Line 6 JM4

[gary mitchell]

I was wondering has anyone really used this. I have seen youtube stuff on it, but was not impressed. I live quite away out of town, and I am sort of retired meaning I am 60yrs old Layed off and know one wants me. Thank God for my wife she is a nurse. But to get back to what I was asking, I play guitar and bass I heard this was good for jamming and composing. I also wanted to know if you could used this in the front of your guitar amp, and still use all the feature. If you could use the effects in your guitar amp and run the Jam tracks seperate tru a P.A. I wold like to know if anyone out there has any dealings with this pedal. I play once guitar a week with some friend, and bass at church. If you have one are used one let me know what you think of it Please. IF I DON'T HEAR FROM ANYONE PLEASE HAVE A BLESS CHRISTMAS, ARE WHAT EVER YOU DO.

[Mojojojo]

This might be a bit late, but I have a Line 6 Spider Jam which is the JM4 installed into a speaker cabinet. Same models and jam functions. The Spider Jam came out first then they released the pedal version so users could use their own amps.

In my opinion, the jam along tracks are very limiting. Not much there for a jazzer. Some blues and very rock heavy. Also a bit of modern tracks in the hip hop, industrial, techno type genres. Severely lacking in jazz. You can create your own tracks and load them up, but that's extra hassle.

The looper - the looper wants to use the library of drum tracks. The installed drum tracks are the same as used in he jam tracks I mentioned above. Lacking for jazz. You can play with the menus to record loops without using the drums, kind of a hassle cause it won't save those settings when you turn the unit off. Repeated requests to Line 6 for firmware updates have fallen on deaf ears. I got the Jam when it first came out and in the five years or so, there's only been 2 software updates. The last one coming in 2009 or so. Line 6 seems to be more interested in pushing new products instead of supporting older products.

Now for the tone. There's hundreds of preloaded tones, but most cater to metal heads or are super heavily processed. Not vintage friendly. Since my Jam is integrated into its own amp, I can't really bypass the amp models. I believe you can do this on the JM4 but I'm sure it will require more unnecessary menu tweaking.

Now with a lot of work, I've been able to come up with some decent tones. Nowhere near as nice as the tone of my jam mates tube amps, but definitely more versatile. I can emulate everything from a Blackface Fender to a Roland JC120 to all the metal and spaceship noise you want with some tweaking.

I'm happy with mine despite my complaints. It fulfilled my need for a portable amp with enough power to play with drums but can maintain its tone at low volumes and filled with all the practice features I required. Now having said that, if I already had a good amp, and just needed a looper, I would go with a dedicated looper peddle like the Boss RC units or the Digitech Jamman. Much easier to set up your loops without redundant menu fidgeting.

[oldane]

If you will use it for practice of whole tunes (as opposed to jamming the same lick/turnaround over and over again with a looper), you may want to check out a multipurpose/multieffect unit like say a Line 6 POD HD Desktop which has all kinds of effects and amp simulations as well as decent clean sounds (it IS digital after all), AND it has an USB output, so it can go directly into any PC/Mac equipped with a recording program without laying a too heavy burden on the computers processor ressources (the sound is already processed when it comes from the POD). It can also go into a digital recorder (on which you can have prerecorded the practice backing track). It also has an extra XLR input in addition to the normal jack, so you can also use it with a prerecorded tune on any MP3 player which plug into the extra input. The POD HD can also be used as a preamp directly into a powered PA speaker or a PA system- in which case there are no need for an amp - or into the FX return of an ordinary amp. Jim Soloway has recently posted video clips here, where he uses the POD HD directly into his recording system and he wrote that he has abandoned an ordinary amp. So such a unit is pretty versatile. What it doesn't have, and which would have been useful, are balanced XLR outputs with Phantom Power (I hate those flimsy 9v power cables).

I am mentioning the PD HD as an example of a modern, versatile digtal unit, but there are other excellent units from other brands out there. Which to prefer depends on individual needs. Check out the specs on the internet - and especially note the in and out options so you don't get stuck with something which either don't work for your future needs or needs quirky and difficult to set up solutions. IMHO, ease of use is important. We should spend our time playing and practicing music, not being engineers.

Another option is a digital recorder with multitrack and sound processing options like the Boss Micro BR (again there are other option from other brands).