miguel_lopez

totally agree... just to add some more spice, I had a composition teacher who was working, literally, all day long with his piano, and by the middle of the week the piano was completely out of tune. So, when he had to work that way, he insisted on the quality of music. He used to say: " if your work(song, symphony, sonata, concerto, arrangement) sounds good in a piano out of tune, then is gonna be amazing when you play it with a professional orchestra totally tuned up" I'm not presuming, but I've played really cheap guitars and "tone processors" and people have been so impressed how technical skills and a good set up make the real magic. Now imagine it with a Helix =) thanx for your reply and also to help in here to understand the complexity of artistry cheerzzz

Hi, thanx for the feedbak, interest, enthusiasm and humor... This is gettin' more and more complex. At the end it's all a matter of creating music. Since all the great songs we are used to listent to are the final product of producing, mixing and mastering result, it is VERY important to focus on objective goals: nuthin' but a good balance between instrumental skills and creative musical expression. Sometimes I really question myself. I don't know if that "brown" sound from eruption was the most important ingredient in that magical "piece of art". Here in my miserable country, where technicians, luthiers, music trainers, art promoters and "artists" are idiots, it's absolutely impossible to think about developing gear, instruments, creativity, art-evolution and spirit. That's why I've always loved Line6, cuz gettin' a real amp demands a professional amp-tech, who at least, has the ability to manage properly the tube set up. There's NO way to experience the whole component-complexity to learn the ART OF AN AMP. That's why I'm missing those "imaginary" Line6 original models which where created by PROFESSIONAL people. At the end, I'm happy with those wird tones because they are inspiring to create different music. And also you may be happy playing Born on the Bayou with some of them. But at the end you may prefer some of the infamous LABELS you are used to, as much as you have had the real experience of a real amp. The challenge in here is to play better, practice objectively and learn the basic elements to produce the best sound from your sources. In my humble case I'm totally concerned about the music, but I just can't forget about the tone... thanx for reading

thanx por the feedback HonestOpinion. I appreciate. Even in youtube the comments have the same issue, I've always pressed many combinations and when I post my humble idea there's again a "wall of text", I'll keep trying =)

I didn't know how to separate the bunch of ideas in my typing, so sorry, I really wanted my text to be ordered in paragraphs but my operating system didn't allowed me. And that's precisely what I was afraid to get so much info in a Wall of text... Sorry

by pure chance, is there a minimal possibility that Line6 upgrade Helix with those original Line6 amps the same way they did to POD and PODHD? I can't live without spinal, purge and other great amp tones they created... thanx for reading Miguel

Line6 is not a brand you can compare with something else. My first Line6 gear was the PODXT bean. Since I am a classical guitar player, the idea of introducing myself into the electric guitar-amp world was great by getting close to LINE6 products (I also had two variax guitars: 500 and 700). My experience with this tiny sucker was so amazing that I could NOT stop updating the following products of Line6. So, being my first impression I can say my favorites are Line6 acoustic 2, Spinal Puppeter and Line6 Purge. As you can see, I have it all: -Ultra sterile cleans(I really love listening nothing but my guitar, that are very dedicated and totally modified -paint, hardware, electronics) with whatever treatment: chorus, compression, delay, reverb and very dedicated eq) -Ultra high gain: and many possibilities of cranking and punching-in-audience's-faces and managing a strong character to get their spinals broken -Dirty-Crunch-Warm-Hot tone between Angus and Paige, something very unique and personal style which took me years to find. I'm not a Marshall-Fender-Vox-Engl-Mesa-ETC... guy. I'm a very serious musician: Classical guitar player 10 years studyng in a fine arts academy, 10 years studying serious composition and nowadays I am a very commited producer. So I don't consider myself an ordinary guitar player. Since the first time I plugged a Variax-POD I found tremendous interesting possibilities of creating something else than whole lotta love-sweet chind o mine-satisfaction-panama-paranoid-etc.. As soon as I turned into the real world, by playing real amps, real pedals, real guitars, I found myself so far from these devices that I ended working with my very HUMBLE PODxt/FBV connected to a very modest PA along with my bandmates also connected via BASS POD and POD PRO(for vocals). There was all that magic we expected to hear. The first time I purchased a pair of professional Studio monitors for flat response I got SO impressed when I played the factory patches programmed in those old LINE6 gear I had, nowadays incluided the PODHD family. This post caught my attention because there's someone who has noticed certain difference between the old and the new gear. Yes, you get used to something that has been around many years you've been working with. I could say something similar happend to me. The reason is because I'm not too much into the new HD amp family, I like so much LINE6 original tones that I don't find that Marshall remastered-Bassman-Deluxe-HiWatt-whattever attractive. So, what I'm doing right now is taking the amp(no cab-AIR) from PODxt into the Helix(cab AIR, now IR) and I just cannot believe the experience I'm having with this combination!!! These are just the greatest tones I've ever heard in my entire life. And I'm not saying the new amps are good; actually they are a dream come true, but definetly are not what I'm up to. My POD-HELI>< combination is something so ALIVE, so bright, tight, strong, powerfull, expressive, magical, MUSICAL, that I can't ask anymore but inspiration. Since PODx3PRO manage digital connections I don't loose any data or quality and I can combine as well so much possibilities that I'm getting incredibly inspired by my favorite tones already found in the POD family. I've been reading in other threads the necessity of the FRFR technology... something I haven't work with yet, but soon I will. It's not an advise, but I can share my thought with you: being a composer I find more important to create great music itself than gear and tone. If you have a nice song you will not have to worry about the tone, the music is gonna be so dominant that the audience are NOT gonna pay particular attention to the amp-guitar-pedaltrain-whatever you are connected to. As many singers I've met I always suggest them to go for vocal lessons. The same in here: go and train yourself in music; that's gonna make a BIG difference, not POD-HELIX-FRACTAL-EVENTIDE-whatever...

Line6 is not a brand you can compare with something else. My first Line6 gear was the PODXT bean. Since I am a classical guitar player, the idea of introducing myself into the electric guitar-amp world was great by getting close to LINE6 products(also I had two variax guitars:500 and 700). My experience with this tiny sucker was so amazing that I could NOT stop updating the following products of Line6. So, being my first impression I can say my favorites are Line6 acoustic 2, Spinal Puppeter and Line6 Purge. As you can see, I have it all: -Ultra sterile cleans(I really love listening nothing but my guitar, that are very dedicated and totally modified -paint, hardware, electronics) with wahaterver treatment: chorus, compression, delay, reverb and very dedicated eq) -Ultra high gain: and many possibilities of cranking and punching-in-audience's-faces and managing a strong character to get their spinals broken -Dirty-Crunch-Warm-Hot tone between Angus and Paige, something very unique and personal style which took me years to find. I'm not a Marshall-Fender-Vox-Eng-Mesa-ETC... guy. I'm a very serious musician: Classical guitar player 10 years studyng in a fine arts academy, 10 years studying serious composition and nowadays I am a very commited producer. So I don't consider myself an ordinary guitar player. Since the first time I plugged a Variax-POD I found tremendous interesting possibilities of creating something else than whole lotta love-sweet chind o mine-satisfaction-panama-paranoid-etc.. As soon as I turned into the real world, by playing real amps, real pedals, real guitars, I found myself so far from these devices that I ended working with my very HUMBLE PODxt/FBV connected to a very modest PA along with my bandmates also connected via BASS POD and POD PRO(for vocals). There was all that magic we expected to hear. The first time I purchased a pair of professional Studio monitors for flat response I got SO impressed when I played the factory patches programmed in those old LINE6 gear I had, nowadays incluided the PODHD family. This post caught my attention because there's someone who has noticed certain difference between the old and the new gear. Yes, you get used to something that has been around many years you've been working with. I could say something similar happend to me. The reason is because I'm not too much into the new HD amp family, I like so much LINE6 original tones that I don't find that Marshall remastered-Bassman-Deluxe-HiWatt-whattever attractive. So, what I'm doing right now is taking the amp(no cab-AIR) into the helix(cab AIR, now IR) and I just cannot believe the experience I'm having with this combination!!! This is just the greatest tones I've ever heard in my entire live. And I'm not saying the new amps are good; actually they are a dream come true, but definetly ar not what I'm up to. My POD-HELI>< combination is something so ALIVE so bright tight strong powerfull expressive magical MUSICAL that I can't ask anymore than inspiration. Since PODx3PRO manage digital connections I don't loose any data or quality and can combine as well so much possibilities that I'm getting incredibly inspired by my favorite tones already found in the POD family. I've been reading in other threads the necessity of the FRFR technology... something I haven't work with yet, but soon I will. It's not an advise, but I can share my thought with you: being a composer I find more important to create great music itself than gear and tone. If you have a nice song you will not have to worry about the tone, the music is gonna be so dominant that the audience are NOT gonna pay particular attention to the amp-guitar-pedaltrain-whatever you are connected to. As many singers I've met I always suggest them to go for vocal lessons. The same in here: go and train yourself in music; that's gonna make a BIG difference, not POD-HELIX-FRACTAL-EVENTIDE-whatever...

My headphone's cable/plug is broken, so I tried another headphones and my Helix is working STEREO just fine.

Hi: So finally Helix got from the San Francisco Guitar Center to Mexico City!!! Thanks to Line 6 for such great GEAR; I'm so impressed and pleased just by unboxing my pedal board. The tones are a dream come true! Being new, maybe I'm missing some step I can't find on the manual or I just can't find out not even intuiltively the way to get my headphones make them sound stereo and enjoy the pan (left-right) sensation... I've been a Line6 user for years, and in PODxt and HD when you are using it as a quiet practicing/editing, you just plug in your (stereo) headphones and instantly you get Left-Right channels already splited; then you hear ping pong delays, autopan, stereo modulers, vibrato-tremolo or just Left or Right assignment configuration respectively. I can't hear a ping pong delay nor a stereo chorus dividing Left-Right waving, there's NO pan at all. My unit is up to date. Thank you very much for reading and I'll appreciate some help in here. Miguel

Thank you Phil actually it makes sense; musicians are obsessive with practice, reharsals, long time song writing... even further: what about music fests? all day long using the same amps, all trademarks must have this authorization from forniture's laws n' stuff to let their invents be part of someone's live without risks... so now I get the idea, let's rock loud n' try to be safe anyway cuz a tube amp is not a toy, I really understand this last part... cheerz!

thank you very much Phil; however, when do you think it's fair enough in order to take care of an amp? and I'm not talking about the components, I know tubes have a "lifetime" but to protect the amp from melting solderings or even worse the transformer or damaging something that can cause a risk of electric shock... If I blow a solid state there's no problem... but not a tube treasure...

I play for several hours a day, about 8 to 10 continuously sometimes I split the playing time, 4 hours in the morning and some other 4 in the night, so I have time enought to get the amp to cool down and turn it on again for a second long time use what would you say is fair enough using a tube amp continuously to turn it off in order to take care of the unit? I have been searching a lot of this subject in the net but there are not forums with this topic, only about pre heat tubes and turn it off but I haven't found anything about the longest time you can use continuously a tube amp... greetings Miguel

thank you very much for your feedback, I've been reading tons of forums about this topic, and there are so many different experiences... 50 or 100 watts running 2x12 greenbacks (50w cab) rocking loud for years with NO problems and even 100w running 4x12 100w cab with greenbacks and broken speakers... It's all a mistery, cuz even before I knew about this matching ohms and watts for amps and cabs I used to play my old pine cab 2x12 8ohms 50 watts to a solid state marshall 100watts and the cab is still rocking pretty well... weird, isn't it? merry xmas!!!

Hi I have a DT50 head amp, which is supposed to match the 4x12 DT50 cab... I have a 2x12 cab with two Celestion Greenbacks 16 ohm 25 watts each one connected in parallel that results in 50watts 8 ohms... question: is my cabinet safe if I connect it to the DT50 head amp? does my cabinet have enough power to match my DT50 head amp? is there a chance DT50 head amp damage my cab? DT50 head amp matches with a DT50 cab 4x12 300 watts at 8 ohms, it's the same as a marshall 50 watts power can run these kind of cabs, so as the superjubilee or the jcm800 50watts version; that's why I'm asking for this question because I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here that may ruin either the amp or the cab... even worse BOTH... thank you Miguel

Hi: I know it's weekend, but anyway I'll try to solve this with a little help from you guys I'm trying to use Monster Cable Acoustic, Jazz and Pro 1000 Instrument models all are signal flow designed the problem is that when I connect my guitar to the instrument input in any of the POD family it makes a very strong noise, but the tone is clear and full, so, when I invert the signal the noise disappear but the tone is quacky and dark it happens the same with all kind of sources: piezo acoustic guitars, electric pick ups and even active systems or whatever I plug this way guitar ---> signal flow---> POD input = noise in signal full tone guitar <--- signal flow <--- POD input = no noise but lack of tone anyone with the same problem? I tested the cables in other guitar amps or processors as BOSS GT-10 and I don't have the noise problem, BUT if I invert the signal flow I have the same lack of tone Please help me Thank you Miguel

thank you very much rewolf!!! I'm reading the forum you shared with me! I was worried if my PODHD may be broken or something but I can see it's a factory design situation in here concernig to all of us! thank you very much!

thank you very very much for your help and suggestions, for what I see is that this new PODHD500 unit had the same XLR output level a little weak, but the situation in here to me it is because if you have the other POD family and run their XLR outputs you may notice a huge difference of volume, I found this out because I record at home my work with TRS balanced inputs and I have always worked with PODxt and X3pro family connected with their balanced outputs and S/PDIF digital connections too, I may do the same with PODHD500 too, what really concerns me is that the unbalanced connections in the PODHD500 are tremendously stronger than the XLR, last night I connected a TRS cable (those planetwaves incluided with the old Variax 700) and they had more output than regular mono(monster for guitar) cables, so I'll try a mixer intended for mics and see what happens, but I still think XLR connections are a little weak and I was worried if my PODHD500 may be broken... Thank you very much!!!

hi: are PODHD500 1/4 outputs balanced? I've connected trs cables into a balanced connection and it sounds louder than 1/4 mono cables as unbalanced connections... anyone with the same experience? since my PODHD500 XLR outputs are not sounding strong enough I've been trying other alternatives as the described above thanx

hi: anybody with the same problem? xlr balanced output in my POD HD500 is not strong enough, is not loud, the unbalanced outputs sound stronger S/PDIF otput is great also my PODxt guitar, bass and x3 pro sounds far better from their balanced output than my POD HD500 what am I missing? is there a menu to control XLR levels for output? thanx!!!

Hi: how much percent of bypass level would be the real bypass when you use PODxt family as an effects processor unit? (turning off the amp models) I've been wondering this question for years as a POD xt family user... when you want to use PODxt as effects unit so as fx loop in an amp or while using other sources, since line6 has one of the most outstanding effects collection quality, you turn off the amp models and then you have the option of a bypass level control which is always factory preset in 78%... so I've been wondering if this is the equivalent to the truebypass level simulation (since Line6 PODxt are NOT true-bypass units) I really would like to know if there is a universal percent level of bypass as a real bypass so I can use PODxt family(I have them all) not only as an effect unit but sometimes I want to use the input connecting a guitar, then use my choice of effect chains so I can run the PODxt output into the preamp or input's amp or any recording system's input (balanced or unbalanced) I need to know this information because I don't want the level bypass be lack of level or exceded so I can use it in the way I describe I know many of you would say or suggest me to play it until it clips, but I'm MORE than sure that Line6 has this knowledge for certain orientation thank you very much if you have experienced this question and has got answers and solutions regards!!! Miguel Lopez

Hi: how much percent of bypass level would be the real bypass when you use PODxt family as an effects processor unit? (turning off the amp models) I've been wondering this question for years as a POD xt family user... when you want to use PODxt as effects unit so as fx loop in an amp or while using other sources, since line6 has one of the most outstanding effects collection quality, you turn off the amp models and then you have the option of a bypass level control which is always factory preset in 78%... so I've been wondering if this is the equivalent to the truebypass level simulation (since Line6 PODxt are NOT true-bypass units) I really would like to know if there is a universal percent level of bypass as a real bypass so I can use PODxt family(I have them all) not only as an effect unit but sometimes I want to use the input connecting a guitar, then use my choice of effect chains so I can run the PODxt output into the preamp or input's amp or any recording system's input (balanced or unbalanced) I need to know this information because I don't want the level bypass be lack of level or exceded so I can use it in the way I describe I know many of you would say or suggest me to play it until it clips, but I'm MORE than sure that Line6 has this knowledge for certain orientation thank you very much if you have experienced this question and has got answers and solutions regards!!! Miguel Lopez