cruisinon2

Just as there are digital models of 28 (or so) different guitars in there, on the 89 they chose to include a model of the actual mag pickups that they're equipped with. Why I don't know...always seemed a little redundant to me.

The saddles are only different because it's a Floyd...they're still piezos, and plink is a piezo problem, not model-related. Any Variax could potentially have an issue with it. And I'm pretty sure I've seen more than one complaint about an 89...just luck of the draw, and there's only one way to find out.

Clearly you never took "Economics 231: Fleecing the Lazy With a Clear Conscience", in college...;)

You're missing the point. Listening to the video through the same monitors your Helix is running through is irrelevant. You could run them both through the sound system at Madison Square Garden, or God's personal headphones (Beats, right? ;) ) and it still won't matter because you don't have his guitar, fingers, or the monitors he was listening through when he created the patch. Matching one setting after another on Helix, when everything else in the equation is different, will never get you any closer to his tone, there are simply too many variables. You have to work with what you've got. Experimentation is the ONLY way too get there. Try different combinations of amp models, cabs, and mics...not necessarily the same ones he claims to use in the video. You may find it easier to get that tone with another combination. And, as has been said above, if you're looking for the "amp in a room" sound that you're probably used to from traditional guitar amps, then modeling may not be for you. The whole point is to emulate what you'd hear on a recording, or sitting in a studio control room: amp + speaker cabinet + mic...NOT what you hear sitting 3 feet from a tube amp. It's a different "philosophy", and requires a different approach to tone shaping. There's an adjustment period for everybody.

Yup. There is no downloadable, push-button "tonal nirvana"...don't care how fancy these boxes get.

+1 on the Fernandez. Back in my music store jockey days, we carried those. Everybody grabbed at least one. Wholesale price wasn't much more than $200 or maybe $250, if I recall. Great guitars for the money.

Advertising is...well, it's advertising. Just because I go out and buy the same bike Valentino Rossi has, doesn't mean I can ride the way he does. This is no different. And as others have noted, there's a list of variables a mile long. Your rig ain't his, and vice versa. In fact, the Helix is probably the only thing you two have in common. You could download the exact patch he used, and you've got my personal guarantee that it will not sound identical in your hands. It's impossible. Plus, there's no telling how much additional processing/EQ/other "special sauce" was applied to that track before it was loosed on unsuspecting YouTubers...even if the claim is "no other processing", I remain skeptical. Experimenting with the options that Helix has available is the only way too find tones that work for you...

Good news! I've spotted your mistake...;)

Yup..."send selected". Doesn't matter though. It's "sent", but not "saved". Day in/day out for years....always the same. If that's the worst malfunction I get with this thing, I consider it a win.

Some "official" proclamations notwithstanding, action adjustments on a Variax are no more mystifying than on any other guitar. Yes, too much fret buzz might introduce some unwanted artifacts when using the models, but then again fret-buzz generally sucks anyway, and should be minimized on any instrument if you want it to play well. Lowering the action shouldn't be a big deal as long as the strings aren't sitting on the frets. If you like your action super-low, you'll probably have to give the neck a bit more relief to compensate...which is also no more of an ordeal on a Variax than on anything else. If you're comfortable doing set-ups yourself, then you should have no difficulty with this one.

Lol. Well not for me it doesn't (sigh...). That friggin' asterisk stays there till I save. If I switch to another patch without doing so, then go back to the original one, any changes I made are lost to the ether...only made that mistake once or twice in the early goings. Guess I got myself a good old fashioned malfunction. Oh well, it's been at least 3 years now, and several firmware updates. It ain't getting fixed at this point. I can live with it...

Guess I'm missing something then. "Send selected" from HD Edit will do just that...sends any changes I've made, but they're not stored until I hit "save" on the POD itself. So either I've had a bug since day 1, or there's another option somewhere that I'm not aware of. Anything is possible, I suppose...

Weird...though it seems unlikely that it's a blown speaker. Cycling the power wouldn't remedy that. Only thing I can thing to try would be connecting the POD with a 1/4" cable instead of the L6 Link, and see if you can reproduce the problem that way. Good luck.

Or just learn to use the thing and create them yourself...what you hear in the demo video is NEVER going to sound identical on your end anyway. It's basically impossible. Far too many variables. So if you're gonna have to tweak anyway, might as well save your money...

Yes, just remember to hit "save" on the POD itself once you're satisfied with the tone...sending the changes over from HD Edit to the POD doesn't actually store them there. You'll see that the little asterisk that appears on the POD's display when changes are made will still be there after you hit "send" from inside HD EDIT. Don't power it off until you save.

We could discuss that for the next 6 months... You could use a traditional guitar amp (combo or head/cabinet) that has an FX loop, any FRFR powered speaker(s) (which is my personal choice), a pair of studio monitors, or flat response studio quality headphones...and there are 7000 options in each category. It really depends on what you intend to do with it. Playing only at home, gigging, recording to a DAW, etc etc.

He didn't. It's all speculation...but one does have to wonder why his first stop wasn't the place he left the guitar. After 2 or 3 ignored phone calls, I'd appear in person to find out what's going on. This forum ain't gonna help you in this scenario.

That's not what he means. He's talking about a dual-path patch. Path A for the acoustic with no amp model, and Path B with an amp model for a crunch tone, using the mag pickups. Assign them both to the expression pedal, and morph between them. I do it all the time.

Blasphemer!!!!! ;)

I stand corrected, lol. I still wouldn't lick the frets...;)

I dunno about that. That pic looks like the back of a Pacifica headstock to me...

Don't lick the frets...;)

That debate will rage forever. Some will tell you they hear little to no difference at all, others will vilify one or the other as unusable for their chosen application. Stand by for soliloquies on A/D and D/A conversion... Personally, I couldn't care less. I hate batteries, and the VDI also allows for control of the guitar from the POD/Helix/whatever. Don't think I've ever plugged it in with the 1/4"... Actually, I take that back. If I'm recording acoustic models, I get really nice results just plugging straight into my interface, and adding just a little EQ and reverb in the DAW.

OK, so let's say that this is actually what happened, despite the fact that we're all just guessing. What is L6 supposed to do? Send out a team of goons to "investigate", and/or reclaim some 3rd party's property? It simply isn't their problem. They've got no control over a privately owned business, beyond revoking their "authorized service center" status, which means little enough as it is...roughly on par with taking away their library card. Wouldn't be the first time a business went belly-up and the owner abandoned both ship and consequences...the world is full of scammers. What can he do? Option 1: Go all "Thunderdome". Scour the ends of the earth, laying waste to everything in his path until he locates his guitar. Satisfying in a righteous indignation sort of way, but will likely create bigger problems. Option 2: If the place actually folded up the tents and disappeared in the dead of night, file a police report. Perhaps not as much fun as the scorched earth, 80's Mel Gibson approach, but he'll stay out of jail himself... Option 3: Cut his losses, and proceed to Ibanez...or any other pointy, shred-tastic guitar of his choosing ;)

There's no way to know. Behind Wall Street and "waste management", retail is the shadiest business in the world. Returned items get passed off as new all the time. Or they've just been collecting dust in some warehouse for years, and they want to be rid of them...both equally likely scenarios as far as I'm concerned.