Ampless live rig…. Pedals & Dream 65 or Helix????

Majorscale

Well long story short, I ended up with a Helix. Did two “duo gigs” with it this weekend, plugged straight into the PA.

For my Duo it solved the stage volume problems we had before and massively simplified setup. I have the Helix setup with four snapshots for main drive levels and four stomp boxes for FX as needed. It worked well in that context and made playing to the backing tracks easier. Tone wise it was OK, mods and verbs are fine but I’m not convinced by the drives. Most of our duo material is pop music though so clean tones are the main palettes.

For my full band gigs I will definitely be sticking with the valve amps and analogue pedals. Nothing replaces the tone, feel and interactivity of a decent valve rig.

Thanks for all your insights and comments.

octatonic

TheBigDipper said:

CarpeDiem said:

octatonic said:

I put a Tonex on my regular board.
It is fantastic.

@octatonic Do you need to use a DI box with the Tonex to connect to a PA? Also, how does it compare to a Kemper? My reason for asking is that I’m considering getting a Kemper Player which I understand can plug direct into a PA. Apologies, as I don’t want to derail the thread but thought that the OP would need to know that some possible solutions will need a DI box. 

The Tonex Pedal left and right output sockets are 1/4in mono and unbalanced. I don't own a Tonex One, but believe the output socket is stereo and unbalanced. So using a DI box is a good idea. 

Yes, this.
I use a DI.

Adji

I still love my 'big boy' setup for the tribute band I'm in where we have plenty of set up time etc. Usually playing bigger stages so nice to have actual backline there of help fill the space etc.
But for the originals band I'm using a POD Go. So small, so easy to use, sounds great! Can be on stage in like 30 seconds, changeovers at festivals and multi-band events are quick and seamless.

CarpeDiem

@digitalscream @octatonic Thanks for replying to my question regarding the need for a DI box.

jamesguitar

Majorscale said:

Tone wise it was OK, mods and verbs are fine but I’m not convinced by the drives. Most of our duo material is pop music though so clean tones are the main palettes.

What kind of guitar are you using on those gigs? With the HX Stomp I’m having the most success with the either the tube screamer or the Dhyana Drive (ZenDrive) into a Fender amp (either the Princeton or the Bassman). I usually dial the gain back a bit on those Helix drives and if I need more gain then I add a Kinky Boost (EP Booster) before the drive. 

Add a touch or delay and reverb at the end of the chain (after amp / cab sim) and it sits great in either an acoustic or tracks mix.

Majorscale

jamesguitar said:

Majorscale said:

Tone wise it was OK, mods and verbs are fine but I’m not convinced by the drives. Most of our duo material is pop music though so clean tones are the main palettes.

What kind of guitar are you using on those gigs? With the HX Stomp I’m having the most success with the either the tube screamer or the Dhyana Drive (ZenDrive) into a Fender amp (either the Princeton or the Bassman). I usually dial the gain back a bit on those Helix drives and if I need more gain then I add a Kinky Boost (EP Booster) before the drive. 

Add a touch or delay and reverb at the end of the chain (after amp / cab sim) and it sits great in either an acoustic or tracks mix.

Thanks for the pointers James, will try those. I was using the KoT model into a Fender Twin. Sounded oddly harsh/fake (I have a real KoT which is why I started there). Now in fairness it could be the generic monitors we have on stage that contributes to this harshness, I’ve never heard the helix through an FRFR or specialist speaker! Will have a tinker around with my snapshots ahead of my next duo gig.

Oh and the guitar is an HSS Suhr strat…

mark_jwedge

Majorscale said:

jamesguitar said:

Majorscale said:

Tone wise it was OK, mods and verbs are fine but I’m not convinced by the drives. Most of our duo material is pop music though so clean tones are the main palettes.

What kind of guitar are you using on those gigs? With the HX Stomp I’m having the most success with the either the tube screamer or the Dhyana Drive (ZenDrive) into a Fender amp (either the Princeton or the Bassman). I usually dial the gain back a bit on those Helix drives and if I need more gain then I add a Kinky Boost (EP Booster) before the drive. 

Add a touch or delay and reverb at the end of the chain (after amp / cab sim) and it sits great in either an acoustic or tracks mix.

Thanks for the pointers James, will try those. I was using the KoT model into a Fender Twin. Sounded oddly harsh/fake (I have a real KoT which is why I started there). Now in fairness it could be the generic monitors we have on stage that contributes to this harshness, I’ve never heard the helix through an FRFR or specialist speaker! Will have a tinker around with my snapshots ahead of my next duo gig.

Oh and the guitar is an HSS Suhr strat…

If it sounds a bit harsh through the FRFR speaker you might need to adjust the high cuts on the cab/IR block. This becomes more relevant as you add some dirt. I generally high cut to about 5.5k and low cut to 75Hz as a starter and fine tune from there. Some times I add a high/low cut block after the cab/IR block and high cut to 10k as the high/low but block cuts more aggressively than when using the high and low cut on the cab/IR block

jamesguitar

Thanks for the pointers James, will try those. I was using the KoT model into a Fender Twin. Sounded oddly harsh/fake (I have a real KoT which is why I started there). Now in fairness it could be the generic monitors we have on stage that contributes to this harshness, I’ve never heard the helix through an FRFR or specialist speaker! Will have a tinker around with my snapshots ahead of my next duo gig.

Oh and the guitar is an HSS Suhr strat…

No worries! I like the King Of Tone in real life, but never really tried it on the Helix; generally used it to push an amp hard when I had one. 

My main guitar is a Suhr classic HSS, so those recommended combinations should work well for you too. Occasionally I dip the treble slightly if I’m not loving the top end in an acoustic or tracks setting (as not needing to cut through live drums). Hopefully you’ll get sounds you like too. I just run it through whatever PA the venue has (or my own QSC speaker, or even AER acoustic amp). Haven’t tried it with an FRFR setup. 

DM me if you have any questions, sounds like we have a very similar setup and I’ve been tweaking the HX Stomp for a while now (and didn’t love the amp sims / drives initially).