amsdenj

I bought two very nice, shorter VDI cables from a non-Line6 vendor that worked great with my Variax 300 and Pod XT/Live. But these cables don't work at all with my Variax 700 acoustic, Variax Standard or JVT-69S into Helix. Wish the did because the Line6 cable is much too long. I had thought these were CAT5 cables, but they don't work.

One thing that clearly differientiates the IR providers is the actual speakers they modeled. I suspect that's the greatest source of difference between the IRs, all else being the same. I'm guessing if they all had the same cabinet with the same speakers (not the same model of speaker, but the exact same speaker), and used the same mic, the differences wouldn't be that noticeable. But that's exactly the variation we're looking for, that magic cabinet and speaker that for whatever reason is unique.

I found my issue. It was the cable connection at the guitar. If the cable isn't seated just right, it appears there are MIDI errors and the alt tunings are lost. If I unplug the VDI cable at the guitar and plug it back in, the alt tunings from Helix seem to work.

The casing for some Neutrik cables is thicker than others. That might be your problem. Make sure the slot is lined up the the key on the Variax. Also some older VDI cables are cat5, JVT and Variax Standard need cat6. Both cables will work with the older Variax, but not the newer models. Best to get the cable from Line6.

I believe the looper will work across presets if it is the same looper block in each preset. The manual explains this.

I you're going to invest heavily in looping, I wouldn't use the Helix looper. Use a JamMan or something similar in the Helix effects loop so you have dedicated foot switches for controlling the looping separate from the footswitches you use to control your tones and patches. This avoids any mode switching that makes looping and playing at the same time much more difficult to coordinate. You'll also have much longer loops and the ability to store and recall loops.

My Strat Deluxe has dual pivots like the JVT, but the bridge is designed so it can be close to the body and angled like a typical Strat bridge. It doesn't pop off the pivots at all. However, I suspect the tremolo performance on that Deluxe could be improved by tilting the neck, raising and leveling the bridge. I might do that someday, but right now I'm mostly playing the JVT-69S and the Strat sits on the guitar stand as a backup. The Deluxe is certainly a much nicer guitar, but it become too limiting. I like those models and open tunings.

The tone control on the Variax acoustic models is the position of the mic along the neck - closer to or further from the sound hole. I have a Variax 300, Variax 700 Acoustic, Variax Standard and JVT-69S. There are differences in the models. The Variax 700 Acoustic is quite good - not something that you would want to use as acoustic solo or solo singer/songwriter, but OK for an acoustic band with a few other instruments. The fact that it has acoustic guitar strings and setup probably helps a lot. I use it exclusively in my acoustic band No Worries - along with Helix, which also has patches for mandolin and some electric guitar. The Variax 300 acoustic models to may ear are a bit more natural sounding than those in the Variax Standard or JVT HD acoustic models. That's likely a matter of taste and others might disagree. I find a bit of careful EQ can do wonders on the Standard/JVT models. If you sweep around with a parametric EQ, you'll likely find a bit of over emphasis in the 800Hz to 1KHz range. A gentle cut there with low Q can sweeten the tone a bit. Bottom line I would never record acoustic tones with any Variax, and I'd probably never do an acoustic solo gig with the Variax 700 Acoustic either, but I've seen videos of James Taylor doing it! But for club gigging, you can't beat a Variax, any Variax. To me that's that the tool is for, and I don't try to do everything with it. I have a Goodall acoustic that fills in the gap in other situations.

I've spent my career modeling things from paper machines, to power plants, to software engineering systems. We call this the Digital Twin - a digital representation of something in the real world that we can analyze, modify, or exploit in ways that are impractical or impossible to do with the real system. Getting an amp in the the room sound out of a model could in theory be done if we could model the speaker without using an impulse response. It wasn't that long ago that we didn't have very good software models of simple non-linear electronic components like tubes. We have those now, and maybe someday we can analyze and model the magnet, voice coil and cone of a speaker to reproduce what it actually does. That could be a ways out, speakers are very complex physical things. There's art in creating them. In the meantime we have impulse responses which are essentially "profiles" created impirically using a speaker, cabinet and mic. This will never sound like an amp in the room because of the mic and the FRFR playback system. These add their own color and can't be removed. However, amp in the room was something that evolved over may years. Who's to say that amp models and impulse responses won't eventually become so commonplace that they'll be on recordings we come to love and their tone will become the new standard? The point is tone for the song, not amp in the room. We need to shift the focus of this discussion from reproducing something we had to something new that's different, maybe sometimes better, and like all models, lets us do something that wasn't practical with guitar amps - like playing in small clubs.

I'm very happy with my non-US JVT-69S. Yes, it had some quality and setup issues. The nut still need to be replaced - its not cut properly and can't be fixed. But overall this is a very playable instrument. What I found is that polishing the frets and using some good neck oil along with a good setup made a huge difference in how the guitar feels and plays. Its a simple thing to do and well worth the time and effort. I suspect this level of detail is one thing that people really notice in different guitars.

Note I meant to post this on the Helix forum.

I know its a good idea to change strings one at a time on a guitar, especially one that has a tremolo bridge. It keeps a constant tension on the neck and simplifies tuning as the tremolo springs don't completely unload. However, there are times when you need to take off all the strings - often just to clean and oil the neck. When I do this on by JVT-69S, the bridge pops off the pivot post on the high string side, and actually pulls the pivot post and its threaded bushing right out of the guitar body on the low side! Has anyone found a way to keep the bridge in place while all the strings are removed?

This is exactly how I use Variax alt tunings. I have my usual amp setup and I use snapshots to quickly switch between regular electric, open-G and acoustic tones in the same patch. Its really very convenient. No, the tones aren't what you would get with a real guitar amp, multiple guitars, some preset to specific open tunings, and a specific acoustic setup. But for club gigging, there's nothing else even close.

I tried it and yes, that seems to be how it works. When the Volume Knob Controls is set to 1/4", the XLR output is set as if the knob was set on Multi or XLR and turned all the way up. So the output block controls the output - or better yet, the input gain of the PA channel strip and the channel strip fader. This is just what I wanted.

No, this is not what I'm seeing. What you described is essentially a patch edit, just like any other edit and is working as intended. A similar thing happens if you change the guitar model. What I saw is that the patch would not change the Variax tuning unless the tuning knob was on Model. Then later on, that issue went away. So there's a bug somewhere.

I want to send a fixed output to FOH being fed by the XLR outputs and use the Volume Knob to control my stage monitor through the 1/4" outputs. If the "Volume Knob Controls" global setting is set to 1/4", then what is the volume output to the XLRs set at? Full volume? The value it had when the global setting was changed to 1/4"? Something else? I can try it and see at the next gig, but I'd like to know as much as possible before I get there.

It will likely be difficult to carry on a Helix and a guitar. If the Helix is adequately packaged, it should be OK to check. But I'd only carry on the guitar, any guitar. They won't make it through baggage. If I were traveling, I might consider using an iPad for an amp model. Check out ToneStack. I've been experimenting with it as a backup for my Helix. So far I like the amps as much or more than Bias FX, and the effects are definitely better than Bias FX. I'm still experimenting with the cabinet models - that might be the weakest part of ToneStack, and maybe Bias FX too. You'll need an interface, a Bluetooth MIDI pedalboard, and make sure your Variax has a fully charged battery. Not ideal, but maybe a good option.

Actually string height could effect tone independently of the magnet pick to string gap. There are two reasons. One is the angle the string makes with the piezo pickup. Raising or lowing the string will change the string angle a little bit and that can effect tone since it may change how the piezo pickup sees the string pressure. The second is string fret buzz. Lowering the action to a point were you have acceptable levels of string buzz for the magnet pickups mignt not have the same impact on the piezo pickups. This is because the piezos are pretty sensitive to fret buzz and tend to make it stand out more. I don't think a Variax should be setup the same way as other electric guitars. Rather I think they generally benefit from a bit more relief and a bit higher action.

Now here's an odd thing - last night custom Variax tunings on Helix input blocks started working like they did before - if alt tuning is set to Custom on the Helix input block, Helix controls the tuning regardless of the setting of the Alt Tuning knob on the Variax. I made no changes to any patches. Now we have a bug. This isn't something that should change between one power on and another. It is not unique to the JVT, as when I had to set the Alt Tuning Knob to Model, I had do do the same thing on my Variax Standard.

Line6 may have made a useful compromise with the Cab models. Different mic choices and positions require sampling and storing different IRs. That takes time and memory space in Helix. A compromise would be to capture the speaker IR with the mic positioned at Cap so it gets the maximum amount of high frequency content, and then use high cut to adjust from there. That will sound different than the same mic and speaker IR captured at cone or cone-edge, but maybe the difference isn't that great and the engineering compromise is good enough. Luckily we have the choice with Helix. I tend to use blended IRs that are pretty warm, ribbon mics and positioned at cone or cone edge. Then I don't need much high cut. But I can easily see taking the opposite approach: SM57 positioned at cap or cap-edge, and then use high cut to taste.

@psarkissian, can you explain the use of the JVT/Standard Model alt tuning setting with respect to custom tuning setup in the Helix Variax (or Multi) input block? My understanding of the alt tuning Model setting is that it switched to the tuning stored with the Variax model if any, and had nothing to do with custom tunings in Helix. I use snapshots to switch to different tuning in the same Helix patch. In the past I don't remember ever using the JVT alt tuning knob set to Model - I always left it at Standard (unless of course I was using a tuning on the guitar) and let Helix snapshots control the tuning. Last weekend my Open-G snapshot stopped working - a bit of a surprise when I started a song thinking I was in open-G but wasn't. At first I though something had happened to the patch since I've had trouble with Helix patches that use Variax setting on the input block before, or that somehow the snapshot controller went missing on the string tunings. But that was not the case, everything was fine in Helix. The only way I could get Helix snapshots or even just the Variax custom tuning parameters in the Variax input block to work was to set the JVT alt tuning knob to Model. Then it worked fine - switching to whatever tuning I had in the Helix snapshot. That's fine, now I know what to do. But I don't remember having to set the alt tuning knob to Model before and don't remember anything changing in 2.20 or 2.21 that would effect this. So I'm confused.

Yes, Input block is set for Variax Per Preset and Global Variax Tuning set to Custom in Helix as always. It makes sense I suppose that the guitar tuning knob should be set to Model for the Helix model to change the tuning, and for the tuning to always be standard when the tuning knob is set to standard. I just don't remember having to do that in the past. I seem to remember that Helix would set the tuning no matter where the tuning knob was set. But maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

I my acoustic band I play mandolin, acoustic guitar and some electric guitar. The mandolin goes into return 3 (since it has a higher impedance than Aux and matches the K&K pickup better), my Strat Deluxe uses the guitar input and I use a Variax 700 Acoustic through VDI. I have also created setups with a Martin 00CEA for acoustic using Acoustic body IRs I captured from my Fishman Aura. I have also used the Fishman Aura as an insert device, but found it simpler to just capture the IR I use most of the time and use it in a Helix IR block. I've used a Jamman too, for longer loops. But basically Helix has everything I really need and its very convenient to have everything in one unit, especially one that can easily handle three very different instruments with no problem at all.

Same experience here. I use a JVT-69S almost exclusively for gigging and my 90's Strat Deluxe is my backup guitar. My '67 Less Paul stays home. I don't love the modeled tones, but they're ok and functional for club gigging. However the magnetic pickups are just fine and is mine is a very playable guitar. Its also quite a bit lighter than my Strat, and that helps an old guy like me. I'm sure its not the greatest tone, but I have to wear ear plugs anyway, so I'm not going to hear that tone one way or another. And the audience probably wouldn't know the difference.

Its not that sampling a speaker somehow creates frequencies that aren't there. Its that where the mic is positioned on the cabinet is in a place that picks up frequencies you don't usually hear because that's not where you listen to a cabinet.