stevevnicks

Totally agree with that, I have found with the HD500 sometimes less is more .. Once you really spend some indepth time in the amp sim's and there settings like doubble tapping the enter button while on an amp sim you can dial things in and save the settings that suit your taste and or amplifier equipment. when ifirst got the HD500 i went from impressed to not 100% sure then once i really started to get my head wrapped around the unit i then relised i didn't need an real AC30 or the rest of the guitar amps i had bought, i guess it was part of my learning curve from what i wanted to all i really need. For me the HD500 does everthing i could ever want or need, infact to much, due to my lack of talent with the guitar it's self i could never max out what could really be done using the HD500, although it does not put me off trying lol ... i have improved although im not a dedicated player (yet) im purly in it for the fun.

As far as i see it Line 6 still need a floor unit in the price range of £350 as well as the Helix. I think line 6 would be cutting there own throat if they done away with a floor unit in the £350 price range, because they already have a massive user base in that price of hardware they supply. so they know people a willing to spend that amount for a quality built unit. Not everyone has £1100 plus they can simply throw into there hobby/pass time, this is where the £350 is the sweet spot for Line 6 and an acceptable/affordable price range for the masses.

Thats good news it's still under warranty as you reall y need to have your unit looked at asap, any smell of burning coming from your HD500X is not normal and should not be happening. they can get warm after being used for a while but never that hot it smells of burning. At a guess it's probs a faulty resistor getting hotter than it really should but take that with a pinch of salt.

If its under warranty just send it back, if not the make sure you have the unit unplugged and just remove the back of the HD500 and have a visual inspection i own an HD500 which i purchased secondhand, i had to repair one of the foot switch which was a simple fix I just re-stretched the small spring inside the foot switch, as it had become compressed over it time of use, been fine since, was a bit fiddly although i found the HD500 to be fairly user serviceable. Anyway my point being if its out of warranty its a 20 second job just to remove 8 screws in the rubber feet and have a visual inspection. if its full of dust, use a soft bristled paint brush lightly brush any dust out. if its not then look for any visable burn marks on the circut board in which case it will need to looked at by a professional engineer.

To be fair, i thought the HD500 version sounds grate and im impressed not only with duncann's talent but what the old HD500 can do, when put in the hands of someone who know's what they are doing. I myself am still learning just to play a guitar, i have owened my HD500 for Probs 1 year which i purchased secondhand, in which time i have gone through many different types of guitar amps from Peavey,hughes and kettner, Orange, Vox AC30 and a few others. Now i have got my head wrapped around my HD500 i dont own any guitar amp's ... and this is a personal choice, i like the sound of the amp sim's built into the HD500 running through 2 active spearkers, its sounds way better than running the HD500 through any of the real amps i owend. but thats a personal choice. The helix just sounds, i dont know how to put it other than more .... ummm more professional, higher quality, like it has bags more head room in what it's doing, where as the HD500 kind of sounds it at it limits. One day i will get a Helix but untill then i will just carry on dreaming i will be able to play the guitar :)

:o Well thats it ... now putting my guitar in the trash can ... That sounded amazing !!

AC30 is probs my favorite atm, just downloaded pianoguyy's tone from his link, see what fun can be had from that one :) thanks pianoguyy ..

hello steelmaster, I only have the HD500 (i bought it secondhand back in april of this year), which is basicly the same as the 500x but a little less powerful and not as nice foot switches, anyway I am with you on that, the POD range are really good for what they can do and i personaly think they do it well. the longer I have owned my HD500 the more I enjoy using it. I would really love to own the Helix but what with being on the verge of christmas and the ever rise in the cost of living these days, i guess i will be sticking with my HD500 for a long time to come. I have finaly got out of the learner stage of messing around with every effect and settings/knob twisting (ohh err) and skipping through them not really fully understanding what i was doing. now i find a sound i like tweek it to what i think is good and stick with it, im still far from a good guitar player although i have improved 10 fold and finaly started to understand my HD500. i guess though the HD500 is only as good as the user who sets it up along with how good they are with the guitar. you can have the best effects in the world and guitar, but if you dont understand how to set it up correctly and have zero guitar skill your still going to make the equipment sound sh!t lol ... Oneday i will get the helix though really nice bit of kit, just out of the poor mans price range atm.

yea i like the AC30 thats in the HD500 it's a grate sim, i sold my real AC30, it just ended up being an expensive ornament. to loud even on low vol for home use, well in a small flat it was :/ saying that i sold all my amps now because i have more or less sussed out how to use and get good sounds out of my HD500, so it's ideal and all i need at the moment that is, although i would like to upgrade to the helix oneday. well i did keep one of my amps, that being the little Orange Crush 35RT, little analogue with some great features like Orange Cab Sim built into the head phone socket and an FX Loop Plus good Quality Digital Reverb, the amp in general has a grate orange sound even for being an analogue amp, what's not to like about it for the money! thats is why i kept it. The AC30 Amp built in to the HD500\X sounds near as the real thing that i owned, and i have had a lot more use/fun out of the HD500 AC30 Sim than the Real AC30 i did own.

Being talentless and a newbie to guitars and effects, when I decided to buy a guitar and start trying to learn .. about all I have learned so far is .. fook I'm a sucker for a good review and must live in doo daa land while I read them, before I knew it I was throwing hundreds of pounds into guitars, amps and effects ... then it kind of dawned on me why bother at my level? a shoe box with elastic bands should be plenty good enuff for my ability.. if it is possible to play that bad it actually sounds good then I might be talented after all ? I mean if I was a skilled player I could justify owning an £650 or more guitar etc, I have sold off all my amps, but kept my orange RT 35watt, HD500 and 2 guitars. I have a much better understanding of what I need at my level ...... But I know I wont be able to stop myself from buying the Helix lol ...

ah ok i see i just think it probs better to explain why and where the sound, sounds better rather than giving an % because there is nothing to gauge it to for example if you where measuring the performance of something then i can understand but when it comes to sound i cant get my head wrapped around better 15% sound quality because there is no figures to measure it against to get an fair comparison .. for me it either sounds better or worse ... it sound to me you dont need to upgrade as the HD is more than you need already.

just out of interest how did you come to 15% better in sound ? at 15% i would be suprised anyone could tell the difference ? it will be more than just sound/moddelling thats upgraded i would of thought the helix will have a whole host of things the HD500X is not able to do.

or simple answer is dont stand on it or get yourself so excited you tap dance the crap out of the USB cable .... im guessing this is more of a problem for our american cousins as they are more excitable than us stiff upper lip brits lol (sorry just joke'n) im mean if ever a white man didnt have rhythm while dancing the english are the kings, well in our defence we do have morris dancing.

good old windows much more user friendly .. heeh sorry

That dont sound to good, maybe the Flash ROM has failed or become corrupt ? which will mean sending the pod hd in for repair. how can this happen ? well it's just one of those things it should last years without any issues but sometime some electrical chips in any electrical device may have a hidden fault when it was made, that makes the part fail before its exepected time or amount of read/writes, luckly this is rare for the amount of electrical chips that are made but it can/does happen. just for an example. i had a computer work fine one day and motherboard bios chip fail the next day for no reason other than a faulty Bios chip, although i have owened and built hundreds of PC's it's the only time i can recall a bios fail for me over the past 20 years.