Using a Line 6 HX Effects or Helix to change Amp channels

Note the position of the external switching jacks for Chan 2 and Chan 3

Hey folks

I was out earlier today picking up another pedal (I know big surprise) and I encountered a nice fellow at Cosmo Music seeking some guidance.  Matt was assisting him, but as the gear the customer had was not available, there had to be some assumptions made through necessity. By the time I post this, Matt has probably solved the problem, as he is a very smart guy, but others may benefit.

I do not own a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier but I have some familiarity as I do use a Mesa Boogie Mark V combo.  I also own both a Line 6 Helix and a Line 6 HX Effects, so I thought I might be able to solve the question.

The gentleman has successfully connected his Line 6 HX Effects to his Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier using the four cable method.  This is an excellent method as it puts overdrives in front of the preamp, and modulation, delay and reverb effects between the preamp and the power amp.  This requires that the amplifier have an effects loop of course, and the Dual Rectifier does have this functionality.

What he wanted to do was be able to use his HX Effects to change the channels on his Dual Rectifier.  I was pretty sure that this was possible and while the preferred method on the Line 6 stuff is to use MIDI, the Dual Rectifier is not MIDI ready.  It does have a multi pin port, but that port is for use between the Dual Rectifier and the dedicated Mesa Boogie floor board that offers channel switching, solo mode, and FX loop active.  Now perhaps someone has figured out how to use this port for MIDI, but my MIDI skills fall somewhere between awareness of existence and none, this is not my space.

Moreover, channel switching in general is a pretty simple on/off type thing, usually down with a latching footswitch.

Line 6 does support the use of the expression pedal jacks to act as the connection to an amplifier, and you can readily program an unassigned foot switch through the Control Center on the device or via HX Edit to act as a latching footswitch.

Each of the Line 6 connections uses a TRS connection, so when programming the foot switch on the HX Effects or the Helix, you set whether foot switch engagement uses either the tip or the ring.  The Line 6 footswitches in this configuration are not multimode toggles, they are either on or off.  However, the connectors still expect a TRS plug.

Moving to the Dual Rectifier, it’s default mode is the green (aka Clean) channel.  With no foot switch active, this is how the amp comes up.  You can however attach a TS latching foot switch to the Channel 2 or Channel 3 jacks on the rear of the amplifier to activate/deactivate the switch to those channels.

So the catch is a special cable or adapter.  You need to have a TRS plug into the HX Effects or the Helix that splits into two separate TS jacks.  You connect the TRS plug into the HX Effects or Helix, and then from the adapter, run TS cables from the outputs on the adapter to the Channel 2 and Channel 3 jacks on the Dual Rectifier.

Now here’s a gotcha.  Remember that when using a Line 6 switch as an external switcher, it can only do off or on.  So what you need to do for a 3 channel amp like the Dual Rectifier is be able to turn on each of channels 2 and 3 independently.  This means dedicating two of the Line 6 footswitches to each of the channel on/off connections.  In my research, I discovered that if you configured one of the switches to use the Ring on the TRS connection you could then choose the ring side of the adapter for whichever channel that you wished to engage.  Configure the second switch to use the tip of the TRS connection and then use that connected to the other channel.

In the studies I made, I found evidence that a fellow who used this method was able to program a foot switch to be the orange channel and the second foot switch to be the red channel.  He used ring for orange, but I do not think it makes a difference from a channel choice, only whether the cable to the Dual Rectifier is using the tip or ring from the Line 6 device.

I would then propose running a TRS to TRS cable of appropriate length from the Helix or HX Effects floor unit to the amp, and then use the plugs from the splitter into channel 2 and channel 3 foot switch ports on the back of the amp, and then plug the TRS plug from the Line 6 unit into the TRS jack on the adapter.  You can find such adapters on Amazon very inexpensively.

You could do this again on the Ext 2 output on the Line 6 device to allow for activation of Solo mode or the FX loop, but then you are using up four footswitches on your Line 6 device and you are better off, in my opinion, to use the dedicated Mesa Boogie floor controller.

Finally, for those who use their HX Effects or Helix in Preset mode instead of Stompbox mode, save each switch configuration into a Snapshot (consult your Line 6 manual) and then use the Snapshots to inform your preset configuration.  I tend to use a couple of banks that have presets stored in them myself and have no adequate experience with snapshots to offer guidance in this regard.

I hope that this solution works for those who wish to do what is described.  It should work for any amplifier with more than one channel, with the caveat that you must program a Line 6 foot switch for each channel.  Of course if your amp has a lot of channels, it probably also supports MIDI and in that scenario, MIDI is the way to go, but I am not sufficiently skilled to provide advice on that.

Thanks for reading and until next time, peace.