Customer Reviews

Line 6 HD 147 Guitar Amplifier Head

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I play in the Boston band Wretched Asylum and we have used the Line 6 HD-147 since the beginning. This thing is a powerhouse! This amp has the best sounding metal distortion on the planet. It is absolutely crushing. The built in noise gate keeps the amp sounding tight and focused. No more having to deal with your amp humming - if you are not playing it is totally silent. This makes it incredibly easy to play quick and complex rhythm patterns without sounding messy due to amp noise. With the pedalboard you really open up the potential of this amp and the Midi-edit function allows complete control, even down to which microphone is the being modeled. It also offers plenty of interesting clean and distortion sounds, even though you might end up only using a few of them. The amp does give you effects like chorus, delay, reverb, flange...all of the basic tools to get most modern guitar sounds.

Aesthetically, this may be the best looking guitar head ever invented. It is covered with gleaming chrome and it has ominous looking "vents" on the front and the top that bleed blacklight! It looks like an industrial tank of the future...and it performs like one.

While this amp shines in most respects, personally there are a few improvments I would like to suggest.
1. Clean channels could be a bit better. They are functional, but a bit drab. Could use some warming up.
2. The effects are a bit generic. Although I like some of the effects in it I still can't abandon all of my floor pedals like the Vai Wah, and my pitch-shifters. Getting the delay to sound the way you want it is easier for me with a pedal, plus mine has an endless repeat function which the Hd-147 does not have.

Even with these flaws, I still had to rate the HD-147 with the full five stars because it gives more than what most heads can give. It provides lots of built in features and it sounds great once you have it programmed to your personal taste. The multitude of distortion choices along with the excellent compression and gate allows you to roar as loud as you want and have instant silence with a palm mute. So you won't throw all your pedals away, big deal...but would you have anyway?

Get one and enjoy. Make sure you get a good cab to go with it.

Michael
Guitarist
Wretched Asylum
www.wretchedasylum.com

I was using a Line 6 Spider II 150W 2X12 combo amp, but I need something more with my band for Practice and shows. I was shopping around and looked at a few amps. I tested a Peavey XXX, a Peavey JSX, a Mesa Dual Rectifier. None of those really gave me what I wanted. I needed an amp with a great clean, good high gain sounds, versatility, effects, and programmable channels. Line 6 seems to be the only company to offer such things, so based on reviews I read the HD 147 was a stellar choice.

Some people may criticize this amp because it is solid state, other may call it fake because its a modeling amp. Don't listen to them, because this amp rocks. I don't really even like the amp models that much, the sounds I use are the line 6 custom tones. My favorite is one called big bottom, it just sounds mean with fantastic bottom end. That, in combination with having an onboard noise gate and compressor, along with digital effects, makes this worthwhile.

In one song my band does I need to go from crazy high gain to clean with delay and chorus. What might take me a tap dancing routine of 3 pedals or so takes one foot tap with this amp. Where else could you find that? If I bought any other amp, especially a tube, I would have needed a compressor pedal, a noise gate pedal, a chorus pedal, and a delay pedal just to match what I need this head for. That is least $400 extra dollars. The bottom line is that this amp has great tone if you know how to find it and is definitely worth your attention.

It might be worth noting that the presets on this amp (as well as other line 6 products) suck. You need to spend time making your own custom settings, its not really plug and play. Also the Line 6 cab would be a good compliment to this. Other cabs would sound good, but they color your sound. I have the Line 6 cab and it fantastic. The reason being is that it has custom celestion modeling speakers. This allows great control over sculpting your tone, and also allows the cab simulator to shine through. That's right, you can simulate other cabs too, like marshall's and mesa's. So why haven't you bought this yet? Do it, you won't be sorry.