Hey Line 6 community,
I bought my first HX Stomp 2 years ago, and in general am a huge fan of the unit. But I've had some weird random issues that are seriously making me reevaluate being a Line 6 user.
I have had two shows in the last year where an unacceptable malfunction has happened. The first time was on a decent-sized festival stage, where we all noticed that regardless of what preset I was on there was a sort of tremolo effect happening with the signal I was sending to the front of house, with the signal completely cutting in and out. Obviously incredibly disruptive. That first time it happened the crew and I tried everything before we figured out it was the HX stomp. New patch cables, new backline amp, everything. Finally, we isolated the problem to the HX Stomp. Once we did that we tried using the R input instead of the L input, as well as the R output instead of the L output. Nothing fixed it. We then noticed that the tremolo effect happened every time the drummer played his kick drum and I was making sound. The FOH engineer then proceeded to turn down the subs, and all of a sudden there was no issue. Thankfully this was a small-town festival and we were the opening band, but in general in my opinion the FOH should never have to limit the use of any of their speakers simply for the guitarist to have their signal uninterrupted.
Fast forward, I've had the HX Stomp looked at by amp/pedal repair professionals here in Nashville and they found no issue. Since then I've probably played 100+ shows on stages of all sizes with absolutely no issue. I chalked it up to some freak frequency issue on that particular stage with the particular subs, etc. I even bought a backup HX Stomp in case that ever happened again. Last night, 8 months or so after that first incident, I was playing in town on a small stage, and it happened again. Annoying? Yes, but at least I had my backup Stomp with me, I am prepared and grateful to own a backup! The only problem is I had the SAME issue as soon as I hooked up my backup Stomp. In between sets I isolated all of my pedals to be sure it was coming from my Stomp, and once I confirmed that I tried different 1/4"s, nothing helped. I had to finish the gig with neither Stomp even on my board, as both led to that same horrific signal cutting in and out sound that had audience members looking at me in shock. Also, this stage was nowhere near the size of the stage I first experienced the problem with, so I think it is unlikely that it's just an issue with subwoofer frequencies messing stuff up.
Blows my mind that I've gone so long since the last time it happened. The night before last I played a bigger gig with a medium-sized signed artist and was going direct, in the heat, subwoofers cooking, and everything worked great. Had the issue happened Saturday night I would have been absolutely unable to do the gig due to the necessity of my presets for that show, and surely would have lost this great gig I have with that artist.
Anybody else experience this? Would appreciate any insight into what's going on. I don't want to, but I am strongly considering switching to Fractal or the Quad Cortex. Can't have this gear liability that could cost me my next big opportunity. Thank you in advance for any help.
