Retiring the Line 6 DL4. Other Delay options with Tap Tempo?

shedshrine · Post by **shedshrine** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:34 pm

Gratuitous pic of insides of $600 Memory Lane 2..

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:49 pm

austingreen wrote: Side note: I did not like GT500, again sterile & no mojo, and its one of the few pedals i've sold. please hold on to your tubescreamers for a bit until convinced.

Oh I'm really digging this pedal through both my '77 Super Reverb and my early 1990's Mesa DC-3. Still figuring out my new rig (pedals) between single coil guitars (Telecaster, Jaguar) and humbucker guitars (Sheraton II, Reverend Buckshot, and Reverend Flatroc), mostly because I am so used to playing a Telecaster only.

Guitar-->EB Volume-->Analogman Mini-BiComp-->GT-500-->Analogman Boss TR-2-->Amp. The great thing about the GT-500, for me, is that it is so tweakable. So many usable sounds. I'm really into, for humbuckers, using the drive/boost side as a typical Tube Screamer setup (but with more balls) and then the Distortion ends up being my lead channel. Both the Super and the DC-3 tend to break up anyway, so I'm never really clean unless I back down on volume. So my drive channel is really variable now. Used the GT-500 at rehearsal this week for the first time and it turned heads in a positive way. It's also WAY quieter than running two Tubescreamers in series.

Jeff

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:55 pm

Another option is the Boss DD-20. It is versatile and sounds really good. The "analog" delay sound on it is pretty killer. You can get some a really great sounding slapback delay. It has a "tape" delay setting, which doesn't sound quit as good as the Re-20 Space Echo, it still sounds interesting in it's own right. You can save patches and it has tap tempo. For $200 its a good deal.

I used to have the DL4 and the DD-20 sounds much better.

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:06 pm

I used to have the DL4 and the DD-20 sounds much better.

which specific sounds are you referring to? people seem to love to diss the DL4 and it's definitely not as "cool" as it once was but but i have yet to find another pedal even half as versatile.

maybe you were using totally different sounds on the DL4 than i do? i think that the digital delay sound on the DL4 is crap but i use the low res delay for atleast 80% of the time and the analog/tape/tube delay settings the rest of the time. and in the studio i make loops with the dl4 all the time - the half/doubletime/reverse settings are dead easy to use and sound great.

i have an echoplex and a DOD analog delay and i still use the DL4 all the time. i auditioned a EH memory man and honestly - i couldn't justify that much $ for a pedal which did the analog w/mod sound only marginally better than the DL4.

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:44 pm

I'm not necessarily dissing on the DL4. I had it for years and really liked that pedal. I got some really cool sounds out of it. I love the lay out of the DL4, the looper function when the loops fade away, the sweep delay, and the low rez delay. I didn't buy a new one because the build quality of the newer ones are shit. I play out alot and need something that won't die after a year. Thats one of the main reasons i bought the Boss (and I do have some criticisms of the Boss too). As far as sonic quality, of the "analog" delay on the boss just sounds more authentic and has more character than the Line 6 analog delay. I really like it a lot. Some sounds on the Boss are kinda meh, but a few sound pretty killer.

If my Boss died and the Line 6 DL4 build quilty was better, I'd buy a DL4 again. But for now I'm happy with the DD-20.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:08 pm

Brett Siler wrote:I'm not necessarily dissing on the DL4. I had it for years and really liked that pedal. I got some really cool sounds out of it. I love the lay out of the DL4, the looper function when the loops fade away, the sweep delay, and the low rez delay. I didn't buy a new one because the build quality of the newer ones are shit. I play out alot and need something that won't die after a year. Thats one of the main reasons i bought the Boss (and I do have some criticisms of the Boss too). As far as sonic quality, of the "analog" delay on the boss just sounds more authentic and has more character than the Line 6 analog delay. I really like it a lot. Some sounds on the Boss are kinda meh, but a few sound pretty killer.

If my Boss died and the Line 6 DL4 build quilty was better, I'd buy a DL4 again. But for now I'm happy with the DD-20.

I've got a Boss DD-6, which was a gift from someone. It's capable of very cool sounds, but it's definitely not the part of your chain where you'll get your "analog" from. I wanted the DD-7, which is pretty much like the DD-6 but it has an "analog delay" mode that impressed me for being a digital delay. Really not a terrible representation. Though honestly if I found an analog delay pedal for a good deal I'd probably buy that and not be using my DD-6, I'm not sure if the DD-7 would satisfy that need for me or not. In general Boss seems to be kind of looked down on in many circles, and there are definitely much nicer pedals, but I've always gotten a lot compliments on my tones when using my Boss pedals. They kind of take a little playing with/knowing how to work them and play to them but they've never held me back.

inasilentway · Post by **inasilentway** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:20 am

btw the Boss RE-20, besides sounding awesome on guitar, is wonderful on an effects send, since it has a "kill dry" function and an input gain knob. I've been carrying one on tour (as a FOH engineer) for a while and I have to say, it's just plain fun to tweak the knobs. you can easily develop a rapport with it, closer to how I feel whenever I get to use a Space Echo than I ever got with my DD-20 or DL-4.

one thing to note is that the delay time has a lag, like the real deal, so if you frequently tap different times mid-song and want them to change immediately, it won't do that. what it will do, however, is create swirling pitch-shifting if you whip the knob around quickly (or tap semi-randomly), and after a while you learn to "play" the lag as a creative effect. YMMV.

Chris_Meck · Post by **Chris_Meck** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 7:54 am

count me in on the RE-20. LOVE IT. Tap works great, love the idiosyncratic speed up/slowdown simulations, love the way the high end rolls off so that you never get in the way of your unaffected signal.

I also have a Danelectro Reel-echo in line, it's not tappable, but it also sounds good. I use that for the big Neil Young-ish delays. they're CHEAP. Try one, you'll like it.

Re-20 for everything else from slap to spaceship sounds.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:50 pm

So after months figuring this out, I finally ordered my Strymon El Capistan yesterday. It will be here tomorrow. I'm super psyched about it, as it is really versatile and sounds amazing. I decided to pick this up now instead of repairing my EP-3 (which will happen soon) so that I could use it to mix my band's debut EP next week. I'll be sure to post back here with samples and stuff in the coming weeks.

Thanks for all of the input!

Jeff

shedshrine · Post by **shedshrine** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:10 pm

Your going to love it. Much fun.

mwerden · Post by **mwerden** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:11 pm

I really wish my carbon copy had a tap tempo. Just sayin.

llmonty · Post by **llmonty** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:43 am

I have had a strymon timeline for about a week and it has changed my world. super awesome.

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:07 pm

ipressrecord wrote:I'd love to ditch and sell my Line 6 DL4. It's footprint is way too large and to be honest I've never loved the thing.

Well, it's still Line 6, but I like my Echo Park delay for live use. It has a small footprint, has tap tempo, and is less confusing than the DL4. It puts delay modes on one knob (quarter notes, swell, reverse, that sort of thing), and delay tones on a 3-position switch (digital, tape, or analog). So I find that more straightforward than the way the DL4 (which I also used to use) presents all its different flavors of delay.

Only thing I wish it had was an eighth note delay mode. It has quarter notes and sixteenth notes, but they skipped eighths. Sure, you can just tap it, but at faster tempos it gets tricky to get that right!

Leigh

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:40 pm

After playing with the El Capistan for the past three hours, all I can say is WOW! Holy shit this pedal rules. Small foot print, sounds AMAZING (24-bit/96K converters!), and it grunges up and/or does hi-fi really well. It totally does my EP-3 and has tap-tempo AND if you hold down the TAP switch, you get infinite repeats. So funtional, tweakable, sounds awesome. Totally happy!

Jeff

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:56 pm

Jeff White wrote:
austingreen wrote: Side note: I did not like GT500, again sterile & no mojo, and its one of the few pedals i've sold. please hold on to your tubescreamers for a bit until convinced.
Oh I'm really digging this pedal through both my '77 Super Reverb and my early 1990's Mesa DC-3. Still figuring out my new rig (pedals) between single coil guitars (Telecaster, Jaguar) and humbucker guitars (Sheraton II, Reverend Buckshot, and Reverend Flatroc), mostly because I am so used to playing a Telecaster only.

Just a bump to this discussion to say that a year later I've retired the Fulltone GT-500 for a ZVex Box of Rock and I could not be happier.

Jeff

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Retiring the Line 6 DL4. Other Delay options with Tap Tempo?

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