damien_

Sorry I didn't get back to you guys. I did open a ticket and here's how it went: Then they pasted the message linked by MusicLaw just above. :)

If anybody runs into the same problem, I ended up solving it by replacing the output jack on my guitar with one slightly longer. For reference I got that one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C5B26HC

Tried that trick, but mine is too recessed. I would have to expand the output hole from the cavity side if I wanted to make it work. That would be my last resort, though.

Hi, One of my guitar's output is a little bit too recessed for the G10T to fit, unfortunately. It looks like this would solve my problem (the one in the middle): Unfortunately I am unable to find any on Amazon, Sweetwater, or eBay. They all have any combination of TRS to TS, 1/8 to 1/4, and vice versa. But no 1/4 TS to 1/4 TS, which I guess kinda makes sense because that doesn't sound really useful... except for my case. Has anybody been able to find one of these? Thanks,

Are there any mini pedals compatible with the Helix? Like the form factor of these mini wah pedals? Yeah, I'm struggling with pedalboard real estate. :)

Thanks for your investigation MusicLaw. I think I'm going to open a support ticket. I would like to know how come FX return blocks add so much noise. To me, they shouldn't be different than Aux In and maybe even Guitar In. Again, setting a preset with the Input block set to "Multi" does activate the Aux input, where no added noise is perceptible.

Putting just a return in an empty patch doesn't add noticeable noise. Only in front of a high gain amp. I ended up putting a noise gate block right after the FX loop block to alleviate the issue. I'm a little bit surprised though. Why would the inputs being activated generate any noise on the FX loops? The Guitar In or Aux In don't generate noise (e.g., when nothing is plugged in, or when setting the Input block as "Multi" with nothing plugged in Aux).

Yep: - Brand new patch - Add an ANGL Meteor with default cab, set drive to 8.0, master to 8.0 - You hear a little bit of noise which is typical of highly distorted sounds I suppose - Before the ANGL, add an FX loop block (any loop, it doesn't have to have anything plugged in it) - Notice the much louder noise. This is regardless of whether a guitar is plugged in the Helix. Anybody can reproduce this problem?

Hi, It seems like my FX loops are very noisy. I have this external pedal (Maxon AF-9) that I would like to integrate into my signal chain. If I put it between my guitar and the guitar in then everything is perfect. But whenever I put it in the FX loops I get this loud noise even if the pedal isn't powered. When I plug the AC cable it's even louder. Moreover, if I don't put anything in any FX loops and add an FX loop block to the signal chain, the same noise is there. This also reproduces with just Return blocks. My FX loops are set to "Instrument Level" but I also tested "Line Level". Anybody had this issue? It can be tested really quickly by just adding an FX loop block early in the chain. The noise is more prominent on heavily distorted sounds (I'm using the ENGL here with drive and master at 8).

Same experience for me on the floor model, with a brand new preset (I bought the Helix the day 2.10 was released anyway).

My expression pedal is very stiff and has no play as far as I can tell. I even noticed that I had to move the pedal by a few millimeters until it would switch from 0% to 1%. The auto-engage is at 1%. When my wah unexpectedly engages, I always make sure the pedal is all the way to 0%. Pushing the pedal towards the heel position doesn't disengage the wah so I'm assuming it's already at 0%.

Just want to share that I see this issue happening for me as well. Note that I received my Helix the day 2.10 was released. So I had no prior presets that needed to go through the update. My patches are brand new and written from scratch under firmware 2.10. I have a setup where the built-in expression pedal set to the heel position disengages the wah. It auto-engages at 1%. I've had several instances where I boot my Helix with the pedal on the heel position, jam a bit, and all of a sudden the wah engages itself.

Can you elaborate on how this differs from a compressor?

It's a little bit higher and quite a bit deeper, otherwise it's about the same width. I found this video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Tv-q4PhgWZ0?t=11m30s

Hi, What has been your experience using the Helix with active pickups? I know the manual says such guitars should plug into Aux rather than Guitar In. Did you find that this was producing better results? Anybody tried the Guitar In and experimented with the Input Z for interesting results? Thanks,

I was mostly thinking of Cyber Monday. Like is it common for Sweetwater to have fairly new products on sale for Cyber Monday? Probably not but heh, who knows.

Do you guys think there will be deals on the Helix for Black Friday / Cyber Monday?

That's one of the main reasons why I got gear insurance (that and the fear of drunk fat dudes falling on the stage). It's only $100 per year and it covers multiple grands worth of gear.

Works pretty well with my ENGL Powerball 2 after some volume tweaking.

I am very happy with my DigiTech Drop. I use it all the time during band practice and live performance. Never noticed artifacts or other weirdness. It's polyphonic so it can shift the pitch of each string individually, which shouldn't affect how some specific intervals will sound. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Drop

Thanks a lot for doing that!

Thanks guys. Yeah that thread was pretty informative, dbagchee (and thanks for sharing your settings and recommendations). I've seen some very detailed posts of people measuring the exact frequency response and the impact of each settings on EQ effects and amps. This is very useful information to dial tones. I was hoping that the same kind of accurate data was available for the FX loop, too.

So I've been going back and forth trying to figure out the best settings for the 4CM method. I acquired an HD500X a couple of months ago, and the least I can say is that you can read a lot of different opinion on the matter... I know that in the end what matters is how it sounds, but I'd like to find out the definite truth about what is going on in the send/return levels. @dbagchee: How did you setup your inputs? Guitar / Same or Guitar / Variax? @hollis1003: What about you? I've been Googling on that subject for a while, and some old threads like these ones: http://line6.com/support/topic/2040-pod-hd-500-the-fx-loop-attenuates-the-signal-at-the-send-jack/ http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/74159/ http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/55328/ Some people claim a 5dB attenuation in the send, other people claim a 6dB attenuation, some people claim that the return has a +5dB boost that needs to be compensated for with the mixer, some people recommend stomp / amp, other people stomp / line, etc. It sounds to me that all these things aren't the same, because having your output attenuated before reaching your preamp then boosted afterwards isn't the same as having your output compensated before reaching the preamp then attenuated a little bit afterward... I'm also surprised that these issues haven't been patched by firmware updates since 2011, or maybe they were? Does somebody have any extra information on the matter?