ricstudioc

So - just received the Novation backpack. First impression, it'll do the job nicely for light-duty carrying around. The Helix fits snugly, enough so that getting the zippers to close is a wee bit tight - I'm sure it will loosen up a bit over time, but there's a redundancy, in addition to the zippers there's a heavy-duty velcro'd flap that closes over that compartment. PLENTY of room for a couple L6 expression pedals, a velcro'd board to hold them, and plenty of cables. It's not gonna sit at the bottom of a pile of gear, but as mentioned above I really only need/want it for quickies where I don't feel the need to drag the whole pedal board around. Like I said - Helix on my back, an Alto in one hand and guitar in the other. It will do the job very nicely for that... One note - there seem to be a few variants on this bag, so check carefully before ordering. The one pictured by the OP is the correct one.....

As noted in another thread, same here - lived in the Framingham/Holliston area for many years, and Jon was always high up on the "get out and see this guy" list. Did a quick search, noted that The Rat closed down some time ago - but apparently The Paradise is still up and running - lotsa good times there, both on-stage, off-stage, and doing tech for various bands. The more things change......

Just ordered the Novation - thanks for the tip! Usually when my bands play, the Helix is in one of the several trunks that I use - but to just grab and go, it looks perfect. I'm hoping there will be enough room in a pocket for the two Line6 expression pedals velcro'd to my main pedalboard. Them, and a few cables, and I'm good to go for jammin' or a "sit in" where I don't need the big board. Helix on my back, Alto in one hand and Gtr in the other - and I'm rockin'......

I run through two Alto 10" FRFR's set in front of me in a floor monitor configuration - at modest volumes using my standard presets (built around the Matchless models w/a very gentle compression in front) I get insanely reliable, controllable feedback. Bear in mind that feedback is physics at it's purest - volume vs distance vs frequency vs sensitivity - so no matter what the rig you're still subject to those parameters. But I've been stunned by how responsive the Helix is in this regard. Years back I worked with a band where the nature of the music was such that I was expected, several times a nite, to hit and sustain a given note indefinitely. Once my gear was set up I'd whip out my tape measure, and begin measuring from the speaker, putting tape markers on the floor at certain "hot spots". Bands following us would comment on those - "What's with the C#, G, A# tape on the floor....?" The POINT of music is emotion - but the PROCESS of music is physics. edit - just noted fukuris post. No, I'm not Vai, and was doing this long before he showed up.

Well, certainly for me it's exactly the point. .I'm no "tone purist" - not one of those guys who'll argue "the REAL Deluxe Reverb has a 0.6db bump at 877hz, the (fill in modeler name) doesn't have that so it's crap". I want (and now have, in Helix) access to a variety of flavors that contain the vibe and responsiveness of their real life counterparts - if having the exact, precise sound of a Dr. Z was an absolute requirement for me, I'd buy a Z. Having the overall (generalized) sound, feel and response of one - in addition to dozens of others in a single package! - floats my boat pretty well. I can get busy wid' it. You look at what some big names have used over the years - lotta folks run a single amp for their whole careers, some are 2 amp switchers, rarely you'll see a 3 amp guy. That's about it for real life rigs. And put a Matchless in the hands of a novice, and he'll figure out a way to make it sound crappy (well, kinda hard to believe, I know. But theoretically....) Point being, the same Engl settings that player A rocks out on might sound like utter cowpie to player B - so exactly WHAT is a "perfect" model? Get me in that sonic park - the rest is up to me. I suppose I "get" the clamor from some corners for more and more amps to be added - and I ain't gonna say that I won't look closely, and appreciatively, at what may come down the line. But jeez - if you can't find something useful in what's already there, what the hell are you looking for...? "Yeah, but for $1500....." Get over it - most of the single amps we're talking about cost that much, some of them 3 or 4 times that. I'd hesitate to even guess how much I've spent on amps (and mods, tubes, etc..) over 40-odd years of doing this - but I've got 10 times that much sitting on the rack in the other room right now. The Helix is a godsend - dripping with vibe and attitude, 20 odd pounds, venue-to-venue consistent sound (at least thru FRFR) - and it ISN'T a expensive vintage piece of gear being subjected to all the hazards of life on the room. What else can you want...?

Actually - yes, you should. I think that's what startled me most when I made the connection - certainly one thing that always stuck in my mind about you was your TONE, you've always had your sound nailed. To suddenly realize "Wait - HE'S using a Helix...?" - for anyone familiar with you that's quite an endorsement (not that I needed one - this things worth every penny...) "Dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria!"

And again....... HEY - Boston area? THOUGHT the name rang a bell - we've met, years back in the Axis days. You've certainly paid your dues, guy - was a big fan back then, lived in the Holliston/Framingham area. Nice to see ya still keepin' the faith.... ....just did a little more digging, see you still have Axis. Good times!!

Very, very nice - tone & playing. Got my shades on, and a Walker on a rock in hand.....

I've been using the L6's with no complaints/problems - nah, they ain't built like a '56 Bel Aire, but they get the job done. I've been thinking that L6 has missed a trick by not releasing a "sidecar" with 2 more exp pedals - I love the feel and throw of the onboard, and c'mon, it would look awesome!

Yah - I'm a gigging pro, and knowing that the mags are there in the event of a modeling failure (go dig up my posts on "heat-vs-battery life") is a big item for me. BTW other than chasing down a warble-during-decay issue (I'm working the problem..) I kinda dig the Standard. Definitely like the neck better than the 69 (I ended up putting an actual Strat neck on mine), it's a little lighter and "snappier" than the JTV.

Much as I've stayed out of this dogfight, I do have to say that I encountered this issue the other day - all strings "green bar/both arrows" and yet something seemed a bit off. Checked against a couple other tuners, and sure enough they showed just a tad of drift on a few strings. Tweaked according to them and was fine, no change on the Helix display. So perhaps a bit of tweaking is in order.....

Yeah, night and day above the HD univibe - the "gulp" at the bottom of each cycle on that was abysmal, with no real control over it. On the Helix, the extra control - particularly lamp bias - has let me dial it in to perfection. I'm a univibe-instead-of-chorus kinda guy, and keep my rate on an expression pedal so I can constantly be tweaking it, keep the ear interested....

Oh, by all means - please get the blues harp posted, I'd like to see what you did there.....

This is what I did - over on the "show us your helix setup" thread it doesn't show on the picture, but I put a riser at the back of the Helix. Not much, maybe 1 1/2 inches or so, but it did help quite a bit, haven't had a mis-step since. Certainly helps that the Helix is built like a tank, might have been concerned with board flex on a lesser unit.

Interesting to note - just over half of the pics to date have a Relay on the board. L6 did ok with that little box.....

I have indeed - played quite a bit of it over the years actually. Always fun, if challenging. Of course, "complicated" is a relative term - but I youtubed Zappatika and it would seem that we have about the same definition. Good luck with "Absolutely" - lemme know when there's something to check out. I'd love to..... ric

Well, when I get a chance I'll strip out all the excess stuff (see picture above) and toss it up - but really, it's pretty much straight as called up, totally white bread. Going thru the screens the only thing on the amps I changed was the "tone" on CH2 - set it to "1", seemed best to my ears. Other than that they're pretty much at default - which is one reason I love this thing, the amps call up ready to go. BTW - we DO multitrack everything live. Currently another band member has the drive, if I find anything worthwhile that shows off the preset I'll get it posted.

Don't do this too often - let's see if this works.... Ok, got it. I always build my own boards - what can I say, I've got a table saw. The POG2 is non-negotiable, nothing else does quite what it does. The other EHX "9" boxes are recent arrivals, I'm still deciding on them, I'd love to get away from all my 13 pin gear for basic alternate textures. They're not bad - will probably be staying. Currently (1st gen build) I'm running the "9's" each in their own loop (damn, I love the Helix....) but I'm not sure that I won't serial them at some point, we'll see. Note the sends coming just after the compressor, and the returns after the amps but before the mod/dly/verb fx. The 2B path is for the Variax acoustic - this patch is covering a lot of ground for the band, I'm probably gonna set one up without the acoustic path so I can use it to better process the 9 boxes. (did I mention I love this thing...?)

Left/Right 1/4" to the Altos, love me my stereo delays - but Left (mono) XLR to the board. Have the XLR's configured to ignore the volume control so I can tweak on stage without messing the sound guy up. Hell, he came up to me after the gig, grinning ear to ear: "I don't think I've ever seen you play like that before..." Me: "You'd have to be standing where I was to get it..." There's no doubt I've found my new "default" setup. Will I whip up little "specialty" presets for certain stuff? I'm sure I will - hell got 1000+ slots to store'em. But come time to just git down to business - I'm on it. Put it this way - after last night I'm seriously considering buying a second Helix, parallel everything into it. I consider myself a pro, never go out the door without backup strategies in place - and this business band charges a fair amount of coin so failure is not an option. Currently for guitar (I also play keys with this band) that backup strategy is - brace yourself - a Pocket Pod. Hey, it's small, fits easily into one of my trunks, and would get me thru a gig in a pinch. But after last night I'm not sure I ever want to be without that sound - ever. Really truly pinky-swear - it was that good. btw - just noted your signature line. RIP Frank - ever day knowing that there won't be a new album from you is a day that's just a little less then it might have been. And thanks to Dweezil - I catch every ZPZ show that comes to town, Frank would be proud....

Wow. Just.....wow. So - got my Helix back at the top of March, knew pretty much right away that I hadn't wasted my money. After a great deal of disappointment with the 500x, the Helix came outta the box and just dialed right in - amps just sounded good when you called them up without all the eq's and "tips" and such that the HD's required. Night and day...... Had some gigs coming up, so I dialed in some presets using my old standby configuration - drive pedals into a Twin, standard mod/delay fx after the amp, nothing fancy. I DO keep path 2B set up as a clean line for Variax acoustics, with a footswitch to swap paths. Again, pretty bread-and-butter stuff. Sounded really good, but I knew there was more in there with some pokin' around. With some time between gigs I began that pokin' - 2204 (yeah!), Dr Z (woomph...) and down the list. Had read a lot of positive comments about the Matchless, so I plugged that into my standard setup - yowza!! Ended up with the Channel 1 and Channel 2 switching into a 4x12 cab (stock cabs) - pretty much all default settings, not even tweaking things much. A little compression coming in, a Tube Drive in front of the amps (with a footswitched "More Drive" option), my usual mod/delay/rev after. Even at the low volume of rehearsals, I had a feeling I was on to something.... Live I run into a couple of Alto TS10's set up in front of me as floor monitors, firing right back at me - let's give the sound guy a chance to actually control things, ok guys? Had my first gig with this configuration last night - this band is a "business" band, typical rock/pop/country covers, and last night was a typical company party type gig. Except that it wasn't - not on my side of the stage, at least... Great Googly Moogly!!! This setup RAGED!! I'm talking fire-breathing, rip roaring, dam bursting, oh-my-god-hang-onto-something tone and responsiveness. In 47 years of playing I've only felt this coming at me a handful of times, typically from someone else's extremely high-end rigs. Ya want clean? Pull up Ch 1 and roll back the guitar just a tad (main axe is a Steinberger GM Pro). 'Lil grind - Ch 2, straight no chaser. First order crunch? Ch1 w/the tube driver. Face melt - Ch2/driver. "Ludicrous Mode"? Ch2/driver/"more drive" switch on. Abso-freakin-lutely nuts - the responsiveness, character, touch, sustain..... Look, we're not a "loud" band by any means - I was running the Altos around noon, ditto for the Helix. But even on the clean channel, I could hit a chord and it would just....bloom....start going into first-order feedback. At the higher gain settings I could hit a note, light up and finish a cig, and that note would still be there, still evolving harmonically. I can't shake this feeling that if I went back to the venue this morning some of those notes would still be hanging there. Yeah - it's like that. I'm...... gobsmacked. Yeah, that's it - gobsmacked. I stand in utter awe of the marvel that is Helix - it's what I've been waiting for for years - and now it's sitting down there at my feet, patiently waiting to be unleashed. Can't believe I'm about to say this - but I'm looking forward to the next boring corporate gig. The poor little drones in the audience have no idea what's happening up on the stage. An unabashed testimonial? You betcha - credit where it's due. Literally a life-changing event... In the meantime - I may just go to church tomorrow.....

I run a POG as an effect loop (two arrows) - it's serial, and all signal goes to/comes from it. I run several of the EHX "9" pedals on my board (C9, Key9, Mel9)- each has it's own send (one arrow), and I return them (again one arrow) to their own returns in a separate path for independent processing. Helix's routing flexibility is remarkable.....

Heh heh - you mean they DON"T have a tech sheet specifiying the Oersted/Gauss field flux interactions? Well lollipop that. (Yah, I typed "lollipop"). ;-) But yeah, I'll probably crank'em down and see if that changes things - if so, start to slowly bring them back up till I see an issue. But if it doesn't ;;;;; where from there? Probably get to it this weekend, I'll post any results.

I've had a 69 for a couple years now, use it enough that I decided to acquire a backup and opted for a Standard. All in all I like it, actually for my hands a slightly better overall axe as well as being a tad lighter. BUT - I notice a tendency for more noticable "warbling" as notes decay, predominately with 12 string and other pitch shifted settings but still present in most model positions. The JTV has never exhibited this, and I'm just wondering if others have noted it - and if so what remedial actions could be taken? FWIW - strung with 10's, action just a bit higher then "low", don't think pickups are too close to the strings (tho how does one really determine this...?) Just idea shopping, here..... Ric

Pretty much as above, try to get the patch levels balanced then use a volpedal for stage level control, always sending the FOH max levels during checks. I put the volpedal after the amp/cab to let me swell full drive into delays - use the guitars vol to vary amp drive.