Fenderflame28

Hi Ledvedder There are many here with much more experience than me at all of this, but here are my thoughts. I come from various cheap multi FX units into a 1X12 DSL40, trading it in for a Mesa Nomad 1X12, then going for a POD HD500X into the Mesa. Then swapping the Mesa for a Line 6 DT25 with the POD HD500X. A couple of months ago I swapped the POD for a Helix LT. The reason I'm giving you this history is this; At every stage I got more flexibility. For me I've never needed 'one good tone'. I've always needed about eight. To me the Helix with the DT amp and a Variax feels like I basically own a guitar shop. The positive is I can try everything in the shop. The negative is options paralysis - how on earth do I find the one great sound I want? As I need lots of sounds I'm still really enjoying the experiment of trying to find them. I would encourage you to tweak and tweak and tweak to find new things, but if you have done all you can do and are still not there then it could be that the Helix you have never quite gets close enough to the rig you hear in your head. If there is just one sound you are trying to nail you may never get there with Helix. Hope this helps.

Hi Jep. You have a similar set up as me. Try setting an amp in Helix as 'pre-amp' rather than 'amp' or 'amp+cab'. Then set your output in Helix to 'digital' or 'multi'. If you scroll through the output settings by hitting the 'page' button on Helix you will get to DT25/DT50 settings. Here you can set the power amp in the DT25 to work however you want it to. This gives you lots of flexibility. You can have a Mesa Treadplate pre with a class A Triode power section if you want. To me this gives much more flexibility than just going into a fixed power amp setting on the DT25. Hope this helps

Trying to get my head around the one button looper. I press it once, it records. Press it again and it plays back. Double tap and it stops. Press and hold and it deletes the loop. But here's the thing, when I press and hold it plays about a second of the loop before it clears. It's this a bug? Ideally I want to stop the loop and then clear it (silently) without all the tap dancing that the six button looper entails.

Hi @rd2rk I appreciate your help on this, but watch the video at the top of the post - at 6:20 he is playing his preset 04A with a looper. He stops the looper, loads preset 4B. Plays in 4B for a few seconds then moves back to 4A at around 7:00, turns on the looper and his loop is still there (where he says 'well waddya know'). How does he do this?

OK. Thanks for your help guys but it still doesn't work. @rd2rk - what do you mean by the looper being 'active' Im on Helix 2.81.0. Preset 1 has a stereo looper, so does preset 2, both as the last block in the same path. I put a phrase into the looper on preset one and then hit 'stop' on the 6 button looper and then exit the looper. Go to preset 2, play something. Come back to preset 1 and hit looper. When I hit play there is nothing there. If I let my loop play on in preset 1, I can select preset 2 and it's still playing. It's only when I stop it on preset 1 and change to preset 2 that I loose it. When this works for you guys as above are you on a Helix floor on LT? I'm wondering if this is something that the full Helix can do but maybe the LT can't. What I'm after is to 'record' my loop during soundcheck so I don't have to play it in front of an audience and mess it up 'live'. I'm using it for the intro of the Bryan Adams song 'Run 2 you'. Once the loop is running with the clean arpeggio I can then add the solo fill just before the singing hits. I then use the looper again in the solo to play the harmonised arpeggios before the final chorus. If I could set up the intro arpeggio before the gig but then play the first ten songs in lots of other presets, come back to my Run 2 you preset and the arpeggio would be in the looper waiting, that would be ideal. Any other thoughts? Thanks

Ooh, that's interesting. I'll set one up to try. Thanks for your help.

No. I only have one preset that I use with a looper in it.

Hi all I'm faitly new to Helix and I'm trying to sort out something with my LT and the looper. In this video - just after 6:30 he shows that you can put a phrase in the looper, change preset, come back to the original preset and the phrase is still saved in the looper: He says that the only time you lose the phrase is when you power the unit down. When I try this I lose the phrase as soon as I change preset. When I go back to my looper preset there is nothing stored and my phrase has gone. Is this a limitation in the LT or does 2.8 firmware not allow this, and his earlier firmware from 2016 did? Or is there some setting I'm missing? Thanks

Thanks for your thoughts Matt. I already use Left out for acoustic to PA (Variax).

Posted this over at the DT amps area but it probably belongs here... Hi all. Finally bit the bullet on a Helix LT. Only had it for a day and I'm trying to figure something out. I will use it over L6 Link to the DT25 so I will use pre-amp blocks rather than amp or amp and cab. Can I somehow split my output so I can set it up like this: Path one - Helix pre amp - DT25 via L6 Link. Path two - the signal from path one sent to Helix cab or IR to XLR out, FX send or 1/4" out to take a signal to a PA mixer. Ideally I would want to do this so I hear my signal through the DT25 (using the DT25 power amp and cab) but my audience hear the signal with a cab or IR modelled in through the PA. I think this works with the path one output set to multi and then taking 1/4" out into 'return 1' using a patch cable and setting up path 2 to take 'return1', add the cab /IR and go out to send 2 and taking that send 2 to the PA mixer input. But is there a simpler way? I could just use the DI out on the back of the DT25 to go to the PA mixer but it would be nice to use IRs or cab and mic modelling of I could. Any thoughts my esteemed friends?

Hi all. Finally bit the bullet on a Helix LT. Only had it for a day and I'm trying to figure something out. I will use it over L6 Link to the DT25 so I will use pre-amp blocks rather than amp or amp and cab. Can I somehow split my output so I can set it up like this: Path one - Helix pre amp - DT25 via L6 Link. Path two - the signal from path one sent to Helix cab or IR to XLR out, FX send or 1/4" out to take a signal to a PA mixer. Ideally I would want to do this so I hear my signal through the DT25 (using the DT25 power amp and cab) but my audience hear the signal with a cab or IR modelled in through the PA. I think this works with the path one output set to multi and then taking 1/4" out into 'return 1' using a patch cable and setting up path 2 to take 'return1', add the cab /IR and go out to send 2 and taking that send 2 to the PA mixer input. But it's there a simpler way? I could just use the DI out on the back of the DT25 to go to the PA mixer but it would be nice to use IRs or cab and mic modelling of I could. Any thoughts my esteemed friends?

Hi Looking to buy one used in the UK. Anyone looking to move one on? Thanks

OK, so I bought some MIDI leads and I can confirm that Line6 Monkey 1.78 found my amp - no issues at all with my Presonus Audiobox 22VSL. Therefore if anyone else needs to know the answer, now you do.

I think the last one you said makes most sense. It really depends what you are trying to achieve. If you are playing live, I'm not sure that you will hear a lot of cab model difference in the mix with a band. Recorded, yes you will. Line 6 make the power cab (FRFR) for this purpose. You could get rid of the DT and just go guitar > helix > power cab to get the most out of cab modelling.

Thanks for that. Any other thoughts of there?

Hi Bees. An FRFR (full range, flat response) is basically like a hifi speaker - the full audio range (40Hz ish to 20kHz) and a flat frequency response (imagine a graphic equaliser with all the frequency bands set at the centre). The line 6 DT cab is a guitar cab (typically 100 Hz to 18kHz - don't know the actual spec but others here might). Crucially though guitar cabs are never flat response. The speaker and cabinet will be biased towards mids to emphasise the guitar frequencies. This is why when you try playing a acoustic guitar through a guitar cab it normally sounds horrible. Play the acoustic through a PA (basically a FRFR system) it sounds great. The DT amps don't have cab modelling, they have a pre-amp (digital), power amp (valve) and a cab. On the rear of the cab the XLR out is a 'cab- simulated' line out. This means it's a 'one-size-fits-all' output you can send to a PA and it is voiced so it will sound similar to the DT's own cab. Hope this helps.

Hi All. Now that the Helix 2.8 firmware will run L6 Link to my DT25, I’m thinking ‘bye bye HD500x, Helix here I come’. I understand that I need to check that my DT25 is running firmware 2.0 for things to work properly. It seems that I have to do this using the midi sockets at the back of the amp so I need something that is USB on one end and MIDI on the other. Line6 recommend an M-Audio Uno for this. I don't have one of those but I have one of these and I'm wondering if it will work: https://www.presonus.com/products/audiobox-22vsl I have no midi cables so I'm thinking do I buy a pair of MIDI cables and hope the Presonus works or do I just buy the M-Audio thing? Has anyone tried a firmware using a Presonus? Does anyone know if the midi capabilities I have in the Presonus are suitable? Either way it seems a little frustrating that I have to shell out for £30 of cables just to check if my firmware is the correct one (I'll have no use for either set of cables afterwards). It's there any other way to check? I bought the amp used so have no way of knowing. Thanks

Ive just filled it out. Web link is here for those that haven't seen it: https://bit.ly/2JGVYLh

I would love to see any of these come to reality. I think the easiest thing for them to do is probably number 10. If the now discontinued Variax acoustic and Variax bass models were made available for purchase it would cost them very little and expand the range of all the JTV and Variax standard sales out there. I think a lot of the users of the forums would buy them - come on Line 6, Variax is due a little love.

GAK have given me great service (three cheers for Roy) and have collected the amp to send it off for repair. They will then offer me the option for a refund or keep the amp depending on what the tech comes back with...

No, I'm afraid not, the printing is unreadable. It's only because I know what the Electro Harmonix logo looks like that I know it's an EH at all... this is is the one that red-plated.

Hi. Thanks for the response, and the questions. The EL84s look to be Electro Harmonix EL84EH tubes but the text has worn off them and numbers are unreadable. The other tube is Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH 1305. Serial number on the amp is (21) A913M6145001809. Not it sure how old this makes this amp? If they are the original tubes then a re-tube and bias should certainly be in order. I bought it used from a reputable UK dealer (GAK) and have 14 days return if there are issues. I'm thinking there's no way they will FOC the checks you list above. I'll ask them tomorrow and then return it to them if they won't play ball. I'll let you know how I get on.

OK, it's arrived, I've plugged in and this does not look or sound right: The cracks and pops you hear are what I heard. Really loud for the last two seconds hence I stopped recording and switched it off. I'll be in touch with the seller tomorrow to see what they say. Anyone here had this? If it's the valve should I get the seller to pay for re-biasing or if I just go with an Electro-harmonix one is it bias free? I come from 'Mesa-land' where we just buy the right valve and never need to bias. Thanks

HD500x and JTV '59 along with a 1983 Fender Flame and a partscaster tele. I have a gig on Friday this week so won't have time to set up all my patches for L6 link with any confidence beforehand. I'll go 4CM for now as the pod is already set up for that. The plan is that the DT25 replaces an ageing Mesa Nomad.

The name Middlesex is derived from the old English 'Middle of the Saxon kingdom'. We also have Essex (East Saxon), Wessex (West Saxon) and Sussex (South Saxon). I live in the middle of the South Saxon kingdom., quite different from the south of the Middle Saxon kingdom. Strangely we don't have a Norsex - no-one knows why...