Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

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.

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

I've used it every time I've played out, and I haven't had ANY problems!

Never had to deal with Line 6.

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!

This is a re-review with a correction and "a new twist in the story", read the previous few reviews down...

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...?

Haven't dealt with them, and won't. If the company released real deal guitar effects instead of toys, I might bother.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'll find out soon enough

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.

I say - BIG PEDAL ) The best utilized digital pedal . thats all !!!!

Sound very clearest !!! I love loop function - for my lessons . Cool gear !!!

steel box !!!

www.guitareffectspedals.com

John Frusciante playing on this delay !!! Buy it - you love it !!!!

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.

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.

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.

No idea.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No idea.

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.

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.

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.

I pulled it out of the box it was sitting in for the last 3 years and it still worked but still sounded bad.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

Haven't tried it, and won't. This is my first and last Line6 product.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Not had to deal with them.

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.

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.

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

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

never dealt with them

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Love the ease of use, LOVE the sound, LOVE the tape echo sim, hate the fact that I can't rely on it.

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.

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.

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.

Haven't had to deal with Line 6, so 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.

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.

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

did not keep it long enough to see how it held up although it seemed pretty solid

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

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.

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.

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....

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Never dealt with Line 6. I never bother calling support for these type of things.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Haven't needed it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

never dealt with

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

Very easy to use, until it stopped working!!

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

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

Contacted company, but not much help.

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

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

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

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

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