Line 6 DL4 - Any Good ? Anyone Still Use One ?

Wazmeister

Incredibly, I've never owned one of these !

I do like me looping and quite fancy one....

Do you still use one ? Or rate them ?

stickyfiddle

Someone saw the Ed Obrien TPS...

I had one back in the day and really liked it.  It's clearly a full generation the latest stuff from Strymon et al, but it's a good sounding delay with a really really simple interface and a good looper. 

Downsides are unspectacular A/D conversion and iirc slightly crappy bypass if you don't have it in true bypass mode. It's also quite big and is a bit finicky on power requirements.

thermionic

Yes, I still use mine. Saw Alan Sparhawk from Low used one and that was it. Not as finicky on power as you may think - the standard psu is 9V AC, 1200mA, but mine runs fine on (I think) a 12V 300mA output of a Cioks. Sadly, mine seems to have developed an intermittent fault on the tap tempo switch - they look like 3pdt switches but they’re just “plungers” operating a pcb-mounted keyboard type (or Boss type) switch.

Lebarque

They look like plastic toys, but, for such old technology, it's amazing how many pros still use them. Must be doing something right. Didn't Line 6 reissue them or something?

stickyfiddle

Lebarque said:

They look like plastic toys, but, for such old technology, it's amazing how many pros still use them. Must be doing something right. Didn't Line 6 reissue them or something?

They never stopped making them! I'm not aware of any internal changes, which is actually quite remarkable for any sort of digital kit 

https://www.andertons.co.uk/line-6-dl4-delay-modeller-pedal

Lebarque

Hang on a sec. Can I just check the logic here please? 

Sells Helix
Sells two classic modern delays: Echoplex and Timeline
Buys 85 yr old Line 6 tech: Dl4

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the GAS journey of the one and only @Wazmeister ; !

Ps. It's exactly the kind of thing that I would do too...

Wazmeister

Lebarque said:

Hang on a sec. Can I just check the logic here please? 

Sells Helix
Sells two classic modern delays: Echoplex and Timeline
Buys 85 yr old Line 6 tech: Dl4

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the GAS journey of the one and only @Wazmeister ; !

Ps. It's exactly the kind of thing that I would do too...

Youre missing the FTT Future Factory....

Lebarque

Wazmeister said:

Lebarque said:

Hang on a sec. Can I just check the logic here please? 

Sells Helix
Sells two classic modern delays: Echoplex and Timeline
Buys 85 yr old Line 6 tech: Dl4

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the GAS journey of the one and only @Wazmeister ; !

Ps. It's exactly the kind of thing that I would do too...

Youre missing the FTT Future Factory....

I try to blank that one out. Too many knobs and lights for my simple brain.

Wazmeister

@Lebarque (oh, and I forgot the HX Stomp...) 

sgosden

Hx stomp has exactly the same delay engines as the DL4

Wazmeister said:

@Lebarque (oh, and I forgot the HX Stomp...) 

Wazmeister

sgosden said:

Hx stomp has exactly the same delay engines as the DL4

Wazmeister said:

@Lebarque (oh, and I forgot the HX Stomp...) 

Its the looper mainly which interests me

tbc

I've had two, sold them both, regretted selling both.

It was listening to Minus the Bear a lot as a teenager that made me see how interesting they could be.

I saw this article recently which made me want to get one again:

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/the-line-6-dl4-is-quietly-the-most-important-guitar-pedal-of-the-last-20-years/

(P.S. if anyone is selling one, let me know...)

Musicman20

Aye Minus The Bear love the DL4!!! 

Musicman20

This makes me want a Stomp even more.. . 

builttospill

I had one and it was very intuitive, twist a knob and then save a preset, even though the looper was time was short it was great fun, I’m sure you can get it modded to have an extra switch to activate the looper rather than twist the dial. Will probably visit again at some point. It was just too big for my board.

meltedbuzzbox

sgosden said:

Hx stomp has exactly the same delay engines as the DL4

Wazmeister said:

@Lebarque (oh, and I forgot the HX Stomp...) 

It doesn't sound the same.
I think the dl4 has a pre amp in it

@impmann knows his dl4 pretty well

tbc

stickyfiddle said:

Someone saw the Ed Obrien TPS...

I'd never heard of TPS before. There goes my early night...

impmann

The DL4 has got a unique pre amp in there - Lew from PiL actually has a patch set on his dl4 so that there is no delay signal so that when he’s using non delayed sounds he preserves the tone he gets when using them. Ergo his dl4 is always on.
Apart from the well worn noise about the switch plungers on the early ones (which was fixed by the upgrade), they are bulletproof. I don’t have access to the database any more but the return rate on these was negligible. There’s a reason why Line6 sold so many - they genuinely sound great.
Oh and the whole ‘generation behind Strymon’ thing....? Er maybe on paper but I prefer the sound of the DL4 to any Strymon but that’s preference. I’m not a Strymon fan - emperors new clothes imho.

stickyfiddle

impmann said:

 Oh and the whole ‘generation behind Strymon’ thing....? Er maybe on paper but I prefer the sound of the DL4 to any Strymon but that’s preference. I’m not a Strymon fan - emperors new clothes imho.

I honestly didn't mean that as a slight - far from it - I just meant the feature set and tweakability are not as big as a Timeline, Timefactor, or whatever. I don't like the Timeline either, though did love my Timefactor very much, to the point I'm considering another one.

But there's a reason the DL4 found its way onto basically everybody's board in the early 2000's - it's bloody good pedal.

joetele

Yes, Ed O'Brien reminded me I need to pick up a DL4. Already lusted after one for years after seeing The Appleseed Cast use one, and had almost forgotten. Thanks Ed. Also came across as a genuinely good chap too, 

Sleepyscholar

I got one a year or two ago because it was going very cheap (no power supply), but never managed to bond with it and found myself using the Flashback more. Then I watched the Ed TPS and just had a go at what he was doing (albeit with a DE-7 rather than a Memory Man) and I was hooked. Just so much fun to play around with. I'd used the 3 button looper of the Zoom G3 before, but never got anywhere with it. Something about the DL4 clicked, and I finally understood why people love it so much. Made me glad I didn't get rid of it (the 2nd hard market here in Japan is so rough that even though I got it for a song, I'd probably only have made a quid or two by flipping it).