cruisinon2

Well you're not "wrong" per se, but there are lots of things that look swell on paper, but in practice turn out to be utterly ridiculous. Playing at comfy living room volume through studio monitors and trying to "accommodate" for hi's and lows that aren't there, is 100% guesswork. What you're proposing is effectively trying to figure out what kind of terrible low- volume tone will translate to awesomeness at gig volume. You could spend weeks guessing what kind of awfulness will turn out to be just right when you crank it up, but why would you do that to yourself? You could drive to work backwards and still get there, but it will take 3x as long, and you'll probably hit stuff...

Studio monitors are not immune to the effects of the Fletcher-Munson curve... every speaker in the world will sound different at bedroom vs. stage volume...no matter what you're using to create your tones. If you really want to know what it's gonna sound like live, you have to tweak as close to stage volume as possible, through those same speakers you'll have on stage. Using a different set of speakers AND listening at very different volumes, you're now twice removed from what's happening live...it's unlikely to give you better results than what you've already got.

Twitter Syndrome ;). Now that much of the populace is accustomed to blurting out every unfiltered thought that comes into their heads, often being instantly greeted by a chorus of affirmative responses from fellow seekers of external validation, they often forget that being tactful is still a useful skill, even from behind a keyboard...

Lmao...😂

I believe this is a question for Frank Lloyd Wright...;)

Alt tuning weirdness is often an intonation issue. If you just swapped string gauges, the intonation (among other things) likely needs adjusting.

Comb the JTV threads related to "piezo plink", "clang tone", etc... palm muting with high gain can be a problem. Some guitars do it, some don't. If I were you, I'd send it back and get another one, because you're essentially on your own, as there is no universal remedy (see the 2nd link below). The first link has enough reading material for a PhD thesis... http://line6.com/support/topic/6764-do-you-have-the-same-problem-with-6th-string/page-23?do=findComment&comment=219651 http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/guitars/james-tyler-variax-guitars/clang-tone-on-variax-guitars-r863 As for the lack of "bite" to the models, most Variax guitars require considerable tweaking with the Workbench software to get them sounding the way you'd expect. Piezo outputs can vary considerably, and at a minimum you can expect to have to tinker with individual string volumes. The videos make it look easy....reality tends to be somewhat less forgiving, however...and I like mine. You just have to be prepared to spend a fair amount of time fiddling with the various options and EQing your amp a bit differently. Piezos and funky modeling algorithms don't behave like magnetic pickups. It's a different ballgame.

Helix might be able to pull that off with snapshots... not entirely sure. Post it in the Helix forum, somebody will chime in.

I'm assuming you're using a POD with your Variax, unless I've misunderstood the question. If so, each patch can only trigger one Variax model... so for example, if you've saved a patch and set it to force the Strat model's bridge pickup, and you wish to change to the bridge/middle combo without switching manually, you'd need to set up another patch that's identical except for other Variax model that you want to trigger. It can be done, but you may find that the much-maligned audio drop-out that always accompanies a patch change might not work while trying to record...just depends on the parts you're playing, and whether or not that gap will screw up the track.

Assuming that it's out of warranty already, and as long as you know your way around a soldering iron, you've got nothing to lose...

But suppose the Porsche had buttons on the radio that you didn't like, taking up valuable real estate, etc etc...surely all current Porsche owners would be enduring many a sleepless night, wondering if you'd go with the Maserati or the Audi A8 instead...people need to know these things. ;)

Only your ears can answer this question. What I think (or anyone else for that matter) is irrelevant. Basing your decision to sell all your other gear on random internet-sourced opinions is almost guaranteed to not end well. With this kind of gear, it's all trial and error...heavy on the "error". Find a way to try one before you ditch everything else you own.

You can overwrite any patch, anywhere with anything you like, no matter what set list it's in. There's nothing special about the bank that houses the Variax-specific patches...it's just where the developers put them. You can go through the grunt work of replacing each patch in that set list with an empty one if you must, but it's just unnecessary busywork. If you want, you can rename the set list in HD Edit so it doesn't say "Variax" anymore, and just store whatever you want in there.

What sort of reaction did you expect? Because you have no use for the tap-tempo feature, therefore no one else should either? Everybody's got an opinion, and you're as entitled to yours as anyone else...there are any number of products that I've decided not to purchase because of some feature it did or didn't have. But if I lived to be 1000, it would never occur to me to go out of my way to announce to a bunch of strangers who already own the thing "I'm not buying this item because_______". It accomplishes nothing, and comes across as deliberately confrontational. The truth is, no one cares what ANYONE here spends their money on, or why. And presenting your case as if it were the only opinion worth having just adds insult to injury, and won't endear you to anybody.

https://www.sweetwater.com/

No experience with it, but it's easy enough to test...it'll either make noise or it won't.

I've gone down this road before with various pieces of gear...it's a coin toss. You're just as likely to love it as hate it. And if you hate it you're screwed, and you'll be kicking yourself in the a$$ for selling everything else. Wait until you can afford the Helix, and spend some time (a lot of time) getting used to it, and compare it to what you're used to, BEFORE you sell anything. Especially if you're in the middle of a project, you're just asking for trouble. New gear + new project = chaos, more often than not...just my 2 cents.

The Nigel-ism wasn't the OP...he went from asking for the "saddest tone" to offering up as a reference the most depressing tune in the world this side of "Dust In The Wind"...though an odd request to be sure, I think he's serious, lol.

Can't you guys spot a troll by now? He may as well have said he won't buy anything from L6 until the units come in hot pink with green polka dots, to match his custom Flying V...

By that logic, Gibson should re-brand the Les Paul... who wants a guitar named after a dead guy? ;)

Sometimes? Lol... if it were only sometimes, Tony Robbins would be out of a job. ;)

No snapshots in the POD. You could assign all 8 FX blocks to one footswitch if you wanted to...though I personally can't envision a scenario where that'd be necessary, but as always ymmv. As far as dual amp patches with two discrete signal chains, you can toggle between them with the expression pedal assigned to the amp block's channel volume...toe down for Path A, heel down for Path B, or vice versa.

The USB dongle can be an insufferable pain in the a$$...aside from going through the motions again, I don't have much to offer. However, 9/10 times the "ghost note" phenomenon with the alt tunings is due to hearing the guitar acoustically, along with the altered note through whatever amp/monitoring method you're using. Even monitoring with headphones, it's a whole lot easier to hear the guitar acoustically than you think...you're right on top of the strings, and its a short trip to your ears. Try recording direct into a DAW with an alt tuning, and listen to the playback. If you don't hear the ghost notes in the playback (and I'll bet money that you won't), then there's nothing wrong with the guitar. More than a few of us have been fooled this way initially.

A project like this requires time, patience, and skill. I have all but three of those, lol. ;) Nice job...

Lol...yep, here it is straight from their website: "Pickups are individually calibrated, and sets are precision-balanced, so you get even string-to-string output." http://graphtech.com/products/brands/ghost/ghost-pickups---guitar Oh well, nobody's perfect. ;) At least you got it working...