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Obsidian is OK for metal, but its too brittle and shrill (my opinion) for R&B, rock, pop, etc. We need Helix bass preamp models such as REDDI, Avalon, Firefly, Sans Amp, etc.

This information will probably strike everyone here as coming a bit late to the story, but what I'm adding here is absolutely and factually true. This morning was the first opportunity that I've had to actually "open" the internal Helix Rack box and fully inspect the Helix unit itself. Now keep in mind that the unit initially arrived here double-boxed (black-colored, slide-to-open Helix Rack box, packaged inside a once-sealed plain cardboard box labelled Line-6), and that it was the broken seal on the external factory (Line-6) plain cardboard box that prompted the initial writing of this thread. I had not yet seen the internal contents at time of writing. The fact is, I've been away from home and quite busy this past few days, so this morning, was in-fact the first opportunity I've had to actually open the slide box and inspect the actual Helix Rack unit. When I did so, I observed the unit itself to be packaged inside of a transparent, heavyweight external plastic bag that has been cut or torn about midway down one side, with an adhesive seal that had also been broken, and most importantly, there are NO sheets of protective plastic film on the display window or any other parts of the Helix Rack face plate. And so, in summary, we have an external box with a broken seal, an unsealed or unsealable internal (slide) box, a torn or cut plastic bag enclosure with broken seal, and NO protective plastic film on the display or any other part of the faceplate. Now, regardless of what the merchant may claim about having opened the packaging to update the firmware, these four (above) factors, in combination with the fact that the merchant was fully advised NOT to send me a previously opened package, effectively ENDS this discussion! The absence of protective plastic films in particular, clearly points to this unit having been previously owned and returned, and/or opened and sent to Line-6 for service, and/or used for whatever purposes by whomever! Whatever the case, my fears would appear to have been confirmed, and the unit is certainly NOT qualified to be sold at full retail price. Thus, it will be returned to the merchant for a refund (no exchanges) post-haste. They're DONE! And whether this particular merchant "needs" my future business or not, is completely irrelevant to me. Cheers!

They don't come here much anymore so I think yer both safe. ; )

Just to kind of weigh in from the original point now with the new information, yes, I'd send it back too if it was as you described. As to who in these threads is the smarter one, there are still times, albeit rare these days, where, despite my own better judgment, I take a deep whiff of a shockingly bad fart I passed. So whoever it is, it clearly isn't me.

Yes, we are! ; P lol

"Ok, at this point I'm just replying because you're reacting so hilariously. I'm quite a few years from being a teenager, but I'm also not an idiot, so the irony of this is quite wonderful." Yeah, yeah . . . well, you're perfectly welcome to find whatever "wonder" you and your ilk care-to in all of it, hotshot, but its veterans like me, my sons, and countless others that have fought to preserve that right for you to do so. You feel me? Having been around the world and seen your alternatives first-hand, I certainly hope so! And you may not be a teenager in chronological age, but you most certainly are one, in terms of intellect. Howz that for ya on the scale of "Hilarious"?? ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

I've since spoken to the vendor, and to their credit (at least somewhat!), they've agreed to own this mess. They've acknowledged my initial message about NOT shipping me unopened packages . . . they've agreed that the collective circumstances clearly point to a previously owned unit . . . they've agreed to provide a pre-paid return shipping label for it . . . and they've agreed to send out (immediately), a new, guaranteed "unopened", factory-sealed box, with NO firmware update, and with Express (overnight) delivery at their expense. So, we'll see how tomorrow goes. I'll take this opportunity to add that yesterday afternoon, I finally got through to the folks at Line-6, and they confirmed for me that they don't specifically authorize ANY of their vendors to 'pre-open' factory packaging (or seals) for ANY reason, let alone firmware upgrades, and secondly, after providing them with the serial number from the EXTERNAL packaging of this specific unit (Note: that little detail is for YOU, "GunPointMetal"), Line-6 confirmed that the unit's serial number, was in-fact an OLDER one. So, what's the lesson in all of this (at least for those of us who read and speak the King's English!@#%&*) ????? . . . . Its clearly - BUYER BEWARE! Yours truly, Grandpa, And to GunPointMetal - Dude, I can whip ya with both brains tied behind my back! Because trust me . . . in a battle of wits, you're completely unarmed!

So wait...you came here and started the thread before you even unboxed the item? *facepalm* Can you read the King's English, Nitwit? Or is it that your entire generation is just brain-dead??? Try READ, Junior!

Anytime.

Yes. It is not a user self repair. It needs to go to a Line 6 authorized service center.

Arislaf, Nope, no real worries here! As a U.S. veteran of an immensely unpopular foreign war (Vietnam), I think it's safe to say that many, if not MOST Americans, would likely agree with your sentiments on this, particularly with respect to Vietnam, the Falkland Islands, Nicaragua, Desert Storm (Kuwait), Iraq, Syria, perhaps even Afghanistan? The sad fact is, Americans are absolutely masterful at hindsight. However, much like me, I suspect those same Americans would argue that the two World Wars were a completely different story. Anyway, there you have it! Now, if the moderators here so-choose, they can ban us both! And if they do, I'll quickly and gladly return my Helix. Haa! ;-) However, I WOULD support the moderator's, if they chose to permanently close this thread, because as others have duly noted, it is not (was not) intended to be a political topic or a political arena.

I would not say "better" or "worse", but some of the legacy effects work for my bass better than their modern counterpart. Some examples not covering all blocks (from my notes some time ago): I like "Heavy Distortion" (legacy) for a kind of fuzz tones with split / crossover. At low gains it does not pass bass without blending. I recommend to try Screamer, very different from Scream 808. Not better or worse, completely different. Without blending the legacy version takes bass EQ better in my opinion. Colordrive: good because of the way it blends with clean signal to keep bass. But it is just one of the many drives that works well. Facial Fuzz (legacy): Best fuzz for me for bass use. But I am not a seasoned Fuzz user, maybe most people don't agree. Please try and share opinions! Boost Comp: Simple compressor with flat response, it is effective on bass. Some bass users reported it as the best. To me it is not as good as Deluxe Comp or 3 band compressor, but I found it useful. Some reverbs: Lower on resources than new ones?, they can be effective for bass. I use Room, Octo and Cave to create ambients... but I also use Plateaux and Particle Verb.

Needs to be serviced by a Line 6 authorized service center, not a user self repair, not the USB chip.

Yup. I completely agree and no worries. The central question on this thread was basically answered long ago - that I'm an "overly-demanding, overly skeptical, old school a@@hole", and like I said, I'm O.K. with that. In fact, I'm actually somewhat "proud" of it! Cheers!

It won't because of the amp and cab but I can give you the FX settings. Signal chain from left to right: Script Mod Phase: Rate 1.5, Mix 50%, Level +1.0cB Gray Flanger: Rate 4.0, Width 4.0, Manual 4.0, Regen 10.0, Mix 50%, Level 0.0dB Transistor Tape Delay: Time 218ms, Feedback 0%, Wow Flutr 3.6, Mix 13%, Level +6.0dB, Headroom 0.0, Trails off (this doesn't replicate the ending of Eruption, you have to use an expression pedal to help recreate that. That's it for in front of the amp. Only Plate reverb is used after the amp or pre-amp or however you want to say it. The guitar was originally recorded raw to the left side of the stereo spectrum with a plate reverb on the far right of the stereo spectrum. For most applications just put a plate reverb in your amp's FX loop. Plate Reverb: Decay 5.6, Predelay 29ms, Low Cut 89Hx, High Cut 4.6kHz (don't be afraid to go higher), Mix 38%, Level 0.0dB. I hope this helps you. Thank you for watching my YouTube video.

Love you! To the op, my bundle is some custom guitars that are optimized to sound like the real deal. The second http, is the original guitars found on variax, but with the volume matching. Try both as odersfelt said.

No problem.

I attempted to install the Variax Workbench v1.75 on a clean Windows 10 64-bit OS computer. The Line 6 installer encountered a problem downloading the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The problem is the Line 6 installer tries to download the 1.6.0 Java Runtime Environment Installer (32-bit) [Java version 6] from a URL location that no longer exists (the location is hard-coded in the installer). Since that location no longer exists, the Java download fails. The Variax Workbench installer WILL complete, but when you then attempt to launch Variax Workbench 1.75 you receive the "Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0" error mesage. Since the time the Variax Workbench software v1.75 was released (which uses Java 6), there have been releases of Java 7 and Java 8. Java 8 is the current version. HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM -- DOWNLOAD THE MOST CURRENT JAVA 32-BIT "OFFLINE" VERSION I WAS able to get the Variax Workbench v1.75 to work by separately downloading and installing the most current Java Runtime Environment, Version 8. Update 161. It appears that versions of the Java Runtime Environment are backward compatible. Here is the link for the current version of Java [Java Version 8 Update 161]: Java Version 8 Download Webpage You want to download the 32-BIT OFFLINE version (there are 32- and 64-bit versions). Under the "WINDOWS" section, you want to download the "WINDOWS OFFLINE", filesize 61.35 MB .exe file. See the attached photo. Here is the file direct download link: Direct Link to the 32-Bit Windows version The exact name of the file downloaded is: jre-8u161-windows-i586.exe When you install Java, the installer finishes by launching your default web browser. Don't worry if that fails. For example, I use Google Chrome as my default browser and it does not support Java at all. This isn't a problem because it is the Variax Workbench software that uses Java. After I installed this current version of Java I was successfully able to launch/run Variax Workbench 1.75 To get Variax Workbench 1.75 to work fully, you will also need to download: -- Line 6 Monkey -- Variax USB Drivers [Note: These two items may be installed as part of the Variax Workbench installation]