Line 6 HX Stomp

[BassJuju]

I watched the video yesterday outlining ZZ Top’s rig rundown. Dusty’s rig is pretty straightforward and I think I’m close. The interesting additions are Micro-POG and Micro Thumpinator. I think I’ve figured out the way to emulate the POG, but I’d be interested in thoughts as well. I’m a little fuzzy on the Hz to filter to accomplish what thevThumpinator is doing. The tech says it filters everything below Bb and at first I took that to mean that when the octave down dropped below a B, that the effect/tone was blocked. The way I’m doing the filtering doesn’t seem to have that effect, but it could be the harmonics I’m hearing and not the fundamental.

I thought this was a really cool way to keep some meat in the tone of a 4 string when playing Eb and above. Has anyone tried this or have any thoughts on the notion.

 

[ngregson]

I know they recommend using the supplied power supply but has anyone powered it off of a brick?

Truetone CS6 works great for me, and fits under my Nano + pedalboard

 

[Pedalnetics]

I’m a little fuzzy on the Hz to filter to accomplish what thevThumpinator is doing. The tech says it filters everything below Bb and at first I took that to mean that when the octave down dropped below a B, that the effect/tone was blocked. The way I’m doing the filtering doesn’t seem to have that effect, but it could be the harmonics I’m hearing and not the fundamental.

A good set HPF you'll barely notice. When it has a knob, the easy method is 'keep turning it up till you hear a difference, then back it off slightly'

I run an EQ with the Low Cut at 30hz, which is what about what the Thumpinator set at. The big difference is the thumpinator is a 24db/octave cut, and the best the HX does is 12db (that I've found). So not quite as good but better than nothing.

My EQ block with that cut is block1, but I still have a micro thumpinator under my board as the last in the chain, to make sure I really don't send those frequencies to my amp.

 

[MascisMan]

FYI to you Stompers. I have a Disaster Area DMC-4 Gen 3 and Micro for sale if interested.

 

[BassJuju]

A good set HPF you'll barely notice. When it has a knob, the easy method is 'keep turning it up till you hear a difference, then back it off slightly'

I run an EQ with the Low Cut at 30hz, which is what about what the Thumpinator set at. The big difference is the thumpinator is a 24db/octave cut, and the best the HX does is 12db (that I've found). So not quite as good but better than nothing.

My EQ block with that cut is block1, but I still have a micro thumpinator under my board as the last in the chain, to make sure I really don't send those frequencies to my amp.

Thats pretty close to the way I was approaching it, but I didnt like the way the octave down sounded too muddy once I got below that A-Bb range. So, I put a crossover in the chain and set it to 450. Leaving the Dual Pitch on the top and just doing a bit of EQ on the lower half, that effect it much cleaner.

 

[Pedalnetics]

Thats pretty close to the way I was approaching it, but I didnt like the way the octave down sounded too muddy once I got below that A-Bb range. So, I put a crossover in the chain and set it to 450. Leaving the Dual Pitch on the top and just doing a bit of EQ on the lower half, that effect it much cleaner.

Honestly, I dislike all the down-pitch shifting Line6 has with a bass. Sounds great on guitar, but not a fan at all for bass. TC SubNUp + EHX Freeze are the two external pedals I retained, just couldn't reproduce either reasonable with what HX has to offer at the moment. The SubNUp octave down works great with the HPF set down around 30hz, I really think that muddy sound is just the HX's effect. I totally understand where you hear the mud with DualPitch

 

[BassJuju]

Honestly, I dislike all the down-pitch shifting Line6 has with a bass. Sounds great on guitar, but not a fan at all for bass. TC SubNUp + EHX Freeze are the two external pedals I retained, just couldn't reproduce either reasonable with what HX has to offer at the moment. The SubNUp octave down works great with the HPF set down around 30hz, I really think that muddy sound is just the HX's effect. I totally understand where you hear the mud with DualPitch

After noodling around with it for a couple days, I really like what I’ve got put together, but... I can’t help but wonder, is this really the way Dusty Hill runs his rig? Always an octave down and up? I suppose it’s all in the balance/EQ. Like it needs to be set so that the octaves don’t crush the fundamental.

Still, what I prefer so far is a slight variation on the “new country” settings that someone posted a while back. I should probably go find the post so I can thank them by name. If it was you, thanks and please raise your hand.

Edit... I had to find them. It was @Droopy_TX thanks for the inspiration!

 

[chanson]

Most demos I've seen seem to focus on a lot of the high gain and dirty tones from the HX Stomp. How do the other cleaner amp styles sound on it, such as the Aguilar, Acoustic and GK?

 

[hbabels]

Most demos I've seen seem to focus on a lot of the high gain and dirty tones from the HX Stomp. How do the other cleaner amp styles sound on it, such as the Aguilar, Acoustic and GK?

I think the all sound really really good! I really like the GK Amp compares very well with the real thing. I own and regularly use a GK 700 RB and the line 6 model really feels similar both with the pushed grunty type GK sounds and fur cleaner mid scooped funky sound. The Aguilar one is quite good sounding as well. I haven’t really spent much time on the acoustic one but I liked the stock preset with it well enough. The Mesa Cali amps do clean quiet well as well as the Ampeg SVT 4 model. I know people tend to go gritty and grindy as soon as they pull up an SVT but it also does clean punchy sound quite well just back off that drive control and it cleans up great.

Of all the modelers I’ve spent time with besides the Line 6 including Fractal Axe FX and Atomic Amplifire the Helix was by far a cut above on bass sounds not only from just the number of options given but the sound quality from clean to dirty and that all important middle ground of edge of breakup. The Helix to new just sounds and gets the low is better deeper / clearer just hits right. At least in what I’m looking for.
I like the axe FX better slightly on guitar even though the interface isn’t as user friendly as Helix but for Bass I highly recommend the Helix series.

 

[voodoobassist]

Most demos I've seen seem to focus on a lot of the high gain and dirty tones from the HX Stomp. How do the other cleaner amp styles sound on it, such as the Aguilar, Acoustic and GK?

I prefer clean tones myself. The svt4 pro is pretty much gold as it sits. The gk sounds great with some tweaking. The Fullerton normal is probably my current fav. Look up Jon Willis on FB. His Dr. Tones helix bass lab page has lots of great presets, and , they’re free! Jon does , imho, the best bass oriented helix tones out there.

 

[laklandfan07]

Hey I separate my signal path using a crossover putting distortions and my amp in Path A and compressed lowend in Path B. Because of my board layout i need to use a headphone out to send my dirty signal but I'm not sure how i can set this up. Is this possible? If so can someone share how step by step?

 

[hbabels]

View attachment 3774140Hey I separate my signal path using a crossover putting distortions and my amp in Path A and compressed lowend in Path B. Because of my board layout i need to use a headphone out to send my dirty signal but I'm not sure how i can set this up. Is this possible? If so can someone share how step by step?

So are you not using the FX loop because you can’t access the jacks ?

also are you running things stereo ? If you’re running mono you can do what I do to split my signal and that’s hard pan path A Left and path B Right. Then you can use the left and right main outputs for your 2 separate signals.
Hope this might be of help.
As has I know the headphones mirror whatever is sent to main outs so in theory this panning trick could still work with some type of TRS to Dual TS y cable but I’m not sure out about the headphone signal level and impedance playing nice with the next piece in your signal chain.

 

[laklandfan07]

So are you not using the FX loop because you can’t access the jacks ?

also are you running things stereo ? If you’re running mono you can do what I do to split my signal and that’s hard pan path A Left and path B Right. Then you can use the left and right main outputs for your 2 separate signals.
Hope this might be of help.
As has I know the headphones mirror whatever is sent to main outs so in theory this panning trick could still work with some type of TRS to Dual TS y cable but I’m not sure out about the headphone signal level and impedance playing nice with the next piece in your signal chain.

Im using the right fx loop to bring in the light speed and doom 2 as well as the left fx to bring in the nightowl tube pre. Currently for ease of use i sum the signals of dirty and clean and send out L/out to the noble where a DI is taken. What id like to do is designate path B to the noble and the dirty signal A out the headphone amp. How do i do this panning trick of yours? Sorry im brand mew with the Stomp

 

[hbabels]

Im using the right fx loop to bring in the light speed and doom 2 as well as the left fx to bring in the nightowl tube pre. Currently for ease of use i sum the signals of dirty and clean and send out L/out to the noble where a DI is taken. What id like to do is designate path B to the noble and the dirty signal A out the headphone amp. How do i do this panning trick of yours? Sorry im brand mew with the Stomp

Ok so for the panning you click on the mixer section the small circles where path B comes pack up to path A. It’s kinda easy to miss took me a min to find it. Then page around and their are controls for panning and individual path volumes etc.

So if your using just L out currently if you pan the paths Left and Right you should be able to use left out for clean and right out for dirty for example. No headphone out needed. Unless I’m missing something about your setup.

Hope this helps / makes sense.

 

[laklandfan07]

Ok so for the panning you click on the mixer section the small circles where path B comes pack up to path A. It’s kinda easy to miss took me a min to find it. Then page around and their are controls for panning and individual path volumes etc.

So if your using just L out currently if you pan the paths Left and Right you should be able to use left out for clean and right out for dirty for example. No headphone out needed. Unless I’m missing something about your setup.

Hope this helps / makes sense.

so am I doing this with the y-split or crossover? Im panning left and right but still hear both signals out the left out

 

[hbabels]

so am I doing this with the y-split or crossover? Im panning left and right but still hear both signals out the left out

I do mine with the Y split. My use case is a little different than yours but I think the routing works the same with the crossover split looking at them I’m running FX - split - Path A to left out to amp Path B to Amp - IR - Right out to IEM/ FOH

 

[Jehos]

Most demos I've seen seem to focus on a lot of the high gain and dirty tones from the HX Stomp. How do the other cleaner amp styles sound on it, such as the Aguilar, Acoustic and GK?

Really good. The GK is a faithful reproduction. I've never owned an Aguilar or Acoustic amp, but the GK can be dialed in just like my MB combo.

 

[Digital Igloo]

Honestly, I dislike all the down-pitch shifting Line6 has with a bass. Sounds great on guitar, but not a fan at all for bass.

It'll get better. Hopefully later this year.

 

[been_effected]

It'll get better. Hopefully later this year.

Oh you big tease

 

[KJMO]

It'll get better. Hopefully later this year.

Any improvements are awesome, but I have found the pitch sounds pretty much the way my octave pedal did (mxr m288 bass octave deluxe). It tracks about the same too.