vmoncebaiz

I think your on the right track. Although he has two amps, the majority of his sound is the marshall major (Brit plexi 200 watt head). The silver jubilee he uses is most likely just for his gain sounds. I've had best luck using the neck pickup for fruciante-like tones, but I think he uses the bridge or position 2 for some of his funk riff stuff. On the recorded sounds, there's probably a bit of compression going on. Try the compressor with the ratio somewhere between 2:1 4:1(the one after the amp, probably not the stomp box compressor styles since he doesn't really have compressor boxes before his amp) That EQ seems like a good place to start too. That will change with the player and guitar. I tend to use more mids and less treble and less presence, but that's just what sounds good to my ears. Welcome to the perpetual world of tweaking and tone chasing. Don't worry about waiting for an specific AHA moment. They are sneaky little buggers and they keep on coming. Something along the lines of "The more you know, the more you need to learn"

You can place the FX loop in the signal chain in FIrehawk and send that to your amp. Just don't reconnect back into the Firehawk's FX loop returns. The XLR outs would be send to FOH. When the FX loop is on, it will just send everything in front of the FX Loop block to the amp. Everything after it will be left out of the chain. If your staying in the sameness patch, you'll have to manually switch the Variax models. However you can save each preset to switch the Variax models and turnings for you. In that case you should try to maintain a similar layout of your signal chains. Mainly keeping the FX loop where you want it, and either saving it as bypassed or turned on, depending on the routing you want to use.

Love that guy's tone and playing. Spent a year trying to wrap my head around how he best single coil tone with little humbuckers. I would love to see the Lonestar get modeled at some point. I don't have any experience with the blues driver, but I think I'm a fan now.

Oh its real. And it is simply Helix with different hardware. All the DSP and internal processing is the same. I think this will be an awesome thing for guys on the fence about a heavy hardware investment.

OH. I don't think you're looking at the the same way I am. You can't use a wah pedal to control expression values (at least not without a mod of some sort). I also had a typo in my response that might have been misleading. Sorry for the confusion. I would use the Crybaby just as a wah pedal effect of its own, set in front of Helix (guitar -> 95Q -> Helix guitar input). That way you have more blocks available in Helix and you can use other expression pedals to control whatever you want. If thats not the way you wanted to use the Dunlop 95q, and you are strictly looking for an expression pedal, I'd recommend the Mission SP1-L6h pedal (if you want a toe switch). Or simply look into using Helix's auto engage feature to use expression pedals without the need for toe switches.

I'm not sure exactly how you'd like to use the Firehawk 1500. If you are talking strictly as a way to monitor sounds coming from the Audient, plug into the "Monitor In" on the back of Firehawk 1500. If you are looking to record from the Firehawk 1500 into the Audient, then use the XLR Main Outs

I think our boy sheehanje just nailed the hum finder guidelines. If you can, try it with another guitar and see if it is still there. EMGs are not grounded to the bridge/strings for shock hazard. So they can sometimes be the culprit.

Any thoughts on letting snapshots control the amp and drive parameters as well as on/off for fx, Then tie your time based FX and what ever to an expression pedal ( I like using external pedal 3 for this). You can then just blend up and down how much ambiance you want. I usually have the mix only for delays and reverbs on the expression pedal. The feedback, decay and other parameters I might want to change are still on the snapshot. I like the idea you brought up, with 2 groups of snaps though. And the double snapshot/ toggle snapshots that hideout linked are worth the up vote too.

Hey, just replied to you in the other thread, basically saying that yes you can do this. Its actually my exact plan and the same auto engage wah pedal I ordered myself. The Dunlop 95q is a good sounding pedal and will work with other rigs, if you happen to use them. It also will fill FREE up an expression pedal on Helix to control other parameters, instead of being strictly dedicated to a wah block.

That Dunlop 95 Q wah is actually an awesome sounding wah pedal, and the auto engage feature on a cry baby is cool. I was saying that you can set up the Helix's auto engage with its own wah pedal blocks to do the same thing as far as turning them on/off with any expression pedal. Now with a dedicated wah pedal, you have another exp pedal free to control whatever else you want.

Just another (possibly money-saving) thought for Helix rack owners. The Auto-Engage feature in Helix basically removes the need for an external expression pedal with a toe switch. I have the Mission SP1-L6H, but now I never use the toe switch. That should open up quite a few more exp pedal options for people who'd rather pick based on weight, color, range of motion, or ruggedness instead of simply needing a toe switch. The switch can be cool if you prefer that, or want to use it to turn other blocks on/off along with the wah. I assume the OP is a Helix Rack user, as I don't see what an expression pedal with a toe-switch would do for the Floor unit.

The only Orange amp that is specifically modeled in the Firehawk 1500 is the Orange AC30TC. It is labeled as the "Citrus D-30" Model. That model isn't what I would consider a typical Orange sound (its a low watt class A amp). However there are plenty of amp models in the "British" category that would be akin to the staples of the Orange amp catalog. The "brit plexi lead 200" would be a good place to start for the Thunderverb. I think the "Brit plexi bass 100" or the "Line6 JTS-45" models would get closer to Rockerverb territory. If your main concern is looking for something light to carry around, you might consider the Firehawk FX floorboard over the 1500. They both offer the same tonal options.

From what Ive been told about the 240HC, you are able to turn off the smaller speakers in the head if you want to hear just the cab you are using.

This might help as a decent starting point- http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1615879/ It might be a little overly ambient, but the idea is to tie the "feedback" of a delay to the expression pedal so it goes from a normal amount to 100% (can be done with a foot switch too). On that same delay you'll want to have "trails" set to on. When the feedback is at 100%, whatever you play gets put into that pad. To stop adding to the pad turn the delay off. To remove the pad, pull the expression pedal down. There are some other fun things going on in this patch too, but play around with the "pad delay" to get a freeze type effect to work for you. The same madman who brought you the Adriatic delay and the Litigator model came up with this preset. Its been a huge hit when I show it to folks.

The part about tension is true, the tracking and alt tunign sounds much better with more tension. I've always thought that about the JTVs and the Standard. Stevic's sound is by far the best I've heard when pitch shifting that far, and he attributes it to the extra tension (he's going down an octave to D). I tend to prefer low tension, but it seems like more tension (and/or possibly bigger string guage) sounds better for the Variax.

I tuned one down a full step to D standard and another to C standard. My preference is usually for less tension. And with the baritone scale, the D standard tuning with 10g strings felt more like 10s in E standard on a 25.5" scale. In C standard it was closer to 9s in E on a 25.5' scale. That part is really just preference. The alternate tuning still functions fine like this. A quick roll of the tuning knob had all them functioning and tracking properly in D. In C it got a bit weird with the factory alternate tunings that made larger jumps. I used Helix to change the Variax tunings, and keeping the pitch shifting within a step or two makes it all track and sound better to me. But the guitar does need to be properly intonated in which ever physical tuning you use. For that, the bridge is easy to work with and has plenty of range in the saddle-travel to accommodate. Obviously one of the big points of Variax is to do the alternate tuning stuff for you. But to me once you're pitch shifting a 4th or more, the tone isn't like what you'd be used to with magnetic pickups and a physically de-tuned guitar. I've found that de-tuning the Variax itself lets me alt tune, up or down, with better tone/less oddities. I didn't get a chance to try virtual capo with Shuriken, but when I physically detuned the JTVs, that was the only time I noticed a hiccup. It would work, I just had to enter the notes I wanted a couple times before it would take the tuning correctly - (sometimes strange harmonics would show up).

You can either run 2 of the 1028 sample IRs on the same path. Or depending on how much routing and processing you already have, you can run 2048 IR on each path. Try placing an FX send block before the IR and send that out to the power amp/cab, but have the signal continue through for the IRs and XLR outs. If the patches aren't too complicated you can try duplicating them. Path 1 with IRs sent out XLR, and Path 2 with no IRs sent to 1/4". You can still split each path into separate outputs and PAN then for stereo use as needed.

That's what I thought too. And to me that is the biggest benefit of extended scales length guitars. I like thinner strings on baritones for better note clarity and sustain as they are allowed to vibrate more with less effort, but they retain enough tension when down tuned so as to not flap around and buzz. However the models are coming from factory turned to E standard with 10g strings. From what I've gathered thats how Stevic uses his. Sometimes he physically tunes to drop D. Thats quite a bit more tension than some folks might be used to. I had the chance to set up a couple Shurikens in lower physical tunings and it worked out well, so that option is still there for sure.

Plenty of Swedish metallers opted for the 5150 or even marshal valvestate amps too. Remember that a lot of that scandinavian/Gothenburg sound came from quad tracking guitars. Here are a couple other things to try Reducing the sag on the amp Throw a tubescreamer in front with the gain at 0, tone at 5, and the level at 9-10. (some of the HM-2 users were doing somethign similar with already overdriven hi-gain amps - although I've been told by a buddy that Entombed was putting averything on 100% for the HM2) RE30 dynamic mic model EQ cuts at 250-300 and 650-750 I remember having both the HM2 and the MT2, and I loved them then. I know I wouldn't feel the same now, so Ill just leave it as a nostalgic thing. It's like a right of passage for high gain players. I think the Blue Voodoo might be in that same category.

I recently picked up one of Yamaha's SLG200N Silent Guitars. I love it, and being able to use the Mic vs blnk piezo signal is an awesome feature I think future Variax models should incorporate. Even cooler is that Yamaha's piezo pickups work on each individual string (at least for the Slient guitar). I have been trying to become the squeaky wheel in getting a Variax Acoustic, and I think a crossover with the Silent Guitar would be perfect: no feedback issues, quiet acoutic sound wouldn't interfere with alternate tunings, and the ability to blend the miced sound with the unprocessed piezo allows for use with differnt, amps, IRs, or processors.

I believe that Helix Native is a plug-in format and has no standalone version at the moment. I doubt the FBV3 will have anything to do with Helix Native. If any control pedal were to function with Helix, it would more likely be the Helix control from the Rack version. Midi might be another option too.

Thank you!! That is an awesome idea. I think that also might be the answer for people who want to assign the looper functions to specific pedals without being in looper mode. I've got some testing to do.

I typically save the global eq to fine tune things for the room or PA, as most users mentioned above. My patches themselves tend to have high cuts and low cuts already applied to the cab or IR blocks (typically 80-90hz low cut and 5.8-8khz on the high cut) If you're new to modelers, try messing with 250hz, 500hz, 750hz, 2khz and 4khz. Those seem to make very noticeable differences. If you like the tweaks you make, I'd recommend adding them in as eq blocks in the patches, and saving the global EQ for fine tuning across all patches. But for the L2t specifically, I find myself cutting frequencies at 300hz and again at 2.2k-2.4khz. I do it with the global EQ as its quicker than adding in an EQ block for every patch I want to use. Its just what works for my ears.

Nice job all around. Both tones sound good (as does the rhythm), but I like the 2nd lead sound as it stands out more than the first. The Shiva also seems a bit fuller than the Soldano. The section where the vocals come back in and the Soldano part is playing under is works out nicely. But it could stand to either come up a little in volume or mids for the bit when its on its own. Or perhaps that tone without the wah would help thicken it up. But any which way, nice job again.

I used a JTV-89 fixed bridge for about 2 years and I always kept it tuned 1 full step down in D Standard. As long as it was set up and intonated properyl, it never had issues with the alt tunings. The virtual capo feature didn't always track perfectly, but the alt tuning knob worked fine. I used 10g strings down a full step as it is similar in tension to 9s in E standard. The Shuriken is a 27in scale guitar, so there is more tension on the strings just from the scale alone. They come with 10s and seem like they will be tuned to E standard from factory. That equals out to be a lot more tension than I like. Stevic, the man behind the signature model, says the extra tension helps with the notes tracking when using the variax alt tuning for super low notes (he goes down and octave and a step). It makes sense to me that the extra tension would keep better contact with the piezo in the saddle. From my experiences with extended scale guitars, the biggest benefit is being able to physically tune lower while not needing massively over-sized strings to keep the strings from slacking. The difference between a 25.5" and 27" scale is close to going up a string guage.