I was going to buy a Line 6 Helix LT for convenience purposes, but........................

Telejester

Im 55 yrs old and all of the 40 odd years I have been playing guitar, Ive always used stomp pedals. Ive watched some YT videos which feature the LT, and in particular Richard Barrett and Nev Martin look bemused by the thing. Is it a product which millennials handle with ease and we older farts are bewildered by it ?

fretmeister

I'm 52 and never had trouble with my Helix. Loved it so much I bought a HX Stomp as well.

The screen lets you visualise it like a traditional set up.

Input - couple of pedals, then amp and cab, then any other FX, then output to whatever you are plugging it into.

I think it's the easiest to use of all of them. It's easy to get caught up in options - you suddenly have about 250 pedals to choose from, but that's part of the fun for me.

chrisj1602

I’ve used the the LT direct but mainly as a pedalboard into an amp. It was more than I needed so I sold mine but it worked very well in both scenarios and it’s very easy to use.

Musicwolf

I'm 62.  There are some things that I do find more difficult as I get older.  I can't read without my glasses, I need to turn the volume up on the tv and I can't eat pizza and drink beer at 10:00pm without getting indigestion.  What I can still do is to programme my Helix or my Kemper (and integrate them with my backing tracks for automatic switching, sync with the light show etc).

Age is just a state of mind.

fretmeister

You'll also find loads of people willing to help with it.

The semi official facebook group has nearly 50,000 people in it swapping ideas and answering questions.

And it's dead easy for other users to email presets to each other to try out.

thomasw88

IF you're going for an all in one?   I'd suggest looking at the Boss GX100 or the Hotone Ampero 2 stage  both of which were easier to use/sound better imo.

If you're looking for effects into a normal amp then the Fractal VP4 is miles ahead of the Line 6 HX effects, although the HX is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots of people really like the Helix, but I always found it didn't quite work for me in a band situation .  If its just for the house then just about anything these days sounds decent..

mudslide73

I'm 52 and have a Stomp and LT. They can get complicated if you want but normal use is easy as pie. I've got a Morningstar MC6 and getting that set up was quite difficult but you can cut and paste once you're happy with a layout.

borntohang

If you can use a computer or a mobile phone then you can manage a Helix. You don't have to get into power-user territory to dial up a decent sounding amp and cab setup. 

Telejester

Did any members here who returned their LT back to the shop do so because they couldnt get their head around it and stomps were just much easier to live with ?

newi123

What kind of convenience are you after?

flying_pie

thomasw88 said:

IF you're going for an all in one?   I'd suggest looking at the Boss GX100 or the Hotone Ampero 2 stage  both of which were easier to use/sound better imo.

If you're looking for effects into a normal amp then the Fractal VP4 is miles ahead of the Line 6 HX effects, although the HX is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots of people really like the Helix, but I always found it didn't quite work for me in a band situation .  If its just for the house then just about anything these days sounds decent..

Adrian Smith uses a HXFX for gigging with Iron Maiden. Kind of puts things into perspective, especially as suitability for your average pub covers band goes

These days most stuff sounds good. I'd generally go with what seems the most intuitive

willo

newi123 said:

What kind of convenience are you after?

Killer question. 

The Helix is very good but you'll benefit from using the PC editor in the first couple of weeks. It is then easy to use and setup patches on the unit, especially with the capacitive footswitches.

But the screen is smaller than others, like QC and Tonemaster Pro.

I now use a Fractal and I think it is easier than many claim, but certainly less intuitive than the Helix.

All four are, I would argue, much more convenient than pedalboards as you can add, delete, reorder without any need to think of patch cables, power supplies, and velcro.

Sporky

I'm gen X and I can work a Helix just fine. 

fretmeister

flying_pie said:

thomasw88 said:

IF you're going for an all in one?   I'd suggest looking at the Boss GX100 or the Hotone Ampero 2 stage  both of which were easier to use/sound better imo.

If you're looking for effects into a normal amp then the Fractal VP4 is miles ahead of the Line 6 HX effects, although the HX is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots of people really like the Helix, but I always found it didn't quite work for me in a band situation .  If its just for the house then just about anything these days sounds decent..

Adrian Smith uses a HXFX for gigging with Iron Maiden. Kind of puts things into perspective, especially as suitability for your average pub covers band goes

These days most stuff sounds good. I'd generally go with what seems the most intuitive

Nita Strauss uses a Boss GT unit for her solo work. Only gets the racks of gear when Alice Cooper is paying the roadies.
I think all the current units will work well enough these days.

thomasw88

flying_pie said:

thomasw88 said:

IF you're going for an all in one?   I'd suggest looking at the Boss GX100 or the Hotone Ampero 2 stage  both of which were easier to use/sound better imo.

If you're looking for effects into a normal amp then the Fractal VP4 is miles ahead of the Line 6 HX effects, although the HX is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots of people really like the Helix, but I always found it didn't quite work for me in a band situation .  If its just for the house then just about anything these days sounds decent..

Adrian Smith uses a HXFX for gigging with Iron Maiden. Kind of puts things into perspective, especially as suitability for your average pub covers band goes

These days most stuff sounds good. I'd generally go with what seems the most intuitive

Adrian Smith will also have a guitar tech, and a bunch of well paid professionals ensuring his sound on stage is fantastic..  I suspect that the OP like most of us on this forum don't have that luxury
 Plenty of people use lower end effects units to good  effect but thats not really the point.

I'm not dissing the Line 6 stuff, its' perfectly good, but the OP was asking for recommendations for easy to use which I've given him having owned all the units I mentioned.I had the Helix LT, and full fat plus several Stomps for a good number of months,  gigged the HX fx for a year, so it's not based upon a quick couple of days playing with them.

LionAquaLooper

I've found:

- for impromptu jam sessions (i.e. you won't know what songs are going to come up), it's much quicker to dial in stomp boxes.  Plus the fact you're limited to just the few stompboxes on your board is very liberating.
- for gigs with known setlists and also songwriting/recording sessions, the plethora of FX available, ability to rearrange your signal chain on the fly, and Helix's proprietary Snapshots are awesome.  

This is why I have two pedalboards.  One with an HX FX, and another with just stompboxes

YMMV.

markv

I don't think it's anything to do with age. If you're happy to spend a bit of time familiarising yourself with an interface that, to start with, will feel somewhat different to a board of pedals, then it should be do-able. It's not hard to work with but it does require that investment.

If you want the incredible variety of options that a Helix (or other modeller) gives you then it could be worth the effort. I got an HX Stomp as a (relatively) cheap way of dipping my toe into it

stratman3142

I'm 70 and use a Helix LT in stompbox mode into the front end of an amp. It's been that way since I got mine around in 2017.

The mono 1/4 jack output goes to the front end of a real amp (no ampsim). I've also got an ampsim and cabsim block in the path to the mono XLR ouput so I can also go straight into a PA or FRFR.

It's not about age. I find it very easy to use.

flying_pie

thomasw88 said:

flying_pie said:

thomasw88 said:

IF you're going for an all in one?   I'd suggest looking at the Boss GX100 or the Hotone Ampero 2 stage  both of which were easier to use/sound better imo.

If you're looking for effects into a normal amp then the Fractal VP4 is miles ahead of the Line 6 HX effects, although the HX is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Lots of people really like the Helix, but I always found it didn't quite work for me in a band situation .  If its just for the house then just about anything these days sounds decent..

Adrian Smith uses a HXFX for gigging with Iron Maiden. Kind of puts things into perspective, especially as suitability for your average pub covers band goes

These days most stuff sounds good. I'd generally go with what seems the most intuitive

Adrian Smith will also have a guitar tech, and a bunch of well paid professionals ensuring his sound on stage is fantastic..  I suspect that the OP like most of us on this forum don't have that luxury
 Plenty of people use lower end effects units to good  effect but thats not really the point.

I'm not dissing the Line 6 stuff, its' perfectly good, but the OP was asking for recommendations for easy to use which I've given him having owned all the units I mentioned.I had the Helix LT, and full fat plus several Stomps for a good number of months,  gigged the HX fx for a year, so it's not based upon a quick couple of days playing with them.

I don't doubt a stage crew helps but you can't polish a turd

The point I was making is that most digital effects have been perfectly good for at least the last 20 years and you didn't need the most up to date great to sound good. Modelled amps are a different matter. I have loaned my old Boss GT100 to the other guitarist in my band to use on pedalboard mode and it still sounds good enough. As long as you're not using the built in high gain amp sims that is

TimmyO

Telejester said:

Im 55 yrs old and all of the 40 odd years I have been playing guitar, Ive always used stomp pedals. Ive watched some YT videos which feature the LT, and in particular Richard Barrett and Nev Martin look bemused by the thing. Is it a product which millennials handle with ease and we older farts are bewildered by it ?

Nev has been gigging a Helix for years. Was that a very old video? 

duotone

TimmyO said:

Telejester said:

Im 55 yrs old and all of the 40 odd years I have been playing guitar, Ive always used stomp pedals. Ive watched some YT videos which feature the LT, and in particular Richard Barrett and Nev Martin look bemused by the thing. Is it a product which millennials handle with ease and we older farts are bewildered by it ?

Nev has been gigging a Helix for years. Was that a very old video? 

I think this is the video OP is referring to, it’s 8 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxBgum0LA5s