for years.
I hope to get the same with this.
For $300 it's a very good deal.
Also thanks to Sweetwater and Tim Harrington for all the great service.

I bought this amp having never used a solid state amp before. I decided to buy it because of all the modeling available as well as limiing the need for additional FX pedals to gain new sounds I was working for. This amp performs as advertised with multiple modeling capabilities. So I was happy with that but some reviewers say the sound is as good as tube amps. I don't mean to be overly critical but this sound does not equate to my tube amps. It is tinny. This is not as apparent when playing with strong distortion but when playing clean, jazz tones, or blues tones it is definitely lacking. The volume is great and you certainly will be able to gig with this amp. I just prefer the more full tones of a tube amp.

I got mine in a swap a few weeks ago. It came with the manual but, no footswitch. I had to order the FBV-2 Footswitch, which turned out to be a big help with this amp. The manual for this, is pretty useless IMO, because it doesn't explain what the presets are, which I feel would be a great help . Plus, I did have trouble at first trying to program some of them, but after a while I was able to figure out how to control the scroll on this. The EQ settings on this can be a bit tricky to adjust just right but with a little patience you can get the sound that you want. I've found that the stock effects on this are pretty useless, so I just use the presets rather than try to program some of my own. For a 75 watt combo, this amp can get loud which is good for me, considering that I gig a lot with my band . I'm just not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. This is my first try at modeling amps and I'm not overly impressed with Line 6 to be honest.

I like the amp but the customer support at Line6 makes this and other Line6 products a poor purchase. Carefully check out the forum site for yourself before you buy as that is your only customer support link.