Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

It is easy to get a good useable sound out of it, whether its a Rock-a-Billy Slapback to Edge style analog delays to hi-fi Delays. You need to put the stickers on it that denote what Tweek and Tweez do, and you will need a light to read them when its really dark on stage.
The three presets are a brilliant idea, wish all pedals had this.

I play blues, soul, roots rock. This pedal can get you in the territory of great tone and can be very musical, but beware, it significantly colours your clean sound. It adds a honky quality to your sound, as a result of digitizing your tone.... if you want to use it, run it through a true bypass loop box and turn the mix all the way up and adjust on your bypass looper. That way you can have your real clean tone with the delay as a second mixable tone with its own volume control.

This is where this product is abysmal, terrible, totally unacceptable. If you want to buy this for your bedroom, to step on with your socks on a carpeted floor its fine, but take it from a touring musician, if you are ever gonna step on the switches with your shoe or put this in your pedalboard it is absolutely going to die sooner or later. Switches fail, solder joints fail, presets get lost, pots fail, The only people who give this a high rating for reliability haven't used it in a real touring situation or have been lucky so far. I was in this category until recently, and mine was one of the earlier models that were supposedly better. Trust me on this please... its from real world experience!!! Line 6 has lowered the expectations of everyone but the fact is these things should work indefinitely, forever, without failing.... Like Boss pedals.

I have called line 6 for other things, they have been fine. But seriously, you can't just put something in a heavy duty box and expect it to be heavy duty. The quality control is terrible and this thing is just an on-stage problem waiting to happen.

On a whole, very user friendly. Anything that you can't figure out just by playing around with it, is not greatly important - and the manual explains everything well anyway.

Gear used: Gibson '59 Historic Les Paul, Fender '62 Re-Issue Strat, Vox AC-30TBX and Mesa 1994 Dual Rectifier.
Superb sounds. The lo-Res, tape-Echo and Analog settings are to die for.
Would like a dual delay setting like Line 6's ECHO PARK, like a stereo with 2 different note values coming out each amp. Also being able to change note values on other delay sound models like with ECHO PARK.

Has been mostly hassel free for almost a year. It did reboot once and resoted to the factory settings!! No big problem though.

Contacted Line 6 about another product i thought i had a problem with and was contacted back next day. Very helpful and knew what i was doing wrong.

If it had a stereo mode with split channels with different note values it would be my ultimate pedal. But i still use an ECHO PARK for some stuff as the DL4 dosen't meet all my delay and echo needs. But still one of the best pedals to date.

Overall, it's very easy to use and program delays. I do wish it had an LCD screen like the Boss DD-20 to see the BPM, but that's a minor thing. It also could use a control for the note value of the tap tempo. This is another great thing about the DD-20 - you can specify eighth, dotted eighth notes, etc. The rhythmic delay of the DL4 doesn't allow dotted notes, which was frustrating.

Wonderful! This is the best part about this unit. Lo Res delay is like nothing else and was my favorite for really ambient stuff.

Worked fine for about 6 months - and I'm nice to my pedals. Like many others have been saying for years, this unit eventually craps out. Unlike Boss, Line 6 are not making a dependable delay unit that will work for years. This is why I switched to the Boss DD-20. Boss just lasts longer and I can depend on it for gigs and such. I actually had this thing go out on me during a number of gigs before I forced myself to get rid of it- the switches didn't switch, the unit froze up and had to be reset, etc. Major bummer.

Sounds great, but I just can't depend on it for gigs - and that's worth half the score here. I'm quite happy with the Boss DD-20 though and I'm not worried about it breaking on me.

The basic functions are very easy to use. There are some little secret options which should be better labeled. For example, if you want the echo to decay after you stomp the effect off (rather than the echo ending suddenly), you must hold the first and third buttons down while inserting the plug. Of course, it could be kinda fun to discover these little things.

I have one for vocals and one for guitar. Both feed into direct boxes with liftable grounds, so there are no sound problems here. I've even used mine for studio work.

I would definitely recommend that you get some sort of replacement insurance. I play music for a living so I have 4 of these petals - 2 for use and 2 in case the others break. I am religiously careful with my petals but find they still have some crazy quirks.

For example, if you don't 'stomp' the buttons from the right angle they break internally.

Then there are some electronic quirks. For example, when you turn one effect off, another will automatically turn on... for no reason.

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Aside from the reliability issues, this is the best petal I've owned.

Compared to other looping petals, I hands-down prefer this one. It has some important features that other petals don't have (like absolutely precise timing, layer fading, etc.).

Easy to use, like all the modelors, that's the nice thing about it.

I use mostly boutique pedals, a boogie mark I and fender/gibson guitars. I've also got a G&l strat that I love. I wanted to say that in recent months, line 6's quality control has taken a nose dive. I remember when these modelors came out, all of us in town picked them up, because they were easy to use, and they were great for live work. I've held on to my modulation unit, and still love it, now especially since I've had the Keeley mod done to fix the slight volume drop. I was frustrated with digital technology a couple years back, and sold the dl4 I had for some pricey analog stuff. I used quite a few different pedals, but always missed having several presets and tap tempo right there for live gigs where I did a lot of delay changing on the fly. I picked up a dl4 two weeks ago, thinking it was time I had one again. I was in a rush so I didn't plug it in at the store, I assumed it would work fine, and arrived at the gig only to have a dead unit. I returned it, and had the same problem with my second model. Needless to say, I'm reconsidering my purchase, and will most likely go with the boss dd20, although I wish it was true bypass.
Upon researching, I've found that, as of late, many folks have been having problems with reliability of these pedals, and, frankly, it's dissuaded me from buying any future Line 6 products. Three of my guitarist friends still use line 6 pedals on a nightly basis, and haven't had problems, but all of us bought older models, back in the late 90's so I guess quality was better then.
I just wanted to say, I really liked this delay, and I'm sad it didn't work out but, I need something to work for me and not have to worry about it. Plus, it's not like you can resolder a wire or something, the thing is all digital chips and such.
Just my two cents on the dl4.

I've learned to embrace technology, somewhat anyway, but when things like this happen, I wonder if I'm not better off with an old analog delay. My memoryman lasted for years without so much as a rattle, and it was made in the 70's, so what does that say. I just wish someone made an analog delay, with at least two preset levels and modulation. I'd gladly pay extra cash for that.

when i first bought this pedal i looked at it like "ok, i have a dl4 now, so how the fuck do i work it!?" but it's actually very simple to use. after about a week i knew how to work it with no problem whatsoever. the looper is a little more difficult but it fits in with learning how the rest of the pedal works within the week. they also have hidden features for the dl4 if you look in the users manual or download it off www.line6.com

sounds really good. nothing really bad about the sounds. i find it very nice. no noise when switching it on or off and if you do get noise it's either really rare or your pedal is just messed up and you need to get it fixed.

here is where line 6 completely ruined mine and some other people's dl4 experience. i actually just got a new one yesterday because i went to guitar center and pitched a fit because my knobs were shot after 3 months of owning the pedal. 3 MONTHS!!! i took it back and after dealing with the biggest asshole i ever met, he gave me a brand new dl4 for free. i took it home and played with it later that night and this one has never been used and it's already fucked up. for my "B" switch, sometimes if you hit it when not using the looper it turns on the "C" switch instead. when using it with the looper and you hit the "B" switch, it turns on the play once option and if you have the tap tempo switch on while you have the loop running, when you hit the "B" switch to turn your loop on, it will shut the tap tempo off completely. theres nothing wrong with the tap tempo whenever i use it without the looper but i was really pissed when this happened just because of how attached to this pedal i became. it's is by far one of the coolest delays and one of the most popular delays too. but it's basically luck of the draw with them because i know people who have had a dl4 for 5 years. i just wonder how they've kept them working for so long.

i sent them some messages about my dl4 whenever it started getting messed up and they will, i repeat, they WILL send you a message within a 2 day period. pretty helpful people, but they suck ass at building really cool stompbox modelers

I still love this pedal to death but im not sure whether im gonna take it back and see if it will work for atleast 15 days and if it doesn't im probably gonna take it to guitar center and get my money back. i ripped off some dude really big time anyways. they usually sell for $250 but i got mine for $205 PLUS the power supply for free. the guy that worked at guitar center was an idiot. hell i think they're all assholes.

This unit is easy to get the hang of if you read the instruction manuel. Let me emphasize to READ THE MANUEL!!! Its very helpful and interesting too. The only part of it that takes some getting used to is the Loop Sampler (once again...read the manual)

When I gig I use it with with the following setup:

Squier Jagmaster > Boss TU2 > Fulltone FullDrive II > Boss Super Phaser > Line 6 DL4 > Jade Storm 100W combo.

This pedal provides for most of my delay desires. It has a large range of different sounds that I haven't found uses for yet but I know I will in time. I haven't heard many of the original pedals that it Models but I like the sounds it makes. One minor niggle is when using the Tube Echo setting, if the overdrive setting on the DL4 is not set correctly there is a noticable volume drop but if you play with the setting a bit it works out.

Some of the reviews posted here do worry me slightly but I've never had any problems with it. I definately do gig without a backup cause I can't afford to have two of every pedal. Having said that I would even if I could afford two.

I've never had to deal with them.

I play in a couple of different bands. One is jazz rock/experimental, the second is folk/celtic/reggae, the third is a Christian pop/rock/blues band and I also do some solo ambient/experimental stuff. I use this pedal in all these bands and it has a function for just about everything I need. I love the ambient sounds I can get out of it that provides flavour during very sparse musical sections. The only major thing I wish it had would be extra storage spots...It is hard to function with only three with all the sounds available.

If it were stolen or lost I would get another just because for the price it is definately the most versatile unit around and therefore is perfect for the musician on a tight budget who wants some good delay sounds.

This pedal is not at all hard to use right out of the box. You can really get in depth use if you read and follow the manual (and your amp's manual also). I believe this pedal is best run through an effects loop.

I mainly use a Mexi-Tele thru a 535q wah and a Small Stone phaser. I run the Line 6 delay thru the effects loop of my Mesa Nomad 55. The E.L. level on my amp is set at about 11 o'clock and the mix on the delay is set at about 4 o'clock, giving me the best mix for my taste.
If I tweak either the amp E.L. or the mix level on the delay I lose some tone but that is expected. I have owned this pedal for a year and a half and have had no noise problems with it. I really like the tube echo on the Line 6, although it does not fit every song. The normal digital delay is what I use the most, and it works great, tonally. I also enjoy being able to adjust tap tempo on the fly.

Here is where Line 6 gets a little weak. The "stomp" switches on the outside of the pedal have these little springs with a small, straw like, white piece of plastic that stikes the actual controlling button inside the pedal. I have had the small piece of plastic pop out of place (twice in the last year and a half) on the tap tempo switch losing the tap tempo control altogeher. I use the tap tempo quite frequently so it has been a bit annoying. I also believe that this problem is two-part, Line 6 making the internal controls too weak and Line 6 putting the "stomp" switches vertical so when they are stepped on, they get stepped on at an angle putting too much stress on the inside spring. A small design change would be good here (put the stomp buttons at an angle and make the internal spring stronger!). This has been the only problem I've had with this pedal. (As mentioned in an earlier review DON'T stomp on the switches.) I play mostly at church and I don't need a back-up. This pedal is fairly dependable with careful foot-switching.

The problem I had with the switch was relatively easy to fix, albeit somewhat time consuming, and I did it on my own so I haven't dealt with the company at all.

This pedal works for the styles of music that I play (rock, some metal, blues). I've been playing for 15 years and this is about the best delay I have used. I would buy another one if it were lost or stolen. I love the sounds and the ease of use, and I hate the weak problem I mentioned earlier. If Line 6 were to strengthen the small weakness of this pedal I would have a top-shelf rating for this product.

End of use is the only thing why to buy this piece of a shit. As i was reading manual i thought i got a exactly what i needed. Pretty simple to use.

Setup: Yamaha APX 620 - DL4+expression pedal - Geroge Denis The Blue. It really doesn't reduce signal at all. This is all you can except. I was trying two of this boxes becouse first one has crashed after ten minutes. Second one still works - big surprise. But i gave it away. No metter how good or bad delays are becouse there's a big pause while switching between delays. Otherwise you can get a good (not perfect) delay sound. There's a lot of options of setup especially using expression pedal but most of them are useles. Or you have to be in high psyachdelic mood.

It looks like tank but it's breakable as an eggshell. Expression pedal was good.

I have no idea what should they do to get my faith in this expensive uselles thing back.

There's no reason to use it. They should rename to LineSHIT! Use BOSS! Or whatever else.

there's a lot to do with this pedal, it takes a while to dial in perfectly. But once that's accomplished, it is very easy to use.

there's some tone suck going on, and a slight drop in volume that only the player and the sound guy will notice. I use it w/ a modified strat and a fender stage 112. Great for cool swells and U2 sound, or just a good delay at tempo for color and space filling.

i've read a lot of these, and i'm surprised to find the problems people have with them. I don't know a good guitarist that dosn't own one of these pedals and i've never heard of any trouble except My roommate just had the tap tempo button come unscrewed, which, if he'd tightened it when it started getting loose, that wouldn't have happened. I have been able to depend on it, along with my roommate and another friend of ours. We all play at least 3 gigs per week and transport the thing in pedal board cases.

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I use this thing all the time. It's a lot of my tone and color. I've been playing for 14 years, and had this pedal for 2. I don't know what I did without it. I'd buy it again, but I do wish it was built a little stronger. I compared it to the boss equivalent, but boss pedals suck even more tone than line 6.

Very easy especially for improvised loop based music the loop sampler feature is way easier and instant than the boss RC -20 xl

I will review the loop sampler feature cause in three years of owning the pedal I have used the delay modeling very little.

Great it puts out what it takes in except in one instance that is very strange indeed. I havve recented been running a drum machine through it and on record it soudns fine, but on play back the high hat sound comes out way louder than it went in and sounding more like the snare.

Never had a problem. I use it almost every day for three years and bought it used. I gig with it regularly and it is covered in dings and scratches, but it works great.

never tried

I wish there was a way to connect an expression pedal and control the volume of the loop so that loops could be faded out.

Other than that it is great. I also have the boss RC-20xl, but I see them as having different uses.

This is way better for improvised music. Also if you are looping stuff and dont ever need to go into half speed mode then start in half speed mode and you get 28 seconds of possible loop time

I found this thing to be pretty easy to use. The factory presets sound really good already and changing it up is just a matter of turning the dials. but there is a bit of a learning curve when customizing it. I've had it for 6 months and still haven't tried everything it has to offer. I mostly fool around with the looper.

my setup is mex strat->big muff->dl4->randall tube amp

again I mainly use it for the looper and that's a ten for sure. the stereo delay is pretty cool too. i find i don't need that many delay effects, but they all do their thing well. nothing sounds bad.

MINE IS ON LIFE SUPPORT! after 6 months of no problems, it has started to behave like it's mass produced brothers. it is now very difficult to get it to turn on. i have to fiddle with the cords. i'm just hoping it doesn't degrade further. but after reading the other posts, i have little hope.

I found it excellent for it's loop function. But now that's it's broken, I'm considering getting the boss loop pedal, especially since it dropped about 200 in price.

I found it pretty easy to use, but was left a little flabberghasted with the "Multi-head" model. I find it really hard to use, but once you put the time in with this pedal, you really get rewarded. Its easy enough to use, especially with the handy stickers provided (to explain what "tweek" an "tweez" do for each model!), but it is always a good thing to read a manual for Line 6 products to get the most from them as quickly as possible

My set up is: Fender Telecaster-Digitech Whammy4, Boss sd-1,Crybaby wah, EH Small stone, Boss TR-2, Line 6 DL4, Line 6 Pod v2.0 - amp

I am really happy with the sounds i get from it. I had a Boss DD-3 before, and i was a bit sick of the digital delay. It was too pin point accurate for me. I love the sound of Space Echoes and Memory Mans, so for me, this was great. Also the sweep-delay is fantastic.

Im a massive Radiohead/ Pink floyd fan, and i find i can get so many of their sounds using this pedal. Its great!

Gets 10 for amazing sound, but also for "Delay tail" function.

I've only had mine for a month and it hasnt been gigged, but so far its doing great. I've a friend who keeps having the tap tempo button screw up, but he bought it second hand. Also read so many bad reports, but what the hell, i want to see if mine is any different. So far so good! I look after my stuff too

If i gigged (ever! lol), i wouldn't bother with backup

8 as i havent had it that long, but i have faith!

I've dealt with Line 6 before, and they are crap. Straight up shit

I think its a great unit, and im very happy with it. It's really quite expensive, but it does so much more than many other delay units available. Fair enough, it doesnt sound EXACTLY like all the models on it, but im a student for gods sake. How can i afford a Space Echo and TC Electronics? Beggars cant be chosers, but this beggar is happy with his find!

The product is relatively easy to use. The loop sampler is incredibly easy to use. The user- friendly aspect of this modeling pedal by FAR the greatest thing about it.

good sound quality. generic tone but like most line 6 stuff, it is very tweakable.

Pathetic..... OK ladies and gents...as probably one of the first owners of this modeling pedal (owned it since 2001) I can tell you that I know this product very well. The warranty lasts for one year. Most people who buy this product do not need it because the lifespan of this product is anywhere from 1-3 years. After about the third year, that is when the problems arise. There are many factors but the most important one is simply the fact that one (for most of its usage) is using their feet to STOMP on the product. Needless to say, this is no excuse for its poor craftsmenship or poor engineering. To make a long story short, the line 6 delay is not a ROAD hog.... I, under no circumstance, would recommend this product for live gigs due to its lack of dependibility, inconsistency, and sheer unfaithfullness. DUE yourself a favor and buy another delay modulator...there are plenty of other ones out there....

Ok...but not useful after the warranty has expired.....

Below mediocre....do not recommend buying

I found it easy to use, and though I am not a manual guy, I found the manual to be super helpful in guiding me to the sounds I wanted and in easier ways of using the pedal for all its worth. I was primarily a boss loop station user, but found that using the 2 pedals together helped fill in the gaps. Because what one pedal misses, the other seems to have.

I use a telecaster, varying fender amps, and after the line 6, a boss loop station. I never had problems with noise, but sometimes distorion being run through the pedal cause awful overtones.

It worked for a year, then the lights would come on but it wouldn't work, so I took it apart, cleaned it out, and it worked again. Then after about 8 months, it just quit. Doesn't work at all. I was dumb enough to have not registered for a warranty, but hell, for 250+ bucks I expected more. Don't know if I'll ever buy another one.

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I play rock/country/grunge/americana.
Was planning to buy another until i saw the 8 billion reviews here saying their $%^& quit like mine. I don't think i can part with another 250-300 for such crappy reliability.
The number one and two advantages over a boss loopstation is that you can make really short loops and you can begin recording immediately when the first loop repeats.
When it worked, I rate it a 9.
Now it's in the closet. A rated negative whatever. Waste of 250 bucks for a lot of people.

10! Very easy to use, very convenient tap tempo for on the fly tempo change. Not much to programming it, like they say, no weird button combinations or banks to scroll through, just knobs and buttons. The manual is not only helpful and easy to follow, but these guys are a trip so it'll keep you entertained.

8. I'd give it a 10 except for one minor (strange) problem. The effect actual lowers your signal level when it's turned on! It isn't a drastic change, but definitely noticable. I'm going to have mind modified by Robert Keeley (www.robertkeeley.com, check it out, they're amazing!) which corrects this problem... but in my opinion, I shouldn't have to spend an extra 100 bucks to make a 250 dollar pedal work like it should! Other than that problem, it's amazing sounding. Very accurate representations of the original effects, low noise.

If I could give it a negative 10 for reliability, I would. I have bought THREE (yes... THREE) of these guys. I'm so paranoid about them locking up or frying that I actually keep two of them on and powered up on my pedal board at all times! That says a lot for how amazing the quality is when they're working though right? All three of them have had to be sent in for service, and all three, after being serviced, still have occasional lockups and glitches (and it's almost like they KNOW I'm in a gig because they always lock up DURING perfomances!) I ended up selling the third one but now I gig with a backup that I program with mirrored settings to the first and leave in my effects chain and powered up just in case.

Again, if I could give it a negative 10, I would. The customer support on the website, and the guys on the phone, are very helpful. BUT! Here's the problem. Line six whores out their service to "repair centers" all around the country. Basically third party music stores or electronic repair places that fix them, and line 6 pays them to do it. Each one of these places that I have contacted have acted like they were doing me a HUGE favor for letting line 6 pay them to fix my equipment. They have all mentioned that they don't make any money off of fixing line 6 equipment (which I know is a lie, why would they do it if they weren't making money? It's not like line 6 forces them to be their repair centers!?!?) I had one store tell me it could be up to 2 months to get my pedal fixed, the other center told me, after having it in hand for a month, that "he hadn't had a chance to look at it yet" and "he has to make a living, so his other customers that he gets commission on take priority." By the way, if you are in or around Charlotte, NC... AVOID TRITECH ELECTRONICS and BROOKS MAYS MUSIC!!! You're better off getting a five year old to hit it with a hammer and pray that in doing so, something gets knocked back into place. These guys are incompetence in it's highest (lowest?) form.

If they were reliable and there were no issues with repair on the outside chance that there was a problem... I'd give it a 10 no question. Sounds amazing, easy to use, brilliant concept! Only problem is I cringe every time I turn the effect on out of fear that I'll step on that switch and it'll just laugh at me. Feel free to e-mail me if you're considering buying one... or if you have one and have similar problems, we can share our horrible experiences.

you really have to read the manual and look at everything to get a truly good sound out of it. i was the type of guy that knew exactly what i wanted, so i just kind of dialed everything in and had my perfect sound right then. the manual is really good and really fun to look through, it tells you all about the history of delays and all of the ideas behind the presets on the pedal. overall it doesnt take much to get a good sound out of it, you just have to know what you want and what you're doing

i've experienced some signal droupout on a couple of my presets, this was pretty upsetting for a 250 dollar pedal. the delay sustain isn't that great.
there are a lot of effects in my rig and i lost some tone with this but i have a BBE in my rack so that makes up for any loss of tone. i have a gibson sg standard and a fernandes vertigo elite, into a dual rec.
overall this pedal sounds good, definately one of the better delays on the market but i think that you don't get enough bang for your buck

these things are built like tanks, mine has heavy road use and after 8 months hasn't gotten faulty at all. then again, i keep it in a pretty heavy duty pedal case. but the pedal itself is completely reliable, as long as youre not using it with batteries

they have tons of customer support on their website, and the dudes are really nice over the phone as well. my friends have only had good things to say as well

i play progressive-tinged metal that has a fair amount of ambient clean parts, this does exactly what i want it to there. i had a sound in mind and this thing delivered. i've been playing guitar for 5 years and this is one of the best pedals ive owned, its just a little overpriced and i think overrated. i wish the power cable came with it, thats kind of ridiculous. it definately never gets in the way, its grown to be a pretty crucial part of my rig

This is an amazing pedal. I don't know of a better pedal for the money. It would be nice with a digital display, but it is still reaally easy to get an amazing sound out of it; it just takes a little playing around with it (just like with anything else).

I have been playing guitar for seven years, and I play a Schecter Diamond Series Omen 6 through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12 with the Line 6 delay as my only effect at the moment (hopefully I'll have a vintage Rat soon!). It sounds great. The overdrive on the amp is plenty for what I'm doing right now, I only want a Rat to have a little more control over the tone and volume. The sound is perfect for what I want.

I've had the pedal for a year and a half with no problems at all.

I've never really had to deal with the company, but my only complaint about the pedal is that you have to buy the power adapter separatly, and it's kind of pricey.

I love the Coldplay, Jon Buckland sound of guitar, and this is perfect. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably go on a crazy rampage and destroy things with tears in my eyes (or something similar to that basic description). I've played around with a friend's Boss DD4 (which I hope to have one day), but the line 6 kicks its tail. With a good distortion pedal, the line 6 can make some of the most pure, full-bodied sounds come from any guitar or amp. It really helps me with creativity, because it fills out even the simplist single notes or chords such that there is a much greater aray of things I can do with less work.

I just spent some time experimenting without the manual, then read the manual, experimented again. Seems easy enough, this is probably where people are all over the place in difference. I have used other delays that are more complicated.

Seems to be fairly worthy of a 7. Some tone loss, but for the most part I like the sound I get out of it.

Still new, Ill be back if it breaks like all these horror stories on here. I have seen stacks of people use this pedal, and never heard a face to face story bashing this pedal. Only recommendations.

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I bought this to replace my Boss RC20XL loop station, as well as to get a new delay. The whole thing takes some time to get use to. Although its not perfect for what I want, the delays, and the looper are solid.
The delays have been modelled well. And the looper is 14 seconds with a tap tempo, works fine for me.

I was unhappy with the audio loop in the RC20xl because it was half the sample rate and resolution. The DL4 seems to sound stronger.

very easy to use but presetings are really annoying because u cant change them. the manual great

Its not noisy at all, in fact the noise gate means u have a better sound than b4. I use a marshall 100dfx amp and a 1962 fender jaguar u can sound excactly like JOHN FRUSCIANTE and OMAR RODRIGUEZ.

absolutely shite it broke after 2 hours, just woudnt turn on again
i hope the replacement wont break as easy, luck of the draw me say.

brilliant when working, they lie about battery life in manual. WHY WOULD U DO THIS 2 ME LINE 6
I SPENT MANY HOURS WORKING IN THE MEAT FACTORY IN IOWA. FUCK I HAD TO SELL MY LITLE WIG AND PANTIES TOO THE LOAN SHARK. ILL NEVER LOVE AGAIN.

It's very easy to use if you read the manual and remember that you can always return to factory settings

The sound quality is excellent. I play tons of jobs both private and bar & nightclub stuff. I'm constantly amazed at some of the comments from from people that must be analyzing equipment in a lab or a bedroom. The noise floor in a night club is such that I don't think any of these noise comments are relavent to live playing, in different rooms every night. This pedal is the pedal boards of Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Brad Whitford,Keith Urban and tons of others, seems like it works for them, so some of these comments seem a little silly

Seems like alot of these people have alot of breakdowns. I guess I'm lucky because everything always works if I take care of it, no mattter how much I use it other than old tube and tube amps. But that's just routine maint.

Deal with who you bought it from. Who has time to contact the factory when you are supposed to contact your dealer anyway. Deal with your local store and keep you reciept, any Guitar center or decent dealer will always work with you if you have your reciept and follow the return or repair rules of the dealer. Why would any one contact line 6 for a local repair problem?

Excellent, 20 years ago all we had were boss dd-2's and dm-1's, and they were great as well, it's all in the hands and these things just make playing more fun. I remember when you got laughed at for buying a seventies Strat new, and now they are "vintage instuments". Well there is more to good equipment than chat room misinformation. Try keeping an echoplex in good working order and than tell me how bad this pedal is. Most of these people have no idea how good some of this stuff is, or how bad some of the older "but not really good then" stuff is.

The control knobs make it easy to use and control the various make-up of each type of delay. It is a little tricky configuring the pedal at first, but easy once you figure it out.

I found the manual really helpful as it gives you the background of each type of delay setting and references popular guitarists that used that particular delay.

The loop setting is very easy to use after a little practice.

I wish there was a digital display to see exactly how many micro-seconds the delay was holding. It's like using a tuner knob on a radio, instead of showing 99.1FM (for example). You have to guess and adjust to make it fit the music.

I would like to have more than 3 user-settings, but it sure beats a single delay pedal.

I've been playing guitar for 10 years and over the past years have primarily played acoustic (Takamine Santa Fe 93-c w/ turqoise inlays). Since purchasing the DL-4, the Takamine has been collecting dust in my closet.

The sound is great. I especially like the way you can set it to keep playing the delayed sound even after you've hit the bypass switch. The echoes trail off and this sounds very professional.

Mine works fine. Although, I have heard others say it arrives broken or buzzes.

For the buzz/hiss problem, you can simply use a noise gate. Line 6's distortion pedal has this built in. But, you would have to run the distortion pedal after the delay pedal which I do not prefer. This makes some difference when changing between distortion and clean, when you want either sound to trail off with the delay.

Again, I have had zero problems with mine. I've found it's usually the guitar cable or amp that has hissing problems.

Haven't had any problems. No opinion here.

I play anything from Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Coldplay to Dave Matthews Band to Pixies to TV Theme Songs (James Bond Theme is awesome). Of course, I would prefer to have each of the original delay pedals that this thing emulates, but, for the price, this thing does everything you need and sounds almost identical.

The loop setting can really be helpful when your trying to put a rhythm and lead section together... or more than 1 guitar track at the same time.

This pedal eliminates the need for multiple delay pedals, a loop pedal, an e-bow, and a reverse pedal. It is wonderful, whether you want some of that new Modest Mouse / Coldplay sound or some old school Hendrix / Clapton / Eddie Van Halen stuff.

Buy one now.

Delay almost always sounds good, but there's a LOT of variables with this pedal before you get everything nailed. The manual is great, the sounds are all good, but with this many options it'll take awhile to find settings that you want to save. That's really not a bad thing, though.

Like I said, delay almost always sounds good and this is no exception. I really don't get the appeal of analog/tape delays with the scratchy repeats, I'd much rather a clean digital delay, but I guess they're fine for some people. I do love the Memory Man model for clean, softer delays, but I use the plain digital delay for everything else. Also, the auto-volume is one of the best effects I've ever used and it was the reason I went with a Line 6 pedal. When this setting is tweaked just right, it makes the pedal worth every(over-charged) penny.

I'm using it with a Tech 21 Trademark 300 amp and a Zinky 2x12 cab, which I love, but it's too bad that the Tech 21's effects loop is so picky because I'd love to have this going through that. Luckily it sounds fantastic going into the front of the amp.

I've heard extremely bad things about this and I've only had it a short while. One show and a bunch of jams, not nearly enough to make a rating. I'll report back if I have any problems, but I really hope this isn't the case.

No experience.

I'm doing spacey hard rock/metal in the vein of Dredg, Cave In, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Cure and some stuff like Misery Signals as well. Obviously delay is a given, but this one is fantastic. I'd buy it again in a second, but I'm definitely wary of the questionable reliability. I've heard stories that the first batch of these were solid as well as the newer ones, but quality dipped a lot during the time between.... hopefully this is the case and I got one of the newer ones, I guess.

No need to review features. Plenty of other people have mentioned in great detail.

Difficult at first, but easy to figure out if you spend some time with it. WRITE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS.

Line 6 has done a great job on developing accurate tones. Can't fault them here.

Tone is not the issue...reliability is. See below.

Okay, here's where I come in. I read the reviews here and should have listened, but I couldn't resist. So I bought one from AMS as a "scratch and dent". Well it was in mint condition. One problem. The Loop Sampler didn't work. I sent it back under their return policy and they kindly sent me a floor model no extra charge. For about one year everything is peachy. Then this past summer one of the footswitch hex bolts comes undone sending the footswitch into the chassis. This didn't make sense, but a friend had a similar experience and fixed it for me. A little weird, but fixable. No big deal.

About a month later the pedal starts randomly and very sporadically losing my saved settings. It would audibly scramble (speed up then slow down). I tried cleaning out the footswitch connections to the circuit board (a very poor design). Nope...it just got worse in fact. Several live gigs later and what do you know it craps out completely. This time it never recovers. The pedal, even after reseting will not allow delay times to be changed either manually or with the tap tempo. It forgets them almost immediately.

Line 6 nailed tone, but in the process they forgot about quality of the product. Based on other's recommendations on here, I went out and bought a Boss DD-20 GigaDelay. It has been a life saver and honestly a fairly large improvement (great for a ProTools studio where delay tempos need to be right on!).

N/A

I've been playing for over 10 years. My musical style is very British rock in nature. I have been playing live and in bands for 7 out of those 10 years. It is primarily a hobby which spurs on my desire to find the best gear out there. The DL4 is not in that pool anymore.

My rig is currently: Gibson LP Std/Fender 72 Thinline Tele (CIJ)/Fender Am Std Tele into Boss TU-2, TS-9 Tubescreamer, Fulltone FD-2, Boss Bass Flanger, Boss TR-2 Trem, Boss DD-20 all into my new Dr.Z Maz 18 2x12.

The Line 6 DL4 is junk. People are not lying on here when they say what they say. I should have listened. Please don't make the same mistake I made.

It's easy enough to figure out if you have an aptitude for this kind of thing.

my rig:

1964 jazzmaster, mostly stock
1963 franken-jazzmaster, tele deluxe pu in bridge
1963 jaguar, li'l 59 single space humbuckers

into some combination of:

Fulldrive2
Klon centaur
hotcake
big muff
ibanez analog delay AD9
VooDoo Labs trem
Boss dd5 and/or dd6
mrx compressor

into one of these:

1959 (?) Magnatone 213
1965 Deluxe (no reverb, not reissue)
1968 Princeton Reverb


the delays themselves can sound fantastic- i love that you can get these crazy, gritty, lofi, delays with tons of character. It does, however, effect the sound of your guitar- when the unit is on, it adds a fairly significant amount treble to the unporocessed signal. It's not a bad thing necessarily, but if you don't like it, there's nothing you can do about it.

The thing that I love about the pedal is that it really has a much better feel than any other digital delay I've played with. I have a few boss delay pedals, and i like them OK, but they all seem a little sterile. I had my DD5 modified with a high cut switch, and it really wasn't worth it. Plus, the DL4 makes all kinds of crazy blooping sound when you screw around with it, which makes me love it all the more.

as far as I am concerned, Line 6 owes me a new one, and one that works past the warranty.

Bought my first one, used it for a while, liked it, stopped using it, put it up on a shelf, brought it down a year later, fell in love with it.

Then the trouble began. Random resets, digital clipping run away freakouts, just plain not working- no delay, no guitar- nothing.

Stupidly bought another because I love the damned thing so much. Same thing is starting to happen again. The best way to get it to malfunction- try to record with it.


The chassis on this thing could stop a bullet- why go cheap and put the crappiest footswitches manufactured in there? They stick, they break, they make it difficult to tap in the right delay time. Infuriating.

With all of the complaints, I'm hoping they come out with a DM4.2. I would be stupid enough to buy it in a heartbeat.

the people at the support line ignored me for about 3 months, then became very charitable. The place that they sent me to get it fixed took 5 months, and tried to charge me the cost of the unit.

well, it is obvious what Line6 should do. Let's see if they do it. I would love to have it back in my pedalboard, but since i don't like to look like more of a chump than I do all ready, it is not going to happen.

My Boss pedals have never failed me, not once. Too bad they don't sound as cool as the DD4.

So, what is the overall rating for something that sound great when it works, but neverworks reliably when you need it? I give it a 3.

If you are not used to these Line 6 Stomp Boxes, it can take a little while to tweak to get your preferred settings. The unit is easy to figure out and create really good presets. Instruction (Pilots) manual provides good starting points for getting the classic effects.

I really liked the sound that this unit produced. I got rid of my Boss DD for this, primarily for the 4 presets and the 14 second loop sampler. The digital delay is warmer than the Boss, and I found the flanged delay and the stereo delays very useful. I primarily used the DL4 in the effects loop of a Vox Valvetronix AD120VT in a home studio with the optional AC power adaptor. I play mostly blues rock, classic rock, pop rock, alternative rock, jazz, blues. I use many different guitars for different sounds and musical styles (I have two American Strats, one with Kinman pickups and pao ferro fretboard and ash body and one with standard American Series delta system and maple fretboard, Gibson L6-S Deluxe with SD JB & Jazz PU combo, Dean EVO Premium with SD Pearly Gates, Line 6 Variax 500). Besides the Vox (great modeling amp - superb sounds) I also have modded (Torres Pre-CBS)1973 Fender Twin Reverb with TAD power tubes and Eminence Texas Heat speakers (killer blues/blues rock amp!)and a mixed PA system which I use for vocals and to play the acoustic models of the L6 Variax through - nice. Also have a Zoom 1266 digital multitrack recorder.

OK, this is where Line 6 really has a problem. This unit worked flawlessly for about 1-1/2 years...then completely went berserk and shut down...dead, notta, nothing. This unit was handled with kid gloves, gigged very lightly but mostly stayed in the home studio. What a shame, don't know if it can be fixed and I'm certainly not dropping another $250 for a new one. I sure hope that my Line 6 Variax has better reliability because I really like it's versatility in my tone line up. The only other Line 6 product I currently have is the Guitar Port which has always worked fine (also used to own a DM4 which worked fine for the 8 mos. I owned it). From other reviews regarding reliability for the DL4, this seems to be a generic problem. Note: I guess I have been lucky with my Vox AD120VT as there are many reports of poor reliability (so far - two years - so good). Again, this is by far the best modeling amp I have tried, and when I bought this unit new I had tried them all.

Usually, Line 6 has been repsonsive to my inquiries and helpful. However on this issue, I have inquired about sending the DL4 back to Line 6 or a qualified service agency and have gotten no return response. I believe they know they have a generic problem (more than a few isolated problems) with this unit. This was a unit capable of great sounds and versatility, but sadly poor QC (typical of many PCB electronics).

I have been playing guitar and making music for over 25 years and find the music technology explosion to be great, especially for learning and recording music...but it is a double edged sword with some poorly contructed equipment out there. I hope Line 6 comes out with an improved version of this unit, but currently they have lost credibility of quality with me. If anyone has had a DL4 successfully repaired please email me, I would appreciate the feedback.

I did not get a manual for it but I downloaded one from their website. This thing is fun to play with but I do not see how it could be of any use live as the settings cannot be programmed and assigned to a patch number.
As it is it is very confusing to set up and get a consistent sound,

I have several very high quality amps and various high quality guitars of all makes and models.
It is not noisy but the sound quality of the guitar is horrible especially when high gain tones are wanted. I have tried it with many different guitar/amp combinations and all exhibit this tinny lo-fi ring modulator like farty tone. It is noticable on all settings although some more than others. When playing a clean amp with a guitar with low output pickups makes this audio artifact less noticible.
As for the loop feature, I have not been successful in using it where the inserts come in at the right time so it's of no value to me.
The only thing I can use this pedal for is for the reverse solo thing. It does do that pretty good and sounds ok doing it.

I do not think I would depend on it giving all that I have read here. But given the fact that the only thing I would use it for is the reverse lead thing, if it failed I do not think it would be a major issue as I can a play reverse lead sound using technique without a pedal to do it for me and how often is a reverse lead even used anyway?

I wish I could get my money back for this pedal. I did try one in the store a few weeks before getting this one from the same store and did not notice the poor sound quality. I actually though it sounded good at the time. I may just have a bad one or they may have been a bad batch of chips used. But getting anyone to admit there is a sound quality defect would be difficult as sound and sound quality is a very subjective thing.

One thing that bugs me about some of the reviews on this page is the reviewers lack of commitment to understanding their effects. One complains that presets disappear; if he had read the manual he would know that you have to hold in the stomp button for 3s. to store a new preset.

Although I'm sure some of these complaints are valid, I can say with some ceretainty that a portion of these complaints are due to the reviewers failure to read the fantastic manual. The manual even has examples of how to use the delay unit, something most other manuals dont even try to do. Line6 has gone a far way ahead of the idiotic boss pedals "suggested settings" (boss has yet to realize that every guitar player has a slightly varying set up: different guitar, different amp etc. and most importantly a different taste in how they want their guitar to sound.)

The pedal in itself is near impossible to "get" through instinct. The tweak and tweez buttons have different functions depending on what model you've selected and there are a ton of features. (Ill get back to those.) But the manual does, like I said, more than make up for the enigmatic nature of the pedal.

My setup is either 1) A strat guitar with vintage singlecoils or 2) A Furch acoustic with fishman pro II-

I run this either straight into my effect chain or duplicate the signal and send one straight to the low input on my Badcat CubII amp while the other signal goes into:

A volume pedal->Budda Wha->My Distortion and overdrive boxes (Foxrox fuzz and octave, budda zenman ->Line6 Delay->Phaser and Pro Vibe and then into the high input of the badcat cubII amp.

Not a lot of unexpected "noise" unless you're tweaking the eq on the digital delay and analog echo models. The other noise is in my opinion good seeing as it is a part of that weird wild sound you get at extreme settings. My Boss DD6 beats the digital delay setting for ease of use, but the options on the Line6 Dl4 and the sounds you coax out of it with patience makes it the best sounding delay stomp pedal I've ever used.

Yes, I can. And I do. Economical reasons for gigging without a backup, but it aint failed me for the past three months (approx- 15 live sets at one hour each.)

havent dealt with them. I hear they're terrible though.

I play whatever I get hired to play: Toto, Gospel, Pink Floyd (My Big Idol is Gilmour if you haven't guessed; his sound is just perfect.) So the versatility of this stomp box suits me perfectly.

Have been playing since 1999. My set up now is:

Strat electric and Furch acoustic (Run the acoustic clean into a mixer through a DI for most live applications and run the duplicate signal into the guitar amplifier for effects that I use with the acoustic; mostly volume swells and pads but also some distorted solos and wacky sounds.)

Effects owned (at present not in the order they're placed in the chain): Budda wah and Zenman, Line6 dl4, Foxrox captain coconut 2, Frantone Brooklyn Overdrive and an old ibanez phaser that I put true bypass and dc power input on.

I love its versatility, its beautiful and its more artsy sounds (8 bit digital delay anyone?) I can play a beautiful set of TOTO songs, or Pink Floyd songs or I can play ugly psychedelic heavy punk with it. Its the best of both worlds.

The patches are ok for the most part. Some are useless. The real aggravation is that the knobs don't indicate what the setting is after you change patch. It's all "virtual" until you move a knob, and then the perameter is changed.
This does not take much time getting used to as far as playing with it. But "using" it is another matter.
It's a pretty good toy. I got tired of "imagining" what the perameters were set to whenever I changed a patch.
Programming, ie: storing a setting on the other hand is a snap, and the layout is quite good with four presets and a tap.

The settings are interesting. The chorus (mod delay) is weak, with zero tweakablity. You either love it or not. I thought the overall sound was compromised somewhat, like with any digital delay.

I had problem with mine. It was sitting in my bedroom for 3 mos. and worked fine untill just after the warantee ran out. then it inexplicably broke. Never gigged out with it. I think a knob went bad. I sent it to authorized service center (Local) and it was returned pretty much un-fixed, had to return to fix again. Sold it immediately afterwards.

Warantee too short

I bought this to loop with. The experience I had playing with the looper was less than inspiring. I think it is kinda hard to use the various loop functions, and get a clean edit.
Now that I think back on the whole experience, I beleive the sound quality was a tiny bit sterile, un-dynamic, over-compressed.
The whole experience made me suspect Line6 products on the whole.
Caveat Emptor

Pretty simple to use although at first it may seem daunting(lots of dials that all have different features assigned to the same knob)But other than that its straight forward.

Before making any kind of statement on this effect i thought i would wait a couple of months and really play around with this thing before i reviewed it.The overall set up of this delay is fine and the pre-sets are simple enough.The delays do bleed somewhat and are a bit muffled. But this can be cleaned up with time.I am comparing this to my second unit the Boss DD2.But the one thing that makes up for this is the choice of other delays they give you, if having trouble with one delay there are others that are similar enough in sound and pitch to use them instead.

I have had NO TROUBLES with this unit so far.But i cannot beilieve the amount of negative responses there are on this issue.This should be addressed/seriously looked into by Line 6 and their people.
That being said i have my good old Boss unit with me just in case always.So i will give this an 8 but will check back in if i have any troubles!.

I own a Spider 50 watt 1 12 amp as well as floor board, and a Verbzilla reverb unit from the line 6 people. And have not had trouble with any of them (the amps is 2 years old)

I play ROCK and have for over 25 years....and not the metal d-tuned two finger crap that passes for guitar playing now.My equipment is mostly Marshall's2203/JCM900 and cab's,line 6 spider,Roland JC 120,Vox..And Gibson and Fender guitars.
The DL4 is a good unit for what i use it for which is recording and some live.The choice of different types of delays and the power to tweek all these different delays is the reason i am giving this unit such high praise....that being said there are allot of very angry people who got bad units out there, so you will have to decide if its worth the risk...In my case it has.

After you read the manual it's not too hard to work...

I thought it sounded really cool, you can do a lot of stuff with it... I would have loved if it could hold more custom presets

Just stopped working for no reason at all... I used their a/c adapter and everything... It just won't turn on... I have treated it very well, and have done nothing out of the ordinary, and now it's dead...

Well, the contact page on the Line 6 website is brroken too... Can they make anything that doesn't break???

It sounds cool, but if it breaks, whats the point???
It is truly infuriating and rediculous that these companies charge so much for a product that has no reliability and then don't do anything to rectify the situation... Their contact page didn't even work!!??!! So dissapointed/angry.

Ease of use was marginal. Not too intrinsic, but if you read the manual, its managable.

Muddied/colored the sound, and fairly weak, thin effects.

Absolute junk. The first generation of these several years ago were great. I just bought one from the recent generation and the first one was broken right out of the box. Then i exchanged it and after an hour, the bypass (which is not a true bypass) stopped working, and the delay was ALWAYS on. I returned it after 6 weeks. Complete junk. DONT BUY IT!!!!!!

Didn't deal with them. I went straight back to Guitar Center.

CRAP. JUNK. STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not too bad but I'd read the manual.

I have this last in my chain. I play an SG Standard through a SD-1, Dist. +, Big Muff, Dano Cheese Melt, and then the DL-4 into a 25 watt fender hybrid. I normall us the Low Res delay for the analog. Plays a petty convincing but not perfect. I put a bending mod on my which is fun but I would never use in a live setting. The pedal is really quiet when off and when on steals a little of my signal. When I bought this I was using it mostly as a looper and I found it easier to use that the Boss DD-20. Now I use the warmer delays but I wish now I would of got a Deluxe Memory Man or an old 70s MXR or DOD delay.

I can't afford back ups and from the other reviews I shouldn't trust this thing too much. In my live set up I sometime us my cheap DOD digial delay which sounds much better than this but only does one thing. One thing I noticed that drives me nuts is that when I turn off a delay setting and switch the same back on it not on the same delay modeler. It's like it goes to a default setting. Anyone else have this problem? So, it's pretty usless sometimes!

Fun but not really great. I wished I never bought it, but I've learned my lesson.

Not too bad to use if you read the manual. Tweek and Tweez take a little getting used to, but you can get the hang of it. Too bad it's such a crappy product.

I found the sound quality to be exxelent. Some of the stuff was bells and whistles but thats fine. I used this thing as a huge part of my sound for two years. TILL IT DIED WHILE ON STAGE.

This is the reason for this review, I bought mine hoping against hope that this thing would hold up on me. And it did for two years. Then poof, starts shutting off on me LIVE. Just shutting off. I was using the Line 6 power supply, all my other pedals are also plugged in and were fine, so it wasnt a sudden power surge or any of that malarkey. It just, ,,,,, stopped working. I babied this thing on a MKS pedalpad all latched down and snug as a bug. Never dropped it, never jumped on. Always treated it nice. And then after it dies, poof it comes back on again. Did that twice on me that day. I will futz with stuff when it goes in practice and I know stuff happens whenever you play live, but I have a Dano $30 PIECE OF PLASTIC that has lasted longer than this PIECE OF JUMK. Got my DD20 last week. Dont think it's a good sounding as the Line 6, but WHO CARES IF YOU CANT TRUST THE LINE 6!

If they want to come begging to me with a IMPROVED PRODUCT, I might talk to them, providing they give every customer on this board an APOLOGY for putting out products that THEY KNOW will not last. This should be a BBB issue, not a HC one. So Line 6, how about a apology for this hunk of junk? I am just going to sell this thing (and yes I will let people know it's junk) for cheap, I got better things to do than deal with crappy customer support and then pay to maybe have it fixed. Then only way to fix this thing is BETTER PARTS!

If you are thinking about buying this thing, I am telling you now, RUN AWAY. Got the DD20. I dont care how good this thing sounds, it's worthless if you cannot depend on it. You will be up there someday digging into a solo and THATS when it will go on you. You have been warned.

I think this is a fairly easy pedal to use. Nothing too complicated. Like a lot of Line 6 products, they like to pack in the features. The fact that the tweak and tweez knob have different functions based on what preset you're working in is a clue. Personally, I like that they pack in the features. For some, this might be complicated but I like it.

The "modeled" presets have varying degrees of authenticity. I mean the Echoplex models are close and by all means they capture the "essence" of the effect but they're not exact. I think the convenience of a unit like this balances out some of the "exactness" of the model. I think anybody can find a couple of models in this unit that they will keep as favorites. That's important and something everyone should consider if they're looking into this unit. Having a tap tempo feature for all the models is awesome! When I initially got the unit, I felt the loop sampler and or reverse setting were worth the price of admission alone for this box. Come to think of it, I still feel that way. I really dig this pedal. I actually have two of them on my pedalboard. One solely for looping and the other for delays. I recently sent in the one I use for delays to Robert Keeley for the mod he just recently started offering. His mods make this good pedal great! No lie!

I've read where a lot of people are having problems with their unit. I can see where a "mass-produced" effect like this could have problems with parts and switches. That's too bad because the idea and design of the unit really is great. I've been fortunate with the two units I have and have had no problems in over two years.

I did email them a while ago when I thought the power jack was producing some noise. I received a roundabout email response with some generic information. Nothing too specific or helpful. Even though I found out the noise was coming from another source and didn't need the service, I think their way of handling problems could be improved.

From my experience, I'm giving this unit a good review. I've had no mechanical issues with the pedal and the mod from Robert Keeley makes the sound quality even better. If you love the DL4 and have no operational issues with the pedal, I would suggest sending it into Rober Keeley for his mod. It's worth it. The pedal still sounds really good without the mod but if you're picky, get it! The DL4 provides a lot of sound possibilities from subtle to deep space nine. Check it out and if you decide to buy one, just make sure it's fully operational before you walk out of the store.

Reasonably easy to use but like all the other reviews say you can't change one parameter, as soon as you change one the others change to what ever the knobs are at. Because of the switches design (read below) it's very difficult to tap in an accurate tempo.

Sounds great. The sound quality is the only reason I've kept this stupid pedal. I love having the huge number of presets and the swells you can put on the delays. Also I love the delay that you can adjust the level while your playing (can't remember what it's called). It means when you're playing the delays don't mush up the sound too much but when you have breaks the delays come through nicely.

I also love the tap tempo (when it works)

Absolutly crap. It broke after about a month of having it. I would have fixed it myself but didn't want to void the waranty. What happened was the tap tempo switch went. It wouldn't work at all. I waited 3 long weeks to get it back (despite its crap reliability I do really like this pedal) and put it back on my board. I play in a church band and that night after tapping the switch about 4 times it went again. I was so pissed.

I decided to open it up and repair it myself this time. When I did I realised what the problem was. The switches are so badly designed. It's simply a large switch with a spring attached which presses on a smaller mementary switch on the PCB. The springs bend and move off the switch, especially on the tap tempo switch.

The repairer had simply moved the bend spring from the tap tempo switch to one of the other switches (I'll get to this in customer service) and now the new spring had bend off too. I've ended up chaging the springs for bits of rubber but this will probably break the small switches eventually.

Also if you tap in a tempo it canges speed. It tends to speed up during a song and sometimes it buggers up alltogether. And the tapped tempo changes if you switch to another preset the back again or if you bypass the pedal this switch it back on. I'm sure when I first got it it remembered the last tapped tempo but I might be wrong. It's kind of anoying if you're playing and you want to switch delays in and out during the song and you have to keep tapping the tempo in. People tell me I look like I'm trying to tap dance.

When I first took this pedal in the get repaired I had to chase them up to get it back and it took 3 weeks. This was not really line 6s fault as i was dealing with the store but what really bugged me was how they repaired it (just moving the springs) I couldn't believe they were that lazy and that I had to wait 3 weeks for something I could have done in 3 minutes.

Also just recently I noticed the problem I sepecified above of the tempo changing when switching presets. I sent Line 6 a question about it and they simply said it doesn't remember the last tap tempo. I'm sure it did when I first got this pedal but I might be wrong.

The only reason I have given this pedal a mildly good overall rathig is because of its sound quality. I love having 3 presets and the cool delays I can get with this. If I had of known all the problems this pedal would have had and I had of read some of the other reviews I wouldn't have bought this pedal.

I was kind of conned into bying this pedal and originally I was going to go with something boss but it seemed so cool when I used it in the shop i bit the bullet.

I'm torn between two worlds here in that I love using it but its so unpredictable that I can;t rely on it.

Impossible, it was broken outa the package!!!!

Well, it was stuck on the loop function and none of the knobs or dials did anything, the sound it did make though was lo-fi.

Well, I chose to ignore the posts here about its dismall reliability and bad build quility and buy one anyway.
MAN OH MAN!!!! From now on I'm really going to take all the reviews here seriously.
I was totally bummed, got a brand new one, not even out of its packaging, get it home, plug in.........and dead!! Broken, I could not fu%^ing believe it!! ?200.oo hard earned cash and the sodding thing did not bleeding work.
Took it to the store and they are getting another one for me, if that breaks I'm getting BOSS pedals.

Not even going to bother, took it back to the store where it came from.

PAH!! Seriously doubtful about line 6 now, Hope the replacement they get for me works!!!!!

Very easy to use. If you can't use it then i would take it in to your special needs teacher to read you the manual.

Never had a problem with sound quality. It usaully surprises me how good it is. Some people seemed to have problems but maybe they should check the rest of their rig. I play a Stratocaster and a Les Paul through a Marshall and it sounds braw.

I've had mine for nearly six years and it's been in the shop because i broke the delay rate knob due to over use. My fault. The people who have problems must have bought some cheep ass mexican copy or smething. Oh, if you use the right power supply it'll be fine. Don't be a retard and use something that isn't recommended or you may fry the circuitry and get problems.

Never had to use it.

I couldn't live without it. It's been gigged to hell and back and still works like a little trooper. The bad reviews of the DL4 don't make any sense and are probably down to mongoloid users.

You need to spend some time with this unit in order to find the sounds you like. It's easy to just twiddle with the knobs, or use the tap tempo, to set up a massive range of delays, with a maximum 2.5 second delay - which is more than enough. The range of sounds you can get is very impressive, and the looper is lots of fun. It's useful to make notes on what settings you like as well as saving presets as the palette of tones is so vast.

Fantastic tone. Much better than my Boss DD-3 which I've had for years, and until now was all I considered delay to be. However, as delay is my favourite guitar effect I figured I'd like some more versatility - and some presets so I didn't have to keep bending down and tweaking knobs between songs. The analog echo effects are gorgeous, and you can add modulation too for some spacey sounds. The swell and reverse delays are wicked fun, and on the whole I can see myself getting some use out of most of the delay models.

I've read a lot of horror stories about these units - and Line 6 gear in general. I've only had my unit a few weeks, but I can't see it mucking up as I look after all of my gear really well. I'll definitely gig with it, and if I have any disasters I've got my Boss DD-3 as back up, which is very reliable but limited in tone.

These units are absurdly expensive in Australia, so I decided to import one from USA. It cost about half the price. They are great units - lots of fun, and very versatile. I play atmospheric instrumental music and use lots of delay sounds, so this is what I've been looking for. I can see this leading to lots of great songs in my band, just from messing around. Highly recommended, especially if you buy new - that way you don't have to worry so much about reliability as you'll have the manufacturer's warranty.

easy if you have the manual

strat/tele/les paul into fender bassman. The effects are really good. Its truebypass, cool. It sounds great -if it works- see below

sorry, the horror stories are true. You can't use it live. This thing stops working in the middle of a show. I mean it goes crazy, it shuts down and you cant do anything about it. Well, then it decides to start working again sometime when you dont need delay. It can really turn the show into a nightmare. Dont say I didnt warn you.
I know other people that had the same problem.

If it does work, it sounds great. Its a shame you cant depend on it. I had to buy me a Boss DD-3.

Very easy to get a good sound out of this unit: most of the presets sound great and are instantly useable. Very 'tweakable' unit; easy to make lightening-fast adjustments to sounds 'on the fly', even at gigs, due to the large knobs. I see some people have critisised it for
a) only having three presets
b)no screen so impossible to tell the parameters of your saved patches.

I take these points, but I have never felt either of these to be a great problem. In answer:

a) It's so easy to set up good-sounding patches; I regularly re-programme if I've got jaded with the three presets I've got. Anyhow, who uses more than three delay sounds at a gig?

b) this unit reqires you to USE YOUR EARS rather than gaze at parameters on a screen. Tweek and tweez, my friends!

In summary: A refresingly 'analogue' style interface after all those effects processors with tedious and hard-to-access menus.

Tap tempo switch is superb: great for syncing up long delays live.

I would give this unit 10 out of 10, but the foot pedal is, frankly, shite: a real let down! Whatever presets you assign it to change (even if it's only 'level') it always changes the tempo aswell: how crap is that?
It's a piece of overpriced cheap plastic, with a joke budget lead. Not worth the money. Anyway, I never use it, and the unit is fine without it!

Excellent live gigging unit:
Being true stereo (two inputs and two outputs) gives this unit fantastic flexiability for me. Through the left channel I run my string instruments (electric guitar, bouzouki) and through the rignt channel, my reed instruments (button accordion, harmonicas.)

I generally use a slap-back type echo, a deep, long echo (Memory Man preset is fab, and easily synced-up with the tap tempo button) and either a 'sweep echo' or 'reverse' for something wacky and wild on my palette!

It always sounds brilliant: nice, rounded, warm, organic sound that works equally well for acoustic or electric instruments (accordion, especially!)

I sometimes take this unit into schools and get the kids to dabble with the sampler for crazy vocal experimentations: great!

I have played hundreds of gigs with this unit: Generally very solid, sturdy and reliable: (only problem: just after a year, a switch broke. (see below)

I regularly gig without a backup: no problem: although I'm glad i've got some spare switches!

After about 18 months use, No 2 switch broke: to be frank, this had been a worsening problem from day 1: sometimes working, sometimes not, untill one day it totally packed in!

Line 6 UK were easy to contact, and very responsive.
They offered me a repair: ?50 : (Rip off! I'm used to UK manufacturers like Microvox who fix this kind of thing for committed users free of charge.)Instead, I elected to do the repair myself, and Line 6 helpfully supplied me with several switches free of charge.

So far so good...repair however was very, very fiddly: micro-swich soldered to PCB that took ages to prise off and replace. (no hints or tips offered by the manufacturer.) Much better would be to have solid switches seperately attatched to the chasis. Yes, I take some of the previous reviewers points, innards of this thing look a bit 'mass produced' and not user-repair friendly: (The pots were also attatched to PCB, and the knobs neeed to be taken off to remove the chassis, and put back afterwards): one would expect a bit more for a ?200 unit!Line 6 need to look at this...

Have played roots-rock music proffesionally for 20 years.

Have used this brilliant sounding unit for 5 years: Great to use live, and in the studio. Some minor quality niggles, but would probably buy another if this went: It's become an integral part of my sound: Easy, intuitive to use, helps me make creative music, Oh yes, indeed!

Can be confusing to get the delay sound you want at first. This is because this unit has so many things packed into it. Multiple types of delay, loops, tap tempo, 6 knobs, and 4 stomp buttons. All of this will come in handy later in about a week, but will be confusing at first. First, you'll need to figure out how to access all of these valuable features and understand what everything does. Once you program in 3 delays, it's very easy to access these while playing live. Just stomp on the either of the 3 buttons which is why this delay is chosen over many others. This pedal is layed out very well and is the best choice if you want lots of delay choices while playing live. I also love the tap tempo and how you can see the actual delay time by the LED light blinking on the tempo you've tapped in. You'll also need the manual to figure out what the tweek and tweez do for each of the 15 different delays and loop sampler.

Epiphone Les Paul Standard - Vox V848 - Pro Co. Rat II - Ibanez TS9 - Boss BD2 - Boss DD5 - MXR Micro Amp - Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (1x12 tube). Not noisy at all. Delays sound very good. There are so many choices which will easily suit your needs. I wish the analog delay sounded a little truer and their was true bypass.

-Tube, multihead, analog, digital, tape, rhythmic, and stero delay are useful and normal sounding delays on this pedal.
-2 choices provide chorus to the delay.
-Sweep, Lo Res, Auto Volume, and Reverse delays add a very weird effect to delays that sound very cool and could be used if you want a unique sound.
-Ping pong bounces the delay back and forth between speakers.
-For the dynamic delay, the volume of the delay is adjusted depending on if you're playing or not. If you're playing, volume is turned down. When you stop playing for a moment, volume is increased to fill in the gaps.

14-sec loop mode is useful for soloing over your owner rhythm parts.

Great for any music that needs a delay. Slapback, long, reverse, modulated delay. Tons of variety. Best feature is the tap tempo. You can see the time you've tapped in by the blinking LED light. I love being able to tap in tempo on analog delays in which you can't on the originals in the 70's. If you need lots of delays and looping, this pedal is the way to go. If you just want simple delay, go with the Boss DD-5. Wish it had a little better delay sounds and true bypass. Loaded delay pedal. Very pricey.

It's very easy to use. Unfortunately, you have to switch between delay models manually. Oh excuse me--you can use their 3 (count 'em) presets which, by the way, can't be used with the looper. But don't fret--they allow you to have a pre-delay to use with the looper which subsequently sounds like crap.

The sounds are great. No complaints about the sounds. However, if I had the choice over again, I'd buy something else. The looper is great, but not worth $250 for 14 seconds. PLEASE!!!! Read the next section.

Nope--I've had mine for a year. I bought it after reading every single review on this site ayear ago. I knew when I bought it that I stood the risk of it breaking because Line 6 stuff is easily broken. Well guess what? The switches fall inside the unit. The effects just turn themselves off. The modulation effects turn themselves on--isn't that exciting when I'm taking my big solo in the middle of a Church service and it starts spitting out atonal spatter. These effects can't be trusted in a live situation. For recording--I'm sure you can dial in a decent sound and enjoy it, but don't expect to be able to do it live.
At one point in time I thought of getting the upgade to the DL-4--the echo pro rack unit. It turns out that Line 6 discontinued all rack effects--probably because the break down. Read the echo pro reviews!! If that's what happens on their big products--then what chance does the less expensive (and more stepped-on) Dl-4 have? I've owned three at this point and can honestly say: none. They all broke in their unique "CHEAPLY MADE IN TAIWAN" way. A 3 in this category is generous.

I called them to find out what I could do to fix my pedal--first, the never called me back. Just recently I called, but alas: no over the phone support. They did however give me the name of someone who could fix it, but since it didn't fall apart until after the warranty was up, I'd have to pay even more money to fix this effect that seems over priced in the first place. You Line6 people really are spineless. Why can't you stand behind your cheaply made products and offer some real support--or how about coming up with a product that doesn't fall apart when a strong gust of wind blows by. You'll never get any more of my money.

Sounds are good if you can keep the pedal working. The looper is good, but it's only for 14 seconds (oh wait if you have it in 1/2 speed and record it blah blah blah...it sounds like crap...trust me...I'm an optimist). Buy something else.

Easy enough...don't like that once you set a patch you loose the "settings" as soon as you tweak another. Be nice if it had a digital/lcd readout w/patch parameters.

Really sucks the tone. Almost compresses the signal - high end sizzle gets muffled and the low end looses some of it's clarity. Like the flexibility of the pedal, but it's not worth the effect it has on the tone. Better to stick with 1 analog and 1 digital stomp.

Very sensitive to power - even with conditioners (Pedalpower2 or out of a Furman rack) it gets 'confused' and switches patches (i.e. hit a pre-programmed button and some unknown delay comes out) or locks up (won't shut off when stepping on buttons) or changes delays mid stride for no reason. Very unreliable. I've been using this for a few years and it's been subject to such events when venue power is bad.

Never bothered anyone...not worth the hassle.

Professional studio/touring musician.

Nice toy.

Better to use a rack unit w/controller OR have 1 analog/1 digital delay on the pedal board. Much better reliability/control.

Pretty easy to use but not very usable, if that makes sense. I bought mine used and it didn't come with a manaul but I figured I could download it on their website. The manual that is downloadable is not the fill manual!! They oly give you pages 11-21 or something like that. The parts that actually tell you how to program it are missing! This manual only tells you what delay pedals the prestes are modeled after.

This pedal was super noisy when on. I mean noisy like you could hear it in mix noisy. It also affected the tone of my amps. It made them sound muffled and muddy even when turned off. There is no way it is true-bypass. I liked the options that it had and all the things you could do with it but for the money it's kind of cheap. I am going back to my old Boss delay pedal. It may not do as much but it sounds a hell of a lot better.

Did not have it long enough to see if it would crap out. Judgeing by most of the reviews on here I am betting that it would.

No idea

I play alt rock with a mix of clean and distortion. I try to be a lttle ambient with my playing so I figured this would add some new flavors to my style but it sucked. I do not recommend this pedal.

Dead easy to get a good sound out of it... editing is pretty easy. would have been nice to be able to switch between effect on/off and a manual mode.

no clue as to how long or short the delay settings are, no LED display or anything like that. Which is pretty poor really, when you're paying out 200 quid on a pedal that is 100% digital.

all the literature in the box is pretty useful, covers the whole range of line 6 stuff.

Used it on guitars (godin sd, fender jaguar), through amps (marshall JCM2000 combo, marshall VS265, but mostly keys (yamaha QY70 -> big muff -> DL4 - PA.

noise levels are generally okay, nothing special. The sounds themselves are fantastic, in particular the sweep filter delay, tape delays (echoplex copy) and analog delay (electro harmonix).

Using it on keys it adds incredible depth to my various "whoosh" noises and lead sounds, some excellent little short delay sounds that sound good on electric piano.

The lo-fi delay is good for experimenting with noisier sounds (the johnny greenwood sound at the end of Radiohead's Karma Police)

It sounds great, true. But this is the least reliable piece of equipment i've ever had.

Read the posts below for more details on what actually causes these problems. I gig regularly on a professional level and really need to be able to depend on gear.

Needless to say when this one came up with an intermittant fault (only seemed to be a problem at gigs at first, then more and more in the rehearsal room and the studio) it got binned. Free pedal, anyone?

Got a Boss DD-20 to replace it. Ultra reliable, LED display, longer delays, proper manual mode. Delay sounds don't have quite as much depth, but as a trade off for a pedal that actually works it's a fair compromise.

This was my first Line 6 purchase. It will also be my last. Cheers, Line 6.

After reading the other posts about it being cheaply produced, i've not even bothered. Don't want anything more to do with it. Might break it into little pieces and send it to their MD.

I play mostly atmospheric ambient keys and guitar.

Playing keys since i was 12, guitar since 16, i'm 23 now. I own lots of gear, too much to mention here.

Thanks for the stolen idea, might put it on the doorstep with a sign on it saying 'steal me, i'm pants'.

Love the sounds, hate the fact that it's made cheaply, you just can't gig it or tour it. Favourite feature is the box. leave it in there.

Rubbish. Don't bother. Get a Boss DD-20 instead.

This is a multi effects pedel so it takes a little bit of time to find the perfect sound. But it is very straight forward. Just have to read the manual about what the tweez and tweak knobs actually do (they change for each effect). But beside the basic fideling it is very straight forward. There are some "hidden" functions which again the manual explains how to use them.
Saying that the manual is very good. Its best to listen to the effect as well as read the book, that gives you a much better idea. The manual also cover all the other line 6 modulators which is kinda handy if u wanna go out and buy another, it kinda gives you and idea what they have to offer.

My main set up is:
2004 Gibson Classic, Ibanez RG570, Vantage VP795 ->MORLEY Bad Horsie 2 Contour Wah -> MXR Dime Distortion -> Line 6 DL ->Marshal TSL 100 head

This pedal sounds perfect. I hate digital pedals but i find with an echo pedal it's ok as long as it does it properly. This simulates valve and tape echo's very nicely and also has some incredible clean ones. There are 1 or 2 effect that sound like absolute shit but the amount of good ones makes up for it. The 14 second loop sampler isn't too bad either.
NEVER USE THIS PEDAL WITH AMP DISTORTION!!!

I've had this pedal for about 4 Months now and i've performed and practised with it heaps. It hasn't stuffed up on me yet. Only thing is don't even think about running it with batteries, It'll chew them up so quickly it's not funny. YOU MUST USE A POWER SUPPLY!

Haven't had any problems

This pedal would be the best echo pedal on the market in my opinion. You can store 3 different echo types which makes it versitile. Highly Recommended

I'm in a heavy metal band (Godsmack like) and i also play blues and rock n roll. This pedal suites every style of music. i've been playing guitar for 15 years. Some other gear i have is a Dunlop Original CryBaby and High Gain pedal, A Franpton guitar with Seymore Duncans and a Vesper Steel String Elecetric Accoustic Guitar.

it's easy to use and get a good sound out of it. takes some time to learn what "tweak" and "tweeze" do, but overall it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. the manual is informative and easy to read.

i have an ibanez aw100ce acoustic guitar with fishman electronics as well as a fender california strat. i plug them into the DL4, then straight to a 15-watt fernandes amp. good sounds on both guitars, although i see myself using the acoustic more.

the effects sound great, and while i don't know what the original gadgets are and how they sound, the ones i get from the DL4 are extremely versatile and really expand my acoustic guitar.

best of all -- and this is what i bought it for mainly -- the looper is great. very easy to use and i can sound like any number of guitars playing at the same time. i can finally jam with myself, and i see myself playing before live audiences with it.

as has been said many times before, it's built like a tank. looks very reliable, and i'd gig without a backup. not that i can afford another one, though.

i was disappointed because i asked a question about the power supply and didn't get an answer. however, when i took the time to scan the website, i found what i was looking for, so i guess you could say they foresaw my problem and had a ready answer for it.

i play many styles -- rock, blues, gospel, beatles, etc. -- and this sounds great with all of them. i've been playing seriously for 20 years and this is what i have always lacked, particularly the looper. where i live there aren't a lot of acoustic guitarists who think and play like i do, so the DL4 is the answer for me. if it were lost or stolen i'd do my best to buy one again.

i love the looper, although i wish it could go for more than 28 seconds and that it could be in stereo. i also wish i could use the modeled delays while looping, because in that mode i only have one kind of delay and some chorus.

i was also looking at the boss rc20 loop station, but i think that one is less versatile because it can only do one thing: loop. i need something that would also give me lots of sounds because i am a musician on a shoestring budget.

the DL4 definitely makes me create music because i can create leads and melodies over chord progressions i make. it's a great practice tool and will sound great live. and when i play with our church band, i have a new arsenal of sounds that i can call up.

Pretty easy to use. I mostly have used for the delay effects, which if you have decent amps, and other pedals are good, it sounds quite awesome (not cheesy if you know how to tweak). I recently started using the looper and it is pretty easy as well.

For the money, this is the pedal - no doubt. Very cool effects here. You need to spend the time and come up with three presets on your own that fit into songs you are doing. I have used this live many times and get lots of compliments on songs. Especially for U2 songs. Does it sound exactly like Edge? Hell no, but it sounds cool and again you after consider the price. I also run stereo into two amplifiers - I switch between a Fender Twin, Ampeg Jet, and Crate Stealth all with very good results. It sounds awesome having delays bounce from one side of the room to the other.

I have been gigging for a couple years with this - I can't afford a back-up and I have never had an issue.

Don't know

This is a nice product. Preset capability is the stuff man. Wish there was more than three. I would replace if it broke - no doubt.

Takes some serious tweaking to get usable (I mean toneful) delay sounds.

Let's be serious here (for a short period anyway) this ain't no serious professional delay as much as it is a special effects toy. Almost all the delay 'models' are thin sounding with poor EQ. I use the delay models where I can adjust the 'bass' and 'treble' to the delays (Analog delay, digital, and tape delay). The others are strictly tinny, harsh and cheesy sounding (OK for special effects 'noises' but not for overall 'tone' and quality replication of the original modeled delay). I use a Maxon AD900 for a 'toneful' delay and then use the Line 6 DL4 as a noise making special effects toy. This delay would really rock if Line 6 developed a way for us to access the EQ parameters of each delay and gave us parametric as well as shelving EQ (TAKE NOTE LINE 6 DESIGNERS!!) if they did this... and kept the price reasonable, true bypass etc...they would corner the delay market. Still a 'keeper' because of the cheesy special effects/noise making ability...even the reverse delay sucks tone (noticable drop in volume and fullness) from the original source :(

Mine works so far....

Heard horror stories but mine works fine...

This is a fun noise making tool, versatile but cheesy sounding (mostly)...but hey! it's a $250 pedal, not a $1000 TC 2290.