Line6 HX One - Fixing it’s problems...and my opinions

I'm 3 minutes in and I hate it! All the pressing and hold bollox! I guess I'm just too old for this shit! The plethora x3 by TC is surely a more user friendly option, ok it takes up more space, but still less than most!

plethora 3x is the best in this category for me, little bit bigger, but do so much

Hadn’t realized that they weren’t doing a full PC editor. That’s a let down given the promise of a single serving edition of the Helix/HX ecosystem. I really hope they fix that.

Still on the verge on it. As opposed to the HX Stomp, it seems like doubling the investment gets you a ton more, but I’m still on a paradigm of using a bunch of boxes each of which may do a bunch of different algorithms but only giving me one or two at a time.

Do you think the pedal gains any more functionality with the addition of a fs3/4 switch? It looks like a lot of holding and menu diving, which I would like to avoid.

Awesome insight as always. I would love to see you compare the Line 6 HX One to something like the Zoom MS-70CDR.

The more i approach 50, the more i like going back to Turning knobs.

Wonder why its called HX One

Yup, line6 is the perfect catch-all pedal. I basically use my stomp lx and a delay pedal and everything else is just in case. The m9 worked really well for me before that. It's not "the best", but totally good enough IMO!

Man sounds great, but it’s completely unintuitive for me to use. I’d go nuts trying to use it 🤷🏽‍♂️

My favored approach to tap-tempo is for it to be always on. Which they could have done with a dedicated tap-tempo button that did nothing else. Guessin they were trying to keep costs to a minimum. Having to go into a tap-tempo mode, and then selecting between triplets, or dotted 8ths, etc. or whatever is too much futzing around for my personal tastes. But that's just me. HX One still seems to have some use cases for some people, as you demonstrate. I will say that watching this makes me want to put together a compact pedal board of my own. Alas now's not a good time $$-wise for me to be contemplating such a thing lol. Cheers.

Thanks Michael. Had an M5 in a rack-rig years ago as tend not to use any more than one effect at a time pre-gain. Stuff like analog chorus, flanger and trem. The M5 had terrible MIDI implementation but otherwise worked great and have been eyeing an HX One for a while. No editor no problem for me. Sick of PC's and USB cables to make minor adjustments and no harder than programming 80's/90's rack gear from the pedal's interface.

This vs H9 for catch all utility pedal?

Had it and sold after 1 day.. It absolutely change the tone in my mark v 35.. Didn not find any Z or other parameters that fix the problem.. Had also the m5 which i like more but it was only instrument level.

I've been looking at this pedal for a bit now! Great work Michael!!

My budget told me to buy the Zoom MS50G.🤷‍♂️😂

Just get an hx stomp

Cool video! Was looking for one of these to cover #1 Noise Gate #2 Tuner #3 Delay or Reverb. Can you enable the noise gate without having an effect on? Do you find the unit has a lot of 'tone suck' in front of a tube amp?

The only 2 in 1 effect it must have is the Halo Delay (Delay + Reverb)

Great video Michael. This is the small foot print multi effects pedal I’ve been waiting for. It replaced the tuner, Phase 95 and Chorus on my board and so created space. I now have a decent Flanger, dual pitch shift (for EVH tones), Dimension (for Zakk), Leslie (black hole sun) and a whole world of quality effects that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Good quality effects. I’ve kept my Halo and Red Dirt pedals so don’t currently need it for more than 1 effects at a time. Just wish they’d fix the midi thru!

One thing I wish they would change or put in the HX One is a model of their analog delay sound from their own Line 6 echo park pedal (an excellent delay pedal, used by many including session guitar player Tim Pierce). On the Line 6 Echo Park pedal, the analog delay trails are darker and fade away very musically, whereas on the HX One both the analog delay and analog w/mod delay trails are bright and stand out. I wish there was some suggestion box for line 6 where I could suggest that they model all of the sounds from that Echo Park pedal cause they’re just more musical than what’s in the HX One in my opinion after 48 years of playing guitar (I own 2 HX Ones). I was hoping the HX One would replace my echo park pedal cause the switch is worn out. I’m using the HX One mostly so far for the Klon patch (Minotaur) and the Timmy Patch (Teemah). But there are plenty of great useable sounds in the HX One pedal.

This is no different to the original M5 it replaces. Tap temp is engaged by selecting the beat type.

I have the HX Stomp as my main rig, and the HX One in the loop. I did this for 2 reasons. First, there are some very DSP hungry fx, like 12 String and Digital Capo, that would be much too restrictive if I used them in the HX Stomp. So having the HX One is like extending my DSP. Second, I use about 1/2 dozen modulations, and since you can't put them all in the same preset, I would have to manage and maintain lots of presets. Ex: 6 versions of my Vox preset (one for each modulation I might need), 6 versions of my Fender preset, 6 versions of my Marshall preset, etc. But by extracting the modulations to the HX One, I can have 1 Vox, 1 Fender and 1 Marshall, and just change presets in the HX One to select the modulation I need for any given song. Its working out very well for my use case. And the price is an interesting topic. At first, I thought $299 was a lot for one effect at a time. But then, I realized that people were spending twice that on H9's which are (for the most part) one effect at a time also. Andthen, when I thought about how I might use it, I realized it was well worth the $299 to extend my DSP and simplify my preset maintenance.

I ended up buying two of them. Reason why i didn't get stomp was because i got Opus for preamp/amp/cab. So i just put HX One before and one after Opus. Basically use one for delay/reverb/mod/eq and the second one as boost/overdrive/fuzz etc. Would love if i could combine two effects and make it as preset so i can ditch additional pedals delay+reverb and boost+overdrive and use flux to activate the "+ pedal". They do cover some two pedal effects as a preset like flager+chorus so we know it is possible. That said, I am absolutely pleased with the device.

Are you planning on a comparison with Eventide?
There's a surprising lack of quality videos comparing the Line 6 HX stuff to Eventide H9/H90

Looks like a complex pain in the a$$ system.

is it possible to determine min and max values for parameters to control with an expression pedal? just like you control the bar underneath the knobs on the eventide h9

Sounds are good, interface and ease of access are poor. Big line 6 fan, but this really seems borderline anachronistic even when compared to older to similar pedals like the M series.

So, it is possible to leave a program in the right mode, right? I would want most temporal presets to be in tap tempo when I recall them.

So if you have the Line 6 HX FX do ya need this and which one you recommend between the two ?

Good review & some nice tips.
I see people complaining a lot about the 'limitation' of 1 effect. What is being neglected, though, is how Flux would be implemented in a multi-effect device. Flux is basically the same as snapshots, but with a smooth transition between states. Implementing this where there are more than one effect would greatly increase the complexity of the code. I say this as a software developer of 30 years.

Greats i started to think mine was faulty. Tks a lot

thx for the tap tempo tip! helped me a lot 😉

Always love your videos man. Big fan here! The HX One sounds good, but has serious issues that hasn’t been fixed in almost a year now. Midi issues, the tuner doesn’t work in true bypass mode. etc etc.. You can’t save the effects in Off or bypass, (like you can do with the M5) what makes the scrolling unusable in a live situation. I contact them and their only answer is “we are working on it” It’s amazing that some companies these days can release an unfinished product, not fixed it for almost a year, charge money for it, and get away with it. I will love that pedal once they upgrade the firmware. (hopefully some day) Now is not a tool. It’s a toy.

I had this for about 2 days and had to return it. The problem came when I put it on my board and was standing directly above it. When you are scrolling the patches looking for a preset, they put 3 lines of text on that tiny screen and it's impossible to read from that distance. My eyesight is in good shape too.

How does the effect quality compare with the old M5 Mike?

It’s perfect t for me as I needed one of many effects to add to a core of others on my bass pedal board

Biggest negative. No user blank patches, You have to write over existing patches to make a preset of the patch your creating

It looks like we’re still waiting for a good tap tempo implementation that doesn’t require menu diving. TC Plethora also buries that setting.

*its.
Sorry it took us five months to come here; the grammar police had been busy.

hey Michael, great video! I just got one, having issues with it in true bypass mode. the signal seems to only be one sided, but it's in normal stereo in tsp bypass. do you have that same issue?

I have the same desk behind you. How did you get the monitor to sit on the desk. The stand on mine is too high but I cant lower it anymore. Great video.

this should have a touch screen with a nice GUI

Would you use a foot switch perhaps with 2 assignable buttons to make moving about easier?

So are you saying you can't control tap tempo with your foot? You have to press buttons? I must be misunderstanding something.

I stay away from pedals, that use an app for editing and loading effects etc.
really appreciate the lack of it. forces the UX to be good from the start. also apps must be maintained by the companies. if they stop maintaining it, you can use your pedal two or three years. after that, it becomes an expensive brick with a fraction of the functionality you bought it for.

Great review. Will get mi e in a few hours and can’t wait to play with it.

I got one because I love the Helix poly pitchshifters and it was hard to use them in my HX Stomp centric board so it essentially became a substitute for my aging Digitech Drop with the obvious added function of becoming anything else I might need. I think it's great but I agree an editor should be a must, after all HX Edit works with pretty much all the range of products so adding that like the HX Effects doesn't seem so complicated. I get that setting up a single effect can be done easily by the unit but a lot of secondary functions and IO options require some menu diving that is a bit complicated with that screen, and it gets more annoying if you have to bend down on your board. I can't complain about anything else though really, the only thing I'm missing is the ability to turn the bypass into a momentary switch (even though it could actually be possible but without the editor it's a bit of a hassle)

I have one, but showing the effect name rather than the preset name is sooo STUPID, cmon Line6, it shouldnt be hard to do this

Line 6 is the McDonalds of FX.