Line 6 Helix

Cabicular

I use it to switch between two drives

Wazmeister

I'm trailing a Line 6 Helix at the moment, but I'm not sure if its for me. 

The problem is that I want to use it with my existing amps; Carr Rambler, Lazy J, Matchless Lightning...

The sound of them is SO good, no digital modelling comes close, which is ok. But, there does seem to be a slight volume drop, and there is definitely some colouring of the amps sounds... even with no amps/cabs/pre amps selected.

Is there a way to get Unity Gain and an almost bypass of the Helix ?

joeyowen

Cabicular said:

I use it to switch between two drives

ta dude

Wrong answer though, as it just fuels the gas ha

kjdowd

Wazmeister said:

I'm trailing a Line 6 Helix at the moment, but I'm not sure if its for me. 

The problem is that I want to use it with my existing amps; Carr Rambler, Lazy J, Matchless Lightning...

The sound of them is SO good, no digital modelling comes close, which is ok. But, there does seem to be a slight volume drop, and there is definitely some colouring of the amps sounds... even with no amps/cabs/pre amps selected.

Is there a way to get Unity Gain and an almost bypass of the Helix ?

FX8 might be for you if you want to use your existing amps. Designed for unity gain, control of bypass behaviour etc and sounds like only need the FX?

Teetonetal

joeyowen;935303" said:

Fuck.

Just watched Pete Thorn's demo... it sounds incredible

I gassed hard, I even did the maths on selling my pedals etc to afford it.

I struggle to play/record guitar at home because of the baby, and this could be a god send for demoing tracks

fuck fuck fuck, thanks for nothing Pete Thorn.

Assuming you already have a computer wouldn't sgear or amplitube be even cheaper for home only use?

joeyowen

Teetonetal said:

Assuming you already have a computer wouldn't sgear or amplitube be even cheaper for home only use?

I'll have a gander, but I was thinking for gigs too

But cheers for the heads up !

welshboyo

Wazmeister said:

I'm trailing a Line 6 Helix at the moment, but I'm not sure if its for me. 

The problem is that I want to use it with my existing amps; Carr Rambler, Lazy J, Matchless Lightning...

The sound of them is SO good, no digital modelling comes close, which is ok. But, there does seem to be a slight volume drop, and there is definitely some colouring of the amps sounds... even with no amps/cabs/pre amps selected.

Is there a way to get Unity Gain and an almost bypass of the Helix ?

Yes buy an FX8...

Cabicular

I would say if you are that precise about your amp tone the FX8 might be the way forward
It's slightly better in 4cm but probably more importantly there are no amp options so it focuses you on the FX only side
Also it has 2 amp relays to the Helixs one
Downside
It is a handful to program without a laptop (do-able but not fun) the routing isn't as flexible. It doesn't have the option of direct outs into the PA if you are in a situ where you have to go without an amp or you are on a loan unit
The Helix is a much more flexible unit in my opinion
If I have to grab and go it's what I would choose. But the FX8 ... Well let's just say it's not for sale .... Yet

dindude

Wazmeister;935339" said:

I'm trailing a Line 6 Helix at the moment, but I'm not sure if its for me. 

The problem is that I want to use it with my existing amps; Carr Rambler, Lazy J, Matchless Lightning...

The sound of them is SO good, no digital modelling comes close, which is ok. But, there does seem to be a slight volume drop, and there is definitely some colouring of the amps sounds... even with no amps/cabs/pre amps selected.

Is there a way to get Unity Gain and an almost bypass of the Helix ?

Honestly Waz, although I haven't tried a Helix (would like too, they look fab for what they are), using one with those amps seems like a complete miss-match to me.

Moltisanti

it looks much bigger in this demo than i than i had thought in the past, probably just me.....but i checked and it is a good 6 inches wider than the FX8. Not a positive or negative, obviously the built in expression pedal accounts for most of it (even though it's on the wrong side )

Cabicular

By the time you put a couple of exp on the fx 8 they are not that different
Helix is slightly taller
Unless you never use expression pedals there functionally isn't that much of a difference
The Helix bag looks good though

handsomerik

joeyowen;935320" said:

hugbot said:

Yes. You can do that on the POD HD even. Set one switch as an on off to multiple efffects.





Not quite that sorry,



So instead of: On/off  I want it to toggle: VerbA/VerbB 

 So there is no way to turn it off with the switch, only switch between



(sorry if I'm not clear!)

Yeah that is how you do it. The one footswitch switches one verb on while the the other is switched off. It is essentially a reverb A/B. You can even set one or even both to trail when they're switched off.

handsomerik

Wazmeister;935339" said:

I'm trailing a Line 6 Helix at the moment, but I'm not sure if its for me. 

The problem is that I want to use it with my existing amps; Carr Rambler, Lazy J, Matchless Lightning...

The sound of them is SO good, no digital modelling comes close, which is ok. But, there does seem to be a slight volume drop, and there is definitely some colouring of the amps sounds... even with no amps/cabs/pre amps selected.

Is there a way to get Unity Gain and an almost bypass of the Helix ?

Yep. Go to the volume/gain fx block and you can drop a block in that will boost or cut both volume and gain.

The gain boost makes a really excellent clean boost.

Moltisanti

just watched the Pete Thorn demo again, and it does sound really good.

i wonder if i could get a Helix and FX8 in the room together ?

anyone have one in Cheshire /North-West ?

Wazmeister

The real real real strengths of it are how you can create paths (of pedals), and move them about. And, Ive linked it to two amps, Split the sounds etc and it sounded great.

But, the Helix def affects those glorious amps of mine. And that at the moment, until imfind a way around it, is a deal breaker for me.

Teetonetal

Wazmeister;935553" said:

The real real real strengths of it are how you can create paths (of pedals), and move them about. And, Ive linked it to two amps, Split the sounds etc and it sounded great.



But, the Helix def affects those glorious amps of mine. And that at the moment, until imfind a way around it, is a deal breaker for me.

I think the Helix really ought to be suited to people who want to record.. go direct into pa or not use guitar amps... having such nice amps and not using the moddeling seems a waste of both amp and modelling.

Cabicular

Some of the best tones I get from mine are a modelled clean amp and pedals for the distortion
It's very close on how I do things anyway

Drew_TNBD

I still wanna get one. Just waiting for things to settle with the band, see where I'm at around the middle of the year.

Drew_TNBD

And @petethorn has made it sound killer!

Drew_TNBD

Imho too, I thought his PT100 tone didn't sound as good as the Brit 2204.