PRODUCT REVIEW
LINE 6
BY GARY GUZMAN
JM4 Looper
It would be a mistake to call the Line 6 JM4
just another loop pedal. With the amount
of features that are jam-packed in this unit,
it”s definitely a guitar player”s workstation.
Besides its looping capabilities, the JM4
Looper is an amp modeler, effects unit, and
composing/practicing tool, all in one.
Within its rugged construction, it houses
12 Line 6 amp models from clean to
“insane.” The seven Smart Control FX
include Chorus/Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo,
Reverb, and tap tempo effects such as
Delay, Tape Echo and Sweep Echo. Effects
for the independent vocal/aux input include
3-band EQ, Compressor, Delay and Reverb.
An integrated tuner is very useful to check
your tuning in between jamming. There are
plenty of presets to make a guitarist happy:
more than 200 artist-created presets, more
than 150 song-based presets, and 36 user-programmable presets.
The ins and outs of the JM4 include: separate instrument, aux and mic inputs, as well
as an input for a CD or MP3 player, and
outputs for an amp, stereo headpho nes
and stereo line out. A Master Volume knob
controls the output, and there is also a Trim
knob to adjust the gain of the mic input.
The Looper can work just like any other
loop pedal, by looping and stacking tracks
from just one instrument. However, it also
features over 100 “Endless Jam” tracks and
drum grooves for you to play along and
create loops with. There are many different
musical styles to jam with—from metal to
country and everything in between. These
tracks aren’t just sterile MIDI tracks with
fake-sounding instruments, they’re actual
recordings by top LA and Nashville session
players. These high-quality grooves sound
great and they’re fun to jam with. It sounds
as if you’re playing with a real band, not
a Casio keyboard! A fair warning: going
through these tracks and playing along can
be very addictive. I easily spent a couple of
hours jamming along with them!
You can save up to 100 CD-quality recordings internally (totaling 24 minutes of
recording time), and there is a slot for
an SD card (sold separately) if you want
to import and export loops and recordings. The JM4 supports up to a 2GB SD
card, which is good for up to 6. 5 hours of
recorded jams. The looper has dedicated
footswitches for Record/Overdub, Play/
Stop, Half Speed, and a handy Undo feature, should you wish to discard your last
take or flubbed line.
Features, Features, Features!
As you can see, there are so many features
on this unit that I didn’t know where to start
exploring. I decided to check out the different amp models first. The basic amp model
set consists of Clean, Twang, Blues, Crunch,
Metal and Insane. I liked the fact that each
different model has two variations—labeled
“Red” and “Green.” For example, the Blues
Red is inspired by a mix of a ’ 65 Marshall
JTM45, a ’ 58 Bassman and a ’ 63 Fender
Vibroverb and a Supro. The Blues Green is
more like an early British rock tone, inspired
by a fawn Vox AC30 with an expanded and
updated tone control circuit. Each model
