Line 6 M9

[absolutpepper]

Okay so after selling a bunch of my pedals in an effort to scale down my live rig and make it a bit more manageable I took the plunge yesterday and picked up a Line 6 M9. It may be worth pointing out at this stage that while I primarily play bass I do a lot of writing on guitar (probably a faux pas here ) and it appealed to me to have an effects rig that could largely be used for both instruments without too much compromise.

So onto the M9...i've now probably played around with it for about 3 hours and I must say its a lot of fun. I like how its very intuitive and it is really easy to use and seems nice and stable for playing live. I've never been one for multi-fx but online review of the M9 really changed my mind - out with my ZVEX's and in with the Line 6 - i'm not a gear snob so it doesnt matter.

Now if you are at all familiar with any of the modeller pedals (DL-4, etc) or the POD XT/X3 there is a lot of familiarity here in the tones. In saying this, however the pedal is much easier to tweak and really does provide a lot pretty high quality effects for not too much money (think of how much it would cost to buy a DL-4, MM-4, FM-4, etc). The scenes idea is pretty handy too and i'm already in the process of outlining each scene for a different song in my band's (De Soto Firefly - more info see About Me section) set.

From my initial forays I have to say that I am totally loving the Reverbs and Modulations, the Filters are fun but not sure how 'usable' they would be, the Dirt sounds may be best suited for guitar but I was surprised that the low end drop seemed quite minor and could probably be easily corrected with the right pre-amp or the like.

The delays too are nice, although I run a Malekko Echo 600 at the end of the chain just to allow a bit of crazy oscillation when I want it - you wont get the Line 6 to do that easily!!!

Oh and a good shout for the tuner. I use a few alternate tunings and the tuner coped admirably with them - I A/Bd it next to my Korg Pitchblack and it seemed to work equally as good!!!

All in all it seems a great pedal in a size that my back (and future chairopractor) would approve of. I have a rehearsal on Wed and will try and report back on things after that.

For those who fancy one and need a bassist perspective hope this helps a bit. If anyone has any thoughts please feel free to add and contribute.

Cheers

Chris