LIne 6 M5

paulcaye

Hi All,

 I know this is really late (by a number of years) there is one going cheap in our local 2nd hand shop. 

Are people still using them?  Are they worth picking up for £40?  How do the effects compare to the stomp for example?

Thanks

Paul

sgosden

Well worth 40 if you've got it. 
Delays are good, alot of good mods. Reverbs are ok. Some of the synths are fun. Drives aren't great. 

Pain in the ass to power them, and easy to break the switches if you switch it like an ape in doc martens.  

The stomp has all the FX from the M5 plus more . 

DesVegas

Comes alive with an expression pedal. I had one on my board for a while but the earthing issues are a real pain and the thing kept switching itself off. Much prefer the zoom multistomp series, but as the man said, the sythns are great

paulcaye

Thanks All, 

Sounds like it will be a great bit of fun without breaking the bank.  

If it is still there tomorrow will go and pick it up.

Chees, 

paul

DesVegas

Good luck!!

longi

Buy it don't look back! It work supremely well in a midi setup too. I only sold mine to upgrade to an HX Stomp, which has the same effects. The mods are good and the Tubescreamer is very good. The delays were a bit bright for my tastes and gritty. The reverbs were pretty good. Probably an 8 out of 10 pedal.

NorthernStomps

I loved the sounds on mine but the reliability was terrible. Switching itself off when stepped in and it eventually gave up the ghost. Was a damn shame

still, worth the gamble for £40

english_bob

I've got two on my board, no issues with reliability, although they're rarely touched since they're in loops on my ES-5 and controlled via MIDI which is where they really comes into their own as a "swiss army knife" pedal.

Power requirements are a little awkward- needs 500mA and an isolated PSU to avoid noise. Should come with a PSU, but may not if used.

Most of the effects are at least decent, and even if you only use one or two of them you'll get forty quid's worth out of it in no time. 

In some cases, it's about the only economical way to get certain effects- pitch shifting or reverb with multiple presets for instance. 

impmann

I was a beta tester for these... they still stand up as sounding great, imho. The two button nature isn’t quite so flexible as the M9 or M13, but used in a midi switching rig it’s *really* powerful.

I don’t really understand the comment about power. Yes, they won’t work on a daisy chain or a cheap nasty multi output psu. They do need isolation - like many digital pedals. Use them with the original power supply and they are bulletproof. I’m still using a standard Line 6 psu that I’ve had for at least 10 years... 

For £40, you genuinely can’t go wrong. 

paulcaye

Thanks all,

I picked it up this afternoon and had an hour or so play with it.  I must say I am very pleased with it.  Came with the box, manual and PSU. Might have to read the manual 

Gonna midi it up when I rebuild my board in a month or so - as need to find some room or just build another one! 

Fun times

english_bob

impmann said:

I was a beta tester for these... they still stand up as sounding great, imho. The two button nature isn’t quite so flexible as the M9 or M13, but used in a midi switching rig it’s *really* powerful.

Yep. With MIDI you get tempo sync, but also the ability to use MIDI CC messages to control the expression pedal. Unlocks all sorts of extra fun.

The other frustrating thing about the M series is the fact that you can only put them in one place in the signal chain, which will inevitably be the wrong spot for some of the onboard effects. Hooked up to a flexible switcher like the BOSS ES series or a GigRig you can move the M5 to where you want it in each patch.

impmann said:

I don’t really understand the comment about power. Yes, they won’t work on a daisy chain or a cheap nasty multi output psu. They do need isolation - like many digital pedals. Use them with the original power supply and they are bulletproof. I’m still using a standard Line 6 psu that I’ve had for at least 10 years... 

I tend to mention it not so much as a complaint but an observation- it's always disappointing when you get a new pedal and find something that gets in the way of enjoying it, which loud earth hum will do. It shouldn't come as a complete shock that a digital pedal needs isolated power, but if it happens to be a pedal you buy before you get a proper isolated supply it's likely to be frustrating.
I use my M5s with a Truetone CS7 on the 500mA taps- no noise, no brownouts.

sgosden

Ooh if you're using midi be aware that it won't do midi through, so needs to be at the end of the midi chain. Or at least the 3 I had did! 

markv

That's great value for £40. Mine gets powered fine by a Voodoo Lab PP2+. Definitely worth having an expression pedal with it, although I think it's a bit fussy and doesn't take a normal one, for some reason (I got the Line 6 one). I personally use the wahs a lot.

MattBanshee

paulcaye said:

Hi All,

 I know this is really late (by a number of years) there is one going cheap in our local 2nd hand shop. 

Are people still using them?  Are they worth picking up for £40?  How do the effects compare to the stomp for example?

Thanks

Paul

For £40, snap it up. Check that it has the correct power supply, or budget for one - they need a good 400-500mA of 9v power, so won't run off your bog-standard HB Powerplant Jrs etc.

english_bob

sgosden said:

Ooh if you're using midi be aware that it won't do midi through, so needs to be at the end of the midi chain. Or at least the 3 I had did! 

Good point. Only an issue if you use more than one MIDI pedal that doesn't have MIDI out/thru, in which case you need a MIDI splitter.

longi

english_bob said:

I've got two on my board, no issues with reliability, although they're rarely touched since they're in loops on my ES-5 and controlled via MIDI which is where they really comes into their own as a "swiss army knife" pedal.

Power requirements are a little awkward- needs 500mA and an isolated PSU to avoid noise. Should come with a PSU, but may not if used.

Most of the effects are at least decent, and even if you only use one or two of them you'll get forty quid's worth out of it in no time. 

In some cases, it's about the only economical way to get certain effects- pitch shifting or reverb with multiple presets for instance. 

I didn't have any reliability issues either. Mine was on my board for a bout 7 years.

longi

english_bob said:

sgosden said:

Ooh if you're using midi be aware that it won't do midi through, so needs to be at the end of the midi chain. Or at least the 3 I had did! 

Good point. Only an issue if you use more than one MIDI pedal that doesn't have MIDI out/thru, in which case you need a MIDI splitter.

That's what I did too!

John_A

english_bob said:

impmann said:

I was a beta tester for these... they still stand up as sounding great, imho. The two button nature isn’t quite so flexible as the M9 or M13, but used in a midi switching rig it’s *really* powerful.

Yep. With MIDI you get tempo sync, but also the ability to use MIDI CC messages to control the expression pedal. Unlocks all sorts of extra fun.

The other frustrating thing about the M series is the fact that you can only put them in one place in the signal chain, which will inevitably be the wrong spot for some of the onboard effects. Hooked up to a flexible switcher like the BOSS ES series or a GigRig you can move the M5 to where you want it in each patch.

impmann said:

I don’t really understand the comment about power. Yes, they won’t work on a daisy chain or a cheap nasty multi output psu. They do need isolation - like many digital pedals. Use them with the original power supply and they are bulletproof. I’m still using a standard Line 6 psu that I’ve had for at least 10 years... 

I tend to mention it not so much as a complaint but an observation- it's always disappointing when you get a new pedal and find something that gets in the way of enjoying it, which loud earth hum will do. It shouldn't come as a complete shock that a digital pedal needs isolated power, but if it happens to be a pedal you buy before you get a proper isolated supply it's likely to be frustrating.
I use my M5s with a Truetone CS7 on the 500mA taps- no noise, no brownouts.

They come with their own PSU, so you can enjoy it out of the box

sw67

I had one with the power cutting out issues - if i remember it was a known fault. Fixed mine by removing the screws on the base and filing a bit off the length. 

Grunfeld

Any recommendations for a PSU?

I've got wall wart PSUs with enough power but they're noisy with the M5; I've got a Voodoo PP2 but it doesn't have enough power.

So something specific which is known to be able to power this thing? 

WiresDreamDisasters

Grunfeld said:

Any recommendations for a PSU?

I've got wall wart PSUs with enough power but they're noisy with the M5; I've got a Voodoo PP2 but it doesn't have enough power.

So something specific which is known to be able to power this thing? 

You should be able to get a Y cable to join two outputs on the PP2 I think, Oli. That should be enough to power it???