Leaderboard

I've had my Helix for just shy of two years now, and I haven't come anywhere close to trying "all" available amp/cab/mic combinations, and the virtually endless approaches to EQ. I'd need a team of researchers working 3 shifts for another two years to make that claim, so if you actually think you've exhausted every option there is in a couple of months, you're mistaken...but I digress. It took me several months to get comfortable enough to gig with my Helix initially, and I was not new to modeling at the time. My point? Modelers are not guitar amps. They behave differently, and require an approach foreign to us all at the beginning. But honestly, no matter how true any of that is, none of it matters. You've already made up your mind, and that's fine. Not everybody gets along with modelers, or wants to put the time in. If you want a tube amp and some pedals, that's what you should use. It's pointless to try and talk yourself into liking something that you clearly don't... it's like marrying the wrong woman. Always ends the same way... you end up spending more money on a different unit. ;)

You seem to have talked yourself out of the Helix and Powercab... that's fine, it's not for everyone. The two pedals you mention are "pre-amps" so.... IMO, no - they will not give you the tube sound from a Power Amp....

Bob says ... "cause Yamaha CBR12's are passive speakers ... and I don't own a powered PA system. So when jamming at home and I need some dB's (or gig with no PA system) the 240HC works fine paired to the CBR12's. Hence Bob's request for info on the modification. If connecting to a PA/front of house system, then of course I would run Helix directly to them" Cheers Mate

OP's problem seems to have gone from "no distortion" to "dull and lifeless". I got nothing on that. Hoping to hear back from him on whether jonandtice's eq suggestions helped him out with that.

It can't be that because he said he went to a different Helix and it did the same thing.

DDDDDDDDDDDDD OOOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHH !!! D::::::::::::DDD OO:::::::::OO H:::::::H H:::::::H!!:!! D:::::::::::::::DD OO:::::::::::::OO H:::::::H H:::::::H!:::! DDD:::::DDDDD:::::D O:::::::OOO:::::::OHH::::::H H::::::HH!:::! D:::::D D:::::D O::::::O O::::::O H:::::H H:::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H:::::H H:::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H::::::HHHHH::::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H:::::::::::::::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H:::::::::::::::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H::::::HHHHH::::::H !:::! D:::::D D:::::DO:::::O O:::::O H:::::H H:::::H !!:!! D:::::D D:::::D O::::::O O::::::O H:::::H H:::::H !!! I DDD:::::DDDDD:::::D O:::::::OOO:::::::OHH::::::H H::::::HH D:::::::::::::::DD OO:::::::::::::OO H:::::::H H:::::::H !!! D::::::::::::DDD OO:::::::::OO H:::::::H H:::::::H!!:!! DDDDDDDDDDDDD OOOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHH !!!  Mea culpa! I am not worthy! Although the comment doesn’t really address or answer the original poster’s question does it?

I believe that you are correct. It can SEEM that the amp's gain is affected if your amp's settings are all up high and increasing the Channel Volume overdrives something that follows the amp, or increases the volume such that the tone settings in one of those devices become more pronounced. Unfortunately, nowhere in the Helix manual is the Channel Volume fully explained. Some of that confusion could be from this passage: "If you're looking for a gritty boost for a solo, instead of adding a Distortion block, try assigning a footswitch to increase both the Mid and Channel Volume parameters of an Amp+Cab, Amp, or Preamp block" That could be taken to imply that Channel Volume affects the amp's tone, when what they're really saying is that by boosting the mids you affect the tone, and a slight Channel Volume boost helps it "cut through" for the solo. A better idea would be to increase the mids and add the volume boost at the output block so as not to affect the gain staging of any of the post amp effects. Hopefully, the next time the manual is updated (when v3.0 comes out is what I heard) they'll remedy this, as it causes much confusion.

I'd insert a SEND that goes to the back of your amp rather than use the 1/4" outputs for that. After the send you would insert your cab/ir which makes it all the way to the outputs. Of course... if you need access to the volume control the option @Kilrahi provided above would be a better route.

Cali iv (mesa mark 4), lead chanel, can go from clean to distortion and has a great integrated eq. As for a nice all around cab, green 25.

The Placater Clean/Dirty setup is perfect for this. The Dirty channel is very flexible. I also like the Texas Cali 2 for cleans/light overdrives with the Placater Dirty. I use a 3 Sigma IR (Marshall 4x12), but the default cab is fine as well. My other choice is the Cartographer; it can do all of the tones...

Good luck getting things fixed up properly. Sounds like a visit to the service center is the way to go at this point.

Thank you codamedia, HonestOpinion and datacommando for your clever ideas. I was really optimistic with all of them but, unfortunately, none seemed to be a solution. The lack of output still exists, it's like the pedal is completely dead or something. Fortunately, I will survive the concert without the pedal, but it's still bitter to not be able to use it. My plan is to contact the Swedish service center asap now on monday. I will update you after that. Who knows, this could come to help someone else in the future. Haha no worries, the volume knob is for sure turned up. Is the firmware rollback for HX Edit also needed? I did not do that since it operated successfully with both versions. Thank you all for your helpful answers, really appreciated it. It highlights the good spirits of the Line 6 community.

I have not done the A/B comparison although it appears to be close enough for rock & roll. It is great that there is a workaround and one that works well; contingent as it may be on having extra cable(s) and DI(s) in good working condition. I will never be as much of a fan of a jury-rigged workaround with additional points of failure as I am of an elegant solution that uses only the core equipment as intended with minimum fuss. In the big picture though this is just not a looming issue for me. Hopefully it will be addressed at some point, even if only on later hardware but you won't be seeing my Helix up on REbay any time soon over this. Lastly if the choice was damaging speakers or alternatively sometimes necessitating a DI connection it would seem Line6 made the correct decision. At least for now...

Try another unit. Go to the nearest musical store with your guitar and cable, and try another helix. If the result is ok, then it is your unit. Send it back since it is still under warranty, and get another. If your guitar and cable are lifeless in the other unit, then it is your guitar or cable broken.

Hello everyone! Initially I had trouble balancing the various sounds of my beloved Shuriken, the acoustic sounded too boomy and the Strato too small, I think I found the right balance, what do you think?

"played up" means to give you some sort of trouble.

Being in tune helps in avoiding frequency artifacts, or keeping those artifacts from standing out like the proverbial sore thumb. Being in tune, intonated and properly set-up guitar goes a long way.

Tell the Spanish guitar player to clean up his crap when he's not going to be there.

Just a quick update…. I recently purchased a Variax 300 because I got it for a great price. Just took it apart and did the GHOST upgrade and thought I would share a few pictures. Now I have done GHOST saddles on 4 Variax guitars. I found that if you back the saddle all the way, then connect the wire, the service loop is perfect. On this 300 bridge, I used some adhesive copper strip to create the ground plane. There is a small exposed ground area on either side of the 8-pin connector. I folded a tiny amount of copper strip over and soldered the copper to that ground area. Sorry, I didn't get a before picture. I drilled an access hole in the circuit board that lines up with the very front of the slot in the bridge plate to run the wire through. from top to bottom. I hope this helps someone here on the forum. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.