I'm dissatisfied with my HX FX - would I prefer TC Plethora X5?

Dominic

How do you guys who have tried various multis rate the Headrush ......it's certainly easy to use and their old rack effects were good

allen

I'd be interested in the answer to that question too.

No real experience with it, but I did have a fiddle with a headrush at the guitar show.

Sounded very good to me (but then it was a tweaked preset for the show I assume)

The youtube videos look like it has a really good interface too.

Lot pricier than the plethora though and a lot more options - so there's the potential for option paralysis.

TheMarlin

I have a HXFX. Only used it for an hour or so. 

It’s nice enough, but uninspiring. 

But, I’ve not even scratched the surface with what it can do. I should give it a proper go, but honestly prefer individual pedals. Luddite. 

menamestom

How do the Boss 200 series effects compare?

Obviously no reverb, but there’s the delay and mods.

allen

I've ordered a Plethora. Will try to give some opinion vs my HX FX when I get it.

TheBigDipper

Dominic said:

How do you guys who have tried various multis rate the Headrush ......it's certainly easy to use and their old rack effects were good

I owned a Gigboard for a few months. The easiest unit I've ever tried to program. That screen and the user workflow is excellent. There is no computer editing interface and there's no need for one, either. The effects were good (but not like the Line 6 approach of modelling branded pedals). The clean and dirty amp/cab sims were good and the "edge of breakup" not so convincing. But I think that about every modeller I've ever used, so... 

On balance, the only reason I kept my HX FX and didn't replace it using the Gigboard just as an MFX was the power of Line 6 Command Center as a MIDI controller. The Gigboard wasn't anything like as comprehensive. 

But my need for MIDI control is diminishing....  :-) 

allen

Thanks for the info about the headrush.

My plethora turned up today.

Seems much easier to use than the hxfx. Slightly quirky/annoying things about the interface though.

I've only spent an hour with it though.

The sounds are good about 90% of the time.

I'm definitely enjoying it so far. Will post a longer review when I've had more time with it.

ESBlonde

Where the HXfx scores for me is value/convenience.  Been using it a few years live as just a simple stomp box. One boutique pedal would cost the same as the whole unit and I get comp, boost, chorus, clanger, delay and one drive with no patch cables and power connection issues. 
I can see that sitting at home might cause endless tweaking but as a simple plug and play (once basic settings are in place) it's quite acceptable.

TheBigDipper

How's it going with the Plethora? 

kennedydream1980

I’ve owned the HXFX a number of times and it sounds good for certain things, however I just can’t get on with the delay. It just never sits right for me. I just prefer TC effects and delays they work far better for me.

I was close to pulling the trigger on a Plethora, but I only really use Chorus, Delay and Reverb. So in the end I picked up a cheap TC Triple delay. You can manipulate it into a pseudo multi effects using some of the toneprint templates on the TC Toneprint app. 

allen

TheBigDipper said:

How's it going with the Plethora? 

I would say about 90% good.

For background I'm a home player.

I like the form factor. Smaller than the HX so I can perch it on top of the amp to twiddle knobs easily. I've powered it from a usb battery to avoid the inconvenience of having to plug into the wall.

The interface is pretty snappy - start with a blank screen. My preference is to have a reverb always on so it's nice to have one that i can select and then leave on. I tend not to dabble with the mix too much when I'm playing.

Then I stick a delay on. This is a bit more tricky, but i've found that while turning the toneprint knob you can hear what the new effect sounds like while in edit mode. so you can stick one on, strum a bit and decide if you like it. once it's selected you can turn the mix/feedback knobs to taste. However, when playing for a bit you have to go back to edit mode and then select which effect you're editing before then readjusting the mix/feedback/time - so that's a tiny bit less direct than a dedicated pedal.

The main mods I would use are a bit of tremolo or chorus. those are easier for me because they're a bit set and forget. i'm not going for any wacky sounds - just playing rock and pop music.

One of the things that I like much better than the hx is that things don't have wacky names. a plate reverb is called 'plate reverb' not 'ding-dong' or whatever line6 have named it.

I also quite like having 3 knobs only and not having the endless options on the hx.

I am slightly disappointed by the app though. I was hoping to be able to tweak it live via the app - and you can, but then the knob locations override the app settings so when you save it things change. which is fine if you edit the knob parameters, but that turns into a huge ballache unless you are setting something up for a specific song.

For example, I've been playing about trying to do a timmons style dual delay. I know the parameters, but can't dial it in easily as the time knob overrides the ipad settings. If I wanted to do it for real I'd have to spend 20 minutes configuring everything - and that's not what i want to do.

Regarding tone - I select quite a few toneprints that are not my taste, but there is usually a kind of goldilocks one after quickly auditioning a few.

Overall, quite a lot of instant gratification via ease of use and the long list of presets/toneprints that come with it.

There is a strong rumour of a firmware update to come so hopefully they will iron out the quirks.

What would make it 100%
- more direct control via knobs (not sure how they could do that)
- easier/simpler ipad editing (maybe address the knob problem via ipad)

there's a bunch of other minor annoyances, but that's probably it.

TheBigDipper

Thanks for the update. I’ve got one arriving tomorrow. Let's see how it goes…

NelsonP

How is the pitch shiter? Polyphonic? Can it handle a 'Hendrix' chord without throwing a wobbler?

BeardyAndy

Short answer is no.....

But I bought a GT1000 core and it lasted a week, I still want to use my amp and the boss was too much of an all in one solution. Plus it was trying too hard to be like its big brother, no bypass mode either. Wouldve been better off as multi fx with some modelling rather than a full time amp modeller.

PX'd it for a Plethora and its excellent, perfect multi fx imho. 14 effects to choose from plus all the toneprint variations. I have my tuner into wah then the X5 Octave/FX Loop (out to drives) phaser, chorus, reverb and then back out to a clean boost on the end. I have the X5 at the front so I can switch the selected the drive via the FX loop.