jpdesroc

A long one.. but very informative ! Update on my 'Quest to play LIVE with a Stadium XL and a vintage Fender Deluxe reverb' . I'm new in the amp modeling pedalboard's needs for good sounding. After many replies from nice Helix users it seamed to me that someone cannot connect a Stadium directly to the front of a vintage Fender amp. Sure ?? Well if someone patient and tenacious (like me) do some technical readings with meters and oscilloscope it can crack this myth.. Here is why: Making some browsing about common Fender amp's tone stack freq response I found that even with its Bass & Treble controls set to 50% These Fender amps have an agressive 'scooped' EQ at around 500hz from the start ! See the attached graph.. So to 'correct' this very curved freq response I connected my Stadium to the Fender NORMAL channel (no 250pf bleed cap on Vol), Then I connected a signal generator to the stadium input #1. I chose an empty pedal line and placed the 10 band graphic EQ. Then I set the output line to 1/4" connector #1 'instrument' type. I swept the input with a 100mv sinus from 50hz to around 10khz. and at each of the 10 band EQ slide values I corrected the measurement I had to the Fender speaker (8 ohms dummy load to spare my ears) so I made all the measurements there. Sweeping the frequencies I saw the correcting curve emerge on the 10 band EQ. The 500-1khz region needed to be boosted because of the Fender EQ scooped nature in that region, then some highs starting from 4khz to 16k also needed to be lowered. Now I know this EQ curve will make my Fender behaving flat in freq response. I saved my EQ block settings for latter uses. To test it I used the factory preset named Double Double (Stevie Ray Vaughn ??), copied it into an empty USER presets section, removed all the pedals but kept the amp/cab blocks.(2 x US Double Black amps). I then put the cab to OFF and placed my 10 band EQ block right after it. And I removed one of the two amps that were in the Double Double original preset, and kept only one (set to clean). See the attached Helix Stadium screen snaphot.. Now you know what ? Setting to OFF both the amp + EQ on the rig line (straight signal) to the ext Fender sounded about the same as putting the amp/EQ back ON ! To conclude: Can someone connect a Stadium XL directly to the front of a vintage Fender amp and play LIVE ? The answer is YES ! Use this EQ settings with your NORMAL channel . Without selling my vintage stuff to buy new amp with SEND/RETURN connectors. BTW, message for vintage Fender amp users: Just use my EQ setup (placed just after the amp model you'll choose, with cab OFF), The Stadium connected to your Fender vibrato channel and you won't have to struggle to get a fine tone while trying new amp/cab models ! And to wrap up; The only distortion pedal that fitted in front of the amp model I used was the Valve Driver because of it has Bass + Treble and a nice clipping sound. MANY of the other overdrive/distortion pedals only had a TONE to tweak the sound which is very limitating (at least to me) and produce a muddy or very MID oriented sound which destroy the amp model sound. Because I 'decyphered' the possible amp to use with a Stadium XL myth I decided to keep it and not return it. Have a nice day.

But it But the HX Effects has no amp/preamp models.. And that is what the Helix family seems to have enhanced.. particularely with the Agoura series. All the dist/overdrive pedals in the HX Effects and the Helix seem to be 'legacy' type,, so very old technology which sound does not cut for me.

When the Helix board came out around 10 years ago I was interested by it with all its features, but found its drives, overdrives, distortion pedals sounded too digital with the lack of what analog distortion pedals had better in my opinion like natural compression .. So I passed my turn on that and bought a real dual distortion pedal (Blackstar Amplification Dept. 10 Dual Drive Pedal). Now after 10 years the Stadium XL came out and I was very excited about how it could have improved. So I checked many Youtube videos on the new features it has now. Very impressive.. Well very impressive for someone who want to use it in a studio or with an external amp LIVE using the 4 wires mode. My goal has always been to use it LIVE with my vintage Fender amp (Deluxe Reverb) but without the 4 wires (no SEND/RETURN connections). Directly connected to the front input (Normal input). So far I spent 3 days tweaking all sort of its available distortion pedals, and many preamp models too. It seems that all the available OD, distortion pedals are the same as 10 years ago.(no changes for them ?) The new agoura amps/cabs sound very well, but again -<< in a studio or with an external amp LIVE using the 4 wires mode. I tried some amp models with no cabs and some preamp models. Even when I put a parametric EQ at the very end of the rig line set flat but with a High rolloff at around 5-8khz to get rid of any harsh highs I'm not able to get a descent 'bitting' crunch sound out of this machine. I looked around the web to find someone who (like me) would uses a Stratocaster with CLEAN, BLUES drive and CRUNCH snapshots but most are using humbuckers and do solos in their demo videos.. The best way to hear a setting is using power chords AND solos. So to make it short I'm stuck and don't know what to do in my investigations. BTW my actual LIVE rig is this: STRATOCASTER -> Cry Baby -> Blackstar Dual Drive -> Ernie Ball Volume pedal -> LINE 6 HX Effects -> 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb ext amp. This setup sounds extremly well ! BUT it weights around 28 lbs with its gig bag !!! That's why I wanted to upgrade it with a Stadium XL only.. Your suggestions are VERY welcomed.

... The legacy amps are also available as preamps only, give that a try, too. When you say 'preamps' you mean any head listed in the amp list but without a cab connected right ?

Ok. Then should I only use the head of an amp model without it's associated cab ? Since my Fender has one itself ? Head used as a distortion pedal ?

I'm about to buy a Helix Stadium XL floor board and want to use it mainly LIVE directly connected to my 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb combo amp. Is-it possible to use amp model instead of distortion pedal models while directly connected to 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb ? Remember, the Fender Deluxe Reverb has no SEND/RETURN connections. I was thinking to choose an amp model without any cab on the stream line in replacement of a distortion pedal model for my LIVE presets. What do you think ?

Can I load old POD 2.0 xxx.L6T presets onto a PODxt LIVE using 'LINE 6 Edit' software ? Thanks !

Is-it possible to use only one Control pedal connected to EXT pedal #1 and use it as a Wah or Vol pedal depending on how far the pedal is pushed down ? I mean: pushing it down like a standard Wah to activate the Wah function then pushing it again to get back to a 'Volume' control type use. I think it's not possible but I ask..

I have a home made pedal board that contains in its main chain the following pedals: Guitar input -> Cry Baby Wah, Blackstar Distortion pedal, Booster, Ernie Ball Volume pedal, LINE6 MM4, LINE6 DL4, Tuner.-> To amp I want to replace all the colored pedals with a Helix HX multi effects to free some space on my board.. Would-it be possible to do so ? I guess I would have to 'insert' the Blackstar + booster pedals in the send/return jack to achieve that ? Thanks for your help !

I saw your old post about LINE6 Floorboard Film Strip.. Did you find one ? Any suppliers ? Thanks.

In the late 90's I used to play with a Flextone II amplifier and was very happy with my 'home made' presets. Now I use a small 20 watts Fender amp with lots of pedals. These pedals include a dual distortion pedal (Blackstar) that I programmed a Blues and a Rock preset for my playing style needs. But I find these distortion presets not as good as the same type of presets I had in my Flextone II. So.. oone year a go I purchased a used Pod2 that I knew I could download my early Flextone presets in. And it worked ! Doing that I remembered how good both my Flextone distortion presets sounded .. Now I'm thinking of replacing my existing Blackstar dual distortion pedal with the Pod2 I have. But... I'd like to know if LINE 6 has some newer pedals I could place my original Flextone presets into. So far both the Flextone and Pod2 used MIDI preset transfer using the LINE6 Edit software. But I saw some LINE6 pedal still use MIDI connectors. So any idea of newer compatible LINE6 pedals ?

My two pedals are legacy ones with no leds around any knobs.. So this method could not work here.. Sorry..

I saw somewhere that there is a way to read back the 5 pots settings of a preset on a LINE6 legacy pedal.. Pedals like DL4 / MM4 / DM4 / FM4 / AM4 Any clue how to do that ? Thanks !

I just bought a Variax 500, installed Workbench + Monkey software, downloaded both last versions,and restored its factory presets. Now I played around all available presets the guitar could give.. Amazing !!!! But one question comes: While playing the sitar preset I noticed the first 3 small strings (E, B, G) don't have the same volume.. the G string sounds around twice as much louder as the B and E.. This seems to be the factory settings I just reinstalled. My question is: Is there a way inside Workbench to adjust individual string volumes on each presets or is it a 'global' setting that would affect ALL the presets ? I read somewhere that only Workbench HD can do different string volume adjustment on each individual presets.. I'd be very disapointed to learn that Workbench (not HD version) only has global string volume adjustments.. Cab someone clarify this ?