$300 more for the purty lights and the volume pedal!
~ss
The Lt can be had for under a grand, only missing the purty lights.
The first modeler I had was an rp something or other, pretty old. I used it to practice and get songs together. Headphones out, I put a lot of time together with it. It served its purpose admirably for what I needed it for.
A little later, I was taking lessons. The teacher liked to change up tuning a lot, I think he wanted a break to get coffee. I bought a variax and an hd500. Open G, Stones? no prob. Let's go! That machine was a piece of work, pretty dependable too. I put a lot of time into it, and could get pretty decent tones out of it. The guitar and the effort to get the tones we're it's downfall. Too much editing, not enough playing. And the guitar and I didn't play well together, and I've played a lot of crap in my time. Just getting older, and I won't fight guitars anymore.
I used to play a lot more,I had a pretty extensive broken arm right around 2000, basically my left arm snapped clean back. I never thought I would play again. Fretting hand has good days and bad, my pinky, I'm about to give up on it all together. I had a pretty awesome collection at the time. Fender, Vox, Marshall, Gibson. I've had, or played pretty much 50 to 75 percent of the amps on the AX8. Some of the newer stuff, not so much. But, if I ever see a Morgan ac20, it's getting a workout.
So, getting back to the subject. I'm around a lot of other guitar players. We all have different wants and needs. Some things that are deal breakers to them I scratch my head at. They probably do the same to me. I just want a great amp and a great guitar, that takes care of my needs. My back says I can't carry around half stacks anymore, or SVT's. This box, and a powered monitor is all I need.
Some people have to have other things. Things that the AX8 can't do. Things that the Helix can do. And, it can do a lot of spectacular things! They were both made with different priorities and goals. And they are both a success. This is truly a great time to be a guitar player. I picked the AX8, I would have probably been happy with a Helix. But, it's been over a year. when I turn it on, it delivers the goods.