Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

It's pretty ease to use considering how complex the pedal is. The delay knobs are Delay Time, Repeats, Tweak, Tweez, and Mix. The "Tweak" and "Tweez" knobs do different things for different effects, but it comes with a sticker that tells you what they do for each preset. You can definately have fun right out of the box, though. The manual is very well written and after a quick study session, you're good to go.

This. Thing. Sounds. Great.

I love versatility when I play, and I love to be able to get different types of the same effect with one pedal. With the DL-4, I'm able to have one preset give me a classic tube delay sound from the 60's, and have the next preset deliver a swelling, swirling, cosmic delay with infinite repeat that turns my amp to mush. You can get ANY delay tone out of this thing.

Also, the included loop sampler could not be cooler. It offers you unlimited creativity onstage. Some people pay the price of the DL-4 just to get a loop station this good.

I play an Ibanez SZ-320 (which is a poor mans PRS by the way) > Boss TU-2 > Line 6 Uber Metal > DL-4 > Boss Ph-2 Phaser > Dunlop 535Q Wah > All-Tube Peavey Ultra 112.

Every effect sounds awesome. I can't speak for stereo effects because I don't run a stereo setup.

Heeeere's the problem. This pedal has a shaky background. I'm on my second, and I've worked road crew for musicians who are on their second or third. I got it (used) from ebay and it worked for awhile, but at times it wouldn't turn on. You could smack it and sometimes it would cooperate, but not always. Thankfully, it has true bypass so it doesn't stop your show in its tracks. I gig without a backup because I can't afford another one yet, but I feel confident. Just buy it new and get the extended service agreement.

The extended plan from guitar center puts you on the top of their, to-do list should you need to work with them. As of yet, I have not had to send mine in.

I've been recording and playing live for 6 years now, and this thing is my secret weapon, my crown jewel, etc. If it were lost (it won't be) or stolen (I'd find him) I'd get a new one. It's reliability is questionable, but not enough to make me shy away from buying it or to start looking elsewhere. I was considering getting Line 6's Echo Park, but decided against it for three reasons: 1) The tap tempo and on/off switch are the same pedal and you know you're going to stomp on it too hard during a gig and shut it off when you don't want to, 2) in bypass mode, you can hear a fuzzy noise clicking alone with the tap tempo speed and 3) no loop sampler!!

If you're deciding about a delay pedal and you have the cash, just buy the DL-4 (and the warranty). You'll be happy.

This pedal is very easy to use and has many different settings, too much if you ask me. Settings are pretty easy to save. You can store up to 3 different delay settings in the pedal at a time.

The pedal sounds fantastic. I love pretty much all of the settings. It would seem to be a keeper, but as you will see, it is completely unreliable. If you try one out in your local music store, don't be lured in by the great delays, because in a few months, the piece of crap will be broken. I have no complaints about any of the delay settings, but I wish it were sturdier.

As I said earlier, this pedal WILL BREAK! I know many other people who said their DL-4's broke, too. First, my stomp switches broke. Then, the pedal shut off one day and never came back on. I was in the middle of a gig and the pedal just died on me. To make things worst, I was in the middle of a solo with a U2 type delay setting. It never came back on. I take good care of all of my gear, so it obviously had to be the quality of the product. If you like the sounds enough to buy one of these each year, then go right ahead, but you'd be better off with a Boss DD-20 giga delay. It is much sturdier and sounds even better.

I have no opinion, because my pedal "conveniently" died as soon as my warranty expired.

DON'T BUY THIS PEDAL. IT SUCKS! IT WILL BREAK ON YOU! Try the Boss DD-20 Giga Delay. You'd better much better off.

It is relatively easy to use as long as you RTFM. Manual is easy to understand, but Tweak and Tweeze?

Some of the delays are superb. The analogue sounds that feedback are good fun. But the tape echoes are a bit too digital in sound, as you would expect from this. It does a job well having said this.

Depend on it? For about a year or so probably, but mine does not even switch on now. Will try a dd-20 instead. Judging by others experiences as well, this gets a 2. New buyers who give a 6 ir higher here, beware :-)

Never dealt but other line 6 stuff is poor

I play different stuff and like creating sound textures and stuff. This pedal could have been great, but it does not work.

The unit does posess the ability to give the user a HUGE variety of settings. The manual can be a little overwhelming, but if you just sit down, burn one and get into the pedal, you'll have a blast.

I use the pedal with the expession pedal and am very satisfied with the programs. The settings that have the delay along with the flange are a blast to use. Between the toe and heal settings on the expression pedal, it is very capable of producing some absolutly wild effects. We do alot of Pink Floyds "The Wall", so with the ability to program up to six different settings along with the tap tempo switch makes the pedal very valuable to me.

Now here is where I have to disagree with alot of the other feedback. Yes, there have been times where the unit locked up on me but usually I notice this right away and have found that cutting the power for a second or two resets the pedal. But I guess if your using batteries you can't do this. To that I say , "Get out of the dark ages and get yourself a quality power supply!" I think alot of the problems some of you are having is power related. The pedal does only require 9 volts but needs a minimum 1200 milliamps. Most generic wall warts only put out around 800 milliamps. Now while this might be enough in your basement or during souncheck, once the whole band gets going, power consumption is going to rise, amps are going to drop and your pedal is going to shut down and go into that familiar ALL THE LIGHTS FLASHING MODE and won't stop until you reset the power to it. Another common problem that could affect the pedal is the actual power availability at the bar/venue itself. How many times have you got to a place and found out that there are three, maybe four outlets for you to plug the whole band into. And the outlets are probably all on the same circuit, along with the freezer unit in the kitchen. Your Jamming, the freezer kicks on, amperage on that line drops, and bam your pedal is f***ked up again. I have a DL-4 and a MM-4 mounted to my road board and have had very little problems with either one. I use a Voodoo Labs power supply that has two dedicated outlets just for Line-6 pedals, so it seems that Voodoo Labs is aware of power problems for Line-6 pedals and have addressed them accordingly. I also plug my pedal boards' power cord into a quality power conditioner. Now all these precations didn't come cheap, but I have to say since doing all this I have had little to no trouble with my Line-6 pedals. I am not going to say that the other complaints people aren't justified. I just thought I would let you all know what my personal experiences were. Thanks!

Our Band plays a mixture of blues and good old ROCK and ROLL!!!! I'm 44 and have been playing since I was sixteen and have been playing steadily in local bands since about 1984. My most recent band has been togther now for ten years. Check us out at www.ONEEYEDWILLIE.com.
And if it were lost, stolen, or eventually craps out I would definetly get another one. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Ron

Produces a wide range of delays. Some are augmented with modulation, panning and phase-cancellation. The manual is comprehensive in detail with example settings for each delay model.
Settings are made using a series of rotary controls. These controls vary according to the delay model so can be confusing as some parameters are termed as -tweak- and -tweez-.

The tonal quality seemed muddled on some filter-mod settings and sightly clinical on others. Given time and patience (and reliability) some could be tuned to taste. It is not a noisy pedal and is true- bypass.

He hee haa ha... Can you depend on it? No you can not depend on it!
Would you use it on a gig? No because it would not work!
***Beware eBay purchases***
Unfortunately I read reviews here shortly after winning a bid for a DL4 from some snied wanker. The pedal appears to fine - then after 10-15 minutes switches off. If you were to use it at a gig it would be to wedge the leg on a wobbly table to avoid spillage. It has no musical merit.

Grumble

It was initally interesting. But then it stopped working. It may retain use as a door-stop, table-wedge or ashtray if you take the batteries out.

Okay, realize that there is a manual with user-friendly pictures, sample settings, yah yah. This thing has some great sounds but holy shit I am so sick of having to take out the damn manual on stage to figure out what "tweak" and "tweeze" do to each setting. I'd rather pull out nose hair than keep doing that.

I am a tone nut and have some pretty expensive gear. I play Fender, Suhr, Hamer, and Gibson guitars through a 65Amps London head and cab (incredible) with some choice effects. You can really get some useable sounds out of the DL-4. Most sound pretty sterile and un-analog, but let me tell you something: no one in the audience will know but you (unless they see the big green bastard and know what it is). It will all sound the same to 99.999% of the people who are hearing you. I've had a blast using this thing because it offers a lot of options for a couple of spaces on my pedalboard.

This is the only reason I'm submitting this review. I have gigged with mine a few times, but I don't stomp but merely press on my pedals. I mostly have used this at home. I have only owned it a year or so. Suddenly while practicing the other day, the thing just quits. In the middle of a session. Lights were lit one moment and went out the next. I didn't even touch it. I'm sorry but these things are pieces of shit. I don't have one friend who is still using theirs and now I know why -- everyone's has crapped out. Gear is just not made like it used to be. I have some pedals that are 30 years old that work great. Granted, the DL-4 has a bunch of PCB in it.

Definitely not worth $250. In my opinion, if the chances are high that a piece of gear might crap out at any moment, it is worthless to me. I am not a pro player but when I play, I want my gear to work. Line 6 gear is not reliable. Period.

I'm not bothering.

Like I said, if it might die on you, you might as well not have it. I'm done with Line 6.

It is actually pretty easy to use. There are just so many features that it may take you a while to internalize all of it.

You get three footswitch patches that you can call up. Plus, looping, etc.

For a digital effect it sounds awesome. I run it through the effects loop of a mesa boogie tube amp and it sounds awesome. It has a wide variety of sounds and they all sound pretty good even if you don't end up using some of them.

I've only had it for about a month. I bought it used on e-bay. But it is reasonably solid. I've had no problems thus far. I'd rely on it for gigging, I think.

I've not tried to contact Line 6 so I don't know.

I use it with a Rickenbacker bass, Mesa Boogie Bass 400, and a 6x10 cab. I also have a Jackson bass. It sounds and works great.

I have a Boss DD-3 which sounds decent, but if my DL4 were stolen
I would definitely make it a priority to replace.

If you just want to twiddle knobs and flip through models, it's easy to use. It's a little harder to get the hang of using this thing to it's full potential if you're using it for more than washes of noise or a slapback echo. You can't edit anything like you would be able to on those dinosaur-like rack delays from the eighties, but you get useable sounds easily. That's important.

Sounds fine for rock music of all shades and it's almost an instrument in and to itself for noise and experimental applications. There's a slight bit of warmth lacking compared to a Memory Man or a Maxon, but it's decent. No noise, either.

The first one I had died. The second one I was using (which was borrowed) was starting to get a little shakey. Those footswitches aren't that sturdy, and unlike analog pedals - these things are completely FUBAR once broken. You can't solder pieces back in. You have to get a completely new motherboard. Fucking technology. Fortunately, the sound tradeoff is worth it if you've got the means of protecting it while out and about. Don't take this out on the road unless you can keep it in good shape. It's an expensive investment to NOT protect.

HAH. Worthless.

Good overall product, but for the price you can buy two Echo Parks. I'm interested in using a pair of those for the sheer novelty of having two delays at once. The tap tempo is a great touch, as is the expression pedal, but honestly this thing has so much untapped potential in regards to not being able to turn on all three patches at once. If they revised the software so that this was possible, I think that this could be the best delay pedal ever made. Oh well.

The looper is terrific, but Akai's Headrush beats it for the value and ease of use hands down.

Relatively easy...somewhat self explanatory, but reading the manual is a good idea.

To me, it sounds very weak. And even weaker when the mix is turned up, somewhat muddy. It also sounds "too processed". Line 6 are over do'ers in every category and my stomache starts to turn when I hear the word "modeling" now....because of them.

Ok, not to "dogpile" here, but this effect, as with most of line 6's equipment is no better than a freaking "BOAT ANCHOR". I have had nothing but trouble with the power. Of course, just as the warranty runs out it starts crapping out on me....DURING GIGS! I've had to send it back to my personal tech guys 3 times now to fix the power issues....and of course - this last time - when it gets on their bench, it all of a sudden powers up. Then, I take it home and nothing.....and I have to take it back yet again. If I had paid $50 for this pedal I wouldn't gripe so much, but jeez at a $275 price range...the thing should last forever. But, it's the cheap components, short cuts and cost cutting that Line 6 does on all of it's product that makes them pure poo. So in a nutshell if you are thinking of buying this pedal or any other Line 6 pedal DO NOT BUY THIS!!! DON'T DO IT OR YOU WILL REGRET IT.

They are responsive, but they don't give a rats ass about anything that's out of warranty. I mean c'mon, I call up Visual Sound and they practically patch me in to the President of the company no matter how long ago I bought their products......Line 6 is the Wal Mart of guitar equipment, yet with a Neiman Marcus price tag. Just erase the word "Line" and the number "6" from your memory.

The music I play is power pop, and in theory this pedal would be a perfect match because I use so many delay types and patches. Our drummer plays to a click, so being able pull up a setting that I saved is wonderful - without having to dip down during a show to change my settings or "dial myself in on the fly". I really wish other delay manufacturers would allow for this option, but considering the circumstances that it does not work.....well you know, it's nothing more than a shiny green pile of crap stinking up my pedal board taking up way too much space.

Easy to use.

Sound quality is great. Crystal clear.

Don't buy it. It will crap out on you after 1 year. I take extremely good care of all my stuff and it didn't matter with this. I own lots of pedals, boutique hand made ones to Boss stuff, this is the only pedal I've had that has broken and exhibited strange behaviour after a small amount of use. It's not worth the price tag. Someone on here mentioned he owned 4 just in case 1 breaks...does that tell you anything???

Great customer support.

It's a great pedal if you've got money to burn and keep buying them. Many companies don't engineer products to last anymore and this is without a doubt one of these products. I'm by far not the only one who has had major problems with these breaking, so just bear that in mind when buying one.

Bottom line is that yes it's very handy but ultimately a piece of junk.