cruisinon2

No. It's physics, which hasn't changed much since the Variax 300 was released. ;) Videos clips are just shy of useless, as you have no idea what was actually done to record the tone you're hearing. Just because there's a Marshall head and cabinet sitting next to the guy in the video, doesn't mean he's pumping anything through it. What makes an acoustic guitar sound like what it is, is the fact that it produces a much greater range of frequencies than an electric guitar does, period....a range that electric guitar speakers simply cannot produce. You can tinker all day long with presets and EQ, and you'll get nowhere. If the speaker can't produce it, you're not gonna hear it. Good headphones (emphasis on 'good'), studio monitors, PA speakers and monitor wedges will give you what you're looking for. Or you could shell out big $$ for some of the FRFR guitar cabinets that are being offered now if you have the need for something that looks like a guitar amp....but imho, they're awfully pricey for what you're getting. There are plenty of less expensive options that do the exact same thing.

Amen, brother! Tell it! 😂

You need an FRFR speaker solution if you want the acoustic models to sound anything approaching authentic. Guitar amps/cabs have a significantly narrower frequency response, insufficient for acoustic guitar. Even a real acoustic plugged into an electric guitar amp is not going to sound like what it is.

Well I can only guess of course, but given that they didn't even bother with an on/off switch on the POD'S, perhaps L6 doesn't bother doing things that way? Who knows....

If you get enough face-lifts, eventually you have to cross your legs to blink. ;) At some point it becomes self-defeating to keep trying to retrofit existing tech...and as with everything else, that point generally coincides with day that people stop buying a device in large enough numbers to justify continuing to build them.

This guy is long gone...

Yup. The universe likes equilibrium. I don't expect to see anything else in this price range from L6 until some other sub-$1K unit starts stealing the POD'S thunder.

Well I'm no electrician, but how on earth would Helix possibly know whether such a device was in use or not? It's either getting power from the outlet it's plugged into, or it isn't. Can't imagine it would make any difference one way or the other.

The OP hadn't posted anything in 2 1/2 years...he's long gone. Don't hold your breath.

Amen. This is a time-honored political tradition. Create a nearly endless set of rules and regulations that accomplish little beyond giving the impression that "something is being done about the problem". Never mind that it's just shy of completely ineffectual...because efficacy isn't the goal anyway. The idea is merely to maintain the appearance that they're not delusional half-wits, come election time.

That's a good point. Why replace it with something else at a similar price point if they don't have to? R&D ain't cheap...

That is not a "blow out" price. It's been $500 for years on end, since long before Helix was released...got mine almost 4 years ago at exactly that price. Still got the receipt...don't ask me why. Being a platform that's 6+ years old, and one that hasn't seen a significant upgrade in quite a while now, I wouldn't hold my breath for any updates.

Moving from an amp to all-modeling is usually not simple...there's a learning curve for pretty much everybody. How are you monitoring the sound? Through your amp, studio monitors, headphones? Each will produce a VERY different tone with the same patch. And the approach you use to set up your patches will be quite different depending on how you're listening. FRFR speakers, studio monitors and headphones all have very different frequency responses, compared to a guitar cabinet.

Don't get stuck on the idea that you have to use the default combinations though....if it sounds good, it is good. Doesn't much matter if the pairing "makes sense".

Ugh. It's truly inspiring when our benevolent despots tackle the really important issues of our time...like keeping the world safe from the senseless proliferation of rosewood fretboards. Awesome. Another life saved. Your tax dollars (well £'s, I suppose) at work. ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

Yup. Tone is in the mosaic. ;) Personally, I find that if there's too many of the little blue tiles, the reverb sounds a bit "tinny"...and don't even get me started on where and how it was quarried. ;) Side note: there's actually a place called the Crotch Island Granite Quarry, in Maine. Can't imagine why Crotch Island isn't a vacation hotspot...must smell great during the summer months.

Lol...yup. I had some that were so bad, they actually "rang", for lack of a better term. When you can pick out the fundamental frequency of your light bulbs from across the room, it's time to upgrade. ;)

Amen.

Nothing nefarious about it. Self-interest is not a crime, and it certainly isn't peculiar to L6. It's called business. Every company in the world plays by the same set of rules....and at the end of the day, the bean counters determine which course of action makes sense. And no company, no matter how pure their motives, and or how eloquently written their "customer-centric" mission statement may be...NONE of them will shoot themselves in the foot financially in pursuit of a fool's errand. Nor should they. Nothing would ever get accomplished that way. My only gripe about the way the whole thing was handled, was the constant harping on "causes" and "fixes" that were ridiculous at face value, but nevertheless repeatedly trotted out as Gospel. As I said before...some things can't be fixed. Sometimes there is no good explanation as to "why" things happen. Technology has growing pains, and nobody knows everything yet. But just occasionally, when the answer is "We don't know", it would be refreshing to hear it said out loud...instead of blaming it on the tides, airline food, or the hole in the ozone (is that still there? It was the trendy thing to be terrified of 25 years ago, but you never hear about it anymore ;) ).

Well if you know before the conversation even starts that you can't talk about it anyway, why bother saying anything at all? You'll accomplish nothing but irritating anyone with an IQ bigger than their shoe size. "I know something you don't know" is for 10 year-olds on a playground.

This back and forth "riddle me this, Batman" routine accomplishes nothing. That response is as boiler-plate as it gets. It dangles the hope of a future miracle for affected users, while also conveniently allowing them to say "we told you we weren't working on it anymore" whenever the issue pops up. Or would you care to enlighten us all as to the "simple" explanation that I'm apparently too dim to figure out?

I suppose you're right. 3) Too costly to fix the affected guitars. If the failure rate is below a certain threshold, replacing the duds is cheaper than hemorrhaging money in pursuit of a fix...especially if the fix isn't 100%. Problems that are cheap and easy to solve, and that have a genuinely workable solution, cease to be problems. Complicated and prohibitively expensive issues will persist until we're all 6 feet under (or until somebody figures out how to do it for less money)....that's "Warranty 101". 4) They know what the problem is, but a fix simply isn't possible for some reason ...which wouldn't even be anyone's "fault". Sometimes the universe just works that way. Anything else?

There isn't one...at least nothing universal that can be magically applied to any and all afflicted instruments. L6 formally announced in that epic length thread over on the Variax forum, that they were no longer devoting resources to the "plink" issue. To me, this supports one of two theories that I think are equally likely: 1) There is no one single cause, but rather a combination of factors that contribute to it. Factors which are present in some guitars but not others, and not necessarily the exact same factors from one affected instrument to the next...making a universal fix all but impossible. Or 2) They haven't a clue why it happens, which would hinder a cure for obvious reasons. Take your pick...lol

Yup. Infuriating. It's why I abandoned Floyds a long time ago. One should not need tools on hand to tune a guitar.

The crappy cable that comes with the guitar will never survive gigging. Sitting immobile in a chair at home? Sure...but just about anybody will shred that thing trying to use it live. Possible exceptions made for boring, mannequin-like players completely lacking in stage presence. ;)