Release date: April 2022 / RRP: £279
Tuesday 22 March 2022 marked the official announcement of the Line 6 DL4 MkII. We heard a few murmerings a fortnight ago when a leaked image of a two page magazine spread showcased the new pedal and ever since, there has been intense speculation across various websites about the feature-set of the updated classic.
Well we finally know and Line 6 have really managed to make a great pedal so much better and as a result, many of us really want one!
The original
I started playing guitar in 1997 and started experimenting with pedals around 1999/2000. My favourite band at the time was Delirious?, a Christian band. The guitarist, Stu G, liked to push the boundaries of what we Christians considered conservative back in those days. He used a DL4 and I expect that my younger, 17 year old self, wanted one for that reason, that and the fact that I was just very curious about effects and weird ways in which I could make my guitar sound different, more unique and fuller within the context of the band.
I managed to get one for £70 on the second hand market, in great condition, from an advert placed in an old rag that some might remember, called FreeAds.
The beginning of my delay journey
In the months and years proceeding that purchase, I was at my most creative. Experimenting with the various textures and sounds that the pedal enlightened my imagination to. It was at that point where I realised that delay was in itself an instrument and it was one I used to my advantage.
We were a three piece band and I used delay to fill the gaps, rightly or wrongly. I used it as the bed upon which my playing would float. Thick whirling delays seemed to surround me and my drummer when we played, I always remember the fullness of sound that eminated from my fairly simple combo amplifier - a Traynor YCV80 at the time, a Canadian built 80 watt 2x12 valve amp which I believed was a nice cross between a Fender, with the distortion of a Mesa Boogie. I was very wrong, but it was a nice naive notion at the time. The crux of it was that delay had changed things for me, given me the fullness of sound that I had longed for before discovering the DL4.
I wrote many songs with the Line 6 DL4 and I recall a very specific moment of achievement when I discovered that I could play a bass line and then overdub it with a guitar piece, using the looper for the first time. I wrote one of my favourite pieces using that pedal and I played many, many gigs with that pedal. And that’s the thing, there’s an undoubted nostalgic element associated with this new release from Line 6. I want one because it brings back so many good memories of the time when I was at my “best”* and most creative. *Best! Yeah right.
Full circle
Obviously, there’s more to it than that. I want one because it sounds great and there are tones in there that will allow me to effortlessly recreate the things I played and loved back twenty years ago.
However, the original wasn’t without its problems. I rocked up at a gig only to find out minutes before going on stage that my friend had parked the power cable into one of the instrument inputs, frying the thing. That, of course was a user error and I never got it repaired, it worked intermittently. But there was a wider issue where it would work intermittently for some people. The footswitches weren’t good and it was handicapped by modern standards as it had no midi implementation and no ‘analogue dry through’. It only had 14 second loop time, too - but man, what a great looper pedal!
I’m pleased to say that the new one promises to fix those issues, match and greatly improve upon the original in the following ways:
- 15 of our newest, best-sounding delays, plus Echo Platter from the Line 6 Echo Pro rackmount studio modeler
- Better-quality converters and op amps, and improved dynamic range
- Analog dry path (or DSP mix, like the original)
- Multiple bypass modes: DSP bypass, true analog bypass, buffered analog bypass, or dry kill
- Twice the max delay time for MkII delays
- XLR mic in with preamp for processing/looping vocals or mic’ed amps
- MicroSD card slot for expanding looper memory and maintaining the loop across power cycles
- Eight times the built-in looper memory (4 minutes mono half-speed vs. DL4’s 28 seconds)
- The looper can be set mono or stereo and pre or post-effects
- Each delay’s Time parameter can be set to subdivisions without fancy rhythmic tapping
- Selecting a different delay no longer stops the looper. In fact, if you’ve assigned the 1 Switch Looper to TAP, you can switch to the 4 Switch Looper (or any delay or any preset) and recording/playback isn’t interrupted
- Up to 6 presets (128 via MIDI) vs. DL4’s 3
- Globally switchable bypass trails (echoes repeat when bypassing the delay)
- Two additional footswitches can be connected and assigned to external tap tempo, one-touch parameter morph, looper on/off, or feedback squeals. TAP can be repurposed as many of the above, plus preset bank toggle and a 1 Switch Looper available alongside any of the delays
- Tap can be set per preset or global
- Tap can now be engaged while DL4 is bypassed
- MIDI In and Out/Thru—presets can be selected via PC and functions via CC or even MIDI notes from your keyboard/pad controller/electronic drum kit
- Delays sync to incoming MIDI Clock
- USB C for MIDI and potential firmware updates
- DC In requires less than 300mA power, making it much easier to integrate pedalboard power distribution (we ditched the batteries)
- Chassis is notably lighter, smaller, and sleeker.
Conclusion
So if that extensive list of DL4 based bucket list items still doesn’t convince someone that this is a great improvement on a modern classic, then I’m not sure what will. I’m firmly in the nostalgia camp and have already placed my pre-order for a brand new DL4 MkII and I will endeavour to process my thoughts on whether it lives up to my high expectations in the days and weeks proceeding my purchase.
To wrap this article up, I’ve noticed a lot of negativity about this release in terms of it missing the mark with regard to it matching up with the modern expectations that we’ve come to, perhaps unfairly, place on pedals. “Why isn’t it smaller, with fewer switches?”, “why doesn’t it have a screen?”, “it’s a let down compared to modern standards given the price'. To which I simply say that for those of us who owned and loved our DL4 back in the day, the ability to run this on a standard power supply, control it with our midi capable switchers, to be able to control the tempo via a midi clock and have up to 128 presets are absolutely the things we care about. And in truth many of us are justlike me and are just grateful to have those beloved sounds back on our pedalboard. I can’t wait to get my Line 6 DL4 MkII and I’ve not been this excited about a guitar related release for a very long time!
Why didn’t you make it even smaller, like with two or three switches? Because then it’d be a DL2 or DL3—not a DL4. Nor is it an “HX Delay” or something; it’s very purposely a MkII. Besides, unless you wear ballerina slippers on stage, a 4-switch pedal can only be so narrow. - https://line6.com/support/page/kb/effects-controllers/dl-4-stompbox-modeler/dl4-mkii-faq-r1013/
Read the manual, which, like the original manual, includes the same pictures and descriptions of the original delay units they modeled (the nostalgia is real!) https://line6.com/support/manuals/dl4mkii
For further gas inducing discussion on this new release, visit: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/224470/new-line-6-dl4 https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/line-6-dl4-mkii.2340456/ https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/new-dl4.2344370/