Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

Pretty easy to use & adjust. The only thing I find mildly annoying is that you can never assume the knobs actually represent the values they are turned to, so that takes a little getting used to. I think the manual is very easy to use.

A great deal of really good sounding delays. Whether or not they sound just like what they're being modeled after, I don't know, but they do sound very good on their own terms. To me the biggest problem with 'modeling' devices is that despite what they sound like, the actual feel and response can be a little weird, if you're used to a certain amount of touch sensitivity from an old analog device. To me the DL4 is pretty good in this regard, much moreso than the other 3 stompbox modelers they make, and some of the models more than others. But on the whole, pretty good.

I had a switch go bad. Because I live fairly close to them I drove it over to the factory and picked it up the next day. No problems since. I'm giving it an '8' for that just because I think it's not out of the question to expect a brand new pedal to have footswitches that will work for a long time

My only repair issue (above) was dealt with quickly and professionally. That's been my only contact so far

I play professionally and do a very wide variety of music, from very traditional to very experimental. This pedal is an indispensable part of my setup now. I only do reviews on gear that I like and have been using at least a year, and I can enthusiastically endorse this pedal. Having a bad footswitch is probably just a matter of them cranking out more units than they can personally test, such is the way of life with assembly line built corporate products sometimes. But it is a very good one, and one I will continue to use in my work for as long as it will last

Twisting the knobs is easy enough but in practice for live use, the implementaion sorely LACKS. I agree with a previous reviewer that the tap tempo should be or could at least be ASSIGNED to be global. Better yet, have a setting in the preset to override current setting from tap, in case there is one you wouldn't want to change (i.e. a extremely short chorused/doubler sound). There's tons of cool sounds, but they aren't worth much if the pedal is unusable.

Again, it sounds great by ITSELF. Too bad it WON'T match up with my amp(Boogie)! When I engage the pedal in the FX loop there is a HUGE volume DROP, which makes the pedal utterly useless. I called line6 about this and they said it's an impedance matching problem. So I found a way to boost the pedal's output which compensated for the volume drop but now I get a LOUD rumbling hum sound that is in time with the delay, which is so loud it overtakes the sound of the amp!

Before you judge I just have things hooked up wrong et al, know that none of my other fx do this(pedal OR Rack), and I've been playing for over 20 years and do audio engineering on the side.

It works just as shitty as when I got it, could be cause it spends most of its time in the box! I see Ebay in this pedal's future...

I really dislike the pedal, but I'll give line6 credit. They always returned my calls, were polite and tried to be helpful.

If you only play in the bedroom, this box is for you. If you gig and use amp distortion it most certainly is NOT. Through the front of the amp it sounds fine (good even!), but delay sounds horrible when it's distorted from the preamp. If you only use a pedal for distortion and put this delay pedal after it, it'll be fine. If you actually use the distortion on the amp (Which is why we buy a professional amp in the first place) FORGET IT! I only place reviews so often, I don't live to write these things. However my experience was so dissapointing I feel the need to pass it on.

Easy to use, you dont even have to read the manual to figure it out.

Sounds good, but if you have the loop on and the the knobs are all turned up your tone gets a little wanky, as l ong as you turn those down you are game.

Definitly Reliable, people must no know how to take care of their pedals if they break them so easily. I can always depend on it.

never had to

I play Jazz, funk, fusion, jam rock, and the Line 6 works great, it has a generous choice of Delays and a great loop (for what I use it for.) I've been playing for 5 years (don't give me a hard time for that either.) Im looking for a PRS but as for now I run a US Fender Stratocaster -> Pro-Co Rat-> Pro-Co Turbo Rat-> Boss Compression Sustain-> Ibanez Phaze 7-> Boss DD5-> Digitech Whammy -> Alesis Nanoverb-> Line 6 Delay Modulator -> 1965 Fender Bassman head with the original 2x12 Cab.
I know they say the boomerang is the best for loops, but im not looking to use loops that much, mainly for background. 5 min looping capabilities seem kind of pointless and its rather expensive. I think the Line 6 Delay modulator is great
oh yeah!! Someone mentioned that it gets possessed by the devil, that is when you turn all of the knobs up, tweez etc... If you sit down and figure it out you can make up some crazy noises, I love using that!!

The DL4 is very easy to use and editing patches is simple. It would be nice to be able to save more than 3 patches, but over-all this is the best delay stomp-box I ever played and owned.

I run a Taylor Acoustic 410--Ibanez tube king--Cry baby Wah--Zoom GFX 707--DL4--then I split the signal between a Trace Elliot amp and a Makie powered mixer for the main house speakers. My Trace stays behind me as a monitor.
Noise is not a factor and all my effects sound great.

The DL4 is very reliable and I use it at EVERY gig but sometimes the loop setting will get possesed by satan and all sorts of wierd noise will build up. It very strange. I need to un-plug the DL4 to reset it.

Never delt with.

My only big problem is the looper. It dosnt matter how accurate you are--the loop will always go out of time. I cannot rely at all on the DL4 for having a good tight loop when playing live!! It has always gone out of time.
I highly recommend fixing this problem. The Boss RC20 loop station did this with a tap tempo that will align your loop to the tap tempo you set. That way every pass of the loop will be in time!!!
The DL4 seems to pause for just a second in between the start and end of your loop. For this reason I do not recomend useing the loop function for a live gig. It's better suited for practicing at home.

This unit really has some great sounds in it, but you have to invest a certain amount of time with it before you can tap it's full potential.
I've found the best way to utilize it is to sit down with it and find (3) presets you like, tweak them to your liking, then save them to the 3 preset locations. Going into a gig or session with your tones pre-programmed is the only way to go. Avoid screwing with it on stage, you'll just frustrate yourself. All the effects share the same knobs, so each of your tweaked presets will be lost if you don't save them. Referring to the manual is critical, or at least take the small, parameter control sticker and slap it on the unit somewhere where you can see it for emergency reference. The looper is truly a cool, useful feature, but it also requires some homework to maximize it's potential. Due to the insane range of tones, parameters, presets and the looping learning curve, it get's a 6 for ease of use.

I run single coil and humbucker guitars through this unit into a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive then into the front of either a Fender 4x10 Hot Rod DeVille, 1x10 Mesa Subway Blues (w/2x12 cab)or into a Ampeg
VL503 combo. I haven't had much luck using this unit in effect loops.
The sound quality, after extensive tweaking, is very good. I've had this unit for quite a while now and pretty much keep the same 3 presets: the Boss DM-2 Analog Echo with a short slap, the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memoryman with deeper repeats and the TC Electronics 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay in the 3rd preset. These 3 presets cover a lot of ground and give my tone a thick, 3-dimensional
sound which isn't intrusive at all. Great ambient textures which open up my sound considerably. Running the unit with the (true) stereo outs is pretty damn impressive as well, especially with the Stereo Delay setting. You can also use the unit as a splitter box to run 2 rigs at once. Not the ideal set-up, but it does work. To my ears, the bypass seems to suck some top-end out of your tone, even using all George L's for patch cords. The looping function is almost worth the price of admission itself. I know this feature doesn't melt everyones' butter, but I love it. For serious, extended loops, the Boomerang's(2)
individual 2 minute + loops far excede the looping ability of the DL4, but at 450.00 for the Boomerang, your throwing down some serious cash.
Other reviewers bitch about the short, 14.5 second loop time, but by simply clicking the half-speed switch before starting a loop you can extend the looper to almost 30 seconds. I always run the looper in this extended mode and can hardly tell any difference in the audio quality between the two. You can also layer additional loops on top of the original, but you'll quickly find out things can get a little too busy to be functional. Simple chord comping and arpaggiated passages seem to work best in clean settings. I have not been able to get clear definition with the loops while in heavily saturated overdrive modes.
The looper definitely works best with clean tones, so if your looking to loop your triple rectifier - look elsewhere. As a practice tool, the looping function is extremely valuable, especially when exploring
lead passages over complex chord changes. The looper also can blend in both echo and chorus, something the Boomerang can't do without
additional effects. If you spend some time with the DL4 and really make the effort to dial-in your sound and save your presets, you should be pretty damn satisfied. If you don't, don't expect complete
satisfaction. In other words, it's nobody's fault but your own if you can't coax quality tones out of this unit. I give overall sound quality a solid 8.

For reasons I'll never understand, my particular DL4 will periodically flip-out and become a full-on freak show while in the looper mode. I can't even begin to explain what it starts doing, but let's just say it's definitely not a special effect the folks at Line 6 intended on programming into the unit. "Rebooting" the unit by unplugging the power supply solved the problem, but still..... Though the looper becomes possesed by the devil, the individual effects have been 100%
dependable and sound great in a live setting. Due to the freakish nature of the looping mode, I'll have to drop the reliability of the unit down to 6 for the looper and 10 for the individual effects.

Never delt with them.

I've been playing for a long time and enjoy a variety of musical styles including surf, blues, country, roots and rock. For high gain styles like rock and blues, I prefer to bypass the unit altogether and go straight into the amp, but for cleaner styles, such as surf, roots and country, the DL4 is great. Versatile, compact and powerful, it's a great addition to my rig - especially when you factor in the additional looping function for practice. I'll go out on a limb here and give this unit a enthusiastic overall rating of 8.

I give Ease of use a 7, only because there are a lot of settings and a small learning curve, you will actually have to read the Manual.

Once you realize how to program the presets (set it to what you want, hold one of the 3 foot switches down for 3 seconds, and its in. Kind of like programming a station into a car stereo).

The Manual is very informative and useful.

Sound Quality is Excellent. It sounds just like My Analog Delay, which is the only effect in there that I had the actual vintage effect. The others sound very cool. TRUE BYPASS. Thats what sold me on it. Its not effecting things when off. The effects are very cool, and very adjustable. Space Echo is great fun to play with will its activated. You can get some cool sounds out of it. You can get great U2 sounds. I set a preset to just a bit of delay in the back ground for a David Gilmour solo setting.

My favorite setting is the loop. I mainly use it for a short guitar line for background, or put it in half speed and you can have a pretty psyechdelic sound. If you ever wanted to do a cover of a song with reverse solo, you can go into reverse mode! Very cool stuff, and 24 bit digital. I notice when its on, it thins my sound out a bit, depending on the settings, but on others it seems to fatten things.

Seems to be solid. The knobs seem to be a bit cheap compaired to some higher end pedals, but the case is solid. If I had a millions dollars I would get a backup, but for playing out once a month is fine.

Havent had to deal with them, but the website has a lot of info.

I got a great deal on it through some connections, so Its well worth the price I paid, but I think its still worth the sale price if you can find a deal. I dont think I would pay list for it though, but who would pay list for anything??

I play rock with some retro sounds. A bit of Radio Head and Beatles Influence. Ive been playing for 14 years. My setup is:

Fender American Std. Strat -->
Wah-->Deja Vibe-->Full Drive 2-->Tuner-->DL4-->Custom Vibrolux Reverb

Its got a great sound, and wont color the sound when its off. It changings the tone when its on, but thats what its for! I would like 1 more preset possibly, but its got a lot of use, and for the price and the varitiy of effects, its worth it. I found a space Echo on Ebay for $500 that was not even fully working so I went for this instead. This is much more reliable for live situations. My favorite feature is the loop, with 1/2 speed option, and the ability to program settings.

My only complaint is too many choices! But its fun to find what you want.

oh it's easy to use alright, but what it's used for i've no idea.

strange i've used line6 stuff before, same problem everytime, it colors the sound in the wrong way...a great effect SHOULD be transparent, and add to the tone, not degrade it, then effect it. i had to re eq everything on my amp...<i use a mesa boogie dual rectifier with a prs custom>

its probably very reliable

don't know yet i just got it

i play alt rock. why can't a guy just tap in a MASTER TEMPO? yeah you get three presets...big whoop. ok here's a scenario for you...let's say you get three presets you really dig...you get everything set just right, tap the tempo and save it. now you can use those three presets for the rest of your tunes in your set right? wrong! as soon as you change tunes, you change tempo...well now all your presets are from the old tempo, you have to re tap tempo AND RESAVE the new presets...you look like a freekin monkey on a hot plate dancin around up there on dat stage...aaaaaargh what a mess. well i wish i could say this is a great pedal, but unfortunately i don't work for line6

Well it should be obvious... knobs are on the panel, everything right there for you to see. Unfortunatly it's hard to remember everthing that the "Tweak" and "Tweez" knobs do (though I must admit I don't have the manual for it).

I'm playing in this order:
Fender Fat Texas Special>Line 6 Delay modeler>Marshall ATV-50h>Marshall ATV-412a.
With this setup I didn't hear any noise, though I was playing at decent sound volumes, not blasting. To me, the effects all seemed
about the same level of quality. 14 Seconds of loop time isn't very much though, so don't expect it to be incredibly usefull as a phrase sampler. You can get a nice wide variety of sounds out of this thing with some very subtle nuances. But some effects do sound terribly similar, I think they could have eliminated a few of the redundant presets on here and still kept me happy.

Though I'm only borrowing this from my bass player, it sure seems sturdy. People expect a tank to roll over their effects and still have them work, if they would only treat them like the money they're worth reliability would be much less of a problem. The only problem i have here is that the knobs feel a little flimsy, but their recessed so it shouldn't be a big problem even if you're touring with it.

How should I know?

This is a nice box. I've used lots of delay effects and I think this could easily have reproduced the sounds of half of them well enough for playing live. It's on loan from my bassist right now, but I'll probably get it once I've had more time to think about it. I think it may be a little overpriced (I've seen it most places for $250), but probably worth it anyway just out of convenience. Please email me (link below) if you have seen a better price for this, or if you've seen it on ebay for cheaper, I'd greatly appreciate it.
cheers.

I found this unit to be fairly straight forward. It would be a no brainer except you have to read the definitions of "Tweez" and whatever the other odd ball term is. Editing patches is really easy once you learn the "Tweez" lingo. I don't like the fact that unless you right it down or can remember, you have no way of knowing what settings or type of delay you saved to the 3 positions. There isn't a LCD to edit parameters. So write down your settings. Thats why I'll knock down the ease of use a hair.

P.S. The unit is very versatile and I like the loop sampler, but for those of you that really use a loop a lot may want to take into consideration that this unit only gives you about 12 seconds I think.

I think the key here is to remember what the unit is. Its a modeler and although some of the models are close, some are not. I use 3 or 4. The rest are of no value to me. I used the Boss (?? the old japan pinkish red one) and the digital models the most. I used to have the Boss analogue when I was a kid (gave $35 for it at a pawn shop...try to get one for that now). The model is similar, but not there. Never-the-less, the modeler sounds good on the patches I use and I don't really judge it based on how close it resembles the originals because I don't know what most of them sounded like and don't really care. I simply judge whether I like the sound each model makes for each setting. This is a very subjective and chances are you may like patches that I think stink and vice-versa. There are so many, that there are certainly going to be some that you don't like, but probably just as many that you will

I run the modeler last in line Guitar -> wireless -> Boss TU-2 -> Crybaby -> Visual Sound J&H (Overdrive) -> Ernie Ball Volume -> DM-4 ->Fender Deluxe Reverb. It has true bypass, thus my chain is quiet. I can get most any sound I want but more importantly I can get the repeats, number of delays, and decay exactly where I want them. Delay is very important to my sound and though I don't think this unit sounds better than the Boss DD-3 or 5, it is much easier to get the timing of the delays down. I do, however, think the Danelectro sounds better to me. Its warmer. Again, the line 6 sounds good and sounds real good if you like digital delays. I think thats the other reason I don't care for the DD-3 and 5, which is a shame because boss makes probably some of the best and most dependable products in their price range. I digress.

Overall, I think the sound of this unit is good.

I haven't had any problems so far. Mine was a return that someone bought and only kept a week or so. I've had mine around 6 or 7 months and play regularly as well as gig 2 to 3 weekends a month. I use mine without a backup, but delay (although important to my sound) is an effect that I can make it through the gig without if need be. The unit is built pretty solid. My local dealer highly advised getting the a/c adapter so I don't know how the batteries hold up. I would suspect the DM-4 would go through them pretty quick.

I've read the other posts and I feel for those guys/gals. You hate to see someone spend this much money on something and have it quit, but I can't ding the unit based on their inputs, so Line 6 gets the all systems go from me. I hope it stays that way.

I can't rate this area because I have never dealt with Line 6.

Overall, I've been happy with the unit. There are better units for a lot more money, but I don't think you can beat the value. I love delay, so I get a lot of enjoyment out of having 3 or 4 different sounds at my disposal. However, if you're just looking for one particular sound, you would probably save money looking at a single stomp box (boss, danelectro etc.....)

I play country and classic rock mostly. I've been playing 23 years and have played semi-professionally for 17. If something happened to this one, I don't know if I would buy another one or not. I like it, but I would probably look at others and see whats out there. I might end up back at the line 6. I just can't say with certainty like I could if I lost my guitar or amp.

I compared this to the Boss units DD-3 and 5, the danelectro and a couple of others that I don't remember. I was really torn between this and the dan echo (danelectro). The dano was really warm, more analogue sounding to me. I went with the DM-4 for all of the options. Remember, delays are my favorite effect.

Again, overall, I've been happy with this unit. Good luck.

Fairly easy to use but, if you read my review and many many below, you won't be able to use it for long!!!

I use vintage tweed and blackface amps, mostly Fulltone pedals, and vintage Strats, an ES-335, and a Super 400CESN. The sound quality is between 70% and 90% of the original effects, it is fairly quiet, and you have the benefit of extending parameters well beyond the original for some really wacky sounds. Don't buy this for the looping. It's short and very limited. If you want looping, get a Boomerang.

Never, never rely on it. Mine went in three months of very, very, very sporadic use. See below.

This is what I recently emailed the company. Try to find a phone number on their website. Also, check out other people's customer service ratings. If they've had to deal with the Company, they've had an experience like mine.

My DL4 has not been working for nine months. It produces a crackling sound all the time and once in a while an awful screetching. I've tried different cables, batteries/power supply, guitars, amps, hard resets. I submited an email quesiton about 7 months ago and got a stupid canned "try a hard reset". I called a repair facility who told me to call you. A person tried two times to call me to give me an RMA. I returned his call both times and seven more times and never got an answer. I would have thought he could have left the RMA on my answering machine. It's been a damned long time and I'm pissed. Unfortunately, I am no longer in the state where I bought the time and it seems like my problems with your customer support (Harmony-Central) are typical. Please help me or at least tell me to screw so I can throw the thing away and buy something from another company.

What good is it if it doesn't work and can't get fixed. The idea is good, I'll give it that.

Update.....I would know how easy it is, I haven't seen it in over 5 months

It makes no sound.

A big fat one, mine has died for the third time.....

HAHHHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

That's funny......

Five months my pedal has been with them, I still haven't gotten it back......

This is insane, any company with that sort of turn around will NOT get my money again.

Line 6 and Boss will not get any of my money again......There customer support is garbage. Read my Reviews of the Boss RC-20 too see what I mean.

Here is a hint, buy a Akai Headrush, it may not be as nice souning, but it still hasn't broke.

It is quite easy to use (sort of a cross between a multi fx and a stomp box) though you should read the manual first (come back!!it's quite good actually!). Editing is easy-just press a preset switch and edit it, then stom the switch again...job done!

Overall, this pedal sounds great! On all of the settings it comes up with a beutiful, warm tone or a crystal clear tone with enough delay time that you're ever gonna need! One point though, on the high gain channel of my amp, it does introduce just a little background noise (because of the AC power supply, probably), but apart from that, this thing is brilliant for everythin!!

I use this setup...Ibanez RG470>CRYBABY>BOSS DS2>BOSS MT2>E/H POLY CHORUS>E/H SMALL CLONE>MXR PHASE90>THIS PEDAL>MARSHALL AVT100

Absolutely reliable. It's a cast steel box (tank!) and ya can jump on it if ya want to, though you'd look a bit daft.

Never dealt with them, but iv'e heard they're really friendly.

I play grunge/metal type music and it goes really well with the music I play (especially Satch stuff) I have been playing for 3and-a-half years now. If it were stolen, i'd hunt the b#stard down, tie him to a lamppost and knock the shit out of him with my DL4, then i would go home and deny all knowlege of this 'accident'. I compared it with the DOD and Boss delays, and frankly, for the price, the Line 6 is unbeatable!!! I wish it had a DC PSU though

I have to say very easy to use. Presets are decent, but, heck, you can build to suit your taste, so I have made some that are excellent! (That is to my taste, isn't that what it's all about?) Editing is easy enough IF you read the manual. I can make it do everything the manual describes and that's pretty good for a 57 yr old! If you can read and understand fairly well, you won't have a problem here.

Play a Lone-Star Strat, '76 Tele, and for acoustic work use a Takamine through a Fender Twin (Reissue) or a Fender Deluxe (Silver face) Also use an older Peavey Chorus from time to time. This unit sounds good with any combination of the above. I like the unit because it is not noisy. The things you can do with this thing are amazing! It's more than just a Delay Unit. For instance, you can actually get a Phaser effect and chorus sound from this little green darling in addition to all the other delays. This is where the manual comes in. The Tweek, Tweeze, Repeat, and use of the mix can take on different personalities depending on the effect you're building. I.E. Tweak can be "depth" in one mode, and Tweeze can take on a "speed" personality. (Or vice-versa) You can have a lot of fun just trying the different sounds you can create. Then, when you have one you like, just hold down one of the metal buttons for 3 seconds to store the setting you just created.

Built like a tank! The thing is heavy cast metal. The only thing not metal is the knobs, but they seem very well seated and solid. Dont's know what it weighs exactly, but you don't want to drop it on your foot unless you have on steel toe safety shoes! Have had no trouble out of it at all.

Haven't had to deal with them. Their product is great, so, hasn't been a need to contact them.

Have been playing different genres for over 40 years. Grew up on Chuck Berry, Ventures, Fireballs, CCR, John Fogerty, 70's Soul, etc; and when Country Music began to lose the "yodel through the nose sound", I turned to any kind of good sounding stuff that had a good beat, etc. By the way, haven't seen many Country pickers out there saying they try any of the new effects stuff. I would really regret it if stolen or lost. There is only one drawback that I can see. I previously mentioned you can actually get a decent Chorus and Phaser sound out of this little unit beside all the other delays. The only downside is that you can only use one of those sounds at the time. In other words, if you created a good chorus patch, you cannot add the delay and play more than one effect at the time. This may not be a problem to you. The pedal also works great in a chain with other effects. I have used it in line with a Boss BCB-6 full of other effect pedals and got great results, so it will only add to your sound instead of detract from it. I really like the tough, rugged construction of this thing. The unit goes for about $249 from Musicians Friend, ZZounds, etc. But one of the things I have noticed is that even used, (like on e-Bay) they still can go for 200 bucks or more. It has true by-pass also, so this is another plus for the unit. I have the power adapter, but I wanted to see how battery hungry the little devil was, so I used the four D batteries for a four hour gig one Saturday. It didn't seem to be that battery greedy. Has Mono/Stereo IN and OUT, but have only used it mono at this point. Could be, that there is much more to say about stereo useage. If you are not looking for a tub full of effects, and just want a good vairety of delays, with a couple of other effects thrown in, this unit could do you a good job, instead of having 3 or 4 different pedals scattered around. (Distort Pedal excluded)

I would say this unit is not particulary easy to get a good sound out of, nor is it particulary hard. Obviously it is harder than your average stomp box. A general rule of thumb; the more knobs, the harder it is.

My current set-up is as follows: Parker Nitefly-M > MXR Phase 90 > Akai Shred-O-Matic > Guyatone HD-2 Harmonic Distortion > Prescription Electronics Yardbox > Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler > Digitech RP-2000 > Reverend Hellhound 1X12 Combo. This unit is dead quiet. The quality of the delays are absolutely TOP-NOTCH. I am way beyond impressed with the quality and features of this offering from Line 6. The true stereo path of the unit, as well as the 24-bit sound quality, really shines when it comes to delays. Every single preset on this pedal is good and usable, which is a pretty rare feat, in my opinion. Honestly, it makes me want to rush out and get the other 3! But serioiusly, Line 6 really outdid themselves here. The first delay, Tube Echo, based on the Maestro EP-1, has superb tone, and great variation in controlling the wow-and-flutter, as well as the tube distortion. The second one, Tape Echo, based on the Maestro EP-3, is equally good, with the Tweak and Tweez knobs controlling bass and treble. The echo on this model is very clean and sweet. One of my favorites on the pedal. My other favorites have got to be : the Analog Delay, modeled after the Boss DM-2, offers a SWEET delay. The Deluxe Memory Man model is equally great. This pedal really is a SUPERB VALUE. In fact, I've only had it for a week, but after 2 days I discovered a great trick. If you put the Delay Time all the way to 0 and the Mix knob all the way to 100%, on the Memory Man model, it's like getting a free Chorus pedal out of your DL-4!!! And the same thing for the Sweep Echo model, you are basically getting a FREE FILTER effect!!! You can do this with any effect and basically get a preset that provides no delay but changes your actual guitar tone to just that of the effect, so you can truly get a ton more out of this pedal than what you would expect. Rapidly turning the Repeats knob after playing a chord on effects like Analog Delay and a bunch of others makes you truly FREAK OUT! Some amazing, unconventional sounds aplenty out of this little green beauty. But for a traditional, straight-ahead delay, you get that in pristine form. In short, this pedal is extremely warm, extremely accurate, and extremely FUN! (And monstrously useful and professsional!)

All-Metal Chassis and Switches, this thing it impressively built to last.

Don't know

I am a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the whole early 90's alt.rock scene. I also dig 80's bands (LOVE U2), Til Tuesday, Genesis, etc. And lastly, psychadelic Surf music ala The Mermen (and Dick Dale, of course). There's always room on the table for delay. Not neccessarily to be used 100% of the time, but it can usually add great depth and flavor to just about any type of playing. The dynamic delay setting, with the ducking feature, is killer for heavier poewr chord progression stuff, so you don't muddy up your already fuzzed-up distortion tone. With the stereo delays setting, you can really pull of an impressive rendition of the Edge's sound. (Try playing "Bad" with a little reverb and a little phaser, sounds killer!). My Parker Nitefly-M has a built in Piezo pickup and has a stereo cable, so what I would love to try in the future is to get an acoustic amp, like a Fender Acousticsonic, and have both amps set up, and run the Stereo Delays setting or the Ping-Pong setting using both amps, I KNOW this will sound amazing. I've been playing 11 years, and have used my share of gear. Everything I used to have has been sold off or pawned, due to an unfortunate walk on the wild side in my recent past. But now I'm back with a new set-up, and currently am saving up for the next big thing(s). The DL-4 is the most sophisticated pedal I've ever owned, and is basically rack-mount quality. In comparison to Digitech, Zoom, etc. Line 6 is the champ when it comes to modeling. As I said before, with the Mix level at 100% and the Delay Time at 0%, this can double as a Filter pedal and a Chorus pedal, and a Slow Volume pedal as well. You can also conjure up some very musical 'white noise' sounds that would make some killer-sounding atmospheric sounds and/or overdubs to be used in multitrack recording. On another note, having the 14 second Loop Repeater is an additional treat, it only adds to the already amazing value that is the Line 6 DL-4. Haven't used the looper to much yet, I'm still having too much fun with the 15 delay models! The last unit I had which featured delay was a Lexicon Alex, and the Line 6 blows that out of the water! Granted, my old Lexi did have ultra-transparent delay, and in and of itself carried with it a beautiful, trademark tone, extremely musical as well, but was not very versatile. The Line 6 can do everything the Alex used to do and so much more. And although $249 may seem like a lot for what in essence is a "green stompbox", considering the quality and variations you get, it more than makes up for the price. A lot of times, these "end all, do all" boxes offer you every effect under the sun, but at grave expense of TONE. The Line 6 would seem to make TONE its first and foremost priority, and then it transfers that 24-bit, incredibly-warm-for-being-digital, pass-the-blindfold-test-against-analog, TONE to each and every wonderfully applicable, useful, perfect-choice unit that is modelled. The Line 6 team did a superb job of picking the best out of the bunch in choosing what to model, and the fact they threw in a couple of their own recipes, only means that I'm getting a sweet, Sweep Filter effect thrown in! And who could miss the fact that the modulation is thrown in for free too! The third time I've said it, but I just LOVE the fact you can put mix at 100% and Delay Time at 0% and get a TRUE CHORUS effect or a TRUE FILTER effect for you instrument of choice! I've got a keyboard, but haven't gotten around to testing out the Line 6 with that yet, nor with vocals, but I just know the results will be sweet. I will admit, I have played a REAL Space Echo and I thought it was a simply AMAZING piece of gear, and I will not make a judgement about the Line 6 holding a candle to the original effects, except for the Boss DM-2 and the Deluxe Memory Man, which the Line 6 NAILS. But you get a better-than-good approxamation, and that is MORE THAN ENOUGH for this guitarist. And re

This is about the simpleinst 24bit processor on the market.

Gibson-sg std into marshall jcm2000 tsl head & 4x 12 cab. I've a wah & a old Boss o/d. The dl-4 is on the loop & it sounds pretty good.

The first one i had was faulty. This is the second one. Its robust but I still think the boss pedal design is the benchmark. Its been ok.

My first pedal kept breaking down ( mains hum) I had to threaten the distributor with a shitty review on here before I got another one.

I play angst rock. Over the years I've owned rack systems/ multi fx boards & pedals. Basically I cannot fault it for the price. If it cost another 50 quid more I'd still have bought it.

Like most Line 6 stuff, it is butt simple to get started. But to get the most out of this you do need to open the manual. (It would of been fun if the manual had a couple setting schematics to start with). Even the hidden features (page 10 in the manual) are easy to access. One of the nicest hidden features allows you to set this unit up so when you kick the delay off, the delay will fade out for a second or two. This fills the gap when going from lead to rythym (Listen to "Lime Light" by Rush at the end of the guitar solo where it goes back into the chorus) and you will get a feel of what I'm talking about.

Editing patches is way to easy, apparantly Dave (who could not figure this out) never opened the manual. Once you have a sound you like all you have to do is step on one the switches for three seconds untill the red LED blinks. That's it.

Only problem I've had:on the 'multi-head' model, if I turn the heads 1& 2 knob all the way off and then save the patch, when I go to recall the edited patch is not there. Instead it's this strange tunnel sound. Going to contact Line 6 about this.

The looping section works and is fun, but that is not the strentgh of this box

All the sounds are extremely usable and very quiet. There is not to much of volume jump when you kick a delay in (unless you have the mix set to extreme wet). And it is really a true bypass.

As for the actual sounds, the DL4 delivers realistic delay ducking Alex Lifeson's BY-TOR solo and just about anything in-between to suit any need. It even gets that fun Brian Setzer Slap-back.

The only sound glitch is (unfortunately, and it may be my set up or operator error) in the tape echo model. On the repeats, there sounds like a modulation to them. I know the original Echoplex did this, but not to this extreme.

I am running: MXR Dyna-Comp>Tech 21 XXL distortion> into a Peavy Classic 50 tube amp. And a: Boss BF-2 flanger>DOD 690 Chorus>Line 6 DL4 through the Peavy's effects loop. My two "meat & potatoe" guitars are a '90 Fender Strat Plus and '99 Giblson Les Paul Standard.

Would of given it a "10: except for the modulation in the Tape Echo model

Only had it for a month, but I've been playing with it for about 1-2 hours everyday since I've bought it.

Will update in about 6 months, either pro or con.

Have not had to deal with it

I am biased. I've had Line 6's AX2 amp for about 4.5 years and absolutely love it. The tones, effects and capabilities. It was this experiece why I chose the DL4. So far it has not let me down. The biggest thing I can say for Line 6 products is that they are intuitive. Designed by real-world-musicians for real-world-musicians

No question--this device is complicated enough to require a bit of a learning curve to understand the full range of available effects. The manual could be a lot better. That being said, the rotary knobs are fairly intuitive. There is a lot of polymorphism in this pedal--that is the most difficult thing for a newcomer to grasp. Haven't encountered any real turn-offs, though.

Well, my setup is a little unusual. I'm using a Parker Fly Concert, and a PRS Custom-22 that I modded with Barden 2-tone pick-ups. I'm also using a Carl Martin compressor and a Lexicon MPX-1. All of this runs into a SWR California Blonde amp. I play clean, most of the time, but occasionaly use a Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive when I want to get a little gnarly. I like a lot of dynamics in my playing, so I don't keep anything constant for very long. I like a broad palette. The sound quality of the DL4 is pretty doggone sweet, IMHO. This sort of thing is always a "compared to what" situation. I know, its based on a model, rather than a unique set of controls, but frankly, that's why I got it. I wanted the echoplex models. Do they sound exactly like a vintage echoplex? No, not exactly. But for the price of the pedal, they are more than a reasonable facsimile. The H&K Replex may sound a tad closer--but its basically a model too. Even the Rock Hard Plex is a model, after all, the designers removed a lot of the noise and wow and flutter associated with the 1st version of the machine. My point being--either put up with the downside of the originals--or accept the limitations of a modelled approximation. I also think the reverse mode is way cool. I also got it for the loop feature, and based on initial impressions, it's pretty useful as well. Given all the different options, and the low noise, the true bypass, for the price, it is an excellent value.

As a rule, rotary knobs are not my favorite--I prefer sliders--however, it has a heavy metal housing and looks fairly formidable.

Can't really say, but I got an error message from their web site when I tried to register online. That's pretty lame.

I'm not going to categorize the music I play--its eclectic, ambient, loop oriented, jazz influenced, spaghetti western, belly dance, surf music. In other words--no commercial potential. I play for the pure pleasure of it. For my purposes this is a useful device. I can't justify spending 1K for a new Plex echo machine--and even 400 for a Replex would give me buyers regret. I already had alot of delay options in my MPX-1, but I wanted the looping capablility of the DL-4 as well as the echoplex emulations. For those purposes, I am very satisfied with what it can do. I can only think that those reviewers who have totally trashed the device have some ulterior motive--I cannot possibly conceive of how someone could think that this device is so much less than the originals it purports to model. In most of the models, the emulation is a "shade" less than the sound of the original. Of course, YMMV--so much depends on the other equipment you are using--and I don't play blues or rock oriented material--and I tend to go for pristine clean sound spectums--so these expectations have certainly colored my opinions.

i just got it for the loop and the reverse....very easy to use...luckily i bought it off ebay for $125....so when a month later the main switch fell apart it wasn't too bad of a loss....so...ease of use....great....once you get used to it it's broken and you've wasted $$

sounded fine when it worked...

i'd put more faith in a crack hungry psychic. garbage.....

GOOD FREAKIN LUCK!!!

doesn't work.....who cares how it sounds....save yourself the headache and just burn your money.

This is a brief update to my previous review. Someone pointed out I commented on this unit having only 4 presets. Well, it's actually 3 presets and a the fourth switch is used to set the speed for the delay repeats. Just wanted to clarify that.

I'm not sure they exist at his point. What happened to Robert Duvall, the man who was asked to help me by his own people -"Hi Rob, Can you please help Rick get an RA# for his repair.
There is also a callback request in the data base, for Rick.
thanks!!"?

It's going on two weeks now and nothing from them since I sent them the info they asked for. I'm sure I shot myself in the foot at this point if they've been visiting these review forums. I'm the guy with an axe to gring I suppose, yeh, the guy who can't get support from customer support. Unexcusable.

Manual, good. very simple setup, though if one isn't a "tweeker", then you may have to spend some time getting used to things and learning how each knob works. I've been using delay and echo fx for almost 10 years now, and the thing is, this pedal does one thing very very well: it provides a very rich selection of great sounding and vintage delays in a compact box, enabling you to customize it to fit your needs. You can set it up to store three of them, and use an expression pedal to tweak parameters of that setting in real time. Nice job. Nothing like being able to swell your amount of delay in for any given note, enabling you to add a very personal touch to your playing.

If you are into textural looping, having two of these things is the bee's knees. Use one as a looper and one for your delays. Since it lacks MIDI I would not use it as a rhythmic looper. In my past experiences, you need a drummer with a click track and MIDI control for tempo lock for that kind of thing. Just my own opinion, not a reflection on the pedal. The new rackmount version has MIDI.

This pedal is not for the novice and not for the tweeker, right out of the box, so I give it an "8" for ease of use.

I want to say that, as an engineer and a musician, I love the sound of this pedal. And it has true bypass, which is excellent. It also enables you to duck the delays, but you have to sacrifice the true bypass. Use it through a parallel fx loop, and give your amp (my Mesa has one) mostly dry signal, and your tone won't be dammaged by the loss of true bypass.

I love this thing's sound. No joke. It's a great tool, and much less expensive then all the vintage gear that it emulates. I don't know about the other modelers, but this one, I love. I plan on investing in the rackmount, plus echo farm for Pro Tools (this way the reliability factor of the pedal is no longer a factor, and I can use it digitally, for mixing!).

the looper is clean, but not as transparent as the Lexicon Jamman, though I have not A/B'd them. Personally, I would use this unit as a delay pedal, and if I was seriously into looping, I would invest in a dedicated looping device, such as a Boomerang, Jamman or the Electrix Repeater. I find that this is a great delay device and an ok looper, but it doesn't work wonders as the later. The footswitches get int he way and choke you, especially when timing is an issue. for more ambient things, fine. The half speed backwards thing on the same button is bad planning, IMHO.

I give it a nine, because, even though it is great and I do love it, it is not a god. Nothing's perfect, but this is close.

I've never had a problem with it, though I have read plenty of reviews about it dying and such. Well, it is an electronic device, ya know? And it's a pretty complicated one, yes? So I would have a backup just in case. I have never had a problem with it, though I have not gigged with mine, nor used it everyday for months/years/decades/etc. I also own a POD, and have never had a problem with it either. I am not saying that people haven't and do not have a right to be pissed about it, because I sure as hell would!

byt the way, I think that the Pod is a great practice device, a cool recording tool, but nothing beats the sound of a tube amp. Just like drum machines are cool and fun and a great tool, but nothing can replace a live drummer. Same philosophy, ya know?

since there have been so many reviews on here with reliability issues, and I am assuming that at least some of them are real, I can't give it a perfect 10, even though I have never had an issue with mine. I will give it a "9".

Well, I bought all of my line six products "B stock", wich means direct through the company, and what you get is used trade show and demo gear. I have a POD and the DL4 that are used, plus two brand new power supplies and an expression pedal (it's kind of el cheapo, btw... so don't beat on it, kids!).

The company was always extra cool to me, and I was able to go direct because I used to work for an online dealer, and Line6 offers the "b stock" program. So, from my experience with the company (as of two years ago), they were great.

I want to state here that I bought it "b stock" from Line6, but that doesn't mean that it was really "new or used", but someplace in between. So $110 for somethign that is fully warrantied and *PERFECTO
MINTO* with no problems or scratches is an amazing deal.

I like vintage sounding gear, and I venture in rock, space-rock, techno, psychedelic, etc and this thing does the job for me. I've been playing guitar for 14 years and did the music school thing (I hold a BS in Music/Recording). My guitar rig (which I use this pedal in) is strat-->vox wah (true bypass mod)-->phaser--->TS-9-->MESA Boogie DC-3. I'll use the DL4 either after the phaser int he chain or in the parallel FX loop. Still playing around with it and my sound.

I love the sound and the programability. I don't hate much when using it as a simple delay or looper. I wish it had MIDI, but the rack verson does. I would buy another one as a backup if it was an important part or my rig (speaking for everyone), but most likely I personally would buy the rackmount. for recording with a DAW, since I am going with Pro Tools soon, I will definitely purchase "Echo Farm" for my aux sends.

I also use thing thing for my Sequential Circuits SIXTRAK, since it has no FX.

For looping, I would not use this pedal as my core system, but as augmentation. Electrix Repeater looks like the thing for that!

Bottom line: A great sounding echo box that I paid less for than any Boss delay costs, and I love it. If you want a simple delay sound, go with a boss pedal. If you want a cool box for recording, your guitar rig, or your synth rig, and have the money, want to tweek, and want something programable, this is it.

everyone has their personal tastes. I definitely would stay away from distortion modelers etc, but I do love this box.

I refuse to use spell check. sorry. Hope this helps out!

Two-edged sword here. Sure, it's easy to get it going. Plug in, select a delay, and play. However, as many have mentioned earlier, there are only three available presets (one switch is reserved for the gig-saving tap-tempo feature). No flexibility in that regard. Also, the fact that as soon as you switch to a different model, the settings of the controls go into "mystery mode." You have to float them until they pass the preset settings and then dial in from there. I know that sounds confusing in theory, and it is even worse in practice. I really can't stress how annoying that is. I really hate it. It's bad. Ok?

The loop functions are much more intuitive. They are easy to get the hang of and pretty useful for live applications. To me, however, this thing is more of a toy than a sampler. A little too limited. Good for quick layering effects and such though.

My "setup" is a 199? Am. Stnd. Tele with custom pick-ups or a DeArmond M-75 (I don't know why, but I love it) through a few things at any given moment (usu. FuzzProbe, MicroTube OverDrive, Whammy, SmallStone, MXR Flange etc. in various order depending how I want to sound) all through a Musicman HD-130 Reverb half-stack. I also use a GT-3 when I get lazy. Anyway, I used the DL4 with and without effects with similar results. Low noise and an ass-load of midrange. It really messes with my ears sometimes. It is just painful. It starts out slow. You don't really realize it until you stop and wonder why you feel like crap. It took me awhile to figure out what the deal was. I took the DL4 out of my chain and what do you know? No more headaches! Perhaps an isolated case, but what a pisser for me.

The overall vibe of this unit is pretty good at first. I totally loved it when I bought it...jeez...almost 2 years ago, I think. The delays are unique to each other (that's the point of this thing). I actually liked the analog models the most (scratchy, low-fi). Nice distinction between models too. The backwards guitar thingy was kinda cool until my DL4 started howling whenever I engaged it. It sounds like when you plug a wah backwards into your effects chain: kinda freaky but mostly annoying. The unit is quiet. I don't like the fact that you have to actually set it to a "mock" bypass to allow for the delays to trail off thus coloring your signal constantly. It doesn't color a whole lot but enough to notice after using it for a while. Anyway, I don't really use it anymore. It just started to piss me off too much.

I don't think I ever really relyed on this thing. I would always start a gig with it all ready to go (I even bought the outrageously priced expression pedal). Things would go steady and then it would become a liability to my sound at some point and I would physically remove it for the remainder of the show. Now that it is screwy with the backwards stuff, I will be using my GT-3 for delays. At least I will have 100+ patches to store specific delays. Who knows when the DL4 will flake? I just don't overly trust it. You can get by without a backup, though. Just know how to get by without it. It's really the only pedal I ever owned that fizzled out on me. I did break a switch on a wah once, but that's it out of probably 15-20 pedals over 4 years.

Don't care. Sorry!

Good for any style and I think this is generally a good product relatively speaking. Guitar effects are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to sound reinforcement and this is no exception. I don't understand why guitars are still unbalanced. I think guitars SHOULD be balanced equipment so what the hell do I know, right? I mean, why the hell not? At least we could use whatever the hell we want and run cables as far as the eye can see (well, far as hell anyway) without signal loss, noise or extra epuipment. It makes sense to me. Classic vibes be damned! They lead to bad SRV cover acts and repetition! OK, it's not that severe, but it is how I feel. I want professional stuff. Good luck with this one.

This unit offers so much it's a shame there's only room for four presets. It can be a little confusing to get used to, but once you get it, ya got it.

When it's working 100%, I love this thing. There are times the sound gets very thin, brittle, and harsh. Unplugging, and the plugging the cable seems to usually clear that.

Aside from the odd sound issue described above, it worked fine most of the time. I had it for about 9 months, then suddenly, it stopped letting the guitar signal through. Lights still worked, but no sound. Now it's entirely dead. I've never even had this thing out of the house. Yes, I'd heartily recommend a back-up.

I've been waiting over week just for an Return Authorization number from them, which you need before you send in for repair. Called, nothing. Emailed them, got a vote of support I'd be getting one after sending some info. Then, nada. I'm about to give up, trash this thing, call it a loss, and never buy another Line 6 product, ever. No excuse for this type of customer neglect - I just need a number! We're not talking exponential fractals from an IBM mainframe, just a service number so I can ship them the unit. Perhaps they're pissed over my POD Pro review here. Even though I hailed the technology and the overall sound of POD Pro, perhaps they didn't appreciate the rest of the truth. Who knows. As of now, I have a big green door stop that used to be an effects unit.

FWIW, they ditched me in the past when I was to receive a software upgrade for the Bass POD Pro a while back. I haven't forgotten that they never sent it, after claiming it went out during a call I made to find out why I hadn't gotten it yet. I had to return the unit I had for a unit with the upgrade pre-installed. Kind of a "self-customer service" I'd say.

I have a POD Pro, a Bass POD Pro, a floorboard, Delay and Modulation Modelers... over $1800 US in gear - I'd say I'm a good customer. At this point however, I'd say I'm a former customer.

Not a good time for me to answer this. If I ever get help from Line 6 so I can have this thing repaired, I might be inclined to rate it higher, otherwise, like I said, at the moment it's a big green door stop. This could be the first under warranty product I've ever bought in my life that I will have to throw in the trash because the company isn't responding. I'm still steaming, so take that into account when considering my review.

It's very easy to get a good sound out of it. I bought mine used, no manual, and I figured it out in about twenty minutes.

I run the pedal through the effects loop of my Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp. It produces no hum when used in conjuction with any of my other effects or guitars. This thing is noisy if you start screwing with the settings while playing. If you tweak the delay time and repeat time on certain settings the thing starts feeding back and making weird alien noises (very cool). Sometimes though it just ends up howling at ear splitting volumes and freaking me and my bass player out. I intend to use every function on this effect at sometime. It sounds very Floyd, Radiohead, Hendrix...insert artist who uses delay.

It's lasted for two days. That's a miracle, I beat the crap out of my gear. It's better than the Boss DD-5. My bass player has a ridiculous amount of problems with that pedal. This is much better. I will probably bring along a multi-effects unit to gigs just in case.

Never dealt with them.

I play jam/rock music. I've been playing for six years. Starting a band in Orange County (if you know a drummer who wants to jam e-mail me at kcadogan81@yahoo.com). I would buy this again if it were lost or stolen. Either this or maybe the Lexicon JamMan. I love everything, the loop especially. I'm the only guitarist so it's really an invaluable tool for me. I've played many other delays and this one seems to be the best bang for the buck (I got it used). I may get the expression pedal for added weirdness. It really has inspired me to write music. Rock on.

I figured it out.

Clapton strat-mesa nomad 100-crybaby-DL-4. Sweet. The reverse is the coolest in the world. Set low set high, it's all good. I was doing floyd, Axis:bold as love, some setzer, all good. I'm almost freaked at how good this pedal is and how it only costs 250.00( make the guy throw in the adapter for free). The tube echo is great along with the sweep echo. This pedal should be sainted.

Only had it three days, seems sturdy though.

Dunno.

This is the best pedal I've ever owned, and I've had the q-tron, memory man, bunch of boss, prescription electronics, blah blah. If I'm completely satisfied with the pedal, only time will tell.

Dead simple if you just take the time to actually look at the pedal for at least 60 seconds and read the often highly entertaining and educational manual. Idiots and effects-amateurs need not apply (unfortunately many of these folks seem to have reviewed the DL4 on this site).

The sound quality is surprisingly warm and resonant for digital modeling technology. To the ones who say the tone of this unit sucks, I have a question: Do you have ears made of tin? I mean, c'mon, for 250 bucks, you get some pretty faithful analog-sounding tones out of this little marvel. If you're looking for dead-on replicas of a Space Echo or whatever, sure, I concede that it may not nail it exactly, but that's not its job, it's a MODELER. I use my DL4 in the effects loop of my Fender solid-state amp (I so wish I had a tube amp). My guitar is a Rickenbacker 330.

So far it's worked like a charm. The construction seems solid enough, and the knobs, contrary to some others opinions, are not chincy and fragile. They hold up just fine. Yep, I'd gig without a backup.

Don't know, haven't had to deal with Line 6.

I play anything that doesn't sound like the unimagitive garbage on American "alternative" radio today. Dreamscapes, textural guitar, wall of sound, minor psychedelia, that's more like it. I would buy another one again without hesitation if it was stolen or lost. I love most of the features on it, especially the analog echo with modulation (good emulation of a Electro-Harmonix Memory Man), the auto-volume swell echo, and the tube echo. The sweep echo tends to overload my amp a bit if I don't set the filter range very carefully. The digital delay is good, but I really avoid straight dig. delays like the plague nowadays. The sampler is a neat practice tool, but it's tricky to use it in a live setting. This is definitely a star performer in my effects chain. Very much worth the money and all that, and, contrary to some other folks assessment of it, the DL4 is really a snap to use (but READ the manual, guys. It's not that difficult and it actually gives a good little history lesson in the evolution of delay/echo-type effects).

Bought it a week ago,regretting it now...I guess it's as easy to use as any other pedal. but it's a completely inorganic effects experience, making it very annoying...just like all the other Line Sux products I've played, the patches always reset themselves to a default setting, no matter where the knobs are pointed to, irks me greatly! The manual is okay, I guess , I never read 'em anyway...

I was running this thing totally stereo from my ADA MP-1 into an ADA stereo tube power amp, out of a Trace Elliot 2x12, totally bypassing the ADA's effects loop, thinking this much ballyhooed delay would sound killer... It doesn't. It sucks your tone, not so noticeable at low volumes, but crank your amp and try this thing and you'll notice a VERY audible drop in tone and volume, now I'm not a super purist, by any means, but I expect a $250 pedal to be as transparent as can be when it's on. This thing is so typical of Line 6 "modeling" crap. It's pure bunk. I am def. not keeping it, am going to get back my Danelectro PB&J back. The Line Six is not noisy, just weak. Most of the analog delays are useless,(news flash: THAT'S WHY THEY DON'T MAKE ANALOG DELAYS ANYMORE! BECAUSE THEY SUCK!!) esp. the Lo-Res delay, and sweep delay, which is basically a cheap Envelope Filter. Even DOD made a better one! I sound better without this wannabe delay pedal, a little 'verb's just fine for me, it's turned me off delays for the most part.

First of all, the knobs are cheap looking and feeling. I would be very nervous if I dropped it or if some ass-neck jock spilled beer on it at a show. Second, it's not USA made, it's built in Malaysia...Didn't one of those anthrax-tainted letters come from Malaysia? My old Boss PS-2 got kicked, dropped, thrown, tossed down a flight of stairs, had cig burns, all kinds of crap on it, and it still would outperform this Line 6 delay functions! And it had a pitch shifter to boot! Made in Japan, baby!

This pedal is good for you if you like Crate amps and Korean-made guitars. "Modeling" is pure hokum, save your money and get a Boss digital delay. Better yet, get two second-hand Boss delays. Save some money for something ten times more musical, and ten times less annoying. I will never again buy any Line 6 products, every one of their products' tonal characteristics are dull and fake sounding. Line 6 does a good job of keeping guitar store's sales floors sounding like a chipmunk's jerk-off party. I don't even care about it's stupid reverse feature, or the silly phrase sampler. Play guitar or don't, it's very simple.

Adding to a earlier review

Adding to a earlier review

The 1 is deserved......Mine has broken for the second time.....and this time right before a gig...lucky I bought the new Boss RC-20, or I would have had to use a headrush as my main sampler......

I don't believe Line 6 products will find there way into my home again.....Too unreliable.......Let me down at a gig....the auto fade is still REALLY NICE.......I'll get it fixed this last time, since it is still under warrenty, after that, I don't know......

The design of this box seems simpler than it actually is, which can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on your experience. The knobs are much more forgiving on some types of delays than others. Sometimes the perfect sound really does come down to twisting the knob just a millimeter more to the left or right, so experiment heavily before you make your memory patches. It actually took me more than three weeks to dial up settings i considered permanent, because there really is THAT much of a variety within the circuits.

there's also the cool feature that lets you decide whether the effect will trail off after you turn off the button, or if it will end instantly. i haven't purchased the expression pedal yet, so i have no comment on usage of that.

The sound quality is definitely worth the money here. Line 6 strikes a good balance between silence on the noise floor, and slight "analog" anomalies that they deem attractive to players. Some settings, if tweaked properly, will create slight hums, bubbles or tics that are audible, many times when no signal is even running through the pedal.
The analog delays are very well done, and i use them the most, just because you instantly have more control over the EQ, time settings by being loaded into this particular box. I use three permanent memory settings- 1. a low rez delay with endless repeats that winds out to the low frequency. 2. an analog delay with a medium time cycle and 5-6 repeats that has a little "shimmer" on the top end. 3. a low rez delay with endless repeats that winds out to the high frequency.
I also have an analog delay in front of this box that has a long repeat trail set off from the cycle of the Line 6 delays, that give the overall sound a MultiHead delay sound *even though there is a GREAT multihead tape delay effect in the Line 6 already.

There really is so much to say about this box, i really can't get all of it down in an effective manner. I can just say, if you're looking for a certain delay sound, there's a 90% chance you can get VERY close to it with this box. It has a very good quality sampler inside that will do endless overdubs on a 10ms- 14 second cycle AND you can switch it off to half speed/double speed and reverse in real time.
This is basically a box at the top of the heap in it's price range, bar none. To get more performance and better sounding circuitry, you'de have to spend well over three times the amount than these gems cost.
I use a Hamer Special, threaded through a Boss PS-2 Super Shifter, Boss HM-2 Distortion, an old analog DOD 505-A delay *the weak link in the chain of tone, but it has personality*, an Akai Headrush delay/12 second sampler, this Line 6 DL-4, and then into a Mesa Boogie Dual Rec, with 4 X 12 Ampeg cab. My sound ranges from overwhelming trip out bliss rock like My Bloody Valentine and Mercury Rev, to dark flavored trip hop like Portishead, or Massive Attack. This pedal is such a great performer, it always takes on much of the featured personality of whatever i'm playing. I'm thinking about buying another one and chaining them together so i can have the sampler/looper put behind the great delays i can save in the memory slots. It would be more than worth it.

I haven't had a single problem with this unit yet, and I've had it for over a year. I used it sparingly at first, and then much more in the past 5 months. I basically "break down" after every practice, like you would at a show and each time this pedal came out of an equipment case stuffed with other junk ready to rock.
I've seen a lot of other feedback on this site about how these pedals suddenly "stop working" or the knobs come off or whatever. I'd take that with a grain of salt. This is a well built pedal, and I've used a LOT over the years. It's heavy and strong, but it's not a kick plate. Pedals are sensitive electronic devices and they will break at strange times. I'd say, if you don't drop these too often, and take the time to make sure all connection points are sealed tight and that it's not being assaulted by a lot of moisture, you'll have a good performer for life. wiping pedals down with towels after a long practice, and making sure all circuit points are dry and clean every couple of months will make a world of difference.

If Line 6 made the next design with stainless steel washers and nuts at the line inputs, i'd say this pedal would be damn near perfect in design *from the outside, at least.*

Never had to deal with them, but their website seems to have lots of info on anything you might want to know about. you can even download user manuals and product updates. They're definitely a company tuned to the 21st century user.

There's a few other companies making designs like this now, but I'd say they're definitely following suit, rather than leading the way. Line 6 has basically come out of nowhere in the last 7 years, and are highly regarded in their field. I'll keep repeating what i think is the strongest aspect of this pedal series, and it's the price you pay for how much pedal you get. And this series from Line 6 basically blows anyone else away right out of the gate. DOD? hah. Digitech? wrong...get back to the 80's. Boss? good sounds, but they need a change in design for users who want a more complex sound setup. Korg? maybe, if you had $800 to spend and a degree from MIT.

The patches are imaginative, even while they stay true to the original boxes this thing is supposed to emulate. And that's a VERY active word in this review- EMULATE. If you're a purist, you won't want to spend any time with these. They take the grand sounds of yesterday and make them more user friendly and tweakable. If everything were up to purists, we'de never advance technology in the first place. if they want to spend 1000 bucks on an old Roland tape delay with a shoddy cartridge that they need to clean or replace every 4 months, get on with it, i say. If you're a working musician, you have to set your rig up with a balance between good sounds, reliability and ease of use, i say.
These pedals are the best example of great sounds/circuitry and graceful design available to almost every sector of the music playing public. I wholeheartedly recommend the DL-4 to anyone ready to make the step.

This is pedal is quite easy to use, and, if you can't figure out a particular feature, the instruction manual is well-written and helpful. Editing and storing programs is a snap, and going back later and modifying the programs you've stored (for example, changing only the number of repeats and keeping everything else the same) is also very simple.

I use this unit with my Fender Telecaster and a Fender Deluxe 112 Amp and a variety of other stompboxes. This unit has a true bypass, so it's absolutely noiseless when clicked off. As far as the actual sound of the unit, it's very high quality and it leaves your guitar's true tone virtually untouched. The modelled analog echoes are surprisingly warm, considering that the unit uses all-digital technology. The modulation effect-options are warm and subtle. I'm not sure how accurately the DL4 models the vintage effects like the Echoplexes and the Space Echo, because I'm not familiar with the original units, but the models in this pedal do sound good in their own right. I'd like to note that this pedal is not called the "DL4 Delay Replicator", it is the "DL4 Delay Modeler". This unit models vintage effects, it doesn't perfectly dupiclate them, and for only 250.00 or so bucks, it's a bargain.

This is the one point that I'm a little iffy about. So far, mine has held up great, but I've heard others complain that they've had major reliability problems with Line 6 products, and this one in particular. Mine still works perfectly, though.

Bottom line: this is a bargain for the price. The most versatile delay unit I've ever used, and quite possibly the best-sounding. Definitely a lot of bang for relatively little buck. My favorite features are the lo-resolution delay, which sounds like echoes being transmitted back to earth from a space station, and the analog echo with modulation. The reverse mode is very nice real-time reverse. Auto-volume echo allows for good synth-like volume swells. The loop sampler is fun to play with, but I don't know how practical it is, especially in a live setting. If this unit was lost or stolen, I'd definitely replace it. I play spacey, ambient, rock/folky/countrified stuff, and this pedal is a great asset to my setup.

i found this real easy to use, just plug in, twist a few knobs and play

as a keyboard player, i'm happy with this. being the owner of a watkins copycat and space echo re201, i was well happy, especially as it is a replacement unit for these 2 items.
as i use old analogue keyboards (korg ms20, roland sh101 and moog prodigy), sound quality isn't going to be an issue. i find it great for recording, way better than my old tape echos. filter sweeps sound great, and the feedback each model produces is very unique (especially the space echo, it IS unique!). as a fan of throbbing gristle, who used about 4 space echos and about 4 copycats, i am well chuffed

i am presently only using the echoplex models and the space echo, which means i am not stomping the hell out of it or constantly changing presets, so it's very dependable!

hopefully i'll never know!

as a session player and amatuer producer, and an industrial/avant garde/improvised noise player, i am happy with this. it fits in with the majority of my studio (mainly electronic, mostly analogue). as a replacement for my tape echo machines, i'd say it's spot on. it's definitely a worthy investment, and a hell of a lot cheaper then the models it replicates (an okay condition 2nd hand echoplex is about #300....space echo #350 etc). it also saves on trying to buy tape loops and maintanance, which are a real pain in the arse. anyone who has gripes with this are missing the point, you will never get a spot on warts and all replication of a space echo, and you shouldn't want one (this comes from an owner of one!). this gets you as close to the real thing without getting your hands dirty, your blood pressure up, or your bank book plundered. enjoy!

After a few weeks of getting to know my pedal, it was easy to use and extremely useful. I would reccomend that anybody buying this pedal get an expression pedal to go with it. It was nice not to have to bend down on stage to mess with the settings.

Something for (just about) everybody

Piece 'O' Junk. It lasted for less than five months, and I baby my gear. It was always plugged into the wall with a Line-6 Power supply, it never got wet. When the surface got dirty, I cleaned it with a dry cloth. Still, it died very quickly. I know other people who have had the same problem. I sent mine to get repaired under the manufacturers warranty and as soon as it returns, I'm getting rid of it. I had a used boss DD-5 that lasted me 6 years (it was 7 years old when I got it) and cost me $65. It wasn't quite as cool, but at least it lasted more than 6 months (especially for the price tag)!

Their website customer support is difficult to deal with, and there is no obvious referral to a phone number for the poor computer illiterate folk out there.

Anything that doesn't last isn't worth owning. If a pedal like that will die after four and a half months of careful use, transportation, packing (never left it in the car, used and stored inheated/air-conditioned spaces, never left it plugged in when not playing, etc.) I refuse to even allow my worst enemies make the same mistake.

I found the unit very very easy. I keep the little sticker handy that tells me what the "tweak" and "tweez" knobs do for the various delays and had to look up how to store a setting. Other than that, very easy.

I play Chapman Stick and run the melody side through the unit. I perform solo and mostly use the DL4 as a looping device running into a Roland JC-120. To my ears the sound quality has been excellent.

Here's the rub. I know two other people who are using this unit and both have had breakdowns. The Line6 products, in general, seem to be built cheaper than, say, Boss products. One breakdown was electrical, the other was mechanical (the guy stomped a switch and it pushed right through breaking the plastic). I had been lucky but, recently, I've noticed the switches giving me strange results. Like, during a loop, pushing the switch to go to "half speed" and having it go to reverse instead (even though I only pushed once). I've had the unit for less than a year. If and when I shop for another looper, I almost certainly won't get another DL4.

As a solo performer, it's been great. It was an inexpensive way for me to get into looping and it's had a very profound effect on what I do. Now that I'm comfortable with looping though, I'm looking to replace it with something more finely tuned for the live looping performer.

pretty easy some knob twisting with presets and tap tempos and expresion pedals. delays - digital, analog, modulated, backwards forwards.......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhh ah

Sound is clean a little rubbery. i prefer me analog old skool stuff. Lot of features though it takes 3 of those to do one of these. Put it after the filter and distortionand modulation stuff. I run a PRS hollowbody II->Musitronics Octave Divider->Teese RMC 3 wah->TS808->Ibanez Super Tube->Electro Harmonix Zipper->Ross Grey Compressor->mxr script phase 90->Arion Chorus->Ernie Ball Volumne Pedal->DM2->DM2->Boss DD5->1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb. oooh oooh oooh. Tone out the arse! You can check out samples at <a href="http://www.freshlybaked.com/pedals">Randtronics</a> and check out my band <a href="http://www.freshlybaked.com/">Freshly Baked</a>

Pretty reliable. I have opened her up to rescrew the stomp switches because they tend to losen and fall into the box. I am a power user though and do a lot of steppin in a night. other than that pretty good.

i guess those people are home

great pedal. does a lot and is quite quiet. does digitally rubberize your sound a little and adds a high end artifact but it does have true bypass so it's whisperin when off. get power supply and exp pedal for it.

double tap for reverse loop :< and the tweak and tweez...they could have thought of a better name that are more intuitive. I can't remember what does what. It could also have five buttons so you could store more presets. I hate the fact that tap tempo takes up a memory spot. All in all it is easy and I'm just bitching cause I want more.

great. this thing is the most versatile fun pedal- with the looper, reverse delays, ping pong, multihead, every one. The echo-plex stuff is real good - better than my buddies real one. he is a vintage nut hendrix head and he is going to buy one after hearing mine. The unit does not kill tone at all. This is a way better unit than the MM4 - which cuts your signal.

they are pretty nice. they emailed me back quickly on a problem.

This overall is the best pedal I have ever gotten. so versatile and fun.

It doesn't take much to get interesting sounds from this box. 6 knobs: effect selector, delay time, repeats, and mix (all self-explanatory), and tweak and tweeze, which do different things depending on the effect. The last two knobs can be a little hard to figure out, but the unit comes with a very excellent manual, which includes illustrations, suggestions, and even a little history of the original effects. It loses points for only having 4 places to store patches. What is that? A $300 pedal with an almost limitless number of sounds should have more space for user-defined patches. The 14-second sampler is cool. Great for practicing, and I've used it live without any problems (don't try to use it with a drummer, though). You can double the sample length, with a corresponding loss in sound quality, but if you want to practice over a lengthy chord progression, this works wonders.

I'm running this through a Johnson JM60 and an open backed 4x12 cabinet with Celestion Silver Series speakers (a very good sounding, and loud!, rig). The emulations are good, but a little digitized. Captures the flavor of the originals, but misses some of the more subtle stuff, I guess the only word to describe this would be "clinical." Overall, it does a good job of providing a dizzying array of sounds, though. I'd give it an 8 for any individual effect, and a 9 considering that there are 15 of them. There is one (quite major, in my opinion) problem, though. This unit can't handle the line-level signal through my effects loop (and running it through the fx loop is absolutely necessary when I use the loop sampler). The signal becomes thinner (especially in hi-gain situations), and basically sounds horrible. I know the unit wasn't designed for line level signals, but for $300 it should be. I've built a small buffer for it that cuts the signal level for the effect, then boosts it back to line level afterwards. It has fixed my tone problems, but the trade off is more noise and more complicated switching. For this I deduct two points.

The unit is very solid looking, except (as others have noted) for the cheap-feeling plastic knobs. I don't think they will be a problem, though. Otherwise, this thing is a tank. I'm giving it a 9 because I could jump on the thing for hours, but I don't think I could run over it with my car.

I don't really use much delay, but when I want to, it always has the sound I'm looking for, from crazy psy-stuff to nice rockabilly-type slapbacks. The feature I use the most is the loop sampler. So, if it were stolen, I'd probably buy it again, but I'd check out the Akai Headrush and the Boomerang first. If you?re more interested in delay than loop samplers, I?d definitely check this out. I'd give it a 9 if it weren't for the fx loop problems.

Anyone saying this pedal is tough to use must have ridden the short bus to school. It does require the use of the manual to figure out what the tweak and tweez knobs do, since they work differently in all 30 or so functions. one plus is that the knobs are big enough to allow me to use my feet when dialing some sounds in, even with shoes on.

Using a '62 jaguar-> preamp->danelectro vibrato->ProCo Rat2->DL-4->danelectro EQ-> Mesa/Boogie Mark IV. It doesn't exactly sound like the old pedals, but in a way, this is a good thing. the dl-4 is very quiet. it doesnt sound as digital as everyone says it is. i think id actually prefer this pedal to a few of the originals, due to the fact that this pedal gives you a bit of flexibility, which outweighs the slightly weaker sounds you might get. but im sure you could fool just about anyone with the pedal, except maybe an echoplex owner. i usually use the tube echo and reverse. both of which are very nice sounds. i mostly use this thing for noise, by setting the feedback high and lowering the delay time, you can get some really nice drawn out sounds. however if you overdrive the circuit in the thing by setting the repeats all the way up on analog echo it does sound digital and kinda dumb. i do like the looper, 14 seconds is usually enough for me. you can do it at 1/2 speed for 28 seconds but obviously you lose a bit of quality. i dont like how you have to hit the 1/2 speed button twice to reverse the loop, because for a split second it goes into half speed, but its not enough to really annoy me.

ive had small problems with the footswitches, they can come loose if you dont tighten them occasionally. id depend on it though

?

been playing 9 years, right now im into the whole indie/post-rock thing. this pedal is perfect for my tastes, this was a gift, but i believe these things are running for $250 now. id definitely buy it again if i had to. i used to have a boss dd-5. which was an ok pedal if all you want is short, sterile delay. i dont think id trade it for any other delay. id take it into the studio and play live with it. it does have quite a bit of warmth for an all digital pedal. ive also read that the ac adaptor is extra. this was also included when i received it. i think thats pretty fucked up that theyd charge you extra for such a necessity. by the looks of it id doubt any batteries i put in there would last more than a few hours. (the dd-5 i had only ran 4 hours) so basically, don't believe anyone who tells you that this pedal is pure shit. try out all of the functions before you immediately say it sucks. it won't replace a high end rackmount, but it can do any delay function pretty damn well.

It is a delay unit, so it takes a little bit of tweaking before you can get the exact sound you're looking for. The manual is pretty well written, and even includes some cool pics of the delay units that this thing models. You will need the manual w/ you in order to know what the Tweek and Tweez knobs adjust, because they have different functions depending on which setting you are in. The Tap Tempo is a cool feature that allows you to adjust delay times by tapping your foot along with the tempo of the song you are playing. This unit gets a seven for "ease of use" because I have never found delays very user friendly when it comes to adjusting on the fly - this is due to the nature of the effect and not this unit in particular.

I run an American Strat/Gibson SG into a TU-2 --> Tube Screamer ---> Rat --> Phase 90 ---> DL4 ---> Deluxe Reverb. On the plus side, the DL4 is not a tone sucker when not in use and it is one of the quieter delays I have heard. On the negative side, I think the delays suck. Yeah, you can get some pretty tripped out/acid-dipped effects, and that's cool if its what you're into. I was looking for a nice, analog/tape echo slapback for soloing but I couldn't find a setting that I liked. It all sounded digital and weak - not all that much different than a Boss DD-5. I was excited to use the loop sampling feature -then I tried it and I wanted to vomit. The playback is weak and processed - and you can only sample 14 seconds!!! What can you do with that?

The unit itself seems to be built well...except for those cheap plastic knobs. The footswitches seem kinda cheap too, compared to those of similar style that can be found on the Dunlop pedals.

I play a blues/rock/jazz/jamband style and have been playing for ten years. I kept this unit for three days before deciding that it was a waste of my money (thankfully, the store I purchased it from let me return it). I find it weak, and the effects are extreemely processed sounding - it doesn't sound like the delay units it is supposed to be modeling!! REMEMBER: this is MY OPINION !!! I know that many other people love this unit...that's what is great about this country-everybody is entitled to their own opinion. If you are thinking about buying this delay than I suggest you do so and try it for yourself - if you like, more power to you. If you think it sucks than you and I have something in common.

This is an update on my review below.

I had an experience with Line 6 that I feel that I should share with those who may be considering one of their products. Let me start off by saying that my experience may not reflect the experiences of others so if you are happy with your Line 6 product(s) then take this for what it's worth.

I have had a Line 6 Delay Modeler (DL4) for about a year now and I have been really happy with it. I liked the sounds and the fact that I could create some pretty unique sonic textures with it. It seemed pretty well built and I didn't expect to have any problems. That was until I started noticing a little problem.

I like the reverse delay setting a lot and I would slap a compression pedal and a vibrato/chorus unit before it and get some very cool sounds. However one day when I was running a pretty hot compressed clean signal into it the reverse delay somehow reverted to a normal delay for no reason (no reverse sound). I reset the unit and tried it again and the delayed signal disappeared completely (only the direct signal). I reset the unit again and it worked fine. I didn't think much of it until it started happening again almost every time I'd run a hot signal into it.

I sent my unit off to Line 6 (paid for it myself even though it was under warranty) and within a few days I got a call from one of the techs. He told me that they could not duplicate the problem and asked me what I was using. I told him and that was that. A few days went by and I called them to see what was up. The girl on the phone told me that it was packed up and ready to come back to me. I asked them what they did to fix the unit and she told me...NOTHING. She said that there was nothing wrong with the pedal. I told here that there most definitely was and said that they need to keep trying. I told here that if it came back to me not working or it failed in a gig that I would be pissed especially since I was out the shipping cost of the unit and I would be really really pissed if I had to pay to send it back. She said that they would take another look at it. I told her to not bother sending the unit back until it was fixed, the board was replaced or they gave me a new pedal.

They tried to send it back to me 3 TIMES without doing nothing to it and without calling me to let me know. Fortunately I always got in touch with them just before it went out in the UPS run.

Finally they replaced the board and sent it back to me. Now here's the kicker. I sent them a MINT condition pedal. When I got it back, it was all scratched up and it looked like someone took a file and made a one inch scratch/scuff along the top that went into the metal (not just a surface scratch). I'm not implying that they took a file to it, but that's what the scratch looked like. There were several other scratches (big ones) and some weird discoloration on the top near the LED's. Needless to say I was pissed. I was so frustrated that I didn't even bother to call them back.

I haven't had the chance to see if the pedal works yet, but I sure as fuck hope that it does.

I would like to note that the Line 6 people are very friendly but not very helpful. I feel that they should have swapped the board out in the first place even if they couldn't reproduce the problem. I was having an obvious problem (it's not like I like to pay $22 for shipping and packaging just for kicks) and they should have taken my (the customer's) word for it and fixed it. The fact that my pedal came back all messed up is just the icing on the cake.

I'm through with Line 6. I liked their pedals but now I'm definitely put off on the possibility of owning another product by them. I would call them and try to get them to replace the pedal completely, but I've just decided to cut my losses and not have any further dealings with them.

This thing is a lil tricky at first but not too hard once you get the hang of things, Dave's(6/19/01) obvious problem is that he's at least 20 and he still doesn't know how to please a woman which makes his g/f revert back to her vibrator.

Great sound, kenny wayne shepherd uses one and he has the best tone in the business. The presets aren't the originals but good none the less. Beats spending 1300 on a tube echoplex and that's if you find a deal.

It hasn't failed me yet

I think it does all i need to replicate srv's playing as i do, i use the tape and tube delay between my right and left amplifiers i have stereo looped and it does all i need it to do.

I don't know about Dave (6/19/01) and his overly frustrating experience with the Line 6 Delay Modeler. Are you always that pessimistic and negative? Really, this is a good piece of gear that's not perfect by any means but Jesus, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure the damn thing out. For all of you considering this pedal: don't listen to Dave (or anyone of us for that matter)! Just be patient when you try or buy new gear and use your common sense. I'm giving this thing all tens just to offset Dave's obvious hard on for the product just because HE couldn't figure it out.

It's not the authentic original piece that it's supposed to emulate. Who cares? It still sounds great.

No doubt. I have all the line 6 stomp modelers and have never had a problem with any of them (delay- 2 of 'em, modulation, distortion, & filter).

Good web sight but have never had to deal with them.

Truly a fantastic value. For $250 or so plus $20 for power supply you get a looper that's easy to use plus a choice of 15 other delay/echo types. If you can't find 3 useful and diverse effects to save and utilize then either you're such a snob with unlimited funds or you're just ignorant.

It can be a chore sometimes to remember what does what with all the different settings, but you remember the ones you like any way, and sometimes it doesn't matter, just turn something and something cool will happen. The manual is great, just a little vague on using the expression pedal, really my only gripe. But that is easy to figure out too. Overall for what it does is is amazingly simple to dial up cool tones.

Well I can't say that I have owned all the old models but I think that is good because it equals me with the audience. Honestly when you play live no one cares if you have a $900 16 EH second delay or a $20 digital thing. The fact of the matter is this thing probably does not Exactly replicate the sound of all the old boxes. However it will give you quality sound, deep stereo sound for any style you want to play. I tend to play in my own trippy style, I try to copy Hendrix, Garcia, and elements of Bands Like MMW and THe Slip. With the reverses, auto swells modulation, stereo delays, and loop sampler I couldn't be happier. With just a digitech Whammy, wah wah and this thing I can go to other planets, its great. But it could be used from country hard rock as well. THe sound its good enough for Radiohead, considering what sound snobs they are its good enough for me!

Thind could take a bullet!

I think it is amazing. I listen to a lot of music. I know what I like and when I listen to stuff I record it sounds pro. Maybee the playing isn't pro but the tone is..... Another thing, this thin is worth it for the loop sampler alone. If you load the 1/2 speed button, you get twice the recording time so its actually a 28 second looper, and if your going to loop more than that just use pro toll, make it clean. This thing lets me practice! and Write! at the same time sometimes! Great learning tool iin itself. i would buy another if it got stolen. I might buy another aany way so I can use the effects in the loop. Hell its cheaper than any other looping device, plus I think it would be cool to hear a sweep echo in reverse!

at a glance this pedal seems a bit complicated. 4 foot-switches and 6 knobs. that's a lot of stuff for a delay pedal. once you really look at it, it becomes pretty easy to wrap your head around, THEORETICALLY. but...

WARNING: actually USING this pedal in a real-life situation is probably one of the most frustrating things you will encounter in your life as a musician!!! where do i begin?

4 foot-switches...

>> 1 - preset 1 (record/overdub in LOOP mode)

>> 2 - preset 2 (play/stop in LOOP mode)

>> 3 - preset 3 (play once in LOOP mode)

>> 4 - tap tempo (1/2 speed, reverse in LOOP mode. you have to 'double-click' it to get it to reverse, which means that it goes into 1/2 speed for a second between the first and second clicks. not for long, but long enough to make it DAMN IRRITATING!!!)

basically the first switches 3 are presets (you can store your own) and are what turns the unit on and off, pretty much like the switch on any other stompbox. the last foot-switch is a tap-tempo. you can not use the tap-tempo function until you have turned the unit on, which means that the effect already has to be engaged with whatever delay tempo you programmed it in the first place. IRRITATING right? so you get the right tempo going by tapping. great. but if you turn off the effect, even for ONE second, it's back to the OLD tempo again. now, theoretically you COULD save the new tempo on the fly, but that means holding the preset foot-switch down for atleast 3 seconds. sounds easy but it's really not when you're tyring to play/sing.

6 knobs...

>> effect select - a dial that lets you chose one of the 15 effects or the loop mode.
NOTE - the loop mode CAN NOT be used with any of the other effects. it has it's own (lame) 800ms (bad sounding) delay with no mod, which you have to BEND DOWN TO TURN ON OR OFF!!!

>> delay time - like you'd expect. how long between each repeat. i think it can be up to 2 seconds. yeah, 2 second delay is REALLY useful. what were they thinking when they built this thing? what was i thinking when i BOUGHT it??? anyways...

>> repeats - how many times it repeats. they managed not to f*ck this one up.

>> tweek - controls a different parameter for each effect.

>> tweeze - same as tweek. basically each effect has 2 parameters that you can alter, in addition to delay time and repeats. as mentioned in other reviews, these 2 knobs do something different for each effect. good luck memorizing them, if you decide to bother. i didn't. oh yeah, they provide you with a 1" X 1" sticker with all the needed information. maybe you could stick it on your guitar pick for easy reference!

>> mix - controls how much effect you hear in relation to the 'dry' signal. no explanation needed here.

using any effects other than your 3 presets proves to be so damn irritating it will make you want to cry, unless you like to kneel on the stage and twiddle knobs around to turn your effects on. when you turn the 'effect select' knob it switches the effect, like it should. the problem here is that every effect has a preset that is reverted to each time you go back to it. for example, when i want to switch to the ANALOG DELAY effect it automatically comes up with the factory preset, even if i have the knobs the way i want them. because the pedal is digital what you see on the knobs IS NOT what you hear. i can't explain how FRUSTRATING this is. if you manage to find a good sound you HAVE to save it in one of the 3 user preset spaces, otherwise you will prbably NEVER get the sound back again. i could probably go on about this forever, but i won't bother.

now for the LOOP function...

this is mainly what i use the pedal for (although i almost never even use this feature, which tells you how much i use the pedal). here's what's wrong with it:

- it can't be used with any of the 15 effects.
- it has it's own delay, which is boring, harsh and has a maximum 800ms, which is fine, since mo

i won't say too much about the QUALITY of the effects, as i am not an effects know-it-all. the thing is clean-sounding the way that all things digital are. TOO clean for me, but that's just my opinion.

the best way i can desrcibe the effects is to say that i have almost no desire to use them. you know when you have a great sounding effect you just want to sit there and play and play and play with it? it makes you have all kinds of new ideas and you play things you've never played before. it can be really inspiring. well, this thing has not done that for me. not even really on the first day i got it, although i tried to like it. today i was in a music store and i tried out a BOSS DM-2 analog delay. i sat there for 45 minutes just playing with the 3 knobs! that's probably more time than i've spent with the DL4 in the 9 months that i've had it. what else can i say? you'd think that with 15 different effects there'd be something inspiring in there, but i haven't found it yet. maybe i'm not looking hard enough. i don't care though. i don't want to bother!

the DL4 seems to be built well enough overall, although not nearly as sturdy as a BOSS stompbox. as others have mentioned the recessed knobs DO get clogged up with crud. this hasn't been a problem yet, but i HAVE vacuumed it out a few times already. the 'bolt' on one of the footswitches (the tap/tempo switch that i almost NEVER use!) keeps coming loose too.

i haven't bothered to contact them. i think if i did i would just end up complaining about the fact that i bought it at all. my gripes with this pedal are too numerous to mention. i think the only thing i'd be able to say to them would be that i DESPISE the DL-4 and i wish i never bought it. who knows, they probably have a good customer service department...

i've been playing music for almost 20 years. in case you didn't get the picture from my ranting i REALLY do not like this pedal. for the price i paid i could have bought a LOT of different things, like an ALESIS QUADRAVERB, a fancy boutique delay or 2 BOSS DM-2's. i really wish i had! i would be much more interested if it was JUST the LOOP function. no delay, no presets, none of that stuff. they could have spent some time making the looper a lot more user-friendly and sold it for half the price. now THAT would be something useful. as it stands, though i can't recommend the DL-4 to anyone, unless you want to use it for it's LOOP feature and can find a used one REALLLLLLY cheap. actually, save yourself the hassle. don't buy it at all.

Very easy to use. abaut 10minutes with manual and you ge the hang of it. Manual is very simple and undersntundable!

I use Fender strat> Line6 Modulation modeler> Line6 DL4> Marshall comp> Crate vc-50 amp. Sound is very classic tape echo related. As in recording one total vintage guy did not beleave that I did'nt use original tape delay! Only minus is that you cant get non accurate delay. I mean that the delay time between heads is allways the same.

Never let me down. Not any breakdowns

I havent been in touch with them. No reason why, equipment works perfectly.

Exellent price/quality relation. I like the tape delay sounds of this. Of course its not actually the same than originals but price and reliability speaks for it. I recommend!!!

Some may find it easy to use, others won't. If your jumping around from patch to patch it can be confusing. Trying to remember which knob changes what for all the different effects isn't the first thing on my list of things to do, especially at gigs.
Overall I'd say it's a pain, but then once you figure out that most of the effects aren't worth using it gets simpler.

The best effects are the tube Echoplex and Dynamic delay. The worst are the analog delay's. Towards the end I ended up using just the Echoplex with all three patches set for different variations on the same theme. Then just bought an H&K Replex and was done with it all together.
I owned it for about a year and a half and got good use from it as an echo. I do miss some of the features (tap tempo and having three patches to choice from) but the Replex has a soul that the DL didn't.

Is it a bad pedal, no not at all. Is it what it could have been, no not at all. But if you want variety and your ear isn't too fussy then it will do. I just outgrew the unit and wanted the one sound I was using to be as close to the real thing as possible. No matter how you adjust it, the DL is still a dry digital delay unit.
I also ran into some trouble with the buffering stage and boost pedals. The DL as with the other two Line 6 stomp boxes does have a compression that will show up when pushing too much signal into it.

No problems.

Like I said above, it does some things well and some poorly. Each person will have they're own take on it. I'd try before I buy, but seeing as I got well over a year of gig use from mine, I don't think you could go to wrong. If you want an analog delay, then buy something else like a Maxon AD-80.
I've been playing 20 years, most of them in working bands.

It's very easy to use when you first get to know it...the only thing about it is that you should have it on a chair or on the top of your amp so that you can use your hands instead of foot, because it's hard to turn around those knobs when you have to bend down while playin the guitar....
Also, when you turn it off, you will have to turn the known exactely the way you did it last time if you want the same sound and if you didn't save it...
The manual is excellent, and so it the thing itself except for a couple of small details

I use Elmwood 3100 100W amp on a 4x12" Marshall 1960 Lead cabinet and it sounds awesome on it together with my Valley Arts Custom Pro with EMGs.
At my place, it makes no sound at all.
The effects are always great, and you can always do somehitng about any of the effects if you want to...so many options!
You can get the sound of MANY famous guitarists out of this little sucker, but you have to be as good as them to play just like them.
This is MANY GREAT delay "machines" in ONE EXCELLENT package.
I especially love the super reverse (one of the best around) and the Auto Volume as well as many of the regular delays... I usually custom-make my own delay sound....cool!

Like I said, you can play e.g. Auto Volume on the beginning of a song, then turn it off to play something else, and when you turn it on again to play Auto Volume again, you will have to turn the knob forward and backward to get the Auto Volume again. It starts on the beginning again if you know what I mean.
But I can trust on it in a way of that it always gives me what I want of delays!

Great customer support....and I got MANY issues of "Electronic Musician" when I registered it...hehe....

You'll see what I think about it above, and therefore you will understand when I rate it with 10 points.
It could get 9 or 9- because of the small detalies mentioned above, but the great stuff you get out of it takes it all back and I forgive it....

i found the delay modeler to be relatively easy to figure out, although having the manual handy around for a while was a must. pretty simple stuff. easy to program, but hard to find good, consistant sounds. i found that making adjustments before each gig a must. the knobs are not very responsive, on some preset turning the knobs really didn't change the tone much. i also found the "pet names" for the knobs annoying (tweak, tweez,etc.) if you have to make quick changes in a live situation, make sure you know what "tweak" means for each preset.

I use a telecaster with joe barden pickups and a matchless clubman amplifier. other effects in my board included boss, voodoo labs, and cry baby pedals. the sound quality of the DL-4 was OK. i thought it sounded extremely sterile and not very "musical", in fact, i took it back after trying it out at gigs for about a month. good things about the pedal are: very low noise, which is wonderful and a few presets. i liked the low-fi models. overall, not the right pedal for me, too cold. i bought a hughes and kettner replex in its place and have not looked back.

seemed very dependable and solid. no need for backups.

N/A

i play modern rock (www.milepostnine.com). this pedal seems to be fine for that type of music. i have been playing for 15 years, long enough to appreciate good tone, this didn't have it for me. i would not buy another. i have used a POD in the studio and found it very useful, not the case for the DL4.

Not very hard to use, but not that intuitive, either. One daunting thing is that you have no chance to know the default parameter values when choosing a model. It's hard to remember the applications for Tweak and Tweez for each model, and the delay time knob has too wide a range to be very useful for real-time adjustments. On the other hand, the looper is as easy to use as the Akai Headrush. I really think it should have MIDI capabilities though. What's the use of having this many options if you're only restricted to having three (or six with the expression peda) presets, which you can't be incorporated in a MIDI system? And finally, how about a diplay, so one could actually monitor delay times etc.?

Gave it a thorough test in a shop with a Fender Strat and a Twin Reverb, which is what I normally use. I wasn't impressed at all. I was expecting a lot thanks to the rave reviews, but was seriously let down. My own delays include the Korg SDD-1000 and SDD-3000, the Boss DD-3 and the Akai Headrush, all of which sound great and are fun to play with. The DL4 sounded thin and "digital", in a bad way. Sure, Line 6 have done their lesson in terms of e.g. multi-head models' taps, but overall the delays are weak sounding, and I couldn't help thinking it sounded like some kind of entry-level floor based multi effects device. The modulation delay models sound simply wrong; it sounds as if the delays are "chorused", not "vibratoed" as it should be, and a thin chorus it is, too. What's more, and this applies to all Line 6's stompboxes, I really can't see the point in providing so many models, many of which sound virtually similar. Another daunting aspect, which makes the unit even less inspiring. But to be fair, the looper is great, especially its "play once" function is something I really miss with the Akai Headrush. On the other hand, the Akai has almost double the sampling time of the DL4.

Seems sturdy.

I think this is a ridiculously overrated product. As I stated above, I had great expectations, but was let down. Compared to all of my own delays it just sounds cheap. It doesn't even come close to the DD-3, let alone the SDD-1000 and SDD-3000. You just get sixteen varieties of cheap sounding delay. I would have considered it for the looper alone, had I not bought the Headrush first.

Very easy to use. I wish you could use more than 4 presets but then that would be a huge pedal. Paint chips easy.

I use Mesa Boogie Mark IV and Gibson Les Paul Studio with P-94 pickups, and occasionaly a cheap strat. My other effects are a TC Stereo Chorus/Flanger, Small Stone, Crybaby 535 Wah, and a Tech 21 XXL. This is an extremely quite effect. I was very impressed with the true bypass. Listen guys, make sure you have it turned on because it is absolutely transparent. I like the modeled effects, my favorites are the Memory Man and the solid state Echoplex. I would say they sound believably analog but definately contain some digital haze. The thing that pisses me off about the modeled delays is that they muddy up your sound. I find that even just having some of them on, like the Memory Man seriously colors your original guitar sound taking the treble out of it. It's too bad because I really enjoy the Memory Man sound. It seems like it is impossible to get rid of the tape warble on the echoplex sounds. I have never owned one but all the recordings I have heard (Andy Summers, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin) don't seem to have that tape vibrato sound. My other gripe is the headroom. It seems that it breaks up into digital fuzz a lot. I have been using the digital delays on the the unit a lot more these days. I really like the clear sound. Somehow the plain digital sounds seem less harsh. I am particularly fond of the digital delay with modulation, excellent U2 sound. The stereo, autopan, backwards and swell effects are excellent also. I don't use the sampler much, it's not too practical for live playing, or serious multiple loop sampling. I think this pedal would be much impoved with higher resolution and sampling rate, that would give a less harsh sound on the anolog and tube models. Also more headroom and less coloration would be good. Overall, however it's the best delay I have used. I give it an 8, being that a TC 2290, or Chandler Stereo Delay would be a 10. Even so those are dedicated rack units, for a pedal the DL4 is really good.

It's a big hunk of metal. Hasn't failed me yet.

I play a lot of stuff that involves delay, kind of an ambient pop/rock sound. Stuff like the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Radiohead and the Police. Overall this is a really good pedal for digital delay and a moderately good pedal for analog sounds. It is extremely versatile. If you like for anolog delays and you want to spend the money buy an Echoplex, Memory Man, Space Echo or Chandler. If you don't have that much money this is a good pedal. Personaly I would like a TC 2290 better, just because of it's clear and full sound. That said this is a really cool pedal with a lot of excellent features and a good sound.

This is a follow up to a previous review. I found that if you switch the bypass mode(hold the 1st and 3rd switches while plugging in), There is not a volume drop when used in the effects loop of your amp. You just have to deal with the delay trailing away after it is swithced off.

The paint job still sucks ass(chips easily). The footswitches are still shit(they havent broken yet, like om my mm-4, but they feel weak and I'm sure they will go eventually).

Until it breaks, it sounds damn good.

On the box it says "bonehead siple" to use. I agree
Editing patches is great....... set it so it sounds good and hold the footswtich down and bam.
manual is brief but good...
I give it a 9 due only being able to have 2 presets + wheel setting

my setup is this........ Hamer Strat> Seiko Tuner> Crybaby> TS9 Tubesceamer> Boss CE-2 Chorus> Boss OC-2 Octaver> Sometimes a small stone phaser shifter and a marshall drive master in here> Traynor Custom reverb amp (aka Marshall JMP 45 [ its the same damn thing]) or traynor reverb master (aka Fender Super reverb) in stereo (Left to stack right to combo) amp tremolo is used sometimes.. it sounds cool when I set the reverb on the combo up high and have a clearer sound on the stack......... stereo rigs are great.
not noisy at all, effects are good, they dont sound like what they are modeled after, but they are a good approximation
its pretty cool

I would gig with it without a backup.
It pretty damn solid

its like a second old

I play fusion/blues/jazz/pop/rock/pop/pop-rock/whatever
I've been playing for 6 or so years......
If it were stolen I would buy it again in a second or two
the looper is very useful. I just fired my old rhytym player/singer (he was the second worst singer in the band. ouch. thats embarrasing... anyhoo) its useful
I play lotsa crazy stuff like Jeff Beck and such

If you can spare the cash go and buy one. now. snap to it