All user reviews of 4/5 for the Line 6 DL4

This is the long neon green cinder block sized pedal that everyone has had on their board at least once.

16 different types of delay models on the rotary knob on the far left.

The other knobs are are from left to right: Delay Time, Repeats, Tweak, Tweez and Mix.

This isn't only a delay pedal you can build loops up to 14 seconds long, store I think 3 presets as well as there is a handy tap tempo switch all the way to the right.

I lucked into one of these used for a great deal. Brand new they run $250. I purchased it because I messed around with it and loved the Reverse effect on it.

The reverse effect! I'm a big fan of The Beatles and wanted to nail some of the reverse guitar licks. Hendrix also used some reverse guitar effects. Well there aren't many pedals that do this and you can't really gig with an old tape deck now can you?

There are pleny of options like stereo outs and an input jack for an expression pedal. I feel I haven't come close to tapping into all of what this pedal can do.

Some of the effects are a bit over the top, but I can always tame them a bit. Rather too much than too little I guess?

The pedal can be noisy at times. If you are recording and not using the pedal do yourself a favor and take it out of your signal. It is a mild tone sucker.

You don't want to drop this on your big toe! Well built, metal box, nice easy switching. The knobs are inset from the pedal so they won't snap off in your gig bag.

Plenty of vintage and modern delays all in one box. If you want to experiment with looping and delay, this pedal is well worth checking out.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The DL-4 by Line 6 is actually a modeler of several different famous delays of the past, along with a few modern ideas thrown in. The pedal features models of 16 different vintage delays and on top of that they throw in a 14 second looper feature (which can be twice as long if used in half time mode). The pedal has three footswitches for three presets which can have values changed in real-time via an outboard expression pedal, and there is a fourth footswitch for using the tap tempo to change the delay speed. The pedal can be used in “True Bypass” mode for tone purist or it can be used in my favorite setting, “Trails” mode, which allows the delays to fade naturally when the pedal is turned off. Stereo ins and outs are provided for a full stereo sound when using multiple amps. This particular model is a floor based unit, however Line 6 did come out with a rackmounted version. The DL-4 supposedly runs for about 30 hours on four C batteries but is best powered by the Line 6 power adapter or a third party power source.

UTILIZATION

Hooking up the pedal is fairly simple. For a simple guitar rig most people hook this up at the end of their pedal chain after gain pedals or in the effects loop of their amplifier. There are stereo inputs and outputs so if you’re using it in mono with one guitar and amp be sure to plug into the mono input and output. Editing the sounds can be a little tricky on the DL-4 without the use of the manual, however Line 6 includes two stickers for the pedal to help you along. The pedal has your basic delay knobs, but also includes a Tweek and a Tweez knob that change different parameters depending on what delay you are modeling. If you are on one delay model these two knobs may change the amount of modulation and rate of modulation, while on another delay model these knobs may change the amount of bass and treble in the delay. It’s nice that the pedal is tweakable, but this can get confusing if you don’t use the pedal often, so keep those stickers. In looper mode the pedal works just like you’d expect, no surprises there. Overall, the pedal is pretty well laid out and easy to use. Basically you just tweak the knobs until you find a sound you like, hold down on a preset button for a few seconds until the LED blinks and you’ve stored your sound to that footswitch. Basic usage is simple, but to get into all of what this pedal can do it is best to read the manual, and I’m a guy who rarely does so. The manual is clear and easy to understand, there are just a lot of features packed in this green machine.

SOUND QUALITY

If you need the tones of a Tube Echoplex, a Space Echo, and a Deluxe Memory Man but don’t feel like shelling out the big bucks for all these different pedals, this modeler is a good compromise. Does it sound exactly like each one of these pedals? No, but it’s in the ballpark. This pedal does basically everything you’d ever need in a delay, and that’s why it’s so widely used. The looper is great for practicing or performing and it is easy to get clean starts and stops on your loops. The delays can be set to short and subtle or long and super lush and anywhere in between. The “Swell” setting is sort of like a Boss Slow Gear and sounds similar to using a bow from a cello on the strings, fading in the sound and rounding off the initial attack of the notes. I love it. Another one I really like is the “Sweep” delay which puts a phaser type modulation on the delays. The “Reverse” delay when set high can get you those wild Jimi Hendrix sounds that a few years ago you could only acheive in the studio, now these are available for live use. I usually set up a slap back style echo for rhythm guitar on one preset, a longer delay with a few more repeats for solos, and a lush delay with modulation for a third preset. You can make this pedal as subtle or extreme as needed, and the tone is great without killing your signal. I do notice a slight signal drop when it’s used in the loop of certain amps though.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall this is a super versatile delay that will do just about anything you can dream up. I love having different delays at the push of button, and with tap tempo I can line them up perfectly with the tempo of the song so the delays line up. While many people use the looper live, (if I were to use one this would be the one due to it’s simple layout) I only use it for practicing leads over chords. The footswitches on these units are known to fail with time, but there are many people out there to replace them with sturdier switches that can take abuse. I’ve done this mod myself and it’s quite simple. It has a ton of features for the price, but I’ve moved on to two separate delays because the pedal has a significant volume drop when I use it in the loop of my Marshall. I probably wouldn’t buy it again myself, but not because the pedal is poorly designed or built, but because it has too many features that I never use and takes up too much space on my pedal board.

This thing is loaded with a wide variety of analog and digital delay models of famous pedals and devices such as Echoplex, Roland Space Echo and Deluxe Memory Man to name a few and also has basic sampling capabilities which I am not all that familiar with. It is a modeling device. You can use the 5 knobs to tweak each delay to your needs but you can only store three of your settings at once. There is a toe tempo tap button. The pedal has stereo/mono inputs and stereo/mono outputs. The unit requires its own proprietary power adapter. The unit is very solidly built but has a very poor reputation for the reliability of its buttons.

UTILIZATION

The setup of the pedal is kind of ergonomically ideal in some ways but you quickly wish you could store more than 3 user settings because there are lots of cool models. I greatly appreciate that there are user friendly knobs for quick tweaking and not digital menus which are time consuming and nightmarish.
The manual is very cool too with neat information about the original devices that the models are based on.
The unit is supposedly true bypass but I feel it robs tone even when off and bypassed.
A big problem with this devise is the unreliability of its buttons as reported by many many users over the internet. In fact my unit has a button which sometimes and sometimes doesn't work. I also had to pay $25 for a replacement power adapter.

SOUND QUALITY

The unit is very quiet and designed to be used on the front end between your guitar and amp and not in an effects loop where it apparently doesn't work well. The models are good and the pedal is fun fun fun. However it is important to realize that this is a modeling device and like all modeling devices it sounds cold, sterile, and artificial and will interject that sound into your chain. If you are into the virtues of pure, warm, beautiful, analog sound as can be achieved by playing guitar straight into a quality tube amp like a blackface Fender for example then you will find this pedal unusable. These are accurate mostly analog models that do not really sound analog in the slightest because digital modeling is incapable of actually sounding analog. I prefer using an analog delay pedal or an actual tape delay for this very reason.

OVERALL OPINION

It is definitely a cool pedal that has been around for a while and needs to be updated with the capability to hold more user settings and needs to have its reliability issues fixed. (Maybe it has...I don't know because mine is over 5 years old at least.) However I refuse to use this delay as part of my main sound because of the sterile artificial sound that the modeling interjects even for some reason when the guitar is plugged in the unit but the effect is bypassed.