Leaderboard

To use a traditional guitar cabinet, get rid of your cab or IR blocks and use preamp only amp models. But honestly, if you've gotten to this point, then you've already left most new users in the dust. Do yourself a favor and invest in a FRFR speaker of some sort if you want something for stage volume/personal monitoring.... because no matter what you do, a real guitar cabinet is not going to sound like what you've already dialed in through an FRFR output. You've created tones with models of mic-ed cabinets... and now you're removing the mic from the equation. It can't be stated enough just how huge a variable the mic is. If you're trying to get the same sound out of a real cabinet as your direct to FOH tone, it's gonna be an enormous chore involving a significant amount of EQ manipulation and complete reworking of your patches. They're two different worlds.

I can get a very similar sound out of a number of the amps. This is because this type of sound is as much about how you play the amp as it is about that amp itself. Take a small fender say and turn it up maybe almost full. (the Stoneage - which is actually an old Gibson I think - works too) Regularly that also meant turning all the tones up full too - use some common sense here - but you need to push the amp into more gain than you need. Then back off your guitar volume knob till you have the lower drive and clarity you hear here. The amp needs to have lots of gain in reserve. Use the bridge pickup on a humbucking guitar and turn the tone down till you still have enough top, but a more mellow overall tone. Now you will be in the ballpark. Santana is riding his volume knob for both clarity, sustain and subtleness. So he's playing the amp as much as the guitar. Believe he used SG's around then. The story is it's a Twin Reverb - but probably modified. (people recorded with bigger amps then to get extra sustain and controlled feedback) The Twin model in the Helix has way too much headroom for this type of sound - as do most twins - but something tweed should be OK. There is a certain hollowness in there - that might be about the speaker and micing too. One of his SG's had P90s.............that might make that difference. An EQ after the amp should let you tweak to a very close match - obviously a little reverb after all that too. Here he is doing it recently - a bit different - but using the same tricks. You'll notice his volume on the guitar is so low he actually sometimes is pretty much off!

I followed the instructions and did the update and now my receiver is flashing red when the transmitter is plugged into it - why? My transmitter light is solid green which means it is fully charged.

I see there are options for acoustic and classical simulation presets for Helix.. any for the Pod Go yet?

For a Cabinet IR 100% mix is "Normal" and most probably sound better this way but let your ears be the judge! I will say that in the case of using an IR to simulate an acoustic instrument, many times 100% mix is NOT the best sound. I often get better results at a lot less than 100% in those cases.

Great. Sounds like it is worth giving "10&11" a try. Take care...

If it makes you feel any better, I spent $1500 on Helix floor... at today's exchange rate that's almost 3 "bombs", and my IR's weren't free either. Welcome to life.... Or just use the stock cabs in the Stomp, and it won't cost you anything extra. They're perfectly usable.

This video Thomas Blug shares his take on several approaches on how to get the Santana tone:

Seems you are more interested in Quantity over Quality. I use a few Zoom products myself (including a G3).... they are great for the price. But seriously, they are not at the level of the HX line. Anything in a Zoom that starts with "Z-....." the Z stands for Zoom! It's an effect they created, not a replication of anything in particular. That's why you won't find it in the Line 6 model list. That doesn't mean there isn't something comparable, or even better.... you just might have to get creative! OR.... best of both worlds! Put the Zoom in one of the loops and use it whenever you want.

Been using my JTV59 / Helix / PC112+ for the last several gigs. Tried using PC112+ in FRFR mode and IRs in Helix. Didn't dig that much, but didn't spend a lot of time on it either. Thought about moving the IRs to the PC112+. Didn't get that far. Tried the PC112+ speaker emulations first. Fantastic! Finally feels like I am playing an actual amp, very happy with my sound on stage. Tried using XLR out of PC112+ to FOH, rather than XLR out of the Helix to FOH as I was doing prior. Was not as pleased with the XLR out of the PC112+ to FOH. I use a lot of 4x12 IRs in the Helix and the PC112+ is only emulating a 1x12 setup so I really wasn't too surprised there. Back to tapping the Helix directly to FOH. I also use the PC112+ in FRFR mode when using the JTV59 for any acoustic stuff. Sounds great on stage as well. So I am using the PC112+ for stage monitoring only, but I really dig it - and it can get plenty loud to keep up with the rest of the guys! My only issue is the loud volume spike that you can get if you are in the middle of hitting anything on the guitar and switch from FRFR mode to speaker. I have to make sure I am not sending any signal from my guitar to the PC112+ when switching. More than a bit of a problem, but I can work with it for now. Hopefully they address the issue soon, can't imagine I am the only one to run across this when playing live. Sold some more gear I wasn't using and scored a second PC112+. Haven't used the two together yet. One's at the practice pad, one's at home. Soon. Looking forward to checking out dual amp / dual speaker type setups. Oh yeah, and I only need to run one AES cable to the PC112+ from the Helix. Fabulous. Overall, very pleased!