7/14/2011

Line 6 FBV Shortboard MkII Foot Controller Review

Line 6 FBV Shortboard MkII Foot Controller
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This review is specific to the FBV Shortboard with a Line 6 Spider IV amp.
I bought my Line6 Spider IV 75 (1x12) amp about 6 months ago and just recently bought the FBV Shortboard as I'm playing in a band again. I was fairly underwhelmed with the amp before acquiring the shortboard. Now, it seems like a seriously worthwhile amp that I can gig with.
A bit of background on me, I've been playing for close to 15 years, both casually and semi-seriously, as an amateur musician. I've owned everything from boutique tube amps (eg Egnater IE4) to simple old tube amps (50's Fender). For a while I thought Line 6 products were beneath me. I even considered buying the Spider IV "settling." Now? I'm definitely changing my tune. Discussion about the tone of the amp aside, the shortboard is the difference between the Spider IV being a neat toy for home and an amp you can actually use in live settings. The simplicity of having your entire rig in one amp and a single pedal unit with only a single 110V power supply between them is great. No worrying about a patch cable going bad or running out of 9V batteries. No weird hum from the poorly grounded club and your vintage tremelo pedal. It's nice.
Down to the board specifically... right out of the box, you can switch between banks and presets, turn the four categories of effects (stomp, modulation, delay, reverb) on or off, control tap speed, turn on the gain boost, run the looper and have a switchable volume/wah pedal. That's a lot of stuff with no setup. And if you spend a lot of time with the amp, you really don't need much more from there.
When you plug into your computer and use the Line 6 edit software, you can get a lot more out of this thing. For one, it's a lot easier to change the presets on your amp. You have much more finite control over every amp/effect setting. Plus, you have access to things you normally wouldn't. For example, if you are using the pitch shifter, you can set it to be controlled by the expression pedal. You can set any of the time-based effects to be tap controlled or run off a specific delay time. You can copy/paste presets as well. Beyond that, it's a lot easier to be organized with designing your amp settings. For me at least, I like having a graphical view of all my volume settings and the ability to move presets around with a mouse so I can make sure everything I'll use while playing a given set is in a place that makes sense and one channel won't be considerably louder/quieter.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Line 6 FBV Shortboard MkII Foot Controller

Get the most from your Line 6 amp and POD with FBV Shortboard MkII foot controller!FBV Shortboard MkII isn\'t your average foot controller. It\'s a full-on remote control that keeps you at the foot of the stage instead of tied to the front of your Line 6 amp or POD. It offers all the classic advantages you expect from a Line 6 foot controller, including rock-solid channel switches, a rugged wah/volume pedal and an oversized backlit display, but it\'s also full of surprises. The steel footswitches give you total control over your tone. Dedicated footswitches let you change, scroll and select presets with uncompromised speed, add or remove effects in an instant, synchronize all your time-based effects with Tap Tempo, and more!Load up to 64 presets in the 4 banks. Adding individual or simultaneous effects on top of each preset allows for on-the-fly colorization and customization of your tones. An added bonus: the well-spaced footswitches are conveniently laid out so that you\'re not stepping on two at once (unless you want to)! The burly, full-sized pedal feels solid under your foot and features plenty of grip. Click the toe to volley back and forth between volume and wah-wah control. (Adding an expression pedal provides dedicated volume control.)Oversized and backlit, the LCD is big, bright and easy to read. It shows you everything you need to know including preset name chromatic tuner display.FBV Shortboard MkII connects to your Line 6 amp or POD via the included locking RJ-45 cable. FBV Shortboard MkII also features a USB jack that can be used for upgrading the firmware of Spider IV and Spider Valve MkII amplifiers.Perfectly paired with Spider IV and Spider Valve MkII amplifiers, FBV Shortboard MkII provides complete, hands-free control of the looper, pitch-shifter and other on-board effects. FBV Shortboard MkII is compatible with most Line 6 amplifiers and POD processors.

Buy NowGet 29% OFF

Click here for more information about Line 6 FBV Shortboard MkII Foot Controller

No comments:

Post a Comment