cruisinon2

I got Andy Summers'...;)

Only if everyone stops laughing long enough to speak...;)

What, no shoe polish kit or weed whacker? Meh...

I use some pretty savage low and high cuts sometimes. 100Hz or lower, and as low as 4 to 5 KHz on the highs, if necessary. Don't be afraid to chop aggressively if you need to. And if the hi/low cut filters aren't doing it...and sometimes a gentle shelf won't...try an EQ block instead. Graphic if you wanna keep it simple, or parametric if you need to get more precise with the frequency and Q.

The forum is overflowing threads on this topic... just search "FRFR", and you'll be reading for days. A "best" option doesn't exist, however. Any given unit will either suit your needs and preferences, or it won't, and there's only one way to find out. There are numerous options available, as as you can see from the examples above...do a little research, decide on a budget (as the prices on these things vary widely) then try a few out before you buy, if possible. If that's not an option, buy from someplace with a decent return policy in case you don't like it. Running Helix into a "real" guitar amp is also a perfectly viable option... though it will likely take some time for you to familiarize yourself with how to make it work with your particular amp. There are no universal settings that can be applied to everybody's rig... and the experimental phase, I'm afraid is unavoidable. Complex modelers such as Helix typically require a bit of experience before one is comfortable using them.... taking it to a gig straight out of the box rarely ends well for anybody, no matter what you're playing through.

If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what it is either...;)

Shouldn't be an issue... And if you haven't bought anything yet, consider the full Helix, if you can swing the $... you might not "need" all the extra ins and outs, but the scribble strips are tremendously useful, especially live... you don't have to remember what FX you've assigned where, or which snapshot is which, it's all spelled out... plus buying the big brother lets you get Native for only $99, which is huge if you want to do any recording...re-amping is brain-dead simple with Native.

No...without a VDI connection, there is no way for Helix to trigger anything on the Variax, so any Variax related settings in Helix are useless at that point. Auth the 1/4" connection, the guitar is in charge. Wherever the knobs on the guitar are set, that's what you're gonna hear.

No. When using the 1/4" cable, you cannot control anything on the Variax from Helix... no switching of models or tunings, nothing. It all has to be done manually on the guitar. Variax cannot automatically choose any settings itself, even with the VDI connection... the instructions come from Helix, via the VDI cable. Without a VDI cable, there is no communication between the guitar and Helix whatsoever, so nothing you do with the guitar's controls have any impact on settings in Helix. Not sure what you're asking here...Helix controls the Variax, not the other way around. You can't "program" Helix with the Variax, no matter how it's connected.

Look at that... learn something new every day. That's what I get for never editing on the device itself, lol.

The save button and your big toe...other than that, you're outta luck.

Editing on the device maybe, but using HX Edit on a Mac, it only asks about the destination the first time you're saving a patch to a empty slot... thereafter, if you're editing an existing patch, hitting "save" does just that, without asking you where you want it to end up. I hardly ever touch anything on Helix itself, I'm always editing on the laptop...if I had to bend down to tweak things constantly, I'd end up on an operating table... too old for that, lol.

Yup... that's how mine works, too. Took me a while to figure it out, but that is definitely the default behavior. Initially I assumed that if I made changes to a patch, then copied and pasted it into an empty slot WITHOUT saving it first, that it would be transferred to the new location with the changes I had just made...but that ain't what happens. It only copies the last saved version of the patch. Always seemed odd to me. It's a minor gripe, but it would be nice if the changes moved with the patch, leaving the original one in its old location. Just seems more intuitive that way, but I've made my peace with it. Is what it is...

You don't "have" to do anything....I have a number of dual amp patches, and most of them have no volume blocks anywhere. Without seeing exactly what's in your signal chain, it's difficult to say what the problem is. Some amp models chew up more DSP than others, and if you're using stereo blocks for everything, that'll use up more, too. I had plenty of experience with modelers before I got my Helix too, but 15 minutes of knobulating is woefully insufficient to really learn how to use just about any device currently on the market, imho. It's gonna take you a while to get comfortable with it. From the minimal experience I've had fooling aground with a friend's Axe Fx, the Fractal stuff is a different animal, and that's what you're used to...of course you find it easier to use. Give it all little time...

"You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude..." - Walter Sobchek, "The Big Lebowski" ;)

Well lots of things can contribute to not cutting through the mix, but I'd be willing to bet that running in stereo is at least half your problem...with IEMs, headphones, or studio monitors, stereo is awesome. Live, it's a disaster. From weird phase problems, to the strange way that 2 different delays can bounce around the room... things sound different depending on where you're standing. It's inconsistent, and never worth the hassle, imho.

It's not about Helix...it's about physics, and the way sound bounces around a room. The device(s) making the noise are irrelevant. And no, there's no point in using stereo FX blocks if you're feeding a summed mono signal to FOH, you'd just be chewing up extra DSP. Especially the delays...dual or pingpong delays summed to mono are a useless mess. No idea what's in Alex Lifeson's rig, but I seriously doubt his sound guy is sending a hard L/R, true stereo guitar feed out to a stadium crowd... and if he is, it's because he's running a sound system that costs more $ than most of us will make in a lifetime, and everything is positioned "just right".

It takes a while to get used to this stuff... modeling is weird, and with Helix there are so many ways to do things, it isn't always obvious. Rock on!

I know you don't want to, but if you're switching to a different patch anyway, the path of least resistance is to just use the input block to switch to the mags. I find that the Variax, strange animal that it is, really requires it's own bank of patches anyway....I've never had much luck using a patch dialed in with the JTV with any other guitars. Plus, there's so much storage space in Helix, keeping a handful of patches specifically for use with the Variax isn't really a big deal. What you can also do, instead of switching to a separate patch, is run 2 separate paths, one with the input set to "multi", and the other to "Variax mags"... then use snapshots, or the expression pedal to toggle between them. I have several set up this way, with one path for the acoustic models, and the other for the mags... but you could also have two identical paths, except for the input block. Leave one on "multi", and the other on "Variax mags", and you should be able to use that patch with any guitar you want.

Don't want to rain on your parade, but 3 days of working with the POD is just barely scratching the surface. Most of us spent weeks, if not a couple of months at the beginning, experimenting with amp/cab/ mic combinations until we hit on what works for us.... it really isn't a "plug and play" device. And if you do nothing else, ditch Customtone and anybody who wants you to pay for their patches.... it never works. With no idea what other components were in the rig of whomever created a given patch, the guitar, the monitoring method used, etc etc... it's virtually impossible to take anybody else's patch and have it be useful without extensive tweaking. As for tips... if you know what kind of gear the artists you mention use, you can start with the same, or similar models in the POD. The rest is listening and turning knobs until you hear the sound you've got in your head. Shortcuts don't really exist, and the experimental phase is unavoidable....but 3 days is a drop in the bucket. It takes time.

Nothing "has" to be forthcoming. The fact that some consider the default behavior suboptimal, doesn't mean that L6 regards it as a defect or a bug... if they change it, they'd just be trading one group of pi$$ed users for another, who currently like the fuzzes the way they are.

Like everything else discussed around here, this is all subjective, and I have no interest in getting into a debate over the Gospel According To Joe Famous, and the legendary genesis of his "unique tone". I'm sure lots of weird things have been done in pursuit of sonic "magic" over the years...I recall an apocryphal story about EVH wiring some amp to a dimmer switch in his kitchen, don't ask me why. I like his "brown sound" as much as the next guy, but I'm not going down that road either. And perhaps everybody but me has done it, but I've never actually seen anybody dump a Marshall into a Fender, or vice versa. I've seen plenty of guys use a dual mono box to feed the same signal to two amps at the same time and run them in stereo... but a daisy chain? Never seen it done, and I can practically hear the noise and hiss from here. If it's old news to everybody but me, so be it...I have no monopoly on wisdom. However, it just seems like a whole lot more trouble than it's worth. Do what you like, though...I was merely stating an opinion.

2+ years later? Nahhhhhhhh...;)

Stuffing a Corvette engine into a Ford Festiva doesn't make it a sports car...;) Yes, in the modeling world, we can theoretically do just about anything....and if that works for you, then have at it. But if I want a Fender Twin sound, then I want a Fender Twin sound....don't see much point in front-loading it with a Marshall.