BBD_123

Hello mate - fwiw, another UK Helix user, but more to the point, main guitars are a Strat and an LP (wow, sooo adventurous, aren't we?). And my first impressions of Helix were... meh. I'd spent the previous few years using the Line 6 HD500 so not unused to modeling, but I naively expected Helix to sound better out of the box than a fully set up HD500... daft in hindsight, but there you go. Please, be patient and get to grips with the unit. As others have said, the time spent pays off in spades. Helix is very, very good, but a classic case of you get back what you put in. All I would suggest is that you keep it simple for now. No third party IRs. Just a handful of amps that you like, a bit of reverb, and plenty of time spent dialling in basic, foundation tones that you are happy with. First walk, then run :-) Enjoy!

Upgraded from 2.70 to 2.81 without issues. ... And a big thanks to the Line 6 team for creating and continuing to develop a first-rate product. :-)

For now, I'd recommend turning global EQ off and working up the simplest patch - amp block, cab block and maybe a reverb block at the end. Nothing more. Set the cab block low and high cut as suggested (as starting points) and dial the amp's tone stack in to your preference. Tweak the cab block high / low cuts as necessary. It's a good idea to try to keep close to unity gain within the Helix - so your empty patch - pure dry signal - shouldn't be significantly quieter than your actual patch. Use the amp block Channel Vol to get this about right. The fewer variables in play at the beginning, the easier it is to dial in a core tone that you like. Once you've got something basic but solid, then you can experiment with sag and bias on the amp, and maybe some more precise EQ with the Parametric block after the cab, or with something like the Teemah dialled for clean boost in front of the amp. After about a year with Helix floor, I deleted pretty much everything I'd done from my patch library and started over, as described here. The results were better.

Have you tried simply engaging the cab block low and high cuts? Start at 8kHz high cut and 100kHz low cut with an amp you like. If you crank the power stage (master vol) of most high gain amps, they can sound a bit nasty until you get the high end cuts in place.

This ^^^^^^ It's software. Sometimes it's best to give a major update a wide body swerve until the dust has settled. This is not rocket science :-) I'm 54 btw :-)

What Cruisinon said. But the good news is, building your own all-round Strat rock / blues patch isn't too hard :-) I have Floor, not Stomp, but I *think* Stomp has much the same stuff on it, so try the Plexi Trem Bright amp and 4x12 Greenback 25 cab. This amp / cab combo seems to play well with Strats, even on the bridge pickup. Set the amp Master volume to 10 and experiment with cranking the Bright Drive, Bass, Mid, and Presence but keeping the Treble low. Use the cab block low and high cuts to eliminate boom and excessive top end. Slap a legacy Plate reverb at the end and fine tune the Plate block's low and high cut - A/B with it on / off until it just adds verb, not bass and treble as well. Once that's all sorted out to your liking, you can experiment with a Teemah in front of the amp block for more snarl.

Perhaps one day soon, I will be able to turn the guitar pad on my Floor on and off with Edit [rubs hands with glee]...

One thing you might want to experiment with is the guitar input pad, which cuts about 5dB off the analogue input when turned on. It's a hardware-only control, so not accessible from Edit, if you are using Edit. What follows is purely subjective and will depend on your preference, your pickups and your playing style, but... with low gain amps in particular, some people prefer the pad on and the preamp gain a bit higher. Others are fine with the pad off. If you aren't able to find the 'right' level of breakup, the pad might be the answer.

It's not the only one - @arislaf drew my attention to the way the cranked SuperO changes tone dramatically - for the better - when the bias is lowered. Which goes to show how much there still is about Helix that I don't know :-)

I'll be waiting this one out too. Fortunately, I didn't make a fuss about the length of time it took 2.8 to drop... :-0 It does say, somewhere, that you should not use USB hubs, only direct connections to the PC. To be on the safe side, I use only back panel ports and I've never had any problems with USB. Reasonably, hence the caution with updates we appear to share :-)

On 2.70 and staying there for the time being :-)

+1 props to @litesnsirens for catching this. I use the LA comp at the end of many patches, so this fully and finally confirms my intention to give 2.8 a miss for the time being. Really, I don't need the grief.

That's my experience too, but again, a personal view.

Yup, going to sit this one out awhile.

I think I'm going to wait a while on 2.8. It's been a time coming, so a few more days is neither here nor there.

Happy birthday to you indeed :-)

+1

Not sure where you got this... Most people would, I think, agree that you can and should (if desired) hit the front of the amp (preamp) just as hard as you need to get a desirable tone. Channel volume comes after the power stage of the amp model, so has no effect on preamp gain. High channel volume can sometimes push blocks placed after the amp too hard, but that's the long and short of it.

Possibly my bad - I have Floor, so I could well be mistaken. Apologies to the OP if I've caused any confusion, and of course ignore references to the nonexistent guitar pad...

Just to be clear, the guitar pad and input noise gate are different things... sorry if we are already on the same page, but it pays to be sure :-) For the test, I'd suggest setting input to guitar and turning the guitar pad on. It's (I think) a 5dB cut prior to the DA conversion. Might help deal with excessive peaks. But do take all the pedals out of your chain and just test the Stomp on its own. You *might* be having problems because the TS is doing something the Stomp doesn't really like.

Have you tried removing the real Tube Screamer from your signal chain and using the modeled one in Stomp? Also remove the noise gate and set the input pad to ON. A high cut in the cab block at ~6kHz might take the pick attack down a notch. When you set your patch up, try to keep it close to unity gain within the Stomp - an empty patch is the baseline and should be nearly as loud as the patch with amp, cab, fx.

Not so sure about this talk of quiet Strats :-) You can get an authoritative tone out of stock Pure Vintage '65s which are hardly hot wound at 5.9k DCR... FWIW, a quick patch here based on the jumped Plexi Trem 50W head, really basic, no trickery. My patches may be quiet for your setup as they preserve something close to unity gain within the Helix. Volume on the unit is at 12 o'clock and guitar pad is ON. Firmware is 2.70. Of course this is just a suggested startpoint and YMMV etc. Rock is snapshot 3: drive. PLEXI T JUMP.hlx

I didn't know this, but my understanding of the History Of Helix is that it came after the HD500X and was, like, better :-) But it's encouraging news and, as the boffins say, consistent with observations :-)

YMMV, but I find the Timmy / Teemah a bit brighter than the Klon / Minotaur. Great pedal, but maybe the OP wants a bit more fatness and smoothness which imho might make the Klon the better of the two.

SORRY - I misread the OP and edited this post... You could try the Klon (Minotaur) pedal. Set the pedal block Gain low and use the Level to fine-tune how hard the Klon hits the front of the amp. Use the Tone parameter if you need to roll off the highs a bit for a clean, warm gain.