njglover

It's especially bad on bass, which is really frustrating because that is where I most want synth sounds. My band plays video game inspired music, so it would be super useful if it worked...

Mine is headed out the door today. I requested that they let me know what they ended up doing to it to fix it, assuming that they do fix it. And, to be quite honest, if they refuse to admit there is a problem or fix what is clearly there, then it might be time for some of these forum goers to look into the BBB as I'm pretty sure knowingly selling a defective product and refusing to fix it is grounds for some legal action. But I am hoping it does not come to that.

I never use the editor except to backup and upgrade, so that's definitely not it.

I think I'm going to try to RMA it and see if I have better luck than some of the others with having Line 6 repair it. If that doesn't work, then I will resort to purchasing parts myself.

Contacted Sweetwater about parts (since the Line 6 site says that is proper procedure), their tech put me in touch with someone at Line 6. That person spoke to their tech, who seems quite adamant that I should send it in. I am somewhat less optimistic now since this thread seems to suggest that is a dead end. On the other hand, I did hear back in a separate ticket and individual piezo elements can be ordered for the guitar here: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/234088-Line-6-11-00-0010. I'm going to see how things play out with the tech first, but if anyone is tempted to swap out piezos, there is the link. The bridge can be special ordered from them as well, part number is 50-04-0068.

Most of the time, I just run in-ears out of the headphone out on the Helix. That way I can hear myself just fine and everyone else is loud enough to be heard anyway. There are usually monitors at the venues we play so the others can hear me well enough (usually, though a lot of these sound guys and sound systems are pretty bad). If we are playing somewhere where the only mic vocals and kick (or less), I will bring my K10 and stick it pretty far back so that everyone can hear me.

Talked to my bandmate today, he says he thinks he may actually not have changed the strings, so he is probably not yet using the DRs. At any rate, in my experience, the Pure Blues are not THAT much mellower anyway. I also tested out his patches and found that they did not get rid of the sound. And, finally, it occurs to me that I have tested the Variax with two different cables on my end and it is unlikely that his cable is changing much. With all that in mind, this suggests that the difference is somewhere in the hardware, some minor variance. I removed the bridge from the guitar (not fun, by the way) and tightened all the various things that could be tightened, took things apart and put them back together... there was nothing that seemed noticeably "wrong" or out of place. So... I dunno. There is definitely SOMEthing different, but until I can, say, swap bridges, it will be hard to test much. It's also impossible to remove the bridge without completely ruining my setup, so I have to do a new setup each time, which I am not terribly excited about. Nevertheless, I am trying to see what my options are for obtaining a new piezo element or entirely new bridge. I had considered swapping the A piezo into the E piezo, but didn't do so yet. I know people have suggested switching the wires, but I don't recall if there has been any talk of switching the whole piezo element.

I had him send me his settings and am going to pick up a couple different sets of strings (I like the Pure Blues, so those, but also some coated strings just out of curiosity). I can easily borrow his cable, too, so I will see if I can do that. That tests all the easy variables. While I've got the strings off, I'm going to take a closer look at the bridge, too. While I am no longer ruling out software, it seems to me that two theoretically identical guitars with actually identical software ought to have the same problem, but they don't.

Interesting update on my end. My bandmate has the exact same model I do, JTV89 (without the Floyd). Mine makes the sound, his does not. We are running the same firmware and I have tested his guitar running through my Helix, so that brings the only variables down to: The strings. He is using DR Pure Blues 10s, I am using the D'addario 10s that came on the guitar. His strings are pure nickel, therefore mellower. The models. I am basically using stock models whereas he has made a lot of changes to his. The cable. He is not using the cable that came with the Variax but a longer, thicker one. Some minuscule difference in the components of the guitars. I will have to do some further testing. Maybe he will let me borrow his guitar and swap parts back and forth :p

OMG bass drives! Variax support! A new synth! AHHHHHH.

This is the best reason to own both. Even with a pretty beastly computer, latency on the Helix is still lower. Just transfer all my settings over, record the dry tracks (while monitoring on Helix for real-time wet signal monitoring), and stick the plugin on it for later tweaking. So easy.

It does, thank you. It has sounded like the piezo was also being moved. I suppose it is possible that some filtering is being done (I have not completed discounted this, but Line 6 has so far been adamant that no filtering of this sort is being done, so I am taking them at their word), but it is also possible that there is some different circuitry connected to the 6th string than the 5th string and that the particular components chosen are themselves the source of the noise. That is what I am proposing, and maybe you think I am crazy, but I've known some buzzy capacitors in my time, so I don't think it's any crazier than some of the conspiracy theories being bandied about here.

It does not underscore your point. It suggests that something about that piezo and the wires connected to it might be causing the noise. In all these tests, I would bet that no one has bothered examining the electronics themselves for unwanted vibrations. I know that I have not yet done so, but will eventually. The clarification above only furthers my point - if all things about the piezo are moved to a different string and the new string now produces the noise, logic dictates that it is not the string but rather those components connected to the string that are generating the noise. This also suggests that it is not the nut or the way the string is seated in the saddle as both would change by moving it to another string. Perhaps there is a specific component in the circuitry for the 6th string that is different from the other strings and is producing the noise. Again, further testing is needed. You can think I'm crazy if you want, but I am not the only one who stuffs socks in the trem cavity to keep sympathetic vibrations out.

You do realize that the piezo and thereby any wires connected to the piezo are physically connected to the string, right?

I have stopped following this thread because, frankly, it is cancerous. But I agree that it is not a setup issue, at least not a standard setup issue. What I mean is that filing the nut slot, changing the action, or adjusting pickup height are not going to fix the problem. Filing the saddle does not seem to me like it will help much, either. However, I also firmly believe that saying it is a problem with the firmware is ridiculous. Obviously, I do not have access to everything that went on with the coding, but the notion that there is some magical fix happening on all the other strings that they just didn't apply to the 6th string seems ridiculous. If it was that simple, they would have fixed it. The noise itself is mechanical in nature - that is, the sound would not be there if it was not being produced by the interaction of the string and another hardware component. Neither the piezo nor the firmware is adding this noise. I suppose it is possible that it could be fixed in the firmware, but it seems that Line 6 is not interested in helping with that. I can't say I blame them because, again, there isn't a PROBLEM with the firmware, the problem is that the string is producing that sound in the first place and it is made worse by the fact that piezos are more sensitive than magnetics to these sorts of sounds. Certain models will amplify the problem because the guitar they are modeling accentuates those frequencies. At any rate, I will continue to look for solutions, though, since I mostly use the magnetics (because I do a lot of chugging and the magnetics are quite good anyway), it has taken a bit of a backseat for me. My current suspicion is that coated or pure nickel strings would reduce the problem somewhat and that pure steel strings would amplify it, but I do not have sets on hand to try.

I'm not terribly worried about it - it is a minor inconvenience. Just stating so that people know. I am confident it will eventually be fixed.

In case you were curious, 2.12 does not fix this bug, or at least it did not fix it for me.

As an update, I have heard back from Line 6. Seems they are able to replicate the bug and should be getting it fixed in a future update: "We have found and logged this bug. It will most likely be fixed with the next firmware update. Thanks for your patience and letting us know of the bug."

Well, I should clarify. The extent to which it bothers me depends on what I am doing. I primarily use the magnetic pickups, but there are a few songs where I either want a different tone (Strat, typically) or I want the Helix to switch between a neck pickup and a bridge pickup for me. For these, it has not proven to be much of a problem. But with certain amps/settings, boy that low E sounds horrible. It's manageable if I palm mute a bit, but there's almost nothing melodic about it otherwise. Still, more convenient than bringing two guitars to a show.

Looked closer at the saddle and did a bit of filing, but didn't take it very far as a) I am wary of ruining the piezo and b) it seems to me that the string is fitting in there correctly. I am now wondering if using coated strings (or even just older/deader strings) might mute some of the resonance, but am finding that it really doesn't bother me enough to keep hunting it down.

As I suspected, putting foam behind the nut does not fix the issue, but it does silence the annoying ringing that I wanted it to silence, so I still recommend doing that. I recommend using something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BQMMVI/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=7J1CA4WZOYI7&coliid=I1YB6REP0V9K8P&psc=1 (you can find it at most home improvement stores, too). It has adhesive on one side so you can stick it to the headstock and leave it there. Works really well. Additionally, muting the strings behind the bridge doesn't solve the issue, as others have noted. I do not believe it is an issue with the nut slots, either, as nut slot issues only appear on open strings. This leads me to conclude it is an issue with the contact between the string and the saddle, as I suspected, so when I have some free time I will start going at that with abrasive cord and/or files.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of it, and I'm really loving the Variax. I still have to mess with it a bit - right now, I set one of the models to just be the magnetics (by the way, not as straightforward as you might think - I ended up dropping output for it 6 dB and rolling the tone knob to 7.2 to get it to sound right), so I can use a controller to switch between, say, a Les Paul neck pickup and then back to the magnetics (which are set to bridge in this case). It works, but it might be better to do this by switching between two paths, one that is magnetics through a dirty sound and the other that is modeling through a clean sound. I suppose it'll depend on the patch and what I want to do, but switching between pickups is the main reason I would want to do that sort of switching. For patches where I only want to use the magnetics, I suppose it will make more sense to set the input block to magnetics instead of regular Variax. Very excited about all the possibilities...

From my experience with other wireless systems, a "no cable tone" option is really not desirable, which is probably why they did not make it an option. It is way too bright and doesn't sound like a normal wired guitar tone at all. They picked 10 feet because it is the sweet spot between natural sound and tone loss.

I know I already submitted the ticket, but it seems that it's actually the whole screen that freezes up, not just icons. For example, I went to edit the snapshot name, but the screen would not switch to the menu until I hit the mode button again. Very odd.

It seems like the key is to have the input block set to Variax (or Variax magnetics, I suppose) for every preset instead of multi, that way I can specify which preset does which. I'll have to experiment with the options as you described. I wonder if I could set one model to just be magnetics, then I could switch to it that way, too... So many possibilities!