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You could do it by using a text editor and editing the .hlx JSON files. After you reorganize the IRs, use global global search to update the index in the blocks that use the IR.

Also make sure you’re not driving it too hard. If its after the amp, use the amp block’s channel volume to get closer to unity gain so the Vintage Delay block isn’t being hit too hard.

There are a lot of ways to control volume with Helix, and the choices can be a bit confusing. I like to keep each block close to unity gain - meaning that the overall Helix output volume level doesn’t change that much when the block is bypassed. This ensures there’s no volume buildup in the signal path that could lead to digital clipping or volume drop that could lead to increased noise. This general rule doesn’t apply in two special cases. You might be using gain or distortion blocks before the amp to gain stage your distortion. In this case, the level of a block might be set higher or lower than unity gain to control the level into the next block. The second is when you actually need a lead boost. I usually use the output level for this, setting the normal level down a few dB, and having the boost switch simply remove the cut back to 0dB. This again ensures there’s no chance of digital clipping. As a general rule its better to cut what you don’t want/need than to boost what you do want. Using this approach works well for the typical blocks that go before the amp (compressor, Wah, drives, phaser, UniVibe, etc.) and blocks that go after the amp (chorus, flanger, delay, reverb, etc.). But what about the amp block itself? Typical amp blocks will have one or more gain or drive controls that control the preamp levels and distortion voicing, a master volume that controls the input into the power amp, and a channel volume that controls the overall output of the block. These controls are all interactive, so its helpful to have a process for setting them. I start with a reasonably clean preamp (drive controls not too hot), and work on the Master volume to get the power amp distortion I need for the patch. Power amp distortion can be a bit harsh, and abrupt because of symmetric clipping and the effect of negative feedback. So I like to voice this distortion first. Then I adjust the drive controls to get the overall level of distortion I want from the amp. For most of my patches, this is on the edge of breakup where the amp is the most dynamic. I will often use a Drive footswitch to move the drive control from a min to a max value to control the amount of distortion from the amp. Distortion blocks are then used for additional distortion control. For amps that have multiple drive controls, I set Drive 2 for the overall clean tone (because it will often have a bypass cap that adds treble as the control is turned down), and Drive 1 to control the distortion levels. Preamp distortion can be smooth, but can sometimes limit dynamics, get muddy, or loose too much articulation. I might try moving the Master volume up and down while moving Drive 1 down and up to compare the relative amount of preamp vs. power amp distortion, setting them for the desired distortion voicing. If the master volume and drives are up pretty high, the amp block can add a significant gain boost in the signal chain. I use the Channel Volume to bring the overal output of the block back to close to unity gain. This way I’m pretty sure there’s no chance of digital clipping, and I’m hitting the post amp blocks with a signal level that’s hopefully in their sweet spot, the levels at which they were designed to operate. This also helps to keep levels between patches somewhat normalized and makes sure I’m not sending a really hot signal to my FRFR and/or FOH.

I'm not sure but I suspect Line6 may have reached the limits of what can be accomplished with guitar modeling, at least at a reasonable development expense. I don't know how they capture the models, but it might involve combinations of impulse responses. Also the reaction to updating to the JTV HD models wasn't that positive, a lot of people preferred the old models. That might discourage Line6 from doing it again. Also, its becoming possible to do the modeling outside the guitar with instruments bodies in computer software or Helix. I use an acoustic guitar body image in Helix to improve the tone of the piezo pickup in my acoustic guitar. It works very well. I hope someday Line6 will support a null model that provides the raw piezo outputs so we can take advantage of this with our variax guitars (I have 4). Then there's market demand.

Usually it is recommended to tune a string up, not down. That is, if the string is sharp, tune it down until it is flat, then tune it back up to pitch. You never tune down to pitch, always up. This removes any slack from the string that might make the string go flat when you bend it. Now Fender recommends that you only tune down strings when you have locking tuners, never tune up. I've never been able to understand the reasoning for this, or bring myself to do it. But that's what they say. See the Additional Hints section at the bottom of https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/212774786.

I put SVL Daytonas in my 69S and absolutely love them.

Don't think this works on Variax Standard because the tremolo bar hole goes all the way through the block. The spring just falls out the other end of the block. Its possible a sheet metal screw could be put into the bottom of the block to provide a stop for the spring. But the spacing between the end of the bar and the stop in the block would have to be right for the length of the spring. Tape works pretty well, but need to be replaced fairly often.

Another thing to note, according to the Lonestar schematic, Cali Texas ch2 Drive 2 should have a bypass cap. That means that keeping Drive 2 lower will give more high end sparkle. I try to use Drive 2 to establish the brightness I want, and then Drive 1 to control the distortion level. I put both of these on my Drive footswitch to change them, shifting both up for the higher drive tone. This brings be brightness down as the distortion goes up. On a real Lonestar, keeping Drive 1 down is important because it can add a lot of hiss into the Drive 2 gain stage. But that shouldn't be the case for Helix since its in the digital domain. Gain shouldn't add as much noise in the models (unless of course they model that too - I hope not!)

I use a soft toothbrush to clean the piezo pickups during a string change. Its important that they are clean, and well seated into the bridge pieces.

I thought Archon Lead was a bit too "smooth" sounding. Cartographer has a roughness to it that is aggressive, but no ice pick. Its model is similar to Cali Texas Ch2 which also is very flexible. You can't really go wrong with any of these models.

What I noticed compared to Litigator was more focus in the mid frequencies creating a warmer, thicker tone that really works well with single coil pickups. You have to bring the gain and bass down and presence up for double coil pickups or its maybe a bit too thick. Also having the extra gain stage along with the 50W power amp provide a lot of options for preamp vs. power amp distortion. Its an extremely flexible amp.

I can't believe it, but Cali Texas Ch 2 has replaced Litigator as my goto amp model. The Cali Texas Ch2 has a really wide range of gain with Drive 1 and Drive 2. Drive 2 I believe has a bypass cap (since the Lonestar has one on both Gain controls). So depending on where you put Drive 1 and Drive 2 relative to each other, you can get really fine control on the brightness of the amp. keep Drive 2 turned down and Master turned up for a traditional bright Fender amp. Keep Drive 2 turned up pretty high, and preamp distortion created by Drive 1 will warm up. All the preamp tube saturation created by Drive 1 and Drive 2 (with Master turned down to about 5) is before the tone controls so they have a big impact on preamp distortion. The voicing switch works well to fatten up single coil pickups for a very nice, warm, full tone. This is a really wonderful and flexible amp model.

I put a lot of effort into getting a good tone on an HD500X and never quite got there. I suspect it was primarily because of the cabinet models not being IR based. But the effects were certainly usable and interesting. The legacy effects are what they are. Its nice to have them, but I probably won't spend a lot of time auditioning ones that overlap with newer HX effects. But I wouldn't hesitate to use one that did the job.

Looks like you are trying to open the Helix firmware update file with your browser. Use Line 6 Updater instead.

When you first run HX Edit 2.51 and display its About page, it shows the version of an attached Helix and the version of HX Edit. The version of Helix will still be 2.3 (or whatever version is in your unit) until you update it with Line 6 Updater. The installation process has changed a little with 2.5. Be sure to follow the new instructions.

I would very much like to have the choice to show generic block type icons, or specific block icons. 32 blocks is a lot to distinguish when there are many of the same type in a complex signal path. As the number of blocks increase (as they will in 2.5), it will get harder and harder to distinguish elements of a signal path since there are so few block types and so many blocks. That is, a UI design that works for one scale doen’t necessarily work at a much larger scale.

A cut one place results effectively in boosts around the cut. But they’re not the same. Generally you cut narrow (higher Q) and boost wide as boosts trend to have more perceived impact than cuts. Cutting what you don’t want instead of boosting what you do want will both sound more natural, and improve downstream headroom. If you have any distortion blocks in the signal path, then generally cutting bass and increasing treble before the distortion, while boosting bass and cutting treble after distortion will provide a better overall tone. Balancing these cuts and boosts can help keep a natural tone when you turn the guitar volume down and the distortion cleans up. Cutting bass before distortion reduces mud, cutting treble after distortion reduces ice-pick and fizz.

I have both, and find the JTV much better. There's a lot of play in the tremolo arm of the Standard. you can correct it for a while by wrapping the threads in plumber tape. But you have to keep replacing the tape.

A small MIDI controller could be used to control the looper without changing the mode switch. But if you're going to do that, you might as well use a separate, more flexible looper in the effects loop or between Helix and your FRFR.

There are also utilities that can mix multiple IRs into the same file. You could use this to for example mix four different cabinet IRs together for a particular sound. And this would only take one IR block.

Sorry, I can read French OK, but not write it at all. Not enough use I guess. On MacOS, you can use Audio/MIDI Setup app to create and aggregate device for Helix and your Focusrite, this will let you use them both at the same time and preserve audio synchronization. Regarding the best way to input - Helix and Focusrite are both multi channel. By default Helix USB uses USB 1/2 for stereo output in Logic. If you use a stereo track in Logic, and stereo effects in Helix, you’ll get stereo. It use to be good advice to limit the number of A-to-D and D-to-A conversions you put your signal through in order to avoid signal degradation and noise. That’s not so much of a problem anymore. So Helix analog outputs into Focusrite would be fine. However an aggregate device would be better because it would eliminate the extra conversion and save your Focusrite inputs for some other purpose.

I have a set of JTV-69S pickups I would be willing to sell.

You might consider gain staging each of the input at between -18 and -12 dB, especially if you're using a digital mixer. This give plenty of headroom in each channel to avoid any (digital) clipping. But it also ensures that at the some of all those channels doesn't clip your master bus or any of the monitor busses.

I own four Variax guitars, and old black 300, a very nice 700 acoustic, a Standard, and a JTV-69S. Since I replaced the magnetic pickups in the JTV-69S with Jerry Amalfitano Daytonas, it has become my #1 gigging instrument - almost every song of every gig. I have a wonderful Strat Deluxe (with the same pickups) and a ‘67 Les Paul with Tom Holmes pickups. These don’t go on gigs anymore. My gig backup guitar is a black Epiphone Sheraton II Pro which I really like. Here’s how I think about the Variax: New technologies are interesting and enabling, but they often change fast. I just updated my 15†2012 MacBook Pro to a 2017. The delta between a mid 2000’s and early 2010’s MacBook Pro is pretty great. The delta from 2012 to 2017 wasn’t nearly as great. They’re both great computers. I have owned every generation of the POD series since the original POD 1.x all the way up to Helix. That’s five generations of hardware and firmware. Helix isn’t perfect, but its good enough that I suspect the next generation will not be the same delta as between the HD500 and Helix - which was pretty great. And Helix does a great job meeting my needs. There’s nothing I absolutely need that I can’t get from Helix. Variax is in its second generation. The modeling tones clearly have a way to go, even ignoring clang tone. Has the technology reached its limits? I hope not. I suspect a 3rd generation will make a significant difference - if there’s enough market to support the research and development. Since the biggest delta between 1st and 2nd generation Variax was the introduction of magnetic pickups and dual processors, I’m hoping the next delta will be more internal hardware and firmware changes that won’t result in significantly different physical guitars. I really hope that Line6 continues investing in Variax technology, and they help us preserve our investments in our instruments and them by ensuring the new hardware can be retrofitted into existing JTV instruments.

Variax is a good solution if you want Helix to change guitar pickups (as well as tunings, etc.) from a footswitch, snapshot, or patch. Typically getting it right at the source is sound advice. So picking the playing position and style, pick, strings and guitar pickup should be the first thing you do to get the desired tone. The next thing is the cabinet. The rest just fills in between these primary contributors to tone. Its the things that touch the air that matter the most in tone.