All user reviews of 4/5 for the Line 6 M13

• Over 100 stompbox effects, 4 simultaneous in any order and any combination

• Dedicated knobs to control each of the parameters of each effect

• Create up to 48 pedal board scenes for instant recall. (It's like having 48 fully tricked-out pedal boards available at any time)

• Universal tap tempo to sync all your time-based effects

• 28-second looper with dedicated footswitch controls for Undo/Redo, Record/Overdub, Play/Stop, Half Speed, Reverse, Play Once, and Pre/Post

• Built-in chromatic tuner with dedicated footswitch

• Heavy-duty all-metal chassis and footswitches

• Included AC power adapter

• Dimensions: 15"W x 3"H x 11.5"D - 10lbs. • MIDI in/out

• 1/4" mono or stereo inputs

• 1/4" mono or stereo outputs

• 1/4" stereo assignable effects send/return

• Two expression pedal jacks

• True bypass

UTILIZATION

I was actually one of the first people to buy one of these. The value is pretty obvious. Back in the day you would have to drop a pretty penny on a fed L6 boxes to get all these tones. I have used mine in about every setup you can imagine. I've done the general pedal board driving the front of an amp setup, which seems to be the most common. I would say this is likely the best way to use the thing. Sounds most natural that way. I have used it mounted in a rack and controlled by an external midi controller. It works great this way, although the sound quality seems to be a little off in a racked environment. The m13 in my opinion is really at home in more organic traditional setups. I have used it as a midi controller in a really simple context where I was just doing PC changes. The unit from a technological perspective is surprisingly advanced for a L6 product. But I think this unit's strong point is still the bang for buck aspect.

SOUND QUALITY

I will come right out and say that none of these effects will win any best in class awards. If you want supreme sound quality, go buy some $400 analog pedals. That said, for sheer quantity of effects, this unit has the battle won. I will admit there are a handful of effects that are arguably a waste of space. But for clever minds, I think nearly every effect in here can be used in some capacity. Some sound better than others. There are enough great sounding effects to get what you pay for. The overdrives are okay. Delays and reverbs are great. The wack effects are all over the place.

OVERALL OPINION

I have some advice for people considering buying this. If it specifically fits your needs, or you just need a whole lot of effects, then go ahead and pull the trigger. But if all you need is a delay, some overdrives, and maybe some reverb, go spend your money on a few single pedals and call it a day. You only get your money out of this unit if you use at least half of what it offers. You don't have to use everything in it like I have. But this is really a quantity over quality device. And it's a good one.

First let me say I’m a computer artist by trade so I’m not allergic to the digital world and I actually love technology and see it as just another tool in the box. That said, when it comes to guitar gear, I have to admit I’m a bit of an analog purist. Not a hard core analog snob but that’s where I tend to lean when I taste test gear. Back in the 90’s I had a few pieces of Line 6 gear, some were keepers some went on their merry way. The ones I used the most in my band at the time were the green DL4 and the blue MM4. I thought those pedals worked great for what I was using them for and to be honest at that time I hadn’t really been exposed to too much of the world small pedal builders so my pallet was bit limited but they sounded good to me. Fast forward to about six months ago……and the passing of the recent years where the internet brought small builders to people like myself who hadn’t heard of them, I had a board with some very nice analog pedals. I had spent a good bit of time finding the right order and wiring them up with a cabling kit from Lava Cables, which are great by the way, in a way that was as painless as possible to switch pedals out. My board was sounding really good but being a player that likes to experiment on my off time I found at times I wish I had the ability to change the order or have two of something but that’s just the limitations of that set up. Then Line 6 came out with the M13 and remembering I liked the DL4 and MM4 it piqued my interest. Over the years I’ve figured out you don’t jump in right at first on the latest greatest, especially when it involves software, so I sat back and waited to hear what other people were saying about the M13. The reviews were actually pretty good so I bought it from a place that gave me a trial period. After about a month of going back and forth I took quite a few analog pedals off my board.

UTILIZATION

I found it very easy to navigate. That's one thing I really give Line 6 credit for and that's they really take care to find a way to make their stuff very user friendly. The bypassed signal didn't color my tone at all which is one of the things I look for in pedals.

SOUND QUALITY

So by me saying this it would probably be safe to assume “for me” the M13 really did sound as good as my board full of analog pedals. NOPE! That wouldn’t be totally true. I’d have to say it was a surprise that M13 didnt color my by passed tone, which is important to me and many digital effects fail at that. The functionality of having the ability to have different scenes of pedal layouts in any order I want, tap tempo on multiple effects at once, continuous control over some pedals parameters all at once, on the fly pedal changing in the scenes, and a cool looper…… all that tipped the scales for me. Yes there is a tonal difference I heard when comparing the modeled pedals to analog ones but for me I had to compromise that for functionality because that is important to me too. Also the tonal compromise wasn’t huge either. Well if the M13 worked for me that well, why do I use the “outboard” drives? Because I’m still an analog lover and love the way they sound. I do use some of the drives in the M13 also but I liked these drive pedals more

OVERALL OPINION

Will I not buy anymore analog pedals? Heck no! I still love them and will play them. Actually, I’m going to learn to start modding pedals here shortly so I still have a great love for those little boxes and pull for the small time builders who put their love and artistry to work in them.Honestly, if you aren’t a player who likes to have a very wide range of options when it comes to effects and their order then I think you could be very happy and get a better tone with a few analog pedals. But if you are a player like me who likes to not be as locked in when experimenting and wants to reduce tap dancing then I think the M13 is a great piece of gear.