vmoncebaiz

I've had luck with bass sounds by running into a compressor block then splitting the chain. One path runs into a bass model and cab. The lower path is just a DI and i use the expression pedal to blend the two paths. try this and just swap out the bass amp or the effects as needed. http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1616207/

I prefer to use hardware just to have one less thing for my CPU to handle. I do feel that most of the hardware options sound better than software options I've tried. Although i did think Bias had some nice sounds. Even a small amount of latency drives me insane though, and I need all the help i can get playing in time. My other pro for the hardware is being able to route the signal, fully processed, into a daw and at the same time have a feed into a live PA speaker (or a power amp/cab) in the room for better feel. Its definitely a diva-ish thing on my end, but I've done it with axe fx and helix, and for whatever reason it makes me feel better about what I'm playing.

I was 100% all about editing on the Helix itself vs the Editor, the only thing that I thought the editor did more quickly was renaming things. I recently started messing around with the rack version of Helix and there the editor really earns its keep. Since Helix Rack is most likely hooked up to (or at least near a computer) it makes a lot of sense to use it.

I also meant to mention that if any one is using the Mission SP1-L6 with the toe switch, you might find these cables useful. You have to run one cable to the toe switch jack and one cable to the exp jack on Helix Control. http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=601460 They have a 10 ft version too if you need more room to wah

You can assign the toe switch of the Mission Pedal (SP1-L6) the same as you can assign any FS on Helix. Its obviously the way to go for wah and whammy effects. But its also pretty cool to assign delay/verb and a small level boost to the toe swich. You click your wah on and it gives you all your lead effects at once. In their manual, Mission says you can adjust how hard or easy it is to activate the toe switch by adding/removing washers. It does seem hard to press while I'm seated, but standing it feels pretty good to me. So I haven't tried to adjust it yet.

Ahhh, I did not realize that. I appreciate the correction. Sorry for any added confusion

Like most of the guys have already mentioned, the fender power amp and its physical speakers are very different than what you might want for an engl pre amp or a high gain, metal tone. In most cases I prefer using full amp models (pre and power) into physical power amps. Particularly for helping the high gain sounds coming from fender style combo amps, I'll even use cabinet or IR blocks. I know its redundant, or theres coloration on top of coloration, but sometimes I've found some more usable tones that way. Don't forget though that if you are using it in 4 cable method, even if you place an amp model so it only hits the power amp section of the physical amp, you are still running through the physical pre-amp before you run into the modeled amp. You can bypass that with some switchable routing, but its sometime to keep in mind.

I started using the global EQ mainly because I'm always plugging into different speakers. But its been a huge help in taming low end so I can actually increase the bass on an amp or use warmer mics like the 121 model without getting all that extra woofy bottom end from an FR/FR set up. Especially since thats not always noticeable with a traditional amp. I also roll of the top end quite a bit. Generally I set the global EQ as just a low cut 80-92hz and the high cut anywhere from 16k-11k

You could place your stereo fx (either internal Helix effects, or physical stereo effects units) early in the signal chain and then split the signal path behind them using a Y Stereo Split in Helix. So your stereo fx are feeding two separate mono paths now. Then you can place amp blocks on those two separate paths and send those along to separate output blocks. Then pan the outputs of both output blocks to L and R. Depending on how much routing and DSP you need from Helix you're best be might be to have Path 1a on the top go to an output block (hard panned to one side). And have path 1b continue on to path 2 on the bottom. Then have path two's output panned to the other side.

I checked this weekend. The Variax standard does accept my US strat neck. The issue is that when it is seated in the heel pocket, the position of the last fret is very different, so the nut and the rest of the frets would be very off from the original variax neck. There's about a 1/4" difference so i don't think the bridge has enough room to try to compensate for intonation. Its the same number of frets, and same scale length as the variax standard neck. It just seats into the pocket differently.

Nicely done man. Sounds pretty cool. I love 2x12 cabs in general. Its also cool that you have made a useable IR and I don't have to sift through hundreds of slightly different sounding ones until I lose my mind settling on one.

4 cable method with no amp or cabinet modeling would be my recommendation. That's Hey, If your plan is to mic the amp into the board, what about trying to mic the amp at the end, and running the mic back into Helix instead? Then run XLR out from Helix to the board. It could open up a lot of cool options and give you more control of whats happening with your onstage sound as well as sound to the PA. You'd also be able to use your own mic and have it placed exactly where you want every time. You could give different reverb or delay mixes to the house vs onstage, or just run dry onstage. I have a buddy who mentioned he does this with a vintage amp since he doesn't have an FX loop to 4 cable with. there is enough I/O and routing flexibility to run 4CM with the Mark V and still use a path for the mic at the end. It might take some tweaking, but it could be a really cool set up

If I understand what you are asking for correctly I have a solution. So lets check that first You want the switch to read as on, or bright lit when the phaser is on, reverb 1 is on and amp gain is higher. But it is currently reading as off and dimly lit because the other reverb 2 is still off. Right? If thats the case just touch the footswitch until it highlights one of the controls that are currently on. It should reflect the state of the highlighted block, instead of whichever was last assigned to the switch. Remember to re-save the preset too.

Just wanted to add that I have a some Rewires IRs and a couple Ownhammer IRs. Some sound fantanstic, some sound awful. And thats even with the same mic and same cab, just different distance or mic placements between IRs. Out of the hundreds of IR files the give you, I've found I use about 20 of them. In general most of them seem to be a little more present and clear, but thinner and lacking warmth. But it never hurts to have more options. And so far running them in parallel along WITH Helix's cabs has worked better for me.

That's generally how I have been setting up dual mic examples for the Tone Made Pro events. You can do the same even with separate cab blocks, just using the same cab model with different mics. That way you can pan for stereo setups and apply different effects to either side too. @danmal1976 - Sorry if I might have caused any confusion on how to go about setting up two mics with 1 cab model

Sorry to assume. I have a US Fender Highway series neck just sitting around. Ill try to test the fit on the Variax Standard when I'm back home this coming week. Ill post the results here when I can.

In your Amplifi Remote app, check settings > device selection. Turn on advanced settings. You can choose if you want the sound to come from the device or the Amplify unit.

The Variax Standard actually has a MUCH smaller neck than the JTV69, which I agree is massive and very round. The standard is pretty comfortable to me. The Standard also has a flatter fingerboard radius, which some vintage players might not even notice as the reason it feels different to them. The standard was designed with a generic square heel 4 bolt pocket to make it easier to swap necks.

Or you can set the dry through on the send block all the way down. Either way its just making it so you only get one signal going through instead of one going through the send/return and another going straight through and getting blended. Try splitting the paths like this for more room. http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1604598/ Notice the output on path 1 is set to XLR to avoid and dry thru or double guitar signal issues. There are a bunch of ways to go about doing the same thing.

I love the J45 model for warm sounding cleans and early break up stuff. I generally set up an overdrive pedal with no gain but level close to 9 or 10 to choose between clean clean and slightly pushed with that model. For the EQ you can recreate it with a parametric eq after any of the amp models. The sliders are set at 80hz, 240hz, 750z, 2200z, 6600hz You can find mesa's EQ specs here: http://www.mesaboogie.com/media/User%20Manuals/five-band_140401.pdf You can try the Mesa Rectifire model with the input gain really low, It can even produce nice clean tones, but it's got a pretty stiff feel. Raising the sag can help, but with the master volume juiced you might get more break up than you want, and the sag will react more with changes. If you go into it with the mindset of trying to recreate the tone, as opposed to trying to set the knobs at the same place you might have in the aplitube settings, you'll have a better time.

I use foot edit mode (hold FS6) to scroll through 3rd party IRs one at a time. I load 128 of them and just press the value + button to change through them. I write down the ones I like and move them into a folder. Load up another group and repeat. It's always sort of a pain to search through the hundred of IRs they give you, but if you consider that most of them sound very similar to each other you can hear one of two of each mic at a couple distances and tell if that's what you want. For the most part I only audition ones within certain distance ranges i.e. - 0"-2" or 6"-8" depending on if I'm looking for a close or far mic'd IR with that particular mic. As far as the presets that already use irs, just note which ones are being used and just reload them afterwards, or place those ones back at the same place in the IR number

On the Wah models themselves you can control the frequency sweeps to thicken up the way tone. Lowering the high Fq will make it less shrill on the top end. Lowering the low and raising the high can make for some over the top was effects. Play around with that, and see if you can get what you need before adding in extra blocks. But if you want to still use an EQ block in conjunction with the wah you can assign the eq and waH to turn on at the same time if you assign the EQ to EXP Toe. Highlight the EQ >Press menu > press footswitch assign > scroll all the way right for EXP TOE

I set the global EQ just as high and low pass cuts. It's mainly since I'm never plugging into the same set of speakers when I'm demo'ing Helix. If I think the speakers are either too bright, or overly bassy I'll turn it on.

If you want a little more flexibility with that type of set up, you can insert a send block early in your chain for the DI, and then a return block somewhere else. Patch the two together and you can choose where it splits and rejoins the processed path.

I've had good luck using the sm57 with greater distances 6" or so and increasing the bass on the amps eq. The other thing I love doing is using two cabs, same cab model but different mics usually with the volume offset a little bit between them. The ribbons do have a lot more bottom end, for those i end up using the low cut on the cab block. I set it anywhere form 80z-110hz