Line6 Helix LT Guitar Processor

I've had this unit for about three years now.
It sounds amazing through headphones/speakers. I haven't used it with a tube amp, so I can't give my opinion on that.
I used it mainly for experimentation and figuring out what kind of effects I would actually use and for playing around with tones, and it's very useful for that.

Nothing I've tried comes close to it in terms of usability. Don't get me wrong, you still have so many options that you might end up having a hard time knowing which to choose, but the user interface is second to none. That was the main attraction for me, no need to dive into a million menus: just choose an effect/amp, tweak it with the encoders and that's it.

Quality wise, I have only one complaint: the expression pedal gave out rather quickly on my unit. I didn't break, but it just stopped registering movement(maybe the optical sensor got covered with too much dust).

However, Line6 replaced the unit on the spot when I told them about the issue, so kudos to them. Best customer service ever. I think they issued a lifetime warranty for Helix LT expression pedals.

HXEdit, the editing software works great and is really useful if you keep your unit on the floor.

The looper could use some extra time on the loops, but it's serviceable.

All in all, I don't think you can beat it. It has more effects and amps than one person can realistically use, but that means that everyone can find anything that they need inside. It's very intuitive and doesn't get in the way of playing as much as other menu heavy units. Snapshots and presets give you a ton of flexibility. If you do need to tweak things, it's the best user interface I've ever seen on a processor.

The price is amazing for what you get(trust me, I'm looking at building an analog pedalboard with the features that I used on the Helix and the bill is stacking up quickly). The HX Stomp does almost everything that the LT does, but I have a feeling you lose some of the ease of use and a significant part of the processing power with that product.

Oh, and for a home guitarist, an aux input is invaluable. It doesn't have one, but you can use a split stereo cable and the effects returns(there are two of them), if you aren't using the for external pedals.

When the parcel was delivered I asked the delivery man if that was the right address because the box it came in was much larger than I expected. But it was. Unpacked I saw why. The Helix family is larger than the HX Stompbox family I had been introduced to earlier. I had to clear my floor from a number of pedals. But no problem, almost every sound you want is available. The ergonomics are well thought out and tried out, I guess. Stomping one of the twelve footswitches does not easy go wrong. There is enough spce between them. The screen is clearly readable from a standup position, so you see where you are. What is shown (there are four different options of screens with much information following your directions) is well distinguishable from one screen to another. Plenty other knobs make deciding what you will hear possible although you can’t do that from your standup position. And there is a Expression pedal as well with two programmable options. Here is where a star for handling is missing in my rating. The expression pedal, especially the wah wah’s, are not easy to program; the manual fails here. Also the built in loopers (a one switch and a 6 switch looper) are only rudimentary, remembering only one minute in a session and not (NOT) saving anything in any memory. But then again, the number of preprogrammed presets is gigantic, and easily adapted for your own purposes. And the Send/Return loop is very good; there are even twoo of them.
Learning to use the many options and how to get where you want to be takes some time. But I like it.

A straight forward device.

The main reasons I decided to get the Helix LT;
- The user interface is very easy to understand and use
- Lots of support and user patches available on line
- Ridiculous amount of effects at one time

The only downside for me was surprisingly enough (and I still don’t know why), I received the unit from Thomann with firmware version 2.30.0 which from what I’ve read was released in 2017.

So one of the first things I had to do was update the Helix firmware to 3.11.0 because many of the effects listed in the manual were not present in my Helix.

The firmware update was interesting to say the least since. Apparently going from 2.30.0 to 3.11.0 is a little problematic and requires a reboot halfway through the process.

After this reboot I had this message on the Helix LT "Boot Failure, Entered Update Mode!". Luckily like I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of support for this online and after searching for answers, everything was working normally at version 3.11.0.

I am a gigging musician and I play weddings, city festivals and the occasional acoustic gig.
I use the Helix LT straight to the mixing board and out to Front of House.

Pros:
many different sounds/amps/effects to choose from
Once you find your sound, its consistent every gig
Snapshots are a life saver
Dynamics are great
processor Interface is very intuitive (can also hook up to PC to make it even easier)

Cons:
My Helix LT was part of a manufacturing series that had a faulty foot pedal. I had to contact Line6, and then Thomann for instructions on repair protocol.
HOWEVER, the service was super great. E-mail replies were speedy and Line6 threw in a little extra something for me for the inconvenience.

Conclusion:
This processor is worth every penny/cent/whatever. I'd recommend it especially for gigging musicians who need a wide array of sounds at a push of a button.

I bought the LT because the full model was a bit too expensive. Having used the LT for a couple of months now I have no regrets. This unit can do everything I need and a (whole) lot more.

Sounds are just great. There's loads of youtube demo's on this, so I'll just leave it to this. Anyhow, describing sound with words is not so easy :-)

The IR loading possibility is nice, but the tones you can get out of the standard unit are so tweakable that I don't think I'll ever need the option.

Where the unit really shines is the patch creation. For simple stuff you have a great guitar tone in just a few minutes. Based on the type of guitar you may need to change the amp settings but the out-of-the-box settings are very usable. Then add pedals/effect where-ever you like them and tweak the sound to your liking. Snapshot functionality is a great option and I use it a lot for playing songs with my band. I use the upper 4 switches for patches and the lower four for snapshots. Works fantastic.

If you want more complex configurations no problem. Parallel routings, multiple cabs, different sound for line and xlr or even the fx out. All is possible with the simple and intuitive interface.

Overall a great unit. I bought it together with the Thomas flight-case. A bit more expensive but as I use the unit in bars where the floors may not be as clean as at home this was a good investment.

Overall, worth the money and if you don't need all the extra inputs and outputs as in the full model this unit can do everything you want. Scribble strips ??? Nice indeed, but I don't miss them and the LT has a wonderful (maybe even better) system for that.

Thanks Line6 for a great product. Next time maybe add the MP3 input again (sounds stupid, but I liked that in the HD550X) and some bluetooth for wireless editing.

25 years ago I started my amp-less guitar life with a Boss ME-10, 15 years ago I changed to Boss GT-6. I thought they are the best.
Then someone showed me Line6 Pod HD 300 - the next day I sold my GT to buy a Pod. Few months later I replaced it with a HD500 then came the HD500X. When Line6 released Helix I knew I am lost, but its price held me back from buying. And then Helix LT was launched... I knew my time had come.
The first one I got last summer and this one is actually the 2nd, spare one for me, it will replace my HD500X.
The reason is the simplicity of use it gave me over the Pod. With it it took just too long time to program usable guitar tones, but with the Helix LT all my preset building activities changed: less tweaking and more playing became characteristical. The design of the user interface is almost perfect (maybe a touch screen in Helix 2.0 would erase "almost"), the possibilities to make an endless number of pedal boards by using seemingly endless number of amp, cabs and FXs are beyond imagination.
I use it together with a Variax JTV89F in a band playing rock/folk-rock music, the versatility of the rig is just wonderful.
I have never had so much fun playing guitar before.

I saw all the reviews on YouTube, read all the hype - pros and cons alike. I've been using an RP1000 for the past many years, and I always swore I wouldn't let it be pried from my cold dead fingers.

That was, of course, before I inserted my TS plug in to the Line 6 for the first time...

Being American, I can say the obvious - we love synthetic/fake. Fake hair, fake nails, fake lips - even augmented chests. :)

We come from a silicon world of fakeness back home. And despite the Digitech having that obviously synthentic tone - let's face it, it's a unique and beautiful tone, and it gives us that beautiful fake.

Then Line 6 came along... I won't call it the natural beauty next door, because, well - it's digital. But, it's incredible!

This thing behaves, reacts and sounds like a real amp. The effects are fantastic, and with a unique ability to stick them anywhere you want in your chain, something you couldn't do with the real amps short of rewiring the internals to adjust where preamp and postamp comes in, you have all the benefits of fake with the sound and feel of real.

I bought my Helix Lt just before the lockdown in Spain. By the time we came out and I began working again it was out of its warranty. I'd barely used the unit for gigging when the bracket holding the expression pedal to the body failed. Apparently ac common problem and one Line 6 attempted to remedy with a plastic support fitted inside the unit just below the swivel bar of the foot pedal. Here's the thing, my unit already had this fitted and still failed. Really very poor build quality. Shortly after this failure it stopped loading at startup and the factory resets couldn't be accessed. Between a rock and a hard place on whether to repair it or just bin it I decided to send it to an authorised dealer here in Spain. It cost me four hundred Euros to replace the mother board. Buyer beware.

Forget about the Helix Floor. This has all the features you need except if you want to add vocals to it, but there is a workaround with XLR to TS adapter. The handling is easy, but switching between snapshots and presets is a bit weird. The expression pedal is the weakest point of the device. It doesn't feel good and its hard to be precise with it. Also the foot-switch on the pedal is weird. As for the Scribble strips i don't really need them. It's easy to tell which is which pedal by color or by Performance view. The price of Helix Floor doesn't justify anymore because this unit is all a guitar player needs. Yes the effects and amps are exactly the same as Helix Floor. The Helix application has bad design choice but it doesn't make this unit any worse. Tried my studio headphones and active studio monitors, the output sound is pristine. Love the built in audio interface, which makes audio recording and learning very easy. You can hear everything from your laptop and Helix on one output devices which makes tons of difference. I highly recommend this devices to any guitarist!

This is among the most affordable amp modelers available in the market, and the fact that it runs on the same firmware and sound engine as the full-featured Helix Floorboard makes it even better.

It is well-built and has a robust chassis. The display is large, bright, and comfortable to work with. The capacitive footswitches allow for easy signal path operations to tweak sounds. The expression pedal can be a bit stiff to operate, but otherwise allows for a smooth and precise functioning. The rotary knobs however feel flimsy and fragile. It would have been nice to have them made out of something sturdier.

The interface is easy to get accustomed to within a few days of use. It has a great selection of amp models and effects to work with, and the inter-compatibility across the Helix and HX range is convenient. The DI-recording and re-amping capabilities are useful to have as well. However, I found that the stock cabinet models lacked a certain responsiveness and tonality. But that was easily solved by using third-party impulse responses wherein the tones feel and sound incredible after the fact.

Overall, this unit has proven to be a worthwhile and useful investment, taking my experience of playing and recording guitar to a whole new level.