Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
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Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 350
Submitted 10/27/2009
at 12:54am
by Mike Doull
Email: DMDoull at hotmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
8
I find this box pretty easy to use. I say pretty easy because there are a few things about the function I would like to be revised. First of all, the knobs each control a fairly wide spectrum for each effect, but they're small which means slight turns can make a huge difference. while I like that they are fairly stiff, so no accidental bumps, It would be nice if they were wider somehow, just a hair wider. I use this primarily for playing guitar in one band, but I run a synth through it in another and play with the looper function. I sometimes set the repeats to full, and then crank the delay time all the way up (to the left, fastest time) to produce a solid tone, and then twitch delay time back to create a laser-ish dropping noise, except the solid tone is always captured at a lower pitch than the note i used. that i find a little irritating, plus the delay time seems to function in digital stages rather than a broad analog sweep.
Yes I know thats a lot to complain about, but it does so many things right that it evens out to an 8.
Sound Quality
:
7
The sound is really really good. That sounds general and half retarded, I know, but those are the words that pop in my head when asked this. The looper sounds pretty good, and then delays are all fairly excellent. The analog delays don't really sound that analog, but thats only a few settings out of a dozen. The stereo delays sound freaking AMAZING (especially when run through my boss digital reverb, which is stereo). Yes, there are better delays out there, and yes there are better loopers out there, but this thing manages to put a ton of really good sounding stuff in one box, instead of one amazing sound in one box. It's like buying a really good sounding value pack. Don't pick this up if you're looking for a bunch of decent analog delays. As far as I can tell from all of line 6's equipment, they don't have a clue what analog anything sounds like.
Reliability
:
6
Ok here's the thing with this unit: I fried it within a month of owning it, got a new one via Long & Mcquade warranty, and fried it again 8 months later. Also managed to get that one replaced, but still. I think it's an issue with the power adapter (1.5 amps?? seems high), or the power input, as that has broken and needed soldering a few times. It's a good thing I find this unit so damn fun, because any box that fries on me twice in a year doesn't last very long.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've never dealt with them. I've heard good things.
Overall Rating
:
9
I play in an alt rock band and use this delay for blurry "sonic youth" ish noise occasionally, and have one preset for a quick doubling sound for choruses. I also use it with a casio cz3000 to make noise in a psych rock band using the looper and echo functions. it works out pretty well for these uses, it's so versatile. So, works well for noise, works well for blurriness, awesome stereo delay, suprisingly good reverse delay which I don't believe I have mentioned, looper and echo delay function is decent... boring sounding analog delays, and sort of unreliable, but just get a warrantee. long story short, it's a hell of a lot of fun, and worth picking up for the price.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 260
Submitted 07/22/2009
at 05:28pm
by senneitz
Ease of Use
:
8
The instructions are straight forward, so as long as you take a look at them for a bit before your start messing with it, it sounds great! The manual is really straight forward, so having that around is really handy when starting off with it.
Sound Quality
:
10
I'm playing a Strat and a Hot Rod Deluxe, and it sounds great through it! The true bypass helps a lot with preserving your original tone and you can really tell. Some of the delays do sound the same, but most of them have a slight distinct quality in them that makes them stand out. I personally have presets for a moderate sweep delay, a slight tape delay, and a moderate analog delay
Reliability
:
10
I've used it every time I've played out, and I haven't had ANY problems!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to deal with Line 6.
Overall Rating
:
10
Honestly, this is the best delay I've used. I've played a fair amount of the Boss delays, I own an Ibanez DE7, and Ive heard many others, and this tops them all!
My favourite part is the ocelation! It's crazy! The sounds you can get out of it are just ridiculous, and with a bit of fooling around, you can control it pretty easily. If this one ever dies on me, I'm going and getting a new one ASAP!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 05/29/2009
at 08:03am
by e.o.n.
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
This is a re-review with a correction and "a new twist in the story", read the previous few reviews down...
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
Reliability
:
No Opinion
As I mentioned in the previous review, the footswitches fail frequently. Well, now they failed for good! We were on a four-day trip on a ship playing five sets per day, and the f***ing piece of crap died on me right there on the stage! Luckily the uneffected sound went through it, but imagine my frustration... Kicking the preset buttons had pretty much every other effect but the one simple thing they sould do; the preset and tap tempo lights would start to blink in funny ways, wrong preset would go on (except the delay sound), or the preset engaged was nothing like the one stored, etc. etc. etc.
I almost threw the thing to the sea, but decided to keep it for home use because of the looper. Haven't tried yet if even that works - propably not.
Well, at least the unit worked for about 3,5 years... Ridiculous for the cost.
Oh, and a correction to my previous review: the case is metal, not plastic. It's just different from the one I had before (got stolen), don't know how - lighter, thinner, different paint...?
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't dealt with them, and won't. If the company released real deal guitar effects instead of toys, I might bother.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
If i.e. a Danelectro Daddy O. just keeps rocking year after year, why won't a Line6 DL4? Obviously by saving in the wrong place Line6 manages to ruin otherwise decent product.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 04/19/2009
at 11:14pm
by Tyler
Ease of Use
:
9
Well, part of what I'm going to say is my own fault because I never read a manual unless I can't figure it out by playing with it, so therefore I'm not marking down.
Anways, when I first took it out of the box and set it up, I was able to quickly get my dotted 8th delay from it. The thing that got me was whenever I'd switch from one type of delay to another, the tweak and tweez knobs seemed to be doing completely different things. When I read into it, I found out that it specifically says they do different things with each delay (Duh). Basically, this thing comes with stickers that tell you what each setting will do on each type of delay. I'd suggest sticking those right on your pedal. It's a really simple unit to use as long as you know what the knobs are adjusting haha.
Sound Quality
:
6
The sound is pretty freaking digital. When you mess with your amp settings and this together, you can get some pretty good sounds, but it's not as good as analog delays. I think the boss delays might even sound more authentic than this.
Reliability
:
2
Well, I've had this for about 9ish months and luckily it's still under the manufacturers warranty because it just died on me. I was a drummer in a band when I first bought this, and when that broke up, made a band as a guitarist. Luckily we've been very secretive and not playing any shows until we record in May because I guess if I did, it would've died on me a lot faster, and maybe even in front of an audience.
I babied this thing and never even moved it back and forth from my practice space and home, minus a couple rare occasions. One day, I unplugged it to plug in a noise suppressor for some pre-production recordings and when I tried to plug this back it, it would not come on. The guitar signal still went through to the amp but no delay. I am truly amazed at how this happened. I'm not gonna get another Line 6 product because of what I've seen happen to other people.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I'll find out soon enough
Overall Rating
:
1
Overall, it was a fun thing to mess around with, but I can't trust anything that would just die for no reason at all. I'd suggest that maybe it was just a faulty, one-in-a-hundred but there are WAY too many other people that have had it happen. I didn't think it would happen to me. I figured maybe they just abuse it, but I literally left this thing in place for a 9 months, never performed with it, and it just died.
I was stoked at first, but now I'm dissapointed.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/17/2009
at 01:16am
by Aleksey
Email: bolomsa at mail<dot>ru
Ease of Use
:
10
I say - BIG PEDAL ) The best utilized digital pedal . thats all !!!!
Sound Quality
:
10
Sound very clearest !!! I love loop function - for my lessons . Cool gear !!!
Reliability
:
10
steel box !!!
Customer Support
:
10
www.guitareffectspedals.com
Overall Rating
:
10
John Frusciante playing on this delay !!! Buy it - you love it !!!!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 200 USED
Submitted 03/04/2009
at 07:42pm
by skydog
Ease of Use
:
8
Mine is a B stock. It came with no manual. The Line 6 web site has only the settings pages and the factory presets, but nothing about how to save presets to buttons, etc. I figured that out on my own, but whether most could I'm not sure.
Editing is easy: turn the knob. But because two knobs take on different meanings depending on the model selected, you need a manual to help guide you. I suppose you could just listen and mess around, but...
This B stock has a metal case! It's got some nasty blemishes on it, but I don't care about the cosmetics.
Sound Quality
:
10
My B stock has no issues. The sound is stellar. It does not affect the guitar tone negatively except for models that imply it, like tube tape echo or analog. There are settings that go unstable, particularly when the repeat knob is set high. I think it's quite transparent and very quiet.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
There's no way to tell yet. There's a flood of these B stock units on the big music web retail sites, so something must be breaking and getting sent back. If they did indeed go to a plastic case, having a metal case B stock means that this is indeed an older unit that's been refurbed. If it was returned under warranty, maybe it just layed around for several years and they finally got to fixing it.
It's built like a freaking tank as far as I can tell. I've been playing 40 years and never had a switch fail once, ever, and don't expect these to fail either.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No idea.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I play classic, progressive, alternative rock, lightweight jazz, country, pop, and bluegrass. Even polkas if the pay is good. I am a professional musical hooker. I have a wide assortment of Fender, Gibson, PRS, Heritage, Martin, Collings, Godin, Schecter, G&L, Yamaha, and various miscellaneous guitars, mandolins, and basses. I use amps from 1W to 100 W, all tube, driving anything from one ten up though four 12s depending on venue. My pedal board includes Mike Fuller drive pedals and Choralflange, I run a constant-gain fully bypassable loop with a Boss SD1 driven by an MXR dyancomp, all gated by an ISP Decimator to keep the noise out, all pre-set and switched in and out with one button as a group by a Radial Engineering loop switcher. The wah is a Roger Mayer vision with carbon fiber pedal.
The drawbacks to this thing are it takes a 9v AC 1200 mA supply. Well, that's not exactly a popularly available thingy. Since I had an original generation POD, I used its supply. I ordered one to keep with the new pedal board this will go on, but it cost me $25. That sucks.
The other thing is, its big. I like the three presets: better than what Satriani does with two separate identical pedals as far as I'm concerned.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 200 USED
Submitted 03/04/2009
at 07:42pm
by skydog
Ease of Use
:
8
Mine is a B stock. It came with no manual. The Line 6 web site has only the settings pages and the factory presets, but nothing about how to save presets to buttons, etc. I figured that out on my own, but whether most could I'm not sure.
Editing is easy: turn the knob. But because two knobs take on different meanings depending on the model selected, you need a manual to help guide you. I suppose you could just listen and mess around, but...
This B stock has a metal case! It's got some nasty blemishes on it, but I don't care about the cosmetics.
Sound Quality
:
10
My B stock has no issues. The sound is stellar. It does not affect the guitar tone negatively except for models that imply it, like tube tape echo or analog. There are settings that go unstable, particularly when the repeat knob is set high. I think it's quite transparent and very quiet.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
There's no way to tell yet. There's a flood of these B stock units on the big music web retail sites, so something must be breaking and getting sent back. If they did indeed go to a plastic case, having a metal case B stock means that this is indeed an older unit that's been refurbed. If it was returned under warranty, maybe it just layed around for several years and they finally got to fixing it.
It's built like a freaking tank as far as I can tell. I've been playing 40 years and never had a switch fail once, ever, and don't expect these to fail either.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No idea.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I play classic, progressive, alternative rock, lightweight jazz, country, pop, and bluegrass. Even polkas if the pay is good. I am a professional musical hooker. I have a wide assortment of Fender, Gibson, PRS, Heritage, Martin, Collings, Godin, Schecter, G&L, Yamaha, and various miscellaneous guitars, mandolins, and basses. I use amps from 1W to 100 W, all tube, driving anything from one ten up though four 12s depending on venue. My pedal board includes Mike Fuller drive pedals and Choralflange, I run a constant-gain fully bypassable loop with a Boss SD1 driven by an MXR dyancomp, all gated by an ISP Decimator to keep the noise out, all pre-set and switched in and out with one button as a group by a Radial Engineering loop switcher. The wah is a Roger Mayer vision with carbon fiber pedal.
The drawbacks to this thing are it takes a 9v AC 1200 mA supply. Well, that's not exactly a popularly available thingy. Since I had an original generation POD, I used its supply. I ordered one to keep with the new pedal board this will go on, but it cost me $25. That sucks.
The other thing is, its big. I like the three presets: better than what Satriani does with two separate identical pedals as far as I'm concerned.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 12/31/2008
at 04:37pm
by RonD
Ease of Use
:
3
I do not see where anyone gigging or wanting to use more than one delay type within a song would find this pedal useful. The tweak and tweeze knob settings to change the character between the different delays is very difficult/ impossible to me/to adjust on the fly.
Sound Quality
:
2
I have tried several of my guitars from Tele to Paul with a Marshall Plexi and a Tech 21. The pedal sucks the tone right out. Analog or digital modeling types all subtract from the tone and then adds a cheezy digital haze over the top. I bought it without personally demoing it and have not been able to find a use for this pedal.
Reliability
:
7
I pulled it out of the box it was sitting in for the last 3 years and it still worked but still sounded bad.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
4
I have used some older rack mount digital delays that I liked and did not eat the tone, Korg, Midiverb. The only use I could see for this pedal is if you were wanting all low fi delay effects. I thought the pedal would do both hi and lo fi but the one I has dosen't
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 12/30/2008
at 09:52am
by Eric Goetze
Ease of Use
:
10
Easy to use. Having three delay presets is nice, but I find that for playing live 4 hours at a stretch, I stuck with one sound I really liked which was the Dynamic Delay setting.
Sound Quality
:
6
Sound quality is good, but I wouldn't say great. The only reason for that is I recently upgraded to a T.C. Electronic NovaDelay. After hearing the NovaDelay, it's been impossible to go back to the Line 6 pedal. Also, there is no way to get a dotted 8th note repeat on the Line 6 box. Forget about covering any mid-era U2 tunes. Put your guitar back in the stand and go relax with a beer while the rest of your band plays "Where The Streets Have No Name." The Line 6 box does have a loop feature on it. Don't waste your time trying to use it. It's utterly worthless since it does not quantize your rhythms.
Reliability
:
3
I've read other reviews that talk about the problem of it being completely impossible to change out a switch that has gone bad on the Delay Modeler. I can verify that switches DO go bad on this pedal and replacing one is not impossible but is absurdly difficult. It would require A LOT of unsoldering and resoldering on the PC board to even get at the switch to remove it. Pretty stupid design flaw on Line 6's part. It shouldn't be that difficult to replace one of the least expensive moving parts on this pedal. To be fair, the pedal did serve me well for 4 years before the switch went bad. However, when you're spending $250 for the box plus $30-$35 for the power supply, I think the quality should be a lot better.
Customer Support
:
1
Left voicemail and sent email twice regarding my problem with the switch. No response at all from Line 6.
They get an "F" in customer support as far as I'm concerned.
Overall Rating
:
4
I play mostly rock; classic to modern and I lead worship. My disappointment with the Line 6 stems from the disparity between the high cost of the pedal versus the lame design flaws and the apparent we-don't-give-a-rip non responsiveness of Line 6 customer no service. Like I said, the pedal served me well for 4 years, but for over $250 it should still be alive and kicking. If I had it to do over again, I would have started out with the Nova Delay, and never bought the Line 6 to begin with.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 12/11/2008
at 07:02am
by e.o.n.
Ease of Use
:
3
Not a piece of cake here. Had it since the year of the release, and still unable to remember the different functions of the knobs on different delay models... Mainly due to the fact I actively use only three of them, though.
With this unit, I've learned to hate digital effects. Changing a preset delay's setting (i.e. mix) is impossible to be done without turning the knob many times searching for the right spot. I strongly recommend an expression pedal assigned for the mix adjust, if used live. The best thing is that I just heard any passive volume pedal works! (in case of the mix adjustment) The point: on analog effect you can see the settings, and turning a knob does always the same - that's not the deal with DL4. Adjusting should be designed to be more straight forward and visual, and this sort of digital, "preset-oriented" machine, would benefit a lot from motorised knobs.
The manual is good, though, which is pretty rare I think. With a guitar stomp box you just shouldn't need one... (my opinion)
Just to make it sure: I ain't an idiot; it's not actually that DIFFICULT to use, it's just way too CLUMSY and SLOW to adjust the settings in live or otherwise fast situations.
Sound Quality
:
9
My setup hardly has anything to do with the fuctionality of a delay effect. Just that I don't use the effect loop on my Laney LH20, and that the guitar's pickups and/or output level, volume, and other effects seem to affect the mix of dry and effected sound. Obvious? Propably. I haven't had or tested any other delay pedal with my gear, so can't be too sure.
The DL4 is not a noisy unit, and the actual sounds are awesome - once you've tweaked them to work with your other gear. That, the loop sampler and the versatility are the only reasons I still have this pedal...
I use mainly the Tape Echo, Analog Echo and Digital Delay as my preset sounds. With them I can cover pretty much anything needed on various styles fairly enough without constant tweaking - when on stage I want to perform, not tweak. And the sounds are great in quality too.
DL4 has two modes concerning affecting your sound when off: real, mechanical true bypass (default) and "Alternate Bypass", that keeps the DSP engaged. Which means, that when you kick off the effect, the delays don't disappear immediately like hitting a wall. I like this, though it has slight affect to the sound unlike true bypass. The affect is not that dramatic it would really change your sound's character. If you think it does, your only effect should be the cord.
The loop sampler is great! I once used it live, and if the pedal's footswitches don't fail you (which they frequently do) it's a blast! Due to the current situation (other gear than guitars not usually home) I can't practice and jam with it, but it's just great for that. If only it had a longer loop possibility - I almost always put it on half speed before recording the loop(s) to double the loop's length.
There are plenty of delay models to choose from, and I have to admit that I haven't used half of them. All tried once or twice years ago, but to really advantage from the special delay effects musically requires time and maybe another amp to go stereo. I have neither...
Reliability
:
2
The first one I had had a metal case, the current one is plastic. Why?! The first one got stolen along with all my other effects... :( Luckily they were insured! Cannot find a couple of the vintage ones anymore though.
The knobs can't withstand any dust, they've gone all sticky in movement and feel like mounted in sand when turned. And I use, keep and transport my stuff properly in a pedalboard/case. I won't do a gig without shoes, though.
The footswithces are the worst thing. Nothing is as frustrating as this: I'm beginning a furious solo in the middle of a fast rock song, and the first two bars of the solo get half wasted trying to kick the delay on. Don't know what's wrong, but it's really beginning to piss me off. Though it's propably "just" dust in the switches' contact points (why did the dust get there?!), I'm going to buy a couple of analog delay/echo pedals and leave this piece of digital s**t to home/studio use. If cleaning the switches doesn't help, and it's a programming bug, I'll toss a bird with it. A gigging musician just can't trust gear that should ever need something like that. Could fail anytime, anywhere.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't tried it, and won't. This is my first and last Line6 product.
Overall Rating
:
5
I'm mostly into 60s/70s music, but since I need to get food on the table by gigging, the range is way broader. I play in a party band, that plays pop/rock music from 60s to this day, from Abba to Pink via anything in between and across. The DL4 manages good soundwise, but with it's poor reliability and clumsy tweaking it's letting me down more and more. Surprisingly many pros use this delay, though.
I've been playing electric for about 13-14 years, started off with classical few years earlier though. Now studying music and doing it for living.
If it were stolen (again), I would not do the same mistake I did before. Boss Giga/Nova Delay seems a lot better quality, if looking for a substitute. I'd propably seek for a couple of different analog ones - as I'll do in the near future anyway.
This question's great: "Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?" ... Haha, the circle completes: First it did help me get the sounds I was looking for when I bought it years ago - now it's a total drag with it's unreliability. Kind of like buying a new Fiat. New car is always good and the features suit you, but after a (rather short) while come the faults that make you frustrated. :D
So, I'm giving it a 5, mainly for the good sounds and versatility.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 249
Submitted 12/08/2008
at 01:27pm
by Cosmo
Ease of Use
:
10
Sound Quality
:
9
Reliability
:
No Opinion
OK, here's the deal. I bought this box before reading all the negative reviews on this site - "works great initially, but fails over time," "sporadic behavior," etc. While hooking this pedal up I immediately noticed something. While the adaptor connector on the back appears the same as most every other pedal, it is not (even the dimensions are slightly different)! Not only are the wattage requirements huge, but the voltage requirements are different. A normal pedal uses 9 volts DC - this pedal specifically says 'AC'. This would lead to the very type of behavior people have complained of. I could even see where the rectifier inside the pedal would detect the proper current yet be only getting half the wave - only the engineer who designed this would probably know. Don't chince out, if you have this pedal, buy the Line 6 adapter! They should have used a completely different plug!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
9
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 200
Submitted 11/23/2008
at 08:11pm
by Ken Andreoni
Ease of Use
:
5
A little bit of a learning curve is required. Although it is not hard to dial in a great delay on any of the patches.
Sound Quality
:
10
I tested many delays in every spectrum of price. This was my favorite! Great versatility and models! I use it with my Peavey JSX and Carvin guitars (AH2T and DC127). The looper is an added plus.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
No problems as of yet! Not that I expect any. I would not worry about a backup. I have gigged with it for a year now.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Not had to deal with them.
Overall Rating
:
10
I am a jazz/fusion and a freelance career musician. This delay does work for any style of music. I have been playing 27 years. I would definately miss this if it were lost or stolen.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 200 USED
Submitted 10/27/2008
at 11:29am
by G-Riff
Ease of Use
:
7
there are a lot of options here and it takes awhile to get the grasp of what all you can do. I've had this unit for a little less than a year and am still finding neat little tricks. It helps to have to little sticker that comes with it so that you can keep track of what tweak and tweeze do as those knobs change functions depending where you are.
3 preset knobs should be enough for anyone. and you can always tap tempo on any of the patches.
Sound Quality
:
10
I personally use the loop function, digital delay, and tape echo emulations the most and I think that all of them sound amazing especially the tape echo ones. My favorite thing to do is to turn down the repeats and delay time on tube echo mode and crank up the wow and flutter (tweak) to give the guitar a really lo-fi tape recorded sound. That little trick expands the sounds that you can use this for greatly. any delay that has a modulation on it you can isolate just the mod.
Sure its not a real tape echo but thats not why I bought it. It can make some really cool sounds after a little experimentation
Reliability
:
10
I can depend on this so far and would gig without a backup if I gigged. The only thing I have noticed is that sometimes if you are punching the play once button in loop mode over and over again...it will switch from half-speed to full-speed loop. but that doesnt happen often
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them
Overall Rating
:
10
I play a Gibson Les Paul '57 goldtop and a Vaccaro Generator-x (single coils) through a Fender Dual Showman Reverb. I listen to lots of Battles, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky. If you like any of those bands they all use this pedal and is in part why I bought it. If its good enough for them it should be good enough for you. You can get great standard delays out of this and also some really neat space sounds which makes it ideal for experimental music i think.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/04/2008
at 11:01pm
by chris
Ease of Use
:
10
Very easy to get a good sound. Just dial it up, then hold one of the three preset buttons until it blinks. You're good to go. The manual was great and entertaining, but the thing really required very little manual time.
Sound Quality
:
9
Using this primarily with a Rivera R100 Duo 12 through the effects loop, a host of other effects, and assorted PRS and Hamer guitars. It sounds great, particularly the tape echo simulation, and the wow and flutter you can dial in. Very authentic. I had an Echoplex to compare it to, and it pretty well nailed it. The digital delay is not nearly as clean as say, a Boss delay, but it has character and I like it. I have noticed none of the tone sucking problems that many people have had, my volume remains consistent on or off, though I've set up the echos to trail off in bypass mode.
Reliability
:
2
This is where the pedal falls flat. It just broke down on me, and this would be the fourth time. Granted, I've had it since about six months after it came out. So mine's been around the block, but let me say, I've had other pedals on my board, such as my Boss TU-2 and my Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere, that have never let me down. I also don't gig like crazy, and I keep it in a roadcase with the rest of my pedals. I'm also not a stomper, so there's no excuse there.
Sometimes it just stops working, other times it's intermittent, other times I have no problems. It's very inconsistent, except in the fact that it can't be consistently relied upon. I've probably sunk almost as much into the repairing of this thing as I paid for it in the first place. Line 6 needs to build some reliability into their products. Look at Boss. Yes, there are better sounding pedals, but one thing I can say for Boss is that even their cheapest pedal is built super reliably.
The sucky thing is that I can't think of another pedal that lets you dial in wow and flutter like this. Most pedals just add chorus, which sounds nothing like actual wow and flutter. This one actually does it correctly, with the flutter getting more intense as the echos continue. I'm probably going to end up with the Space Echo and something else, though I'll miss my Line 6.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
It didn't go down until after the warranty period. I haven't contacted line 6 in such a long time I don't remember.
Overall Rating
:
6
Love the ease of use, LOVE the sound, LOVE the tape echo sim, hate the fact that I can't rely on it.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 239
Submitted 10/01/2008
at 01:56am
by bluemonk82
Ease of Use
:
7
This unit is pretty easy to use. Although you might have to periodically go back and forth between your manual to understand what the "Tweez" and "Tweak" buttons do for some of the delays. But overall not too difficult.
The looping function, which is the only setting I use on the DL4, is really easy to use.
Sound Quality
:
8
Some of the delays sound pretty good and some of them don't. The ones that don't are way too digital sounding, not very organic and lack any kind of warmth.
However, the DL4's looping function sounds great. Very clean and clear.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
I bought mine in 2003 and haven't had any problems with it yet. Perhaps I have a good one? I'm not sure, but it hasn't failed on me yet.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't had to deal with Line 6, so no opinion.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Like I mentioned above, some of these delays sound great and some of them don't. You should enjoy many of them. My favorite delay on the DL4 is the ping-pong. This delay sounds really nice, especially if you have a stereo amplifier setup.
I don't use the DL4's delays that much. I have an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and a Boss DD-6 delay, and still consider Boss to be the makers of some of the best delay pedals out there. I use the looping function only. This is really the only reason why I bought this pedal for it's looping capability.
If you don't have a delay, then you can't go wrong, but you can't go wrong especially if you don't own a looper of some kind, so you're really getting two pedals in one.
Since 2003, I have found better looping pedals, but the Line 6 still stays in my chain if I want to do a quick rhythm loop or something. I love what this pedal does and the way it sounds doing it.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: can 306
Submitted 09/02/2008
at 08:45pm
by Jason
Email: jasonbank89<at>gmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
was easy to use. i found that out of the box it was a little overwhelming seeing all variations of delay available. after a read through the manual and a bit of time playing around with the unit i found it very easy to use. the loop function was also very simple to sit and play around with for hours.
Sound Quality
:
4
so i have a practice rig at home that consists of a traynor yc-80 and a fender fat taco strat. at the jam space i have a mesa triple rec through a standard recto cab, in my effects loop i have a korg tuner and a bbe sonic max. so when i got this pedal home and threw it infront of my traynor i was amazing at the quality of delay coming from this line 6 unit considering i never have been a big fan of the brand. i was looping and playing around with lo res and reverse delay. needless to say i was very happy with this pedal. the next weekend i brought it to my jam space and was completely heart broken. i ran it in my effects loop and found that running it with any amount of mix completely raped the tone out of my amp that i loved so much i noticed with some settings it was even trying to replicate the breakup of my amp which left me with a mucky line 6 mess behind what i was playing. i set the mix to about 2 out of 10 i found that it was an acceptable amount of tone loss but i could not hear the delay under pretty well any setting. next i tried running infront of my amp i found this to be a lot more effective and i did not seem to be sacrificing as much tone but i did notice a a large amount of my attack was gone and with playing in a faster band i could not stand to keep this pedal in my rig.
a week later i tried to return it to axe music but found that their return policy was insane and ended up trading to music center canada for money than axe would give me on a return.
moral of the story buy this if your running a clean amp or just want it for playing around with around home, and dont buy from axe they will make you feel 10 fold worse about your mistake
Reliability
:
No Opinion
did not keep it long enough to see how it held up although it seemed pretty solid
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
3
in 15 years of playing guitar this was the first piece of gear i bought that i honestly could not have been let down more. i see when it would be practical now but if your anything other than some guy playing in his basement with the need for a diverse set of delays, this pedal will just not cut it and with this pedal i have i have lost all hope for ever finding a piece of line 6 gear that dose not colour my guitar with some sort of digital aurora
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 500150
Submitted 08/29/2008
at 12:22pm
by Oliver Montez
Ease of Use
:
4
To get the most out of this pedal you need to do some serious reading. Especially to get the most out of the loop sampler's half time and reverse functions. The manual spends too much time pushing it's other products to get enough from it.
Sound Quality
:
10
I used it with a fender American S-1 HSS Strat. (Note past tense, we will get to that). My backup is an upgraded Gibson SG Standard. These go through multiple effects to my Traynor YCV40 with celestion vintage 30 speaker. The reason that I got this pedal is that all my favorite guitarists have one of these on their pedal board. Dave Knudson has 6! These things sound amazing WHEN THEY WORK.
Reliability
:
1
I bought my first DL4 from Ebay 2nd hand. This unit set on fire within 5 minutes of use whilst being used on the correct PSU. Luckily I got my money back. My second and present unit has the following problems - 1. When the unit is off but has a signal it repeats every note I play. 2. When I switch it on, the lights don't correspond to the switch (E.G. Press A - B lights up). 3. When you finally get it turned on, it wont turn off. And the Loop sampler? don't know WTF happend with that. This is a $250 unit. This shouldn't happen - as for customer suppport....
Customer Support
:
1
I bought this pedal during my short stay in America to save money because in the UK they cost about $350. As soon as I had problems I resisted putting it in the wall and got in touch with a certain "G center." They wouldn't touch the thing. They wouldn't help me at all and they weren't going to have it back so I started trying to send them Emails which were all sent back by Postmaster saying the email didn't exist. Getting worried I spent the day calling the number in the manual for a UK service which was the wrong number. Eventually after getting very annoyed on the Line6 forums someone gave me a number. Now I have to pay to send it half the length of the country and pay as quoted "At least ??65 (about $130) not including shipping (Another $20) and it will be done in about 2 weeks."
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I could cry thinking about this pedal. The thing I enjoy about guitar is manipulating sound and experimenting with all different pedals and I just can't get one of these to work. They are potentially one of the best delay pedals out there, but they re the most unreliable pieces of junk at the same time. I cannot stress how important it is to be certain you have time and money replacing these things because they are pretty special and I still want one. Even though I have ****luck.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 100 USED
Submitted 06/23/2008
at 09:13am
by Josh Ryan
Email: RyanJ<at>si dot edu
Ease of Use
:
7
With 16 different available effects it's easy to get lost at first, but the manual is extremely informative and you'll get very used to which settings do what. The only difficult part is the Tweak and Tweez knobs as they both perform different functions depending on the type of delay you're set on.
Sound Quality
:
8
I play a Rickenbacker 330 into a Fender Twin Reverb and I've gotta say I've never noticed any loss of tone. Every time I plug in my guitar I go through my DL4 and I've been using it for about 8 years now, so perhaps I've just gotten used to the sound, but I know my tone is good and I have no problems with that.
Reliability
:
3
Sadly, I cannot rely on my DL4 anymore. I'm currently on my 3rd unit (like many others on here) and once this thing dies on me, I will not buy a 4th.
I'm having the issue where I press button #1 and button #3 comes on, or I press on button #2 and I have to press it like, 5 times for it to finally come on, etc...
These things are notoriously unreliable. It's EXTREMELY tempting to get another because I love all the different delay options (even though I only truly use 3 or so of them) and I really love the looping option. Although, the looping doesn't loop in perfect time, it slowly degrades, but still, very nice to have all this in one package.
In any case, not reliable. Mine only last about a year or two then they start breaking down.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt with Line 6. I never bother calling support for these type of things.
Overall Rating
:
5
In my opinion, if you're looking for your first good delay pedal, buy one. Used, preferably (it's not worth $250 new). Use it for as long as it can go. You may get lucky and it might last you a few years. BUT, once it breaks down on you, upgrade. Find something better and more reliable. Even though I'm on my 3rd, I've really enjoyed this unit for the time I had them, wouldn't have traded it for much else. But I will not buy a 4th.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/21/2008
at 07:19am
by Axel Enoc
Email: skyline0 dot 0design<at>gmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
Pretty easy....you have delay rate, repeats, and mix (dry/wet blend) for each effect....then you have a tweak knob and a tweez knob....I would say that these are the trickiest as they change their purpose for almost everyone of the 16 delay modes. But, once you get it, you get it. I'll give it an 8....because I'm sure it'd take some people a little while to get used to.
Sound Quality
:
7
Alright....so, this is what matters....
When I first got this I was very excited because it seemed to be able to do a lot. Yeah, it can do a lot....but most of the time it sounds horrible. Too digital. Too fake. The tone is horrible and it lacks a lot of depth and which is really the beauty of delay. So, for a long time I just used it to make crazy sounds by setting the repeat to maximum, letting it self-oscillate and then turning the rate knob. I love to do this with delay or just make loops. So, I was pretty satisfied. Then, recently, I decided to sit down with it and try to get some sounds that are more useful and actually occupy the 3 available banks for presets. And....wow....to my surprise, I got some very nice, interesting, unique sounds. And, the tone is okay. Of course, I back it up with other effects, but it is not bad on its own. I used the Volume Swell with a slow swell rate and fast, long delay to increase the sustain and that sounds amazing. No modulation though. The modulation features on this thing hurt my ears. Unless one is trying to make something kinda wacky and experimental. Then they can be pretty cool. I also got a very good Reverse delay. Although, this took me a pretty long time to achieve. It actually almost reverses right away. That's what I was going for. Instant reverse....not delayed reverse. Also, the Digital Delay w/ Mod is pretty cool. I put the modulation depth to maximum and found a nice speed for it and I got a sound that warbles like a Space Echo. But, unlike a Space Echo, you know that it is going to happen because it is preset. This is a good DIGITAL sound. The Dynamic Delay can be pretty cool as well because you can set it in a way where the delay sound is totally missing until you stop playing your instrument and there is no incoming signal....then all the delay fades in heavily playing back a blend of everything you played while it was quiet. Very interesting. So, this thing can be very fun to make weird sounds with....space, sci-fi sounds....but for very beautiful delay, I would not recommend it. As soon as you plug your instrument into it and go out of it into an amp....it eats up your instruments tone. I play Fenders with custom pick-up combinations and naturally I get wonderful tone out of them. Full, balanced sound. This destroys that half way. Something I am going to try....is to run it into my amplifiers effects loop so that my guitar doesn't go into it....maybe this will help but I'm sure I will have to mess with the mix knob to get it right. But, now that I think of it....this might work. Most likely. So, maybe that is a way around the tone issue. Anyway, I think that Line 6 just naturally makes things that are way too digital sounding. I mean, digital is good....I like it sometimes. But, there's got to be a balance, I think. I do use this delay a lot, though. It is very fun and interesting. Especially in combination with other effects, the delays are very useful. You can make them sound better. And an effects loop can probably save your guitar. 7 for bad but fixable tone issues.
Reliability
:
7
Well, I had a DL-4....and the 4 buttons started to malfunction....I'd hit button 1 and preset button number 3 would come on. I'd try to tap a tempo and the effect would bypass....I'd hit button 3 and 2 would come on. And so on....So, I sold it for $50 and got another one that I have had for about 2 years now. It is perfectly fine. I think the other one was just a rare issue that is probably not very common with these DL-4's. Otherwise, I think it's pretty reliable. If I had money though, I would have a back-up for every piece of equipment that I have. Because you never know what can happen. 7 for that first encounter....
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I have never tried....I usually contact companies....just to get to know them....but I have never tried with Line 6. Probably because some great force knows that I shouldn't contact them, because I will just be disappointed and is keeping me from them. it is probably for the best. I don't imagine Line 6 would be very good with Customer Support....They're such a big Guitar Center kind of company and they are usually the worst for this.
Once, I sold a Boss DD-5 to some guy who used to work for Line 6 and helped design the DL-4. He hates the DL_4. Heh. I don't hate it....I just thought that was funny. Anyway, I have no say in Customer Support.
Overall Rating
:
6
The DL-4 makes very great sounds....it would be great if it were true-bypass and if it was less digital or at least able to be balanced. But, in the end, it is interesting, it helps me with ideas for songs, I would get another one if it were stolen (and I have a lot of other delays....so that is saying a lot)....i like it overall....it is suitable for my experimental, art-rock, ambient phase....but it is not for everyone. So....6.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 04/06/2008
at 10:02am
by Fritz S
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Sound Quality
:
8
This is a follow up to my previous review. I have learned how to get a usable sound out of this pedal and now feel much better about the pedal all around.
The key to using this pedal is to use it in a parallel loop configuration so that your direct sound does not go through the pedal at all and is not sterilized and ruined by it. Turn the mix knob all the way up on the pedal for effect only.
Using a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue I have my direct guitar sound going through one channel and the effected only(phase inverted to compensate for blackface design) going through the other. (Both channels on these Fender amps play at the same time.) This works great! The cold sterile sound of the pedal is not as noticable when it is confined to the delays only and mixed with pure real guitar sound. There are some small volume differences when switching between some of the effects but I can just reach over and use the channel volume on the amp to compensate.
What this means for me is that this pedal is only seriously usable with an amp with a 2 channel Fender design or a parallel (not the more common series) effects loop.
The sound lacks the mojo and warmth of using actual analog or tape effects for sure but the models are really excellent and can be inspiring. I'm enjoying the pedal now.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250.00
Submitted 03/04/2008
at 01:08pm
by Fritz S
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
5
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.
Reliability
:
4
The original power supply failed and I had to buy a new one for 25$. The buttons usually work but occasionally malfunction.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 225
Submitted 12/09/2007
at 03:19am
by Poindexter Labs
Ease of Use
:
9
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.
Sound Quality
:
9
-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).
Reliability
:
8
-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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't needed it.
Overall Rating
:
9
-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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: CAD 300
Submitted 11/26/2007
at 02:05am
by Wired
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
7
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.
Reliability
:
4
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.
Customer Support
:
1
L6 are terrible for support. I called their Canadian office and got an angry frenchman who wouldn't help.
Overall Rating
:
7
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
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/20/2007
at 01:04pm
by jmob
Ease of Use
:
8
pretty easy to use, read the manual, and the stickers on the machine will help.
Sound Quality
:
7
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.
Reliability
:
6
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with
Overall Rating
:
8
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/19/2007
at 01:49pm
by FullMoonFever
Ease of Use
:
8
Very easy to use, until it stopped working!!
Sound Quality
:
8
Great sound, nice modulated delays, reverse delays, looping, all sounded great, till it stopped working !!
Reliability
:
1
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!
Customer Support
:
2
Contacted company, but not much help.
Overall Rating
:
1
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 350
Submitted 11/06/2007
at 03:48am
by Igz
Ease of Use
:
8
Not extremely difficult to use, if you can use stompboxes and if you can read the manual supplied, then you can fly this one...
Sound Quality
:
5
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.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
6
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 249
Submitted 10/09/2007
at 09:56am
by jeff
Ease of Use
:
5
Sound Quality
:
5
Reliability
:
1
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
1
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!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: euro 450
Submitted 09/13/2007
at 05:11pm
by paul
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
7
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.
Reliability
:
8
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...
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never had to
Overall Rating
:
8
I play drone-rock. Playing 22 yrs.
This is my favourite bit of kit..
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 08/14/2007
at 11:22pm
by jojo
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
10
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!
Reliability
:
10
dont know but if it breaks ill be posting it. it seems a little fragile but no more then any analog delay pedal is.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
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!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 06/26/2007
at 02:33pm
by jesse berthe
Ease of Use
:
10
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.
Sound Quality
:
8
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)
Reliability
:
2
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
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never had enough time to send it back to get fixed, just kept buying new ones because i needed them for gigs.
Overall Rating
:
8
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 06/25/2007
at 04:09pm
by chuck
Email: kermit230 at aol<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
10
Fairly simple to get a good sound from. Easy to edit patches and program on the fly. There are a lot of settings on here that somewhat useless IMHO. I really only use the Analog Delay and Digital Delay settings.
Sound Quality
:
6
Well, it certainly doesn't sound like what it says it models. I used to have a Deluxe Memory Man, as well as a DD-6 and an Ibanez AD-9 delay. Those took up a hell of a lot more space on my board, hence the reason for the switch. However, I very much so enjoyed the sound of those 3 pedals in comparison to this green machine.
This pedal seems to add white noise to the signal, as well as sucking some tone and coloring the sound in a not-so musical way. The other delays were noisy, but in a non-harsh sorta low-fi way that was more musical.
Here is my current setup:
Telecaster Deluxe/Jazzmaster -> TU2 -> Homemade Orange Squeezer Clone -> SD-1 (modded) -> Homemade DOD-250 Overdrive (modded) -> Turbo Rat -> EH Smallstone -> CS-2 Chorus (Vibe Modded) -> TR-2 Tremolo (Modded)-> DL4 -> Silverface Twin Reverb
So I have a somewhat elaborate setup...And I have made some of my own pedals and tweaked things to my liking. However, I do use all of these pedals in a given night, and do notice even the slightest change to the sound setup when I add or remove something. The DL4 seems to thin out the sound slightly when added to the chain.
Reliability
:
10
I haven't had any issues with it since I purchased it a year back. It hasn't given me any of the problems people are listing on here. I've heard horror stories from friends, but perhaps the new generation of these pedals have the kinks worked out of them. Who knows. I'm using the Line6 Power supply on this pedal. Haven't had any "wink outs" or power fluxes. No issues at all.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never delt with.
Overall Rating
:
7
I play in an indie rock / low-fi style band. It matches what I'm looking for... ALMOST. It sounds as though if it had just a bit more development, they would have really nailed it. Some of the modes are just too similar sounding to each-other. I really think they could have worked longer on the analog delay mode, so that the decays would become more and more washed out over time, like the good-old bucket brigade chips in the analog delays (like Memory Man). It still seems a bit too bright to me on most settings. Instead of giving the option of tweaking and tweezing treble and bass, they should have set these to match the pedals they were modeling, and given other options like Decay Tone.
If it gets stolen or breaks, I won't be buying another. I'll probably get another Memory Man Deluxe.
It doesn't help make music, it just gets in the way of being creative. It just doesn't have the vibe I'm looking for.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 05/25/2007
at 03:34am
by Nanook
Ease of Use
:
8
Pretty easy to use. Manual is very instructive but I found it easy to use even without it. When you found the delays you like you learn what the Tweak and Tweez buttons does. Easy to program new settings, easy to use the tap to change speed. I even use the expression pedal that can be used with any of the knobs like changing speed repeats etc, even that one is easy to use. Once you get the hang of it you will have a good time.
Sound Quality
:
8
It sounds really good. A lot of nice delays in the same pedal is really cool and that was the reason I bought it.
But I kind of feel a volume drop when I switch it on and on some of the delays. It adds a litte bit of treble when switched on, at least on some of the effects. A little bit anoying but it??s nothing I hear when using it in a band situation.
Reliability
:
1
No way, the quality of this pedal sucks big time. A friend of mine bought it for me in the N.Y. and it didn??t work when I got it. Had to struggle with a service guy in N.Y. who took his time and first sent me the wrong pedal. When I finally got my pedal almost a year later it worked fine in 5 months when I got the circuit board replaced. Now it just went dead again. I think it??s something with the power but I really have no clue. After checking support pages, speaking with friends, checking forums I realized this is a piece of crappy quality. I??ve only used it at home, fixed in my pedal board and would never rely on it without a backup. It??s pity since it sound so good.
Customer Support
:
9
Got answer pretty fast but it was nothing that really helped me. I sent it to a service center and almost didn??t get it back. I called up the support (not Line 6 themselves) and they were very helpful and called the service dude and asked him what the heck he was doing. I hope they cut that guy off.
Overall Rating
:
1
I play soul- blues- country-inspired music and I mainly use the delay for soloing. I??ve been playing for 20 years in groups but I mainly play acoustic guitar now and doesn??t do any electric guitar gig that often. I reallt like this pedal but the quality sucks. I would like to have one better working but I won??t buy another one if they can??t fix mine or if they would charge me a lot of money to fix it. It??s a really versatile pedal and the money would be well spent if it was reliable.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 05/18/2007
at 04:09pm
by pooped out looper
Ease of Use
:
10
definitely easy... but i've been using it for years now... maybe 5 by now.
Sound Quality
:
1
i have two of the original pedals... use both for my gigs... have for years now.. and the sound doesnt seem to be so bad because i am just using the looping effect on it and as long as the signal i put in doesnt have too much distortion on it, the quality of sound of the loops are great.
BUT... i recently had to purchase a new pedal only because one of them was misplaced on my travels.... and... was a big disappointment when i
got the new one.
i had just an hour until soundcheck... so i thought buying a new one would be no risk....??but as soon as i took it out of the box and
plugged it in... there was a big white noise in the background.
i used only batteries... put in another set of batteries.. checked all the cables... and at first i didnt think that sound was coming from the new line 6... i was testing out all my other stuff.. and finally.. isolating the new line 6... by itself with my instrument plugged into it... that was the only pedal the made this white noise...
unfortunately.. was too late to exchange it at the store.. and it really was shitty to have to build loops with white noise that grew with each new loop. really crap.
i am sure there is a big difference between something made in a sweatshop and something made by people who are part of a union.
Reliability
:
1
NOT THE NEW ONES:
my old ones... those i have not yet ever had problems with.
but for spending 260 euros... (that is more US dollars...)
to get a piece of shyyyte... was quite a disappointment.
you would think that there would at least be some quality control
on something that makes such a messy sound while it was just in bypass mode...
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
i am just taking this pedal back and getting my money back....
and wait for my misplaced one to get delivered back to me.
then i am going to research some other easy to use and more reliable, better made loooping pedal.. and start getting used to using something new so that the day when my line 6 pedals die.. i will already be prepared to use something else... or maybe i will not see the day they die because my loss of faith in line 6 products will guide me to other company's pedals.
Overall Rating
:
1
works great for what i do.
am only using one function of the pedal for what i do... and
so i know i can find many other pedals that do the same thing.
or.. if anyone has one of the old american-made ones... i'd rather buy that.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 05/16/2007
at 01:39pm
by Dogman
Ease of Use
:
8
Fairly easy, if in doubt check manual or experiment
Sound Quality
:
8
Nice range of delays and 14 sec sampler, Very nice sounding pro pedal.
Reliability
:
1
Heres where this get a sour rating from me. I was so delicate with this and it never left my house once. Right after my warranty expired this pedal died. The DL-4 was not built to last, i wish i read the reviews here before I bought this junk. I own many pedals for over 20 years and they still work great. This barley made it after 1 year and for the price of almost 300 with the power pack (sold seprately) I would say its not worth the dissapointment. This pedal is a risk and a gamble, sure it sounds great but why take that chance. Not woth the hassel. If you do, most definatly get the insurance and when or if it craps out get a boss.
Customer Support
:
3
Answered my question on the forum quickly but was only a superficial answer, a bandaid on a major wound. I'm going to try and call but I don't have the patience to deal with customer service, this shyte should still be working for the price damnit. I will no longer purchase Line 6 pedals. Not after this. Line 6 should address this issue and extend the miserly 1 year warranty. I contacted the 3rd party repair place and its gonna cost $75 just for the tech to look at it for up to an hour if he can repair it in the time if more serious can probably cost much more if the board is fried and not worth it.
Overall Rating
:
3
A really good sounding delay pedal with many features and perfect for my style of playing only when it was WORKING!!!!! It feels so solidly made on the outside but made with egg shells and glass on the inside. ALL dissatisfied DL4 owners should complain to the better business bureau for Line 6 making a lamely built product thats flawed. Thats how I feel.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/23/2007
at 08:30pm
by equipped
Ease of Use
:
10
Very easy to use.
Sound Quality
:
10
This delay pedal sounds incredable, add's load's of unique dirt to your sound that you won't get anywhere els.
Reliability
:
6
Ive had mine for 2 month's, bought it brand new and it still work's fine, although the power supply is very sensative, any change in the supply itself, and it will shut off, not good if your using it for gigging. I use it in my home studio to run my synth's, and other gear through. It's a great pedal for that type of use, but woudn't buy one used.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them.
Overall Rating
:
7
I give it a 7 because you get some heafty unique delay effect's out of this thing, but that crap power supply issue knock's it down a good bit. Shame really, could have been a classic, im shure the rack version will.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/02/2007
at 01:38pm
by Buck
Email: gtrplayer1231383 at aol<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
8
I thought it was easy to use in conjunction with the manual. After playing with it for an hour, I had 3 usable delays programmed in. Haven't messed with the looper yet.
Sound Quality
:
4
Sound quality is poor and 'somewhat' close to the effects they claim to model. I A/B'd it up to my deluxe memory man and there was no comparison. I'm not a fan of multi-effects units, but I need different delays, I thought this would do the job. To me the sacrifice in the authenticity of the target modeled effect was worth the convienence of having 3 delays in one pedal for live gigs. So yeah, it colors your sound alot and isn't very authentic, but it does 3 pedals plus a looper in the space of 2. It's the only non-true bypass pedal in my rig and you sure can tell unfortunately. My chain is Les Paul Standards>Ernie Ball Volume>Vox Wah>True Grit Overdrive>Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive>DL4>Matchless Clubman 35.
Reliability
:
1
I just picked up a new exchange at Guitar Center. The first one let me down both of the 2 times I gigged with it. At home while programming it, no problem. The odd thing is that both times it crapped out, it didn't fail until about 2 or more hours into the gig. Both times I ended up bypassing the delay completely so I could finish the gig without anymore embarassing moments. When trying to find the problem, I accidentally jiggled the input cable and it intermittently would come back on. Thinking it was a cable, I rewired my entire pedal board in George L's, worked great at home. Next gig, same problem occured after a few hours of playing. (I do have the correct Line 6 power supply for it.) so yeah, I'm hoping I had a bad connector on the input or something. If this one fails on me, this will be my first and last Line 6 purchase. If any other owners know of an easy fix for my problem, feel free to correspond.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't yet dealt with them. Guitar Center exchanged it for me with no issues.
Overall Rating
:
5
BAD:
-Colors the sound and sucks tone
-Does not accurately reproduce the vintage pedals it claims to model.
-Failed on both gigs I used it on.
GOOD:
-Has some cool unique delay sounds.
-Can store 3 delays plus have a looper in the space of 2 pedals.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
-If you have a way to isolate the pedal such as as a switchable effects loop, do it. Anything you can do remove it from the chain when you aren't using it would help your tone. Unfortunately my amp doesn't have a switchable loop, and I'm not buying another pedal to save this one from itself.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 249
Submitted 03/23/2007
at 08:57pm
by Winston Psmith
Ease of Use
:
7
This is an update to a very old review, so some ratings have changed. Anyhow . . .
I had an easy time dialing up sounds on my DL4, but I thought of it as a digital device, with presets, rather than as a big green pedal. It's clear that a lot of users expect the DL4 to act more like a normal pedal, where the knob settings tell you what's going on. The DL4 doesn't do that; if you dial up a sound, and switch off the effect WITHOUT saving the settings, you'll get whatever preset is stored there. That could totally screw up an otherwise great performance. Once you've saved your settings as one of three presets, the knob settings don't matter anymore; when you hit switch 1, 2, or 3 you'll get preset 1, 2, or 3, regardless of how the knobs are set. In Looper mode, the DL4 DOES act like a big pedal, and the knob settings work in realtime.
The Manual is long on self-indulgence, and lean on specifics. I got what I needed from it, but I can't ignore the complaints from so many of my fellow musicians, and I'm not willing to make the assumption that so many musicians must be stupid. The knob settings you see under the description of each effect model; those are the knob settings used to create that preset, but the Manual never really tells you that. You don't get any important specs like Current Draw, S/N Ratio, Input/Output Impedance, etc. Even a simple Boss DS-1 has that info in the Manual. It may not change how you would use the pedal, but it reflects a sort of carelessness that seems to be the problem with many of the Line 6 Modelers.
I had given the DL4 an 8 or 9 for Ease of Use, but I can see where it's probably closer to a 6 or 7 for many users. For myself, I'll give it a 7; double-clicking to get to Reverse Loop mode has gotten really old. I have an RC-20, and even though I had to buy an extra footswitch to click in and out of Reverse, it's worth it.
Sound Quality
:
8
Not much new to say here. I've seen two of my favorite artists using the DL4; Bill Frisell, and Andy MacKay (!?!), who plays sax and oboe with Roxy Music. Couldn't see what Phil Manzanera had on his side of the stage. I'm still using the same three sounds (Auto-Volume Swell, Sweep Echo & Reverse Delay), and they all still come up when I step on the switch. I use Auto-Volume to get a Boss Slow Gear w/Delay sound, Sweep Echo gives me a Led Zep "No Quarter" sound (more like the electric piano sound), and I use the Reverse Delay full wet, at 2.5 seconds of Delay. When I use that setting live, people look at my hands, trying to figure out what's going on. I use the Looper most of all.
My rig is still mostly mahogany planks, with HB's, run through a GT-3 and a handful of Delay/Loopers. My current favorite guitar is probably my black LP Special SL, with a Roland synth pickup. The DL4 handles the output from the GT-3, and either of my Guitar synths (a GR-1 & a GR-30) without any added noise or signal drop-off.
Other than the three presets I made for myself, and the Loop mode, I don't really use most of the other models. I mostly found them uninteresting, not really bad, but not worth taking up a memory slot. If I just want a simple Delay sound, I can use the Delay in the GT-3, and for longer Delays, I have a DD-20 and an Akai Headrush.
One sound issue that I've noticed with every Line 6 Modeler I've used; the switches pop when you step on them. It isn't as bad as it could be, but I thought we'd moved past that in the 80's. (On some live albums from the 70's, you can hear the "pop" noise right before a big solo, just when the guitarist kicks in that old Phaser or Overdrive.) Maybe it's a subtle attempt to recreate that "vintage" vibe, but I doubt it.
Reliability
:
10
Here's the critical issue; my DL4 still works. Like, after five years, or so, still works. I haven't experienced any of the nightmares breakdowns I've read about in these, and other reviews. In my earlier review, I mentioned that MY DL4 is one of the original, American-made units. Later on, they were made in Maylasia, and finally, in China. I wonder if some of the QC problems didn't start then.
Another thing I've noticed in reviews of all the Line 6 Modelers, not just the DL4; a lot of players started having problems during, or right after a live gig. I know that a lot of clubs have really funky power fluctuations. Lights, sound boards, compressors in coolers and AC units, all of these things are sucking power from the system, which means that instead of getting 110 volts of clean AC power, the actual voltage is going up and down like a cheap roller-coaster. That can really screw with your gear, especially digital gear. It's not an excuse for poor workmanship, but the combination of a sketchy circuit board and a few bad power spikes could be fatal.
Having said all this, I still give my DL4 a 10 for reliability; I usually have at least one other Looper (an RC-20) and one other long Delay (the Headrush) with me, so I won't be stuck, even if the DL4 dies on me. I probably wouldn't buy another one, if this one went bad on me, like so many other reviewers describe.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt with them directly, but the website isn't very helpful.
Overall Rating
:
9
Let's see, experimental/noise guitar, w/lots of loop/delay sounds, so the DL4 is a good fit. I've been playing since the dawn of Surf Guitar, and I have enough gear that I could probably reproduce any of the sounds I get from the DL4, just not all in one box. (Yes, I have DD-20, but I don't take it out; that LCD display looks too fragile.)
If my DL4 left me, I might look for another one, but I would probably look for a used American-made unit before I'd buy a new overseas box. If it just plain died, I don't know if I'd want to spend the money on another potentially suicidal box.
When I got the DL4, there wasn't anything else quite like it; now Boss has released a pile of Loopers, and the DD-20, which has lot of the same features, as well as 23 seconds of delay. There's also a new version of the Akai Headrush, with 32 seconds of Delay/Looping, and, for insane looping, the Electro Harmonix 2880.
Now that the ToneCore pedals are everywhere, it's pretty clear that Line 6 has abandoned the Modeler line for something that acts more like a regular pedal. I've read some pretty unhappy reviews of those products, too; I don't know what to think about Line 6 gear at this point. If you were a friend of mine, asking if I thought you should buy a DL4, I'd probably tell you to read ALL the reviews you could stand, and then decide for yourself; it's your money. The stores are still full of DL4's, if you're feeling lucky.
Given the other products out there for Loop/Delay freaks, it's hard to recommend the DL4, especially if customer support is as bad as people say. Mine still works for me, but that's one unit out of thousands. Mine rates a 9, but yours might only be a 3, or worse, a 1. Let the buyer beware, I guess.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 275
Submitted 03/13/2007
at 08:09pm
by adamfo85
Ease of Use
:
8
its pretty easy to use, comes with a manual not rocket science but the tweek and the tweeze is kind of lame
Sound Quality
:
7
sounds pretty good, it obviously doesnt have the warmth of an analog pedal, when i played my friends memory man the tone from the memory man blew the dl4 outta the water, but other than that its alright.
Reliability
:
3
well i hadnt had any problems with it for a while and now its jacked up, sounds to me like line 6 needs to work out the kinks in there pedals because they always keep breaking on people, sounds like not to quality of a pedal. wide range of delay's but for $250-300 people want stuff that works, id almost rather sell this thing and buy a memory man.
Customer Support
:
2
on their website you have to use there support forum, which i posted a question late last night and still have gotten no answers from them, if the problem lies with them, because i take good care of my pedals then why is my crap breaking and why is it taking so long to respond back from the company? i gig with this pedal 2-3 times a week so it would be nice for them to get back to me with an answer
Overall Rating
:
5
if this thing was lost or stolen id be said because i paid 275 bucks for it, but i think id replace it with a memory man or a different delay, i wouldnt want to risk spending the money again and having this stupid thing crap out on me.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 219.00
Submitted 02/13/2007
at 07:06pm
by spooksmcgee84
Ease of Use
:
9
Read the manual it explains its self
Sound Quality
:
9
My rig is vox wah>ernieball volume>visualsounds jeckel and hyde>voodoo lab sparkle drive>ibanez ts9>mxr dyna comp>digitec whammy>boss ch1>mxr 6 band gf eq>line6 dl4 into a marshall jtm 30 watt combo(blues breaker)
i love my setup
with the dl4 theres nothing i can't do its extremely practical but it can sound a bit digital. So what line6 only makes digital products know what your buying before you buy it. For what it does its well worth the minor sacrifice in tone which my mxr eq cleans up pretty well anyways because of it tho i'll have to give it a 9.
Reliability
:
10
Before i bought it i was kinda swayed by all the bad reveiws on this and really all line6 pedals, it scared me, but so many people use them almost all of my favorite guitarists use them. So i bought it and its never let me down but i take very good care of it i keep it in a ata case at all times, it is about 250 brand new so you should too. I can't really say you should trust some these reveiws, people are dumb and probably don't take of there equipment i'm not a rich man so i do. I say find out for yourself and buy one.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
hell!!
Overall Rating
:
9
Great pedal, great "digital effect" i would recommend it to anyone of any style. My rig would not be complete without it
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 01/06/2007
at 06:16pm
by Ryan J
Ease of Use
:
10
Right out of the box the pedal comes set with a selection of delays that show you as much as they can about the unit. With three selectable delays, a lighted Tap Tempo switch, and all the adjusting knobs recessed into the pedal, it feels solid and is inviting to be played. The manual is informative and somewhat lighthearted. It details the pedal's adjustments, and gives you specific references to which delay pedal it's modeling (note the name) and an optimized tone for the setting. It comes with some stickers to slap on the pedal that tell you the settings, and one can only agree with the common feeling that "Tweak" and "Tweez" aren't very helpful.
I was mildly amused, though. I give it a 10!
Sound Quality
:
9
My favorite artists are Buckethead, Buckethead, and more Buckethead!
Only kidding, but from the Van Halen/Classic Rock, to the indie Minus The Bear (he's got two of them), to anything I've encountered, I've been able to model a suitable delay and control it easily.
I use it with my gibson sg, in a full pedal board with a variety of makes and manufacturers pedals, and into a Marshall JCM2000 DSL 100
Sometimes I get an audible click in the switches, which is something I've wanted to get looked at, but other than that I think the sound quality is the best thing about this pedal.
Reliability
:
6
I love this pedal, but admittedly it's the third one I'm on. The first one broke, the second one got stolen, and the third one is bolted to my pedal board with a poisonous cobra in the battery compartment so noone takes off with it. Right now, one of the switches doesn't work. The far left one? The switch is unreliable. Too bad that channel is my favorite sounding delay, that I have not been able to replicate, so sometimes I endure it not turning on or off.
Customer Support
:
8
They're just like any manufacturer, if you play by their rules, they'll do what it takes. I was going to get my second one serviced and they were helpful via e-mails, but it was stolen.
Overall Rating
:
8
I play rock, and alot of heavier sorts of indie/emo, and for everything I need it's a solid match. the issue of reliability is a big thing, but if it breaks or if it gets stolen again, I'll get another. versitile, worthwhile, useful.
Needs longer delay. think delay pedal + loop station in one unit
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 12/01/2006
at 11:02am
by pyroguy2000
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
10
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.
Reliability
:
4
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
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.
Overall Rating
:
8
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/23/2006
at 12:00am
by jaime
Ease of Use
:
8
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.
Sound Quality
:
9
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.
Reliability
:
2
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I have no opinion, because my pedal "conveniently" died as soon as my warranty expired.
Overall Rating
:
3
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: GBP 160
Submitted 11/19/2006
at 05:46pm
by Maxwell House
Ease of Use
:
7
It is relatively easy to use as long as you RTFM. Manual is easy to understand, but Tweak and Tweeze?
Sound Quality
:
8
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.
Reliability
:
2
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 :-)
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt but other line 6 stuff is poor
Overall Rating
:
1
I play different stuff and like creating sound textures and stuff. This pedal could have been great, but it does not work.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 225.00
Submitted 11/03/2006
at 12:08am
by Ronald G Adam
Ease of Use
:
4
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.
Sound Quality
:
8
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.
Reliability
:
8
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!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
8
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
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 11/01/2006
at 03:16pm
by 3d Graham
Ease of Use
:
7
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-.
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
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.
Reliability
:
1
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Grumble
Overall Rating
:
1
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/19/2006
at 01:07pm
by localmotion411
Ease of Use
:
2
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.
Sound Quality
:
7
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.
Reliability
:
1
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I'm not bothering.
Overall Rating
:
1
Like I said, if it might die on you, you might as well not have it. I'm done with Line 6.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/12/2006
at 12:33pm
by Jeff
Ease of Use
:
9
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.
Sound Quality
:
9
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.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've not tried to contact Line 6 so I don't know.
Overall Rating
:
10
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 10/08/2006
at 12:44am
by aaron
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
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.
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
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.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
HAH. Worthless.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 09/29/2006
at 12:14pm
by SuperStringGtr
Ease of Use
:
7
Relatively easy...somewhat self explanatory, but reading the manual is a good idea.
Sound Quality
:
6
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.
Reliability
:
1
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.
Customer Support
:
3
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.
Overall Rating
:
1
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 09/21/2006
at 05:55am
by Giggy
Ease of Use
:
10
Easy to use.
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
Sound quality is great. Crystal clear.
Reliability
:
2
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???
Customer Support
:
9
Great customer support.
Overall Rating
:
1
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.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: USD 250
Submitted 08/29/2006
at 01:04pm
by Jon
Ease of Use
:
9
It is easy to get a good useable sound out of it, whether its a Rock-a-Billy Slapback to Edge style analog delays to hi-fi Delays. You need to put the stickers on it that denote what Tweek and Tweez do, and you will need a light to read them when its really dark on stage.
The three presets are a brilliant idea, wish all pedals had this.
Sound Quality
:
7
I play blues, soul, roots rock. This pedal can get you in the territory of great tone and can be very musical, but beware, it significantly colours your clean sound. It adds a honky quality to your sound, as a result of digitizing your tone.... if you want to use it, run it through a true bypass loop box and turn the mix all the way up and adjust on your bypass looper. That way you can have your real clean tone with the delay as a second mixable tone with its own volume control.
Reliability
:
1
This is where this product is abysmal, terrible, totally unacceptable. If you want to buy this for your bedroom, to step on with your socks on a carpeted floor its fine, but take it from a touring musician, if you are ever gonna step on the switches with your shoe or put this in your pedalboard it is absolutely going to die sooner or later. Switches fail, solder joints fail, presets get lost, pots fail, The only people who give this a high rating for reliability haven't used it in a real touring situation or have been lucky so far. I was in this category until recently, and mine was one of the earlier models that were supposedly better. Trust me on this please... its from real world experience!!! Line 6 has lowered the expectations of everyone but the fact is these things should work indefinitely, forever, without failing.... Like Boss pedals.
Customer Support
:
7
I have called line 6 for other things, they have been fine. But seriously, you can't just put something in a heavy duty box and expect it to be heavy duty. The quality control is terrible and this thing is just an on-stage problem waiting to happen.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: $280 (Australian) used
Submitted 07/01/2006
at 04:47am
by Munkey Boy
Ease of Use
:
8
On a whole, very user friendly. Anything that you can't figure out just by playing around with it, is not greatly important - and the manual explains everything well anyway.
Sound Quality
:
8
Gear used: Gibson '59 Historic Les Paul, Fender '62 Re-Issue Strat, Vox AC-30TBX and Mesa 1994 Dual Rectifier.
Superb sounds. The lo-Res, tape-Echo and Analog settings are to die for.
Would like a dual delay setting like Line 6's ECHO PARK, like a stereo with 2 different note values coming out each amp. Also being able to change note values on other delay sound models like with ECHO PARK.
Reliability
:
6
Has been mostly hassel free for almost a year. It did reboot once and resoted to the factory settings!! No big problem though.
Customer Support
:
9
Contacted Line 6 about another product i thought i had a problem with and was contacted back next day. Very helpful and knew what i was doing wrong.
Overall Rating
:
8
If it had a stereo mode with split channels with different note values it would be my ultimate pedal. But i still use an ECHO PARK for some stuff as the DL4 dosen't meet all my delay and echo needs. But still one of the best pedals to date.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 06/28/2006
at 10:16pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
8
Overall, it's very easy to use and program delays. I do wish it had an LCD screen like the Boss DD-20 to see the BPM, but that's a minor thing. It also could use a control for the note value of the tap tempo. This is another great thing about the DD-20 - you can specify eighth, dotted eighth notes, etc. The rhythmic delay of the DL4 doesn't allow dotted notes, which was frustrating.
Sound Quality
:
10
Wonderful! This is the best part about this unit. Lo Res delay is like nothing else and was my favorite for really ambient stuff.
Reliability
:
3
Worked fine for about 6 months - and I'm nice to my pedals. Like many others have been saying for years, this unit eventually craps out. Unlike Boss, Line 6 are not making a dependable delay unit that will work for years. This is why I switched to the Boss DD-20. Boss just lasts longer and I can depend on it for gigs and such. I actually had this thing go out on me during a number of gigs before I forced myself to get rid of it- the switches didn't switch, the unit froze up and had to be reset, etc. Major bummer.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
Sounds great, but I just can't depend on it for gigs - and that's worth half the score here. I'm quite happy with the Boss DD-20 though and I'm not worried about it breaking on me.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 06/26/2006
at 10:23pm
by Dan
Ease of Use
:
9
The basic functions are very easy to use. There are some little secret options which should be better labeled. For example, if you want the echo to decay after you stomp the effect off (rather than the echo ending suddenly), you must hold the first and third buttons down while inserting the plug. Of course, it could be kinda fun to discover these little things.
Sound Quality
:
10
I have one for vocals and one for guitar. Both feed into direct boxes with liftable grounds, so there are no sound problems here. I've even used mine for studio work.
Reliability
:
3
I would definitely recommend that you get some sort of replacement insurance. I play music for a living so I have 4 of these petals - 2 for use and 2 in case the others break. I am religiously careful with my petals but find they still have some crazy quirks.
For example, if you don't 'stomp' the buttons from the right angle they break internally.
Then there are some electronic quirks. For example, when you turn one effect off, another will automatically turn on... for no reason.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
8
Aside from the reliability issues, this is the best petal I've owned.
Compared to other looping petals, I hands-down prefer this one. It has some important features that other petals don't have (like absolutely precise timing, layer fading, etc.).
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 06/16/2006
at 10:38am
by Kurt Streuber
Ease of Use
:
9
Easy to use, like all the modelors, that's the nice thing about it.
Sound Quality
:
5
I use mostly boutique pedals, a boogie mark I and fender/gibson guitars. I've also got a G&l strat that I love. I wanted to say that in recent months, line 6's quality control has taken a nose dive. I remember when these modelors came out, all of us in town picked them up, because they were easy to use, and they were great for live work. I've held on to my modulation unit, and still love it, now especially since I've had the Keeley mod done to fix the slight volume drop. I was frustrated with digital technology a couple years back, and sold the dl4 I had for some pricey analog stuff. I used quite a few different pedals, but always missed having several presets and tap tempo right there for live gigs where I did a lot of delay changing on the fly. I picked up a dl4 two weeks ago, thinking it was time I had one again. I was in a rush so I didn't plug it in at the store, I assumed it would work fine, and arrived at the gig only to have a dead unit. I returned it, and had the same problem with my second model. Needless to say, I'm reconsidering my purchase, and will most likely go with the boss dd20, although I wish it was true bypass.
Upon researching, I've found that, as of late, many folks have been having problems with reliability of these pedals, and, frankly, it's dissuaded me from buying any future Line 6 products. Three of my guitarist friends still use line 6 pedals on a nightly basis, and haven't had problems, but all of us bought older models, back in the late 90's so I guess quality was better then.
I just wanted to say, I really liked this delay, and I'm sad it didn't work out but, I need something to work for me and not have to worry about it. Plus, it's not like you can resolder a wire or something, the thing is all digital chips and such.
Just my two cents on the dl4.
Reliability
:
1
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
I've learned to embrace technology, somewhat anyway, but when things like this happen, I wonder if I'm not better off with an old analog delay. My memoryman lasted for years without so much as a rattle, and it was made in the 70's, so what does that say. I just wish someone made an analog delay, with at least two preset levels and modulation. I'd gladly pay extra cash for that.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $205
Submitted 05/21/2006
at 05:16pm
by Albert
Ease of Use
:
9
when i first bought this pedal i looked at it like "ok, i have a dl4 now, so how the fuck do i work it!?" but it's actually very simple to use. after about a week i knew how to work it with no problem whatsoever. the looper is a little more difficult but it fits in with learning how the rest of the pedal works within the week. they also have hidden features for the dl4 if you look in the users manual or download it off www.line6.com
Sound Quality
:
9
sounds really good. nothing really bad about the sounds. i find it very nice. no noise when switching it on or off and if you do get noise it's either really rare or your pedal is just messed up and you need to get it fixed.
Reliability
:
3
here is where line 6 completely ruined mine and some other people's dl4 experience. i actually just got a new one yesterday because i went to guitar center and pitched a fit because my knobs were shot after 3 months of owning the pedal. 3 MONTHS!!! i took it back and after dealing with the biggest asshole i ever met, he gave me a brand new dl4 for free. i took it home and played with it later that night and this one has never been used and it's already fucked up. for my "B" switch, sometimes if you hit it when not using the looper it turns on the "C" switch instead. when using it with the looper and you hit the "B" switch, it turns on the play once option and if you have the tap tempo switch on while you have the loop running, when you hit the "B" switch to turn your loop on, it will shut the tap tempo off completely. theres nothing wrong with the tap tempo whenever i use it without the looper but i was really pissed when this happened just because of how attached to this pedal i became. it's is by far one of the coolest delays and one of the most popular delays too. but it's basically luck of the draw with them because i know people who have had a dl4 for 5 years. i just wonder how they've kept them working for so long.
Customer Support
:
8
i sent them some messages about my dl4 whenever it started getting messed up and they will, i repeat, they WILL send you a message within a 2 day period. pretty helpful people, but they suck ass at building really cool stompbox modelers
Overall Rating
:
5
I still love this pedal to death but im not sure whether im gonna take it back and see if it will work for atleast 15 days and if it doesn't im probably gonna take it to guitar center and get my money back. i ripped off some dude really big time anyways. they usually sell for $250 but i got mine for $205 PLUS the power supply for free. the guy that worked at guitar center was an idiot. hell i think they're all assholes.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 350 (AU$)
Submitted 05/11/2006
at 05:07am
by Besty
Ease of Use
:
9
This unit is easy to get the hang of if you read the instruction manuel. Let me emphasize to READ THE MANUEL!!! Its very helpful and interesting too. The only part of it that takes some getting used to is the Loop Sampler (once again...read the manual)
Sound Quality
:
9
When I gig I use it with with the following setup:
Squier Jagmaster > Boss TU2 > Fulltone FullDrive II > Boss Super Phaser > Line 6 DL4 > Jade Storm 100W combo.
This pedal provides for most of my delay desires. It has a large range of different sounds that I haven't found uses for yet but I know I will in time. I haven't heard many of the original pedals that it Models but I like the sounds it makes. One minor niggle is when using the Tube Echo setting, if the overdrive setting on the DL4 is not set correctly there is a noticable volume drop but if you play with the setting a bit it works out.
Reliability
:
9
Some of the reviews posted here do worry me slightly but I've never had any problems with it. I definately do gig without a backup cause I can't afford to have two of every pedal. Having said that I would even if I could afford two.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've never had to deal with them.
Overall Rating
:
9
I play in a couple of different bands. One is jazz rock/experimental, the second is folk/celtic/reggae, the third is a Christian pop/rock/blues band and I also do some solo ambient/experimental stuff. I use this pedal in all these bands and it has a function for just about everything I need. I love the ambient sounds I can get out of it that provides flavour during very sparse musical sections. The only major thing I wish it had would be extra storage spots...It is hard to function with only three with all the sounds available.
If it were stolen or lost I would get another just because for the price it is definately the most versatile unit around and therefore is perfect for the musician on a tight budget who wants some good delay sounds.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $240
Submitted 05/07/2006
at 03:29pm
by G.C.
Ease of Use
:
9
This pedal is not at all hard to use right out of the box. You can really get in depth use if you read and follow the manual (and your amp's manual also). I believe this pedal is best run through an effects loop.
Sound Quality
:
9
I mainly use a Mexi-Tele thru a 535q wah and a Small Stone phaser. I run the Line 6 delay thru the effects loop of my Mesa Nomad 55. The E.L. level on my amp is set at about 11 o'clock and the mix on the delay is set at about 4 o'clock, giving me the best mix for my taste.
If I tweak either the amp E.L. or the mix level on the delay I lose some tone but that is expected. I have owned this pedal for a year and a half and have had no noise problems with it. I really like the tube echo on the Line 6, although it does not fit every song. The normal digital delay is what I use the most, and it works great, tonally. I also enjoy being able to adjust tap tempo on the fly.
Reliability
:
7
Here is where Line 6 gets a little weak. The "stomp" switches on the outside of the pedal have these little springs with a small, straw like, white piece of plastic that stikes the actual controlling button inside the pedal. I have had the small piece of plastic pop out of place (twice in the last year and a half) on the tap tempo switch losing the tap tempo control altogeher. I use the tap tempo quite frequently so it has been a bit annoying. I also believe that this problem is two-part, Line 6 making the internal controls too weak and Line 6 putting the "stomp" switches vertical so when they are stepped on, they get stepped on at an angle putting too much stress on the inside spring. A small design change would be good here (put the stomp buttons at an angle and make the internal spring stronger!). This has been the only problem I've had with this pedal. (As mentioned in an earlier review DON'T stomp on the switches.) I play mostly at church and I don't need a back-up. This pedal is fairly dependable with careful foot-switching.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
The problem I had with the switch was relatively easy to fix, albeit somewhat time consuming, and I did it on my own so I haven't dealt with the company at all.
Overall Rating
:
8
This pedal works for the styles of music that I play (rock, some metal, blues). I've been playing for 15 years and this is about the best delay I have used. I would buy another one if it were lost or stolen. I love the sounds and the ease of use, and I hate the weak problem I mentioned earlier. If Line 6 were to strengthen the small weakness of this pedal I would have a top-shelf rating for this product.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $420
Submitted 05/05/2006
at 07:35am
by FredNotor
Email: notorfred at centrum<dot>cz
Ease of Use
:
9
End of use is the only thing why to buy this piece of a shit. As i was reading manual i thought i got a exactly what i needed. Pretty simple to use.
Sound Quality
:
4
Setup: Yamaha APX 620 - DL4+expression pedal - Geroge Denis The Blue. It really doesn't reduce signal at all. This is all you can except. I was trying two of this boxes becouse first one has crashed after ten minutes. Second one still works - big surprise. But i gave it away. No metter how good or bad delays are becouse there's a big pause while switching between delays. Otherwise you can get a good (not perfect) delay sound. There's a lot of options of setup especially using expression pedal but most of them are useles. Or you have to be in high psyachdelic mood.
Reliability
:
1
It looks like tank but it's breakable as an eggshell. Expression pedal was good.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I have no idea what should they do to get my faith in this expensive uselles thing back.
Overall Rating
:
1
There's no reason to use it. They should rename to LineSHIT! Use BOSS! Or whatever else.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $220 used
Submitted 04/23/2006
at 10:44pm
by J- Shizzle
Ease of Use
:
8
there's a lot to do with this pedal, it takes a while to dial in perfectly. But once that's accomplished, it is very easy to use.
Sound Quality
:
8
there's some tone suck going on, and a slight drop in volume that only the player and the sound guy will notice. I use it w/ a modified strat and a fender stage 112. Great for cool swells and U2 sound, or just a good delay at tempo for color and space filling.
Reliability
:
10
i've read a lot of these, and i'm surprised to find the problems people have with them. I don't know a good guitarist that dosn't own one of these pedals and i've never heard of any trouble except My roommate just had the tap tempo button come unscrewed, which, if he'd tightened it when it started getting loose, that wouldn't have happened. I have been able to depend on it, along with my roommate and another friend of ours. We all play at least 3 gigs per week and transport the thing in pedal board cases.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
n/a
Overall Rating
:
9
I use this thing all the time. It's a lot of my tone and color. I've been playing for 14 years, and had this pedal for 2. I don't know what I did without it. I'd buy it again, but I do wish it was built a little stronger. I compared it to the boss equivalent, but boss pedals suck even more tone than line 6.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 04/23/2006
at 09:14pm
by Aaron Lightstone
Ease of Use
:
9
Very easy especially for improvised loop based music the loop sampler feature is way easier and instant than the boss RC -20 xl
I will review the loop sampler feature cause in three years of owning the pedal I have used the delay modeling very little.
Sound Quality
:
8
Great it puts out what it takes in except in one instance that is very strange indeed. I havve recented been running a drum machine through it and on record it soudns fine, but on play back the high hat sound comes out way louder than it went in and sounding more like the snare.
Reliability
:
10
Never had a problem. I use it almost every day for three years and bought it used. I gig with it regularly and it is covered in dings and scratches, but it works great.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never tried
Overall Rating
:
10
I wish there was a way to connect an expression pedal and control the volume of the loop so that loops could be faded out.
Other than that it is great. I also have the boss RC-20xl, but I see them as having different uses.
This is way better for improvised music. Also if you are looping stuff and dont ever need to go into half speed mode then start in half speed mode and you get 28 seconds of possible loop time
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 300 (CDN)
Submitted 04/21/2006
at 02:23am
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
8
I found this thing to be pretty easy to use. The factory presets sound really good already and changing it up is just a matter of turning the dials. but there is a bit of a learning curve when customizing it. I've had it for 6 months and still haven't tried everything it has to offer. I mostly fool around with the looper.
Sound Quality
:
9
my setup is mex strat->big muff->dl4->randall tube amp
again I mainly use it for the looper and that's a ten for sure. the stereo delay is pretty cool too. i find i don't need that many delay effects, but they all do their thing well. nothing sounds bad.
Reliability
:
3
MINE IS ON LIFE SUPPORT! after 6 months of no problems, it has started to behave like it's mass produced brothers. it is now very difficult to get it to turn on. i have to fiddle with the cords. i'm just hoping it doesn't degrade further. but after reading the other posts, i have little hope.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
I found it excellent for it's loop function. But now that's it's broken, I'm considering getting the boss loop pedal, especially since it dropped about 200 in price.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 199 (Pounds sterling)
Submitted 04/17/2006
at 02:55pm
by Matt Walker
Email: cosmicspoon<at>hotmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
I found it pretty easy to use, but was left a little flabberghasted with the "Multi-head" model. I find it really hard to use, but once you put the time in with this pedal, you really get rewarded. Its easy enough to use, especially with the handy stickers provided (to explain what "tweek" an "tweez" do for each model!), but it is always a good thing to read a manual for Line 6 products to get the most from them as quickly as possible
Sound Quality
:
10
My set up is: Fender Telecaster-Digitech Whammy4, Boss sd-1,Crybaby wah, EH Small stone, Boss TR-2, Line 6 DL4, Line 6 Pod v2.0 - amp
I am really happy with the sounds i get from it. I had a Boss DD-3 before, and i was a bit sick of the digital delay. It was too pin point accurate for me. I love the sound of Space Echoes and Memory Mans, so for me, this was great. Also the sweep-delay is fantastic.
Im a massive Radiohead/ Pink floyd fan, and i find i can get so many of their sounds using this pedal. Its great!
Gets 10 for amazing sound, but also for "Delay tail" function.
Reliability
:
8
I've only had mine for a month and it hasnt been gigged, but so far its doing great. I've a friend who keeps having the tap tempo button screw up, but he bought it second hand. Also read so many bad reports, but what the hell, i want to see if mine is any different. So far so good! I look after my stuff too
If i gigged (ever! lol), i wouldn't bother with backup
8 as i havent had it that long, but i have faith!
Customer Support
:
1
I've dealt with Line 6 before, and they are crap. Straight up shit
Overall Rating
:
9
I think its a great unit, and im very happy with it. It's really quite expensive, but it does so much more than many other delay units available. Fair enough, it doesnt sound EXACTLY like all the models on it, but im a student for gods sake. How can i afford a Space Echo and TC Electronics? Beggars cant be chosers, but this beggar is happy with his find!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250.00
Submitted 03/26/2006
at 01:11am
by RZ
Email: rzsanati<at>sbcglobal dot net
Ease of Use
:
8
The product is relatively easy to use. The loop sampler is incredibly easy to use. The user- friendly aspect of this modeling pedal by FAR the greatest thing about it.
Sound Quality
:
9
good sound quality. generic tone but like most line 6 stuff, it is very tweakable.
Reliability
:
1
Pathetic..... OK ladies and gents...as probably one of the first owners of this modeling pedal (owned it since 2001) I can tell you that I know this product very well. The warranty lasts for one year. Most people who buy this product do not need it because the lifespan of this product is anywhere from 1-3 years. After about the third year, that is when the problems arise. There are many factors but the most important one is simply the fact that one (for most of its usage) is using their feet to STOMP on the product. Needless to say, this is no excuse for its poor craftsmenship or poor engineering. To make a long story short, the line 6 delay is not a ROAD hog.... I, under no circumstance, would recommend this product for live gigs due to its lack of dependibility, inconsistency, and sheer unfaithfullness. DUE yourself a favor and buy another delay modulator...there are plenty of other ones out there....
Customer Support
:
2
Ok...but not useful after the warranty has expired.....
Overall Rating
:
1
Below mediocre....do not recommend buying
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250+
Submitted 03/16/2006
at 12:16pm
by j scott franklin
Ease of Use
:
9
I found it easy to use, and though I am not a manual guy, I found the manual to be super helpful in guiding me to the sounds I wanted and in easier ways of using the pedal for all its worth. I was primarily a boss loop station user, but found that using the 2 pedals together helped fill in the gaps. Because what one pedal misses, the other seems to have.
Sound Quality
:
8
I use a telecaster, varying fender amps, and after the line 6, a boss loop station. I never had problems with noise, but sometimes distorion being run through the pedal cause awful overtones.
Reliability
:
3
It worked for a year, then the lights would come on but it wouldn't work, so I took it apart, cleaned it out, and it worked again. Then after about 8 months, it just quit. Doesn't work at all. I was dumb enough to have not registered for a warranty, but hell, for 250+ bucks I expected more. Don't know if I'll ever buy another one.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
3
I play rock/country/grunge/americana.
Was planning to buy another until i saw the 8 billion reviews here saying their $%^& quit like mine. I don't think i can part with another 250-300 for such crappy reliability.
The number one and two advantages over a boss loopstation is that you can make really short loops and you can begin recording immediately when the first loop repeats.
When it worked, I rate it a 9.
Now it's in the closet. A rated negative whatever. Waste of 250 bucks for a lot of people.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 03/07/2006
at 01:39pm
by Matt
Email: mpc<at>foresthill dot org
Ease of Use
:
10
10! Very easy to use, very convenient tap tempo for on the fly tempo change. Not much to programming it, like they say, no weird button combinations or banks to scroll through, just knobs and buttons. The manual is not only helpful and easy to follow, but these guys are a trip so it'll keep you entertained.
Sound Quality
:
8
8. I'd give it a 10 except for one minor (strange) problem. The effect actual lowers your signal level when it's turned on! It isn't a drastic change, but definitely noticable. I'm going to have mind modified by Robert Keeley (www.robertkeeley.com, check it out, they're amazing!) which corrects this problem... but in my opinion, I shouldn't have to spend an extra 100 bucks to make a 250 dollar pedal work like it should! Other than that problem, it's amazing sounding. Very accurate representations of the original effects, low noise.
Reliability
:
1
If I could give it a negative 10 for reliability, I would. I have bought THREE (yes... THREE) of these guys. I'm so paranoid about them locking up or frying that I actually keep two of them on and powered up on my pedal board at all times! That says a lot for how amazing the quality is when they're working though right? All three of them have had to be sent in for service, and all three, after being serviced, still have occasional lockups and glitches (and it's almost like they KNOW I'm in a gig because they always lock up DURING perfomances!) I ended up selling the third one but now I gig with a backup that I program with mirrored settings to the first and leave in my effects chain and powered up just in case.
Customer Support
:
1
Again, if I could give it a negative 10, I would. The customer support on the website, and the guys on the phone, are very helpful. BUT! Here's the problem. Line six whores out their service to "repair centers" all around the country. Basically third party music stores or electronic repair places that fix them, and line 6 pays them to do it. Each one of these places that I have contacted have acted like they were doing me a HUGE favor for letting line 6 pay them to fix my equipment. They have all mentioned that they don't make any money off of fixing line 6 equipment (which I know is a lie, why would they do it if they weren't making money? It's not like line 6 forces them to be their repair centers!?!?) I had one store tell me it could be up to 2 months to get my pedal fixed, the other center told me, after having it in hand for a month, that "he hadn't had a chance to look at it yet" and "he has to make a living, so his other customers that he gets commission on take priority." By the way, if you are in or around Charlotte, NC... AVOID TRITECH ELECTRONICS and BROOKS MAYS MUSIC!!! You're better off getting a five year old to hit it with a hammer and pray that in doing so, something gets knocked back into place. These guys are incompetence in it's highest (lowest?) form.
Overall Rating
:
5
If they were reliable and there were no issues with repair on the outside chance that there was a problem... I'd give it a 10 no question. Sounds amazing, easy to use, brilliant concept! Only problem is I cringe every time I turn the effect on out of fear that I'll step on that switch and it'll just laugh at me. Feel free to e-mail me if you're considering buying one... or if you have one and have similar problems, we can share our horrible experiences.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 03/02/2006
at 06:51am
by jeff
Email: halcyonxdaze at yahoo<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
8
you really have to read the manual and look at everything to get a truly good sound out of it. i was the type of guy that knew exactly what i wanted, so i just kind of dialed everything in and had my perfect sound right then. the manual is really good and really fun to look through, it tells you all about the history of delays and all of the ideas behind the presets on the pedal. overall it doesnt take much to get a good sound out of it, you just have to know what you want and what you're doing
Sound Quality
:
6
i've experienced some signal droupout on a couple of my presets, this was pretty upsetting for a 250 dollar pedal. the delay sustain isn't that great.
there are a lot of effects in my rig and i lost some tone with this but i have a BBE in my rack so that makes up for any loss of tone. i have a gibson sg standard and a fernandes vertigo elite, into a dual rec.
overall this pedal sounds good, definately one of the better delays on the market but i think that you don't get enough bang for your buck
Reliability
:
10
these things are built like tanks, mine has heavy road use and after 8 months hasn't gotten faulty at all. then again, i keep it in a pretty heavy duty pedal case. but the pedal itself is completely reliable, as long as youre not using it with batteries
Customer Support
:
10
they have tons of customer support on their website, and the dudes are really nice over the phone as well. my friends have only had good things to say as well
Overall Rating
:
8
i play progressive-tinged metal that has a fair amount of ambient clean parts, this does exactly what i want it to there. i had a sound in mind and this thing delivered. i've been playing guitar for 5 years and this is one of the best pedals ive owned, its just a little overpriced and i think overrated. i wish the power cable came with it, thats kind of ridiculous. it definately never gets in the way, its grown to be a pretty crucial part of my rig
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 02/08/2006
at 09:42pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
9
This is an amazing pedal. I don't know of a better pedal for the money. It would be nice with a digital display, but it is still reaally easy to get an amazing sound out of it; it just takes a little playing around with it (just like with anything else).
Sound Quality
:
10
I have been playing guitar for seven years, and I play a Schecter Diamond Series Omen 6 through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12 with the Line 6 delay as my only effect at the moment (hopefully I'll have a vintage Rat soon!). It sounds great. The overdrive on the amp is plenty for what I'm doing right now, I only want a Rat to have a little more control over the tone and volume. The sound is perfect for what I want.
Reliability
:
10
I've had the pedal for a year and a half with no problems at all.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've never really had to deal with the company, but my only complaint about the pedal is that you have to buy the power adapter separatly, and it's kind of pricey.
Overall Rating
:
10
I love the Coldplay, Jon Buckland sound of guitar, and this is perfect. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably go on a crazy rampage and destroy things with tears in my eyes (or something similar to that basic description). I've played around with a friend's Boss DD4 (which I hope to have one day), but the line 6 kicks its tail. With a good distortion pedal, the line 6 can make some of the most pure, full-bodied sounds come from any guitar or amp. It really helps me with creativity, because it fills out even the simplist single notes or chords such that there is a much greater aray of things I can do with less work.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 280 (Canadian)
Submitted 02/07/2006
at 11:49pm
by Brian
Ease of Use
:
8
I just spent some time experimenting without the manual, then read the manual, experimented again. Seems easy enough, this is probably where people are all over the place in difference. I have used other delays that are more complicated.
Sound Quality
:
7
Seems to be fairly worthy of a 7. Some tone loss, but for the most part I like the sound I get out of it.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Still new, Ill be back if it breaks like all these horror stories on here. I have seen stacks of people use this pedal, and never heard a face to face story bashing this pedal. Only recommendations.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
8
I bought this to replace my Boss RC20XL loop station, as well as to get a new delay. The whole thing takes some time to get use to. Although its not perfect for what I want, the delays, and the looper are solid.
The delays have been modelled well. And the looper is 14 seconds with a tap tempo, works fine for me.
I was unhappy with the audio loop in the RC20xl because it was half the sample rate and resolution. The DL4 seems to sound stronger.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 02/05/2006
at 08:18am
by DANIEL LOUGHRAN
Email: chris_t2000<at>hotmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
very easy to use but presetings are really annoying because u cant change them. the manual great
Sound Quality
:
9
Its not noisy at all, in fact the noise gate means u have a better sound than b4. I use a marshall 100dfx amp and a 1962 fender jaguar u can sound excactly like JOHN FRUSCIANTE and OMAR RODRIGUEZ.
Reliability
:
1
absolutely shite it broke after 2 hours, just woudnt turn on again
i hope the replacement wont break as easy, luck of the draw me say.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
brilliant when working, they lie about battery life in manual. WHY WOULD U DO THIS 2 ME LINE 6
I SPENT MANY HOURS WORKING IN THE MEAT FACTORY IN IOWA. FUCK I HAD TO SELL MY LITLE WIG AND PANTIES TOO THE LOAN SHARK. ILL NEVER LOVE AGAIN.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $240.00
Submitted 01/27/2006
at 12:44pm
by Jason Shipley
Email: jshipley<at>cbmove dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
It's very easy to use if you read the manual and remember that you can always return to factory settings
Sound Quality
:
10
The sound quality is excellent. I play tons of jobs both private and bar & nightclub stuff. I'm constantly amazed at some of the comments from from people that must be analyzing equipment in a lab or a bedroom. The noise floor in a night club is such that I don't think any of these noise comments are relavent to live playing, in different rooms every night. This pedal is the pedal boards of Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Brad Whitford,Keith Urban and tons of others, seems like it works for them, so some of these comments seem a little silly
Reliability
:
10
Seems like alot of these people have alot of breakdowns. I guess I'm lucky because everything always works if I take care of it, no mattter how much I use it other than old tube and tube amps. But that's just routine maint.
Customer Support
:
10
Deal with who you bought it from. Who has time to contact the factory when you are supposed to contact your dealer anyway. Deal with your local store and keep you reciept, any Guitar center or decent dealer will always work with you if you have your reciept and follow the return or repair rules of the dealer. Why would any one contact line 6 for a local repair problem?
Overall Rating
:
10
Excellent, 20 years ago all we had were boss dd-2's and dm-1's, and they were great as well, it's all in the hands and these things just make playing more fun. I remember when you got laughed at for buying a seventies Strat new, and now they are "vintage instuments". Well there is more to good equipment than chat room misinformation. Try keeping an echoplex in good working order and than tell me how bad this pedal is. Most of these people have no idea how good some of this stuff is, or how bad some of the older "but not really good then" stuff is.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $249.99
Submitted 01/17/2006
at 10:45am
by Walt R.
Ease of Use
:
8
The control knobs make it easy to use and control the various make-up of each type of delay. It is a little tricky configuring the pedal at first, but easy once you figure it out.
I found the manual really helpful as it gives you the background of each type of delay setting and references popular guitarists that used that particular delay.
The loop setting is very easy to use after a little practice.
I wish there was a digital display to see exactly how many micro-seconds the delay was holding. It's like using a tuner knob on a radio, instead of showing 99.1FM (for example). You have to guess and adjust to make it fit the music.
I would like to have more than 3 user-settings, but it sure beats a single delay pedal.
Sound Quality
:
9
I've been playing guitar for 10 years and over the past years have primarily played acoustic (Takamine Santa Fe 93-c w/ turqoise inlays). Since purchasing the DL-4, the Takamine has been collecting dust in my closet.
The sound is great. I especially like the way you can set it to keep playing the delayed sound even after you've hit the bypass switch. The echoes trail off and this sounds very professional.
Reliability
:
9
Mine works fine. Although, I have heard others say it arrives broken or buzzes.
For the buzz/hiss problem, you can simply use a noise gate. Line 6's distortion pedal has this built in. But, you would have to run the distortion pedal after the delay pedal which I do not prefer. This makes some difference when changing between distortion and clean, when you want either sound to trail off with the delay.
Again, I have had zero problems with mine. I've found it's usually the guitar cable or amp that has hissing problems.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't had any problems. No opinion here.
Overall Rating
:
9
I play anything from Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Coldplay to Dave Matthews Band to Pixies to TV Theme Songs (James Bond Theme is awesome). Of course, I would prefer to have each of the original delay pedals that this thing emulates, but, for the price, this thing does everything you need and sounds almost identical.
The loop setting can really be helpful when your trying to put a rhythm and lead section together... or more than 1 guitar track at the same time.
This pedal eliminates the need for multiple delay pedals, a loop pedal, an e-bow, and a reverse pedal. It is wonderful, whether you want some of that new Modest Mouse / Coldplay sound or some old school Hendrix / Clapton / Eddie Van Halen stuff.
Buy one now.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: $399 (Canadian)
Submitted 01/15/2006
at 03:17pm
by Matt Cleary
Email: mattapooh at yahoo<dot>ca
Ease of Use
:
7
Delay almost always sounds good, but there's a LOT of variables with this pedal before you get everything nailed. The manual is great, the sounds are all good, but with this many options it'll take awhile to find settings that you want to save. That's really not a bad thing, though.
Sound Quality
:
10
Like I said, delay almost always sounds good and this is no exception. I really don't get the appeal of analog/tape delays with the scratchy repeats, I'd much rather a clean digital delay, but I guess they're fine for some people. I do love the Memory Man model for clean, softer delays, but I use the plain digital delay for everything else. Also, the auto-volume is one of the best effects I've ever used and it was the reason I went with a Line 6 pedal. When this setting is tweaked just right, it makes the pedal worth every(over-charged) penny.
I'm using it with a Tech 21 Trademark 300 amp and a Zinky 2x12 cab, which I love, but it's too bad that the Tech 21's effects loop is so picky because I'd love to have this going through that. Luckily it sounds fantastic going into the front of the amp.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
I've heard extremely bad things about this and I've only had it a short while. One show and a bunch of jams, not nearly enough to make a rating. I'll report back if I have any problems, but I really hope this isn't the case.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No experience.
Overall Rating
:
9
I'm doing spacey hard rock/metal in the vein of Dredg, Cave In, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Cure and some stuff like Misery Signals as well. Obviously delay is a given, but this one is fantastic. I'd buy it again in a second, but I'm definitely wary of the questionable reliability. I've heard stories that the first batch of these were solid as well as the newer ones, but quality dipped a lot during the time between.... hopefully this is the case and I got one of the newer ones, I guess.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 12/14/2005
at 10:56am
by JO
Ease of Use
:
5
No need to review features. Plenty of other people have mentioned in great detail.
Difficult at first, but easy to figure out if you spend some time with it. WRITE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS.
Sound Quality
:
8
Line 6 has done a great job on developing accurate tones. Can't fault them here.
Tone is not the issue...reliability is. See below.
Reliability
:
1
Okay, here's where I come in. I read the reviews here and should have listened, but I couldn't resist. So I bought one from AMS as a "scratch and dent". Well it was in mint condition. One problem. The Loop Sampler didn't work. I sent it back under their return policy and they kindly sent me a floor model no extra charge. For about one year everything is peachy. Then this past summer one of the footswitch hex bolts comes undone sending the footswitch into the chassis. This didn't make sense, but a friend had a similar experience and fixed it for me. A little weird, but fixable. No big deal.
About a month later the pedal starts randomly and very sporadically losing my saved settings. It would audibly scramble (speed up then slow down). I tried cleaning out the footswitch connections to the circuit board (a very poor design). Nope...it just got worse in fact. Several live gigs later and what do you know it craps out completely. This time it never recovers. The pedal, even after reseting will not allow delay times to be changed either manually or with the tap tempo. It forgets them almost immediately.
Line 6 nailed tone, but in the process they forgot about quality of the product. Based on other's recommendations on here, I went out and bought a Boss DD-20 GigaDelay. It has been a life saver and honestly a fairly large improvement (great for a ProTools studio where delay tempos need to be right on!).
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
2
I've been playing for over 10 years. My musical style is very British rock in nature. I have been playing live and in bands for 7 out of those 10 years. It is primarily a hobby which spurs on my desire to find the best gear out there. The DL4 is not in that pool anymore.
My rig is currently: Gibson LP Std/Fender 72 Thinline Tele (CIJ)/Fender Am Std Tele into Boss TU-2, TS-9 Tubescreamer, Fulltone FD-2, Boss Bass Flanger, Boss TR-2 Trem, Boss DD-20 all into my new Dr.Z Maz 18 2x12.
The Line 6 DL4 is junk. People are not lying on here when they say what they say. I should have listened. Please don't make the same mistake I made.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 11/15/2005
at 08:32am
by trev
Ease of Use
:
7
It's easy enough to figure out if you have an aptitude for this kind of thing.
Sound Quality
:
9
my rig:
1964 jazzmaster, mostly stock
1963 franken-jazzmaster, tele deluxe pu in bridge
1963 jaguar, li'l 59 single space humbuckers
into some combination of:
Fulldrive2
Klon centaur
hotcake
big muff
ibanez analog delay AD9
VooDoo Labs trem
Boss dd5 and/or dd6
mrx compressor
into one of these:
1959 (?) Magnatone 213
1965 Deluxe (no reverb, not reissue)
1968 Princeton Reverb
the delays themselves can sound fantastic- i love that you can get these crazy, gritty, lofi, delays with tons of character. It does, however, effect the sound of your guitar- when the unit is on, it adds a fairly significant amount treble to the unporocessed signal. It's not a bad thing necessarily, but if you don't like it, there's nothing you can do about it.
The thing that I love about the pedal is that it really has a much better feel than any other digital delay I've played with. I have a few boss delay pedals, and i like them OK, but they all seem a little sterile. I had my DD5 modified with a high cut switch, and it really wasn't worth it. Plus, the DL4 makes all kinds of crazy blooping sound when you screw around with it, which makes me love it all the more.
Reliability
:
2
as far as I am concerned, Line 6 owes me a new one, and one that works past the warranty.
Bought my first one, used it for a while, liked it, stopped using it, put it up on a shelf, brought it down a year later, fell in love with it.
Then the trouble began. Random resets, digital clipping run away freakouts, just plain not working- no delay, no guitar- nothing.
Stupidly bought another because I love the damned thing so much. Same thing is starting to happen again. The best way to get it to malfunction- try to record with it.
The chassis on this thing could stop a bullet- why go cheap and put the crappiest footswitches manufactured in there? They stick, they break, they make it difficult to tap in the right delay time. Infuriating.
With all of the complaints, I'm hoping they come out with a DM4.2. I would be stupid enough to buy it in a heartbeat.
Customer Support
:
4
the people at the support line ignored me for about 3 months, then became very charitable. The place that they sent me to get it fixed took 5 months, and tried to charge me the cost of the unit.
Overall Rating
:
3
well, it is obvious what Line6 should do. Let's see if they do it. I would love to have it back in my pedalboard, but since i don't like to look like more of a chump than I do all ready, it is not going to happen.
My Boss pedals have never failed me, not once. Too bad they don't sound as cool as the DD4.
So, what is the overall rating for something that sound great when it works, but neverworks reliably when you need it? I give it a 3.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $249
Submitted 11/10/2005
at 07:08pm
by Bob
Ease of Use
:
8
If you are not used to these Line 6 Stomp Boxes, it can take a little while to tweak to get your preferred settings. The unit is easy to figure out and create really good presets. Instruction (Pilots) manual provides good starting points for getting the classic effects.
Sound Quality
:
9
I really liked the sound that this unit produced. I got rid of my Boss DD for this, primarily for the 4 presets and the 14 second loop sampler. The digital delay is warmer than the Boss, and I found the flanged delay and the stereo delays very useful. I primarily used the DL4 in the effects loop of a Vox Valvetronix AD120VT in a home studio with the optional AC power adaptor. I play mostly blues rock, classic rock, pop rock, alternative rock, jazz, blues. I use many different guitars for different sounds and musical styles (I have two American Strats, one with Kinman pickups and pao ferro fretboard and ash body and one with standard American Series delta system and maple fretboard, Gibson L6-S Deluxe with SD JB & Jazz PU combo, Dean EVO Premium with SD Pearly Gates, Line 6 Variax 500). Besides the Vox (great modeling amp - superb sounds) I also have modded (Torres Pre-CBS)1973 Fender Twin Reverb with TAD power tubes and Eminence Texas Heat speakers (killer blues/blues rock amp!)and a mixed PA system which I use for vocals and to play the acoustic models of the L6 Variax through - nice. Also have a Zoom 1266 digital multitrack recorder.
Reliability
:
2
OK, this is where Line 6 really has a problem. This unit worked flawlessly for about 1-1/2 years...then completely went berserk and shut down...dead, notta, nothing. This unit was handled with kid gloves, gigged very lightly but mostly stayed in the home studio. What a shame, don't know if it can be fixed and I'm certainly not dropping another $250 for a new one. I sure hope that my Line 6 Variax has better reliability because I really like it's versatility in my tone line up. The only other Line 6 product I currently have is the Guitar Port which has always worked fine (also used to own a DM4 which worked fine for the 8 mos. I owned it). From other reviews regarding reliability for the DL4, this seems to be a generic problem. Note: I guess I have been lucky with my Vox AD120VT as there are many reports of poor reliability (so far - two years - so good). Again, this is by far the best modeling amp I have tried, and when I bought this unit new I had tried them all.
Customer Support
:
5
Usually, Line 6 has been repsonsive to my inquiries and helpful. However on this issue, I have inquired about sending the DL4 back to Line 6 or a qualified service agency and have gotten no return response. I believe they know they have a generic problem (more than a few isolated problems) with this unit. This was a unit capable of great sounds and versatility, but sadly poor QC (typical of many PCB electronics).
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I have been playing guitar and making music for over 25 years and find the music technology explosion to be great, especially for learning and recording music...but it is a double edged sword with some poorly contructed equipment out there. I hope Line 6 comes out with an improved version of this unit, but currently they have lost credibility of quality with me. If anyone has had a DL4 successfully repaired please email me, I would appreciate the feedback.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 11/05/2005
at 06:02am
by Rohn
Email: rdupont100<at>hotmail dot com
Ease of Use
:
4
I did not get a manual for it but I downloaded one from their website. This thing is fun to play with but I do not see how it could be of any use live as the settings cannot be programmed and assigned to a patch number.
As it is it is very confusing to set up and get a consistent sound,
Sound Quality
:
2
I have several very high quality amps and various high quality guitars of all makes and models.
It is not noisy but the sound quality of the guitar is horrible especially when high gain tones are wanted. I have tried it with many different guitar/amp combinations and all exhibit this tinny lo-fi ring modulator like farty tone. It is noticable on all settings although some more than others. When playing a clean amp with a guitar with low output pickups makes this audio artifact less noticible.
As for the loop feature, I have not been successful in using it where the inserts come in at the right time so it's of no value to me.
The only thing I can use this pedal for is for the reverse solo thing. It does do that pretty good and sounds ok doing it.
Reliability
:
3
I do not think I would depend on it giving all that I have read here. But given the fact that the only thing I would use it for is the reverse lead thing, if it failed I do not think it would be a major issue as I can a play reverse lead sound using technique without a pedal to do it for me and how often is a reverse lead even used anyway?
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I wish I could get my money back for this pedal. I did try one in the store a few weeks before getting this one from the same store and did not notice the poor sound quality. I actually though it sounded good at the time. I may just have a bad one or they may have been a bad batch of chips used. But getting anyone to admit there is a sound quality defect would be difficult as sound and sound quality is a very subjective thing.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 3995 (NOK)
Submitted 11/04/2005
at 05:31pm
by Thor Saunes
Email: thrillathon at yahoo<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
7
One thing that bugs me about some of the reviews on this page is the reviewers lack of commitment to understanding their effects. One complains that presets disappear; if he had read the manual he would know that you have to hold in the stomp button for 3s. to store a new preset.
Although I'm sure some of these complaints are valid, I can say with some ceretainty that a portion of these complaints are due to the reviewers failure to read the fantastic manual. The manual even has examples of how to use the delay unit, something most other manuals dont even try to do. Line6 has gone a far way ahead of the idiotic boss pedals "suggested settings" (boss has yet to realize that every guitar player has a slightly varying set up: different guitar, different amp etc. and most importantly a different taste in how they want their guitar to sound.)
The pedal in itself is near impossible to "get" through instinct. The tweak and tweez buttons have different functions depending on what model you've selected and there are a ton of features. (Ill get back to those.) But the manual does, like I said, more than make up for the enigmatic nature of the pedal.
Sound Quality
:
10
My setup is either 1) A strat guitar with vintage singlecoils or 2) A Furch acoustic with fishman pro II-
I run this either straight into my effect chain or duplicate the signal and send one straight to the low input on my Badcat CubII amp while the other signal goes into:
A volume pedal->Budda Wha->My Distortion and overdrive boxes (Foxrox fuzz and octave, budda zenman ->Line6 Delay->Phaser and Pro Vibe and then into the high input of the badcat cubII amp.
Not a lot of unexpected "noise" unless you're tweaking the eq on the digital delay and analog echo models. The other noise is in my opinion good seeing as it is a part of that weird wild sound you get at extreme settings. My Boss DD6 beats the digital delay setting for ease of use, but the options on the Line6 Dl4 and the sounds you coax out of it with patience makes it the best sounding delay stomp pedal I've ever used.
Reliability
:
10
Yes, I can. And I do. Economical reasons for gigging without a backup, but it aint failed me for the past three months (approx- 15 live sets at one hour each.)
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
havent dealt with them. I hear they're terrible though.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I play whatever I get hired to play: Toto, Gospel, Pink Floyd (My Big Idol is Gilmour if you haven't guessed; his sound is just perfect.) So the versatility of this stomp box suits me perfectly.
Have been playing since 1999. My set up now is:
Strat electric and Furch acoustic (Run the acoustic clean into a mixer through a DI for most live applications and run the duplicate signal into the guitar amplifier for effects that I use with the acoustic; mostly volume swells and pads but also some distorted solos and wacky sounds.)
Effects owned (at present not in the order they're placed in the chain): Budda wah and Zenman, Line6 dl4, Foxrox captain coconut 2, Frantone Brooklyn Overdrive and an old ibanez phaser that I put true bypass and dc power input on.
I love its versatility, its beautiful and its more artsy sounds (8 bit digital delay anyone?) I can play a beautiful set of TOTO songs, or Pink Floyd songs or I can play ugly psychedelic heavy punk with it. Its the best of both worlds.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $300.00
Submitted 11/03/2005
at 07:21pm
by Lolaviola
Email: cnill at cavtel<dot>net
Ease of Use
:
7
The patches are ok for the most part. Some are useless. The real aggravation is that the knobs don't indicate what the setting is after you change patch. It's all "virtual" until you move a knob, and then the perameter is changed.
This does not take much time getting used to as far as playing with it. But "using" it is another matter.
It's a pretty good toy. I got tired of "imagining" what the perameters were set to whenever I changed a patch.
Programming, ie: storing a setting on the other hand is a snap, and the layout is quite good with four presets and a tap.
Sound Quality
:
7
The settings are interesting. The chorus (mod delay) is weak, with zero tweakablity. You either love it or not. I thought the overall sound was compromised somewhat, like with any digital delay.
Reliability
:
2
I had problem with mine. It was sitting in my bedroom for 3 mos. and worked fine untill just after the warantee ran out. then it inexplicably broke. Never gigged out with it. I think a knob went bad. I sent it to authorized service center (Local) and it was returned pretty much un-fixed, had to return to fix again. Sold it immediately afterwards.
Customer Support
:
2
Warantee too short
Overall Rating
:
3
I bought this to loop with. The experience I had playing with the looper was less than inspiring. I think it is kinda hard to use the various loop functions, and get a clean edit.
Now that I think back on the whole experience, I beleive the sound quality was a tiny bit sterile, un-dynamic, over-compressed.
The whole experience made me suspect Line6 products on the whole.
Caveat Emptor
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: $399 (CDN)
Submitted 10/31/2005
at 12:30pm
by Spark
Ease of Use
:
8
Pretty simple to use although at first it may seem daunting(lots of dials that all have different features assigned to the same knob)But other than that its straight forward.
Sound Quality
:
7
Before making any kind of statement on this effect i thought i would wait a couple of months and really play around with this thing before i reviewed it.The overall set up of this delay is fine and the pre-sets are simple enough.The delays do bleed somewhat and are a bit muffled. But this can be cleaned up with time.I am comparing this to my second unit the Boss DD2.But the one thing that makes up for this is the choice of other delays they give you, if having trouble with one delay there are others that are similar enough in sound and pitch to use them instead.
Reliability
:
8
I have had NO TROUBLES with this unit so far.But i cannot beilieve the amount of negative responses there are on this issue.This should be addressed/seriously looked into by Line 6 and their people.
That being said i have my good old Boss unit with me just in case always.So i will give this an 8 but will check back in if i have any troubles!.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I own a Spider 50 watt 1 12 amp as well as floor board, and a Verbzilla reverb unit from the line 6 people. And have not had trouble with any of them (the amps is 2 years old)
Overall Rating
:
8
I play ROCK and have for over 25 years....and not the metal d-tuned two finger crap that passes for guitar playing now.My equipment is mostly Marshall's2203/JCM900 and cab's,line 6 spider,Roland JC 120,Vox..And Gibson and Fender guitars.
The DL4 is a good unit for what i use it for which is recording and some live.The choice of different types of delays and the power to tweek all these different delays is the reason i am giving this unit such high praise....that being said there are allot of very angry people who got bad units out there, so you will have to decide if its worth the risk...In my case it has.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $225
Submitted 10/24/2005
at 09:58am
by Justin
Email: justinsemail at yahoo<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
5
After you read the manual it's not too hard to work...
Sound Quality
:
9
I thought it sounded really cool, you can do a lot of stuff with it... I would have loved if it could hold more custom presets
Reliability
:
1
Just stopped working for no reason at all... I used their a/c adapter and everything... It just won't turn on... I have treated it very well, and have done nothing out of the ordinary, and now it's dead...
Customer Support
:
1
Well, the contact page on the Line 6 website is brroken too... Can they make anything that doesn't break???
Overall Rating
:
1
It sounds cool, but if it breaks, whats the point???
It is truly infuriating and rediculous that these companies charge so much for a product that has no reliability and then don't do anything to rectify the situation... Their contact page didn't even work!!??!! So dissapointed/angry.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $225
Submitted 10/12/2005
at 04:31pm
by j.Brown
Email: jbrown at batteryparkband<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
6
Ease of use was marginal. Not too intrinsic, but if you read the manual, its managable.
Sound Quality
:
4
Muddied/colored the sound, and fairly weak, thin effects.
Reliability
:
1
Absolute junk. The first generation of these several years ago were great. I just bought one from the recent generation and the first one was broken right out of the box. Then i exchanged it and after an hour, the bypass (which is not a true bypass) stopped working, and the delay was ALWAYS on. I returned it after 6 weeks. Complete junk. DONT BUY IT!!!!!!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Didn't deal with them. I went straight back to Guitar Center.
Overall Rating
:
1
CRAP. JUNK. STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 10/10/2005
at 07:51pm
by Freddie
Ease of Use
:
6
Not too bad but I'd read the manual.
Sound Quality
:
7
I have this last in my chain. I play an SG Standard through a SD-1, Dist. +, Big Muff, Dano Cheese Melt, and then the DL-4 into a 25 watt fender hybrid. I normall us the Low Res delay for the analog. Plays a petty convincing but not perfect. I put a bending mod on my which is fun but I would never use in a live setting. The pedal is really quiet when off and when on steals a little of my signal. When I bought this I was using it mostly as a looper and I found it easier to use that the Boss DD-20. Now I use the warmer delays but I wish now I would of got a Deluxe Memory Man or an old 70s MXR or DOD delay.
Reliability
:
4
I can't afford back ups and from the other reviews I shouldn't trust this thing too much. In my live set up I sometime us my cheap DOD digial delay which sounds much better than this but only does one thing. One thing I noticed that drives me nuts is that when I turn off a delay setting and switch the same back on it not on the same delay modeler. It's like it goes to a default setting. Anyone else have this problem? So, it's pretty usless sometimes!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
Fun but not really great. I wished I never bought it, but I've learned my lesson.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 08/13/2005
at 02:04pm
by AB
Ease of Use
:
6
Not too bad to use if you read the manual. Tweek and Tweez take a little getting used to, but you can get the hang of it. Too bad it's such a crappy product.
Sound Quality
:
8
I found the sound quality to be exxelent. Some of the stuff was bells and whistles but thats fine. I used this thing as a huge part of my sound for two years. TILL IT DIED WHILE ON STAGE.
Reliability
:
2
This is the reason for this review, I bought mine hoping against hope that this thing would hold up on me. And it did for two years. Then poof, starts shutting off on me LIVE. Just shutting off. I was using the Line 6 power supply, all my other pedals are also plugged in and were fine, so it wasnt a sudden power surge or any of that malarkey. It just, ,,,,, stopped working. I babied this thing on a MKS pedalpad all latched down and snug as a bug. Never dropped it, never jumped on. Always treated it nice. And then after it dies, poof it comes back on again. Did that twice on me that day. I will futz with stuff when it goes in practice and I know stuff happens whenever you play live, but I have a Dano $30 PIECE OF PLASTIC that has lasted longer than this PIECE OF JUMK. Got my DD20 last week. Dont think it's a good sounding as the Line 6, but WHO CARES IF YOU CANT TRUST THE LINE 6!
Customer Support
:
1
If they want to come begging to me with a IMPROVED PRODUCT, I might talk to them, providing they give every customer on this board an APOLOGY for putting out products that THEY KNOW will not last. This should be a BBB issue, not a HC one. So Line 6, how about a apology for this hunk of junk? I am just going to sell this thing (and yes I will let people know it's junk) for cheap, I got better things to do than deal with crappy customer support and then pay to maybe have it fixed. Then only way to fix this thing is BETTER PARTS!
Overall Rating
:
1
If you are thinking about buying this thing, I am telling you now, RUN AWAY. Got the DD20. I dont care how good this thing sounds, it's worthless if you cannot depend on it. You will be up there someday digging into a solo and THATS when it will go on you. You have been warned.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $225.00
Submitted 08/10/2005
at 02:38am
by ekimtoria
Ease of Use
:
9
I think this is a fairly easy pedal to use. Nothing too complicated. Like a lot of Line 6 products, they like to pack in the features. The fact that the tweak and tweez knob have different functions based on what preset you're working in is a clue. Personally, I like that they pack in the features. For some, this might be complicated but I like it.
Sound Quality
:
9
The "modeled" presets have varying degrees of authenticity. I mean the Echoplex models are close and by all means they capture the "essence" of the effect but they're not exact. I think the convenience of a unit like this balances out some of the "exactness" of the model. I think anybody can find a couple of models in this unit that they will keep as favorites. That's important and something everyone should consider if they're looking into this unit. Having a tap tempo feature for all the models is awesome! When I initially got the unit, I felt the loop sampler and or reverse setting were worth the price of admission alone for this box. Come to think of it, I still feel that way. I really dig this pedal. I actually have two of them on my pedalboard. One solely for looping and the other for delays. I recently sent in the one I use for delays to Robert Keeley for the mod he just recently started offering. His mods make this good pedal great! No lie!
Reliability
:
9
I've read where a lot of people are having problems with their unit. I can see where a "mass-produced" effect like this could have problems with parts and switches. That's too bad because the idea and design of the unit really is great. I've been fortunate with the two units I have and have had no problems in over two years.
Customer Support
:
7
I did email them a while ago when I thought the power jack was producing some noise. I received a roundabout email response with some generic information. Nothing too specific or helpful. Even though I found out the noise was coming from another source and didn't need the service, I think their way of handling problems could be improved.
Overall Rating
:
9
From my experience, I'm giving this unit a good review. I've had no mechanical issues with the pedal and the mod from Robert Keeley makes the sound quality even better. If you love the DL4 and have no operational issues with the pedal, I would suggest sending it into Rober Keeley for his mod. It's worth it. The pedal still sounds really good without the mod but if you're picky, get it! The DL4 provides a lot of sound possibilities from subtle to deep space nine. Check it out and if you decide to buy one, just make sure it's fully operational before you walk out of the store.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 540 ($New Zealand)
Submitted 07/22/2005
at 04:49pm
by tone_crafter
Email: daniel<dot>ashman at xtra<dot>co<dot>nz
Ease of Use
:
7
Reasonably easy to use but like all the other reviews say you can't change one parameter, as soon as you change one the others change to what ever the knobs are at. Because of the switches design (read below) it's very difficult to tap in an accurate tempo.
Sound Quality
:
8
Sounds great. The sound quality is the only reason I've kept this stupid pedal. I love having the huge number of presets and the swells you can put on the delays. Also I love the delay that you can adjust the level while your playing (can't remember what it's called). It means when you're playing the delays don't mush up the sound too much but when you have breaks the delays come through nicely.
I also love the tap tempo (when it works)
Reliability
:
2
Absolutly crap. It broke after about a month of having it. I would have fixed it myself but didn't want to void the waranty. What happened was the tap tempo switch went. It wouldn't work at all. I waited 3 long weeks to get it back (despite its crap reliability I do really like this pedal) and put it back on my board. I play in a church band and that night after tapping the switch about 4 times it went again. I was so pissed.
I decided to open it up and repair it myself this time. When I did I realised what the problem was. The switches are so badly designed. It's simply a large switch with a spring attached which presses on a smaller mementary switch on the PCB. The springs bend and move off the switch, especially on the tap tempo switch.
The repairer had simply moved the bend spring from the tap tempo switch to one of the other switches (I'll get to this in customer service) and now the new spring had bend off too. I've ended up chaging the springs for bits of rubber but this will probably break the small switches eventually.
Also if you tap in a tempo it canges speed. It tends to speed up during a song and sometimes it buggers up alltogether. And the tapped tempo changes if you switch to another preset the back again or if you bypass the pedal this switch it back on. I'm sure when I first got it it remembered the last tapped tempo but I might be wrong. It's kind of anoying if you're playing and you want to switch delays in and out during the song and you have to keep tapping the tempo in. People tell me I look like I'm trying to tap dance.
Customer Support
:
1
When I first took this pedal in the get repaired I had to chase them up to get it back and it took 3 weeks. This was not really line 6s fault as i was dealing with the store but what really bugged me was how they repaired it (just moving the springs) I couldn't believe they were that lazy and that I had to wait 3 weeks for something I could have done in 3 minutes.
Also just recently I noticed the problem I sepecified above of the tempo changing when switching presets. I sent Line 6 a question about it and they simply said it doesn't remember the last tap tempo. I'm sure it did when I first got this pedal but I might be wrong.
Overall Rating
:
6
The only reason I have given this pedal a mildly good overall rathig is because of its sound quality. I love having 3 presets and the cool delays I can get with this. If I had of known all the problems this pedal would have had and I had of read some of the other reviews I wouldn't have bought this pedal.
I was kind of conned into bying this pedal and originally I was going to go with something boss but it seemed so cool when I used it in the shop i bit the bullet.
I'm torn between two worlds here in that I love using it but its so unpredictable that I can;t rely on it.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: ?200.oo
Submitted 07/17/2005
at 09:20am
by Musician
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Impossible, it was broken outa the package!!!!
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
Well, it was stuck on the loop function and none of the knobs or dials did anything, the sound it did make though was lo-fi.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Well, I chose to ignore the posts here about its dismall reliability and bad build quility and buy one anyway.
MAN OH MAN!!!! From now on I'm really going to take all the reviews here seriously.
I was totally bummed, got a brand new one, not even out of its packaging, get it home, plug in.........and dead!! Broken, I could not fu%^ing believe it!! ?200.oo hard earned cash and the sodding thing did not bleeding work.
Took it to the store and they are getting another one for me, if that breaks I'm getting BOSS pedals.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Not even going to bother, took it back to the store where it came from.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
PAH!! Seriously doubtful about line 6 now, Hope the replacement they get for me works!!!!!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 220 (British Pounds)
Submitted 07/14/2005
at 07:43am
by Brad Kuntendorff
Ease of Use
:
10
Very easy to use. If you can't use it then i would take it in to your special needs teacher to read you the manual.
Sound Quality
:
10
Never had a problem with sound quality. It usaully surprises me how good it is. Some people seemed to have problems but maybe they should check the rest of their rig. I play a Stratocaster and a Les Paul through a Marshall and it sounds braw.
Reliability
:
9
I've had mine for nearly six years and it's been in the shop because i broke the delay rate knob due to over use. My fault. The people who have problems must have bought some cheep ass mexican copy or smething. Oh, if you use the right power supply it'll be fine. Don't be a retard and use something that isn't recommended or you may fry the circuitry and get problems.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to use it.
Overall Rating
:
10
I couldn't live without it. It's been gigged to hell and back and still works like a little trooper. The bad reviews of the DL4 don't make any sense and are probably down to mongoloid users.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 350 (AU$)
Submitted 07/10/2005
at 10:30pm
by Tim Clarke
Ease of Use
:
9
You need to spend some time with this unit in order to find the sounds you like. It's easy to just twiddle with the knobs, or use the tap tempo, to set up a massive range of delays, with a maximum 2.5 second delay - which is more than enough. The range of sounds you can get is very impressive, and the looper is lots of fun. It's useful to make notes on what settings you like as well as saving presets as the palette of tones is so vast.
Sound Quality
:
10
Fantastic tone. Much better than my Boss DD-3 which I've had for years, and until now was all I considered delay to be. However, as delay is my favourite guitar effect I figured I'd like some more versatility - and some presets so I didn't have to keep bending down and tweaking knobs between songs. The analog echo effects are gorgeous, and you can add modulation too for some spacey sounds. The swell and reverse delays are wicked fun, and on the whole I can see myself getting some use out of most of the delay models.
Reliability
:
8
I've read a lot of horror stories about these units - and Line 6 gear in general. I've only had my unit a few weeks, but I can't see it mucking up as I look after all of my gear really well. I'll definitely gig with it, and if I have any disasters I've got my Boss DD-3 as back up, which is very reliable but limited in tone.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
9
These units are absurdly expensive in Australia, so I decided to import one from USA. It cost about half the price. They are great units - lots of fun, and very versatile. I play atmospheric instrumental music and use lots of delay sounds, so this is what I've been looking for. I can see this leading to lots of great songs in my band, just from messing around. Highly recommended, especially if you buy new - that way you don't have to worry so much about reliability as you'll have the manufacturer's warranty.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 07/03/2005
at 04:56pm
by Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
9
easy if you have the manual
Sound Quality
:
9
strat/tele/les paul into fender bassman. The effects are really good. Its truebypass, cool. It sounds great -if it works- see below
Reliability
:
2
sorry, the horror stories are true. You can't use it live. This thing stops working in the middle of a show. I mean it goes crazy, it shuts down and you cant do anything about it. Well, then it decides to start working again sometime when you dont need delay. It can really turn the show into a nightmare. Dont say I didnt warn you.
I know other people that had the same problem.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
If it does work, it sounds great. Its a shame you cant depend on it. I had to buy me a Boss DD-3.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: ?200 (pounds)
Submitted 07/01/2005
at 03:08am
by mike willoughby
Ease of Use
:
9
Very easy to get a good sound out of this unit: most of the presets sound great and are instantly useable. Very 'tweakable' unit; easy to make lightening-fast adjustments to sounds 'on the fly', even at gigs, due to the large knobs. I see some people have critisised it for
a) only having three presets
b)no screen so impossible to tell the parameters of your saved patches.
I take these points, but I have never felt either of these to be a great problem. In answer:
a) It's so easy to set up good-sounding patches; I regularly re-programme if I've got jaded with the three presets I've got. Anyhow, who uses more than three delay sounds at a gig?
b) this unit reqires you to USE YOUR EARS rather than gaze at parameters on a screen. Tweek and tweez, my friends!
In summary: A refresingly 'analogue' style interface after all those effects processors with tedious and hard-to-access menus.
Tap tempo switch is superb: great for syncing up long delays live.
I would give this unit 10 out of 10, but the foot pedal is, frankly, shite: a real let down! Whatever presets you assign it to change (even if it's only 'level') it always changes the tempo aswell: how crap is that?
It's a piece of overpriced cheap plastic, with a joke budget lead. Not worth the money. Anyway, I never use it, and the unit is fine without it!
Sound Quality
:
10
Excellent live gigging unit:
Being true stereo (two inputs and two outputs) gives this unit fantastic flexiability for me. Through the left channel I run my string instruments (electric guitar, bouzouki) and through the rignt channel, my reed instruments (button accordion, harmonicas.)
I generally use a slap-back type echo, a deep, long echo (Memory Man preset is fab, and easily synced-up with the tap tempo button) and either a 'sweep echo' or 'reverse' for something wacky and wild on my palette!
It always sounds brilliant: nice, rounded, warm, organic sound that works equally well for acoustic or electric instruments (accordion, especially!)
I sometimes take this unit into schools and get the kids to dabble with the sampler for crazy vocal experimentations: great!
Reliability
:
7
I have played hundreds of gigs with this unit: Generally very solid, sturdy and reliable: (only problem: just after a year, a switch broke. (see below)
I regularly gig without a backup: no problem: although I'm glad i've got some spare switches!
Customer Support
:
6
After about 18 months use, No 2 switch broke: to be frank, this had been a worsening problem from day 1: sometimes working, sometimes not, untill one day it totally packed in!
Line 6 UK were easy to contact, and very responsive.
They offered me a repair: ?50 : (Rip off! I'm used to UK manufacturers like Microvox who fix this kind of thing for committed users free of charge.)Instead, I elected to do the repair myself, and Line 6 helpfully supplied me with several switches free of charge.
So far so good...repair however was very, very fiddly: micro-swich soldered to PCB that took ages to prise off and replace. (no hints or tips offered by the manufacturer.) Much better would be to have solid switches seperately attatched to the chasis. Yes, I take some of the previous reviewers points, innards of this thing look a bit 'mass produced' and not user-repair friendly: (The pots were also attatched to PCB, and the knobs neeed to be taken off to remove the chassis, and put back afterwards): one would expect a bit more for a ?200 unit!Line 6 need to look at this...
Overall Rating
:
8
Have played roots-rock music proffesionally for 20 years.
Have used this brilliant sounding unit for 5 years: Great to use live, and in the studio. Some minor quality niggles, but would probably buy another if this went: It's become an integral part of my sound: Easy, intuitive to use, helps me make creative music, Oh yes, indeed!
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 06/22/2005
at 04:55pm
by Gary Smith
Ease of Use
:
9
Can be confusing to get the delay sound you want at first. This is because this unit has so many things packed into it. Multiple types of delay, loops, tap tempo, 6 knobs, and 4 stomp buttons. All of this will come in handy later in about a week, but will be confusing at first. First, you'll need to figure out how to access all of these valuable features and understand what everything does. Once you program in 3 delays, it's very easy to access these while playing live. Just stomp on the either of the 3 buttons which is why this delay is chosen over many others. This pedal is layed out very well and is the best choice if you want lots of delay choices while playing live. I also love the tap tempo and how you can see the actual delay time by the LED light blinking on the tempo you've tapped in. You'll also need the manual to figure out what the tweek and tweez do for each of the 15 different delays and loop sampler.
Sound Quality
:
8
Epiphone Les Paul Standard - Vox V848 - Pro Co. Rat II - Ibanez TS9 - Boss BD2 - Boss DD5 - MXR Micro Amp - Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (1x12 tube). Not noisy at all. Delays sound very good. There are so many choices which will easily suit your needs. I wish the analog delay sounded a little truer and their was true bypass.
-Tube, multihead, analog, digital, tape, rhythmic, and stero delay are useful and normal sounding delays on this pedal.
-2 choices provide chorus to the delay.
-Sweep, Lo Res, Auto Volume, and Reverse delays add a very weird effect to delays that sound very cool and could be used if you want a unique sound.
-Ping pong bounces the delay back and forth between speakers.
-For the dynamic delay, the volume of the delay is adjusted depending on if you're playing or not. If you're playing, volume is turned down. When you stop playing for a moment, volume is increased to fill in the gaps.
14-sec loop mode is useful for soloing over your owner rhythm parts.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
8
Great for any music that needs a delay. Slapback, long, reverse, modulated delay. Tons of variety. Best feature is the tap tempo. You can see the time you've tapped in by the blinking LED light. I love being able to tap in tempo on analog delays in which you can't on the originals in the 70's. If you need lots of delays and looping, this pedal is the way to go. If you just want simple delay, go with the Boss DD-5. Wish it had a little better delay sounds and true bypass. Loaded delay pedal. Very pricey.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 06/14/2005
at 02:07pm
by VJ Manzo
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
It's very easy to use. Unfortunately, you have to switch between delay models manually. Oh excuse me--you can use their 3 (count 'em) presets which, by the way, can't be used with the looper. But don't fret--they allow you to have a pre-delay to use with the looper which subsequently sounds like crap.
Sound Quality
:
No Opinion
The sounds are great. No complaints about the sounds. However, if I had the choice over again, I'd buy something else. The looper is great, but not worth $250 for 14 seconds. PLEASE!!!! Read the next section.
Reliability
:
3
Nope--I've had mine for a year. I bought it after reading every single review on this site ayear ago. I knew when I bought it that I stood the risk of it breaking because Line 6 stuff is easily broken. Well guess what? The switches fall inside the unit. The effects just turn themselves off. The modulation effects turn themselves on--isn't that exciting when I'm taking my big solo in the middle of a Church service and it starts spitting out atonal spatter. These effects can't be trusted in a live situation. For recording--I'm sure you can dial in a decent sound and enjoy it, but don't expect to be able to do it live.
At one point in time I thought of getting the upgade to the DL-4--the echo pro rack unit. It turns out that Line 6 discontinued all rack effects--probably because the break down. Read the echo pro reviews!! If that's what happens on their big products--then what chance does the less expensive (and more stepped-on) Dl-4 have? I've owned three at this point and can honestly say: none. They all broke in their unique "CHEAPLY MADE IN TAIWAN" way. A 3 in this category is generous.
Customer Support
:
1
I called them to find out what I could do to fix my pedal--first, the never called me back. Just recently I called, but alas: no over the phone support. They did however give me the name of someone who could fix it, but since it didn't fall apart until after the warranty was up, I'd have to pay even more money to fix this effect that seems over priced in the first place. You Line6 people really are spineless. Why can't you stand behind your cheaply made products and offer some real support--or how about coming up with a product that doesn't fall apart when a strong gust of wind blows by. You'll never get any more of my money.
Overall Rating
:
5
Sounds are good if you can keep the pedal working. The looper is good, but it's only for 14 seconds (oh wait if you have it in 1/2 speed and record it blah blah blah...it sounds like crap...trust me...I'm an optimist). Buy something else.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 06/13/2005
at 08:55pm
by DRW
Ease of Use
:
5
Easy enough...don't like that once you set a patch you loose the "settings" as soon as you tweak another. Be nice if it had a digital/lcd readout w/patch parameters.
Sound Quality
:
4
Really sucks the tone. Almost compresses the signal - high end sizzle gets muffled and the low end looses some of it's clarity. Like the flexibility of the pedal, but it's not worth the effect it has on the tone. Better to stick with 1 analog and 1 digital stomp.
Reliability
:
2
Very sensitive to power - even with conditioners (Pedalpower2 or out of a Furman rack) it gets 'confused' and switches patches (i.e. hit a pre-programmed button and some unknown delay comes out) or locks up (won't shut off when stepping on buttons) or changes delays mid stride for no reason. Very unreliable. I've been using this for a few years and it's been subject to such events when venue power is bad.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never bothered anyone...not worth the hassle.
Overall Rating
:
3
Professional studio/touring musician.
Nice toy.
Better to use a rack unit w/controller OR have 1 analog/1 digital delay on the pedal board. Much better reliability/control.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $185
Submitted 06/01/2005
at 02:52pm
by C
Ease of Use
:
6
Pretty easy to use but not very usable, if that makes sense. I bought mine used and it didn't come with a manaul but I figured I could download it on their website. The manual that is downloadable is not the fill manual!! They oly give you pages 11-21 or something like that. The parts that actually tell you how to program it are missing! This manual only tells you what delay pedals the prestes are modeled after.
Sound Quality
:
4
This pedal was super noisy when on. I mean noisy like you could hear it in mix noisy. It also affected the tone of my amps. It made them sound muffled and muddy even when turned off. There is no way it is true-bypass. I liked the options that it had and all the things you could do with it but for the money it's kind of cheap. I am going back to my old Boss delay pedal. It may not do as much but it sounds a hell of a lot better.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Did not have it long enough to see if it would crap out. Judgeing by most of the reviews on here I am betting that it would.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No idea
Overall Rating
:
3
I play alt rock with a mix of clean and distortion. I try to be a lttle ambient with my playing so I figured this would add some new flavors to my style but it sucked. I do not recommend this pedal.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 200 (pounds sterling)
Submitted 06/01/2005
at 06:29am
by McFibes
Ease of Use
:
5
Dead easy to get a good sound out of it... editing is pretty easy. would have been nice to be able to switch between effect on/off and a manual mode.
no clue as to how long or short the delay settings are, no LED display or anything like that. Which is pretty poor really, when you're paying out 200 quid on a pedal that is 100% digital.
all the literature in the box is pretty useful, covers the whole range of line 6 stuff.
Sound Quality
:
9
Used it on guitars (godin sd, fender jaguar), through amps (marshall JCM2000 combo, marshall VS265, but mostly keys (yamaha QY70 -> big muff -> DL4 - PA.
noise levels are generally okay, nothing special. The sounds themselves are fantastic, in particular the sweep filter delay, tape delays (echoplex copy) and analog delay (electro harmonix).
Using it on keys it adds incredible depth to my various "whoosh" noises and lead sounds, some excellent little short delay sounds that sound good on electric piano.
The lo-fi delay is good for experimenting with noisier sounds (the johnny greenwood sound at the end of Radiohead's Karma Police)
Reliability
:
2
It sounds great, true. But this is the least reliable piece of equipment i've ever had.
Read the posts below for more details on what actually causes these problems. I gig regularly on a professional level and really need to be able to depend on gear.
Needless to say when this one came up with an intermittant fault (only seemed to be a problem at gigs at first, then more and more in the rehearsal room and the studio) it got binned. Free pedal, anyone?
Got a Boss DD-20 to replace it. Ultra reliable, LED display, longer delays, proper manual mode. Delay sounds don't have quite as much depth, but as a trade off for a pedal that actually works it's a fair compromise.
This was my first Line 6 purchase. It will also be my last. Cheers, Line 6.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
After reading the other posts about it being cheaply produced, i've not even bothered. Don't want anything more to do with it. Might break it into little pieces and send it to their MD.
Overall Rating
:
2
I play mostly atmospheric ambient keys and guitar.
Playing keys since i was 12, guitar since 16, i'm 23 now. I own lots of gear, too much to mention here.
Thanks for the stolen idea, might put it on the doorstep with a sign on it saying 'steal me, i'm pants'.
Love the sounds, hate the fact that it's made cheaply, you just can't gig it or tour it. Favourite feature is the box. leave it in there.
Rubbish. Don't bother. Get a Boss DD-20 instead.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: AUS (just over $500)
Submitted 05/17/2005
at 01:23am
by WangMan
Ease of Use
:
9
This is a multi effects pedel so it takes a little bit of time to find the perfect sound. But it is very straight forward. Just have to read the manual about what the tweez and tweak knobs actually do (they change for each effect). But beside the basic fideling it is very straight forward. There are some "hidden" functions which again the manual explains how to use them.
Saying that the manual is very good. Its best to listen to the effect as well as read the book, that gives you a much better idea. The manual also cover all the other line 6 modulators which is kinda handy if u wanna go out and buy another, it kinda gives you and idea what they have to offer.
Sound Quality
:
9
My main set up is:
2004 Gibson Classic, Ibanez RG570, Vantage VP795 ->MORLEY Bad Horsie 2 Contour Wah -> MXR Dime Distortion -> Line 6 DL ->Marshal TSL 100 head
This pedal sounds perfect. I hate digital pedals but i find with an echo pedal it's ok as long as it does it properly. This simulates valve and tape echo's very nicely and also has some incredible clean ones. There are 1 or 2 effect that sound like absolute shit but the amount of good ones makes up for it. The 14 second loop sampler isn't too bad either.
NEVER USE THIS PEDAL WITH AMP DISTORTION!!!
Reliability
:
9
I've had this pedal for about 4 Months now and i've performed and practised with it heaps. It hasn't stuffed up on me yet. Only thing is don't even think about running it with batteries, It'll chew them up so quickly it's not funny. YOU MUST USE A POWER SUPPLY!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't had any problems
Overall Rating
:
9
This pedal would be the best echo pedal on the market in my opinion. You can store 3 different echo types which makes it versitile. Highly Recommended
I'm in a heavy metal band (Godsmack like) and i also play blues and rock n roll. This pedal suites every style of music. i've been playing guitar for 15 years. Some other gear i have is a Dunlop Original CryBaby and High Gain pedal, A Franpton guitar with Seymore Duncans and a Vesper Steel String Elecetric Accoustic Guitar.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: 15,000 (philippine pesos)
Submitted 04/27/2005
at 05:58am
by jon joaquin
Ease of Use
:
9
it's easy to use and get a good sound out of it. takes some time to learn what "tweak" and "tweeze" do, but overall it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. the manual is informative and easy to read.
Sound Quality
:
10
i have an ibanez aw100ce acoustic guitar with fishman electronics as well as a fender california strat. i plug them into the DL4, then straight to a 15-watt fernandes amp. good sounds on both guitars, although i see myself using the acoustic more.
the effects sound great, and while i don't know what the original gadgets are and how they sound, the ones i get from the DL4 are extremely versatile and really expand my acoustic guitar.
best of all -- and this is what i bought it for mainly -- the looper is great. very easy to use and i can sound like any number of guitars playing at the same time. i can finally jam with myself, and i see myself playing before live audiences with it.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
as has been said many times before, it's built like a tank. looks very reliable, and i'd gig without a backup. not that i can afford another one, though.
Customer Support
:
10
i was disappointed because i asked a question about the power supply and didn't get an answer. however, when i took the time to scan the website, i found what i was looking for, so i guess you could say they foresaw my problem and had a ready answer for it.
Overall Rating
:
10
i play many styles -- rock, blues, gospel, beatles, etc. -- and this sounds great with all of them. i've been playing seriously for 20 years and this is what i have always lacked, particularly the looper. where i live there aren't a lot of acoustic guitarists who think and play like i do, so the DL4 is the answer for me. if it were lost or stolen i'd do my best to buy one again.
i love the looper, although i wish it could go for more than 28 seconds and that it could be in stereo. i also wish i could use the modeled delays while looping, because in that mode i only have one kind of delay and some chorus.
i was also looking at the boss rc20 loop station, but i think that one is less versatile because it can only do one thing: loop. i need something that would also give me lots of sounds because i am a musician on a shoestring budget.
the DL4 definitely makes me create music because i can create leads and melodies over chord progressions i make. it's a great practice tool and will sound great live. and when i play with our church band, i have a new arsenal of sounds that i can call up.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted 04/20/2005
at 11:19am
by bigtone
Email: bigtone<at>thehuntclub dot net
Ease of Use
:
6
Pretty easy to use. I mostly have used for the delay effects, which if you have decent amps, and other pedals are good, it sounds quite awesome (not cheesy if you know how to tweak). I recently started using the looper and it is pretty easy as well.
Sound Quality
:
8
For the money, this is the pedal - no doubt. Very cool effects here. You need to spend the time and come up with three presets on your own that fit into songs you are doing. I have used this live many times and get lots of compliments on songs. Especially for U2 songs. Does it sound exactly like Edge? Hell no, but it sounds cool and again you after consider the price. I also run stereo into two amplifiers - I switch between a Fender Twin, Ampeg Jet, and Crate Stealth all with very good results. It sounds awesome having delays bounce from one side of the room to the other.
Reliability
:
8
I have been gigging for a couple years with this - I can't afford a back-up and I have never had an issue.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Don't know
Overall Rating
:
8
This is a nice product. Preset capability is the stuff man. Wish there was more than three. I would replace if it broke - no doubt.
Product: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
Price Paid: US $237
Submitted 04/08/2005
at 12:12pm
by Jim
Email: baxterfamily at hotmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
7
Takes some serious tweaking to get usable (I mean toneful) delay sounds.
Sound Quality
:
7
Let's be serious here (for a short period anyway) this ain't no serious professional delay as much as it is a special effects toy. Almost all the delay 'models' are thin sounding with poor EQ. I use the delay models where I can adjust the 'bass' and 'treble' to the delays (Analog delay, digital, and tape delay). The others are strictly tinny, harsh and cheesy sounding (OK for special effects 'noises' but not for overall 'tone' and quality replication of the original modeled delay). I use a Maxon AD900 for a 'toneful' delay and then use the Line 6 DL4 as a noise making special effects toy. This delay would really rock if Line 6 developed a way for us to access the EQ parameters of each delay and gave us parametric as well as shelving EQ (TAKE NOTE LINE 6 DESIGNERS!!) if they did this... and kept the price reasonable, true bypass etc...they would corner the delay market. Still a 'keeper' because of the cheesy special effects/noise making ability...even the reverse delay sucks tone (noticable drop in volume and fullness) from the original source :(
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Mine works so far....
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Heard horror stories but mine works fine...
Overall Rating
:
7
This is a fun noise making tool, versatile but cheesy sounding (mostly)...but hey! it's a $250 pedal, not a $1000 TC 2290.
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