® Spider IV Advanced Guide An in-depth guide to the features and functionality of the Spider IV 75, 120, 150 and HD150 Electrophonic Limited Edition
Please Note: Line 6®, POD® and Spider® are registered trademarks of Line 6, Inc. All other product names, trademarks and artists’ names are the property of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Line 6. Product names and artists’ names are used solely to identify the products whose tones and sounds were studied during Line 6’s sound model development for this product. The use of these products, trademarks, and artists’ names does not imply any cooperation or endorsement.
Table of Contents Overview.................................................................................. 1•1 Features............................................................................................................1•1 Front Panel Controls....................................................................................... 1•2 Rear Panel I/O................................................................................................. 1•5 Presets...........................................
Overview Overview Welcome to the Spider IV Advanced Guide. This guide contains in-depth details of Spider IV’s features and functionality that were not covered in the Pilot’s Handbook. Spider IV is the next generation guitar amp from the Spider family. It features Line 6’s most advanced amp modeling to date in a compact, affordable combo or head. Here’s an overview of some of the new features Line 6 built into the Spider IV to take it to the next level.
Overview Front Panel Controls 3 6 1•2 1 2 1 4 5 Guitar In – Plug your axe in here. 2 Amp Models – Spin this knob to select 1 of 16 Amp Models out of the box. All Tone and FX controls will automatically be set to sound great with that model, so you can just play! When you select an Amp Model, the LCD Display will show the model name plus the current settings for Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Channel Volume and Reverb. 3 Manual Mode – Press this button to enter Manual Mode.
Overview 14 11 8 1•3 15 7 9 10 12 13 7 Smart FX Controls – Spin one of these 3 knobs to select great FX, fast and easy. Each FX knob lets you choose one of 3 primary or 3 secondary FX Models, for a total of 18 possibilities, with up to 3 active at once. The lit LED indicates the active effect, either red or green. If an effect’s settings have been customized, its LED will be amber. *See Chapter 4•3 for more info on FX Customization.
Overview Hold Tap For Tuner – To enter Tuner mode, hold the Tap button for a few seconds. The Tuner will appear in the LCD Display, along with each note you’re tuning. It will indicate whether you’re sharp or flat via the graphic lines to the right or left, respectively. When you’re in tune, the graphic ** symbols will be lined up in the center of the LCD.
Overview Rear Panel I/O USE ONLY STEREO 1/4” TRS CABLE PHONES/ DIRECT OUT 16 FBV PEDAL CD/ MP3 1•5 17 18 16 Stereo Phones/Direct Output – To listen with headphones, plug them in here. This stereo jack also serves as a Direct Output to connect your Spider IV to a mixer, PA, computer DAW, recording interface or other line input equipment. You’ll get world class quality sound for recording - as good as it gets for direct guitar.
Presets Presets Spider IV is ready to rock when you switch it on - just plug in your guitar and play. By pressing a button, using the Nav Disc or Presets knob you can easily access every FX parameter, the Looper, hundreds of presets, and ultimately customize your guitar sound. Preset Select When Spider IV is first powered up, it will be in Preset Select Mode. By simply turning the Presets knob and using the 4-way Navigation Disc, you can select any User, Artist or Song Preset.
Presets Saving Once you’ve edited a preset to your liking, you’ll want to save it in one of the User Banks. Artist and Song presets can’t be overwritten, so if you want to save an edited version of an Artist or Song preset, or a custom preset you’ve created from scratch, it must be stored in one of the 64 memory locations in User Banks 1 thru 16, Channel A, B, C or D.
Editing Edit Mode In addition to standard Tone controls, Spider IV features a new Edit Mode that enables you to perform deep editing of all your FX parameters. You can edit any available parameter for FX1, FX2, FX3, Reverb, Gate, Boost, Volume, Loop and Setup. For basic editing, it’s best to select your Amp Model first, or start with a pre-programmed preset that’s close to the sound you want. Then adjust the Drive, Bass, Mid and Treble controls.
Editing With each of your FX assigned, you’ll want to enter Edit Mode to tweak the individual FX parameters. To do so, press the Presets knob.
Editing Gate If you press the right arrow from the Reverb screen, you’ll see the Gate screen. Your Gate Mode choices are Off (Gate is disabled), Gate (a standard noise gate), NR (a frequency dependent noise reduction) or Gate+NR (both Gate+NR together). You can also adjust Threshold and Decay settings. Gate parameters are saved with the individual preset. Boost We’ve included a new Boost with Spider IV, which is the next Edit Mode screen to the right of Gate.
Editing Setup In Setup Mode there are 4 screens: Auto FX, Back Light, Tap Light and Version number. To edit them, press the Presets knob to enter Edit Mode, then press the left/right arrows until SETUP is displayed. Press the up/down arrows to display the following in the LCD: 3•4 • For AutoFX your choices are AmpSetFX, which means your FX will change when you change Amp Models, or Disabled, meaning your FX don’t change when you change Amp Models.
SmartFX Smart FX As we mentioned in Chapter 3 Editing, FX1, FX2 and FX3 are SmartFX. SmartFX are designed to give you instant great-sounding FX without having to tweak their parameters. Of course you can enter Edit Mode at any time and adjust FX settings to your liking, but it’s easiest to audition SmartFX by simply turning one of the 3 FX knobs. When you turn a SmartFX knob you’ll hear a variety of pre-programmed settings that change according to the knob’s ‘swoosh’ position.
SmartFX Here are the primary and secondary SmartFX models for the Chorus, Phaser and Tremolo locations on the FX2 knob: 4•2 Again the small knob graphic indicates primary model (min) or secondary model (max). The bar graph indicates the selected effect’s current swoosh position on the FX2 knob.
SmartFX Reverb isn’t in the SmartFX group, but it also features a primary and secondary model, as illustrated below. Like the SmartFX, you select the model by turning the Presets knob when the Reverb model name is displayed in the LCD. The difference is, the bar graph for Reverb indicates its Mix level, which matches the Reverb knob position when you turn it.
SmartFX Here are a few important points to remember regarding SmartFX customization: • If you change any settings in Edit Mode for one of the SmartFX, your settings will be recalled when you turn the SmartFX knob for that effect (and its LED will be amber) • Parameters that you do not change will default to the pre-programmed SmartFX settings for that effect - so when you turn the SmartFX knob, all settings other than your customized settings will change as they normally would for that effect • Only 1 effe
SmartFX To control the Pitch Glide effect with an FBV pedal, enter Edit Mode and navigate to the Pitch Glide FBV parameter. Select Wah=Glid or Vol=Glid, depending on which pedal you’d like to use to control the Pitch Glide. Keep in mind the note you hear will always be the Position of your pedal, relative to the Heel and Toe values. When Wah=Glid, if you switch the wah pedal off, the pedal will control volume as usual. If you switch the Stomp switch on, the volume pedal will switch to Pitch Glide again.
SmartFX If you want to experiment with your own Smart Harmony settings, you’ll want to enter Edit Mode.
SmartFX Now let’s try a different scale and see how Smart Harmony works. We’ll keep the settings the same for Key (E), Mix (50%) and Routing (Pre). But let’s set the Scale to pentatonic major and Shift to +3rd. Use the up/down arrows to display Scale, then turn the Presets knob to display PntMaj. Use the up/down arrows again to display Shift, then turn the Presets knob to set it to +3rd.
SmartFX Smart Harmony Scales 4•8
Looper Control Mode Looper Control Mode Spider IV’s Quick Loop function enables you to easily record a guitar loop for jamming or auditioning Presets. To enter Looper Control Mode, press the Quick Loop button. You’ll notice that both the Tap button and the Quick Loop button remain lit. In Looper Control Mode mode, all you have to do is press the Tap button to control various functions of the looper, including Record, Overdub, Play, Stop and Delete.
Looper Control Mode If you want to stop playback, press Tap again. If your loop sounds good to you and you’re ready to check out some presets, let it play. We’ll get into overdubbing on page 5•3. Since your loop playback is set to Pre, you can select any preset you want and your guitar sound will change the same as if you were playing live. Press the Quick Loop button to temporarily exit Looper Control Mode. Select any of the A B C D Channel presets to hear what they sound like.
Looper Control Mode Looper Tips For those of you who might be interested in multiple overdubbing and more advanced control of the looper, Spider IV can accommodate you. Although all Quick Loop functions are assigned to one button, which is Tap, we’ve added a second layer of control by programming a ‘quick press’ and a ‘press and hold’ functionality for the Tap button.
Looper Control Mode Set Out-Point/ Arm Overdub – to accurately set your loop out-point and arm Overdub mode in advance of recording your next layer of guitar, try this: • Step on Tap briefly and release to begin recording your loop • Step on Tap at the out point and hold - you’ll enter Playback mode immediately • When you’re ready to record an overdub, release the Tap switch to enter Overdub mode; if you continue to let your loop roll, each time it loops around you’ll be adding another overdub layer • To
Foot Control Foot Control FBV Options If you have an FBV Shortboard or Longboard, all the standard FBV functions will control the Spider IV as expected, including Tuner, A B C D Preset select, Bank Up & Down, Mod, Delay, Boost, Reverb and Tap Tempo. The Volume or Wah pedal can also be assigned to control Pitch Glide, and Volume can be assigned a Min and Max value per preset. For more info see Chapter 3 Editing (pg. 3•3 / 3•4) and Chapter 4 Smart FX (pg. 4•4).
Foot Control FBV Shortboard MkII: The new FBV Shortboard Mk II features an extra switch labeled Function 2. This switch toggles Quick Loop on or off. It makes it easy to enter and exit Looper Control Mode from the FBV. The Function 2 switch has the same functionality as the Quick Loop switch on the front panel of your Spider IV. (Function 1 toggles Boost).
Appendix: Amp Models Appendix: Amp Models Here’s a brief reference guide to the 16 Amp Models in your Spider IV: Clean Red - Based on the clean channel of the Marshall® JCM 900, the first true modern high gain amp from Marshall. Select Clean Red to get crisp, amazing clean tones, great warm jazz tones, and all the high-end shimmer you’ll need with a generous amount of bottom end. Clean Green - We developed this amp model to emulate those late 60s and early 70s clean tones.
Appendix: Amp Models Crunch Red - This sound was crafted during our studies of the ‘68 Marshall® Plexi 50 Watt, which was used by a number of early metal bands. Hi Gain Red provides a wider range of tone control settings than the original jumpered Marshall®, allowing you to bump up the mids even at the highest Drive settings. Crunch Green - Here’s our inspired interpretation on a 2005 Orange® AD-30TC, a 30 watt, Class A head that oozes pure Brit rock tone, taking 60s crunch to a new level.
