cruisinon2

Creating a backup file of all your patches in HX Edit is always Step 1 before updating the firmware... if you didn't do that, then anything you created yourself is gone and you're out of luck. Factory presets can always be reinstalled, but without backups for ones that you built yourself, you can't get them back.

Open a support ticket...this is a user forum, so unfortunately nobody here can help you.

In a word, no... You've not mentioned a genre, or exactly what kind of tone you're looking for..."clean" means different things to different players. Regardless, with nothing but a power amp boosting a raw instrument signal you're not going to get much. The unaltered sound of any electric guitar is never particularly breathtaking on its own no matter what kind of guitar it is, and relying on an EQ block alone to create whatever it is you're looking for is a recipe for failure. Tone comes from an amp model, not an EQ. Pick an amp (or a preamp model if you prefer), start tinkering, and leave the EQ till the end, and use it sparingly. EQ is for fine tuning your "platform" once you have it, but ifyou rely too heavily on it, it's super easy to ruin an otherwise good tone.

Variax has gone the way of the dodo... and if demand (or rather the lack thereof) is any indication, they ain't coming back. It's always been a niche product, albeit with a loyal cult following. The masses just aren't interested...

Lol... so because a new product release is not imminent, therefore everyone at L6 has been just sitting around with their thumbs up their a$$es? That's fascinating logic. To conclude that because nothing new is available today, therefore L6 has abandoned the market to their competitors, is truly astonishing...it's also ridiculous, juvenile, and short-sighted, but I digress. Just for my own morbid curiosity though, do you have a similar reaction when the supermarket runs out of broccoli? SPOILER ALERT: It's not because all the farmers decided to play in the dirt instead of growing $hit. Helix was in development for years prior to it's release... do you think somebody just snaps their fingers and a product magically hits the shelves? Hell, beta testing alone takes months, and that's not even the hard part. Ask some of L6 guys over on TGP if you like, and they'll tell you the same. Just because they're not inviting you to the R&D meetings or screaming about a Helix successor from the rooftops, doesn't mean they don't have anything in the pipeline. Whatever is coming next has likely been in development for quite some time already. It's a crying shame we can't all just pitch a fit and have everything we want miraculously appear, but life's rough. In through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and slow. Everything's gonna be OK... ;)

The Helix platform is nearly a decade old... and I could be wrong, but I'd say the odds of any significant overhauls like those you're suggesting will not be forthcoming at this point. Any major UI or functionality changes will likely be reserved for whatever the next flagship device(s) will be. No matter how good something was when it was "the next big thing", continuing to spend resources duct taping endless upgrades to it just doesn't make sense... at some point you're putting a silk hat on a pig.

Harrumph! We really need either a soapbox, or an "I'm outta here"/ angry storm-off emoji around here. It would save so much space. ;)

Given that all the Variax stuff has been discontinued, you could spend the rest of your days searching for the OEM springs and never find them... fortunately, these things are pretty universal. Any springs for similar bridge saddles should suffice.

With any floating bridge if you want to avoid these kind of issues, it's best to change strings one at a time so that most of the tension is still maintained on the springs. With what you've done already, your intonation is likely out of whack... if you're not familiar with basic guitar set-ups, take it to someone who is... from your description there three things are pretty much certain at this juncture: 1) Multiple things probably need adjusting at this point, 2)Trying to describe it all in here will take forever, and 3) If you don't know what you're doing, you're gonna make things worse.

This should be stamped on the outside of the box... it would save some folks a bunch of money, and countless repetitive forum discussions. ;)

Just get the Focusrite. I've had at least 3 generations of them now, they all worked great. They usually come with access to a slew of plugins that are either free, or at a steep discount from all sorts of companies they partner with.

It's a computer, and computers do weird $hit...that being said, whether it's something specific that you're doing to trigger it or not, I certainly wouldn't call it "normal". New firmware and/or a factory reset might solve the problem, or it might not. Either way, those are really the only options you have at your disposal. Give it a try and see if the issue persists. If not, problem solved....but if it still misbehaves then it's time for a service ticket.

You're not wrong, per se. But this is a "Don't hate the playa, hate the game" situation... If you think that any other company out there will care any more about your desire to use stuff forever, then you're in for a lifetime of disappointment...and the only thing that's gonna change is the name of the company you're currently mad at. Neural DSP is not any more interested in selling you one device that you'll use for the rest of your days than anybody else is. That's not how things work in a disposable economy. Planned obsolescence is real, and it's been with us for quite some time, now. It really doesn't matter what sort of product we're talking about, or who's making it. The pace at which technology currently evolves guarantees that it simply is not feasible to keep any one device that relies on connectivity with other 3rd party stuff, updated and fully functional in perpetuity. It's a costly, and ultimately a losing battle. Virtually everything becomes obsolete in short order, regardless of the profit motive. The real problem is that we're forging ahead too fast for our own good, on multiple fronts. It's the reason that even life's bare essentials are now driving folks into poverty. It sucks, and it's a problem in dire need of a solution...but L6 didn't cause it. They just make toys for us to use, and if they refuse to play in the same sandbox as everybody else, they'd just disappear too...

We could get it to admonish you whenever you hit a wrong note...bonus points if they include a retractable wooden ruler that smacks you on the knuckles for that vintage Catholic school nun vibe...;)

The technical term for this is "busted"...;) See also: Curtains FUBAR The Big Sleep Shuffled Off This Mortal Coil There's nothing you can do for that...it's a hardware issue. If you're still within the return window, get a replacement or a refund. If not, prepare for the service ticket/authorized service center/shipping back to the L6 Mothership dance...A one, and a two, and a three...;)