Line 6 Helix

Cabicular

No DC out
What I do is a Y cable (2xIEC into one) so I only need one plug and put a gigrig distributor in to power my wireless, the Gunshot and my B9
Ahhhh the tuner
The gear page has a few people complaining about it
I think it's fine
It tunes the guitar and its easy to read
I've got good pitch and there is nothing wrong with it

I've had my issues but it is the best unit I have ever had (and I've had a lot)

fretmeister

The tuner is fine even on a low B bass.

Sporky

The tuner is pretty good - not on a par with my Turbo Tuner, but easily good enough.

No DC out.

Personally I've found the Helix great straight off - but I didn't listen to any presets, they're always awful in every unit. You might as well judge a stompbox by leaving all the knobs just as they are out of the box.

I built patches from scratch, starting simple, into my own speaker setup (pair of mid-sized monitors). I had sounds I liked in minutes.

Lots of delays, from basic to complex, and remember that the multiple paths mean you can do lots more by putting things in parallel, treating wet differently from dry and so on.

rossyamaha

@Teetonetal sorry it didn't do it for you. As others have said though, you should ignore the presets. They are programmed by someone with specific tastes using whatever gear they were using  and playing a certain way. The chances of you being that exact player are pretty slim. I know what you mean though about expecting to plug in and be wowed. I thought the same about the Dumble I once got to play and when I did, well, meh.

Worth checking this vid out.

johnonguitar

Sporky;1054800" said:

The tuner is pretty good - not on a par with my Turbo Tuner, but easily good enough.



No DC out.



Personally I've found the Helix great straight off - but I didn't listen to any presets, they're always awful in every unit. You might as well judge a stompbox by leaving all the knobs just as they are out of the box.



I built patches from scratch, starting simple, into my own speaker setup (pair of mid-sized monitors). I had sounds I liked in minutes.



Lots of delays, from basic to complex, and remember that the multiple paths mean you can do lots more by putting things in parallel, treating wet differently from dry and so on.

Right fuck it it, I'm going to stick my gear up for sale tomorrow and get Helix'd up

To be fair I never use presets anyway. I usually skip straight to blank patch on any digital/modelling/patchy thing I use anyway.

I'll keep my Cioks Adam power supply and a couple of drive pedals... got some tough decisions of which ones to keep ahead

Cabicular

How do you plan to amplify ?

johnonguitar

Cabicular;1055022" said:

How do you plan to amplify ?

I'm basically going to use it as an effects unit for my amp. It's a Cornford MK50ii

I'll use it the amp sims mostly for recording but can see them getting used into the cornfords effects return for gainy sounds at bedroom levels (the Cornford is a nightmare for low level playing)

Not playing many Ceilidhs at the moment but will come in handy for both electric and acoustic and usually we just go straight to the desk for such gigs

I want to keep a few "proper" drive pedals for going into the amp, not really for using with the amp sims.

johnonguitar

Cabicular;1054748" said:

No DC out
What I do is a Y cable (2xIEC into one) so I only need one plug and put a gigrig distributor in to power my wireless, the Gunshot and my B9
Ahhhh the tuner
The gear page has a few people complaining about it
I think it's fine
It tunes the guitar and its easy to read
I've got good pitch and there is nothing wrong with it

I've had my issues but it is the best unit I have ever had (and I've had a lot)

What sort of board do you have it on?

Cabicular

PT2
https://flic.kr/p/GgovC3
My backline bypasses the cab modelling but runs in stereo
https://flic.kr/p/GgoG9d
I use the XLRs with the cab models for FOH
The big volume knob just controls the 1/4 outputs

Cabicular

The Amplifire is my backup rig

johnonguitar

Cabicular;1055072" said:

PT2
https://flic.kr/p/GgovC3
My backline bypasses the cab modelling but runs in stereo
https://flic.kr/p/GgoG9d
I use the XLRs with the cab models for FOH
The big volume knob just controls the 1/4 outputs

Very nice. I'm holding out for the new Powerstation to cure my "at home Cornford needs" and also to run stereo when needs be.

How do you find the angle of the PT2 plus the Helix when using the expression pedal?

Cabicular

Fine
I worried about that but I'm used to wahs mounted on the board and functionally I can't say I notice a difference
I only use that pedal for a volume boost though (I put plus 7db on the outputs controlled by the exp) I had some overly complicated wah setup I've ditched and gone for a straight volume sweep
I never want a volume pedal from 0-100
I need 70-100 and I play at 70 and use the rest of the sweep depending on how much extra volume I need for solos or cool phrases
Did you see this from when I first got it?

It's evolved a bit from then but this was v2 of my main patch

Cabicular

And fannying about with a Tele

Teetonetal

Digital_Igloo;1054593" said:

There was also a bug early on that caused all presets to default to an SM57, regardless of how they were programmed. Therefore, they all sounded worse ("strident" would be an appropriate word) than if they were programmed with an SM57 to begin with. Yes, when we found the bug we all cowered in the corner, sobbing.

One of the problems with retail is that floor units are almost never properly updated.

This was brand new into stock on Monday. Do new units not ship with newer firmware?

Digital_Igloo

Teetonetal said:

Digital_Igloo;1054593" said:

There was also a bug early on that caused all presets to default to an SM57, regardless of how they were programmed. Therefore, they all sounded worse ("strident" would be an appropriate word) than if they were programmed with an SM57 to begin with. Yes, when we found the bug we all cowered in the corner, sobbing.

One of the problems with retail is that floor units are almost never properly updated.

This was brand new into stock on Monday. Do new units not ship with newer firmware?

Not necessarily, or even if it was updated in the store, it may not have been reset properly. As soon as I read the word "strident", I thought "Oh crap."

Teetonetal

Digital_Igloo said:

Teetonetal said:

Digital_Igloo;1054593" said:

There was also a bug early on that caused all presets to default to an SM57, regardless of how they were programmed. Therefore, they all sounded worse ("strident" would be an appropriate word) than if they were programmed with an SM57 to begin with. Yes, when we found the bug we all cowered in the corner, sobbing.

One of the problems with retail is that floor units are almost never properly updated.

This was brand new into stock on Monday. Do new units not ship with newer firmware?

Not necessarily, or even if it was updated in the store, it may not have been reset properly. As soon as I read the word "strident", I thought "Oh crap."

Hmm, that's interesting as strident is definitely how I'd describe it. Anyway I could tell if I went back to the shop and had a look?

fretmeister

When you turn it on the boot screen shows the firmware version.

Teetonetal

rossyamaha said:

@Teetonetal sorry it didn't do it for you. As others have said though, you should ignore the presets. They are programmed by someone with specific tastes using whatever gear they were using  and playing a certain way. The chances of you being that exact player are pretty slim. I know what you mean though about expecting to plug in and be wowed. I thought the same about the Dumble I once got to play and when I did, well, meh.

Worth checking this vid out.

@Rossyamaha see, that sounds marvelous.... 

Digital_Igloo

Teetonetal said:

Digital_Igloo said:

Teetonetal said:

Digital_Igloo;1054593" said:

There was also a bug early on that caused all presets to default to an SM57, regardless of how they were programmed. Therefore, they all sounded worse ("strident" would be an appropriate word) than if they were programmed with an SM57 to begin with. Yes, when we found the bug we all cowered in the corner, sobbing.

One of the problems with retail is that floor units are almost never properly updated.

This was brand new into stock on Monday. Do new units not ship with newer firmware?

Not necessarily, or even if it was updated in the store, it may not have been reset properly. As soon as I read the word "strident", I thought "Oh crap."

Hmm, that's interesting as strident is definitely how I'd describe it. Anyway I could tell if I went back to the shop and had a look?

Yep, and if you can, hold down footswitches 9 and 10 (middle two on the bottom row) while restarting; Helix will tell you it's reloading all the stock presets and global settings and will display the current firmware. The latest is 1.10. If it's 1.06.5, that's probably fine too.

The first 50 or so presets in Setlist 1 are stripped down—just an amp and cab with maybe a few effects waiting in the wings.

sweepy

If you find the Helix strident, the first port of call would be the guitar input impedance, if it's 1meg it can be harsh, I usually set mine to auto and it deals perfectly with EMG's, single coils and PAF's