New Line 6 M13?

[Waxhead]

I would go to YouTube and search stilwel and then listen to his clips.

I would also go to our website and check out the clips I did with a buddy of mine, Dwayne Larring. We use a couple guitars into a Divided by 13 into a nice preamp. The first clip is the guitar into the D/13 with no effects. We didn't touch the amp or preamp or gain or anything at all for the sound clips. All you hear is what the M13 did. Check out the Screamer, Tube Drive and Colordrive clips. Pretty fun. Kinda shocked me even.

So Rich Renken - Product Manager from Line 6 Corp, when asked if there's any decent sound clips for this M13, tells us punters on TPG to go search "stilwell" on Youtube.

Well I did that and found that all of Stilwel clip's demoing the M13's effects (excepting the Looper) had a very brief connection description attached which states that the M13 was plugged into an AXE-FX. Stilwel also briefly states that the AXE-FX does nothing to the sound. If that's true then why bother plugging the M13 into it ??? There's no other description of how the tones are produced.

Now the marketing Gurus at Line 6 may think this is gonna fool a newbie, or some other dunce, but to the experienced muso, or even the wary consumer, this just looks like a fraud.
Am I as easily shocked as Rich is - No
Is this normal marketing practice - Yes.
Should we be very very suspicious when Marketing Execs start posting on non affiliated websites like TGP - ABSOLUTELY.

But as Rich points out you can also listen to clips of the M13 on the Line 6 website. If you wanna believe how they allegedly produced the tones for the Line 6 clips then good luck to ya.

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

 

[eugewong]

Eugene, how are you powering the M13?

Hi Plato,

I've got a regular power extension strip/power block zip tied to the underside of the Pedaltrain. The Line 6 adaptor is under the pedaltrain too, right next to it.

I couldn't get the OneSpot to fit under, so I had to improvise and McGyver it a little, which is why the OneSpot if on the top. I've actually got 2 power strips under the board) Visually it looks a little tight, but operationally, it's alright.

This is a PT2 by the way.

 

[dognmoon]

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

I agree that any user would be well-advised to test any new piece of gear with their own rig to see if it compliments their signal chain and/or playing style.

In regards to the "super happy consumers" who are "saying very little specific about the unit"- did you have any specific questions that I could help answer (I'm speaking as one of the Super Happy Customers)? Some others may have the same questions/ concerns as you and it may be for the common good to be more specific about the review points.

 

[holyears]

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

Wow - let the conspiracy theories begin. Seems to me, most of the people "singing it's praises" have been members of this board quite a long time, I would highly doubt they're Line6 mercenaries. But true, I think you should try something out with your set-up to see if it's what you need, or just try it and return it if you don't like it, no big deal. It's not like Line6 is running a Nigerian banking scam.

 

[Mincer]

I'm super happy with mine. You can ask me questions too, or come see me live and hear it.

 

[radcliff]

From what I've been reading, it seems like every time you make a change or a tempo change with an effect - it saves that change.

So that when you come back to an effect, it shows up as what was last there.

This is different from the DL4. But better.

Also, is there any kind of Global tap setting? So you can have some presets with a Global tempo and others with a Set tempo?

 

[stilwel]

So Rich Renken - Product Manager from Line 6 Corp, when asked if there's any decent sound clips for this M13, tells us punters on TPG to go search "stilwell" on Youtube.

Well I did that and found that all of Stilwel clip's demoing the M13's effects (excepting the Looper) had a very brief connection description attached which states that the M13 was plugged into an AXE-FX. Stilwel also briefly states that the AXE-FX does nothing to the sound. If that's true then why bother plugging the M13 into it ??? There's no other description of how the tones are produced.

Now the marketing Gurus at Line 6 may think this is gonna fool a newbie, or some other dunce, but to the experienced muso, or even the wary consumer, this just looks like a fraud.
Am I as easily shocked as Rich is - No
Is this normal marketing practice - Yes.
Should we be very very suspicious when Marketing Execs start posting on non affiliated websites like TGP - ABSOLUTELY.

But as Rich points out you can also listen to clips of the M13 on the Line 6 website. If you wanna believe how they allegedly produced the tones for the Line 6 clips then good luck to ya.

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

Hello...stilwel, the fraud here. This post has me laughing hysterically this morning.

I fail to see the conspiracy here, but here goes.

I do NOT work for Line 6. I am NOT associated with them in any way whatsoever. I'm just a guy who plays guitar that lives in the Chicago area. I own an Axe-Fx. It's killer. As I stated in the video description of several of my YouTube clips, in all of my clips I plugged my guitar, either strat or Jazzmaster straight into the M13. The M13 output was then plugged into my Axe-Fx rig. I do this because I do NOT own a regular guitar amp. I've always been a rack and fx kind of guy so my ONLY option is to plug the M13 into my Axe-Fx, which is set to a CLEAN Fender Vibroverb amp model, and that is literally all you're hearing.

All of the fx you're hearing are coming from the M13.

I will agree with you on one thing though, as with ANY piece of gear you should try it out for yourself and not take anyone's word for it.

BTW: Waxhead, you need to lay off the coffee man.

 

[GCDEF]

So Rich Renken - Product Manager from Line 6 Corp, when asked if there's any decent sound clips for this M13, tells us punters on TPG to go search "stilwell" on Youtube.

Well I did that and found that all of Stilwel clip's demoing the M13's effects (excepting the Looper) had a very brief connection description attached which states that the M13 was plugged into an AXE-FX. Stilwel also briefly states that the AXE-FX does nothing to the sound. If that's true then why bother plugging the M13 into it ??? There's no other description of how the tones are produced.

Now the marketing Gurus at Line 6 may think this is gonna fool a newbie, or some other dunce, but to the experienced muso, or even the wary consumer, this just looks like a fraud.
Am I as easily shocked as Rich is - No
Is this normal marketing practice - Yes.
Should we be very very suspicious when Marketing Execs start posting on non affiliated websites like TGP - ABSOLUTELY.

But as Rich points out you can also listen to clips of the M13 on the Line 6 website. If you wanna believe how they allegedly produced the tones for the Line 6 clips then good luck to ya.

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

Why do Australians chop off the ends of words and add "o" in its place? Sounds kind of goofy, as does the rest of your post.

What's really happening here is Line 6 has come out with the best multi-fx I've ever seen and the only one I'd even want to use, and a lot of us are very pleased with it and enjoy talking about it.

 

[Andre357]

So Rich Renken - Product Manager from Line 6 Corp, when asked if there's any decent sound clips for this M13, tells us punters on TPG to go search "stilwell" on Youtube.

Well I did that and found that all of Stilwel clip's demoing the M13's effects (excepting the Looper) had a very brief connection description attached which states that the M13 was plugged into an AXE-FX. Stilwel also briefly states that the AXE-FX does nothing to the sound. If that's true then why bother plugging the M13 into it ??? There's no other description of how the tones are produced.

Now the marketing Gurus at Line 6 may think this is gonna fool a newbie, or some other dunce, but to the experienced muso, or even the wary consumer, this just looks like a fraud.
Am I as easily shocked as Rich is - No
Is this normal marketing practice - Yes.
Should we be very very suspicious when Marketing Execs start posting on non affiliated websites like TGP - ABSOLUTELY.

But as Rich points out you can also listen to clips of the M13 on the Line 6 website. If you wanna believe how they allegedly produced the tones for the Line 6 clips then good luck to ya.

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

This is riduculous IMHO......... Have you even tried one ?? Or you just ranting without having ever heard one in person ?? Of course your entitled to your opinion, but I give it little weight unless you own or have tried one.

I for one LOVE THE FACT that Rich is posting here.... We've been able to point out little bugs , etc. and Rich has been cool enough to answer us.

I am a gigging musician and the M13 is the real deal ( got it last week, gigged for the first time over the weekend ).

What's so cool about the M13 ( and I stated this in my initial review a few pages fact ), the m13 does NOT impart it's own tone on yor rig, unless you set it up to. It's your base tone, then kick in reverb, delay's, trem, etc. and it's the same base tone but with the effects added....

So with repect, I just don't understand your gripe or negative slant or why your calling people out in this thread. Do you work for a competitor of Line 6 ?? ( sounds that way )

Also, I'm a gigging musician, playing, bars, fuctions etc. two to four days a week, also work a fulltime day job ( I post from the " day job " )......frankly I don't have time to post mp3's and videos......the unit just recently came out....give it time, you'll see more clip and videos soon from those that have the time I'm sure....

stillwells clips are great and helped me to try and then buy one of these. His clips are very representive of what this unit is capable of...

Peace man

 

[heavypick]

So Rich Renken - Product Manager from Line 6 Corp, when asked if there's any decent sound clips for this M13, tells us punters on TPG to go search "stilwell" on Youtube.

Well I did that and found that all of Stilwel clip's demoing the M13's effects (excepting the Looper) had a very brief connection description attached which states that the M13 was plugged into an AXE-FX. Stilwel also briefly states that the AXE-FX does nothing to the sound. If that's true then why bother plugging the M13 into it ??? There's no other description of how the tones are produced.

Now the marketing Gurus at Line 6 may think this is gonna fool a newbie, or some other dunce, but to the experienced muso, or even the wary consumer, this just looks like a fraud.
Am I as easily shocked as Rich is - No
Is this normal marketing practice - Yes.
Should we be very very suspicious when Marketing Execs start posting on non affiliated websites like TGP - ABSOLUTELY.

But as Rich points out you can also listen to clips of the M13 on the Line 6 website. If you wanna believe how they allegedly produced the tones for the Line 6 clips then good luck to ya.

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

I think you're a bit overly cynical. When the guy uses the Axe-fx, it's the same thing like everyone else on TGP. No one is playing a Jetter GSB through a Crate solid state amp. If a guy demos the GSB through aTwo-Rock then is that a fraud? Would you be more convinced if used a Crate? Also, I think it's a good thing Rich is on the forum. If you have an M13 question, most likely he would have the right answer (and not just becase he's trying to sell it)? He answered honestly about the BPM thing didn't he? I met him him at the amp show and he was a really cool guy. By the way, whether Line 6 has marketing execs on TGP or not, they'll still sell a million of their products at GC and Best Buy, and such. For them, the TGP market would be a drop in the bucket. Just like Tore from TC, I think it's a good thing when these guys are on the boards answering questions.

 

[Andre357]

To get the thread back on track


Gigged with it over the weekend, worked great. Set up three scenes with all my sounds and effects, and easily changed scenes, patches easily. My tap dancing actually was minimized using this unit. I'll set up a couple of other scenes moving forward. Also, was nice to be able to tweak on the fly ( like delay mix or feedback ) and have that auto saved for when i went back to that sound later.

I used effect unit one ( so three patches ) in front of my amp and the other three in the loop of my Budda SDII 18. I'm also running a keeley compressor, cot50. and an eternity in front of the amp. I wont be giving up my cot and eternity, but i did get good and usable OD sounds from the colordrive and screamer patches.

The colordrive patch in particular is very, very good. It's actually dynamic and cleans up well when you roll the volume knob down on your guitar. It's a low to med gain OD that is very usable and I think many will be suprised at how good it sounds. If it was in an MXR sized box by itself and put out by one of the " boutique " guys, people would be lining up on a waiting list to get it i think. Souded great with my tele and cut through the mix well without being ice picky. You could even use it as an " on all the time " OD if so inclined. Stacked great with my eternity for searing leads. Also used the tube comp patch quite a bit....sounded nice on some rythmic R&B/Motown stuff once Igot the setting right.

ONE NICE SUPRISE - you can set your tap tempo's with the effect off if anyone's wondering - so I could tap in my trem tempo for instance , and then kick in the effect.


Two things ( that I've found so far ) that need to be fixed in an update.

1 ) The Vibrato patch jumps in volume a bit rendering it a bit of a pain in the butt to use live. Wish it had a LEVEL control maybe instead of MIX ? Because the jump in volume could come in handy for some situations and the depth and mix knobs seem reduntant. I dont know maybe this should be left alone. The volume jump could come in handy for some...

2 ) the auto volume just doesn't work like it should, the ramp time is to fast and it does create the same sort of ambiance like it did on the DL4 ( i reported this a few pages back as well )


Cant wait to try an expression pedal with this thing ( I haven't even set one with it yet ). That will be next step with it.

But to make a long story short it worked flawlessly over the weekend and did what it was intended to do....

 

[jaycee]

I gigged with mine for the first time Saturday night and was most impressed. To waxhead, the unit does what it advertises with ease of use and that's why everyone is pleased with it. Simple. I know it may be hard to believe, but true. There's no need to write a report about it and if you've played any of the effects that it models then you'll have a better understanding. It's a well thought out unit and works great. Even my bandmates like it and i've showed up with quite a few different processors in my day. I don't think there's a guitarist out there who couldn't find some use for this unit.

 

[Mastervolume]

And then there's all the allegedly super happy M13 consumers posting on here saying very little specific about the unit but singing it's praises and surprise, surprise, very few, if any, clips, mp3's etc are being posted here. Which brings us back to Stilwel and Line 6 marketing Execs.

Buyer beware, if you buy this unit without fully testing it out with your own guitars and amps first then you're CRAZZZZZY IMHO.

I am one of those allegedly super happy users. I have been posting here long before the change of 2002. I have owned more gear, dare I say, than anyone else on this board.

I am not a fan of Line 6 products. I have never felt like I could get a tone out of anything that they have ever been associated with that didn't feel fake or digital.

I have used about 8 different DL4s in the last 8 or so years. I have a love hate relationship with the pedal. Love the idea, hate the way it screws up my tone. I settled down with having Keeley mod the DL4 to make it usable for me.

That said.

I bought one to give it a try. I got a smokin' deal from a buddy that is a store manager for one of the large chains.

Brought it home thinking that I would be selling it shortly after. That was 3 weeks and 5 gigs ago.

When I brought the unit home and plugged it into my amp, dialed up the edge scene and started playing "Bad" I just started laughing. The M13 not only sounded dead to nuts the same as the tone I heard on stilwel's demo it also sounded better than my pedalboard with 2K worth of pedals on it.

With a direct a/b to my board and the M13 it took me about 4 seconds to realize that everything on my pedalboard was up for sale.

I have hung on to some spendy OD pedals but over the weekend when I was comparing in a live setting my eternity vs the Tube drive setting on the M13, the M13 was the real winner.

I agree with you about the try it for yourself comment. Had I not thought like that I would have NEVER bought this thing. I would have considered myself too cool to use a multi fx pedal.

This weekend when I am playing perfectly timed delays and then have the ability to drop a seekwah into the mix.....yeah, for 500 bucks you have to be crazy not to at least give it a shot.

 

[fiftywatt]

I agree that any user would be well-advised to test any new piece of gear with their own rig to see if it compliments their signal chain and/or playing style.

And really there is no substitute for this. There's a Sam Ash 12 miles from my day job. They have an M13 available for demo in the store. I've been unable to get over there for the last week, so no go on that. Last week GC had one unit in stock. I had some time to kill before rehearsal, so I dropped in. One of the sales guys was unboxing the sole unit they had for a potential buyer. I never got to play it myself, but I did get to hear it in person, before I had to head out. Seemed good.

So.. despite the probability of getting a unit in need of the firmware update, I ordered one via the Music123 15% discount last week. It will be delivered today and I will get to try it with my own various amp rigs. I owned all of the 4 button Line 6 stomps years ago and dug them alot, so this M13 gizmo is something I've craved for years. I expect it to be good.

Question for you users.. does anyone use their unit in "Latched Scene Mode" for live gigs? I often need radical tone changes with one stomp and am wondering if that is the way to go. I think the tradeoff is that you can't tweak scenes on the fly in this mode. Otherwise it seems that I would need to do a little pedal dancing to go from "rotary speaker w/ delay" to a "uber gain solo" setting, if that makes sense.

 

[dognmoon]

From what I've been reading, it seems like every time you make a change or a tempo change with an effect - it saves that change.

So that when you come back to an effect, it shows up as what was last there.

This is different from the DL4. But better.

Also, is there any kind of Global tap setting? So you can have some presets with a Global tempo and others with a Set tempo?

Hi Radcliff,
In the fray, it looks like your questions got passed over...

Yes, there is an auto-save feature so that any changes are automatically saved. You can turn this off (and switch to a manual save function) if you're the type who likes to tweak tones on the fly and wants to come back to a set starting point each time.

Yes, the tap tempo button is global, so once it's tapped in, any effects that have tap tempo functionality are synched to it. And the majority of effects in M13 are tappable. All the delays, most of the modulations, and many of the filters can be controlled by tap tempo.

Regarding tap vs. set tempos, yes you can decide for each patch if you'd like it set to tap tempo and a number of subdivisions can be assigned (i.e. quarter note, dotted-8th, 16th triplets, etc.)- or you can set it to a milliseconds setting. If set to ms, the tap tempo doesn't affect it. So for my Sunday morning steady, I set up some effects to a firm ms setting because I have my drummer on a click for some tunes. Other tunes are off click so I want to be able to tap those delays, modulations, etc. in on the fly.

I hope that helps.

 

[donbarzini]

Brought it home thinking that I would be selling it shortly after. That was 3 weeks and 5 gigs ago.

When I brought the unit home and plugged it into my amp, dialed up the edge scene and started playing "Bad" I just started laughing. The M13 not only sounded dead to nuts the same as the tone I heard on stilwel's demo it also sounded better than my pedalboard with 2K worth of pedals on it.

That's it, I'm getting one. Even though it says it is only instrument level, maybe it will still have enough headroom to run delay in my Suhr Badger 30 effects loop. It can always be returned for a full refund if it doesn't work out.

 

[dognmoon]

I'd also like to add that an endorsement from Mastervolume is a shock to me. The list of amps he's bought and sold around here would make your head spin. To steal some words from MLK Jr., Mastervolume has "...been to the mountaintop..."

I still think anyone should try the M13 for themselves, but for gear-hounds and tone-quest'rs like him to start agreeing with the validity and useability of the M13... it's just a really great compliment to what Line 6 has done here.

 

[donbarzini]

The only other multi-effect stomp box that I was considering is the TC Nova System.

 

[i8guitar]

Another M13 gig report...

I used the M13 with my Zinky Blue Velvet combo amp during multiple worship services with great results. The thing I appreciated most was the immediate control over each effect to be as bold or subtle as needed. There is something about being "in the moment" sometimes that overrides all previous tweaking and planning, and I felt the M13 excelled in that aspect.

I will say that it was difficult to distinguish by the lights which stompbox was activated: we've got quite a bit of backlighting going on, not to mention the huge screen behind us, and the white spots coming down to light the stage. I pretty much have dedicated sections for each fx type: OD>Mod>Delay>Verb, so the screen color helped, and I more or less memorized each patch's location in the section beforehand. I do like having the "dim" version of the light there for reference though.

As a side note, I opted to not use my amp's dirty channel, and went straight into the input of the clean channel, using the M13's (Chandler) Tube Drive and (RAT) Classic Distortion. I found both to interact well with my humbucker equipped Strat, with plenty of note definition and response to the volume control.

 

[johnrea_77]

Since I've had the M13 programmed for live use:

1. Sold my Line 6 X3 Live - great unit, didn't really need/use the amp models. The easy editing on the M13 and ability to put effects in any order made the switch a no brainer. I did lose the capability of having the X3 Live as a back-up through DI, but I have other gear for that.
2. My TC Electronics System has been put on the back burner. Haven't used it much since the M13 has been dialed in. There are some things that it might do better, but I think the M13 is a better overall unit for my needs.

I'm glad Line 6 made this unit feel a little beefier. I can live with the external AC adapter, but it would not have been my preference. I still wish some programmable relays were incorporated into this. As it stands right now, I'm not switching amp channels.