raskolnikov38

Sadly, my Helix has stopped working and I've been told by the folks at tech support to send it in for repairs. I figured I'd start a thread to let people know what kind of process to expect if they're from outside the US (Canada, in my case) and their Helix needs to be serviced. The problem with my Helix is that it no longer has any input signal which, after trying various troubleshooting options, seems to be a hardware issue. This comes after only 13 months of bedroom use: practicing and some recording as well. I've never used it live, never knocked it around, never given it any reason to act up but here I am anyway, and I'm not happy about it. Of course, I understand that things break but it's a tough pill to swallow one month after the warranty expires. The Helix costs just over $2200 here in Canada so it's not a purchase that's taken lightly. I hemmed and hawed over buying a digital modeller and chose the Helix because of the great reviews it got. It hasn't disappointed. I love the sounds I've been able to get out of this thing. But all the glowing reviews in the world are meaningless if the darned thing can't take more than a year's worth of use. Anyway, the process in Canada seems to be that you take it back to Long & McQuade and then they send it out to be fixed. As of yet I have no idea how long this will take or how much it will cost. I suppose this tale of mine is meant for those who are from outside the US worried about repairs and for those wondering about the long-term durability of this expensive piece of gear. A cautionary tale, maybe. I'll update this post as soon as I know more.

I tried all of these things and I'm still not getting any signal. It's definitely the Helix because everything works fine when I plug into my tube amp.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did a factory reset and reinstalled 2.60. Nothing. The tuner isn't even getting a signal.

Not sure if this is a firmware issue or a hardware issue but I upgraded to 2.60 last week and now I have absolutely no input signal on my Helix. It worked fine until yesterday. I suppose that qualifies as a major bug. Of course my warranty ran out last month. Hope it's nothing serious or else I'm stuck with a (in Canada, after taxes) $2300 brick, which I can ill afford.

Thanks, I'll try that for sure.

I guess the question boils down to this: why on earth can't I change CC#s when I change snapshots? I notice that the values will change when I select a different snapshot but not the CC#s.

The Voodoo Lab switcher allows you to choose CCs but makes no mention of values (I chose CCs 80, 81, 82, 83 to correspond to Channels 1,2,3, and 4 respectively). I have very limited understanding of MIDI so I really don't know what a value or CC# is.

Hey guys, my issue is this: I need to get my Helix to tell my Voodoo Lab control switcher to switch channels on my mesa boogie Roadster. I'm currently using the Helix with the four cable method. What i'd like to be able to do is change channels per snapshot within a preset. For example, snapshot 1 is clean on channel 1, snapshot 2 is grit on channel 2, etc. What I'm doing is going into the command center and using the instant messages to try to accomplish this. If I select the 1st lightning bolt and set the CC# to 80 it should turn on channel 1 via the control switcher. I've had limited success in doing this. Next, I go into snapshot 2 and then click command center and select the next lightning bolt and set a new CC# for that and save. I do the same thing for the next two snapshots (I've got the top switches set to stompbox mode). What I cannot understand is why the Helix doesn't allow you to select the first lightning bolt only for snapshot 1, the second lightning bolt only for snapshot 2, etc., just as you would do for effects and other parameters. It appears as though the Helix is sending all 4 messages at once no matter what snapshot I'm in. The result is that I cannot get it to work with the Voodoo Lab Control Switcher and it's absolutely essential that I figure out how to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm beyond frustrated.