Line 6 - Red Spiders?

[Silence Kid]

A nostalgia trip; ever got rid of gear before you perhaps could appreciate it adequately, and wonder whether you could now make something of it?

A first generation Line 6 Spider 112 50 watt was my first amp; I grew to hate it in a short span of time and got rid of it. That was about fifteen years ago, so it's now hard to tell what I heard at the time. I remember it being muddy and having almost no difference in tone between guitars, or even between pickups selected; like it was triggering a sample rather than behaving like an actual amplifier. On the plus side, it felt decent quality and had a lot of features (for the time.)

Possible this was user error, or do these really suck? I remember plenty of people liking the Spider two when they came out, but not the old red ones so much. Have the opportunity to grab one now. Anyone like these?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I had one, two friends still have them.

Your assessment was correct. All guitars and pickups sound pretty similar, you can't use pedals with them and the edge of breakup and light gain leave something to be desired. Also, very little in the way of dynamics, everything is pretty compressed no matter how heavy or light you are playing.

If you are playing ultra clean or pretty distorted, especially with some effect (chorus on clean, delay on distortion) they do pretty well for practicing and keeping your volume down. Unfortunately they make notes jump out so easily, when you translation to a big tube amp you can find your technique has become sloppy. Depending on the price and how you want to use it, it could be a buy or pass, IMO.

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I also had one of these, yes they really do suck.

 

[moshpit817]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

Was my 1st Spider amp,sold it and got the Flextone 2-100 watt 2-12',huge difference!

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

Remember Colecovision? That used to be pretty cool.

 

[mantis]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I never owned one but I plugged into many of them including many other Line 6 guitar amps and combos.
I never liked anything from line 6. I was kinda excited when Line 6 hit the scene with all the abilities they offered. But the feel of their amps I don't care for at all. I heard exactly what everyone else is saying. You can't really hear differences with different guitars. The sound sounds like it's fake.
I dove into their pedals and multi effects years ago and bought many of them only to return them as I got sick and tired of the fake like response. I hated all of them not liking anything.
Today I have not re tried anything Line 6 due to my past experience I stuck with real tube amps and mostly Boss effects. I like Boss as their stuff sound solid and well made. They make their own effects unlike Line 6 who just models everyone else. I also have a strong liking for TC electronics as I find their stuff to be top notch.

I know Line 6 just released new Spider amps and they are supposed the be the best ever. Typical I know but I watched a video demo on them and if I was looking for something like that I would check them out. I heard some good quality sounds unlike the old models like this one

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I used to play the 1x12 regularly. I don't know if it was the speaker or the poweramp breaking up, but I remember it sounding pretty farty and undefined at band practice volumes.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I never owned one; tried them but went with a Flextone instead. The Spiders seemed like a good practice amp but the tone offerings were pretty narrow to my ears.

My problem with most of the Line 6 Products (exception being the newer POD HD500) is that across multiple products it seemed like I kep re-creating the same tones...just couldn't find a variety that I liked. The POD HD500 is super cool and can really achieve some cool modeling tones (I highly recommend connecting it to the computer to create new tones rather than the unit itself.)

I still have a POD Pro Rackmount that has some good tones (Behringer V-Amp rack mount as well,) but I prefer my Fender HotRod Deluxe with a couple of dirt pedals.

 

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: Line 6 - Red Spiders?

I had the 210 50w version from 2001 to 2004. The JTM45 setting let me down. It was very muddy. The only way to get articulation out of it was to play it clean. The plexi setting wasn't bad. The overall sound became more defined after I put a JB in the bridge of my Les Paul. In particular, the Insane setting went from completely unusable to semi-usable.