Spider 150
Croc Skin Spider III & IV
Here's something a little different...
I have several Line 6 amplifiers, which I use for gigs, in- and outdoors. Besides an Orange, a Marshall stack, a recent Amplify TT and a few home-made ones, my Line 6 amps are all Spider (2, 3, 4) 150W combos types[1]. I haven't done any mod (yet) to my Spider V 240 :). Line 6 amps are versatile enough to be used at about any venue, although they are about 25kg and therefore not always that practical to carry around. At the same time, some of my other amps are even worse in terms of weight (Marshall and Orange valve amps *are* heavy).
After years of carrying, gigs and knocking around, my Spider III became quite worn out, and the original Line 6 black tolex was gone in several places.
I decided to change it and give a new look to the amplifier. I looked for different tolex options, and chose a crocodile skin type which will look good with my DBZ guitar :-). It will also look good with my rusty Trussart!
So how do you change the skin of your Line 6? Well, not too much of a choice, you have to tear your amp apart! Do not do this if you don't know what you're doing or you'll end up with a useless pile of amplifier parts!
Line 6 Spider amplifiers are rather simple to disassemble. Two screws for the handle, a few screws for the speakers, a few more for the amplifier HW section. Be careful removing the amplifier section as it's heavy. No forcing on the knobs please!
Remove all the plastic corners (screws and a few staples), and finally remove the front speaker panel which slides in the amplifier box after removing 3 screws (one on each side, and one at the bottom).
You can then remove the original tolex, not easy, but with a strong and regular pull, it is doable!
Uh-Oh... What have I done ?!!!
You will notice on the picture above that I had already created some openings on the sides of the amplifier to install... handles. I also installed wheels :-) Believe me these are more than useful!
You will not need the old tolex, except to get an idea of the size of the replacement tolex (about 2.5m x 0.45m for Line 6 spider II and III, a little more for the Spider IV to account for the back panel of the cabinet).
Ready for some glue work? I used liquid neoprene glue, easy to spread on both the wood and the new tolex.
Please make sure you are in a ventilated place; Neoprene is an effective glue, but is bad for your health.
Position the tolex on the floor (on a protective surface!) and place the amplifier on top of it. Make sure that as you carefully roll the tolex over the amplifier (for a trial fit, without glue), you have your tolex well in line with the amp and there is enough to cover the 4 sides of the amp and fully cover all the visible parts of the wood.
Apply glue on both wood and tolex, let dry a little before pressing the tolex on the wood frame. Do this one side at a time, leaving enough space left and right on each side to cover the sides and corners of the amplifier.
Once all done, you can take care of the details, cutting and removing the excess tolex at the corners, adjusting the places where the tolex joins under the amplifier (look at how Line 6 did it with the original tolex, nice work).
Let dry, but the wood box can be almost immediately manipulated thanks to the use of neoprene.
You can then re-assemble the amplifier, re-positioning each block and part where they belong. You will end up with a nice (nicer) looking amplifier, ready for another numerous years of use on the road!
Spider III:
A few pictures:
[1] Interesting to see the difference in cabinet design and construction from the Spider II or III to the Spider IV models. The IV model is a better build, more attention put to how things are attached and maintained together (ex: better handle, specific washers on speaker screws, a good number of screws to hold the cabinet front panel to the rest of the cabinet, wood "rails/support" for the amplifier section, etc.)
Spider IV:
Below are pictures of the same modification brought to my Line 6 Spider IV. The two amps are like croc-twins!
