LINE 6 M5 STOMPBOX MODELER
Posted on Thu 21 April 2011 in entries
In this blog entry I am going to take a quick look at a completely NEW product, the Line 6 M5 Stompbox. Before I begin I want to make it clear that in this particular blog post I haven’t actually had the opportunity to use the M5 Stompbox yet… but I wanted to bring you up to speed about what you can expect from the little brother of the brilliant M9 and M13…
LINE 6 M5 STOMPBOX MODELER – PACKED FULL OF GOODIES!
In many ways the M5 Stompbox Modeler is just like your average stompbox… it provides one effect at a time, it’s extremely simple to use (stomp away!), and it fits your pedal board perfectly. However, the official description of the M5 Stompbox describes it as being different from competition because it is ‘like a Swiss army knife’!? So can in open a tin of beans? Does it have a handy pair of fold-out tweezers? At the very least, surely it can be used to scrape down horses hooves? No? Well, unless your planning to smash open your tin of Heinz with the M5, then you'll probably be disappointed… but I think perhaps I’ve probably taken Line 6’s statement a little too literally! What I think they mean by this is that the M5 Stompbox is packed full of individual tools/effects to take your sounds to the next level, and like a Swiss army knife, you can dip in and choose which tool to use, before ‘folding it away’ and using another one… and with over 100 included modern and vintage effects, from distortions to choruses and reverbs, and loads more, this is certainly the most versatile Swiss army knife I have ever heard of… it’s got even more features than those huge ones you see in camping shops that somehow manage to squeeze in 3 different types of magnifying glass, a compass, and a pair of pliers! Still, wouldn’t it be cool if the M5 Stompbox DID have a foldout bottle-opener?!!
LINE 6 M5 STOMPBOX MODELER – SAVE £££
It’s the news we all want to hear, that the M5 Stompbox costs less than one good single effect pedal! It even features an easy-to-read screen, and it is extremely customisable. It is modestly sized (no bigger than one large single effect pedal), it’s fully stereo, MIDI capable, offers an expression pedal option, tap tempo, and loads more. Plus it’s built inside an extremely robust metal case, so it’s designed to last… just to re-iterate though, DON’T take it with you on isolated camping trips to smash open your tins of Spam!
LINE 6 M5 STOMPBOX MODELER – CONNECTIONS AND CONTROLS
Oh how fun, it’s that part of my blog again where I essentially list all the immediate features of the product in question… which in this case is the Line 6 M5 Stompbox if you haven’t figured it out yet! So if you find this section particularly boring, guess what? You don’t have to read it! Hooray! But it is useful information, and I promise I won’t waffle on for too long…
Starting on the back of the M5, we have a connection for a power cable, followed by five 1/4" jack connections for an expression pedal, input (left), input (right), output (left) and output (right). But like I mentioned earlier, there are also MIDI In and Out connections hiding down the left hand side of the M5, alongside some handy little printed hints for setting up and saving presets (just incase you forget!)
Looking at the controls of the Line 6 M5, you get a nice little display to indicate to you what effect you currently have selected, and the state of it’s parameters, and it also changes colour to indicate what type of effect you are currently using (green = delay, blue = modulation, yellow = distortion, purple = filter, orange = reverb), which is an extremely handy indicator if you are looking down whilst playing your guitar on a dark stage. The Line 6 M5 also offers 6 dials (one for selecting a model, and the others for tweaking parameters), and the all important On/Off and Tap stomp controls.
LINE 6 M5 STOMPBOX MODELER – SUMMARY
The M5 is a motorway in England running from a junction with the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham, to Exeter in Devon (thanks Wikipedia!) But as we have learned, it is also a brand new product in Line-6’s M-range of Stompboxes!
If you want a host of hardware pedal effects but can’t afford to shell out thousands of pounds to collect them individually, the Line 6 M5 Stompbox will be right up your street. Obviously you can only use one effect at a time with the M5, so you can’t create chains within one unit, but it’s a fantastic versatile solution for a great price, and if you don’t want a variety of Stompbox tones and don’t want to spend ages tweaking them, then it’s even better! Plus, if you already have a trusty pedal-board, the M5 Stompbox will make a fantastic edition to it, and its MIDI functionality should make it even more enticing to the potential customer. Whether you are performing regularly or just honing your skills in your bedroom, the M5 could well be what you have been looking for!
You may also be interested to know that the M5 Stompbox comes with a built-in tuner with signal mute, it’s extremely easy to use with no menus, all your settings remain just like a true analogue stompbox, and it features true analogue bypass or DSP bypass.
Line 6 state that the M5 Stompbox sounds better than similar products within the same price range, and is better value. Now of course they would say that, but there is good reason to believe that this is a brilliant product capable of producing some amazing sounds… it’s essentially a smaller version of the M9 and M13 stompboxes, which have received rave reviews… everyone I know who uses these products loves them, so I am expecting much more of the same from the M5…
Purchase the Line 6 M5 Stompbox Effects Unit