Tone library / Metallica / To live is to die

To live is to die amp settings — Line 6 Spider jam

The Metallica guitar tone for “To live is to die”, dialed in for a Line 6 Spider jam with a Jackson JS34 Dinky DKA. Studio version, ...And Justice for All (1988) — iconic heavy rhythm riff

Original rig

Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ & Mark III heads (V-curve graphic EQ), Marshall 4x12 cabs (Celestion V30), ESP MX-220 / Gibson Explorer with EMG 81/60 pickups

Ultra-tight, dry, aggressive scooped-mid thrash metal crunch with razor-sharp attack

Amp settings — Line 6 Spider jam

CHANNELMetal (Red LED) amp modelBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	6
Bass	7
Mid	2
Treble	7
Reverb	0
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01MXR M78 Custom Badass '78 Distortion

Used strictly as a clean boost into the front input to tighten low-end attack like an active EMG front-end

Output 8 · Tone 6 · Distortion 2 · Crunch Button 0

Why these settings

The Line 6 Spider Jam's Metal Red model replicates the Mesa dual-cascading preamp, so set mids low at 2 to emulate the iconic Mark IIC+ 5-band graphic EQ V-curve. Because passive Jackson humbuckers lack the razor attack of Hetfield's active EMG 81, the MXR M78 runs as a tight clean boost with distortion dialed way down and output elevated. Spider Jam has no dedicated presence knob on its faceplate, so treble is pushed to 7 to provide that biting pick scrape. Clean interlude: switch amp model to Twang Green and engage the MXR M300 reverb.

PRO TIPAnchor your palm directly on the bridge saddle edge and pick exclusively with aggressive downstrokes near the bridge pickup to reproduce the dry, mechanical percussive attack of the Justice album.

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These settings are for a Line 6 Spider jam. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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