cruisinon2

You might as well be asking for the August 12th, 2026 weather forecast for French Lick, Indiana. There's no possible way for anyone to determine whether or not there was any lasting damage, merely by reading a description of the event.

The grass is always greener...I guarantee that if/when a PC editor arrives for the Kemper, various forums will be lousy with gripes about how much easier it is to use the hardware. Guitarists all divide their time fairly evenly between whiny and crazy... ;)

Everything is marketed as "easy" to learn, use, operate, set-up, etc etc... if the brochure said: "Helix is awesome, but you will encounter mind-numbing frustration and the desire to bang your head into a brick wall for a while until you learn how to use it", they would never have sold a single unit. The truth is, it is very easy to use... the UI is stupid simple and intuitive...provided that you have a basic understanding of how modelers work. Was that last part deliberately omitted from the ad copy? Of course it was. The exact same thing can be said of any guitar modeler currently on the market. There are a number of excellent units out there, but not a single one will provide instant gratification. And none of the other company's ad campaigns will tell you that either. People think they want truth in advertising, but if it ever actually happened, commerce would pretty much grind to a halt... life ain't simple.

I've had my Helix for just shy of two years now, and I haven't come anywhere close to trying "all" available amp/cab/mic combinations, and the virtually endless approaches to EQ. I'd need a team of researchers working 3 shifts for another two years to make that claim, so if you actually think you've exhausted every option there is in a couple of months, you're mistaken...but I digress. It took me several months to get comfortable enough to gig with my Helix initially, and I was not new to modeling at the time. My point? Modelers are not guitar amps. They behave differently, and require an approach foreign to us all at the beginning. But honestly, no matter how true any of that is, none of it matters. You've already made up your mind, and that's fine. Not everybody gets along with modelers, or wants to put the time in. If you want a tube amp and some pedals, that's what you should use. It's pointless to try and talk yourself into liking something that you clearly don't... it's like marrying the wrong woman. Always ends the same way... you end up spending more money on a different unit. ;)

Only 20? ;)

As long as you're monitoring through the Fender, the answer unfortunately is no. Without the clean clean slate of an FRFR output, you're stuck with whatever the inherent characteristics of the speakers in your amp happen to be. As you already know, pumping a Celestion IR through a Fender speaker won't make it sound like a Marshall.

Who said that? Yes, the dB curve is logarithmic... we all know that. Don't recall anybody saying anything about "perfect equality in both directions"...I certainly didn't. For me it's entirely about practicality. The "noon" position is "somewhere in the middle", and is a starting point. Fixating on any arbitrary knob position would negate the aforementioned practicality, and I'd be back to standing on my head to adjust monitor volume again. I start at 12 o'clock. It ends up wherever it needs to be. We're not dealing with Level 4 bio- hazzards here. It's rock and roll... it really isn't necessary to sterilize it with rigid laboratory protocols.

You're not gonna like this, but you'll never (ever) get a convincing acoustic tone from a traditional guitar cabinet. They simply lack the much wider frequency response required to make an acoustic guitar sound like what it is. Acoustic IR's will not help much either, because it's the way you're monitoring that's the problem. You could plug an actual acoustic guitar into your rig and through your 2x12, and it'll just sound like a clean electric. Now if you want to really plunge right into the deep end of the modeling world, you could ditch your pedalboard and amp altogether, and invest in a Variax, an amp modeler, and FRFR speaker(s). It's the ultimate in versatility, and allows for the seamless transition from very convincing acoustic tones to electric, without dragging 10 tons of gear and multiple guitars to a gig.

lol...I think we need to narrow things down just a bit. In recent years, the guitar FX pedal market has exploded to such an extent, they now outnumber the stars in the Milky Way... what exactly are you looking for?

Yup... this is precisely what I do. Though the band is contemplating going to IEM's, so I may not be using my L2T as a monitor much longer. But until then, if I max out Helix's master volume, I would have to essentially stand on my head to get underneath the stupid monitor where the volume knob lives... that ain't happening.

There's really nothing to be "torn" by unless you can actually perceive a difference. And for me, that difference would have to fall into the "wow, I can't believe my ears" category in order for me to give up the convenience of quick and easy volume adjustments. I tried both ways... I couldn't tell the difference if my life depended on it, and I'm as picky and "tone-loony" as anyone else around here.

There was an epic argument over this just recently. As is always the case, nobody can predict what will sound "better" to your ears. Nevertheless, stay tuned for others to chime in with lots of PhD thesis engineering jargon about signal quality, bit depth, and my personal favorite: "dithering noise", whatever the hell that is, lol. They'll swear that the master volume must be kept wide open at all times, lest all sorts of deplorable signal degradation occur. The truth is that it's exceedingly unlikely that you'd be able to tell the difference, unless you're one of those guys who claims to be able to stand on their front porch in Boston, and hear a mouse fart in Detroit. Then there's the matter of practicality. If you really want to be reaching behind/underneath your monitor(s) every time you want to adjust the volume, then by all means red-line Helix's master knob. Otherwise, leave it somewhere around noon so you've got some headroom if you need it, and set your monitor's volume accordingly. 99.97% of us mere mortals will never hear a difference....

Always have an escape route from your "pod"... sooner or later we all take turns being Derek Smalls. ;)

A bad cable and/or a funky electrical issue with the guitar are the two easiest things on earth to rule out. Try a different guitar and cable, one at a time... you'll know if either is the culprit inside of 2 seconds.

The are three certainties with gear like this: 1) It's a computer. 2) Computers occasionally do weird $hit. 3) When in doubt, reboot...it won't fix every problem, but it'll fix a lot of them. It's not an excuse... just the unfortunate cost of doing business with fancy tech.

There's nothing in the HX FX that isn't in the LT, so unless the footprint is gonna bother you, why spend money? If your amp has an FX loop, run the LT in 4cm. That way you can position FX blocks before or after the amp, wherever they belong. If there's no loop, then you have no choice but to run straight into the front of the amp, just like the good 'ole days.

Set the output block to "multi" and see if that changes anything.

I've heard that happens... what's it like? ;)

That's news to me... what issue?

Assuming that you're running the channels flat, the mixer isn't your problem. And an acoustic amp is not an unheard of choice...given its wider frequency response, it's an infinitely better option to a traditional electric guitar amp. That said, I suspect one of two things (or possibly both) is going on here: 1) Volume. If he's trying to dial in sounds at living room levels and expecting everything to sound the same at stage volume, then it makes absolutely no difference what he's playing through....that will never work in a million years, no matter what he uses. You have to tweak everything at the volume at which you intend to use them... end of story. Whether it's a guitar amp, FRFR speaker, or IEM's is irrelevant. 2) Tone is 100% subjective, and the two of you may simply have very different ideas about what "good" tone is...and from what you've described, this is where I'd put my money. You hate his choice of speakers, and he hates yours. Obviously this is a more difficult hurdle...as guitar players, we like what we like. If he thinks his tones are awesome, you'll never convince him that they suck.

You lost me. So you play F# on the E string... and you hear what exactly? Besides F#, what is the second pitch?

"Pitiless Indifference" would have made a great 90's grunge album title...

Not that particular amp, no... but I've heard a few others over the years, 2x12's and 4x12's wired with separate L/R inputs, and they were all underwhelming. Stereo FX are great....but if I'm going to the trouble, then I'm gonna have two speakers and plant myself in between, lol...

Just set the wah to auto-engage. You can choose either "toe down" or "heel down" as your off position, then as soon as you rock the pedal... instant wah. No need to use the toe switch if you don't like it, and you definitely don't need a 3rd party pedal toggling it on and off... that's way too much tap dancing for a live situation. Not exactly sure what you're snapshot question refers to...If you want access to snapshots, just select a mode that displays them. You can have one row of presets and one of snapshots, one row of individual FX toggles and the other for snapshots, or all 8 footswitches for nothing but snapshots. But no matter what you choose there's no need for other pedals...

You'll also be the first human in history to have figured out how to do an end-run around the Fletcher-Munson curve...;) Volume will always affect tone...there's no cure for that. Raise or lower the volume significantly, touching no EQ at all, and your tone will change. The bigger the volume difference, the more significant the tonal change you'll perceive. The trick is learning what frequencies to boost or cut (and by how much) at any given volume, to yield the results you're after. That's something that you only figure out through experimentation... unfortunately it's a lot easier to find sounds that suck, lol. The "good stuff" likes to hide. Happy hunting! ;)