HonestOpinion

Good point, a "Global Cab Off" option should definitely include IRs or be accompanied by a second "Global IR off" option.

There are a lot of contortions available via routing, splits, loops, even running patch cables from one send/return loop to another. Most of these options require somewhat convoluted routing or use up twice the DSP and complicate maintenance of block changes by compelling users to duplicate their signal chains on two separate Helix paths and duplicate their block changes on both paths. The Helix would benefit greatly from a global cab bypass option. Please vote it up on Ideascale: https://line6.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Global-CAB-OFF/790043-23508

If you have the v.2.12 firmware make sure you have the v2.11 Editor installed before you do your backups. If you have not done an upgrade before make sure you back up (twice) a bundle, all the user setlists, and I would back up the presets individually as well. In your case backing up the presets individually is particularly important as your Helix is second hand and is misbehaving so the integrity of the bundle and setlist backups may be in question depending on whether or not a global reset was ever run prior to you designing your own presets or the firmware being upgraded properly. All the presets in a setlist can be backed up individually by highlighting them all in the editor at one time and hitting the 'Export' link. Make sure to back up your IRs as well and take a screen shot of their placement in the IR screen so you can restore them to the same slots afterwards. The global reset will clear all presets and IRs on the Helix and replace them with the latest Factory and Template presets while also deleting all presets from the User lists. Good backups are paramount. After you do the global reset and restore your backups make sure to reboot the Helix in case any presets need to go through the rebuild process. They may not as you are already on the latest firmware revision. Last but not least. If after you do the global reset and restore you are still having issues I would reflash the firmware and do the global reset and restore process just to make sure you are starting off with a healthy install. Good luck!

A couple of more questions for you? I wanted to test this out on my Helix. I am not aware of a block named "modulation chorus". Is this occurring on the modulation block called "Chorus"? Did you do a global reset after your last firmware upgrade? This is particularly relevant if this is happening with other blocks across multiple presets. If you have not done the reset make sure to back up everything per the many good instructions on the forum and in the firmware release notes before you do the global reset.

In the interest of eliminating anything in the way of configuration that may cause the sound to change when you recall a preset.... Are any parameters associated with the tempo footswitch or expression pedal? If you have a parameter assigned to tempo or expression and either of these (tempo switch or expression pedal) are set to global instead of per preset I could see this causing it to sound different each time you recalled that preset. Probably not your issue but maybe worth mentioning.

May be a preset from a current firmware version then.

What Silverhead said is the most likely scenario. There is no "default" assignment of blocks/stomps to switches in the Helix. The L6 creators of the Factory presets assigned blocks to those footswitches, it does not occur automatically. If the preset's original creator or you, as Silverhead mentions, do not explicitly assign them, there will be none available. For presets you download you often have to assign the blocks yourself or change which FS they correspond to if it is assigned but not to the FS you prefer. Many people create some presets that they use as templates with all of their favorite footswitch/snapshot assignments as well as other settings and use those templates as a starting point for designing their presets.

You need to restart the Helix if you loaded a preset made with a previous version of the Editor/firmware. You will see a "rebuilding." message on the Helix screen for the loaded preset during startup.

Probably zero chance this is the problem but since this occurs in multiple venues and locations one thing some people have been surprised to find out is that the cell phone or some other electronic device they carry in their pocket or on their belt that is the culprit, hence the mystery of why the issue occurs everywhere they go and only when oriented in certain directions. :)

Looks like you found some additional super secret FS combinations, nice! :)

Heh, old SNL skit, we still invoke that one from time to time. You can't help but think of it every time you see one of those pharmaceutical ads with more warnings about possible side effects than benefits. :P

This suggestion may be off in left field as I have not tested yet to see if I get the same behavior with the chorus but the first thing I would check is to make sure you have the right Editor version for your firmware, especially if you have noticed other blocks not retaining settings properly.

Sorry, don't have any good tips for a flute sound but I hear you, we have a gig coming up for St. Patrick's Day. A tin whistle and bagpipes(yep, the Irish play them as well as the Scottish) patch would be just the ticket. Going to have to settle for playing some somewhat cliché Van Morrison, U2, or Thin Lizzy tunes and the old Grateful Dead covered traditional "Peggy-O". The song "Peggy-O" is I believe originally a Scottish traditional tune (derived from the original 'Bonnie Lass 'O Fyvie') but has been covered by Irish bands like the Dubliners so it gets a pass for St. Patrick's Day. We could add in "Black Irish" by 'Devil Makes Three' but that only has Celtic street cred by virtue of its title. Perhaps "Stonehenge" by Spinal Tap for a tip 'o the hat to the druids. Still ruminating on the setlist. :)

Interesting, I have not tried it between the amp & cab. The tone is fine after the cab but as you might expect quite different from being placed in front. I was trying to find the path placement and gain structure that gave me the best tracking. It has actually been a while since I have experimented with it. I would be interested to hear what other people have found regarding how best to optimize tracking with this block. In the future I wouldn't mind having a "Brain Dead" synth model with choices like sax, harmonica, flute, strings, etc. that just made it as simple as possible to dial up an an alternate instrument emulation.

Wow, that really nails it!

The first link is a preset created by bzoni that has a Fletcher-Munson block for when you want to play loud. After that there a couple of great videos, part 1&2 on the Helix and the Fletcher-Munson curve. The first part is more theory and the second gets down to more nuts & bolts showing you how to create presets that are ready for low-medium or performance volume levels. http://line6.com/customtone/tone/2674388/

Thanks for the tip on 'Adobe Reader DC'. I had been using a different version of the reader (just Adobe Reader) but I tried it in Adobe Reader DC (which is free) and was able to comment in a much better formatted document than Word provided after a conversion. The way the comments work makes it easy to keep the original text and your own additions well delineated. I found changing the properties for the comment placemarkers to red made them a bit easier to notice them although it would be nice if you could make them larger and easier to pick out in the text. A great tool for enhancing the Helix manual though and definitely renders a more faithful version of the original doc than a Word conversion. Thanks! Keep 'em coming people if you know of a good free tool for editing pdfs.

+1 I never realized the Helix user manual was editable. Great observation and tip! I don't have a full version of Adobe, only the Reader, but I was able to pull the manual up in Microsoft Word and make edits. The Word conversion process tends to concatenate certain groups of words for some reason so it can be a bit messy in spots after the conversion but this is a great way to document your own tips & tricks right in the manual. Thanks!

So let's hope that means that Graemey ultimately has to print out another 10-20 manuals.... ;)

I would highly recommend uninstalling your current Editor before reinstalling the new one. Good luck!

Not quite sure from your post if it is your snapshots that are gone or the presets themselves. Also, are your presets/snapshots available on the Helix but not on the Editor? I get that you did not update anything. Were your presets/snapshots available prior to your last boot and are not now? If you did a global reset in between firmware upgrades you will have to restore your setlists/presets from backups made with the prior firmware version. The global reset automatically deletes all user setlists and replaces the Factory and Template setlists with the latest versions distributed with the new firmware version. If you did not do a global reset after your last firmware upgrade that could explain a lot of issues with the Editor. It seems the most common cause of issues with presets not restoring properly other than the occasional bug in the L6 upgrade process are the following: Backups were made with a version of the Editor that did not match the version of the firmware on the Helix at the time of the backup. It may be possible that having restored backups from a mismatched Editor at any point could conceivably impact future restores even if the current restore seems to be OK. That is pure speculation on my part but it may be possible that some issues from mismatched backup/restores may not show up until a later firmware upgrade. Always check to make sure your Editor and firmware versions are correctly matched before doing the backup prior to a firmware upgrade. A user error was made during the backup process or the backup file was corrupted somehow (back everything up twice and backup a bundle, setlists, presets and IRs) User failed to do a global reset after a firmware upgrade before restoring their backed up presets from a prior version. User edited restored presets before doing a reboot and allowing the new presets to go through the rebuild process. Note: Always reboot after restoring presets from a prior firmware version. They need to go through the rebuild process which you can see happening on the screen while it is booting. User mistakenly restores the wrong backup files, not from the set they just made prior to the upgrade. Current version of the Editor and firmware are not matched properly. Check your versions! Last but not least, I have great sympathy for anyone who may have experienced any problem with a restore, regardless of whether it is from user error or through no fault of their own. I, like others here look forward to L6 putting a better upgrade process in place.

Great to hear and that should be reassuring to users with this issue! :)

Perhaps not abandoned, would 'deprioritized' per the quoted L6 statement be fair? Of course, when you have spent years with a problem actively pursuing a fix and it is still an issue, deprioritizing can end up being equivalent to abandoning. Without more information shared from Line6 it is hard to see how less attention to the problem is going to lead to a fix unless the fix is in upcoming firmware and that is going to retrofit the older guitars. Anyway, due to lack of information it is all pure speculation on my part. I have a Variax and it is fine but I can understand why the 'deprioritization' statement would be a real bummer for people who are struggling with the 'plink'.

I have definitely heard at least one recording that very clearly captured the 'plink'. That and the many complaints over several years make me believe it is a genuine issue. I am wondering if the reason they are abandoning the search for a cure is simply that they are revamping the entire line of Variax guitars with new models and just moving on.

The phantom power on the Helix is 48v, assuming that is what you need for the LR Baggs. Did you try turning up the parameter Global Settings --> Ins/Outs --> Mic In Gain? It sounds like it might be worth testing with the 9v for troubleshooting purposes just to eliminate the phantom power as a possible issue.