Line 6 HX Stomp

Photography: Phil Barker
R
ecognising that some
players just want the
eff ects from the Helix,
Line 6 brought out the
HX Eff ects – a slimmed-
down Helix with most of the
eff ects, and none of the amps. The
HX Stomp is the counterpart to
that unit, in that it contains 300
eff ects, including the Helix, M
Series and legacy Line 6 patches,
as well as the amp, cab and mic
options of the full-fat Helix. It
even supports loading impulse
responses, so if you have modelled
your own amps, or purchased
commercial IRs, they can be
loaded as well.
Cramming not only the sounds
of those units, but also a full-
colour screen into a unit the size of
the HX Stomp is certainly
impressive and no mean feat. This
leads to what seems to be a failure
of the unit: that owing to its size,
it’s very hard to not hit one or
more of the parameter control
knobs with your foot when hitting
the footswitches. Line 6, however,
has clearly thought of this, and
those knobs are not functional
when the unit isn’t in edit mode;
nevertheless, there is always the
worry that you’re one heavy stomp
away from a broken pedal. Still,
it’s a relatively minor concern,
and perhaps pitching up the
front of the pedal on a ’board
would be enough to avoid
damaging anything.
With MIDI in and out, there’s
clearly been some consideration
for those that want to incorporate
the HX Stomp into a rig controlled
by a pedal switcher. In that
context, it’s easy to see the
attraction. Though the HX Stomp
is limited in terms of its controls
on the front, it’s highly
customisable, and off ers a broad
palette of professional-grade
eff ects to explore. For the guitarist
that wants specifi c modulations,
delays or a cab sim on tap ‘just in
case,’ the HX Stomp is a smart,
compact solution, and the
capacitive footswitches make
assigning and editing a relatively
error-free procedure – it’s unlikely
you’ll need to refer to the manual
much at all.
In terms of the sounds, it’s
exactly the high standard that
you’d expect from Line 6. On the
distortion side, we found a decent
amount of mileage with the Rat
and DS-1 models, before settling
on the OCD as one of the better
all-round drives present. Through
our single-ended 5W British-
voiced tube amp, we found a lot to
like with both single-coil and
humbucker pickups, with a fat
drive sound dipping into heavy
saturation as we rolled up the
output. Plugging in our studio
headphones, we set up a Plexi
model at the end of our signal
chain, dropped the gain and
master volume, and stuck an 87
condenser model in front. Going
from the amp in the room to a
simulated amp is always a
claustrophobic experience, but
moving the Plexi forward a spot –
as simple as pressing the rotary
knob, moving the block and
clicking again to confi rm – and
TYPE: Multi-effects pedal
CONTROLS: Three
assignable patch
controls, View, Action,
Page Left and Page Right
buttons; main and
secondary menu knobs,
master volume knob
SOCKETS: MIDI in, MIDI
out/thru, headphone jack,
stereo in, stereo out, TRS
expression in, USB
BYPASS: Buffered bypass
POWER: 9V DC centre-
negative 3A (supplied)
CONTACT: Yamaha UK
uk.yamaha.com
IT OFFERS A BROAD PALETTE OF
PROFESSIONAL GRADE EFFECTS
1
HEADPHONE JACK
Playing late at night?
Don’t want to annoy the
neighbours? Practise
silently by dropping an amp
block into your preset and
then plugging your cans into
the headphone out
2
DUAL EXPRESSION
INPUT
Despite having only a solo
expression input, this jack
accepts a TRS cable, so
it’s possible to run a dual
expression pedal from the
HX Stomp to control wah or
pitch-shift effects
3
DISPLAY
Although it features
a diminutive form-factor,
the HX Stomp manages to
cram a crisp full-colour
screen onto the front panel
LINE 6 HX STOMP
The power of the full-fat Helix in stompbox form. Surely not!
£558
AT A GLANCE
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REVIEW
91
JANUARY 2019 TOTAL GUITAR
TGR314.gear_lead.indd 91 12/5/18 12:05 PM