Line 6 Helix: Beyond Guitar

Line 6’s flagship beast, the Helix Floor/Rack, is undoubtedly their most powerful guitar effects processor to date. Helix has two powerful processing chips allowing for effects chains 4x that of its predecessor, the Pod HD500x.

In its heyday, the HD500x was a powerhouse with the ability to put together great effects chains. Then came Helix, with up to 4 separate effects chains which are powered in pairs by each processing chip.

The smaller boys, Helix LT, HX Effects, and HX Stomp have all of the killer sounds from Helix, but only one processor giving you fewer effects chains. HX Stomp and Effects each only have one chain, but they are plenty powerful with fantastic tone.

The Helix LT is capable of 2 effects chains, which puts it somewhere ahead of the HXS and HSE (and the HD500x) but behind the Helix Floor/Rack.

So Helix can offer 4 effects chains, which means what? 4 crazy guitar tones overlapping each other? Sure! Why not? You can layer effects, run stereo setups, or set things up with a few different amplifiers. One patch could have multiple amps, stereo effects, and full control via triggers, snapshots, and more.

Or…

Consider this if you haven’t. Helix could be your all-in-one patch for a few instrument swaps. Setup one chain for your single-coil guitar, another for your humbucker-powered beast, another for your acoustic, and perhaps one more for your mic! Now your four chains could power all 4 (almost like tracks) and you don’t need to change patches. Of course, you can always copy/paste that template to a new patch and run some tweaks from there. The sky is the limit! Let’s look at the numbers.

How many Setlists can Helix hold? 8.
How many Presets are in each setlist? 128.

Of course, you can offload and reload any patches you want to, but the Helix can house a total of 1,024 presets altogether. I’m pretty sure that you don’t need too much more than that! (Watch, in 20 years I’ll go down in history like Bill Gates when he said, “640K is more memory than anyone will ever need on a computer.”)

So how do you power 4 separate instruments? Does Helix have 4 guitar inputs??

No. Not exactly…

Helix has 1 guitar input, a mic input, and an aux input. The aux is a “lighter” input which will make your guitar seem weaker. This is because this input is more geared towards hotter, active pickups which sometimes can overpower the regular input. I think of it as similar to a pad switch on a mixer.

However, there are other “input” options. For instance, Helix has 4 effects loops. Each “return” is technically an input. Usually, effects loops are set up within your chain. However, you have the option to set your input block to any of the returns. So with 4 returns, any of those can power a 1/4-inch instrument cable. Voila! You have 7 input options, so setting up 4 separate effects chains IS A BREEZE!

Now, you don’t have to have 4.

Each processing chip is powering 2 chains. You can run 2 chains into each other to make one huge chain. This means that on 2 separate chips Helix can power 2 very robust effects chains which are each double in length to just a single chain (since two are running in sequence to make one large one.)

But wait…

How about running all 4 of those effects chains in sequence one into the next to create one mammoth effects chain. Can you imagine having 32 guitar pedals all in line? That’s exactly what this will produce.

Conclusion:

Helix’s processing power paired with its inputs is outstanding. 1, 2, 3, or even 4 separate instruments (including a mic.) 1 enormous effects chain, 2 complex chains (perhaps stereo), or 4 separate ones layered together.

Helix Floor has been my full-time fix for years now. I pair it with the Powercab 212 Plus, which is just perfect. I’m also a very happy IR (impulse response) user, which expands Helix to a whole new level of tonal possibilities.

Courtesy of Niko Lalangas