Line6 HX Stomp

I have been using HX Stomp for the past 6 months and have some remarks.
1). It's really well-built, has tons of features & the sound quality is really professional - really nothing to complain about.
2). It has some added uses - about which you might have not known:
- it is a great practice tool - on its own - you can just plug-in your headphones to it and have a good time practicing while using the simulation of whatever amp you like
- it is a really good recording interface (via USB) with ASIO/midi etc.

2). It has some minor flaws which I would like you to be aware of:
- the quality of effects is not even:
- time-based effects (reverbs, delays, vibratos, choruses etc.) are simply superb;
- amp simulations - are really great - but require lots of effort to sound right - they just don't work like real tube amps which tend to sound ok at all the settings. These simulated amps CAN sound great - provided you found the settings which suit your guitar, pickups and playstyle. And believe me there are a lot of settings that can be set wrong.
- noise gate - it' simply is there - but it's really nothing sophisticated or special
- looper - it's there but the buffer is really short
- overdrives/distortions - I still prefer the real counterparts. Maybe I still did not find the correct settings? For me they do not sound ok - they do not clean up as they should and the tone/texture is simply is not there

- you really cannot use a standard power source from your pedalboard - you have to use the one provided with the unit - it is a 3000mA source. Not a big problem, but adds some mess to your pedalboard.
- you have to be good at word puzzles to use this one - due to copyright issues - example? What is "$$ for nada" preset?
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing :-) What is "2/3 beards"? - ZZ Top
Sometimes you will guess sometimes you will not - but this does not make the life easier.

Hi, first of all i want to say that i fought over having digital stuff in my rig. I was a tube amp guy, expensive boutique pedals, expensive pedalboard, good cables, stereo routing, etc etc. But the truth was that i was always afraid of the amount things that could fail in a live situation. Unfortunately that happened and it was really frustrating. So after years i finnally decided to give a try and i bought the Stomp. The goal was to have a reliable pedalboard, with great sound, no more tons of cables, something almost plug and play. The first impression when i got the Stomp was how tiny but sturdy and weel built it was. Also very good looking. i tried some factory presets trough the PA system and i knew instantly that it would soung as good as my analog rig. Of course that some tweaking had to be made but he sound was there. At the present moment and after some rehearsals done and exploring the Stomp i have to say that my rig chanved completely. Now it?s Guitar into STOMP, midi switcher that i had already and an expression pedal (very needed in order to have flexibility, options and to take advantage of the full optential of the Stomp) straight into de mixer and PA systems. No more Amp, cabinet, pedalboard, mics and spare tool kit. It?s my guitar and my case with the Stomp in it. Simple, light, reliable and with a 3D sound as i?ve never had!
Also the software is really really user friendly. One of the best if not the best.
Don?t compare this with Helix floor. Their purposes are different. The only downside is that right now you only have 6 blocks. i can manage with that perfectly. Line 6 has confirmed that is going to release an update which allows 8 blocks. It?s going to be awesome and enough for 98% of players.
And the price for this little and powerfull tool is a must. So much money spent in boutique...not worthy.

I've owned this for about a month and took it through its paces. The amps sound great, but they do need tweaking. Learning to EQ will be essential with this unit if you're using it as an amp modeler.
The cabs are likewise very good, although it's possible to import your own IR's and possibly save yourself from having to tweak lots of parameters (unless you like that).

The effects are perfect. It's not even a question of sounding good or great or whatever, they're just perfect. You'll find pretty much any effect you're looking for, it'll pretty much sound good right away, while still also giving you the option to tweak all kinds of parameters if you want to. There are multiple places in the signal path to regulate volume level (adequately expressed in +/- db, not that 0 to 100 nonsense you find all too often) so maintaining unity gain is no problem at all. I still prefer to use my analogue overdrives, but I could absolutely use the ones in the Stomp (and I do for snapshots). It's a small difference.

Dual paths are very nice for combining effects. I especially like having the option to trigger the secondary path only over/under a certain frequency or dynamic range. For example it's allowed me to create a preset where the bass notes (strings 5 and 6) are doubled by an octaver while the high notes (roughly strings 4 through 1) are not.

It's made many of my other effects redundant. For example I love my Boss DD-8 delay, but I pretty much stopped using it, and am considering selling it because the delays on the Stomp are equally good if not better, and easy to use and integrate in snapshots. If you don't know what snapshots are, watch a video demonstration. They're brilliant.

I want to explain why I have rated it 3/5 on handling:

I wish to give an unbiased review and point out the weaknesses of this unit:

- the UI does take some learning. Once learned, it is quick and intuitive, allowing you to make presets on the unit in minutes. However it'll take some actual studying to get you there. Also, it does show its age when compared to something like the UI of the Quad Cortex or the new Helix Stadium. It's not tragic, but it might be a turn off for some.

- It is possible to run out of blocks or dsp. Not often, and if you're using it alongside other pedal it won't be a problem 95/100 times. However it can happen and you just have to live with it when it does.

- The looper is there, and that's all the good I can say about it. It has a short recording time (I belive 45 seconds but I could be wrong), it uses up an effects block and it is cumbersome to actually assign footswitches to it. Since you only have three footswitches on the unit anyway, I don't recommend it. You'll definitely still need a separate looper if you loop heavily or even moderately.

- the factory presets are not good. I recommend ditching them as soon as you get the unit, and creating your own.

Obviously this is time intensive and thus the stomp won't sound great out of the box. It'll however sound better and better and better the more time you put into it. Once you've built your collection of presets, you'll have all your sounds ready to follow you everywhere.

It's a fantastic unit and I wholeheartedly recommend it

Ok Here is little story. I've tried lot of units. I originaly started with pod hd500x back when it was the hottest modeling unit out there. Then I started to experiment with other units and effects, went through Boss GT-100, TC electronics nova system, analog effects pedalboard, back to GT-100 and then Helix and Helix LT came out. It was perfect. Had everything I ever needed but it was little on the large side of floor units. So I sold my Helix LT and tried smaller Boss GT-1000, which was, for me as Boss fan, one of the greatest let downs ever. I was back with large and for my three and half (ambient clean/drone sound, overdrive, hi-gain) simple presets overly capable Helix LT. So what now?

Long story short, I sold the LT and bought this little piece of greatness.

There are few things worth mentioning if you are still deciding on buying:

1) It is built like tank. No bendy, soft sheet but thick casted metal stombox
2) Sound quality of amp models is, as with whole Helix family, exceptional
3) Controls and UI are amazingly intuitive. You really don't need to use PC to create sounds (except for updloading IRs)

And some little flaws I just mention so I won't sound like payed Line6 fanboy:
1) It gets warm after some time of use - lots of circuitry cramped in small metal box
2) Some of the effect models are little lacking compared to others
3) Powersource is almost as big as the unit itself and you can't use your pedalboards powersource out of the box thanks to HX stomps power demands. Might be issue if you want to use it as part of bigger pedalboard.
4) It really could use some controls cover or software lock to prevent accidental switching when you misstep.

I use it for both home recording and live situations and if you are looking for all-in-one pocket solution or want to expand your pedalboard look no more. This thing is no-brainer.