Line 6 Helix

Cabicular

Digital_Igloo;961493" said:

Cabicular said:

Does no one there have a VU meter and an hour?





Leveling presets has to be done by ear anyway, as meters don't properly account for monitoring volume, room modes, resonances, distortion, and frequency response, all of which (and more) affect perceived level.

Factory presets have been releveled in 1.06.

My broken mic input somewhat dampens my enthusiasm for the presets being levelled to be honest

guitarfishbay

In fairness levelling cleaner presets is never perfect because the guitars output will have a big impact on the volume. If it is levelled for a strat then you plug in something with a hot humbucker etc

matt1973

guitarfishbay said:

In fairness levelling cleaner presets is never perfect because the guitars output will have a big impact on the volume. If it is levelled for a strat then you plug in something with a hot humbucker etc

I totally agree. The thing with presets is that theres no indication of the guitar they were created on. The strategy of the preset is also easily missed. Presets that alude to the title of a famous song are a little more useful but it would be great for the presets creator to communicate what they set out to achieve when designing it. 

With a screen like the Helix's, it would be really useful to have a page where the user can keep notes for preset.

RMJ

Any of the Helix owners ever had an Eleven rack?  How does the amp/cab modelling compare?

Sporky

I have ordered my speaker setup for the Helix. These seemed sensibly priced and look like grumpy alien robots. Presonus Eris E8.

Cabicular

Digital_Igloo;961493" said:

Cabicular said:

Does no one there have a VU meter and an hour?





Leveling presets has to be done by ear anyway, as meters don't properly account for monitoring volume, room modes, resonances, distortion, and frequency response, all of which (and more) affect perceived level.

Factory presets have been releveled in 1.06.

Does nobody there have an hour and a set of ears then?

This is the moment where I pretty much lost faith in line 6
I have an expensive bit of hardware with a worrying fault (it was smelling like burning) that makes it useless as a recording interface(even if I ignore the fact it doesn't work with Mac) I asked DI if he was able to help and got totally ignored but he did find the time to pick me up about how the levels are set. The support guys are pretty much the same. It's a cultural issue I feel from dealing with combatative user base
There is one good guy in there the other one is a just a call paddler.

Here's what should happen
I should raise a ticket
It should get triaged and diagnosed as a hardware fault (so far so good)
Line 6 should get my address and ask me to package the unit for collection
They should collect it repair and return it within a reasonable period of time

Note I'm not asking for loan units (although that would be nice) or a replacement (but again that wouldn't be unreasonable)

Instead I get the phone number of an electronics firm with a guy who tells me to put it in a box with a copy of the proof of purchase and they'll look at it and repair it when they get parts.

No ticket reference
No return reference
No instructions on how to tell them what the fault is
I'm just supposed to plonk a grands with of processor in a box maybe stick a bit of paper in saying the mic isn't working
Organise and PAY for a courier and insurance
Cross my fingers and hope for the best

And they wonder why people get annoyed at them

All I did was buy a ton of their products. It's not my fault a lot of them have turned out to be faulty and if Ignore the time I have to spend without my live rig

It shouldn't be costing me money to have them fix their own problem

Nonsense

Wazmeister

@digitaligloo

"i asked DI if he was able to help and got totally ignored but he did find the time to pick me up about how the levels are set."

Come on man. One of our here has a problem, and this is a decent sized audience. We appreciate that this might not be your department, or outside your remit...HOWEVER

Reach out, call favours, pull some strings... But FFS, do something...

Teetonetal

@Cabicular ;

Sadly loads of companies farm out the TS side of things these days. I would imagine that line 6 don't have a repair center in the UK so have a 3rd party electronics firm do it for them. It's a really common practice now. It's  also common that ship for repair out side of DOA period is at customer expense. Return will be covered.

Still you should have a ticket / reference number and proper return instructions.

However:

Where did you buy the unit from though? Normally warranty return and repair is handled through the store, not direct. I would be returning it to the store.

Moltisanti

which shop did you buy it from ?

kjdowd

Cabicular;965034" said:

[quote="Digital_Igloo;961493"]Cabicular said:

Does no one there have a VU meter and an hour?





Leveling presets has to be done by ear anyway, as meters don't properly account for monitoring volume, room modes, resonances, distortion, and frequency response, all of which (and more) affect perceived level.

Factory presets have been releveled in 1.06.

Does nobody there have an hour and a set of ears then?

This is the moment where I pretty much lost faith in line 6
I have an expensive bit of hardware with a worrying fault (it was smelling like burning) that makes it useless as a recording interface(even if I ignore the fact it doesn't work with Mac) I asked DI if he was able to help and got totally ignored but he did find the time to pick me up about how the levels are set. The support guys are pretty much the same. It's a cultural issue I feel from dealing with combatative user base
There is one good guy in there the other one is a just a call paddler.

Here's what should happen
I should raise a ticket
It should get triaged and diagnosed as a hardware fault (so far so good)
Line 6 should get my address and ask me to package the unit for collection
They should collect it repair and return it within a reasonable period of time

Note I'm not asking for loan units (although that would be nice) or a replacement (but again that wouldn't be unreasonable)

Instead I get the phone number of an electronics firm with a guy who tells me to put it in a box with a copy of the proof of purchase and they'll look at it and repair it when they get parts.

No ticket reference
No return reference
No instructions on how to tell them what the fault is
I'm just supposed to plonk a grands with of processor in a box maybe stick a bit of paper in saying the mic isn't working
Organise and PAY for a courier and insurance
Cross my fingers and hope for the best

And they wonder why people get annoyed at them

All I did was buy a ton of their products. It's not my fault a lot of them have turned out to be faulty and if Ignore the time I have to spend without my live rig

It shouldn't be costing me money to have them fix their own problem

Nonsense[/quote]

All too often the case with new models of kit in any area. All of the stock goes to retail, so there aren't any spares, and the service side of the organisation (and related third parties) are poorly prepped and badly supported. I've had this across new models of tech, cars, guitar kit, you name it. It all settles down after a while, but that doesn't help you in the meantime. Irritating.

Cabicular

Andertons but it was a gift so I wasn't the original purchaser it was bought in the initial batch way before Xmas. so I have the receipt but no relationship with them over it. I could contact them and see where I get but I don't think it will buy me anything

At the end of the day I have a way forward and I'm not left with a big paper weight so file this under "general grumbling" But I'm also left with a poor impression of line 6 who seem more concerned with nitpicking over the perception of the unit, that they are losing site of the perception of the Company

Especially when I compare it to the service I get from other companies on here.

What is more worrying to a prospective customer. The speed of the patch changes or the durability of the hardware and more importantly how the company stand behind it if it does go wrong?

Moltisanti

if it was me I would contact Andertons and speak to them and see what their position is.

Bottom line is you pay a lot of money for a high end piece of gear you should get treated as such, if you buy from small companies (Suhr, Friedman, Bogner) they take care of you VERY well, Line6 are a huge company in comparison so they should get their act together before product launch and have their service in place.

They should offer you a replacement - if there are none then a refund.

Teetonetal

Well, I think the contract is still between purchaser and shop, so even though it was a gift, the proper route is back to the store, with the receipt. Sure it's not ideal having to ask someone for a receipt, but I can't believe they wouldn't understand.

Appreciate that line 6 could be doing a lot more, but your walking around the correct process too I suspect. 

Sporky

I'd definitely give Andertons a shout. The L3M I bought from them in the sale had a duff L6Link input; they arranged to get another L6Link source and another L6Link amp to the shop, sat with me testing, agreed it wasn't working and offered a repair, refund or exchange. At the same time they let me trade my HD500X (bought 32 days before) against a Helix at full cost price, and all with no crying or griping. While from other threads they clearly do have the odd failure, I've generally found them helpful even when things go wrong.

The "correct" route is via the retailer after all. Politely make it their problem rather than yours.

Cabicular

Teetonetal said:

Well, I think the contract is still between purchaser and shop, so even though it was a gift, the proper route is back to the store, with the receipt. Sure it's not ideal having to ask someone for a receipt, but I can't believe they wouldn't understand.

Appreciate that line 6 could be doing a lot more, but your walking around the correct process too I suspect. 

I asked if anyone had the problem on the Line 6 Forum and was told to raise a ticket

I raised a ticket with Line 6

They told me it was a hardware fault and it would need to go to their European Service Centre

They gave me contact details

They closed the Ticket

If I'm walking around the process its because that is where they are taking me

Compare it to a problem I had with another major amplifier manufacturer (I'll spare their blushes) I asked a rep on here if they had seen the issue. A few conversations later and they are arranging to get it picked up to their service centre

Sporky

I agree that Line6 don't seem to be giving you the support they should.

But we're just suggesting an alternative approach which may be more successful.

Cabicular

I may well do that then

I need to find a gap so I can get it underway (which I think is next week after the Clutha gig)

 

handsomerik

All cases I've seen of helix's needing repair in America on tgp have been dealt with very well with reports of line 6 even refunding shipping costs to return the unit to them.

I agree they should be dealing with you better given the cost of investment and advertised 'premium quality' and 'tour grade' that is stated of Helix.

It's my view that any item can have a problem and it may not be anyone's fault but this is where customer service is really important. This is where a company must step up and take care of you, especially considering the cost of this item, and the fact that Helix is an all in one solution. I sold my entire pedalboard to put my faith in helix. If it stops working i'm completely screwed and at their mercy. Line 6 should recognise this and make sure a customer has a replacement super quick.

Generally speaking, If I get treated poorly by a company I've put my faith and money into I'd never ever use them again in the future. However, if I have a problem and its dealt with properly, even though the problem is a nuisance, I'll happily continue to stand by such a company.

Digital_Igloo

Wazmeister said:

@digitaligloo

"i asked DI if he was able to help and got totally ignored but he did find the time to pick me up about how the levels are set."

Come on man. One of our here has a problem, and this is a decent sized audience. We appreciate that this might not be your department, or outside your remit...HOWEVER

Reach out, call favours, pull some strings... But FFS, do something...

If possible, always try to PM me. There are literally tens of thousands of posts out there and 95% of my job is designing gear—I'm not marketing, customer service, tech support, or PR of any sort. Any forum interaction has to be done on free time. Cheers!

Cabicular

Line6 Hunter has been in touch
Hopefully we can get this put to bed nice and simply and I can get on with gigging and recording the arse off this thing