Line 6’s latest incarnation of digital-modeling guitar amplifiers, the Spider IV series, includes six affordable, feature-packed amps—from the entry-level Spider IV 15 to the monstrous 150-watt Spider IV 150.

The Spider IV 75 ($299.99 MAP), 120 ($399.99 MAP), 150 ($499.99 MAP), and HD150 ($399.99 MAP) offer 16 software amp models, including well known classics such as a pair of Marshall ’69 Plexi’s and a Fender Twin Reverb, and boutique fare such as the Divided By 13 JRT 9/15 and Diezel Herbert. The Spider IV 15 ($99.99 MAP) and 30 ($199.99 MAP) amplifiers come with a more distilled collection of Fender, Marshall, and Mesa Boogie amp models.

In addition, the Spider IV 75, 120, 150, and HD150 ship with 20 effects models that are conveniently organized and can be controlled by front-panel knobs or with a pedal board. For this review, I took the 75-watt Spider IV 75 combo and an FBV Express MKII foot controller for a test drive.

Well Connected
The Spider IV 75 weighs a manageable 36 pounds and is outfitted with a custom Celestion 12-inch speaker. Like other Line 6 amps, you can connect any of the company’s foot controllers to the rear panel. The larger amps in the Spider IV series—from the 75 to the HD150—support the FBV line of controllers, such as the FBV Express MKII and FBV Shortboard MKII. To get the most out of the Spider IV, a foot controller is an absolute must. Just be sure to get one of the MKII pedals if you plan to edit your modeled amps and effects from your computer, because these controllers include the requisite USB connector.

The Spider IV 75 has a practical set of rear-panel connections. The 1/4-inch stereo output jack can serve as a headphone output for private practice or as a direct output that you can connect to a mixer or a recording device using a TRS cable. If you want to play along with recordings, connect a CD or MP3 player to the 1/8-inch stereo input. And as you would expect, there is an unbalanced 1/4-inch output for an extension speaker.

IV on the Floor
The Spider IV’s front-panel layout is intuitive, making the amp easy to use right of the box, even without the manual. I took the Spider IV 75 and FBV Express MKII to a rehearsal immediately after they arrived and, within 30 minutes, I had figured out how to create and store four custom presets.

In Manual Mode, the Spider IV operates like a conventional amp, where the physical position of the knobs—Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Channel Volume, and Reverb—represent their setting. The knob on the far left selects one of the eight amp models: Clean, Twang, Class A, Blues, Crunch, Hi Gain, Metal, and Insane. Each model has two variations—Red and Green—and a light next to the name indicates the variation you’ve chosen. The LCD display briefly shows the name of the amp/variation when you select a model, then it shows the knob settings.

Outside of Manual mode, the physical location of a knob does not indicate the actual setting. To see the settings, touch one of the knobs to get the Momentary Tone display. The default screen only indicates the preset name and number—amp and effects settings are not on permanent display.

The Spider IV has four programmable channels per bank—accessed with the channel buttons A through D—that let you instantaneously choose between four saved presets. Next to these are the Tap and Quick Loop buttons, which I will cover in a moment. Aside from the Manual button, the upper row of front-panel buttons can be accessed from the foot controller, which is useful both onstage and in the studio.

The amp and effects presets are organized by artists and songs, with an additional 64 user slots to store your own presets. Well known artists—including Messhugah, Maroon 5, and Minus The Bear—were asked to create some of the 300+ artist presets. In addition, there are almost 200 song presets, which are smartly organized by decade—1950 to 2000—and include a variety of iconic titles, such as “Johnny B. Goode,” “Day Tripper,” “Hey Joe,” “Red House,” “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Back in Black,” “Cathedral,” “Crazy Train,” “Master of Puppets,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Cliffs of Dover,” “Come As You Are,” “Enter Sandman,” and “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.”

You can use several effects simultaneously—boost, noise gate, Quick Loop (up to 14 seconds of looping time available), volume/wah, and reverb, as well as the three Smart Effects. Owners of the Spider IV 75 through HD150 can get 28 additional effects, including “Screamer,” and seven more reverb models by downloading the free Spider FX Infusion (Mac/Win) application from the Line 6 Web site.

The three Smart Effects—Gain/Auto/Pitch, Chorus/Phaser/Tremolo, and Delay/Tape Echo/Sweep Echo—are designed to give you simple, yet musical, control over each effect type with a single knob. You can access a variation for each Smart Effect using the Presets knob.

As you might suspect, the Tap button sets the tempo of the modulation and delay effects. However, the button also controls the Quick Loop functions (record, overdub, and clear) and accesses the Spider IV’s built-in tuner—very handy!

Fig. 1: The Spider IV Edit application makes it easy to customize your amp and effects patches. Note how it shows the layout of the signal path at the top of the screen.

Although it is not conducive to making quick, on-the-fly adjustments in real time, you access the deeper editing functions by hitting the Presets button, then navigating the menus displayed on the LCD screen. The four-way cursor selects the preset type (Song, Artist, or User) or specific parameters when you’re in Edit Mode. To greatly simplify the editing process, connect the amp to a laptop via USB and use the Line 6 Spider IV Edit (Mac/Win). The software editor shows all of the parameters on-screen at once, with the settings—including the tempo in beats per minute—displayed numerically, so that it’s easy to make precise adjustments (see Fig. 1). A diagram of the current effects chain at the top of the screen shows you the status of the effects and where in the chain each effect is.

Crank It Up
But the sound of an amp is what really matters, and the Spider IV 75 is very good in this regard, with none of the artificial qualities that many players assume digital modeling amps have. Does it sound just like the amps that it models? Not exactly. But it’s important to remember that no two vintage amps sound exactly the same—each will have subtle differences—so the perfect model of any given amp is a moving target. Therefore, a model of a vintage amp needs to cover the characteristic flavor of the original, while giving you the editing tools to get the sound you need for your music.

Line 6 has done a great job of covering the key ingredients of the amps it modeled in the Spider IV series. For example, I A/B’d the Twang Red model against my vintage Fender Twin Reverb. While it wasn’t an exact match, the Spider IV did capture the Twin Reverb’s essence, including the tube warmth and feel, with its generous amount of clean headroom. However, it didn’t quite get the sound of the Fender’s reverb tank.

There were several amps I particularly enjoyed in the Spider IV 75. On the high-gain side, I liked the Insane Red model, which is based on a Mesa Dual Rectifier. It offers gobs of creamy sustain, but with incredible clarity, even when I played four-note, harmonically-detailed chords.

For clean, single-note lines, I preferred the Blues Green preset, which is based on a Gretsch 6156. This amp model offered a wide dynamic range and a nice on-the-verge-of-breaking-up sound, which was very musical.

Many of the song presets were spot on. For example, the “Crazy Train” preset gave me a convincing Randy Rhoads tone immediately, when I used a humbucker-equipped Ernie Ball Music Man guitar. The preset based on “Master of Puppets,” with its classic Metallica “V” EQ setting, also sounded identical to the recording.

The “Charlemagne” preset, which is based on Larry Carlton’s Fender Tweed Deluxe tone for his solo on Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne,” required some tweaking to get it in the ballpark. But then when I played along to the original recording using a Gibson ES-339, the preset was very convincing.

All in One
The Spider IV 75 is an excellent-sounding, pro-quality guitar amplifier that would work well for the guitarist in a cover-band, for the session player, for teachers who could use the presets when covering classic-rock repertoire, as well as for anyone who needs immediate access to a wide variety of sounds.

Obviously, the self-contained aspect of the Spider IV is a major selling point. In an integrated system like this, all of the amp and effects models are available immediately and are optimized with each other. And you don’t have to spend time dealing with impedance mismatches in your effects loop, checking for faulty cables between pedals, or trying to match gain levels between your stomp boxes and amps.

With a Spider IV and one of the FBV pedal controllers, you’ve get a wealth of high-quality guitar sounds with very little to schlep. All you need is one plug on a power strip.

Pros: Great sound quality. Convenient setup. Easy to use. Nice variety or amp and effects models. Software editor available.

Cons: Onboard LCD screen makes on-the-fly editing difficult.

NYC-based guitarist Joe Charupakorn writes for Guitar Edge magazine and is a best-selling author and editor for Hal Leonard Corporation. Visit him on the web at joecharupakorn.com.