cruisinon2

Forget what I said about the Input Z parameter... it only affects the 1/4" input. I had forgotten that...Haven't been using the Variax as much lately. But you can still fiddle around with the VDI patches and try and dial in what you're looking for. Cable capacitance affects high-end frequency roll-off. You can experiment with EQ and mimic what you're hearing with the 1/4", but yes...it can get to be a pain in the arse.

Or you just have to spend more time tweaking the patches to your liking with the VDI connection... often the difference you're hearing is the result of the capacitance of your 1/4" cable. When using the VDI there are a number of options to choose from to mimic cables with varying amounts of resistance, and this can be set one a per patch basis. You might try fooling around with those settings a bit before abandoning the VDI connection. EDIT: strike all of that. The input z parameter only affects the 1/4 input, not the VDI, so it won't help you. My bad...

Well they're still making the guitars, so to quit making the batteries would be the stupidest financial decision since parents started giving credit cards to infantilized 18 yr old college students....that being said, how long they'll be out of stock is anyone's guess.

Doesn't matter...sooner or later someone "official" will chime in and warn you never to use both outputs simultaneously. Now it's entirely possible that you could do it for years on end without damaging anything. Its also possible that they're right and doing so will curve your spine and make the Allies lose the war...nobody knows for sure, but the official advice has always been "don't do that". Proceed at your own risk...

Well I don't get invited to L6 R&D meetings, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess "never in a million years". It's straight- up economics. Fanned fret guitars are about as tiny a market share as it gets...and Variax guitars are not exactly a household name as it is. Pair them together and you've got a financial albatross that will collect dust in stock rooms even longer than the current ones do.

The thread is 2 1/2 years old... you didn't hijack it. You've resuscitated it. ;)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah! Have you EVER used a modeler? ANY modeler? I've got news for you...NOTHING will ever sound "perfect" right out of the box...high gain or not. In fact, the high gain tones are generally just as dreadful, if not worse than anything else you'll find in a factory preset. WORK is actually required to get it sounding the way you want. Instant gratification simply doesn't exist with any of these products, and it never will... but that doesn't mean they're all garbage. It does mean you'll have to use your ears and your head, however. Welcome to this week's episode of "Wildly Unrealistic Expectations", I'm your host Ain't Gonnahappen...;)

You can forget all about whether or not it's possible to stuff Helix models into the POD (which it isn't), because it is 100% irrelevant anyway. Why on earth would L6 do that? They'd be voluntarily choosing to kill the entire platform by suddenly offering a much cheaper way to upgrade. They'd never sell another Helix. It's financial suicide. If you want Helix modeling, you'll have to fork over the cash, same as everybody else.

No idea where they are, but I do know this: Don't believe anything a retailer says... not even "hello". All retailers are full of $hit, 24/7/365. They don't actually know when anything is going to arrive, no matter what they tell you. Various times over the years I've been told some in-demand "Product X" won't arrive for months, only to have it show up days later. Half the time they don't even know what they have in the building already, unless they can actually see the item you're asking for from where they're standing. Mostly they just want you off the phone or out of the store, UNLESS a sale is imminent. Then they're your best friend... In the case of orders for which you've left a deposit but the item has yet to arrive, they care even less because that sale is technically over, and God only knows what fairy tale they'll concoct. But regardless, no matter who's fault it is, or where the merchandise is currently spending it's weekends, it's extraordinarily unlikely that anyone who actually knows the answer will be sharing it here.

We'll need some more info to narrow it down. What exactly do you mean by "lost"? Do you have a custom tuning that you saved to the guitar that's disappearing, do all the tunings cease to function, or is it some other symptom? Are you controlling it with a POD, Helix, etc?

The reason it hasn't been solved is that no one has the faintest idea what the problem actually is, or IF it's even the same cause in all cases. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Problems with simple, easily identifiable universal causes get fixed. Mysteries, or problems with multiple causes that can vary from one user to the next, don't. EVERY bit of "evidence" presented to date, not to mention the various "fixes", have been an even mix of guesswork, wishful thinking, and as far as remedies are concerned... dumb luck.

Well it seems that the spec sheet actually is giving you RMS, as opposed to peak power. That's unusual these days...if that thing is really putting out 560 watts of constant power into an 8 ohm load, then yes, you're running the risk of blowing speakers of they can only handle 100 watts. My rule of thumb has always been to make sure that the max wattage the speakers can handle should be equal to or greater than the amp's output. And it's best to make sure the impedance ratings match, that way there's no guesswork. To the best of my knowledge, there's no such thing as an amp that "senses" the speaker's load and adjusts output accordingly (though I suppose anything is possible). Without am impedance selector switch, you can still provide a bigger load than the amp is expecting without blowing anything up, but the amp will have to work harder at any given volume and you lose some headroom. I ran an 8 ohm amp into a 16 ohm cab for years without issue, but I never had a problem being heard over the drummer. What you don't want to do is go the other way...8 ohm amp into a 4 ohm cab risks damage.

Amen to that. The problem with demo videos, particularly those done by company reps or retailers, is that they go to great lengths to make it seem as though it's absurdly easy to dial in the sounds you have in your head. After all, they are selling a product. Telling you "This is the finest modeler the world has ever seen, but it may pi$$ you off for the first 3 weeks" is not an effective sales pitch. But 9/10 times, the initial user experience is far less forgiving than the demo. They're familiar with the product long before the camera starts rolling, so it ain't their first rodeo. For the rest of us mere mortals, the learning curve tends to be considerably longer (and generally laced with assorted profanity and some initial buyer's remorse ;) )...

If you just got it and haven't created any of your own patches yet, then you've got nothing to lose by doing a factory reset. While you're at it, check to see if the most recent firmware is in there, too.

You don't mention how you're amplifying Helix, but success with the acoustic models begins and ends with what you're plaything through. If it's not some kind of FRFR speaker(s), it's a losing battle. And no, you can't split piezo outputs like that one the Variax. You can vary individual string volumes for any one model...but you can't have the three low strings running through one model, and the treble strings through another. What you can do is blend the mag pickups and models...you might try messing around with that and seeing what you come up with.

Maybe, but they've only existed in the wild for a couple of months. Whatever the number is, there are far fewer of them out there than JTV's.

The Laney is a tube head, and the ART is SS, right? Tube watts and SS watts ain't the same. I've played through 15 watt tube amps that could melt concrete, and 200 watt SS heads that were just barely enough to be audible over a drummer. Plus the spec sheets usually lie. Most give you peak power, not RMS...it's misleading, but it makes for a more impressive sales pitch. 560 watts sounds like it would provide enough headroom for you, and the egos of 3 more guitarists ;), but it isn't as much as it seems. Then there's impedance mismatch to consider...depends on how that cab is actually wired. If the amp is expecting an 8 ohm load, and you dump it into a 16 ohm cabinet, you're losing a lot of power.

Would it be nice? Sure, but don't hold your breath. FORD will sell you a truck, but they're not gonna teach you how to drive it...good or bad, that's how the cookie crumbles.

Again, this is all subjective. There are plenty of us who are perfectly happy with the POD's cab sims...but there's no magic bullet for "fixing" any of the unit's perceived shortcomings. The POD will either suit your needs or it won't, and nobody can answer that for you...nor can anyone predict what tweaks you will find useful. This will be true for ANY modeler under the sun. Likewise, there are a million ways to build your patches to achieve the results you're looking for. Global EQ is generally regarded as a fine-tuning mechanism for the room you're playing in, rather than a primary tool for building patches, but if applying certain corrections globally works for you, so be it. There's no "wrong" way to do it.

Excessive heat destroys everything. I wouldn't let any gear cook in direct sunlight for hours at a time. Buy it a hat...;)

The guy making those cables disappeared from the forums years ago...he's not gonna reply.

You're asking a question that is entirely subjective. Most modelers can be made to sound good if you're willing to put the time in to tweak them to suit your needs...but asking anyone to guess if you'd prefer one device (or combination of devices) over another is a waste of time. No one can answer that question but you.

I actively discourage students who want to play lefty... at the beginning, when you have no skills, and haven't the faintest idea what you're doing anyway, why start with a handicap? Just learn to play righty. Being left handed or right handed really doesn't matter. My mother has been a classical guitarist for 60-ish years...she's left handed, but has played righty since day one. Of course if you really want to spend the rest of your life being irritated because you can never find a guitar you want... by all means, learn to play lefty. ;)

Go to a guitar show. There are numerous talented builders out there who would be able to accomplish this Herculean task in their sleep. I'm not claiming to be one of them, but they exist.

We'll is not exactly theoretical physics...if you're really determined to find out the magic number, raise the pickups until you have a problem. Then back them off gradually until problem goes away. POOF! That's as close as they can get. But don't tell anyone... Lord only knows what horrors might descend upon us all, should info this dangerous get out in the open.