Overall Rating: I have been playing roughly 12 years. I own an Sg Standard, Sg 61' reissue, Les Paul Special Doublecut w/ P-90s, 66' twin, Bad Cat Black Cat, Orange Ad-140tc, Marshall 4x12, Orange 4x12, Blah Blah Blah. If it were stolen or lost, I'd ...
Overall Rating: I have been playing roughly 12 years. I own an Sg Standard, Sg 61' reissue, Les Paul Special Doublecut w/ P-90s, 66' twin, Bad Cat Black Cat, Orange Ad-140tc, Marshall 4x12, Orange 4x12, Blah Blah Blah.
If it were stolen or lost, I'd get mad, get over it, and buy another. I love its ease of use, versatility, and the ability to have 3 different delays readily at hand (or foot). I also like using the expression pedal; it makes it an even more fun unit to use. The only thing I dislike is that there is a slight delay when switching between models. The only other dig are the Tape models, but I understand that it is probably nearly impossible to model digital fatness. To summarize, the DL-4 is an excellent and incredibly versatile unit with superlative sound quality. Perfect for the working guitarist.
Sound Quality: Excellent sounds for being digital. It probably wouldn't fool me on the analog models in a blindfold test, but it gets damned close, and your audience surely won't know the difference. Use a Voodoo Labs pedal power with it. This thing will eat batteries like crazy and really needs full power to work correctly and effeciently. I had one die at a show last week because of batteries (my own fault for not replacing batteries/not buying an adapter for pedal power).
I use two-three amps in my setup with a DL4 in going to each; 66' twin reverb and/or bad cat black cat for clean into a a/b/y box (with loops in which the dl-4's lie) to a Bogner Ecstasy and/or Orange ad-140tc for overdrive/distortion. I can pretty much nail most delay models, except for tape delays, such as Jimmy Page on Led Zep's "I can't quite you baby." Now that is an incredible delay/echo sound, and can only be copped with a real tape delay. That being said, the DL4 does an amazing job of getting close and only discriminating musicians will know the difference. ALl of the models sound very good. I was using a Guyatone Md-3 (a very good delay) previously on my distortion amp and like the DL-4 a lot more, not only for its versatility but the sound quality as well. I especially like the multi-head delay and use it the most. It seems to be the most accurate copy on the unit.
Reliability/Durability: I've never had any problems, but have heard horror stories. I've been using one constantly for about a year with no problems. I would bring a backup if I used batteries.
Ease of Use: This is a very complex unit, and takes some reading to really get the sounds you want out of it. The manual is very comprehensive (probably the best I've seen).
Price: $249.95 USD
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