Line 6 HX Stomp

The power of the full-fat Helix in stompbox form. Surely not!

- Alex Lynham

Recognising that some players just want the effects from the Helix, Line 6 brought out the HX Effects – a slimmed down Helix with most of the effects, and none of the amps. The HX Stomp is the counterpart to that unit, in that it contains 300 effects, 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.