vmoncebaiz

I don't have any experience with the PAF master set, so I can't really weigh in there. And I feel ya' I had to get over wanting to keep my JP intact too. For me it was either change the pickups or I simply won't play it. And remember you're hearing Petrucci through a completely different rig, with pedals/ effects, mics, mastering etc. There's also the idea that he found what works well for him and he switches pickups every couple of years too. So you should feel free to swap whatever until it works for you. (have it done by a professional though - there are some obstacles in wiring the new JPs) The ceramic magnets do have an affect, same way a tube type does in an amp. But there are plenty of other components that go into the pickup design. There are plenty of really nice sounding ceramics out there that aren't as compress or stereotypically voiced for rock/metal. But most alnico's generally have a stereotypically warmer sound. The stock pickups in (y)our guitar made it hard for me to generate warm tones too.

That's a beautiful guitar my man! I promise the pickups are the thing holding it back for you. Ive also played the illuminators in other instruments and the are very tight and clear, but end up feeling compressed and too thin for my tastes. The last 2 years of JPs have seen some the most resonant and well-playing instruments that company has put out. The pickups are the biggest factor in how an electric guitar will sound (on the guitar - not talking about the amp).

I tried a Bare Knuckle "Emerald" set , but ended up switching again and sticking with a Bare Knuckle "Holy Diver" Set. I liked both better than the Illuminators that came stock. But the Emerald was a bit too bright. The Holy Diver was warmer with a little more output, but doesn't feel compressed. It also has that liquidy, rounded pick attack like Petrucci's older tone when leads are played on the neck position. I used to do a lot of tech work, mainly pickup swaps and there are a lot guys in the Boston area who have Petrucci's. Other really nice sounding options I almost went with were Dimarzio Dominion set (high output ceramics, definitely voiced for metal) or the AT-1 and Air Norton combo (warmer alnico still high output less compressed). I wish my playing could be in the same vein as ol' Trooch, my music is pretty close. I tend to play mainly metal, but I dislike most gear pegged as "metal". I generally prefer warmer, lower output pickups when I can. Especially since Helix and other amps I've used have more than enough gain on tap.

First thing I did was remove the pickups in my JP15. They were overly focused and had too many upper mids which didnt sound great with the extra maple (neck, fingerboard, top). They are high output, but I think the way they are voiced was the bigger problem for me. I'm a huge Petrucci fan, but we do not agree about pickups and tone in the past 10 years or so. Its an incredible instrument and swapping pickups made it even better for me.

I have a JP15 in sahara burst (same electronics set up). With Helix, I have snapshots set up that bypass the amp models and switch IRs to an acoustic IR for use with the piezo. You can also try this with the onboard mic pre model. Have that in line with an amp and just bypass the amp and cab while you turn the mic pre on, but that might take up a bit more DSP (I tend to run two amp blocks for mimicked channel switching). If you can spare a path (DSP and routing wise) you can have the piezo output always armed with its own signal chain and use a footswitch or the expression pedal to switch from or blend between your mags to the piezo path. Another effective way to use it would be send and return blocks. When engaged you would send your piezo signal to an acoustic amp/PA/other channel on interface etc. Either way there are enough ways to set up Helix for multiple uses with a guitar like that. If you can't quite get it to work the way you want, message me and I can try to help you build a patch.

I agree with you. I was just hoping to further point out the similarities and the differences of each. I think for sure there will always be the guys who scroll through presets and decide that is all a product has to offer. A lot of gear out there is capable of sounding better if guys would tweak a bit on their own.

I have the Beyer DT 770s and have used them for years. They are really nice sounding headphones, and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. But I still can't stand playing guitar through headphones, even really good ones. So while they'd be a good choice for your volume requirements, I would warn that playing strictly through headphones might not be the most fun you are allowed to have with Helix. Give the global EQ some thought, especially bringing in the "high cut" with high gain sounds as they can gets harsh very quickly with headphones.

I didn't realize that was possible to do. My first guess wold have been nope. I'm learning! Thanks roscoe5

Yes. Spider V is organized in 32 banks, each with 4 presets A-D. You can overwrite any of them with different presets, or you can reorganize the existing tones so they show up in whichever bank or preset you would like.

Once you find a tone, touch it to load the tone. Then in the top right corner of your screen you'll see an icon of a box with an arrow pointing up (like an outbox icon). Touching that will bring up a menu with save features. "Save to my tones" will store that preset in your account. "Store on Spider V" will load that preset into your amps onboard presets. On an iPad, the location of the save icon is in a slightly different spot on the screen, but it works just the same.

I'm loving both the cleans and hi gain sounds. I've played the physical version of the Archon on a regular basis for a couple years now and the model really holds up well. I had to get away from the idea of EQing it the same way I do on the physical Archon (monitors vs 4x12), but the Helix model feels and reacts very closely to the real deal.

The horn still works with the left XLR input in the back of Firehawk 1500. When both XLRs are used I believe the horn is disabled and the coaxial speakers are used. amcevoy posted this in another FH1500 thread on the connections and which speakers are being used. - http://line6.com/support/topic/24260-are-all-6-firehawk-1500-speakers-active-using-just-the-guitar-input/ (not sure how to quote across threads, but wanted to give him credit) If you wanted to run a wet-dry-wet setup and take advantage of all the speakers with, try this. In a dual amp set up for PodHD, place the FX Loop block right after 1 amp model to run one that model (dry or with pre-effects) into the guitar input of the Firehawk (uses 12" center speaker and Horn). Then have the second amp model and all the post effects go XLR out to the back of FH1500 (uses the coaxial speakers, but not sure if this is also using the 12" center). If i had to guess, I think this is how Devin Townsend has been using his Firehawk 1500 on tour for a single source monitor for a wet-dry-wet rig.

Deadlocked is correct. Unfortunately the looper of Spider V is not controlled by the FBV Express.

I just played through one of their 2/50/2 a few nights ago and loved it. The power station sounds pretty interesting. I would love to read your experiences with it if you go that route.

I've contacted PRS before to ask about this before. They specifically recommended I look into Voodoo Labs cables that have the 5-pin connection to 1/4" TRS, just like the cable you linked. PRS also said they offer the option to modify the Archon itself to change the connection on the back to a regular 1/4" TRS connection for $50 plus shipping. They mentioned that with this modification the footswitch LEDs would no longer respond, so I think thats all the 5 pin connection is doing. They didn't seem to be concerned with using other footswitch options on their amp. I would double check it that cable with PRS, they are very quick to respond to customer service emails.

Unfortunately no. The FBV express MkII will not control the looper on Spider V. It has looper control for the Spider IV amps, but since the software is vastly different, Express doesn't work for the Spider V looper. FBV Shortboard MkII and the FBV3 can both control the looper in Spider V.

I have played the Fishman Aura Spectrum, and it is a really nice sounding box for normal piezos. Unfortunately it doesn't work with Variax. I tried Variax with a few other IRs or body resonance type processing and it never sounds very good, so I just use the Variax models as they are. I guess its similar to running cabinet IRs into other cabinet IRs, or into real cabinets. I too would love to see both the Nylon Model, and a flat/neutral piezo in Variax HD. Below are the links to the ideas if you haven't upvoted them on Idea Scale yet. http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Nylon-String-in-Tyler-Variax-update/491047-23508 http://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Clean-piezo-signal-from-JTV/515946-23508 I recently got one of Yamaha's Slient guitars, and they give you the option to blend between the piezo and a mic'd sound. I would love to see Line 6 borrow that feature.

I had a chance to play Helix through the VHT 2/50/2 and a Mesa 2x12 the other night. And I am absolutely in love with the VHT 2/50/2. We had a set of Focal monitors and a Mackie HD1221 as alternate FR/FR comparisons. Things were sounding good in each of the set ups, but using the valve power amp completely made me forget about the convenience of FR/FR. Not only did it sound and feel amazing, but I didn't have to set up global EQs or do much of anything to get a tone. That being said, some of the modeling accuracy might be lost since you're committing to a power amp with its own feel and flavor. But that wasn't much of a concern to me. And the VHT 2/50/2 also has an option for class A and class A/B. I've only played a couple SS, fat-respose type power amps before. To me they don't add much (and I guess thats the point of them :) ). So I'd rather just go to powered speaker or FoH, and not have to bring a cab and power amp with me. I think if you are looking to go the power amp and a cab route, valve options should be high on your list of options to explore. Like evh0u812 was saying - even if no one else can tell the difference in the audience, you'll feel it for sure. And I'm all for anything that makes me feel better about whatever jibberish I'm playing.

All of the sounds that were made with AMPLIFi products will load into Spider V. So there are a massive number of tones on the could that you can access with the Spider Remote APP. If you are referring to the downloadable tones on our website, customtone.com, then you are correct that those tones are not comparable with Spider V amps. Those presets correspond to other products that do no have a remote editor and access to the tone cloud.

You can also use the compressor to achieve an overall volume boost by setting the threshold to a high value (lower number) and the gain will adjust the amount of boost. The compressor is footswitch 1 by default on the FBV3 or Function 1on the FBV mkII (where the volume boost was for the Spider IV)

There is a JTM45 amp model on Helix. Its my favorite for warm clean sounds and is very capable of soft smooth overdrive. I love it with the Compulsive drive (based on OCD) and the Valve driver models. I generally set my drive level much lower than the output level (mainly drive or gain to off and the output level 70-90%). For your overdrive suggestions, I have never played a Guv'nor pedal myself so this is just a guess based on its circuitry type and what I've read - so feel free to ignore :) But it looks like the TS808 would sound quite different sounding from the way they each clip. Apparently the Guv'nor is a hard clip type pedal so you might find something closer to that in a distortion model rather than an overdrive. On the Helix try the KWB, the Hedgehog D9, and the Vermin Dist models for something that is at least hard clipping and see if that gets you close to the sound you were looking for.

Previous to snapshots I was setting each amp and its cab/cab son a separate path. With snapshots I started to try different set ups and have been doing well by placing two amps on the top path and letting the bottom path handle the cabs and plenty of effects in post (I basically run overdrive as my only pre effect). I realized I actually like to use one cab rather than always switching between fully separate A/B rigs. Its more like the channel switching on amps that I am used to. If you want a drastic change you can always switch mic and placement parameters with snapshots too.

The Spider V editor, "Spider Remote', is available for iOS and Android devices. You can do all of your custom tone sharing and downloading from the app. As of now there is no editor or software for Spider V amps available on Mac or PC.

I am a huge fan of using full amp models instead of just the pre-amp models. No matter how I've used the pre-amp models they sound thin and feel stiff to me. Even at all different volumes, I much prefer the full amp models. I've had the chance to play into a variety power amps and I cannot find a situation where I prefer pre-amp only. When using the full amp models, the Master Volume control on the Amp block an important one to pay attention to. It can change how you want the amp models to react with the physical power amp in terms of sound and feel. Plenty of people recommend putting Helix at 100% volume. The idea is that signal to noise ratio is better. But I've never had an issue with the noise floor. So I always set it around 70%. That way I can go up or down if I am plugging into different backlines. With all that said, there is still preference involved here. I have a friend who always uses 2 cab models run into each other and loves cab models run into physical cabs too. Whatever floats boats.

I like that.