Pedals v Helix - sobering thought

John_A

NorthernStomps said:

Ive got a Pod HD Bean that I’m just not using that I’m going to sell, anyone any idea of a going rate these days? 

Mint condition with box

About £150 maybe a bit less 

Thats about £20 a year depreciation;)

NorthernStomps

John_A said:

NorthernStomps said:

Ive got a Pod HD Bean that I’m just not using that I’m going to sell, anyone any idea of a going rate these days? 

Mint condition with box

About £150 maybe a bit less 

Thats about £20 a year depreciation;)

£150? Really? I’d have thought half that!

John_A

You may be right, just checked completed items on eBay, and £80-£90 may be closer

TheMarlin

NorthernStomps said:

John_A said:

NorthernStomps said:

Ive got a Pod HD Bean that I’m just not using that I’m going to sell, anyone any idea of a going rate these days? 

Mint condition with box

About £150 maybe a bit less 

Thats about £20 a year depreciation;)

£150? Really? I’d have thought half that!

I’d have though £50 tops

Cookiemonster

Hxfx cost me 300. That's less than three pedals depending on what you buy. It's a bargain and sounds great. 

professorben

As @digitalscream and I noticed the other day, an Avid Eleven Rack was selling for £150, I struggled to get £200 for one about 2 years ago having bought it for £400 2 years before that, from a guy who bought it new for around £750.

anything digital should be looked on as a computer and depreciation is pretty brutal, having said that I’ve just recently bought an HX Effects, I wanted to give the Helix platform a bit of a chance to see if it would have legs, and the development of the fx only unit was ideal for me, as I love my amp and cab. 

The switching, effects and control are superb. 

Im selling my pedals, and switcher and I’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible with the HX Effects. 

impmann

Fretwired said:

John_A said:

I may be wrong, but although Line 6 are the parent company now, Line 6 still operates quite independently and the credit to Line 6 is justified 

Line 6 UK was closed and staff in it's excellent support department were made redundant. Everything was moved to Yamaha in Germany. Line 6 is operated as a totally owned subsidiary of Yamaha.

Check the UK website contact us page - Yamaha Germany. This doesn't mean that the support given isn't top notch.

https://uk.line6.com/company/contact/

I can confirm this to be true. I was the UK Service Manager for Line6 UK - and when Yamaha bought the company, the UK offices were closed and we were made redundant.

It is also true to say that Line6 Inc is an independent entity within the Yamaha Group. And Helix had been in the design roadmap from before Yamaha bought the company...

As you were, chaps....

NelsonP

John_A said:

You may be right, just checked completed items on eBay, and £80-£90 may be closer

I have a pod xt bean that is worth so little that i won't ever be able to sell it.

All digital gear suffers from this to some extent as the next generation usurps what has come before. Anyone want to buy a 10 year old laptop or smartphone?

I think this will remain the same until the advancement slows down to such a point that a new modeller only shows a marginal improvement over an old one.

Helix is a great bit of kit and now a serious alternative to an amp and pedals. But Helix 2 will be better and will devalue Helix.

jellybelly

Eventually got my HX out of the box to play with. Sounds great but having issues getting it to switch the trem and verb on and off on my Princeton Reverb. Anyone any clue? I’ve assigned footswitches in the command centre and am using a TRS cable but nada so far..

gearaddict

The thing is that a great-sounding unit is presumably still going to be a great-sounding unit 10 years later. Just a lot cheaper. Win-win!

NorthernStomps

When adding up the cost of pedals vs cost of helix/axe fx/Kemper et al, has anyone also taken into consideration the cost of the amp?!

Multi fx with amp sims are way more affordable than individual bits of kit. But with individuals these are often built up over periods of time so you don’t notice so much. Plus I like the modular nature of it all, pairing different pedals with different amps. Plus there’s no menu diving either, you can end up in the menus longer than you spend playing with sims

John_A

NorthernStomps said:

When adding up the cost of pedals vs cost of helix/axe fx/Kemper et al, has anyone also taken into consideration the cost of the amp?!

Multi fx with amp sims are way more affordable than individual bits of kit. But with individuals these are often built up over periods of time so you don’t notice so much. Plus I like the modular nature of it all, pairing different pedals with different amps. Plus there’s no menu diving either, you can end up in the menus longer than you spend playing with sims

I find the opposite, I spend a lot more time playing rather than messing around making sure my new pedal fitted neatly on my board, and soldering up patch leads

hubobulous

Other than a house, I'm not sure I've ever bought anything on the basis of what it might be worth in 10yrs' time - certinaly not guitar gear. Ten years' worth of playing the Helix is more than enough payback and as said before, it won't sound any worse in 10 yrs' time.

thecolourbox

A lot of us kind of see buying and selling second hand stuff as basically a free hobby as you can usually get your money, or most of it, back if you buy well. My Mrs used to struggle with that concept thinking that I was for example wasting £300 on an amp, but actually that amp was worth £400 so if I play it I get enjoyment value and if I sell it for the same amount I'm still no worse off.

siremoon

John_A said:

NorthernStomps said:

When adding up the cost of pedals vs cost of helix/axe fx/Kemper et al, has anyone also taken into consideration the cost of the amp?!

Multi fx with amp sims are way more affordable than individual bits of kit. But with individuals these are often built up over periods of time so you don’t notice so much. Plus I like the modular nature of it all, pairing different pedals with different amps. Plus there’s no menu diving either, you can end up in the menus longer than you spend playing with sims

I find the opposite, I spend a lot more time playing rather than messing around making sure my new pedal fitted neatly on my board, and soldering up patch leads

I think the ease with which you can rearrange effects and experiment with whacky combinations of things is something that is often forgotten about modellers.  I remember spending hours fiddling about with patch cables and power leads moving pedals about.  With HX Edit I can do it in seconds and if I don't like it then I can try something else or put it back exactly as it was before just as quickly.

John_A

thecolourbox said:

A lot of us kind of see buying and selling second hand stuff as basically a free hobby as you can usually get your money, or most of it, back if you buy well. My Mrs used to struggle with that concept thinking that I was for example wasting £300 on an amp, but actually that amp was worth £400 so if I play it I get enjoyment value and if I sell it for the same amount I'm still no worse off.

The other side is as a gigging guitarist doing paid gigs, I want to sound great and set up quickly, the Helix does that and much more so it’s worth paying for, I’ll get 5 years plus out of it at least.

If I was a joiner I’d pay for a quality electric drill, not buy a second hand one with a view to selling it later

thecolourbox

John_A said:

thecolourbox said:

A lot of us kind of see buying and selling second hand stuff as basically a free hobby as you can usually get your money, or most of it, back if you buy well. My Mrs used to struggle with that concept thinking that I was for example wasting £300 on an amp, but actually that amp was worth £400 so if I play it I get enjoyment value and if I sell it for the same amount I'm still no worse off.

The other side is as a gigging guitarist doing paid gigs, I want to sound great and set up quickly, the Helix does that and much more so it’s worth paying for, I’ll get 5 years plus out of it at least.

If I was a joiner I’d pay for a quality electric drill, not buy a second hand one with a view to selling it later

Oh yes absolutely but I'm too crap to need to consider gigging requirements!

Sporky

I would just like to say that there is nothing more authentically rock n roll than concerning oneself with depreciation.

As Keef once said, "let me just put that in my double-entry ledger book so I can write it down over three years as an operating expense and minimise my tax exposure. Do you do a lease option, only the current regime favours off-book capital leverage, and I've become very concerned recently with my risk exposure regarding consumer durables" 

thecolourbox

Sporky said:

I would just like to say that there is nothing more authentically rock n roll than concerning oneself with depreciation.

As Keef once said, "let me just put that in my double-entry ledger book so I can write it down over three years as an operating expense and minimise my tax exposure. Do you do a lease option, only the current regime favours off-book capital leverage, and I've become very concerned recently with my risk exposure regarding consumer durables" 

I'm not sure a concern for how much money I'm wasting on trying to play music is the biggest factor in how non-rock and/or roll I am

Sporky

That's why I favour rock cakes and sausage rolls.