Mini Line 6 HD500 Review

To add to my review... every amp sim sounded harsh with almost no mid range meat except for the Treadplate amp sim which actually sounded decent... but they've been working on that amp sim since the POD 1 days so it should be their best model yet.

I've been using the Bogner Uberschall amp sim on my Axe-fx lately... especially now that I have the V30/G12T-75 in X-pattern on my cabs... so I have a pretty good "sonic memory" to go by when compared to the Line 6 HD500. The L6 HD500 sounded harsher and with less mid range meat when compared to the Axe-fx... the only thing that Line6 has always done great was in having the crazy sounding effects as "stand alone" effects where as with the Axe-fx we have to create our own formula to come close to what we think sounds good for an effect.

I had to tweak the sh*t out of my other guitarist's L6 X3 Live and luckily he's going through the Carvin TS100 to give it some good punch... but the L6 HD500 had the exact same harsh signature distortion on each of the amps sims on both units... I was actually cringing on how horrible the HD500 sounded... and it made it even worse when we had both units going on at the same time that both the bass player and I had to move away from the speakers because we couldn't stand how horrible it sounded...

So I stand by my statement that Line 6 has done a terrible disservice to all guitarists and I guess you could say the audiences that have to listen to them live... funny thing is that our bassist has the LowDown 400 and it actually sounds pretty good going through his Mesa Boogie speaker rig.
 
mortega76 said:
Line 6 is doing a disservice to guitarist everywhere...

Thank You


I think were just abit spoilt :D

Not everyone can afford the Ax and if i could only afford the HD i would be happy enough for the money it costs.
 
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.
 
Clark Kent said:
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.

Probably because people who haven't tried one just see it as an expensive amp modeller and don't know that it's worth every penny. Their loss :p
 
Andyhickman said:
Clark Kent said:
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.

Probably because people who haven't tried one just see it as an expensive amp modeller and don't know that it's worth every penny. Their loss :p

Exactly.
 
Clark Kent said:
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.

Depends a bit on where you live. Where I live (norway) it did cost a fortune to get
an axefx because of all sorts of fees and shipping costs. Even though we have G66, it
still was cheaper for me to get it directly from Fractal.
 
Clark Kent said:
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.

Well you're fortunate. When I was in college, I had a cheap "Kent" guitar and a cheap solid state amp. No way I could afford top of the line gear. Consider yourself the exception not the rule.
 
Clark Kent said:
Offtopic: I don't get it how people can't afford an Axe-Fx. I'm a jobless University student with zero incomes and I can afford one. 90% of serious guitarists own a halfstack/combo setup that costs more than the Axe-Fx.

I don't get how you can afford an Axe FX with zero income. :lol: Last I checked Cliff didn't give them away for free, even though it's Christmas time. Maxing out the credit cards, are we? :lol:
 
danielodland said:
Depends a bit on where you live. Where I live (norway) it did cost a fortune to get
an axefx because of all sorts of fees and shipping costs. Even though we have G66, it
still was cheaper for me to get it directly from Fractal.

I'm from Finland... our countries are very similar. :)

plexi59 said:
I don't get how you can afford an Axe FX with zero income. :lol: Last I checked Cliff didn't give them away for free, even though it's Christmas time. Maxing out the credit cards, are we? :lol:

I sold a bunch of guitar gear I didn't use anymore, mainly my Mesa Mark IV. I had a summer job two years ago which payed for the amp and several other things worth more than an Axe-Fx. I know money is something people don't discuss in some cultures but seriously... if you want an Axe-Fx you sure can afford it. Sell your tube amp and all of your pedals or one of the guitars you don't use and you can afford the Axe-Fx, midi board and a powered speaker. Sounds simple... it is simple. If you're a gigging guitarist/musician you must have enough gear that can fund an Axe-Fx and replace your live rig and recording gear. And with the Axe-Fx you get so much more.

It's a leap of faith. I know... but I jumped and haven't looked back once.

EDIT: PS. A hot girlfriend with a job will help your financial situation.
 
Clark Kent said:
danielodland said:
Depends a bit on where you live. Where I live (norway) it did cost a fortune to get
an axefx because of all sorts of fees and shipping costs. Even though we have G66, it
still was cheaper for me to get it directly from Fractal.

I'm from Finland... our countries are very similar. :)

plexi59 said:
I don't get how you can afford an Axe FX with zero income. :lol: Last I checked Cliff didn't give them away for free, even though it's Christmas time. Maxing out the credit cards, are we? :lol:

I sold a bunch of guitar gear I didn't use anymore, mainly my Mesa Mark IV. I had a summer job two years ago which payed for the amp and several other things worth more than an Axe-Fx. I know money is something people don't discuss in some cultures but seriously... if you want an Axe-Fx you sure can afford it. Sell your tube amp and all of your pedals or one of the guitars you don't use and you can afford the Axe-Fx, midi board and a powered speaker. Sounds simple... it is simple. If you're a gigging guitarist/musician you must have enough gear that can fund an Axe-Fx and replace your live rig and recording gear. And with the Axe-Fx you get so much more.

It's a leap of faith. I know... but I jumped and haven't looked back once.

EDIT: PS. A hot girlfriend with a job will help your financial situation.


Your theory does not apply to everyone. I have managed to afford an ULTRA twice, but thats because music was all I spent money on. I didnt have a mortgage, children, other hobbies. Still the axefx purchases were hard to justify, it really was a jump, partially because if you're to use the AFX live, you will probably need a lot of extra gear like midi gear, monitoring and so on.


Not everyone has a bunch of gear they can just sell of either.
 
Clark Kent said:
if you want an Axe-Fx you sure can afford it.

In my world, 2k is a LOT for a student. And a Mark IV for a teenager is even more. Again, the exception not the rule- i dont think "anyone can afford an AxeFX". Most young musicians, and even old ones, have to scrape together cash for gear, and cant just crap out 2 grand just because they want it!! You assume everyone has a 2k+ setup, and it took me years to be able to afford this without neglecting things like rent, tuition bills, student loans, utilities, food.. At least where I grew up :)

I tried the rich hot girlfriend thing, no luck :(
 
Well ofcourse not everyone has guitar gear worth that much and that was not the point. If you gig a lot you probably do have gear worth the Axe-Fx unless you're using a cheapo modeler and I doubt that's the case. I just get this "the Axe-Fx is too expensive" stuff from guitarists who own half/fullstacks of Diezel or Mesa. You can fund three Axe-Fx Standards by selling your Diezel fullstack.

eda123 said:
I tried the rich hot girlfriend thing, no luck :(

Let me explain how this works. First you buy the Axe-Fx with a credit card. Now all your money goes to credit payments so your girlfriend has to pay all the other bills and food. Simple! :lol: Then you have to surprise her with cheapo presents to make her think that you're spending money on her too.

This is not how I'm doing it but I guess that should work too. I think this topic deserves a new thread. :D
 
Clark Kent said:
Then you have to surprise her with cheapo presents to make her think that you're spending money on her too.

Better yet write her a simple tune, she things.."Wow he wrote a song for me how romantic" (keep the song just in case things don't work out..could come in handy for a future woman and Ax MK ll) You get to keep the cheapo present money for some Redwirez!!

:lol:
 
mark_melling said:
[quote="Clark Kent":6v0qqxuc] Then you have to surprise her with cheapo presents to make her think that you're spending money on her too.

Better yet write her a simple tune, she things.."Wow he wrote a song for me how romantic" (keep the song just in case things don't work out..could come in handy for a future woman and Ax MK ll) You get to keep the cheapo present money for some Redwirez!!

:lol:[/quote:6v0qqxuc]
Just make sure not to record it with the HD500... ;)
 
Clark Kent said:
Let me explain how this works. First you buy the Axe-Fx with a credit card. Now all your money goes to credit payments so your girlfriend has to pay all the other bills and food. Simple! :lol: Then you have to surprise her with cheapo presents to make her think that you're spending money on her too.

This is not how I'm doing it but I guess that should work too. I think this topic deserves a new thread. :D

Haha, this is a great trick.
 
Back
Top Bottom