Line 6 Helix Stadium Talk

[dean701]

If it's a public company, it's all about stock price. Cut staff first to meet numbers without hesitation. If it's private shop, the shop can close quickly whenever they've had enough. Wake up one morning and just decide to walk away.

 

[Chocol8]

Not even tube amps. Getting tubes is one thing, but I’m seriously worried about how much longer enough competent amp techs will be around.

That's what drove me to learn to be my own tech more than 30 years ago. If anything, I think the situation has improved with all the information available online now, plus all the kit amps and people who have built them. If you can solder and read a circuit schematic, you can probably learn to fix many typical tube amp issues these days. Not the ones with SMD's and not the complex stuff like a Mesa where schematics are hard to come by, but the old Fender/Marshall/Vox stuff can be kept running by a lot of techy types if they put a little effort in. If you are technically inclined yourself, you might need to reinforce some friendships though.

 

[Chocol8]

If it's a public company, it's all about stock price. Cut staff first to meet numbers without hesitation. If it's private shop, the shop can close quickly whenever they've had enough. Wake up one morning and just decide to walk away.

Or wake up in a hospital bed with a new sense of mortality, or the kid that was taking over, falls for a girl from another continent and suddenly moves away to become an alpaca farmer (that really happened to a client of mine).

 

[Lysander]

I'll do a longer writeup soon, but i'm about a week in, and the HXS Floor has been officially ruled a keeper. This thing is amazing.

I'm playing a lot more, too. Stadium captures the experience of tweaking real amps and pedals in a way no other unit i've tried gets close, and it's really addictive.