Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

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.

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

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

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

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

never had to

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

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

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

heres my board

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Never delt with.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

definitely easy... but i've been using it for years now... maybe 5 by now.

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.

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...

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.

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.

Fairly easy, if in doubt check manual or experiment

Nice range of delays and 14 sec sampler, Very nice sounding pro pedal.

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.

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.

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.

Very easy to use.

This delay pedal sounds incredable, add's load's of unique dirt to your sound that you won't get anywhere els.

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.

never dealt with them.

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.

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 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.

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.

Haven't yet dealt with them. Guitar Center exchanged it for me with no issues.

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.

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.