cruisinon2

If that's an icon, then I'm the Sultan of Brunei... if you zoom in, it looks like a bunch of bad pixels to me. Just my 2 cents, though.

Well you're really comparing apples and oranges. The Powercab does lots of things that a typical FRFR speaker does not, namely the IR loading capability (which can free up DSP in the Helix itself), and the on-board cabinet modeling (that's somehow different than using an IR, don't ask me how) which allows for more of the traditional "amp in the room" feel that lots of players lament losing when going digital. So that's what you're paying for...whether or not those features are something you need/ want is entirely up to you.

This right here is all that needs to be said on this topic... the magical shortcut that we'd all love to have ain't coming, folks. Actually doing the work... which is tweaking your patches with the intended output (headphones, PA, whatever), and at the the volume at which you intend to use them...is the closest thing to a "shortcut" that there will ever be. Perception is entirely subjective, and FAR from universal, and that's the way it will always be...making any one-size-fits-all algorithm to solve this problem a pipe dream.

Ain't nothing free, folks. Can't really fault a company for milking a product for all its worth. Everybody does... it's called business. If there's no money coming in, then there's no money to spend designing all these fancy toys that everyone delights in b1tching about.

This should be emblazoned across the front of the Helix box, preferably accompanied by a slap in the face and a stern "Read this!" from the FedEx guy as you're signing for it. It would save tons of grief, not to mention wasted money on someone else's presets. ;)

No. See the post above.

Because somewhere out there some undisclosed number of units melted while left charging, and now every single one that's been sold is a potential liability. Like it or not, this is the chosen "solution". Access to the older firmware will never be provided.

You're hearing the guitar acoustically. Yes, I'm serious. If you're not turned up loud enough when using alt tunings it will sound awful because what's coming from your speakers are not the same pitches that reach your ears directly from the guitar itself. Dissonance is inevitable. Crank up enough, and you won't hear it anymore.

It's a virtual certainty that what everybody has already mentioned is exactly what's happening... unless the volume is really cranked, we always hear the guitar acoustically when we play. It's impossible not to... the strings are inches from your ears. Most of the time this is easily ignored in favor of whatever is coming out of the speakers. However, when the notes that are coming from the speakers are no longer the same as what you're hearing acoustically, dissonance is inevitable... particularly at close intervals like a 1/2 step. Turn it up, and the problem will go away.

There are two certainties here: 1) Helix is a computer. 2) Computers do weird $hit. If it's working now, then it's working...I wouldn't burn too many calories trying to figure out what caused the hiccup. You could spend the rest of your days doing that, and never find an answer.

I was quite taken with mine initially, and it's still a useful tool, but it doesn't see as much playing time these days. I've gotten too used to playing wireless with all my other guitars, and going back to a tether just sucks. Yeah, I could go wireless and use the battery... but losing the control that the VDI provides makes it just another guitar if I can't change models or tunings on the fly with a footswitch. No it won't, lol... something better will come along sooner or later, that we'll all just "have to get". It's the nature of the beast...

Unless you delete it after the fact, the patch is always going to exist on the LT, no matter where else you save a copy. You can then write over that same slot on the LT if you wish, but then you can't actually use the patch that you just went to the trouble of creating, because it only exists on your computer. What good is that? Don't worry, theres plenty of storage space on the hardware...you're not gonna run out.

The electronics are the only thing that I'd think twice about tinkering with, unless you've got a ton of experience. Otherwise, a Variax behaves exactly like any other guitar on earth... setup adjustments (bridge, truss rod, nut, whatever), replacing a pickguard, swapping out the neck, etc etc are no more difficult on a Variax than they are for any other solid body electric guitar in the known universe. As far as all that stuff is concerned, anything that you wouldn't think twice about doing to a Strat, LP, or Ibanez can be safely done to JTV... no drama, no PhD level inside knowledge beyond that which would be required to perform the same task on any other instrument. It's only a fragile, "untouchable" item if you want it to be... no need to tiptoe around the thing.

It's not hard to do. Swapping out the pickguard is one of the first things I did with my 69. Frequent depictions notwithstanding, you're not repairing the Hubble telescope or performing a kidney transplant. Furthermore, you're not actually "doing" anything to the electronics beyond relocating them onto a virtually identical piece of plastic. Everything under there is self- contained, and it's not hard to tell what goes where. Patience, common sense, a screwdriver, and 20 minutes of your time are all that is required... perhaps less than 20 minutes if you can operate a screwdriver without stabbing yourself. ;) If you're still not comfortable doing it yourself, that's fine. Any competent tech with an IQ above room temperature will be able to manage just fine... but why spend money if you don't have to?

Ahh... the guitarist's Holy Grail. I've been looking for that for 30 years now, lol. Let me know if you find it. ;) Is not really a question of "can they do it? ", but rather can they do it at a price that people are willing to pay? The JTV's debuted at ~$1400 ten years ago. Now I like my 69, but I didn't pay that price, and frankly, I wouldn't. It's a perfectly serviceable instrument (once I swapped out the neck for a Warmoth), but having had it for 7 or 8 years now and knowing what it's good at, and what it's not, I wouldn't buy another one unless some of the deficiencies with the tech side have been dealt with effectively.... piezo quack, and some of the alt tuning limitations, etc. Time will tell what the next Variax generation will look like. We'll see...

I recently picked up the limited run charcoal/cherry fade SE 24... it's an absolute steal for $800. My only real gripe is the lack of stainless frets, but that's hard to find on a sub-$1K guitar anyway, and the $5000 PRS's don't have them either, so it is what it is... been playing this thing nonstop since I got it.

Tell them to put it on my tab...;)

Inside and outside a mix are two wildly different worlds...a guitar tone that sounds magnificent amidst drums, bass, vocals, etc etc, can easily sound like a wounded moose on its own. Don't even bother comparing them... at any volume. It's a waste of time.

That's the last link in the chain... once it becomes the law of the land and everything you have can be harvested "legally" with a mouse click, we're all royally f*cked. It's coming... less than 20 years is my guess.

Control.

Because sometimes there are problem frequencies that you need to target with more precision than the bass, mids, and treble knobs on the amp model allow. Modelers are not amps, and FRFR speakers and/or headphones are not guitar cabinets... and neither will respond exactly like their real- world counterparts. To use modelers and FRFR outputs effectively requires that you think more like a recording engineer than a guitar player... and that means developing an understanding of EQ, and how various different types of mics (and their placement) affect guitar tone. Don't fixate on anybody else's settings, recommendations, or recipes for success. Just because something works for me, doesn't guarantee that it'll work for you... and neither one of us is "right" or "wrong". In the end, you have to experiment. A LOT. Turn knobs until it sounds good... where any one particular knob lands is wholly irrelevant. Start with some YouTube Helix tutorials... there are dozens, if not hundreds to choose from. I recommend Jason Sadites' channel. Learn to build a simple patch, and really understand what the various tools at your disposal actually do... it's the only way. Merely duplicating someone else's settings is a fast track to failure. You have to find what works for you... and a thorough understanding the device and the basics of recording is the only way to do that... because what all modelers are designed to do is produce recorded guitar tones. That's what a lot of neophytes miss. They assume that it's just supposed to magically produce the same sounds they've heard their whole lives, from a guitar amp a few feet away... but that's not what's going on here. What you're hearing is the sound of a mic-ed amp, monitored through some other output. In short, what the engineer at the desk hears in the control room... not the sound of the amp itself blaring away in the live room next door. Those are two very different sounds. You just lack experience, as we all did initially. As I said... modelers are not guitar amps, and treating them like one does not work. The learning curve is steep, but it's not insurmountable... it just requires time and effort...considerable time when you're new to it. You will not master this device, or any other modeler for that matter, in a few hours on Saturday afternoon.

High and low cuts are your friend, and will be necessary most of the time (at least for dirty tones) whether you're using IR's or stock cabs. The Tilt EQ is also a huge time saver (relative to the graphic or parametric EQ's) for getting rid of problem frequencies, wherever they reside. I use the Plexi Bright a lot, and I have that same OH IR bundle...but in my experience, the stock settings for the majority of the amp models in Helix do me no good at all, perhaps more so for the various Plexis. I've got the bass dialed down usually somewhere between 2 and 3, otherwise there's just way too much low end. Bottom line, you have to experiment... and you really can't assume that any of the stock settings will be at all useful..sometimes they're downright baffling.

Don't hold your breath. If more than one option were provided, how would you make your choice? There are no switches on the hardware that would allow you to toggle between the options, and there's no software based editor. All they could do is make it some other fixed amount of time.

I'm rather curious myself... however, I will wait for the fallout this time, as well.

Let me save you the suspense..."the next big thing" is always just around the corner at this point. If not from Line 6, then it'll come from somewhere else. Technology evolves much faster than it used to back in the day...and if anything, that pace will probably increase as time goes on. So if this is your only yardstick, you'll never buy anything. Forget about it... if a particular device suits your needs, you want it, and you've got the $$ to pay for it, then buy it and enjoy it. Life is short. If "X" is good today, it doesn't become a useless pile of crap tomorrow merely because some new toy makes it's debut.