How to get a Marshally sound from HX Effects

allen

I'm trying to get a Marshall sound out of my Tone King Imperial to do a few classic rock tunes from the 70s and 80s.

Got a few boutique pedals, but was hoping to do the whole thing in one box.

I have tried the OCD model (obsessive drive?) and it is in the territory, but a bit fizzy and thin.

Tried the Heir Apparent (half of the King of Tone) and that is much more like the right tone, but the gain doesn't go up that far. At maximum it's just about getting there.

I did a back to back with my Bogner La Grange pedal and they were close, but the Bogner was much fuller and bigger sounding (with no fizz).

 I also tried a bit of gain stacking on the HX, but just seemed to thin everything out.

 I don't want to use the Tone King gain channel as I really don't like it.

Any ideas?

davros

How about the tone sovereign? That's the full king of tone.

Voxman

Truthfully I think you're going to struggle. HX Fx is essentially just Helix Fx and cab models.  Because Helix and Pod Go have Marshall amp models, theres been no need for Line 6 to model a Marshall in a box' pedal which is what you're looking for but none of the distortions in HxFx can do this.

Best option is to buy a stomp MIAB type pedal to use with HxFx. You don't have to spend a fortune and could do a lot worse than picking up a Marshall Guvnr II Plus GV2 that can be found very cheaply on Ebay etc. for around £45.  However, people are realising just how good these are and they are now appearing on Ebay for £90-160!! 

thecolourbox

Could you combine a drive with an eq either before or after it perhaps?

Have you tried the Legendary Drive as that's supposed to be an amp style drive so may be able to tweak it to suit?

relic245

Voxman said:

Best option is to buy a stomp MIAB type pedal to use with HxFx.

However, people are realising just how good these are and they are now appearing on Ebay for £90-160!! 

This x100

I struggled with the exact same problem as the OP so ended up buying  2 of the Guvnor pedals and had them set at different gain settings. 

The sound was good but it didn't quite scratch the itch as I now needed to tap dance 1 pedal on and one off to go from crunch to lead as it sounded better than stacking them. That was exactly what I was trying to get away from with the Hx-FX

Voxman said:

You don't have to spend a fortune and could do a lot worse than picking up a Marshall Guvnr II Plus GV2 that can be found very cheaply on Ebay etc. for around £45.  However, people are realising just how good these are and they are now appearing on Ebay for £90-160!! 

Interesting as I have 2 of these sitting unused on my shelf. I'm keeping one as a back up. Perhaps I should hold onto the other a little bit longer. It could be the first piece of music gear I ever made a profit on

guitarmangler

That legendary drive is horrible. In fact, I don't really like any of the distortion pedals on their own.
But then again, I don't really like many distortion pedals on their own!

The best of the bunch, now, is the nobles clone, the prize drive. 

Why don't line 6 put a marshal in a box pedal in there?

guitarmangler

Or, if you tweak them correctly, the metal zone clones or the line 6 distortion/drive in the legacy section are OK.

LionAquaLooper

Voxman said:

Truthfully I think you're going to struggle. HX Fx is essentially just Helix Fx and cab models.  Because Helix and Pod Go have Marshall amp models, theres been no need for Line 6 to model a Marshall in a box' pedal which is what you're looking for but none of the distortions in HxFx can do this.

Best option is to buy a stomp MIAB type pedal to use with HxFx. You don't have to spend a fortune and could do a lot worse than picking up a Marshall Guvnr II Plus GV2 that can be found very cheaply on Ebay etc. for around £45.  However, people are realising just how good these are and they are now appearing on Ebay for £90-160!! 

Not the Joyo British Sound. That's still cheap as chips even brand new. Stick it in the HX FX loop and presto, you've got a Marshall preamp in your chain and you don't even need a real amp anymore.

I was close to buying a GV2 but saw some bad reviews about them here and there. Decided against it. 

nick79

The NUX plexi crunch is pretty good too, sounds very much like the Guvnor 2 - just a bit less gain. Can be picked up new for £40.

Secret_Sam

If you are buying a pedal for this, see if you can try a Radial Tonebone Hot British.  It's really good, and secondhand or clearance prices are low.

It prefers a 15v power supply (which it comes with) but can live with 18v.  There's a version that works on standard 9v called London Bones, but I've not tried that one. 

If you don't mind taking a risk and coping with shipping costs and slow delivery, here's one in a South African junk shop for about 35 quid:

https://www.cashconverters.co.za/product/radial-tonebone-hot-british-tube-distortion/

Or a new one for less than 80 quid:

https://mitechdirect.com/products/radial-tonebone-hot-british-tube-distortion-12ax7-equipped-british-style-tones-psu-included

I usually pay 50 euros for shipping pedals from Thomann, so I guess that's what you would pay in the other direction.  

I have one, but I'm not selling!

allen

Thanks all,

but I'm not sure if I've made myself clear. I've got analogue pedals that do great Marshall in a box - I don't need to buy one.

I'm trying to avoid using it and get the sound I want from the HX effects without another pedal!

Secret_Sam

Ah. Doh. Sorry. Well, buy a tonebone anyway, while you are waiting for a more useful answer  :- )

bobeffect

Valve Driver, Prize Drive,Teemah, Legendary Drive and Pillars in mode 1 & 3 are useful to me into my DRRI or Victory V40 deluxe for gigging with. That's using my full fat Helix as a pedalboard. I do use a few more drives too but I can get a lot done with those.

jellybelly

@allen I'd disagree with some of the comments about the HX here especially when it comes to stacking. It works (almost) exactly like real pedals do, and some pedals do better going INTO others (klon, tube screamer, SD-1) while others are better at being basses to be boosted (Timmy in particular, but also the Red Llama, DOD250).

I've had great success with real pedals stacking a Marshall Blues Breaker style pedal into a Timmy, which I've replicated with the Prince of Tone and Timmy in the HX FX. Sounds plenty Marshall and the extra gain settings for the PoT model allow Some gainer tones.

Some key points, in real life as well as the HX:
- make sure the PoT is going INTO the Timmy, not the other way around, though that can work. 
-set the clipping for the Timmy to the middle setting, so it's adding the least compression possible - the Timmy is effectively now just a couple more gain stages which you can tailor the highs and lows in
- don't restrict the EQ too much in the PoT - it gives you less to work with in the Timmy

If it's not bright enough, hit it with a treble boost beforehand. 

All that said, if it's JCM800 onwards tones you want, I bet the Legacy Drive can get in the ballpark and a Rat set properly might actually give you what you want. 

In fact, try the Rat anyway, the new one is great. 

Kebabkid

thecolourbox said:

Could you combine a drive with an eq either before or after it perhaps?

Have you tried the Legendary Drive as that's supposed to be an amp style drive so may be able to tweak it to suit?

This. Try a Kinky Boost (Xotic EP) before the drive and it will give it a little kick and push it. If you place it after, it will act more like a volume hike. Even a TS type pedal with gain down very low doing the same could get you there.

LionAquaLooper

I found the Legendary Drive to be too high gain but YMMV. Depends what you mean by "Marshall-y". That could mean plexi low/mid gain or JCM800 high gain. 

allen

Well, I gave it a go last night and used the Heir Apparent (prince of tone) boosted with a compressor.

Actually, seemed to work out pretty well. The fizziness that you hear when playing on your own disappeared totally.