Tube Amp Snob tries the LINE 6 HX STOMP in 2024.... 

Where can I see reviews that arn't a guy alone in a room? I have no problem with the tone of my stereo10w amp for alone in a room type playing, but I need to fig out whats required to have a power trio, A 2x12 palamino we picked up cheap disapears when blastbeats are rollin, I'm frustrated with these guys playing alone in a room no YT, that I think since I'm not a musician and never moving i should get a 100w head and 4x12 cause the kids I knew with bands all had those and at least I know that works. I'd like to think i made a smart move but NONE of the reviews i see have any kind of practical demo with the mic 10ft away and bass and drummer chugging.

@@johanjotun1647 ah man yeah I understand. I guess as a dude who has had both I can say the power amp you use can be a bigger challenge than the preamp. I like the helix but you can use so many great preamps and modelers. The Duncan powerstage is just loud enough, the blackstar amped one is loud enough, the orange pedal baby is SUPER loud. If you want the 100 watt 412 thing, there really isn’t anything exactly like it though. Just remember speakers are king.

​@johanjotun1647 Jeff Loomis used a Helix rack into a duncan powerstage for a time with Archenemy. I have a Helix Lt and run it into a power amp from This Heavy Earth into a 2x12 and have no problem being heard with my band.

I profiled my single rectifier with my TONEX and I run that into the Helix FX loop. I played a gig last night and the other guitarists swarmed the stage after we played trying to figure out what I was using because we sounded huge. Amazing how far technology has come.

@@johanjotun1647KSR PA 50

lacks balls compared to the real thing

​@@asianaxeman And the Stomp isn't meant to sound anything like the real thing lol

@@asianaxeman I have a Boogie MKIV , a Kemper Powerhead, and HX Stomp. The only profile I use on my Kemper is the one I made of my MKIV, the HX Stomp's MKIV is "ok"...until you throw som 3rd party IR's (Ownhammer) for instance, TOTALLY changes it, in the mix, it's pretty darn close..SERIOUSLY..it took a bit of tweeking on a preset I purchased, added my favorite Ownhammer IR (412 recto V30 OS) and it has the same midrangy bounce (..I go for Sevendust-Dark New Day Clint Lowery kind of sound..) Again, this is in the mix, or through monitors..When it comes to "moving air" at a live band volume, through a powered pedal, or even going through the fx return of a tube amp, it sounds really good, but not the same "feel or bounce", but great tone nonetheless. Travelling? can't beat the Stomp for all in one. Is it the end all replacement for the tube amp? Depends on your needs...There is NOTHING like running thru the MKIV at band volume..the chewey hairy goodness (..like starting up a Harley in your living room..), the Kemper and these modelers are a great alternative when you can't go balls out with "The Rig,"

@@sb6232 chewy hairy goodness is a great description

For sure. Orange nailed it!

Appreciate ya, man. I picked Scott's brain on this a bit back and it inspired this video. Great little travel rig that doesn't sacrifice much in the way of tone!

And that low end is what you don't need in a guitar tone in the mix. That's just a selfish wish guitarists of the 80s metal freeks have. Which also includes me but I've grown out of it after learning some sound engineer things. + modelers aren't modeling amps alone, but rather modeling miked up amps, which never sound the same as an amp alone. So they are doing what they are supposed to do and you are asking for what they aren't meant to do and calling them good or bad.

At home enjoyment and recording.

Isn't it already like this? Digital is lightweight, smaller, easier to handle in a live setting, inexpensive, and sonically identical in a livemix. For me, there is almost no reason to drag a tube amp onstage except for a big ego.

Already

agreed!

Thanks so much! For reasons I don't want to get into, I will not be reviewing any KMA equipment, though.

He also said the Kinky Boost is based on the BB Preamp, but it's actually the EP Preamp

If I can figure out how, I definitely will!

You need the HX Edit on your computer. Then you can export the presets easily from the HX Stomp to the computer. Also editing is more easy.

Shea of Monomyth Amplification would be a good start!

@@belligerentamateur thanks do you have an email for him. I can't find one.

make sure volume on your preamp/modeler starts all the way down and only bring it up to what you want.

@@blitzkrieg3238 My concern was with the fact that the EVH Stealth only has preamp volume controls. Most amps also have a "Master" volume to give you general volume for the power amp but the EVH does not. If you raise the volume on your preamp, you color your tone.

Quilter actually sent me one last week!

Everything sounds good with the powerstation LOL

Nope! Didn't add any sort of volume boost to the preamp models at all

thanks man!

I have the Stage II, and can honestly say it is top tier

Very interesting I’m going to try that tomorrow night.

The 5150 on the Headrush MX5 also is very disappointing. It sounds like a blanket or something is draped over it,even when using IRs.

They modeled the invective head though which is dope.

Over on the sonic drive studio channel he A/Bs the helix and a 6505 and they're pretty much indistinguishable. The Panama is also Jeff Loomis' favorite amp in the Helix so it might be worth revisiting

@@gabrielstevens41 I've owned a block letter and 50w 5153 in the past and the helix model just doesnt do it for me 🤷

@@zebric They've yet to add that to the pod go

Esp ltd bk-600

Dude, thank you!

every modeler can but its one of those "it depends" for what level of usefulness it has. Are you planning on bypassing the preamps models and just using stomp boxes? does your amp also have a fx loop? if it does you can use the "4 cable method" or you can bypass your amps preamp state and just run amp models through the fx return (which is how kyle has it going through that evh power stage). Its generally going to sound bad when you run a amp model -> through a real amps preamp -> and then its output/ speaker cab. Also a big mistake modeler noobs make is leave the "IR's" (impulse response) on when it plugged to a guitar amp already going through a real speaker cab. The IR's are design to emulate a speakers voicing like when recording direct. If you have a really clean, high headroom amp....then you should be totally fine running a modeler, but be mindful that its not going to sound accurate or what might be considered "good" when downloading presets. If you're forced, then you have to tune in the presets for your exact amp.

Thank you for your response. I want to try it through an old tube amp, with no effects loop. I suppose I'm worried mainly about the signal being too hot to plug into the front of an amp, but there's probably a way to adjust that. I would think there would be.

@@sirgerbilmacintosh9101 Depending on the power of the amp and how clean it is. You can probably counter any unintended breakup by lowering the modelers master volume and turning up master volume (if it has one) on the tube amp. Treat it like a boost pedal when it comes this, in my experience, pretty much all modern modelers have a good amount overall gain so they can definitely can overdrive an amp even on a clean preset!. Aside from that you get so much value from a modeler. I think the only con with them is that sometimes people just want plug and play and don't want to tinker. With a setup like yours you may have to tinker quite a bit. though the interfaces are getting much easier! Good luck!

Since the 3.5 firmware, yes. Just can't go crazy on other blocks, or you can max the processing out. Stomp IS half the horsepower of the big Helix.

Leeway - Mark of the Squealer

@@physicalremoval24 thanks for some reason I thought it was a megadeth song but I couldn’t figure it out

@@NEC666 No problem. Leeway’s Desperate Measures and Born to Expire are a real treat if you haven’t dived in to them.

The answer is aways both

@@belligerentamateur and also all of them I guess ;)

I did horrible, terrible things to it already.

Oh if those tubes could speak. The horror, the horror…

You run it through some kind of power amp and cab, or powered FRFR AND/OR FOH.

I did! very end of the video 😂

Doh!!! I have the patience of a lamp.

Would sound exactly the same

This is just not true. What is even the context for “losing” especially for a clean tone? I’ve AB’d the helix in a room with multiple tube amps, and power sections. Any amount of differences were negligible and largely dependent on the type of power being used. It might not be for you, but any concept that any modeler “loses” to any tube amp is guitar rabble-rousing. There are just more options now.

Why you sold it and why you regret?

It’s a metal box. Thank you very much

This reminds me of all the old timers bad mouthing distortion pedals and saying “just git yerself a Marshall and put it on 10 and that’s all the gain you’d ever need!” Things change. Some people miss rotary phones too.