Line 6 HX Effects

Line 6 puts all of its Helix effects and more in a smaller package that could revamp, or replace, your pedalboard

- Trevor Curwen

When it comes to having something to plug a guitar into, the Line 6 Helix floor processors are all that some players could possibly need. For others, however, they are overkill. A guitar and a Helix that’s connected into the PA can be the sum total of your live rig – as long as experienced ears are taking care of the front of house sound and your onstage monitoring – but many players just want to use Helix for its effects through their existing amp, largely consigning the onboard amp and speaker simulation to redundancy in live performance and leaving some pondering the need for all that extra capability and yearning for something smaller with just the effects. Well, if that’s you, the wait is over. Line 6 says that this latest Helix HX Effects is designed for the guitarist (and bassist) who embraces traditional amp and pedalboard rigs.

The HX Effects is an eight-footswitch box with versatile connectivity that’s pretty comprehensive as far as effects are concerned. We get all 117 effects from the Helix series as well as another 77 from previous Line 6 pedals, like the DL4, and the ones that the HX most resembles: the M9 and M13 stompbox modellers. These effects are arranged in presets, constructed from a chain of up to nine blocks, each of which can host an effect so, DSP permitting, you can have up to nine effects simultaneously.