Line 6 MM-4 Modulation Modeler

The reason the MM4 is getting a 9 instead of a 10, is because I still have no real idea what "tweak" and "tweeze" do. It is very easy to get truly great sound out of this pedal, contrary to those who say it totally kills their amp's tone...maybe it's because I play a Line 6 amp. Who knows? Anyhow, like I already said, I'm an effects junkie and this unit replicates any pedal you can imagine (especially the Phase 90...I already have one in my rig and they sound the exact same, wow). The manual is pretty self explanitory as are all the Line 6 manuals I've read through.

I play 4 different Paul Reed Smith's (2 Custom 24's, a Tremonti Tribal, and a McCarty Soapbar) strung with D'Addario EXL140's, through a Line 6 Flextone II half stack with 2 pedal boards consisting of 13 different pedals, including this HOLY GRAIL of modulation (I don't like to use the amps effects, and I enjoy dancing around on stage switching between them). It can get a bit noisy, as do most modulation pedals, but thank God for the BOSS Noise Suppressor. The main selling point for me was the ring modulator. I've always wanted to get one, but could never find one to test, but it's so awesome. Primus and Incubus, eat your hearts out.

It's flawless construction is just one more testament to the quality of the products Line 6 always puts out in the market. The gorgeous, metallic blue colored, metal chassis is as sturdy as a brick. The recessed knobs are an added advantage because you dont have to worry about messing up the settings if your foot accidentally slips. I sprung the extra $25 for the power supply and it's been a total luxury because this thing is bound to suck juice out of a battery like it's a freshman girl at a frat party.

Haven't had to call them. If people would actually read the manual, I'm sure many of their questions would be easily answered.

I've been playing for 8 years and I'm in a hard melodic jazz/rock band. We have a guitarist, bassist, drummer, singer, and pianist. The MM4 is the perfect tool for me because I am an EFFECTS JUNKIE. I have...BOSS: Super Chorus, Compression Sustainer, Octave, Super Shifter, DD-5 Delay, Noise Supressor, EQ, and Reverb; Ibanez:Tubescreamer and Flanger; MXR: Phase-90; VOX: Wah; Z-Vex: OohWah; and Line 6: MM4. I've recorded with it, played live with it, and just dicked around at home with it and it never ceases to amaze me. I chose it because it had a few effects that I could never find in stores (i.e. Leslie, Demension, and RING MOD!!!)
If you like effects and you don't want to spend upwards of $5000 for all of the effects that this baby has, buy it now.

Pretty simple to use. Tweak and Tweez are the only possibly confusing knobs ans they affect each sound differently. Pretty straight forward once you read the manual and understand what they actually do.

Here's where I was both impressed and very dissapointed. I bought this unit to make it easier for me to gig. As my pedal board is getting a little overcrowded, I needed a 1 box option for different chorus settings, different trem settings, phase and flange. Soundwise they are excellent. I'm not sure if you could record with them, but for live work they are more than good enough. However, getting over the first 20 minutes of fiddling i realised that the unit was sucking SO MUCH tone from my amp it was unbeleivable. Did i get the settings wrong? Was I going wrong somehwere? NO!! unfortunately not. I play an ES335 through an Orange AD30, and so have no effects loop as an option. When I set up a good chorus tone it actually took the volume of my amp down by probably 1 notch in volume and made it sound flat, I didn't think this was actually possible, but apparently it is.

To cut a long story short (too late I hear you cry), I'd like to hear this unit throughan effects loop, if you have a good old tube amp that has tone to die for, DON'T BUY THIS!!! IT WILL MAKE YOU SOUND LIKE YOU OWN A MARSHALL VALVE STATE!!

I'll give this a 5 purely for the actual sounds and it's agility. If it didn't suck the life out of your map it would have got an 8 or 9

Not hadit long, but it has a ful warantee and Line6 are supposed ot be quite good so I hear.

Never spoke to them

Would be such a great piece of kit. Almost made me wish I owned a rubbish amp, at least then I wouldn't have any tone to miss!!

I didn't find it difficult to use. However, I traded in my Line 6 PODxt for it and a few other pedals so I had pedal programming on the brain and their methods figured out by then already. I suppose there's easier pedals to use, but I didn't really find it all that difficult. If you can program your car stereo's presets, you can figure out this stompbox. Though I still haven't quite figured out what the "Tweak" and "Tweeze" dials do. Seems to have different effect on different models.

Well, I won't compare this unit to those it supposedly models. I have not actually tried an MXR Phase 90 or many of the others. So I'll simply judge it on its own merits, not how well it models. It generates great chorus, flanger, univibe, phaser, tremolo and they're VERY customizeable. More options than most of the original pedals it emulates I would wager. There's two or three options for every effect it offers. Two choruses, three phasers, two trems, etc. There's almost one for every effect that does exactly what I want. So I'd say their seemingly overkill versatility really paid off in the end because I was able to find what I wanted with very little trouble. Super, super picky people who are trying to compare the models to the originals may be disappointed. I have found there's two types of people generally. Those who love Line 6 products and those who love to hate them. The prejudice seems to run pretty deep for some reason too. I didn't care for POD myself. They over complexified it and the amp models conflicted with my preamp so when push came to shove the POD had to go. But emulating modulation stomp boxes is ALOT easier to do than emulating entire amplfiers, spkr cabinets, virtual mic placement, room%, EQ, etc..... They did a really good job with the MM4. And for that matter, the DM4 too.

Pretty reliable. Metal chassis, heavey duty metal plunge switches, hard plastic dial knobs that don't stick out and won't change positions on you too easily. Good strong LED visability. I've heard of some power supply issues with these stompboxes from some newsgroup posters, etc but until I experience a problem, it will get a high rating from me.

I had to call Line 6 about a power issue. If you use a multiple power supply for a pedalboard, you HAVE to use the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2. No other multi-supply will work. These Line 6 stomp boxes do not use conventional 9V power plugs. However, you can make your own cables for the VDLPP2 for these devices too. Get a 5.5x2.1mm connector for the supply connection and a 5.2x2.5mm connector for the DM4 or MM4 (or DL4/AM4/FM4 I'd presume).

Otherwise, I've had nothing but good luck with the support people at Line 6. Very helpful and intelligent.

I love this box. It saves me from buying separate trem, flange, phase, chorus, and univibe pedals. Having any 4 presets I want at the stomp of a foot is super handy. I hope mine never ever breaks or is stolen. I'd be pretty upset.

For dramatic sounds and heavy handed effects its very easy to use. But with about five different knobs (tweez, tweek, mix, depth, speed) it can be a real pain to get the subtle vibrato or phasing that you want.

Playing a tele into a Orange AD 140. None of the effects sound to terribly cheesy but as usual you sacrifice quality for quantity. In a live situation, go for it, but under a scrutinizing ear it will sound painfully digital compared to the vintage pedals it is models after.

I have depended on it over and over again can't say it has ever let me down. You get the same performance everytime. But from what other friends of mine who use line 6 have have told me, not all line 6 pedals are created equal. Which leads us to customer support.

Line 6 hates people. They do not want to help you, talk to you, or special order anything for you. It has been such a chore trying to get an 1/8th inch to 9v cord so I can power this thing through my pedal board. I have to buy batteries for the thing every week because it does not use a standard 9v plug. Because of their inability to comply with the rest of the musical universe I am ditching line 6 forever.

Overall I wish I had just shopped for each of these effects individually. A good stereo chorus, a tremulator, and analog delay would have been a better buy, but more expensive. If you need these effects and you don't have the money for a bunch of pedals, stock up on C batteries and get yourself a line 6.

Canned patches a little extreme for my taste, but very easy to edit and to pull some really nice sounds from it.

Most sounds are really great. The chorus, flanger, and vibrato are especially nice. Had a little trouble pulling anything usable out of the uni-vibe and rotory speaker patches. But; for what I wanted it works just fine.

Only had it for a month, but seems to be built well.

As I said before, haven't had it long enough to comment.

Play primarialy Contemporary Christian Rock and Blues. I also have a deep pasion for jazz which I don't get to play much. My only niggle with this unit is that it sucks the volume up some. I use a Fulltone Boost & Gain at the end of the chain to ballance this; but depending on the situation, this requires some tap dancing.

This is fantastically simple to use, couldn't be better set up.

I don't have any of the originals to compare with but they all sound good to my ears. Maybe I could get better sound with individual boxes, I don't know. I sure know 99.9% of people listening to me wouldn't notice the difference.

I can't see this being a problem. I'd always want it to be plugged in to a power supply though.

I use this as a tool for worship in church, to give a few interesting sounds to my guitar. It's nice to drop in the odd bit of phaser in conjunction with my marshall's overdrive, and the tremolo and chorus are beautiful and rich. You can get a huge amount of sounds out of it, I especially like the variety of chorus sounds, tri-chorus sounds gorgeous. It's not that cheap, but I justified it as it easily gives a huge amount of colour to my playing.

Oh, and the best advice I can give you, for crying out loud, put it in your effects loop and after any distortion because your phasers and flanges are going to sound crap otherwise.

If anyone is familiar with any of the original effects that are expertly emulated in this neat package, than this should be pretty self explanatory (you know what rate/depth do). You'll just have to remember what the TWEEK/TWEEZ do for each effect. As an insurance policy, they have included stickers you can place anywhere on the pedal to remember these functions (this is good if you want to use a new effect, live, and aren't sure how to set it up yet) BTW did i mention this one of the most extensive manuals I've ever seen for an effects unit! So you'll be off in a world of psychedelic modulation bliss, without needing to drop any owsley, hehe

Guitar(s: Fender 1952 Telecaster repro Amp(s): Fender Blues Junior

First off, i'll start by saying there have been alot of mixed reviews about this guy here, obviously. I'll admit the "digital" part scared me away from buying one initially but based on the fact I thought it would be very practical and sensible for live use, as well as not having the budget to shell out wads of money for these historical effects, i decided to give it a try. Let me tell you I was seriously impressed by these effects, and it's digital?!!! I can't believe that cuz it sounds very analog to me, so hats off to Line 6 for this! I haven't had it for a long time yet, so I haven't tinkered with all of them. I'll give an overview in the effects I have tried though.

1. Vibratone (rotary drum): It gives that nice midrange Leslie sound that sounds almost phaser like. I think i saw on here that someone had trouble getting Pagey's tone on "Black Dog"?! Well if you use this on the lowest speed possible, you'll nail it. Because for that song he used a Leslie Model 16 which is identical to a Fender Vibratone which gives you a slightly different sound compared to your traditional Leslie cabinet.

2. Leslie Model 145 (rotary dru/horn: This gives you a more thicker watery-sounding vibe than the "Drum." To tell you the truth, this is one of the most accurate Leslie emulators I've heard! I played through a 147 cabinet before and this sounds too close! The funny thing is that I owned a Rotosphere and I didn't sound as thick as this and I paid 100 more for that. and with this you get the "Vibratone" option which is just too sweet! Think of Frampton's guitar tone. You'll really "come alive" with this!

*note: before I go further i just want to point out that I know people are picky and compared to a real rotary speaker cab they might miss some tone, i guess, but if you have a TUBE amp it will get you as close as possible to an authentic sound. they say it's like a chorus or flange but this is where those effects came from in the first places of course it's gonna sound like that. those effects sound phony compared to an emulator because it gives you that chorus sound you wish you can find in those pedals. if you use your imagination or look it as a trippy chorus effect, then you'll be happy
also somebody here said these were biased for faster speeds? I don't think so! I know where they get it from though, when you turn the effect on initially, even at the lowest speed it still spins fast. but if you move it in the 12 O clock position it will decelerate it, then just turn the rate completely down for that chorus tone.

3 VB-2 Pitch Vibrato: This was my initial reason for buying this effect. I always loved this tone but I never had one intense enough to actually notice it on. When I played this-magic! It gives a nice swirl to your sound without being as intense as a chorus. It's perfect for playing blues to get that Bo diddley sound. I love using it for soulful slower blues songs especially. It's just right when you get bored of the intense effects. I never really cared for trem much, although i use it. but you have to play around that sound. on Vibrato you can do whatever you like without sounding "off" i guess is how you'd put it. This effect alone is worth the investment, since you never hear a better sounding Vibrato in an affordable package because you get 15 other great modular effects for the price of one Vibrato unit.

It's built very rugged and durable and I don't pound my effects so I find t very reliable.

No haven't yet but might have to e-mail them to tell them how I'm amazed at this pedalboard for sure!

I play Blues, ala the 3 Kings & G.E. Smith (yes, mr ponytail himself with beautiful worn guitars that cost more than my life)fused with soul and R&B (Rock N'Soul to be exact as Hall & Oates say) and these effects are just right, man. I have noticed famous musicians using them live, including John Oates( saw it on his pedalboard when I saw Hall & Oates a few months ago) and the tones he got were great, like the analog effects they used in the 80s. Marc Ford used one when he was in Blue floyd in 2000, probably still uses it. I honestly think anyone who loves these effects should buy it and really get into it. because I wish I did a while ago. I would've saved myself alot of money on effects that i wasn't happy with. It's awesome and will only further inspire your playing and help you dig deep in your soul and express yourself with colors and sounds that were only in your head til you bought this motherboard of vintage effects! Like I said if you can get over the "digital" hump and just listen to how good it is without overanalyzing it this will do it for you!

You might already know how these effects go if you're familiar at all with the originals. the Tweek/Tweez knobs might take a while to get used to dealing with since they control different functions depending on the effect. Overall, pretty self-explantory and you can refer to their massive manual as well!

My guitar/amp combo is a 52 Fender Tele repro with a Fender blues Junior. Now i've heard several mixed reviews over the years. I was gonna get one of these when they first came out but I didn't know if it was a waste based on all these reviews. Anyway I bought one because It seems practial for live use and you get an array of trippy effects for a steal of a price. I figured if the effects weren't great, then that would be okay because they're only effects and my overall tone is great so....
I haven't used all the effects on here, just the ones I was really intriqued with. so I'll review my top 4

1. VIBRATONE (rotary drum: excellent! sounds great. I heard someone on here say they couldn't get the Pagey's tone on "Black Dog"?! Well, with this on and the rate at the slowest speed, It nails that perfect!

2: LESLIE 145 (rotary drum/horn: again, another bullseye! Now I know people compain about the quality of these compared to their ancestors but If you don't expect tosound dead-on tone-wise then you'll be thrilled because all the basic nuances are still there. As long as you have a tube amp or a decent guitar you can get a pretty good Leslie tone. Actually i owned a Rotosphere and i find this to be more to my liking and it actually sounds better! Which is funny because it's a $100 cheaper and plus you get another rotary speaker option on this pedal and then some! You can sound like Peter frampton and COME ALIVE with this!

3: VB-2 (pitch vibrato): MARVELOUS! gain i don't see why anyone's complaining. I pretty much use it all the time now. it's nice when you get bored of a chorus sound but still want that "fluidity" in your tone. It makes it sound like you ate alotta magic mushrooms, LOL. don't ask, hehe =p

4 BIAS TREM. This is a beautiful tremolo sound. I never really cared for trem much. I'm a vibrato guy. But I really dig this. Actually it sounds like the tremolo that's featured on the Marshall Bluesbreaker amps because i owned one and it gives that same sound. What i found is when you use this particular effect with the CE-2 Chorus (which I still use in conjunction with any of these effects) It gives a really awesome Uni-vibe tone, reminiscent of the elusive JAX Vibrachorus that Jimi used.

it seems to be built pretty rugged, like those older oversize effect units so i'm cool. if anything did happen it's easily replaceable!

I play electric blues, as well as soul, R&B (Rock N Soul) and It's difficult to get all these expensive effects with my budget so I opted for this and It's truly awesome! It's great for people who like these effects but can't justfy buying all these stompboxes. It's actually like having David Gilmour's rig in this pedalboard, LOL! Speaking of which when Marc Ford played in "Blue Floyd" he used one of these in his rig, As well as John Oates and their new guitarist Jeff....well...the guy that's not G.E. Smith. If you're a fan of Hall & Oates it's easy to get all those guitar tones via G.E. smith that were prevalent on their 80s albums and when he toured with them!
so all I'm saying is don't believe the negative hype on here. I know "different strokes for different folks" and all but This is the holy grail for anyone who wants these effects in one affordable easy package! take time, experiment, and read the manual to know how you control these effects. if you do that you'll be sold on this as I am. plus you'll save alot of cash too!

Fairly simple to use - dial in the sound you want and then hold the switch down for three seconds. Couldn't be easier. Bypass seems to work pretty good as well.

PRS SE with PAF pro pickups -> Morley Wah -> Boss TU2 + CS3 -> MM4 -> Mesa V-Twin -> Boss DD-3 -> Holy Grail reverb -> Laney VC30

I am still not convinced if it sounds better before or after the overdrive of the V-twin so at the moment have it before simply because it fits easier on my pedal board. I use the chorus, tremolo, phaser and flange effects which sound to me as good as any other unit I have played with.

I got it second hand from ebay so its a bit bashed but still works great. Frankly I use these effects as a bit of subtle "iceing" to my sound so would not be overly concerned if it suddenly died (although I would replace it).

Never had to deal with them.

When I play covers I use a POD2 straight into the desk as it seems easier to emulate other people's sounds. But "my" sound is very much your standard bluesy/rock type deal. I love the chorus on picked clean chords, the tremolo on fuller slightly driven chords, the phaser with a solo (plus a wah effect) and the flanger for the funk sound. I have been playing for 18 years and prefer music that gets me paid (although have a slight bias towards ostentatious licks!).

Quite simple, since you keep the manual around for the first few times of use. Then it's a piece of cake to find what you are looking for.
You need to experiment with the knobs to find nice sounds, but LINE6's
default settings also sound good.
USE THE KNOBS AND YOUR IMAGINATION!

Strat and ES335 on Blackface twin and Marshall valvestate.

Not all the sounds are quite usable, but that's why they did it like that after all, to choose what is best for your needs.

It would be LOVELY if all four presets could be used simultaneously.

I use a Fulltone FD-2 before the modeller and when the drive gets "serious" it doesn't sound so good.

Generally, i think it should be placed before any overdrive unit.
I think it sounds much better with a "dirty" amp than it does with a "clean" one,especially the univibe.
For instance, if you try to play Pink Floyd's "Breathe" on a clean amp it's not really there, but if you try any Hendrix style on a dirty amp, it's getting closer.
The "Cold shot" SRV tone is not exactly there also.

It feels rather "brittle" and weak with clean sounds.
If you use both outputs in the same amp (in mono), it sounds stronger but it obviously eliminates the panner effect(...)

Experiment with the knobs and you will find interesting sounds.
The problem is that you lose any unsaved setting.
I always keep one memory "free", to save experimental settings.

Many sounds to choose from but only one to use, nice sounds but NOT the killer tone, so i rate the sound quality a 6.
Sometimes i love it, sometimes i hate it!...

Very well built.
Could last for ages.
Use its own power supply.
If not be carefull, it's an AC to AC adapter, not the typical AC to DC.

never dealt with them...

Versatile effect, NOT a multi-effect(only one setting at a time)
with tone similar to the ones it is supposed to model but of course NOT THE REAL THING. Besides, nothing sounds like the real ones!!!
If you go for the versatility, buy it. It's the best you could ever have.
If you go strictly for the ultimate sound, think twice...
Finally, after almost a year with it i think i belong to the second category.
Anyone interested?.... :))