Line6 DM4 Distortion Modeler Pedal

Spent about an hour tooling around with this thing in the store after finding I was dissatisfied with virtually every other pedal on the market--all of them are good at one type of tone or a narrow range of tones only, whereas the Line 6 covers a huge variety of tones within a single effect type--think of it as having as diversified a set of tones as a mid range multi-effect processor, but with all of them being different from each other as a result of distortion changes only. It's easy to use, easy to tweak, even the presets offer a good selection. I was looking for a box that would provide that chunky Limp Bizkit sound, a violin-like Jeff Beck lead sound, a medium range Clapton sound and equal parts searing Steve Vai/Jimi Hendrix lead sounds--this pedal had all that, and sooo much more. With the expression pedal, you can even fade from one preset to another for a cool transitional effect (for example, swap from bluesy rhythm to hyperdriven lead, gradually while playing). My one beef, and the reason I give them a 4 on value, is the incompatibility with existing power supplies--you have to put up the $20 to buy the Line 6 power supply, thus negating any benefit of having it in your effects board--you'll still be stick with a wall wart. Otherwise, a solid, well thought-out effect with a huge variety of distortion sounds that challenges even the highest end fuzz boxes.

Feature:
My unit came with a "free" expression pedal. The pedal amounts to a gain control. I wish the pedal could be used to morph between two sounds. I wish there were more than 4 programmable stomp switches.

Quality:
I've had it for 1-2 years and it still works with no headaches. I have not been playing live gigs since I bought it, but it seems gig-safe.

Value:
Very good value. For the cost of a two distortion pedals, you get (in my opinion) six good distortions. Hard to argue with the economics of this box.

Desirability:
I don't care for the sexy gold outer shell. I would be equally (maybe more) happy with a black box. This is a practical addition to my setup.

Sound:
Sound quality is high. Unit is very quite. I bought this pedal because to get a variety of useful distortions, particularly the tube-screamer, rat, and some very heavy distortion. I'm very happy with my amp's "blues" distortion, so blues sounds from the pedal are of secondary importance to me. I am happy with the "boost/comp", "tube drive", "screamer", "classic distortion", "heavy distortion", and "line 6 distortion" sounds. That 6 out of 16. The other 10 are not very useful to me. I use various strats, dunlop q-wah, boss dd6, fender hotrod deville 4x10.

Support:
No experience.

Overall:
I expect to be satisfied with this product for years. If the box was lost, I'd buy another one; it's the cheapest way to get some good, useful distortions. Overall, I am very happy with the DM4. I have six solid distortion sounds for a reasonable cose, in a small package. I wish the other ten sounds were better. I also wish there were more than four programmable stomp switches.