cruisinon2

For alt tunings, yes... the Digitech Drop is quite a capable pedal, though it can't differentiate between individual strings, so you can't do open tunings, you can only drop the whole guitar by a given interval. But as for modeled guitars, as far as I know, Variax is it. Even if there is something else, it won't solve your wireless problem, unless you're content to make whatever changes you need on the fly on the instrument itself. Half the point of the Helix compatibility is so that you can both power the guitar, and change models and tunings at will with just the click of a footswitch... it works very well... just means using a cable

The Variax world is a love it or hate it thing... you'll either take to it and think it's awesome, or you won't and you'll go back to the rest of your guitarsenal. It's a capable tool if you put the time in... Piezo outputs tend to vary...that means that you'll likely be balancing individual string volumes of whatever models you end up using. Some models seem to be affected by this more than others, don't ask me why. Also worth noting that if you intend to control everything on the Variax from Helix, it means being tethered to the VDI cable. If you're used to going wireless live, going back to a cable might be more annoying than you think. Drove me nuts... just my 2 cents.

Well I'm certainly no physicist...but logic tells me that high amplitude sounds waves can't magically knock a wifi signal out of the air. However, you do mention your position relative to the amp when the problem occurs... and given that the connection for this device relies on a clear line of sight between transmitter and receiver, my guess is that this where your problem lies. If facing your amp means that you've turned away from the PodGo, then you are now the obstacle between the transmitter and the receiver, which could explain the drop outs.

The single coils are nice... noisy as f@&$, though... Love it or hate, you just described every passive pickup on earth (to varying degrees), unless equipped with a treble bleed...

The whole worid is out of everything from shoelaces to Chevy's...hurry up and wait.

Amen... don't even know what Mac OS I'm running, and couldn't care less. Maybe one day Apple will stop destroying all 3rd party software with every update... till then don't update unless you really enjoy frustration and profanity, lol.

Ok I'll bite...feedback for what?

Round and round we go... lol

You can ignore the Fletcher/Munson curve if you want, but the fact is that it is very likely a large contributing factor to your problem. And I assure you that your friend's Kemper is not some mystical device, strangely immune to the effect that volume has on the human perception of loudness of different frequency ranges. It doesn't "just work" by accident... he dialed it in that way. You've made no mention of what you're listening through at home (or at what volume) to dial in your sounds. But I promise you that if you're using headphones and/ or studio monitors at comfy living room volume, then Fletcher- Munson is indeed an issue... and a big one. Worse would be running Helix through a traditional guitar amp at home, and then expecting those tones to translate to stage volume, through a PA... because then you've got two issues, completely different output devices and a large volume discrepancy. Your live tones must be dialed in through similar speakers (read: FRFR) to what you're playing through live, and at or as close as possible to stage volume. Otherwise you will wallow in $hitty tone limbo forever. There are no shortcuts or universal settings that will be a guaranteed solution for you. Only your ears can tell you when you're done, and there's zero guarantee that that what works for me, will work for you. No, you're not stupid... you just don't know what you're doing yet. Nobody does when they first start fooling around with modelers. But the connections are not your problem... all they do is deliver a signal from A to B. The issue is learning to dial in sounds for a specific purpose. And if you can create sounds that you like through whatever you're using at home under those conditions, then you can do it live too. The process is no different, but your EQ curve will be...you just have to do it. But expecting one to translate to the other without making the necessary EQ tweaks is...unfortunately for us all... a fantasy, and will forever be a losing battle.

SPOILER ALERT: There will be new hardware in a few months... there always is. If not from Line 6, then it'll be somebody else...and maybe that thing will suit your needs even better than Helix, whatever it turns out to be... or the next thing after that...ad on infinitum. Tech evolves faster than most can keep with, financially... unless you're filthy rich and can afford to buy one of everything that comes down the pike, finding a new "favorite whatever" every 6 months. But for the rest of us rabble, we eventually have to pick something, and stick with it for a while. So do that, and don't bother lamenting over missing out on "the next big thing", because nothing retains that title long enough to matter anymore.... otherwise you'll never buy anything.

Yup... because you're hearing two pitches, a whole step apart. Makes it pretty much useless. I will say though, that for tuning the whole guitar a half step down, the alt tunings work quite well. Just as good as my Digitech Drop pedal, and without the slight latency that pedal has. But for the drop tunings, it's a no-go... unless you're playing crystal clean arpeggiated stuff with no palm muting... then they're usable.

Yup... and it's not likely to change. I had the same problem early on and did a great deal of troubleshooting to figure out what was going on... there's still a thread around here describing it in gory detail, but it's years old and you'll hafta dig to find it. The problem is crosstalk between the piezo saddles. When you palm mute, even if you're not playing anything on the low E string, your hand is still in contact with it, as well as the one (or more) other strings. That "bridge" for lack of a better term, results in the low E piezo saddle picking up some of the vibrations of the strings that are being played. In a drop tuning, that note(s) is then down tuned accordingly... along with the signal from the string that is actually being played which of course is not being altered. So for example if you're using drop D alt tuning and mute on the open A string, you'll hear the A as well as a G, because the low E piezo can "hear" the A string's vibrations, (albeit at a lower volume). The result is mud. High gain makes it worse. The drop tunings are of very limited utility. The reason that other alt tunings work ok is that when all the strings are being detuned by the same interval, then crosstalk is irrelevant... but when some strings are being detuned and others aren't, you've got a problem. The tech simply isn't perfect. The only real fix is to alter your playing technique so that you're not touching the low E string at all when palm muting on other strings... obviously this is easier said than done. Personally, I find it next to impossible in real world playing scenarios. As such I gave up on the drop tunings early on. You can prove this to yourself if you go into Workbench and turn the A string piezo volume to zero... then do some palm muting on the A string while using the drop D alt tuning. Common sense tells you that you'd hear nothing at all coming through the amp with the volume of that string compete off... but you will hear it, and what you're hearing is the signal coming through adjacent low E piezo... and it'll be detuned. The mag pickup has nothing to do with this issue. Removing it won't help.

Two words: avoiding liability. It is what it is. If you want to continue to use an otherwise good product, then just bite the bullet and get the new version of the transmitter. Early reports from the wild indicate that it's on par with the pre- "update" battery life. Is this a $hitty situation? Yes. Should it cost you more money to continue to use a neutered product because some genius decided to charge their battery forever and burned the house down? No... but sometimes life is... well let's just call it "less than ideal". This is one of those times...

I'm afraid you'll have to play all your Rage covers the old fashioned way...;)

How is the crowd at Walt's Trout Hut at 9 am on a Tuesday? ;)

Honestly, it's not significantly different than changing any other Strat- style pickguard. Just don't have at it like a crazed gorilla on meth, and everything will be fine....

Lmao...we have a winner! This is easily in the top 5 funniest things I've ever seen around here...;)

Never seen a limited edition in person, but 99.997% of the world's guitars have the serial number somewhere on the headstock...

If your cat could send you a text... it wouldn't.

Duly noted...lol. There, see? I laughed. Out loud, no less. Best Tuesday ever! Lmao... And look at that! Now I'm laughing my a$$ off. What progress I've made in just one post... and all thanks to you. I'm eternally grateful. May the force be with you...;)

So I'm no fun because Line 6 has a secretive MO, and I acknowledged that openly? So be it. I am curious about on thing, though... if I were to pretend that this were not the case, would that qualify for a "fun" upgrade? I'm flexible...

Here's your hint: They're not gonna tell you exactly what's in it, nor will they tell you when it's coming... beyond staggering vagueness like "soon" or "in the spring", which have little to no meaning at all...

Except for one thing...my dogs live better than I do, lol

Lol... assuming that this is true, then we've all been chasing our tails for decades. "Ah...I seem to have stumbled into the 'Time Well Spent Ward' " - Dr Bob Kelso ;)

In a perfect world, sure... in practice though, that almost never happens. EQ is your friend, and the overwhelming likelihood is that most patches you create will require at least some additional EQ beyond what you can accomplish with the amp block's tone controls. As indicated above, if you're piggybacking more than one speaker emulation on top of each other, the results will never be anything but mud.