This unit intrigued the hell outta me from when I first saw it. The POD stuff has always been nice, but I'm not a big amp modeling guy and didn't see the need for mic placement setups, etc.. I control all my tones from onboard anyhow, but I digress..
So I researched this, read through the mega thread on The Gear Page, some other here and there's, and bit the bullet last week and ordered it from M.F., and it arrived Wednesday.
Busted it out last night. The quality and construction has really improved as of late on the Line 6 stuff. More metal and heavy-duty components as opposed to a lot of plastic. Weighs a little over 10lbs, which feels just about right. I think it'll fit on my PT2, so it inside of the flight case will be a little heavy for a board, but not terribly bad. The footswitches are nice and responsive, and seem like they'll hold up for a good while. The knobs are plastic, but it's not a huge deal. They feel solid, and don't feel like they'll break anytime soon. There's the Line 6 "bar" in front of them, so you dont accidentally kick the individual switches while switching between patches.
One gripe here, but it's not a huge deal- the "Model" select knob, which you press to switch from Distortion, Filter, Modulation, Delay and Reverb is an "infinite" switch, which keeps going around and around. The other 5 are not, and only go from the standard 7-5 positions. I'm not sure of the reasoning on this, but I guess it was to keep with the fact that this really IS like controlling a real-life pedal. It's only a hassle however when you're setting your initial levels. Although on-the-fly, or on-the-gig, if you wanted to adjust your output DURING a song, the volume can jump if you don't kick the output down first, and then turn back up. Again, not a huge deal breaker and I understand the reasoning behind it, but still. I'm being picky and it's something I'd change.
Sounds- I haven't had a multi-unit that was legit (to my ears) true-bypass as advertised, but this one is. I set my amp flat, my bass controls flat, when playing with this. When setting my levels to keep this weekend, I'll EQ my MTD to what I use at church, which is Bass and Mids boosted a tad, Treble cut, and I play with the Mids freq switch. But just for starters, I went as flat as possible with my signal chain.
How it's setup is, there are 12 possible "scenes", which have 12 available settings PER scene, and up to 4 FX being used at once; one for each of the 4 "channels", for lack of a better word. There are some cool presets, just to find your way around, and when you press the "Scene" button, all 4 LCDs light up, and display your custom-named scene, 3 per channel. You then press the corresponding A, B, or C button on any of the 4 channels to instantly access that scene. Cool feature. Whatever you left on or off previously, is still off or on. EVERYTHING auto-saves. Just like pedals.
With the hour and a half I had with it, I pretty much ONLY got through the Distortion, Compression and Noise Gate models. I checked out the preset for the "Bass In Your Face" scene, and it has some good starting ideas for how to fully utilize this thing, and really build some cool scenes and pedalboard setups.
For starters, I plan on just building one scene to use for right now, and then once I get more into it, actually use a whole scene as ONE pedal if needs be. I have 3 settings I'm really comfortable with right now- Tube Comp, which does pretty much what my MultiComp does, an always on-light compression; Boost Comp (MXR Micro Amp), for a little push without the "fur"; and Screamer, which I have set up exactly like my TS9DX. I may switch this one out, as I rarely use any real drive in my current setting, but it's 95% of the way there compared to my Analogman, no lie. I've had that Ibby for a year and a half now, so I can definitely give a strong opinion on the two. This may change a tad once I'm running this into my ears, but open ears through the same rig, man Line 6 REALLY got these distortion models right.
Some people will always be able to tell a difference, but having the option of ALL these drives and comp's available, and being maybe 10-15% difference vs. the original (and expensive!) analog version, I'll take my modeler. I've been a heavy FX user for a while, so I feel I can say this with strong opinions.
I have all 3 set up in the same "channel", so I can only use one at a time, but that's what I want for now. Like I said, you could have a whole scene of 12 different combinations of compressors, drives, fuzzes, etc. if you wanted, or with any of the models.
I won't give any strong opinions for the other 4 yet, as I haven't spent the time tweaking these yet, but I will tell you that the most fun (not surprisingly) so far is the various delay echo models, and (surprisingly!) the reverb models. I can see now why so many guitards just fall out if they can't have some type of 'verb on 24/7.
I'm unfulfilled the most from the Modulation models at this point, but those are tricky to dial in, even with analog pedals, so those are my next to tackle as I use those next to most besides comp/drive.
The Filters are fun, but I'm not a huge filter guy in the first place so we'll see how far I go with those. The Tron Down is pretty slick though. I like that one a lot.
Anyhow, this is part one of a few reviews coming. I know there's been a lot of questions and buzz about this both for bassist and guitarists alike, so I'm doing my best to get some real life info out there.
Questions welcomed! And of course, TBC...
So I researched this, read through the mega thread on The Gear Page, some other here and there's, and bit the bullet last week and ordered it from M.F., and it arrived Wednesday.
Busted it out last night. The quality and construction has really improved as of late on the Line 6 stuff. More metal and heavy-duty components as opposed to a lot of plastic. Weighs a little over 10lbs, which feels just about right. I think it'll fit on my PT2, so it inside of the flight case will be a little heavy for a board, but not terribly bad. The footswitches are nice and responsive, and seem like they'll hold up for a good while. The knobs are plastic, but it's not a huge deal. They feel solid, and don't feel like they'll break anytime soon. There's the Line 6 "bar" in front of them, so you dont accidentally kick the individual switches while switching between patches.
One gripe here, but it's not a huge deal- the "Model" select knob, which you press to switch from Distortion, Filter, Modulation, Delay and Reverb is an "infinite" switch, which keeps going around and around. The other 5 are not, and only go from the standard 7-5 positions. I'm not sure of the reasoning on this, but I guess it was to keep with the fact that this really IS like controlling a real-life pedal. It's only a hassle however when you're setting your initial levels. Although on-the-fly, or on-the-gig, if you wanted to adjust your output DURING a song, the volume can jump if you don't kick the output down first, and then turn back up. Again, not a huge deal breaker and I understand the reasoning behind it, but still. I'm being picky and it's something I'd change.
Sounds- I haven't had a multi-unit that was legit (to my ears) true-bypass as advertised, but this one is. I set my amp flat, my bass controls flat, when playing with this. When setting my levels to keep this weekend, I'll EQ my MTD to what I use at church, which is Bass and Mids boosted a tad, Treble cut, and I play with the Mids freq switch. But just for starters, I went as flat as possible with my signal chain.
How it's setup is, there are 12 possible "scenes", which have 12 available settings PER scene, and up to 4 FX being used at once; one for each of the 4 "channels", for lack of a better word. There are some cool presets, just to find your way around, and when you press the "Scene" button, all 4 LCDs light up, and display your custom-named scene, 3 per channel. You then press the corresponding A, B, or C button on any of the 4 channels to instantly access that scene. Cool feature. Whatever you left on or off previously, is still off or on. EVERYTHING auto-saves. Just like pedals.
With the hour and a half I had with it, I pretty much ONLY got through the Distortion, Compression and Noise Gate models. I checked out the preset for the "Bass In Your Face" scene, and it has some good starting ideas for how to fully utilize this thing, and really build some cool scenes and pedalboard setups.
For starters, I plan on just building one scene to use for right now, and then once I get more into it, actually use a whole scene as ONE pedal if needs be. I have 3 settings I'm really comfortable with right now- Tube Comp, which does pretty much what my MultiComp does, an always on-light compression; Boost Comp (MXR Micro Amp), for a little push without the "fur"; and Screamer, which I have set up exactly like my TS9DX. I may switch this one out, as I rarely use any real drive in my current setting, but it's 95% of the way there compared to my Analogman, no lie. I've had that Ibby for a year and a half now, so I can definitely give a strong opinion on the two. This may change a tad once I'm running this into my ears, but open ears through the same rig, man Line 6 REALLY got these distortion models right.
Some people will always be able to tell a difference, but having the option of ALL these drives and comp's available, and being maybe 10-15% difference vs. the original (and expensive!) analog version, I'll take my modeler. I've been a heavy FX user for a while, so I feel I can say this with strong opinions.
I have all 3 set up in the same "channel", so I can only use one at a time, but that's what I want for now. Like I said, you could have a whole scene of 12 different combinations of compressors, drives, fuzzes, etc. if you wanted, or with any of the models.
I won't give any strong opinions for the other 4 yet, as I haven't spent the time tweaking these yet, but I will tell you that the most fun (not surprisingly) so far is the various delay echo models, and (surprisingly!) the reverb models. I can see now why so many guitards just fall out if they can't have some type of 'verb on 24/7.
I'm unfulfilled the most from the Modulation models at this point, but those are tricky to dial in, even with analog pedals, so those are my next to tackle as I use those next to most besides comp/drive.
The Filters are fun, but I'm not a huge filter guy in the first place so we'll see how far I go with those. The Tron Down is pretty slick though. I like that one a lot.
Anyhow, this is part one of a few reviews coming. I know there's been a lot of questions and buzz about this both for bassist and guitarists alike, so I'm doing my best to get some real life info out there.
Questions welcomed! And of course, TBC...
