Originally Posted by: purei seriously think he should get the 75 watt one because if he is like me, (on a very cheap buget) he wont be getting a new amp for a long time. the 75 watt amp will last him alot longer than the 15 watt one. if he really wants a quiet basic amp he can get a 15 watt amp much cheaper than $160.[/quote]
yes, but he can't get a better 15 watt amp for cheaper than $160. so, if all he wants is a practice amp, which is what I assume since he doesn't even know how to play yet, the line 6 spider II 15 watt is (imo) the best bedroom practice amp you can get for under $200.

Originally Posted by: ok and A: why would he need a 10 foot cable if the amp's not good enough to perform live?[/quote]
10 feet is a pretty basic amount of cable. I wouldn't go onstage with a 10 foot cable though. if I'm playing live, I need at least 15, if not 20 feet of cable, otherwise I feel very constricted to one little area of the stage.. and yanking the cable out of the amp halfway through a song is no good.

Originally Posted by: B: the 75 watt version offers plenty features also

yes, I agree, the 75 Watt version offers way more models to choose from, so many, in fact, I think it might be a little confusing and/or overwhelming to someone who is just trying to learn the fundamentals right now and doesn't really care about having 12 different tones to choose from.

[quote=]C: there's something a very smart guy invented called a "volume knob" that can make things louder or quieter when turned. plus on my 15 watt amp i still had to keep the thing at 1-2 or else itll be too loud.

now you're just getting smart with me. the fact of the matter is, on solid state amps, the volume knob is rather ineffective. if you've noticed, there is a HUGE jump in the amount of volume between 1 and 3, and not very much difference between 3 and 8, and it just gets muddy past 8. although the spider is a little better about this than other solid state amps, it still applies. so the truth is, with 75 watts, it's going to be hard to play at bedroom volumes, and with 15 it's relatively easy, though if you do crank it all the way, it can still be too loud.

[quote=]if all the features are gonna confuse you, then just research them. even "gain" confused me and its on like every amp.

so he should spend an extra $100 above what he said his max budget was for features that he doesn't even know about at all, so he can just research them later?

sure, the 75 watt version will have more features so the amp will "last him longer" but seriously, I doubt he's worried about that right now, and if he decides he's serious about this, and decides he wants to upgrade, then I'm sure he can move up to a nice tube amp by then (which sounds so much better than a spider... don't get me wrong, the spider's do sound good for what they are, and are well priced, but they just won't ever sound better than a nice tube amp)

having rethought this whole thing, I take back what I said about getting a 15W, and he should get the 30W version. the 30W is only $40 more, has a celestion speaker (sounds so much better), a headphone/line out jack (I forgot that the 15W didn't have this), and a footswitch jack. PLUS, it is low enough wattage for playing in the bedroom (I do it everyday!) and has enough potential for playing small gigs (I did it just yesterday!) The headphone jack is a nice feature when you really want to play some metal, but it's 2 am and your family is asleep.