TravDaddy

I thought the $100 price was just a wee-bit too high for me. However, when the 30% off sales came around, I took advantage and upgraded both the PODxt as well as both of my HD500s. I have NOT regretted any of the model pack purchases! So, I guess $100 may be okay, as long as the occasional sale comes up so that we cheapskates get join the club. I did think that the HD upgrade was a bit slim in the offerings as compared to what the XT upgrade included. However, I also understand the extra time and effort that goes into the HD models. Bottom line: I love the idea that I can buy a software upgrade without having to shell out another $300-$500 for an additional device. If I say upgrades should be free or way under-priced, then Line6 has no real incentive to make the upgrade/expansion effort. Might be nice to have a reward system for previous purchasers of model packs or early adapters/adopters of new hardware. If I buy the Helix at $1500 and a year later the price drops to $1250, it would be nice to get a price break on a model pack upgrade for jumping onboard early. Some responders mentioned an "a la carte" option, where you pay only for the models you want - with a flat rate fee. There's good and bad for that... If an obscure tone doesn't look to be a money maker, L6 might not go ahead and make it. Packaging helps round out the upgrade and might have a few surprises that one might not have considered buying. Many of the comments have been right on for a capitalist system: the market sets the price. If L6 says $200 for a model pack and no one buys it, then they usually find the sweet spot that entices enough buyers to recoup their investment cost for making the upgrade. For me, the tough part is paying for "electrons." Yeah, R&D costs money, so does maintaining a server network and you gotta pay the employees. So, I get it. I'm just happy that discounts pop up every now and then. And really, the amount of modeled gear you get is waaaay cheaper than buying the actual hardware. The FX Junkie package offered 35 effects for $50. That same $50 might get you two pedals of questionable reliability at a pawn shop. Big picture, $100 ain't bad. Sale prices are the sprinkles on the cupcake of tone.

Two things that might help: 1. Make sure your FS Mode is set to "ABCD" (footswitch mode - press & hold VIEW to get to SETUP, page 1) For some reason, DT amps don't like it set to "5-8" with the L6 Link. 2. Go through all of your stage patch settings and set the CHANNEL VOLUME high and then SAVE it. Use your MASTER volume to set the stage volume level. If any of your volumes are accidently touched, they were already maxed out, so there will be no explosive burst. If that setting causes too much unwanted distortion, dial down the DRIVE level on the patch. When I first used the L6 Link on my DT50, I had a similar experience and it will scare the crap out of everyone! Mine happened in the house, with me sitting in front of the amp. It was on top of a 4x12 cabinet, so I got blasted HARD. Wife was two floors up and she actually yelped out loud. Well, that's what she said... I still can't hear anything... Ha! Good luck with Christine. Remind your bandmates of what happened to the Christine haters. Although, I'd probably skip warning the drummer. They have machines that do that now. And a machine never brings its girlfriend to practice. Ha!

Maybe try this: Working the amount of DRIVE, VOLUME, MASTER -or- MASTER (Pulled Out) makes a tremendous difference in overall tone and sound. I know this sounds pretty basic, and I don't mean to be insulting, but if you are a "Turn Everything to 10" kind of player, this will have a HUGE impact on the overall tone. I have the DRIVE usually close to "dimed out" but back off of the CHANNEL VOLUME to about one o'clock. I set the MASTER just below my stage or practice volume level and then dial up the CHANNEL VOLUME until I get "the" sound and adjust the MASTER accordingly so as not to annoy the people at the airport... Ha! If this was a no-brainer for you, again, I didn't mean to offend. I've had tube amps for 30 years, but my other workhorse amp is a solid state Line 6 HD147 and sometimes I forget to adjust back to the "tube world" when tweaking distortion sounds.

Hey gang! Ran into a weird issue when connecting the HD500(X) with a DT50 using the L6 Link. The display would flash the "knob settings screen" and lock-out operation of the knobs and buttons. Initially, I kind of cured it by reconnecting the link after changing the Setup, Page 1 - AMP/KNOBS DISPLAY to "Momentary: OFF." Then I noticed my HD500 presence knob operation was erratic, but if I used the DT50 presence knob instead, it was fine. Did some more investigating and here's what I discovered, purely through trial and error. Why it happened and the fix: In Setup, Page 1, (press and hold "View"), I had set the footswitch mode (FS Mode) from "ABCD" to "5-8" so that I could run multiple effects and turn each of them on/off with a dedicated footswitch. My DT50 didn't like that when using the L6 Link. I had to disconnect the L6 Link cable to get the buttons and knobs to respond again. I changed the footswitch mode back to "ABCD", reconnected the L6 Link and everything worked fine, This one took me some time to figure out, so I thought I'd pass it along for anyone else with the same issue. I let Line 6 know and suggested a software update so that we control freaks can run 8 dedicated footswitches when using the L6 Link. Ha!