Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

This pedal is a great design. Sturdy, true bypass, knobs instead of buttons, tap tempo. Kind of ideal except that you can only preset 3 models at a time.

Here's the bottom line. If warm sweet beautiful guitar tone is important to you at all then don't even consider this pedal except perhaps as very fun toy. If you are already using a lot of sound processing equipment or a transistor amp or figure no one would hear the difference live anyway then I would consider it. But realize, the second you plug into this thing whatever nice analog sound you had going will be destroyed and replaced with something sterile and heartless. Analog modelers of all types are kind of a sick absurd joke because they can never sound like warm analog and that's half the reason you would want to buy one in the first place right? All line 6 equipment that I've heard has the same cold artificial sound once you recognize it. I hate this sound and so should everybody. Its a sound to run away from and not towards especially with cash in hand. The only reason people are enticed is because of the incredible economy, ease, and flexibility that digital modeling offers. The idea of having all these incredible delays under one roof sounds too good to be true; and guess what it is. The price you pay is a cold sterile sound that the guitar heroes of the sixties and seventies would not ever consider using. If your into tone get one quality analog delay pedal and be happy. No one really needs a gazillion types of delays anyway.

The original power supply failed and I had to buy a new one for 25$. The buttons usually work but occasionally malfunction.

I'm gonna stay neutral cause not everyone is into warm beautiful guitar tone or knows what it is (probably because of pedals like this). Its a shame cause thats where the deeper beauty lies. Except for its sterile sound a dodgy reliability it is a very cool pedal. It all depends on what is important to you.

It's relatively easy to use. The Tweak and Tweez knobs take on different jobs depending on the delay you're working with, but other than that you can take the controls at face value. This isn't like some other multi-fx pedals where there is a bit of a learning curve. The manual for it is decent. It shows "optimal" settings for each of the different delays.

-I love the way this thing sounds for the most part. It gets a 9 because I do not like all the sounds...but who gives a crap.
-For a little over $200 I got a pedal that has 6 really awesome delays sounds that I LOVE [swell delay, tape echo, tube echo, lo res delay (with lowest resolution), multihead echo, and analog delay).
-So when you work that out, that's like $33 a pedal. I like to think of it that way.
-I'm not to crazy about the reverse delay (I just have no use for it) and am not big on the delays with modulation.
-I use a Gibson Les Paul Standard or a Gretsch Double Jet into a Laney LC50 or Vox AC15. It loves humbuckers (and using the two amps sounds awesome with the stereo or ping pong delay).

-I did use this pedal to gig around with. I never had problems with the pedal proper, but I did go through 2 of the power cords.
-Eventually I wised up, bought one of the really awesome One Spot daisy chain that has a Line 6 adapter on it. The next time it breaks, if it does, I'm only out $4 for the replacement as opposed to $20-25.
-It's built quite well (I build pedals too, so I know a bit) and like any other peice of gear: you take care of it and it's likely to not let you down.

Haven't needed it.

-I play a lot of ambient atmospheric Brit Rock type guitar work. THis is pretty perfect for all my needs.
-In the 13 years I've been playing, it's in the top 5 pedals I've ever owned. (And I've owned 150+.)
-Mine has been stolen twice (the last time just this past week) and I'm going to replace it again. I'm not playing in a band anymore, but I've just gotten so use to this pedal and it's sounds that I'm not willing to let that go just yet.
-My one big beef is that I wish there were more user presets. There are only three with just the pedal. I think 8 would be much nicer. To me that just makes sense when you have 16 different delays on one pedal.

For a modeler it's actually pretty easy to use. Sometimes the loopers functions of reverse and 1/2 speed don't work as planed. The manual is actually quite informative, and can really help you out if you have any issues.

Only gripe I have is that some of the patches made me scratch my head at first on how to get them to sound good.

I'm a delay addict. I've got a pair of Maxon AD999 and a Keeley Modded AD9. I have Dr. Scientist delays, and even a couple of BYOC's. I love delay, and while the DL4 is not the best sounding out of the bunch, it's nice to have anyways.

the DL4 will never deliver the warm tones of my Maxon boxes, nor will it deliver the crisp hi-fi repeats of my Dr. Scientist. But it does many things well that still warrant it staying on my board.

I got all three banks setup with really different settings, that don't double up on the AD999, Scientist, and BYOC that are still on my board. The reverse setting is A LOT of fun, and really enjoyable for something different. The Ping/Pong delay is great for my stereo setup, and really adds a new dimension (especially with my other guitar player running a stereo rig himself). The other is just a tube delay with some nice overdrive built into the patch. Just something that sounds warm that has tap tempo for when I want things to fill out a bit more.

I'm using the box with an Orange Rocker 30 and an older Vox AC30. It sounds amazing with both amps, and it's nice that the two support each other nicely. I just don't use the second channel of the R30H because it just don't sound good to distort delays.

I've heard bad things about reliability of these things... and I worked at a music shop and have taken in more L6 gear than anything else, so i'm a little worried none the less.

I got enough delay pedals on my board to get by tho, so no need for a backup. I also can play all my parts WITHOUT any effects at all and still sound really good, so I'm never worried about my board failing.

L6 are terrible for support. I called their Canadian office and got an angry frenchman who wouldn't help.

I bought this thing for the looping feature especially, but find I'm not using it as much as I planned on. But I'm still getting a fair bit of use out of the reverse/ping-pong/tube delay settings. I think if/when it dies I'll look at the TC Nova Delay (or trade this one in for the TC Nova Delay) as it's got tap and will do what I need it to do without the possibility of failing me.

Not a bad product, but not ideal in any sense of the word. wish it was a few bucks cheaper for sure

pretty easy to use, read the manual, and the stickers on the machine will help.

the sound quality is pretty good, i must stress, you feed dl4 through an fx loop and all these people saying it colors your tone and adds "white noise", are right and all of them did'nt mention except for maybe one person about using it in an fx loop, All modualatory effects such as chorus,flange,dealy,reverb should be run through an independent fx loop so they want alter your tone or "suck tone" as some would call it. if you run this in your signal chain, expect noise and tonal suckage, but keely electronics makes mod for this problem but simply running in your amps loop will diminsh this problem almost completly. Dont really use all the delay's, mainly the analog and digital delay are most used, when in a stereo setup ill use the ping pong and stereo delays and the looper for practice purpuses, my setup is as follows, olp luke model and 60th anniv. tele and custom shop tele into a 410 peavey classic 50. my chain is ernie b volume to wah to fulltone 2 to modded dyna comp to ibanez cs-9 to boss tuner to amp, i have my boss eq, boss noise suppessor into the amps fx loop and the noss supp. has a built in fx loop in which i run the dl4 and the boss rotary ensemble dual pedal through, this setup, when i engage the dl4 is very very quiet. all you folks with noise issues, try running the pedal through an fx loop and ill bet youll cahnge your opnion, at least about the noise issue, if you dont like the delay models then you should have played on it before you bought it. good luck finding all this pedals for under 250 bucks.

ive heard horror stories indeed about this thing, ive had some mechanical issue with one of the switches but it was an easy fix. Must Must have the proper power supply with the right milliamps and all that good electronic voltage crap, batteries will suck tone and color your tone. Dont use any other supply except for the one desgned for the unit or it will fry the unit, some of the cats talking about there units crapping out on them i bet had the wrong power, might be the right voltage but wrong milliamps or vice versa. the dl4 will fry it not run with proper supply, seen it first hand. but the for the money line 6 i hope has sured up the mechanical issues on the unit, i bought the modeler the day it came out or the day my music store first offered it to the public. the older ones seem to be a little studier.another tip, check your switches washers and screws as you will need to tighten up these washers on your input jacks and the washers around the switches after every gig, this will make a huge difference in preserving your unit.

never dealt with

ive been playing for about 20 years, in the studio on stage adn every where in between, its been a staple of my rig for a along time. But always play stuff before you buy it. it you have the luxury of a/b ing it with your old boutique dealys to determine if its worth getting, do so and then decide if its for u.

Very easy to use, until it stopped working!!

Great sound, nice modulated delays, reverse delays, looping, all sounded great, till it stopped working !!

Would never buy a line 6 product again, this pedal died after two years of light home use! Bought a variax guitar a few months ago, within 3 months it started cutting out, so I took it back for a refund, vowing never to purchase line 6 products ever again! I hope Line 6 look at these reviews, they need to sort out their quality control issues!

Contacted company, but not much help.

I own a variety of kit, Roland, Boss, TC electronic, Korg, various guitars. Never had a problem with them, its a shame that line 6 make innovative products (variax for example) but cant back them up with reliabaility.

Not extremely difficult to use, if you can use stompboxes and if you can read the manual supplied, then you can fly this one...

The idea behind this effects unit is impressive, but I dont think it delivers totally.. One thing that leaves me a bit cold is the volume drop I get when plugged into my effects loop, very noticeable volume drop, only way to fix was to plug into the front of my amp, not ideal. I dont get the volume drop with any other pedal that is hooked into the effects loop, eg Boss DD3.

Yep it hasnt gone BANG yet... But what about the guy a few reviews down that reckons he has bought 4 and they have all blown up, now he's going to buy number 5... Laughable. Not sure about you guys, but I would be looking at another product if I'd had as much trouble as him. Dumb.

I play covers as well as originals, like I said, its ok but Im going to buy a DD-20 and try that.. If thats no good I will stick with my DD3 in the E/Loop.

Let's cut to the chase - I bought this thing 2 weeks ago. It came with the free expression pedal, which feels less stable than one of my 2 year old son's toys. I bought the additional power supply and the warranty based on other reviews. I thought it might last longer than 2 hours of total playing time, but last night I sat down with the thing to learn how to use it, recorded a loop, hit the playback button and voila - lights out. this POS is going right back to the store - free crappy plastic expression pedal and all. I have no idea why some of you have said you own several of these units only to keep replacing them. What the **** is wrong with you?? How many time have you ended up looking like an idiot in front of an audience because of this thing? There are a LOT of great toys out there so please dear comrades STOP SUPPORTING LINE 6. I personally will never buy another Line 6 product no matter what they try to convince me it can do. There are just too many options. I AM WOEFULLY UNIMPRESSED!

Once you understand the technical terminology it's pretty straight forward, it just takes time because it's like having about a dozen different pedals with different settings, but I think it's pretty easy to use....
Manual is good.

You know, I am not really that obsessed with exact replication or pure quality, I often use a lot of other efx, so I'm generally looking for repeats, echoes and sometimes I let them head towards overload, and feedback chaos, so it's great for that..
My set up usually consists of:
Guitar: DeArmond M75-t, with Bigsby tremolo or 1983 Peavey T-60.
Amp: Line6 Spider II with foot control and programmed efx.
Efx: Boss me-6, Danelectro Fab Tone, This pedal, line6 fm4.

This is an original, must have it 5-7 yrs, always gig with it, am really bad at looking after my stuff too.... always dusty and in crappy, sticky venues, don't do many gigs a year, but this is a good thing to have...

never had to

I play drone-rock. Playing 22 yrs.
This is my favourite bit of kit..

Ok not the easiest. but the more specific you get the more you have to expect in complexity. you will have to read the manual. and you should it has models of the classic echo's and analogs so youll benifet. i give it an eight cause cinsidering what it does you shouldnt complain. otherwise shut up and go blow 2 grand on the pedals its duplicating.

i was hoping to get some johnny greenwood echo sounds and im completely satisfied. the analog echo's are great to. i have played on analog pedals and it nails them just fine without the added air in your main signal. this is a downside to analog pedals there is air. its just how it is. i own a dod stereo reverb. its a analog reverb pedal and it has a real warm sound. im able to get as close as i need to with it and that work just fine for me. SCREW THE DD 20! im so sick of boss followers. lets face the facts boss are good cause there reliable. 75 percent of all boss pedals sound like ass! ive played on the dm series. there not that impressive. the ad9 blows them out of the water. both of them. dont let someone talk you into buying a dd 20 until you try this one. dd20 has retardedly long delay. honestly i had a dd 6 and didnt quite see whey you need a delay that long. its stupid. your reaching a point where your music might be to trippy and annoying and you should just get a life. i own some boss dont get me wrong. but i own them cause there reliable. and didnt pay much. in this situation the dl4 wins. and yes ive used both. dl4 sounds better. it nails the analog better then the dd 20. the dd 20 doesnt sound wild enough. analog is a bit unpredictable. you cant just drop the highs and expect to nail analog"dd20" and this thing is true bypass. and you can hear it. or should i say not hear it. i owned a dd6 and a bunch of other stuff i wasnt comfortable playing on live and have since my purchace of a dl4 have decided to sell. you can say what you want about this thing not looking reliable. try the real things folks that stuff is way not reliable. id invest in the mod pedal but i like to use multi effects so i wont be. but i was that impressed with this pedal.

heres my board

boss hyper fuzz
digitech whammy
ibanez bc9 bimode chorus
ibanez fl 9 flanger
visual sound jekyll and hyde
digitech synth wah
harmonix nano stone
dod milkbox
boss rv 3(which sucks and im waiting for someone to make a better small reverb pedal)
line 6 dl4

all and all i think this thing is well worth its value. its noisy when it needs it and quiet when it doesnt. i am really big on the analog settings. and echo. love em!

dont know but if it breaks ill be posting it. it seems a little fragile but no more then any analog delay pedal is.

im into alot of styles and it nails them all quite well. its great. i dont think i would change anything about it. if it were stolen id cry for a while then cry somemore. thne figure out how to come up with 275 outta nowhere and get another. id love more presets but with a delay even if you had the reals things roland space echo etc. you wouldnt have it then either. its very fun to play with while also getting the job done live. great pedal!

super easy to figure out.
Really dont have to use the manual at all if you put the stickers that tell you what the knobs do right on you line 6(the stickers are available on the newere units.

Playing live I have no complaints about the sound quality. I use it mainly for looping and just a light delay sound during solos. FOr this use it is great. ALso works great for trippy background delay noises.
WHen recording with a high quality recorder you will notice some degredation of the sound.
I still am yet to get it sonding right through my recorder(ROland vs-2480 which makes pretty much anything else sound great)

Cannot depend on it unless it is BRAND NEW. I own four units and not one of them work. now im about to buy my fifth.
The reliability just is horrible. Each of mine have lasted about a year b4 they cut out. The oldest one I own was bought in '99, so I dont know what people are talking about the old ones being better. The one bought in 99 died in a yr. and so did the one bought i 06.
I have done many gigs without a backup dl4 which is fine for the first few months.
You can tell when the thing starts to crap out soon enought to tell whether or not to ust it during a gig.

Mabe if u have a power condidtioner, dedicated circuits and all that it is reliable, but I dont beleive t. Once it start dying, it does not matter wat plug I have it in. Works the same at the bar with 3 amps on 1 plug as it deos at home in my studio with its dedicated circuit and proper power.
NO reliability

never had enough time to send it back to get fixed, just kept buying new ones because i needed them for gigs.

I play jam-band style music and this pedal is a perfect match. It seriosly makes up for well over $1000 worht of pedas in jsut this one little board(tahts why i keep buying it) Where else can u get a delay looper and a selection of delay effects(whick IMHO work sound as good as most other stompboxes) for only $250? no where.
I think you can only compare it to the boss loop station and the boomerang phrase sampler.
The boomerang is obviosly the best but at $500 you only getting delay loops and some pitch shiftig in the loops, no other effects. Ive also heard horror stories about the reliability of these as well.
THe boss loop station is alright(I own this too but never use it) but it doesn't hold up against the dl4. ALl it does is loop. It;s loops are a lot harder to get going and overdub onto. Also it only has 2 pedals so it becomes hard to remeber how to press them to get the functions int he middl of a solo or long loop. It is just not the same thing as the DL4.

next time im thinking about gettig the line 6 delay modeler rack-mounted unit. I have a feeling that it is much better quality and it won't breack as fast beacue it won't have ists sensitive digital circuits ib the ground.