Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler-01

Summary Manufacturer URL www.line6.com Ease of Use 8.1 (27 responses) Sound Quality 8.7 (28 responses) Reliability 9 (13 responses) Customer Support 8.8 (11 responses) Overall Rating 8.8 (27 responses) Submit a review!

Ease of Use: 5
Sorry, it's not easy to use. A distortion pedal is easy to use. This takes some getting used to... especially the fact that the "Tweak" and "Tweez" knobs perform different fucntions depending on which mode you are in. Luckily, the manual is really clear and easy to understand. If you're curious, you can print it out from their website (which I did before I bought it).
I didn't buy this pedal because I thought it would be easy to use. I bought it for the wide range of features.
One recommendation: Once you dial in a setting you like, WRITE DOWN THE POSITION OF THE KNOBS IMMEDIATELY. If you save over a setting (accidentally or on purpose), God help you if want to find it again. It can be done, but it will take you quite some time if you don't have your notes.
Another recommendation: when writing down your settings, I've found that the traditional "o'clock" settings are inadequate. Some knobs (especially delay rate) yeild a VERY wide response between say 10:00 and 11:00.

Sound Quality: 9
My setup: American Standard Telecaster - (whatever distortion I happen to like at the time) - DL4 - Ampeg Reverberrocket 1X12.
It's true bypass (although you can turn it off), so it's not noisy (but the way the Tele buzzes, it's not like I'd notice if it was).
I play in a band with a spaced-out, hypno-indie rock sound, and this thing works GREAT for our songs. Although this thing has many cool and useful settings, it really took me a long time to find three that were "just right." My favorites are the Space Echo setting, the sweep echo setting, and (total surprise to me) the Memory Man setting.

Reliability: N/A
I really have only had it for about two months, so I can't really say. Seems solid. So far it's nothing but smooth sailing.
I have gigged with it already... without a back up (this thing costs $250, how am I going to buy a back up?), and it performed just great.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had to deal with em.

Overall Rating: 9
I've heard a lot of people (most of whom it appears didn't actually buy the unit) slagging it because it doesn't sound EXACLTY like the vintage effects it is supposed to (key word) EMULATE. Well, duh!
I have to admit that I've never used a Space Echo. But I have heard recordings that it was used on. And for the money, I'd say the DL4 APPROXIMATES the sound very, very well. Same with the Echoplex and the Memory man. But then, I wasn't looking for an exact replica of the originals (nor did I expect to find one). I was hoping that this thing would get me close enough. And I am completely happy with what I got for my money.
If I could afford a Space Echo, an Echoplex and a Deluxe Memory Man, don't you think I would just roll on up to the vintage boutique in my Mercedes, waltz through the door, pull back the lapel of my Armani suit, pull out my bulging money clip and slap $2,500 in cash on the counter ("No, no my good man. You keep the change.")

So, now after defending the DL4, I do have some critiques.
1. The buttons are too darn close together. On a darkened stage, you really have to pay a lot of attention to which switch you're stepping on. But, to be fair, I do have ridiculous boats for feet, so this is not strictly Line 6's fault.
2. I wish there was a way to turn the pre-loop delay off and on while using the Loop Sampler. Once you've got the loop sampler selected, the delay is on. You can turn the loop on and off, but that delay is there for good (unless you turn the delay time knob all the way counterclockwise, and then it's all the way off, and you have to crank the knob to turn it back on... and that's no good). It would be much more effective (especially in a live setting, for my purposes, anyway) if the delay on the loop sampler could be turned off and on with one of the footswitches (I'd gladly sacrifice the admittedly cool but completely impractical "half speed/reverse" function).
3. I wish they had just made the power supply part of the unit. It's ludicrous to expect to run this thing off of batteries.
4. I've complained many times that analog delays have too little delay time. This time I've got to go the other way. I think there's too much delay at times here. Much of the usable delay lies between 10:30 and 12:00 o'clock on the delay time dial. That's only about one third of the knob's full range, but about 2ms to 500ms are packed in that small space. That means you have to be VERY precise and careful when cranking that knob around. A little tiny nudge can have a dramatic effect.

Well, so it's not perfect. Oh, well. I still love it. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for vintage style delay effects who, like me, can't afford the real thing.

If I lost it or it was stolen, I'd be one very sad dude. And, God help me, I'd fork over another $250 ($265 if they stole the adapter too) to buy myself a new one.

Submitted by Dan at 02/02/2000 11:54

Ease of Use: 9
this is an extremely easy to use box. i am using it mostly for creating loop based music, and i had great loops going ten minutes after i opened it. the delay modeling half is easy to get great sounds out of, the only tricky thing is remembering what the tweek and tweeze knobs do, but the manual does a fine job of explaining that.

Sound Quality: 8
i am using a steinberger guitar wired with a piezo pickup to capture the sound of me drumming on the guitar and the trans trem system for lowering the tuning to play basslines. the loops are fed to a lexicon reverb unit, mostly to liven up the drum sounds a bit, and then into a pearce g2r. it captures the sounds well, even when i layer the loops on like crazy. the first loops you lay down fade out as you overdub new parts, but this just enables the loops to change and evolve. i can start with a mellow african groove, and slowly turn it into a scary dub reggae groove, live! i love it.
as for the delay sounds, they seem to work just fine for me. i usually use the analog with mod (memory man setting) or rhythmic delay setting for creepy dub effects. i have not a/b tested it with the boxes it is modeling, but i am perfectly happy with the way it sounds in my rig. i am not overly concerned about noise, but this unit seems very quiet.

Reliability: 10
i have had it for about three months and have been gigging rigorously without a backup. it seems to be very sturdy. like i said, i hope to get another one to use in my live settup, so that one would sort of serve as a backup i guess. it is so much cheaper than other looping machines out there (jam man, boomerang, echoplex) that you could conceivably buy a dedicated backup, but i dont feel like i need to.

Customer Support: N/A
?

Overall Rating: 10
this thing is perfect for what i am doing. for anyone who wants a cheap, but nice machine for creating ambient or otherwise loops, i highly recomend this unit. it is a huge help to my practice time as well as its amazing potential in live band or solo situations. if i were just using it for delays, it might be a little too much for me. i just want a subtle thickening here and there for the most part, so all the models to choose from are a bit wasted on me. as a looping tool, it is an indespensable part of my life. i spend countless hours looping, changing, evolving, mutating. i have progressed musically at a much greater pace than before i incorporated this into my daily practice. it has enhanced my sound with the band i am playing in, live and in the studio, and i now have the option of taking solo guitar gigs (you can create some very convincing drum and bass grooves with the setup i am now using). it inspires me to make music. if it was lost or stolen, i would consider a boomerang, those look very nice, but considering my budget and my attatchment to the one i have now, i would probably grab another.

Submitted by jordan at 02/01/2000 19:52

Ease of Use: 9
I found it so easy to get sounds out of this that literally five minutes into a store demo I knew I had to have it. Editing patches is easy, love the Tap Tempo switch. I took off one point for this: even though I have no problem with only 3 programs that can be saved, I wish there were a way for you to retain your favorite settings of each of the 16 models, even if only 3 can be saved to the footswitches (for instance, if I manually turn it to "Reverse" it would go to the last setting I had for it rather than going back to the factory preset each time). A minor quibble, but one worth mentioning

Sound Quality: 10
Here's where this thing really shines. I'm a professional player and am often called upon to play many different types of guitars and this sounds consistently great through all of them, mostly Strats and Tele's and Jerry Jones, Godin acoustic-electrics, you name it. I use either a Rivera or Mesa Mk1 combo amp and it sounds great through either, either in front or through the effects loop. I feel this is really the key point - I don't know about how well it 'models' any of the things it claims it does. I even own a few of the originals and have never even been tempted to AB them because the sounds on the DL-4 are so good I like them in and of themselves, regardless of how well it imitates anything else. Plus, having such a wide range of great sounds in one box makes it a gigging must. My absolute favorite guitar innovation in the last five years, without a doubt

Reliability: N/A
Very rugged, still pretty young though. So far, so good

Customer Support: 9
So far so good here as well. My questions usually get answered and it's pretty easy getting a hold of someone who knows what they're talking about

Overall Rating: 10
I'm called upon to do everything from rock, R&B, country, in their more mainstream permutations and lots of other offbeat projects, including touring with a West African vocalist, a group doing a cross between middle eastern music and Weather Report, a 21-piece rock orchestra and sessions for sountracks doing lots of Daniel Lanois/David Torn type sonic texture stuff and this has been consistent in delivering the goods in whatever situation every time. For me, indespensible

Submitted by Anonymous at 01/28/2000 08:22

Ease of Use: 9
Easy to get good sounds, easy to use. Just turn the dial to the delay model of choice; adjust knobs, and hold one of the patch buttons for 3 seconds to save it there. You can only save 3 patches, but if you use the expression pedal, you can get more out of it. Also you can morph from one batch of a model's settings to another batch with the pedal.

The looper is pretty simple too, but you don't really get to use any of the delay models with it. They do include an echo in the looper (which is some consolation) but there's no tap-tempo in this mode so you have to manually adjust the echo time with the dial.

Sound Quality: 8
Currently, I'm playing an old Les Paul, running through stereo effects into two small, low-wattage class A 1-12" combo amps.

Some of the DL-4 models are very cool. Others are interesting novelties. I guess it depends on your preferences. I like to use a stereo ping-pong delay to spread my sound out. The DL-4 definitely has this, but I don't think it does as good a job as my Boss delays. It seems like the DL-4 ping pong doesn't separate the left and right channels as far, which is ironic, since one of the adjustable parameters on that model is the stereo spread.

Specicific raves:
One of the models is an auto volume-swell, like the old Boss SG-1 Slow Gear (which I had). However, the DL-4 model does the "slow gear" better than the SG-1 Slow Gear, plus it has an echo on it. So I sold my SG-1, for more than my DL-4 cost.

The "Sweep-Echo" is like a phaser applied to your echoes. I like this very much. There's a "Delay + Mod" model, which is patterned after the EH Deluxe Memory Man. This is very cool. The various tape echo models are also very good. The various digital delay models are good too, but I prefer using my Boss delays for that, so I can use some of the signature sounds of the DL-4.

Oh yeah, back in the late 80's I had a Boss DM-2 analog delay pedal because I was too young and poor to afford a "cool" digital delay. The DL-4's model of the DM-2 nails that sound. Very impressive.

Reliability: 8
Very well made. Very solid. Very dependable so far. I bought the AC adaptor, because it went through it's first batteries in a couple of hours (though maybe these were cheapo batteries).

Flimsy knobs, but they are well protected.

Customer Support: 10
Excellent. Line 6's support should be the standard by which all other companies are measured. They called me and talked me through a soft reset of my DL-4, and helped me with some undocumented features. Very very helpful, courteous and friendly. Thumbs up!

Overall Rating: 8
I would definitely replace the DL-4 if it was lost, broken or stolen.
I like the non-generic, non-digital delay sounds very much, but here are some functionality things I DON'T like about it:

tap-tempo- this gets saved to your patch. I wish it was a global setting. As it is, I tap a tempo into my first patch, play for a while, then go to my next patch, and the tempo is different. So I have to tap it in again. This is kind of a pain. It means I can't really bounce around the DL-4 patches in the midst of a performance, unless I play at the same tempo all night. Perhaps a later software revision will make this an option.

I'm not crazy about the gain on the tube-echo model. This gets a little shrill when pushed, so I leave it alone.

program glitch- If you bounce directly from one patch to another, you'll definitely hear it. I would prefer a discrete cross-fade of some kind.

expression pedal- I found "morphing" settings on the DL-4 to be stupid. All the program parameters go nuts while the pedal is moving (imagine the sound of someone manually turning a vinyl record, and you'll get the idea). While this could conceivably be cool in a freaky way, it sucks for any subtle thing you might want to do.

To be fair, this is an inexpensive unit that does a lot. I have used it as a studio swiss-army knife already; sampling vocal passages from tape, then triggering them back onto other tracks (Loop mode). I've quickly patched it in to use the Echoplex models on studio tracks too.

The DL-4 is small, durable, portable and versatile. Not all the sounds are perfect, but you get a LOT of options in a small package. It's not my ideal, but it's currently the closest thing out there in a stompbox.

Submitted by Anonymous at 01/25/2000 10:22

Ease of Use: 10
This unit is very easy to use, no explanation necessary, very straightforward.

Sound Quality: 1
Ok, so I have been told that the designer of Way Huge was consultant to this line of modeled pedals, I find it hard to believe because it sounds weak. If I had owned a dodfx96 or a danecho or a korg dl2o1 pedal I'd think this thing sounds like God, but......it don't. Overall it sounds very very thin, and as the other friendly slammer said the tone never seems to blend with the original signal. whats more, the feel of the repeats is not natural at all.

Reliability: N/A
I did not buy it but it seemed well built

Customer Support: N/A
NA

Overall Rating: 1
Ok I'll continue my rant. As long as delays have been around, probably predating the wah wah, It seems like a total no brainer to build a sweet sounding delay. the tone of this thing is weak. i am no tech but it seems like a better creature could have been built by emulating compression and EQ settings on the output rather than the over complex individual delay modeling. Also, if you hit a note and twist the delay time it doesn't make cool degeneration noises,it cuts off and picks up where it lands with a little squiggle in the interim. also I got to jump on the preset bandwagon. I'd prefer to
assign the tap tempo to a jack on the back and add a 4th preset button. there are tons of rack gear which have this feature as an option rather than committing to it. I am a lead singer/guitarist and am not shy about tapdancing on my pedals (12 of them) but tap tempo seems less important than a 4th preset. And another thing, the analog

delay overdrive freakout is soooo cheesy. I do like the reverse tone though, but not enough to buy this pedal. All in all I think there is no excuse for a lame Delay pedal, it is a total no brainer. With all of the great Tape machines, analog delays like the MXR,Ibanez AD 202, AD 88, AD 9, Digital delays like the chandler , and the Ibanez DL 10 or even the echomachine which has a cool karioke chip in it, or a akai

dd2000, ther is no reason to have come out of the gate with such a poor showing. Give me an Ibanez DL 10 circuit with presets or just give me 4 delays. Yuck. I have never so looked forward to an effect or been so let down by one as well.

Submitted by Anonymous at 01/24/2000 01:24

Ease of Use: 10
It's pretty easy to get a great sound out of this sucker in a hurry - impossible sounds may take a little longer to dial in. The manual is actually written in English by people who obviously want the buyer to nail classic tones. Editing is minimal, and while there are only three storage locations for presets, try storing 3 presets on an echoplex and then QUIT BITCHING. Figuring out the expression pedal could've been a little easier, but it wasn't for lack of clear instructions, and once you morph from dry to reverse guitar and back, you'll never complain about the footswitch again. Trust me.

Sound Quality: 10
I don't think the tube Echoplex quite nails it, but all I've had to go by is listening to the DL4 in comparison to old rockabilly and early Elvis recordings - as for the rest, the DL4 perfectly mimics the later Echoplex, Memory Man, Boss Analog, Electro-Harmincs 16-second delay (minus 2 seconds, or a shorter, cheaper Boomerang), my old Digitech 8-second Echo Plus, my RPS-10 (The Adrian Belew reverse box), my old Slow Gear attack delay, and the Roland Space Echo. Stereo in and out is a huge plus, because if you have a stereo chorus or flanger, the outputs can remain discrete all the way to the amp. Sweeeeeeeeet. I use a heavily modified Lace Prototype Strat going into a GR30 guitarsynth and a Korg AX30G, then into a Digitech Modulation pedal, from there into the DL4, and the whole rig plugs into an old Peavey Stereo Chorus 400, which is also true stereo in/out. Hoo boy. The sound is thicker than Hillary Clinton's ankles.

Reliability: 10
The knobs seem a bit light, but nothing to worry over. I haven't even tried using an adapter - my suggestion would be to buy rechargeable Alkalines, like Ray-o-Vac Renewals, and put them back in the recharger when you're done playing - unlike Ni-cads, they have a full 1.5 volts and you don't have to drain them before recharging. 100+ charges for about $10. And did I mention it's built like a Buick?

Customer Support: N/A
This is my first Line 6 product, but the availablity of online info from their web site is impressive and seems like a good omen.

Overall Rating: 10
I play mostly ambient loops at home and mostly Blues, Soul, and 70's-type rock when I play out. This works for everything from Country to Chaos (personally, I prefer Chaos). I may end up selling a few of my old pedals so I can buy another one. Anyone want an old Echo Plus?

Submitted by chad white at 01/13/2000 12:50

Ease of Use: 7
OK, First off let me say this stomp box is GREAT!!! Has anyone noticed how the reviews in here are HEATING UP! Anyway, I am not going to go into detail about all the functionality, the manual is available on the web, but I will try to make this review friendly and objective and give you my perspective.
For Ease of use I’m going with a 7. It is a tough proposition to design a device with the simplicity of a stomp box and the capabilities of a sophisticated effects processor and I have to agree though that it is difficult to remember what the tweak and tweeze knobs control for every model. It is also difficult to remember the original settings (or for that matter even the model you used) for the stored patches when you pull them up to give them an adjustment.
Overall though Line 6 erred on the side of simplicity as one of my peeves is that for the “digital delay” model, tweak and tweeze control bass and treble, for the “digital delay w/mod” model, tweak and tweeze control speed and depth of chorusing (note: chorusing only affects the wet signal), but there is no way to have a chorusing delay that also allows you to control treble and bass. The dynamic delay model allows you to control ducking, ducking would also be nice to apply to other models. How do you control all these parameters in one patch and maintain the simplicity of the stomp box interface, I don’t know, perhaps a MIDI port so you can adjust the settings with a windows GUI then download it to the switch location of choice? BUT HEY IT’S A STOMP BOX RIGHT! Then there is the “I can only store 3 patches” thing, which is actually pretty good as “stomp boxes go. One thing Line 6 may consider is to allow the user to change and store the settings for each model in addition to the three locations available by the switches. Or as a minimum remember the last settings for each model as you dial them up.

Sound Quality: 10
Sound quality, is there an 11? The Line 6 sounds GORGEOUS! It is quiet and clean. I have never heard another delay with such a smooth decay. Every repeat is exactly as you would expect, no artifacts or noise (unless intended by the model) until it quietly fades to absolute nothingness. The sounds go from pristine true digital to lo res where if you turn up the repeats far enough this thing will actually feedback!

Reliability: N/A
Dont know, but it is built like a brick #@%! house

Customer Support: N/A
Dont know

Overall Rating: 9
Delay has long since been my primary effect and I have been through many a delay pedal in my time, the Line 6 is by far my delay of choice today. I use the delay through the effects loop with no other effects other than the occasional wah. I play spacey original music you can hear at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/6153/ . Sure there are a few things this pedal doesn’t do that others do, I miss the pre-delay of my Korg, the way wacky modulation of the Chandler etc. One thing I don’t miss is the 2-hour battery life of my old Digitech. The Line 6 uses four C cells that really last multiple 10’s of hours. One less wall wart to worry about is a plus in my book.
One suggestion for the guy who wanted a dotted eighth in the rhythmic delay, rather than tapping in at “1 e and a” tap in at 1 and 4, this gives you three full beats, then dial in 16 notes and you’ve got 3/16 or a dotted eighth.
Anyway as said I wasn’t going to go into detail about all the features, so I didn’t even mention true bypass, loop sampler, 15 delay models all that kind of stuff you can read on the box, suffice it to say that this is a great STOMP BOX!

Submitted by Jack Wright at 01/10/2000 21:15

Ease of Use: N/A

Sound Quality: 1
What are most of these folks thinkin? I own a real DM-2 and am intimately familiar with vintage echoplexes, Memory Mans and the TC2290. All of which were modeled.

The models do not remotely capture the true vibe of the originals. The wet sound never seems to truly mix with the original. It always seems distant and fake. Furthermore, I was easily able to make the unit misbehave (make digital hacking and coughing noises) just by digging into a note. Real DM-2s are very forgiving of signal levels.

The unit also adds a noticeable high-frequency "toppiness" to all the sounds. It made my rig sound like a blizzard of nails.

I know and respect many of the previous reviewers immensely and I think the folks at Line 6 are really great people. Therefore, I will remain anonymous (I don't want to openly diss anyone). However, if you own (and love) the originals DO NOT SELL THEM TO BUY THIS UNIT! You will be terribly disappointed.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 1
Close but no cigar. The only people that will like these emulations are people who have never owned (and loved) the originals.

Modeling has a long way to go.

Note that my low rating has nothing whatsoever to do with build quality (excellent) or customer support (again excellent). Sound is by far the most important criterion and this unit fails miserably.

My .02, your mileage may vary.

Submitted by Anonymous at 01/10/2000 07:44

Ease of Use: 8
Pretty easy to get a good sound out of it quickly. The only difficulty is trying to remember what the "tweak" and "tweeze" knobs actully do on each preset (they control sifferent parameters depending on which effect you're using). Instruction manual is clear and well written - spend a bit of time and you wont have nay problems.

Sound Quality: 7
One caveat - the DL4 is designed for use at instrument levels only, not line levels. This means YOU CANNOT USE IT IN THE EFFECTS LOOP OF AN AMP. I tried for days to get mine to work in the parrallel FX loop to no avail. The send from the FX loop was clipping the DL4 (sounded bad!). Also found that there was an unnaceptable drop-off in gain when the DL4 was engaged in this configuration. The DL4 scores a 2 for use in an FX loop.

However, the unit sounds GREAT in front of the amp. And I mean GREAT! Unfortunately, I get all my gain from the preamp in my ampfilier (not from stomp boxes) so the unit was not much use to me and I had to return it. The unit scores a 10 if you want to use it in front of an amp.

Reliability: N/A
This unit is built like a tank (and is even the same colour as one). I wouldn't forsee any problems.

Customer Support: 10
Line6 were very helpful in addressing my concerns and had very promt and informative email responses to my questions.

Overall Rating: N/A
At the end of the day, the DL4 was simply not designed to work in the FX loop of an amplifier. Despite its high tech origins, it's designed to work more like the Tube Echoplexes it emulates so well - in front of an amplifier. If you want to use it in this manner - buy it now and you won't regret it. If, like me, you want to use it in an FX loop, look elsewhere.

Submitted by Simon at 01/09/2000 23:04

Ease of Use: 9
Turn it on and play with the nobs. Could it be easier? The only difficult thing is learning what the tweez and tweak do on different models, but all you really have to do is turn one and listen.

Sound Quality: 10
Since I don't know exactly what all the originals sound like, I won't base it on that. The delays are incredible sounding. Very full. I don't care if it can emulate an echoplex perfectly (but I hear it does) I just care if I like what it sounds like. Not to mention the true bypass.

Reliability: 10
I got this thing out of the box and felt like throwing it at my car to see just how big the dent in my hood would be. This thing is big, heavy and green (perhaps they should have called it the incredible hulk? maybe not) I would feel safe using this unit as a bullet proof vest. Its indestructable.

Customer Support: N/A
I'll say no opinion because I've never dealt with them, but they seem nice enough in the manual.

Overall Rating: 10
This is, in my opinion, the greatest pedal every made. Well its the greatest one I've ever used and thats no opinion. Perhaps this is because I love delay and have always wanted a Space Echo. Imagine my delight, getting a space echo plus 15 others for under the price of a space echo (and no tape to replace) plus presets. Which brings up something. There are those of us who want EVERYTHING. More presets seems to be a big one. Cant you just be happy with the amazing pedal that you have? If you dont like to bend over (heaven forbid) then put it on a table so you dont have to. Stop your complaining. I play Verve and its great for that, but since Im the only one who plays verve that doesnt matter. Its good for what ails you... My one bit of advice...if you have to choose between the power supply and the expression pedal (just for intance) get the power supply. OH NO! I gave almost all 10's! Someone yell at me. Sorry if I feel the pedal is THAT good. I'd give it a 15 if I could.

Submitted by Darren Grimsley at 01/08/2000 11:49

Ease of Use: 7
This was quite literally all I wanted for Christmas. I'd been upgrading and replacing my stompbox gear over the last six months, and the one thing I wanted to rid myself of the most was the hideous Danelectro Dan-Echo. I got a Line 6 POD recently, and was so pleased with it, I was instantly intrigued when I heard about the new stompbox line from Line 6. The Delay Modeler is easier to use than most multi-effectors and rack mount devices, but has a lot more depth than most stompboxes. So, it's easy to get good sounds right out of the box, but you really need to consult the manual--"tweak" and "tweez" serve different functions on every delay setting. That said, I'd have to say that this is a piece of gear where the learning curve is fun, so I really could care less that it's taking time to learn its different functions. And I don't have to squint at a tiny little screen of menus. One nice bonus is the ability to use stereo inputs, so you can use stereo effects in front of it.

Sound Quality: 9
I expected it to sound great, and it does. I've upgraded all my effects gear to be true bypass, so this was an important selling point for me. When it's off, it's off. But there are some truly gorgeous, and some downright trippy, effects that this thing produces. My main guitars are strat, tele, les paul, SG, and I play everything from punk rock to rockabilly to blues to jazz.....meaning I play as often as I can. I wanted a good-sounding echoplex effect for playing twang and rockabilly on the tele. There are two--tube and transistor, and they're great. I was surprised at the depth. You can add wow and flutter, as well as tube saturation, with the tweak/tweez.....I didn't realize how useful this was until I ran this model into the marshall setting on the POD.....voila--"communication breakdown".....I like the stereo delay's ability to put different delay rates on different channels--if I wanted to, I could get that U2 sound--I don't--the sweep delay is very cool, and I'm sure I'll find a use for it....it's sort of like a phase shifter from outer space.....I'm surprised to find that I like a lot of the other delay models that I hadn't heard before.....the memory man and boss analog delays sound just like the units I'd used years ago, but the lo-res delays (you can adjust it down to 6 bits) are very cool sounding, and I expect will be useful for non-guitar applications as well. The Roland Space Echo is also great, and this whole unit costs less than one vintage Space Echo would (and it's smaller). For ear candy, throw in the ping-pong, auto-swell, and reverse. I use effects probably more subtly than these, but you never know what situation will present itself down the road, and if I can get the riff to "are you experienced?" nailed with the reverse setting, I'll be thrilled. As it stands right now, one of my presets is a subtle reverse delay, which in some ways is preferable to a straight delay for quieter arpeggiated passages. So, it doesn't necessarily have to be ear candy.

Reliability: N/A
I expect that it's dependable. I don't bring backups of stompboxes to gigs. I might not even bring it to the gig. I depends on the gig. It seems very sturdy though.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with them. Nice web site though. I read the manual before I made up my mind.

Overall Rating: 9
First thing you notice, right out of the box--it's HUGE. This is serious real estate for someone who uses a lot of effects. I don't. I'm building a pedal board, and it will include the DL4 with three fulltone pedals. I'll leave an open slot for a power supply, and maybe an open slot or two for optional devices (perhaps for the expression pedal), but that's it. I've been playing 20+ years, and have gone from a purist no-effects rig to one that's shoegazer overkill back to the fairly simple rig I have now. There's been a lot of carping on this board regarding the lack of presets available (there are three, up to six with the expression pedal). That's a personal thing. I you need a lot of presets on the fly, maybe you should get something else. Personally, this issue would only be pertinent in live performance situations. In that case, three is enough for me. Actually, it's plenty. There's nothing more unexciting than going to see a band where the guitar player spends the whole gig staring at his pedals. I can understand why some folks might want more though, so this is something to consider. For me, it's a wonderful complement to my dream rig--customized strat, wah, fuzz, overdrive, DL4, boogie combo.....I may not come up for air for months....and oh yeah, that Dan-Echo makes a great door stop.

Submitted by Phil Mipokits at 01/05/2000 09:53

Ease of Use: 9
I've read reviews about this for as long as I've heard about this thing. There has been nothing but good reviews, and this is just one more.
This thing is a little tricky at first, but doesn't take much. My advice to everyone is to get an expression pedal, and if the $60 price tag seems too much, use a volume pedal. It works fine, and you can find them for as low as $20.
The manual tells you everything you need to know, and offers some great history on all the different types.

Sound Quality: 10
My rig:
60's fender strat >EH Qtron>Teese RMC3 Wah>Ts9 modded to 808 specs>route 66 American OD > Dod EQ pedal > Delay > Fender Deluxe 112+ > Rocktron Hush Super C.


The sound is great, I've heard of other pedals sometimes giving off a hiss/hum, and sometimes having the delays repeating even when they were off. Not the case with this pedal. All of the different settings are great, and range from run of the mill delays to super spacey effects. The sweep echo and tube echo are two that can get some truly cosmic sounds. The possibilities are endless, especially with an expression pedal.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I play jam/rock music. I like delay for unique solos and spacey effects. The looper is what sold me on this, I'm not a delay freak so the 3 presets will be more than I'll ever need. The 15 different models will probably be rotated in and out as I find uses for them. The looper is fantastic. With the stereo inputs I can plug a bass and guitar in and construct a song with guitar and bass parts and then add leads as it plays back. Plus the looper has delay built in to it as well.
I cannot emphasize enough the versatility an expression pedal adds, and using a volume pedal is a quick economic work around if you don't want to spend another $60. (just plug the output of the volume into the expression pedal jack and you're set.) This thing is a great price, considering all the sounds you get, plus 14 seconds of looping, this thing is a steal. The sounds are crystal clear, and with an expression pedal the changes and morphs are seamless. Another nice feature is the delay time goes to 2.5 seconds, longer than some of the originals it is based on.
This thing is a great help in writing music, i use it to add to songs when I can't play with other band members.
Line 6 is a reliable name, and the sound quality is pristine, since most delay pedals go for about half as much as this, and don't have looping, the choice seems obvious as to what is the best delay pedal on the market.

Submitted by Will Little at 01/03/2000 12:00

Ease of Use: 10
This pedal is EASY to get great sounds from. The controls are very straight forward and the manual is easy to read (it's downloadable from Line 6's website). Editing patches consists of dialing in a sound you like and holding down a button for 3-4 seconds. To the people who continually whine about the number of presets: use an optional expression pedal. This allows you to store two presets per switch (although they have to be the same sound model). As you rock the expression pedal it will morph between your settings (which can be a really cool sound in and of itself). So you really have SIX settings within this pedal. And there is such a wide range of sounds, even within a certain model, that you can really have two entirely different sounds within one bank.

Sound Quality: 10
Unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to use many of the pedals that the dl4 emulates. That being said, most of the sounds have their own characteristics and really stand apart. I don't use a stereo setup, however, if I did, I'm sure it would sound great. My use of delays runs the gamut: from slap-back to reverse to long digital delays. One of the really cool features on this pedal is the auto-volume setting. This allows you to hit the strings but hear no attack. You can get cool synth-like sounds this way (the old way of doing this involved using a delay and using your volume knob or volume pedal). Plus you have much more freedom of the hands/foot. As far as the looper is concerned, it's pretty cool. However, I have been using the Boomerang for almost a couple years and it still beats this thing. As far as sound coloration is concerned, I haven't heard any change using this pedal. It does have an optional true bypass which I don't use (this cuts off the tails of the delay when you switch it off).

Reliability: 10
Seems reliable. I've had it for a week. I'm not concerned in the least about it breaking.

Customer Support: 10
I emailed customer support and they answered the next day in a very friendly and humorous manner.

Overall Rating: 8
Here's my main gripe: I was stoked when I heard that this pedal had a tap tempo switch, much to my dismay when I brought it home, there's no dotted 8th note setting! (this is the U2/Edge sound) It has everything but within the "rhythmic setting". You can use the tap tempo for every other setting, however, it's 1/4 notes by default. I've been using the Boss DD-5 with the tempo pedal and it looks like I'll continue to do so. There are pros and cons to this: the Boss pedal's rhythm is set only after 4 taps; the dl4 only takes 2 taps. The Boss pedal's rhythm can be set while the pedal is off; the dl4 must be switched on and then set. There is a way to achieve dotted 8th notes on the dl4: you must tap "ONE-e-and-UH" (hitting it on "ONE" and "UH"). That's pretty lame, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That'll take practice to do in a live situation.
I have one other thing you might want to consider: the dl4 is BIG (a bit over the length of 3 boss pedals put side by side). With the expression pedal in tow it takes up quite a bit of real estate. Just something to be aware of. If anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to reply (or if anyone's figured out a better secret to the elusive dotted 8th note setting, let me know).

Submitted by Kyle at 12/25/1999 13:12

Ease of Use: N/A
I've only tried this thing out in the music store, and want to report
why I didn't instantaneously whip out my credit card: 3 presets.
Period. Ok, I'll elaborate. Another guy, a few posts below
this one, had similar concerns. You can't change the model type with
your foot, and you can only store three sounds. The problem I have
is I don't like to bend down and putz around during a show. I have this rack mount thing from 10 years ago, that has 128 factory presets and 128 user locations, and it only cost about $250 then. (I don't
use this rack thing in my setup now, it's the only thing left from my old rack [yuck] setup, and is now used for vocals at rehearsal).

Now, we don't need 512 settings, but 3 or 4 of each model would be
nice. I'm sure line 6 would say something about the cost of memory
etc. needed to implement this, but the way microprocessors are embeded in every thing now, it's really no excuse. I'd bet that most of their
"cost" is on the software/engineering side, not the hardware.

On the other hand, it is nice to have plain old on/off like a regular
stomp box. The matrix thing of banks and locations is annoying when
playing live.

It could be do-able with 4 buttons but one of them would have to
be overloaded, and maybe an 2 letter LED to indicate which model
you were on (eg MM for memory man, etc). Not to get into the
engineering here, but even if it had 10 presets I would have whipped
out the card. It's frustrating because it has 16 models but you'd
only be able to use three on a gig with being Mr. Ben Dover. Have I made my point??? Ok, Enough on this.

Sound Quality: N/A
Not going to give numerical ratings yet since I haven't bought the
thing yet... But the sound IS great, give the echoplex model "The
Lemon Song" test. Passed with flying colors.

Reliability: N/A
Built sturdy.

Customer Support: N/A
I'm a flextone owner, and the support is great for technical questions. Took a bit long to get my firmware upgrade for the amp,
then they sent me the pod chip, and it got all confused.

Overall Rating: N/A
Accessibility is very important to me when performing, great tone
is a given. Ideally, I'd like to have about 5 background echo sounds,
e.g. slapbacks, tape reverb type settings for normal playing and maybe
5 spacey or special sounds, nothing too complicated. Ok, how bout one
more design suggestion that would fit in the same box: Add a small
LED that goes from 1 to 10. Make the first button scroll down, the second go up, the third commit to the program change, and the 4th tap tempo. Hold the third down for three seconds to save at selected LED
location. Simple! The same could be said for the Mod box that they are coming out with, though phase, cho, flange & univibe would adequate, I'd whip out the plastic for that, but still like my
switch design better.

Now with the distortion you really only need four sounds, but my
requirement for that is that multiple programs (at least two) can be loaded at the same time. Anyone who's tried it knows having two dists series is the smoothest sound. The trick is the first one
in the chain is set at a lower gain setting then the 2nd.

Submitted by Steve Horvath at 12/23/1999 11:12

Ease of Use: 8
It is not as simple as your average delay pedal, but the manual is excellent. I have had no trouble setting up and saving sounds. You can use it without the manual, but it does have some "hidden" functions, such as "soft" bypass, that you wouldn't know about otherwise.

Sound Quality: 9
I'm using the DL4 at the end of an effects chain, before the amp, with a Gretsch Country Gentalman. Effects are DynaComp>WhammyII>Colorsound Supa Tone Bender>Chandler Tube Driver>Boss PH1 phase shifter>Morley PWA wha>Boss DD5 delay>DL4>1967 Super Reverb. The DL4 is very quiet, and it integrated easily with everything else. I like the tape echo simulations, the Memory Man, and the loop function the most. I just bought the pedal yesterday, so I have yet to take it to practice, but I'm looking forward to it. "Oh no, another pedal!"

Reliability: 9
Seeing as I have had it two days, it seems to be holding up well;) It seems very sturdy, and the knobs are firm, not loose like others have reported. I don't take back up pedals to gigs, but I may keep the DD5 on the board for a while yet.

Customer Support: 9
My only dealings with Line 6 folks was at Winter NAMM 99. They had prototypes of the Modeler pedals on hand, and I've been salivating ever since. The people at the Line 6 booth seemed intelligent and genuinely interested in what they were doing.

Overall Rating: 10
The band I play in is sort of a spacey/folk/pop sound. We like to think of it as somewhere between early Neil Young and Brian Eno. I generally use delay as an ambient effect, and this pedal fits right in. Now that I have presets, I may use delay more, a bit of "Echoplex" here and there, maybe a little slapback. I also do alot of loop based guitar playing at home, and hopefully live soon also, and the 14 second looper is excellent. Took me a little bit of time to grok it, but not too much. It is not the simplest of pedals, and is probably overkill for many people, but it feels perfect to me. Just the right amount of features and knobs. The sounds are excellent, and I was able to clone the sound of my Roland RE301 Space Echo. Great sound, but a beast to have to lug around. The DL4 doesn't seem to affect the sound much in bypass. I have it set up for "soft" bypass, so the delays fade out. My only real compaint is that it would be nice to know where the knobs are set for the preset sounds. A diagram in the otherwise excellent manual would be helpful.

Submitted by Russ Chaput at 12/22/1999 21:22

Ease of Use: 8
There seems to be more to the hidden function section than the company leads you to believe. I wish that the owner's man. had more detail as to the advanced uses of this unit. The owners guide is really geared towards the lowist common denominator.

Sound Quality: 9
The 24 bit sound Quality is clean and powerful. My big problem with the unit is the mechanical sound of the stomp buttons. I play Japanese Shakuhachi through a mixer then left ch into a digitec efx unit and the right ch. through another digitec unit. I then take the L/R line out of these efx's and input them into the L/R of the DL4.
Then I take the DL4 stereo out into a stereo amp. As I create loops the sound moves around the room as is very meditative. But soon as I press one of the stomp buttons the acoustic click is audible and is picked up by the mic and this sound enters the loop chain.
My partner plays Quartz Crystal Bowls and we will very soon try the unit on these.

Reliability: 8
Since the A C adapter is optional. I had to put an order in for it. So at the moment I have to deal with battery power. I seem to drain the batts. pretty fast. I have about 3 extra pack in my gig bag. The unit so far seems to be very trust worthy.

Customer Support: 10
The customer support team - responded to questions that I had via e mail.

Overall Rating: 9
My group "Life In Balance" is a program of sound therapy. Our focus is to enhance the listener's own healing abilities. I was looking for a device that would effectively create loops at 58 cycles per minute- to help slow the heart rate down. I'm very happy with the DL4 and with Line6. The people at our sessions all agree of the effectiveness
of this unit also. I'm thinking of getting another unit so that I can chain them in together.
My wish list would be: MIDI clocking. quieter mechanics. more storage space for edits. A separate on/off switch.
I build my sound around the boxes that I choose. I'm very glad that I picked the DL4 as my creative partner in this on going musical journey.

Submitted by Steve Sciulli at 12/20/1999 11:46

Ease of Use: 6
Remembering what the parameters of the 'tweak' and 'tweez' knobs will take a little time, but with the amazing range of sounds to be conjured, it's worth the little bit of time it takes to learn.

Sound Quality: 10
Very quiet, except when by design; great simulations of analog classics, only some of which I've heard enough to comment on directly (that's one of the appeals, I guess; you have better than decent simulations of stuff that's out of reach because of rarity and/or price). The analog delay is very close but noticeably inaccurate. That is not a bad thing; it just makes it different. The 'sweep echo' and 'dynamic delay' are my early favorites. I tried it on vocals, too, and it works beautifully. Again, no noise! I love it.

Reliability: N/A
Definitely well constructed; I'm not very concerned about the knobs.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I have a bevy of effects pedals, with a nice mix of vintage and vintage-style new school effects, and this pedal fits in beautifully. I was wondering when someone would come out with a digital delay that was as good in its type as something like the Way Huge Aqua Puss analog delay is in its, and this is it. (By the way, the guy who made the Way Huge pedals had a big role in this pedal, apparently) I am wowed by the discrete stereo in: extra flexibility. I think that the effort to do good simulations and to mae a good basic digital delay was obviously painstaking and very successful. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. I have a DOD DFX94 and a Boss DD-5 that have been pretty much put out of business (pretty much, but not completely). I particularly love the Multihead (Roland Space Echo) setting. It takes a little getting used to, as any pedal with this much flexibility usually does, but there's nothing that I would complain about. It's what, maybe double your standard high-quality digital delay? With 20x the functionality, and 5x better sound in the core functionality, it's worth it.

Submitted by Nick Kramer at 12/16/1999 06:48

Ease of Use: 9
Very easy to use, just wish that it was faster to save a preset. It acts nearly like a normal stomp box except that you must hold the button for 3 sec. to save your new preset. It also turns off the previous delay if you turn on one of the other two. They did a great job on making the expression pedal easy to use though. Plug in, set the heal down sound, move to toe down, set toe down sound, hold the button to save.

Sound Quality: 10
I can't tell the difference between this thing and analog pedals. It emulates perfectly.

Reliability: 8
I've already played live with it. No problems, but I do reccomend you buy a power adapter because it eats batteries. It loses reliability points with me only because of the lack of coming with a power supply. Dead batteries really suck.

Customer Support: 7
You can't buy their expression pedal yet when it says in the manual you can buy it online. They need to ship the pedals and power supplies. Otherwise, they were helpful in telling me how to hook their boxes up in stereo on their amps. For those wondering, I bought an Ernie Ball Volume pedal as an expression pedal. Very heavy duty and works great.

Overall Rating: 9
This is the best delay on the market. I look foward to buying their MM-4 when it comes out. The expression pedal is a must have though to make it substantially different from other delays. It also takes getting used to programming the presets, but it can be done effectively live.

Submitted by Taco at 12/14/1999 08:52

Ease of Use: 8
At first glance it looks stomp-box simple, however there's a little more to it than meets the eye and a good reading of the instruction manual is in order prior to successful first-time operation. The manual itself covers both the Delay and Modulation pedals. It is well written, relatively thorough, and easy to understand. It is also quite interesting to read as it describes in detail the different delay effects which the DL-4 simulates and gives a brief history of each effect. The first thing that may not be obvious is that the three stomp switches need to be "programmed" with a preset before they can be used. The instruction book says that they come with factory presets, but this was not the case with mine. For those sick and tired of programming rack-mount or multi-effects units, don't worry about the DL-4. It's easy. Just select a delay model (there are 15), turn the knobs until you get the sound you're after, and then hold down any one of the three stomp switches for three seconds. That's it. You just programmed a bank. The only thing that can get confusing is trying to remember what functions the "Tweak" and Tweez" knobs control for each different delay effect. The reason these two knobs have generic names is because they are assigned different functions depending on the delay model. For example, on the Tube Echoplex model they control the amount of tape wow and flutter and the tube gain, while with the standard digital delay they adjust bass and treble response. You may need to keep the manual on hand until you are familiar with each mode. While I think the DL-4 is easier to use compared to even the simplest digital multi-effects processors, there is room for improvement. When you rotate the model selctor to a new delay model it comes up to a factory preset sound and the current position of the knobs is irrelevant. It would make more sense if the newly selected model would instantly conform to the current knob settings. Instead you must rotate each knob slightly and the unit will suddenly "recognize" where the knobs are set and then adjust the sound accordingly. Also, if you work hard to get a sound you like you MUST save it to one of the DL-4's three memory banks, otherwise you will have to get on the floor and re-do all of your settings. Remember, the stomp switches don't just turn the effect on and off, they are recalling a delay setting from the memory. I should also mention the tap tempo switch, which is the fourth stompswitch. How did I ever get along without one of these!? Two taps on this switch will adjust the time of the delay repeats on the fly, and there's even a blinking red LED to give you a visual indication of how fast or slow your delay repeats are set. Very handy.

Sound Quality: 10
OK, here's the most important category. How accurate are the DL-4's delays? I have experience with three of the vintage delays that this unit emulates: The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man ("Analog Delay w/ mod"), the Boss DM-2 ("Analog Delay"), and the solid state Echoplex ("Tape Echo"). For the Memory Man model I did extensive A/B comparisons and found that, with the modulation turned off completely, the DL-4 was about a 98% exact copy of the real thing. The real Memory Man was just a *little* thicker sounding, but I only came to this conclusion after A LOT of very careful listening in a quite room. Given that the DL-4's model is dead quite and has up to 2.5 seconds of delay, compared to the Mem. Man's inherent noise (even when bypassed) and limited 550ms delay times, I'd say that this is a more than fair trade off. Again, the only way I could tell a difference was through extensive A/B comparison, otherwise I would probably guess that it was exactly the same pedal. I sold my Boss DM-2 a few months ago, so I couldn't do an exact comparison, but to the best of my recollections (I owned the pedal for almsot two years) the "Analog Delay" model sounds dead on with exactly the same kind of muddy, dirty repeats that my DM-2 had! I also had the fortune of playing through a mid-70's Echoplex (solid-state version) about 1/2 hour before testing out the DL-4's "Tape Echo" simulation. Again, if it isn't *exactly* like the real thing, then it must be so close that you can't tell without a side-by-side test. This delay mode has the same cloudy, ethereal quality that the real Echoplexes have. Through my pre-CBS Fender amp it sounds exactly like the delay that can be heard on Eric Johnson's recordings or in either of his instructional videos. This one is my main delay sound. Also of note is are the true reverse delay and the "Lo Res Delay" which is supposed to simulate the sound of an early 70's digital delay and lets you adjust the resolution from 24 bits all the way down to 4 bits for some neat techno/dance type textures. On a final note, I should say that what the unit sounds like when it's NOT on should be as important as when it is on. The DL-4 has true bypass switching and does not affect the tone when bypassed (thank you!!). However, you can turn the true bypass function off, so that your delays trail off naturally. A very cool feature, and fortunately the signal in the non-true-bypass mode is not seriously degraded.

Reliability: N/A
This thing really eats batteries. The four C's that came with it lasted about 4 hours. Definitely invest in the AC adaptor and you won't have to worry about it. Construction throughout seems very sturdy, maybe even overkill.

Customer Support: N/A
You can download manuals off of the Line 6 website. Every manufacturer should be doing this by now. Thank you Line 6!

Overall Rating: 10
I'll give this a 10 because it's one of those things that I wish I had thought of. It's easily the bst delay on the market right now, digital or analog. It has so many useful features and recreates the delay sounds that most guitarists want: analog delay, tape delay, digital delay, plus it throws in a few new twists such as the Reverse and Lo Res setting. I'm definitely not a digital knid of guy, prefering analog almost all of the time. However, there are some things that I think digital can excell at, such as sampling and delay. As such, this is the only digital effect that I use or probably will use. My other effects include Fulltone, Mesa/Boogie, and a Sweet Sound Ultra-Vibe. The DL-4 takes it's place among these other high-end pedals and does it's job outstandingly well. If the price of this unit is out of your reach, but you still want a good analog delay simulation, check out the Ibanez Tone-Lock Delay/Echo. It will do an amazingly realistic simulation of an analog delay pedal (sounds just like the "Analog Delay" model on the DL-4) plus it has a standard digital delay mode and costs less than $100. This would be my second choice for a versatile modern delay with vintage sound capabilities and I think it would work as a great back-up for DL-4 users, or when you just want a smaller box to carry around.

Submitted by Mike at 12/13/1999 20:23

Ease of Use: 8
Um ... like turn it on and it makes good sounds. Editing is incredibly easy -- knob twiddling encouraged. The manual is nice, especially how it goes into each "model", complete with a picture of its vintage equivalent and sometimes a musical reference -- not totally necessary, but it shows they have put some thought into the product. My only complaint is that their explanation on the use of the expression pedal (not included) is a bit short. My biggest complaint is that more presets are not available and that you cannot change the "model" with a switch. Perhaps this is just not possible -who knows.

Sound Quality: 10
I use it with an American Strat, a Jazzmaster reissue, and a late 60's Fender Dual Showman. A Fulltone Fulldrive2 overdrive pedal, Boss DD5, Boss DD3, and Boss Pn-2 Pan/Tremolo complete the f/x setup. This thing is very quiet. The sounds are absolutely amazing, I know no other way to put it other than that. I played this thing and almost hugged the guy in the music store -- I had my wallet out and was salavating all over the counter. more on this is ...

Reliability: 10
It is, indeed, built like a tank. Some others have complained that the knobs wobble, but I believe that this is by design -- most things that are design well to be moved in the same motions over and over again have "play" in them. If I'm right - nice going. Big metal switches=good. Metal chasis=good. Runs just fine off of my Pedal Power power supply. Recessed knobs=good. Back-up - do you have "back-ups" for $250 stomp boxes?h

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't talked to them nor do i plan to.

Overall Rating: 10
The answer to my prayers -- a 24 bit, totally quiet stomp box with more versatility than any I've ever seen. I play sort of spacey indie rock a la Mogwai, Built to Spill, Red Stars Theory, Tristeza - so perhaps you can see why I am so elated. I plan to use the thing live and in the studio on guitar, keys, samples, vox - you name it. I have owned both the echoplex and a roland space echo and love them dearly, but neither are what you would call quiet, reliable, versitile, or "stompable". This thing DOES sound like all those vintage beauties from the other decades - maybe not "exactly" for those of you audiophile freaks who claim that you can hear hummingbirds sneeze, but the rest of us humans will hear some amazing stuff. Get the expression pedal, especially if you are going to use it live - it's worth it. I do not work for this company and I don't normally even review stuff -- it is just a killer product.

Submitted by Tim Mitchell at 12/11/1999 22:05

Ease of Use: 10
It just arrived today and tight out of the box amazing tones I haven't edited too much yet. Great manual , very informative!!

Sound Quality: 9
Wow loop heaven for less than a cheap strat copy!!!

Reliability: 10
Too soon to tell but it seems sturdy and well made!!!

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Awesome product though I think everyone will want one!!
I bought it on October 2 and have waited 2 months for it to be delivered in Canada! I am not disappointed one bit!!!!!!
Wow hail line 6!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Graham Stuart at 12/09/1999 18:31

Ease of Use: 8
Read the manual before using, and you'll have no difficulty operating this unit. Its well thought out, but to keep production costs down the knobs do different things depending on the echo/delay machine model you choose. It could be labeled better, but it works very well.

Sound Quality: 9
Excellent. Analog and tape simulations are quite convincing, and there are plenty of paramets to adjust for personal taste. The unit is also very quiet.

Reliability: 5
Only had it a few days, but construction quality looks very good. As others have mentioned, the knobs are a bit wobbly, so only time will tell. In fairness to any product under review here, I think this category should be taken with a grain of salt, as you can't really judge reliablity until you've used a product for some time. You can't fairly rate reliability on a new product.

Customer Support: 5
I sent email and got some vague replies about the features. Answers were prompt, but inconslusive. I don't want to judge the company based on the comments of one person, but it was the "customer support" I got.

Overall Rating: 10
Great pedal for my needs. Given the wide range of features, ease of use and high caliber sound quality, this pedal is a winner. Its well laid out for live use, and sounds good enough for studio use. Its possible they could have allowed for a few more presets, better knobs, and a better "interface" but I think they did an admirable job. No real complaints from me. If the other Line 6 pedals are comparable to this pedal, the other pedal manufacturers will have to do some serious retooling to stay competitive.

Submitted by Dave Patterson at 12/07/1999 12:49

Ease of Use: 8
1st of all - it is easy to get a great sound out of it.... but
this pedal is pretty different in basic ways - for example - if you dial in a delay setting that you like, and then you bypass, when you go back to it, the settings will have reset to the defaults UNLESS YOU SAVE YOUR SETTING. it takes a little getting used to, but then it's easy to work with. also, in the loop sampling mode, takes some fancy footwork to get it to reverse without first switching speeds for just a microsecond. it's not a big deal tho... i give it an 8.

Sound Quality: 10
im using an ibanez roadstar 2 and a 66 fender tele w/bigsby bar, thru a musicman, or a little antique solidstate jordan. not that it matters.... but they asked.
it is NOT NOISY AT ALL. in fact sometimes, i wish it was - cause the delays that it's modeled after sometimes ARE really noisy, and that's sometimes a great thing.. but.... no , not noisy at all, this pedal. that's 24 bit dsp for you...
the delays sound great... really great! there are so many different types of sound that you can pull out of it.... i've been able to really closely approximate some of the space-echo swoops and feedbacks with it - that's one of the best things about it - it will let you feedback (tho not as much as i'd hoped, still great).
the loop sampling can give you 29 seconds on 1/2 spd mode, and it still sounds great.

Reliability: 10
it seems VERY reliable to me. the knobbies are plastic, but recessed. the body is HEAVY mettle.

Customer Support: N/A
never dealt with em.

Overall Rating: 10
this is a very useful pedal. i'm loving it - playing with it hours every day so far... i love messing with the loop sampler... it's fun to build texture with it. prepare an ambient loop before you start a song, and then just kick it in when you want it in the background... works magic! one of my fave petals in my 8 yrs of playing and collecting. it's been out for just a couple weeks and i know some 10 people who have them already. damn! i think i would definitely buy another if this was lost... i was thinking about the boomerang, but this outdoes it as far as i can tell, in versatility, mostly. i wish that it would feedback more easily and crazily, but with the 'analog echo' setting i can get what i want usually. some of the original delays this was modeled on will feed back, but the DL4 won't when it's on those settings (deluxe memory man, space echo). still, this pedal is FAN TAS TIC and i vote it in for mayor.

Submitted by rafter at 12/04/1999 19:00

Ease of Use: 1
Ok, I don't even own one, but it's obviously kickass in the sound department. I'm thoroughly miffed that there are only 3 presets and one of them is bypass for such a great sounding and versatile Delay Pedal. How stupid can they be?! Why do we have to rig up a damn rack unit if we want more than one and a half freakin' presets from a pedal?

Sound Quality: 9
Everyone says it's incredible. Whoohay. Yipee skipee. Rah Rah. Even the Echoplex on the brain Rockabilly purists love it. I love that too, but I also love the other stuff it can do. Too bad I can only call up three stinkin' presets on my stinkin' cover band gig. Oh yeah, there's an expression pedal that might offer some extra off the cuff changeability. More stinkin' real estate.

Reliability: N/A
What's with the wobbly knobs. Must be nice to afford backups. Who the hell knows.

Customer Support: N/A
Once again, who the hell knows.

Overall Rating: 7
It's large, but I'd forgive that if it had more presets. Why can't any one make a damn delay (with modulation) in a not too big pedal that has more than 2.3 prests? I use a ill-fated Ibanez PMD which scrolls through 10 settings. It's high res digital, which is not the greatest sound, but at least I can go from slapback to China Grove to Space out to Pseudorotor without having to bend over. Jeez.

Submitted by SRH at 12/03/1999 09:52

Ease of Use: 8
The user interface is not the most obvious one if you're used to BOSS, Ibanez, or MXR units. When i powered up the DL-4 i wasn't immediately aware that you must engage one of the first 3 (preset) stomp switches to start the ball rolling. Then you can select one of the 16 models and start dialing in a sound. One caveat though: You must then store these settings in one of the 3 memories if you want to bypass the effect and return to it. If you don't, stomping the footswitch again will recall the stored settings and NOT your present knob settings. Once you get the hang of it, this is a clever feature.
I wrote over the factory presets right away. Also, it was not abundantly clear that the fourth switch for tap delay settings works with all 16 delay model selections. This is very cool since your active preset can be modified 'on the fly' for a different delay time in mid-song. The LED for footswitch #4 also blinks to indicate the delay rate. Again, very cool. The User Manual for the DL-4 is superbly written too.

Sound Quality: 9
I've used the DL-4 for about a week now, mainly with a Les Paul or PRS into a '68 Fender Bandmaster head and Marshall 1936 cab. I've also tried it with a Fernandes Sustainer Strat with great results. All of the delay effects in this box are cool. Many of the Analog Delay models can go into runaway feedback for raygun-like noises if you want that. I know of no other digital based pedal that will do this with dead on accuracy as though it were an old Analog or Tape delay. Yeah baby! The 14 second looper (with an embedded 800 ms delay as well) is icing on the cake. This pedal is also very quiet. One model worth mentioning is one that allows you to vary the sampling bit rate from 24 to 6 bits. There are so many options in this thing for achieving hi-fi and cool lo-fi effects.

Reliability: N/A
Too early to tell if it can take the wear and tear of live use. It does seem rock solid. The recessed knobs are a nice touch and while they feel a touch shifty, i don't expect problems.

Customer Support: N/A
Weeks before the unit came out, Line 6 posted the Modeler User Manuals on their site available for PDF format download. I was able to read up on the Delay and Modulation modelers and get a feel for what they do. READ the manual, the capabilities of this unit are vast. I've also e-mailed Line 6 about some concerns with the DL-4
and my questions were addressed promptly and politely.

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing for 20+ years and have been through loads of amps,
guitars, effects (rackmount and pedal) I use several other delay units and i believe the DL-4 will cover most (if not) all the bases.
The unit may seem a little pricey to some, but it is a real bargain to me. I got it for the Echoplex models, but is has much more than just that to offer. I plan to use it for ambient instrumental recordings (on guitar AND drum samples) and for aggressive rock guitar work too. I suspect it would work great on vocals too if needed.

Submitted by Brian at 12/01/1999 13:23

Ease of Use: 8
Its operating logic is not clear until you've played with it for a few minutes, but its truly awsome. It has a HUGE array of delay emulations and each has a number of controls to fine tune the delay or echo as needed. It's VERY easy to dial in whatever delay or echo your're pursuing. The manual is fantastic. While it describes each delay option and a reference to the "original" device it is emulating (echoplex's...roland space echo... analog delay etc),It would have been helpful to see some "recognizable" presets, like some Danelctro effects deacribe in their manuals. The footswitches (3 for choosing a user defined preset, one for controling delay tempo) are strong and well thought out, alowing you to switch between dif. presets in the middle of a song.

Sound Quality: 9
I play mostly rockabilly and pyschobilly (yes, it is a musical genre). The DL4 has allowed me to recreate Cliff Gallup's sound to a reasonable degree. Ive also been able to approach sounds that come close to some Brian Setzer-like sounds. I have listened to recordings and live preformances of people using echoplex's, and the DL4 nails it amazingly well. Its unbelievable. Until now I was using an Ibanez AD-99 analog Echo and thought it was great...but the DL4 can recreate analog echo as good as the AD 99 PLUS so much more. For example, You can choose Tube Echoplex (50's model, pre-transistor era as used by Cliff Gallup, Eddie Cochran, etc.) and you can control the amount of magnetic distortion and tape "wow-and-flutter" to get that warm gain stage that a REAL echoplex allows you to. The device has no noise, and is TRUE BYPASS (Danecho, for example, is not). I play a 1967 Gibson 345 with a Bigsby tremolo, through a late 60's Fender Super reverb. My only effects are the DL4 (formerly the AD-99) and a tube screamer ts-9 for a little overdrive on leads. The DL4 makes the whole rig sound richer without unwanted coloring of sound (echoplex's do what they do..and the DL4 does that too to your sound). I will be buying a vintage Gretsch very soon, and I know it will be "like buttah".
The controls allow you to fine tune the echo/delay to match ANY recording you can think of (at least within the rockabilly-ish realm).

Reliability: N/A
The first unit I tried was faulty. The Line 6 rep was at the store (just delivered the units) and seeing me trying to figure out why the thing would "hang up" making me unplug and re-plug the input jack to "reboot" the device, he tried it out and said the selector switch was bad. I got another unit and for the past 12 hours of use more or less...its worked fine. It seems built VERY strong (steel case) but the dials seem a little wobbly. The footswitches against the heavy gauge steel chassis seem tough and made to be stomped. While Its too soon to have an opinion on its reliability, I think its as good as the most of the decent gear out there in terms of construction. I bought it mainly for its "vintage" echo simulations (tube echoplex, solid state echoplex and Space Echo) and it does all these amazingly well.

Customer Support: N/A
I met the rep at one of the big stores here in L.A. (not gonna advertise for them.....). He was reallly into the DL4's specifics..and knew his prduct well. He also played a mean guitar. Its good to know that they are not just sales guys...but musicians too. never dealt with customer support. knock on wood.

Overall Rating: 9
I play mostly Rockabilly, and this effect allows me to learn from some of the guitarists I admire by aproximating their sound to an astonishing level of acuracy. After all the horror stories ive heard of owning and maintaining an Echoplex tape echo or a Roland Space echo...this device seems to be a godsend. I have great, expensive gear and I avoid connecting toy-effects that make my $2000 guitar sound like 50 buck pawn shop job. The DL4 is NOT a toy. Its a true professional-grade complement to any noble guitar rig.

Submitted by Gerry at 11/28/1999 02:38

Ease of Use: 8
I had no problems getting this to work after reading the informative manual. It isn't the simplest, but it could be alot worse.

Sound Quality: 9
The sound quality of the delays are superb, anyone can find a usable sound from any of the patches it offers, of course some tweaking is required. I use a strat with noiseless pickups through a peavy classic chorus, I also have it hooked through a bunch of other stuff. I can't say I have a favorite preset, they all sound phat.

Reliability: N/A
It seems to be reliable, I've only had it a day and my only complaint would be the knob for the effect selection has a slight flimsines, I'll report back.

Customer Support: 9
I haven't dealt with them since purchassing the pedal, but when I called before with questions, they were always polite answering my questions to the fullest.

Overall Rating: 10
overall with the style of music I play(anything goes) this has been the best sounding delay I've heard period. I've owned others, dod fx96
which sucked, dan-echo decent for crap and an ibanez dl10 which was my main delay until this. the price was well worth it.

Submitted by adam at 11/24/1999 18:35

Ease of Use: 10
The manual is great, it even has pictures of the original machines it models (Echoplex, Space Echo...) The only real reason you need to use the manual is to learn what the universal knobs tweeze and tweak do for the different models. One thing I still can't figure out is how to switch the unit on and off like a regular delay pedal, because when you step one one of the first three switches, the unit calls up a preset (the fourth switch is for tap tempo). So once you've set up a sound, if you want to turn it on and off without losing your settings, you have to save it as one of the three presets (a long hold on the switch saves the sound). Not a big deal, just a little peculiar for a stompbox.

Sound Quality: 9
The machine is very quiet, I've been playing bass and guitar through it and the only noise I get is from the pickups. The sound of the analog models is very believable, I have never used an Echoplex nor used a Space Echo enough to know for sure how close a copy the sound is but I was playing through one of the Echoplex models and accidentally hit the sound at the end of Radiohead's "Karma Police" and it was dead on (not knowing what that sound on the album was to begin with). The only inaccuracy I have found is that it is not possible to get the Memoryman setting (Analog w/ Mod) to overload like an actual Memoryman will (Though the straight "analog delay" setting will). Also, using the looper and some delays I had to set the mix level at just past 1 o'clock to get a 50:50 dry/effect blend. However these complaints are insignificant when considering the overall performance of the pedal.

Reliability: 9
I have not had/used it enough to know, but I plan on performing live with it and have no worries. The chassis feels very sturdy, is solid metal, and the knobs feel strong are set back so there's not much chance of damage there.

Customer Support: 9
Called them once and emailed them a few times, harassing them for information and they were always prompt and helpful.

Overall Rating: 9
I would buy it again, I used to have an Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro and recently bought an Akai Headrush as a low cost alternative to the Oberheim but traded it in once I saw this. There is not much comparison, the Headrush overloaded/distorted very easily and switches were hard-click switches, the DL-4 is very warm sounding and the switches are very smooth which makes a big difference when using the loop function. The pedal seems expensive but the sound quality, construction, and considering the alternatives make it well worth the cost. People may knock retro modeled devices, but there's a lot to be said for reliability, compact size, and overall efficiency of Nordleads, PODs, etc. Creative processes can sure be stifled by sitting in front of a monitor and mouse or dragging out a few cumbersome museum pieces from the attic.

Submitted by Anonymous at 11/21/1999 23:53

Ease of Use: 10
I tried this pedal at the Line 6 display at the summer NAMM show. It was very easy to use. The knobs are large and easy to grip, and the lettering is very easy to read.

Sound Quality: 10
This pedal covers all of the bases for most delay type effects. The loop function, modeled after the boomerang, was very easy to use. Also, it has a great reverse delay effect, making this pedal a useful piece of gear for any Hendrix fan. There are several great delay effects in this pedal. I'll never have to hunt for Echoplex tapes again.

Reliability: N/A
Since I don't own one yet, I can't comment on this with certainty. I own a Flextone (an amp made by Line 6) and it has held up great. This pedal is metal and has metal swithes to stomp on. It seems similar in construction to the floorboard and FB-4 that Line 6 makes and they are very durable.

Customer Support: 9
Line 6 has a great staff. I met several of them at the NAMM show and they were very helpful, especially Loren and Jason. Line 6 was one of the few companies at the NAMM show whose employees seemed really enthusiastic about their gear. I feel confident the customer service department would handle any problems quickly and efficiently.

Overall Rating: 10
I have already reserved one of these pedals with my local dealer. The retail price is, I believe, just under $300.00. Since most stores offer some sort of discount, the DL-4 is an incredible bargain. Just look at the price of a BOSS delay and its features, and you'll see what I mean. I really hate giving anything perfect reviews, but I am excited about this pedal. I have owned everything from an Echoplex to the latest processors from Roland and, for what this unit costs, it rocks.

Submitted by Trypp_P at 07/29/1999 17:39

Summary Manufacturer URL www.line6.com Ease of Use 8.1 (27 responses) Sound Quality 8.7 (28 responses) Reliability 9 (13 responses) Customer Support 8.8 (11 responses) Overall Rating 8.8 (27 responses) Submit a review!