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

rossyamaha

Musicman20 said:

It'll become a classic that everyone wants like an old Boss....and surge in price. 

How close is the HX Stomp?!

It has all the same delays but they are 2 completely different units. Sorry if that's obvious but if you just want the delays you may as well get a DL4. If you want a bunch of other stuff then HX FX or Stomp is worth a look. 

impmann

Wazmeister said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

Musicman20 said:

Odd that they are £170 and a Stomp is like £405 or something now. If they did another batch at £120 I'd snap one up. 

they are 100 quid used or less all day long

Not quite mate - seem to fetching up to £150

Actually, they do sell regularly on eBay for about £80-120.
Five sold for sub £100 since the beginning of the month...

boogieman

thermionic said:

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.

Google the switch problem, it’s quite an easy fix, something to do with the plunger not quite making contact with the micro switch. I had the same problem on mine, from memory it just needed a bit of adjusting. 

thermionic

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

WiresDreamDisasters

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

The footswitches are a piece o' piss to mod. Just get some SPST switches and wire them into the PCB.

ICBM

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

The footswitches are a piece o' piss to mod. Just get some SPST switches and wire them into the PCB.

Why bother? It’s really easy to make the stock ones work reliably... threadlock the inner cap so it doesn’t work loose.

impmann

ICBM said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

The footswitches are a piece o' piss to mod. Just get some SPST switches and wire them into the PCB.

Why bother? It’s really easy to make the stock ones work reliably... threadlock the inner cap so it doesn’t work loose.

This.

The later version had revised switch plungers.

Much is made of switch issues on line but the facts are very few of them actually failed in percentage terms (less than 10%, iirc). There are plenty of early units still working perfectly despite heavy gigging (for example Lew from PiL, as I mentioned earlier). 
Whilst Line6 UK was still running, we were sent an ‘upgraded’ DL4 that was still misbehaving - this had clunky switches fitted by someone who offers this service as an upgrade. Lash up sums it up. The actual fault was nothing to do with the switches either, but the customer had gone to this ‘expert’ based on an recommendation on a forum rather than send it back to Line6 as apparently we “didn’t know what we were doing”... the customer had been advised to upgrade the switches as they “always fail” and the result of the work meant that it couldn’t be returned to stock. The original fault was still there... it was scrap.

So don’t believe everything you read about these on line. I’m not saying they never fail (but the later ones are much more reliable) but you need to balance that against how many were sold, and that the noise generated by negativity often drowns the truth.

Ill crawl back under my rock now...

Wazmeister

I've bought a new DL4 this week to trial, and wanted to trial it against my HS Stomp... and other existing delays.

The DL4 has surprised me how good it is. Saying it was first made in 1999 (?), it stands up against modern stuff. It's not FTT Future Factory good, but then again, nothing else is imho.

Nonetheless, the DL4 is superb. A very creative tool, with an excellent looper. Ive probably lost more hours playing with this over the past week, than any other I can remember. It does sound slightly better than the equivalent Stomp settings, to my ears anyway, and I wonder if its the Pre-amp thingy ?

Whatever, it sounds truly excellent.

It has also re-ignited my love of loopers, and reminded how much I used to 'loop' and how creative I was. This will now be addressed and Ill get another looper...

Ultimately, I've also realised that I need to reduce my board size... and for that reason I'm going to move the DL4 on. Id return it to PMT but they have absolutely nothing in stock I desire !

So, you'll see the excellent DL4 in the classifieds soon, unless my other stuff sells in the meantime

meltedbuzzbox

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

You 

Don't

Need

To

WiresDreamDisasters

ICBM said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

The footswitches are a piece o' piss to mod. Just get some SPST switches and wire them into the PCB.

Why bother? It’s really easy to make the stock ones work reliably... threadlock the inner cap so it doesn’t work loose.

Nah, the actuators eventually stop being responsive. Nothing to do with the button caps themselves.

The one I had eventually got to the point where they would only activate every 4th or 5th press. So I was forced to learn how to mod it!

ICBM

Are you sure? All the ones I’ve ever fixed have stopped working reliably because the inner cap on the plunger works loose, then - even if the outer nut is then tightened - the whole thing moves slightly away from the PCB and stops pressing on the switch pad correctly. Disassemble the plunger, put threadlock (or superglue if you like) on the thread and tighten the cap fully, and reassemble.

I’ve refused many requests to do a ‘switch upgrade mod’ on them because every one has worked perfectly after doing that to all the switches.

WiresDreamDisasters

ICBM said:

Are you sure? All the ones I’ve ever fixed have stopped working reliably because the inner cap on the plunger works loose, then - even if the outer nut is then tightened - the whole thing moves slightly away from the PCB and stops pressing on the switch pad correctly. Disassemble the plunger, put threadlock (or superglue if you like) on the thread and tighten the cap fully, and reassemble.

I’ve refused many requests to do a ‘switch upgrade mod’ on them because every one has worked perfectly after doing that to all the switches.

I'm fairly sure that was the case with mine yes. I had it open, had the PCB out on the table and powered up, and even pressing the actuators with my finger they wouldn't switch most of the time. I don't know how old my unit was.

But I remember doing that because I wasn't too handy with a soldering iron at the time and thought I might damage the thing beyond repair. Fortunately I did the mod and it worked great. Our old 2nd guitarist still has it as far as I know!

jeztone2

I had one of the early ones. Gigged it for 11 years with no issues, other than a footswitch went. Which I fixed with a spring from a ballpoint pen. I used it in the FX loop of an amp. When I started to go direct into the amp . I did notice a loss of signal when it was engaged. 

Then I bought an M5 and basically it has the same sounds minus the looper. So I sold it to a hipster. 

impmann

WiresDreamDisasters said:

ICBM said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thermionic said:

Looks like it might be worth replacing them with Lehle momentary switches. Nice straightforward project for me.

The footswitches are a piece o' piss to mod. Just get some SPST switches and wire them into the PCB.

Why bother? It’s really easy to make the stock ones work reliably... threadlock the inner cap so it doesn’t work loose.

Nah, the actuators eventually stop being responsive. Nothing to do with the button caps themselves.

The one I had eventually got to the point where they would only activate every 4th or 5th press. So I was forced to learn how to mod it!

What has happened there is that the tac switch soldered to the pcba has been stretched internally. If you take one apart there is a strip of spring steel in there - if the plunger has over extended (often by over heavy feet) the steel goes past it’s elastic limit and ceases to spring back. This then becomes a viscous circle as the owner will press the pedal harder and harder trying to get it to operate, making it worse each time.

This is simply cured by replacing the tac switches (very cheap part if bought direct, not through a “specialist”) and upgrading the plunger/switch cap to the later spec unit that doesn’t do this.

The old Line6 UK service dept did a few of these - about an hours labour. Never had one back after that had been done (we used to give a warranty on all repairs).

thermionic

When was the switchover to the later units with the upgraded plunger/switch, and how can I tell what mine is? I've had it so long I can't remember but I have the box and the receipt might still be in there. My tap tempo switch is definitely not working 100%.

impmann

It was around 2005/6 iirc - but my memory of dates is shocking. ;-)

thermionic

I think I bought mine a couple of years prior to that.

Fenderish

EOB's TPS made me want more a DMM than a DL4 in fact...