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Interestingly, Lindsey Buckingham's unique finger-picking style and patterns had its roots in his early years learning to play the banjo, before he picked up guitar.

Ahh, Thank you very much. Yeah I learned by watching Earl Scruggs. I just started off very slow and worked my way up. It did help though that I already had been finger picking since I was a kid so I had that chicken picking style.

I have an enquiry on another forum from someone who is using a HX Effects unit in 4 cable mode with additional switching to control his Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 18 amp channel and boost settings. As I understand it the Pedal/Ext Amp socket of the HX has been configured to switch channels in the amp by effectively emulating a plain old "FS2" type passive TRS stomp switch. To their credit, in the Helix manual Line 6 does warn that this is not always fully compatible with all amp units but gives no further technical details which might help. The owner found that the amp is not reliable in its switching when controlled by the HX, though it works perfectly with a mechanical switch of course. The reason I know is that the HX is introducing some additional resistance to the H&K control line when it should be a dead short thus decreasing the switching current in the amp presumably to the very edge of reliability, and it also appears to be leaving a residual resistance in the line when it should be open circuit increasing the current which should be 0mA in that state. This effectively runs the simple direct switching circuitry inside the H&K, a mixture of a simple relay and BJT+FET saturation switching units, over too narrow a band whereby not all switching elements activate/deactivate at either extreme. Can anyone give me any info on the output impedance of the HX control circuitry in the On and Off states when it is used in this way? I would guess it must be fairly significant seeing that it can also act as an input for an expression pedal in a different mode. Would it help to approach Helix Tech Support direct rather than using the forum for such a specifically technical enquiry? I'm not underestimating you members' technical ability, only the availability of the information outside of Line 6.

1/2 of the banjo tone (or more) is playing it like a banjo... you are absolutely correct!

I couldn't resist and snagged Glenn's Banjo+IR preset. I used my new Strat with a single coil bridge. Sounds great! Now I need to learn how to banjo roll! Right now I just sound like a monkey randomly picking strings. :-)

When I'm using my Helix on the road, all my patches have a Kinky Boost, always on, at the end of the chain, just like the EP booster on my regular pedalboard since 2010. I just put together an HX Stomp fly rig, and I put an EP booster after it to free up blocks. I haven't had any downtime to test them side by side, but the EP Booster is an important pedal for me, and I'm very happy with the kinky boost on the Helix.

Yeah, here you go: Just search my username, robertgoddard or you can search for 2Drive2Delay

The Aux in isn't an instrument input, its expecting a line-level signal (or at least a pre-amped signal like active pickups/bass). If you want L/R guitars you'll need two complete signal chains (two amps, two cabs, two sets of FX) that have to start at the input (add a block, drag it down to the second row, then change that input to AUX). With a passive guitar into the aux you can add a GAIN block at the beginning of the chain to boost the signal up to hit the models the way you like. Apologies if any of this is obvious, but I always find its the silliest of mistakes that should be obvious whenever I'm having issues.

I believe what you're describing is the expected behavior. It's probably related to the EXP Position parameters under Global Settings>EXP Pedals. If you have that set to Global, the value of the parameters controlled by the pedal will always reflect the actual position of the expression pedal(s). If you have it set to Per Preset or Per Snapshot, the value that is recalled with the preset or snapshot will reflect whatever position the pedal was at when you saved the preset and/or snapshot.

IMO: Option 4, which you seemed to have missed :) The HX Stomp which includes all Helix amp models as well as effects and also works as an audio interface. It's about the same cost as the HX Effects but seems to be a better fit for what you are after. No amp models, and it won't work as an audio interface like the X3, HD500 or HELIX will. It should be noted that you also need a DAW.... although there may be a free platform or two that may work.

The timing of Glenn's banjo IR release and the OP starting this thread defines serendipity.

Yes, it is the same as the HD series. What I did when I used it under a Pedaltrain board was to use one of these, or if you don't want to split it, just one of these. I wouldn't plug it directly into power strip. You just have to be a little creative when it comes to using splitters and adapters. It's really not a big deal. I mean, it's not that I think the wall wart is great. I think they all basically suck, and I try to avoid using them if at all possible. But it's not the end of the world tucking one under a board and rigging something up with zip ties and stuff.

My Pod xt live has a blank, orange screen when I turn the unit on. Digital screen showing banks and channels doesn't light up. No sound at all going through. I've connected it to Line 6 Monkey 1.77v via USB and it is recognized and even the ESN is recognized, but no Flash Memory is recognized. The USB Firmware is fine, but no Flash Memory located, just a dash, and a question mark before the Flash Memory. I tried pressing "Save" and "Edit" together while powering up, but that didn't work. No buttons or lights work anywhere. No knobs work, nothing at all. Can anyone please tell me how to fix this unit or does it need to be sent for repair. Thank you all for your time.

The 1/4" outs are unbalanced (mentioned on page 7 of the manual). All of the 1/4" sends and returns are unbalanced as well. As far as tech specs, what are you looking for exactly?