Firehawk App and Variax settings

[silverhead]

This is a cautionary note to people using a Variax guitar with the Firehawk, particularly gigging users.

 

If you're like me you might prefer to set up all your presets in advance of a gig, including the Variax model and alternate tuning settings, so that you don't have to do any live editing or tailoring of the Variax for each preset. In fact, you might leave your editor at home (in this case a mobile device).

 

But while practicing at home you might experiment with the Firehawk App and come across the 'Model Controlled By' and 'Tuning Controlled By' settings on the Variax page of the app. Be aware that these are global settings, available only in the editor. These settings can not be changed on the device itself.

 

What does that mean? It means if you leave your experimenting in the editor with these parameters set to Variax (rather than Firehawk) the Firehawk device is prevented from controlling these parameters. This setting holds through the power down/up cycle of the Firehawk device. In other words, if you have mistakenly left these settings at Variax and you arrive at your gig without your mobile device, all your carefully constructed Variax model and alternate tuning settings in the Firehawk presets are ignored by the Firehawk device. They are not applied/sent to your Variax when you recall your presets, and there is no way to change that without the editor. Have a nice gig.

 

Recommendations:

If you store Variax info in Firehawk presets make sure that:

- the 'Model Controlled By' and 'Tuning Controlled By' parameters are set to 'Firehawk' at the end of every editor session.

- you bring your mobile device with the Firehawk App to your gigs, just in case.

 

Hope this cautionary note might preempt a frustrating situation.