While the SP-10 is a great little starter amp, it just didn't have the lungs to keep up when playing with the band. When I first showed up, the room where we play is roughly 15'x20', with about a a 10' peaked ceiling. My little 10 watt amp with 6" speaker had to compete with a full drum set, a Fender Jazz King, a Marshall combo, and a bass head with 2x12 cabinet. So needless to say, I was a little out gunned! I really didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I wanted to be able to run with the dogs, so to speak.
I first looked at tube amp combos, and quickly realized these were out of my price range. Then I started shopping online for solid state combos. I found there to be three relevant price ranges for me. The first was anything under $150. Most of these amps were only slightly larger than what I was currently playing, 15 to 25 watts with 8-10" speakers. Some had a few effects, but nothing to get excited about, and certainly nothing worth spending 150 of my hard earned dollars on. The next group was the $250 and over crowd. Some of these were very nice, mostly when you get up to the $350- 400 range. Decent power (40+ watts), some neat bells and whistles and even some foot pedals. But for the most part, at the lower end I found stripped down versions of the nicer amps. Better than the $150 amps, but not nice enough to justify $300. A friend of mine first recommended the Line 6 amps. He owned a pod, and had high praises for Line 6's amp, cab and effects modeling capabilities. So on my next day off, I drove over to the guitar shop and checked out the Spider IV 30.
Speaking with the clerk at the guitar shop, he told me that Line 6 had such good modeling and effects capabilities because they use the same hardware and solid state technology in their amps that they use in their pedals. Basically it's just like having a bunch of pedals hardwired into your amp, in contrast to a central processor which processes the signal to create the effects you request. So, after a few trips to the shop, and playing a few different guitars through the Spider, including my Squier Strat, I shelled out the $199 to Firehouse Music in Wyoming, MI. When I got it home, I plugged it in and took it for a spin. The first feature I used was the built in tuner. The interface is pretty simple, there are four lights. If the far left light lights you are flat. If the far right light lights you are sharp. If both middle lights light, you are in tune. After tuning up, it was time to get rocking. My favorite feature of the amp is the 1/8' input jack which allows you to play your mp3 player or iPod through the amp and jam along, the next best thing to playing with an actual band. This is great for practice. Not only is it fun, but it helps you learn to keep time and tempo. The down side is the 1/4" headphone jack. Really? Does anybody even own 1/4" headphones anymore? Unless you are a DJ in a New York nightclub, or that dude from the Gorillaz, you just look like a big dork. Especially if you have the big spiral, stretchy phone chord ones!! But, I already owned the $5 1/4" to 1/8" converter from Radio Shack, so it was easily overcome.
While there is a wide range of tones and effects, I really didn't find "that tone" from the Spider IV. When plugged into the Squier Strat, I found the clean tones to be a bit too tinny. When using the "dirtier" settings, the bass has a tendency to overwhelm the sound. If you are a fan of metal, the distorted channels on the Spider IV will be right up your alley. The "Insane" setting has crazy saturation, and still manages to keep it's punchiness. When playing rhythm with the band, I'd usually stick to the neck pickup, and use the dirty blues channel with pretty decent results, something vaguely resembling a warm, anemic version of the Jazz King. My daughter has since inherited the Spider IV. She plays a Peavey (which I will review later) with two single coils and a humbucker at the bridge. She likes to play some 30 Seconds to Mars and Thousand Foot Krutch. Through the humbucker, she can get good crunch and sustain. In my opinion, the Spider IV is definitely more ideal for hard rock or metal, and less for classic rock or blues. All together, while the Spider IV probably isn't a "gig" quality amp, it is definitely an affordable alternative if you are looking for some decent chops in the garage with your buddies and don't want to break the bank.
In the mean time, remember......
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast!!
Have fun,
B
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