amsdenj

I guess we all knew this was coming, but it still saddens me a bit. Variax was a really innovative product that I would like to have seen be more successful. I still have two Variax guitars, a JTV69S and a Variax Acoustic. Both are excellent instruments in in perfect working order. I don't gig with them anymore as I wanted to focus on playing my other guitars. But I use the JTV69S every day for practicing and for rehearsals. It's light, has an excellent replacement neck with stainless steel frets, SVL Daytona pickups and plays as well as any guitar I've ever played. So I'll keep it, and maybe use it for quick open tunings or baritone occasionally.

When using Helix Native, it's important to use a Hi-Z or instrument input on your audio interface. Otherwise you could get a very dull tone. The biggest difference between Helix and Helix Native is that Helix is designed to support live use. If you don't need that, then Helix Native is likely a better, and more flexible solution

The advice above about creating and verifying patches at volume is correct and is part of a broader point - doing patch design in the context in which they are intended to be used. That's simpler with a traditional guitar amp because they were designed mostly for one use - playing live and loud. While volume is a key part of patch design, you may also be experiencing something I'm calling the "Digital Dilemma". The big advantage of digital amp models is they can get good driven, overdriven and distortion tones at any volume level. That's really hard to do with tube amps unless you're using pedals into a clean amp, or your amp has a master volume control and has good preamp distortion. When we think of glorious tube tone, we're usually referring to power amp overdrive, and that's going to be loud even with a 20 watt amp. The Digital Dilemma is that this advantage of digital amp modelers is often what makes them not cut it in live situations. It's not just the volume and tone that doesn't scale up well, it's also the amount of compression or saturation. When an amp is clipping, it has no more volume left. Pushing it harder only adds more saturation, distortion or overtones. There can be a tendency to over-saturate digital amp models, because it's easy to do and sounds really good. But the resulting compression reduces dynamic range and tends to make it difficult for the tone to cut through a dense live mix. Try turning your Power Cab levels up pretty high, running your amp model master and channel volume up (while avoiding any digital clipping on Helix output or PowerCab input) and use less gain/saturation/distortion. I try to use the minimum amount of distortion needed for the song. Then use your guitar volume between 7 and 10 to control saturation, and below 7 to control clean volume. You may find this sounds and behaves more like a traditional guitar amp, gives better dynamics, and cuts through the mix better.

In IR mode, Powercab sends the output of the IR through XLR. The only configuration that might be an issue is when using Flat/LFRaw. There the XLR output will be the same as the input. Typically that won't have a cab or IR block since you're using the Eminence speaker directly as a powered guitar speaker (and this works very well). In this case, you probably want to get FOH from Helix or other modeler that is providing a cab emulation on a separate output, and not use the XLR output in Powercab.

Thanks for the pictures!

The Helix 3.50 cab blocks will work great with Powercab in Flat:FRFR mode:voicing. However you may find that Flat:LF RAW with no cab block in Helix sounds even better.

The low frequency driver in Powercab appears to be a pretty good guitar speaker base on how it sounds in Mode: Flat, Voicing LF RAW. That said, and the 70Hz low end response, it's probably not going to be great for bass. But try it, you might find something that works for your situation. Subwoofers can be tricky. You'd need to be sure the subwoofer and Powercab have appropriate crossovers, and are in phase.

I put a Warmoth neck on my JTV-69S too. It cost more than the guitar. But I was playing that guitar a lot and the stock neck didn't fit my hands well. I have noticed my 69S doesn't have as much sustain as my other guitars. Not sure if that's a neck issue. But I suspect it's the bridge/tailpiece.

As long as the blocks are linear (no distortion or compression), it doesn't matter whether they are before or after the cab block. See for details

AU Lab can be a bit buggy. MainStage is a good option, as is Logic Pro. Reaper is a lighter weight DAW that works well for creating a digital mixer using Helix Native. The advantage of a DAW is you're ready to record any ideas, and can easily play along with loops. To simplify MIDI control of Helix Native with Logic Pro, use two tracks, an audio track for the dry guitar and a software instrument track to record the MIDI foot switches. Put Helix Native as an AU MIDI-Controlled effects plugin in the instrument slot of the software instrument track. use a bus send set to pre-fader in the dry guitar track to send the audio to a bus. Set the output of this track to no output so you don't hear the dry guitar. Set the side chain of the Helix Native plugin to the bus used for the dry guitar. Now when you monitor, your guitar is sent into Helix Native through the side-chain, and you can directly map MIDI messages to Helix Native parameters, no need to use complex Logic controller assignments and limited automation parameters. When you record, you record the dry guitar audio on one track and the MIDI foot switches on the software instrument track. This works great for monitoring, recording and playback. My only caution is to avoid using the Logic Drum Kit Designer in a track. There appears to be a bug where this causes additional latency when using side-chains into plugins. Use UltraBeat instead.

The poly pitch effects in the Helix family are quite good. There's also some inventive new effects to compliment excellent implementations of the classics. I have an HX Effects (and Helix and HX Stomp). I use to run HX Effects with Helix to give more footswitches and cover some of the front of the amp effects I use occasionally. But I simplified a little and don't do that anymore. If I were going to pair a Helix family product with another modeler, I'd probably go with the HX Stomp to get the amp models too. It only has one less block, but is missing the extra 3 footswitches. But paired with an MC8 or something similar, HX Stomp might give more flexible options. FM3 could benefit from an MC8 too.

I encountered the same problem. Too bad, it's still a nice unit. But it's too limited for modern foot controller use. It has fixed MIDI messages and sends press release messages on every switch activation. I've been able to make it work in Logic Pro and MainStage, but it's not simple or convenient. I use an MC8 now.

I'm a big fan of Powercab 112+ or 212 for gigs or at home use.

Perhaps the difference depends on how the patches are edited. The 212 HF driver bug is that the changing Mode and Voicing using HX Edit or Helix does not effect both left and right HF drivers. If you make all the changes directly on the Powercab, you will find that the HF Compression Driver is only on in Flat:FRFR or IR modes.

You weren't wrong, the HF compression driver is only on in Flat:FRFR and IR modes. It is not on in any Speaker mode, Flat:LF Flat or Flat:LF Raw. The manual may be a little incomplete and confusing in this area. I just tested using Powercab 212 and verified the tweeter is not on in Speaker mode.

Wait! Re: "This mode applies different tonal characteristics of the selected speaker model to the system's coaxial driver, with the following adjustable parameters." I'm pretty sure the "system's coaxial driver" refers to the whole coaxial speaker, not just the tweeter, which is referred to as the "high frequency compression driver". I'm pretty sure the tweeter is only on in Flat:FRFR or IR modes. In the section describing the speaker models, the manual also says: "HF OFF / Natural – This is the natural sound and feel of the speaker in the Powercab with the high-frequency compression driver disabled and no EQ of any kind applied". This might leave the impression that the HF might be on for other speaker models, but it is not. I just tested my Powercab 212 in Speaker:Normal and Speaker:Cream. Adjusting the Global HF Trim through its full range makes no difference in the tone. The HF compression driver is definitely off. The same HF Trim sweep in Flat:FRFR makes a huge difference indicating the tweeter is definitely on. There should be no need to use a tweeter to EQ the Eminence speaker to sound like another guitar speaker as the EQ delta should be fairly small. All the speaker model EQs are applied to Flat:LF Flat, and that, like Flat: LF Raw doesn't use the tweeter. A guess, but I think Flat:LF Flat just EQs the Eminence speaker in a "standard" way so that Line6 could adjust Flat:LF Flat EQ to use with different speakers (i.e., in Powercab 212) and reuse all the speaker models, since their EQ is all applied to the same normalized Flat:LF Flat. I also tested and Flat:LF Raw and Speaker:Natural don't sound the same. There is some EQ processing that makes Speaker:Natural sound a bit more scooped and brighter than Flat:LF Raw, and not in a pleasant way. LF Raw sounds better to me. So I think you've been right all along. And I really appreciate your contribution and insights.

Powercab pairs well with HX Stomp because you can use speaker or IR modeling in Powercab and off load it from HX Stomp, often saving a precious block.

I'll have to try it, but it seems like it should work similar to use two 112+s. That is, run Line6 Link into the 112+, and then Line6 Link out to the 212. Helix should treat this the same as two 112+ and send left to the 112+ and right to the 212. Not sure if it would work the same going into the 212 first. As for wet-dry-wet, this wouldn't be the preferred setup. The 112+ would be fine for the dry signal, but the 212 stereo wouldn't be able to be positioned well for ideal wet-dry-wet. I have done wet-dry-wet with two JBL EON10s positioned on either side of Powercab 112+. It sounds really great, but is not really practical or needed for gigs.

Stereo aside, Powercab 112+ vs 212 would be more of a question of your usage requirements. I found 212 a little too big to fit in and balance with the rest of the band in our small club gigs. We seem to play a lot of Irish Pubs for some reason. In North Carolina no less. The other guitar player uses a Fender Blues Junior. So I have the 212 in my studio/office for just playing and practicing, and use the 112+ for gigs.

I can't find that in the Powercab manual. I can only find: "The output signal will have an SM57 microphone model applied when using speaker models." in reference to Powercab 112. For Powercab 112+ and 212, the user selected mic model is used. I thought Mode:Flat sent the input directly to the XLR out with no processing for all voicings (FRFR, LF Flat and LF RAW). Can you provide a source or verify? I had suspected the purpose of the Natural speaker model was to provide a means of adding a mic model to the Eminence speaker at the XLR out, and the difference between Mode:Flat, Voicing LF Raw, and Mode: Speaker, Natural was the EQ applied by LF Flat normalization was essentially removed. So the difference between Flat: LR Raw and Speaker:Natural is the additional processing through the EQ. And I suspect this EQ is done with delta IRs. But this is all speculation.

What I found consistently happens is when using Helix with Powercab 212 through Line6 Link: changing Mode and Voicing with HX Edit only controls the left speaker of Powercab 212, not both left and right speakers. Changing Mode and Voicing with Helix is only controlling the Right speaker, not both left and right speakers (whether HX Edit is connected or not). Workaround is to use MIDI to control Powercab 212 which you have to do with modelers other than Helix anyway. I can't try it, but something similar might or might not occur using Helix and Line6 Link with two Powercab 122+ units. Depends on whether the bug is in the Line6 Link processing in Helix or is unique to Powercab 212. Can anyone verify?

You may have to try things yourself to see how they meet your needs. I have found Powercab 112+ or Powercab 212 using Mode: FLAT, Voicing: LF RAW and no cab block or IR in you modeler produces an excellent amp in the room tone. It appears the Eminence speakers used in Powercab are pretty good guitar speakers and reference well with a Celestion G12M-65 I have in another amp. I'm very happy with Powercab. I like having the FRFR option for acoustic tones. I don't find the speaker models that useful. The raw speaker sounds better to me.

Try Mode: Flat, Voicing: LF RAW and no cab model or IR in Helix. You may find that Powercab112+ is a pretty good powered guitar speaker. This will give you amp in the room because that's exactly what it is.

I always bypass the cab blocks.