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.