Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeler Reviews

4.3/5.0 based on 6 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Scott Augustyniak

Being an owner of the M13, I can attest to the fact that the Line 6 M5 is a great way to get all the same benefits with a smaller footprint. The M5 is a "Swiss Army knife" for your current pedal chain, allowing you to save multiple stompbox settings without reaching down to adjust pedals between songs. If you use and need a lot of effects, this is a great piece to add to your chain!

Daniel Fisher

This is one of those pedals who's price makes you think, "Why would I want to spend $199.99 on a single pedal?" This is because we're used to pedals this small being good at one, maybe two, things. It might also do some other things marginally well. But the Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeler is an authentic museum of every great effect ever modeled by Line 6. It *IS* the DL4 Delay Modeler, the DM4 Distortion Modeler, the FM4 Filter Modeler, MM4 Modulation Modeler, Echo Park, Verbzilla, LiquaFlange, Space Chorus, Otto Filter, etc., etc., etc... And all the controls have their own knob; and you can read all the parameters at once! Plus, it's stupid easy to make any parameter move any amount, in any direction, just by moving a foot controller. Set a Min and Max for every parameter and when you move your pedal all of the assigned parameters will each move in their own amount and direction. You can then create incredibly complex sound changes with a simple sweep of your pedal. Pro-quality, stereo Ins/Outs means you can use this *anywhere* in you guitar, synth, vocal, or amp chain. External MIDI control allows you to change presets, switch FX on/off, simulate the expression pedal, and even sync the effect's clock with your sequencer or MIDI controller. Plus, it's got a tuner, a noise gate, and a choice of true hardwire bypass or the ability to have the effects trail off. The M5 is simply THE magic ingredient that will take your current sound over the top... that just happens to fit in your gig bag!

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Customer Reviews

Bahram Mokhtare
from Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Britain
October 24, 2011 Music Background:
Semi Pro Musician

Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeler is simply superb

I have used various stompboxes and multi effect units over the years. Many of them put me off after the fad wore out as they degraded the sound quality of my guitars and amps.

Best one i used previously was Boss ME8, but I had to do a lot of messing around such as removing fizzy unusable overdrives from presets and load them into user patches so I could put it through amp's effects loop with no at once control on stage. Eventually I went back to only using the pure sound of guitars and amps.

And then I discovered Line 6 M5. I liked the sounds and how they kept the integrity of my guitar and amps sounds. I checked the big M13 found it is great and versatile (can be wired through front and effects loop of amp at the same time) if you are a club band guitarist but too large for my use. Checked M9 found it is good if you go either in front of the amp or through effects loop but can not do both at the same time for appropriate effects.

I finally settled with buying two M5 units same price as M9 and yes I can only have 2 effects at once but great usable flexibility. I put one with expression pedal attached through the front of the amp for ODs, MODs and other appropriate effects, and put the other M5 unit through the effects loop of the amp for Delays and Reverbs. WHAT A GREAT COMBO AND SOUND, Or I can put the two M5s into my Boss stereo Loop Station when I need to. Thank you Line 6 for assisting me find my own tone. Well done.

Eric Van Wagner
from Columbus, OH
July 24, 2011 Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Educator, Musicians

Lots of power in a little box...

This replaced 5 pedals on my pedal board. It's less noisy, more flexible, founds great, I don't have to worry about knobs getting bumped, and my pedal board weighs about half of what it was! Best bang for your buck I've seen.

Matthew W Seniff
from Normal, IL
February 29, 2012 Music Background:
semi-Pro musician

One pedal to rule them all

This is a very well designed pedal, one thing I really like is that if the power goes of the pedal defaults to pass your signal thru (it would let you finish the tune if the bass player blunders onto it's power supply). This pedal has all the sounds I wanted from the Line 6 DL-4 and the other pedals in the series. The sound is good and it does a great job of emulating the Echoplex and Space Echo including the UFO sounds. I would recommend to anyone looking to fill their arsenal with some Line6 sounds. It only does on FX at a time but it does them well.

Owen
from Nashville
December 23, 2011 Music Background:
20 yrs. giutarted

Line 6 M5

Totally worth the money. lots of useful effects. i was in the market for an analog delay. this was just a little bit more than the single stomp boxes i was looking at. All the delays on this unit are great. as well as the phasers, and reverbs. I don,t use the drives much but they are good. i give it a 4 outa 5 for useability. you have to use your hands all the time to operate this box. no big deal as it is really for customizing single sounds.
The unit is more solid than i thought it would be. all i run now is an Ibanez weeping daemon wah, MXR compressor. and line 6 M5 in the effects loop.
endless possibilities.

Jonathan
from NJ, USA
April 27, 2011 Music Background:
Worship Leader

Far Superior, than expected

I purchased this item to replace a faulty line 6 dl4. I figured I could mainly use it to replace the delay unit, since I was already accustomed to all the delay patches it carried. I am impressed with its functionality and ease of use. You can save 24 presets, as opposed to the 3-4 other stompbox modelers offer. Any changes you make to the presets are automatically saved, like if you were tweaking an individual pedal. This M5 also offers better delay to specific note values, something that was always troublesome with the older dl4. It offers the dotted 8th delay! This is a great addition to any player looking to add some creativity to their tone. Functional and enjoyable, the m5 is a powerful pedal.

Robert Coleman
from Northern California
March 8, 2012 Music Background:
Semi-pro nusician

A Great-Sounding Pedal For One Preset Per Song

The M5 pedal offers a truckload of effects in a compact floor unit. The effects are virtually identical to Line 6's individual specialized pedals such as the renowned DL4 delay pedal. The sound is clean, noise is low, and the pedal is very well made. The pedal also features a couple of presets such as the spacey Particleverb that are not included in the individual units.

You do give up versatility and control by cramming so much into one unit, however. The display is relatively small and hard to identify which preset you are using when standing over it. The effects are color coded by effect type (delay, distortion, filter, reverb) but you can easily miss the preset you were shooting for if you are in a hurry.

Also, it takes various combinations of the two switches to load and move through presets. Again, if you are in a hurry or trying to switch effects in the middle of a song you could run into problems.

If you need to hop around presets quickly or are a bit clumsy with your feet, you'd be better off with the individual pedals where you have more immediate control. The M5, however, is incredible for having one high-quality effect loaded for a song and is easy enough to change to a different effect between songs.