Last Christmas… nope not the song. Last Christmas I decided to upgrade my POD HD500X to the Line 6 Helix Guitar Effects Pedal. I had done a ton of research and had considered the Headrush by Eleven as I had previously tried the Eleven Rack and loved it for the studio. I also considered AX8 by Fractal as well as the Kemper Toaster. I compared all the features and finally decided that my two real contenders where the AX8 and the Helix. I finally decided to go with the Helix Lt due to the price difference, this however might not have been the best decision.
I ordered the Helix Lt from Thomann and it arrived a couple of weeks later. I plugged it in right away and started creating my tones, the stock tones where very basic and do not represent the capabilities of the pedal at all. After some tweaking and a very easy learning curve I had my first good tone for live use. Line6 really got it down with the user interface, it’s really easy to use weather you are technology orientated or not. It has a ton of features to mod your tones which gives you a lot of creative tools to make the best out of your tone. The Amp models also respond very well for a modulator. It felt as close to a real amp as I had ever gotten from a multi fx pedal.
The dual DSP allows you to add lots of effects and create complex effects chains, this was something the HD500X really lacked as it had a limitation on amount of effects you can use in any chain. With dual DSP you can create lots of different kind of chains and included send/return within the chain without using DSP slots.
The Amps and Effects on the Helix Lt are quite amazing, what surprised me even more was the new Amps and Effects that came with every Firmware update. Additional Amps used to cost 99 USD to add to the HD500X and now they are added. There are also stereo and mono effects along with all the legacy effects which you can still use.
Another great function is Impulse Responses, Helix Lt can load IR’s from 3rd parties (or even self created ones) which you can then use in your signal chain. I bought some IR’s for Cab’s and even bought a Taylor 640 Acoustic Guitar IR which can really give your guitar an acoustic feel. Some of the Cab IR’s available are really good and can give you a proper Amp Sound.
Now the bad part, the Helix Lt built quality is inferior to Helix Floor or AX8. The chassis is made out of a thin sheet of pressed metal which is “OK” the problem however is how the expression pedal is connected to the board. Two flaps of metal are stamped out of the Chassis which hold the bold that in turn holds the expression Pedal. After 2 months of gigging, I noticed that the pedal would no longer go from 0% to 100%, instead it would bounce back by a few percent. Volume was never off at 0% and the same problem was at 100% when the pedal bounced back to 85% – 90%.
I found on the line 6 forum that opening the Helix lt to service the expression pedal does not cancel the warranty so I decided to open it and found that the flaps holding the bold in place started to tear (picture below)
I contacted Line6 via their support forum and was told that this is an issue they are aware off and is caused by a faulty metal press and only applies to a limited amount of shipped pedals. They asked me to ship the pedal back right away and said it would be replaced. Again a great support experience from Line6.
I ended up sending the pedal back to Thomann, the Thomann support team dealt with this very efficiently and I ended up upgrading to the Helix Floor which should have been my choice from the begin. The Sound quality, Amps and Effects are exactly the same. The build quality however is a lot better and it comes with quite a few extras such as additional inputs, scribble strips and more.
If you have any questions about the Line 6 Helix Lt or Helix floor, feel free to ask me. I am more than happy to give you my opinion if you are considering to purchase this Guitar FX Processeor.
Best Regards
Romie
Helix LT Line 6
807.00
Pros
- Dual DSP
- Ease of Interface
- Quality of Effects & Amps
- Constant Updates and New Features
- Big Screen and Colors for using at Night
Cons
- Built Quality lacks
- Less Input's than full Model
- No Scribble Strips
- Pedal Failed
