Gig report: Very happy with the Line6 M13

[815C]

I picked up a Line6 M13 over a year ago, but really haven't messed with it much. Then in August my best friend - who happens to be both a great guitarist and totally blind - spent a couple hours at my house dialing in tones on the M13 while I played. He dialed in some amazing sounds. (The fact that he could do this without seeing blows me away - he had memorized the menu trees and internal workings of this device that has 15 foot switches and 24 knobs).

I used it at a 4 hour gig last night. There is a bit of a learning curve with this thing so prior to the gig I went thru our set list and selected or created sounds and wrote out which patch to use for every song (both rhythm & solo patches). This made it much easier to navigate.

I've been gigging with the largest pedaltrain board loaded with a bunch of nice boutique pedals. Its big, its heavy, and it takes up a lot of real estate on the stage. I'd been reluctant to use a multi-processor, thinking of them as steak-in-a-can vs. a real grilled steak, but I have to say this M13 sounds awesome (after the coaching and help I got from my friend). Also, the M13 is small and light weight (compared to my big pedal board). Last night I used one expression pedal (for wah) and had a volume pedal sitting between the M13 and my amp. That was it. So easy to set up. My band mates (which are guys who play for a living, have toured the world with big name artists, etc.) kept saying how good I sounded.

What I love about it is that I essentially have 12 fully precofigured pedal boards that I can switch between with the click of a button. And then once I have selected on the pedal boards to use, I can add or remove effects on the fly. So I can go from a sweet clean chorus sound to distortion with delay, reverb, and phaser by stepping on one foot switch.

There is definitely a learning curve to this gadget. I'm not one who enjoys fiddling around with electronic processor gadgets, but this one has been worth the time. I plan on using it at all my gigs going forward.

[815C]

A few of the tones I was able to nail...

Then clean reverb-drenched Strat on Chris Isaak's WICKED GAME, the clean chorus of Prince's PURPLE RAIN, John Mayer's lead tone on GRAVITY, the volume swells with delay on Sting's BE STILL MY BEATING HEART, the Marshall overdriven lead tone on The Black Crows HARD TO HANDLE, etc...

[s2y]

Does it have a tuner?

I've considered getting one of these for live use since I often like to toggle multiple effects.

[815C]

Originally Posted by s2y

Does it have a tuner?

I've considered getting one of these for live use since I often like to toggle multiple effects.

Yes - good tuner, and a looper too

[s2y]

Very cool. Probably makes more sense than lugging a heavy pedal board.

[Dru Edwards]

I've read some great things about the M13 - Congrats. Smart that you wrote down your settings based on the set list. Do you think you'll stick with this over your pedal board?

[815C]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

I've read some great things about the M13 - Congrats. Smart that you wrote down your settings based on the set list. Do you think you'll stick with this over your pedal board?

I do think I will use this more than my big pedal board. Although if the gig is big enough and the stage is big enough I may use both.