specracer986

Mines sort of a Yamaha / Line 6 fest: https://imgur.com/a/oh9hT

Are you leveling them just by ear? I tried that and I didn't feel real confident of my results. I'd feel better if I was feeding the signal into some kind of meter for a visual.

I have a Helix patch uploaded to Customtone that creates two paths for my JP15. I use a special cable that comes out of the stereo out of the JP15 and has two 1/4" at the other end which plug into the guitar and Aux in on the Helix. Both paths stay active and I switch between piezo and mags on the guitar. Works and sounds pretty decent. Here's a link: https://line6.com/customtone/tone/3348728/

I guess I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Do you want to have both guitars hooked up the Helix at the same time? If so, it seems like you are creating a complicated setup to save unplugging a guitar. What I gave you above, will get a stereo guitar working. Could you use a return as an input for a second guitar? I'm not sure. There might be impedance issues. But someone else might give you a definitive answer.

You can get a cable that is TRS on one end and dual ends at the other. The TRS goes into your guitars stereo out, and the duel ends you plug into Guitar In and Aux In. You then create separate paths for each input. I do this with my JP15 to switch between the piezos and the mag pups. Both paths are active and I do the switch on the guitar.

I'm having a signal strength problem through my XLR outs, and I'm not sure it's the same as you are describing or not. After playing for a while, my signal loses volume and gets all nasally sounding. It happened to me Saturday night at a gig. I was supposed to do the intro to a song with a preset that's normally pretty hot and I had a weak lifeless signal, and turning up the output volume knob just made a bad signal slightly louder. I had the band wait while I rebooted the Helix. When it came back on, I blew everyone away because the volume knob was still up high. But I had my signal back and we finished the set. This has happened to me with the output set to both mic and line level, going into my DXR12, which is also set to the Helix output of either mic or line level. I'm going to switch back to 1/4" out for a while and see if it happens there, so that when I bring it into a service center, I'll be able to give them a full accounting of the problem.

The tops of some of my piezo's appear to be getting a groove from the strings. Is this going to become a problem as far as making connection? It's pretty small right now, but I can feel it with my finger nail.

Weird at first, but I'll give it a thumbs up.

I do a lot of bending, and my old fingers would probably break if I tried bending 12's on a 25.5" scale length set up high. I'm really hoping the next generation of Variax has a new piezo system that raises the bar. I'm hoping!!

So what would you say is the optimum, not too thin, not too heavy, gauge to use for the JTV59 scale length and the JTV69 scale length?

This may be totally unrelated, but my XLR output has volume drops if I have it set to Line level. When set to Mic, it's fine. The volume drops don't happen right away, usually occurring after playing for about 30 minutes or so. It actually seems like it switches from line level to mic level. It gets low and nasally sounding. I have a two night out of town gig coming up. After that I was planning on opening a ticket with Line 6 to see if it was something that can be fixed.

What gauge strings do you run? I tried getting slinky and put 9's on my 24.75" JTV, (a 69S with a Warmouth conversion neck), and it didn't track properly. 10's cleared up my problems. Not as easy to bend with my old fingers, but it sounds good now.

I would be funny if the OP marked this thread as answered!

I had previously updated my editor to 2.52, before they pulled the update file. I just updated the Helix FW to 2.53. I left the editor alone and I have no problems. The updates are getting easier and easier I'm happy to say.

I consider myself a tweaker, but I have no desire to do deep editing on stage and I can't think of any audience that would want to watch me do that.

When I need to move my Helix, I lay the carrying case right next to it on the floor. Then I only need to lift it a few inches and move it less than two feet to put it in the case. I never walk around with it unless it's in the carrying case. Works for me. Personally, I would not want handles on mine.

I did read that thread, thanks. I don't think my problems stem from tuning issues. When I mention winding, I'm not referring to the wire around the post, but the actual type of steel used for the string winding. The brightness problem started after putting the maple neck / fretboard on. The warbling strings started after trying 9's on the 24.75" scale length and was probably caused by too little tension against the piezo's. I'm learning as I go and I'm trying to share a little of that. I'm still trying to see if I can tame this combination to make it usable. Now that I know that the type of wire the string is wound with, makes a difference with piezo tone, I'm going to try a set of DR Blues Pure Nickel in 10's. If that doesn't do the trick, I'll be licking my wounds and heading back to Warmouth for another try.

For anyone that's interested, I can say that brand and winding type does have an effect on the piezo's. I put EB Cobalts on and that guitar is now louder, brighter and has more bite than before. I A/B'd the same patch with my other 69 going back and forth several times. The difference in volume was the first thing I noticed and it's really apparent. It sounds like I turned the gain up on an overdrive about 25%. I suppose for a few particular songs this would work, but for an overall #1 guitar, this is not going to cut it. I'm glad I used the cobalts, because those are the loudest, brightest strings I know of, and it was easy to tell the difference, even though this guitar was already overly bright. On a positive note, the change from 9's to 10's took care of my warbling higher strings.

You're supposed to update the editor first. Then use the Line 6 Updater to update the firmware in the unit. If you did that, then you might need to reboot the unit while holding down two of the foot switches. I didn't have to do that, but some said they did. You should read up on which foot switches to hold down as you reboot, so you don't lose your presets or IR's.

I installed the update to the editor. My Helix floor is still at 2.50. Can I leave it like this until the new 2.52 is posted again, and just update the floor unit at that time?

So the guys with a JTV59, which has 24.75" scale length, do you notice a difference in sound quality between 10 and 9 gauge strings? All of this stems from the fact that I have two problems with my 69S that has a Warmouth 24.75" conversion maple neck. 1. The maple neck is much brighter than the mahogany neck on my 69. 2. The high e, b and g strings sound warbly when playing an open E chord during a song. I've experimented with different brands of strings to try to tame the brightness. Sometimes I think it's working, sometimes I'm not sure it's made enough of a difference to matter. Now I need to experiment with heavier string gauges to tame the warbly sounds. My old fingers would prefer a lighter gauge string, but not at the expense of weird tone. I'm going to put some 10's back on it and see where I'm at. I'm going to use EBCobalts just to see if the brightness stays about the same. If style of string winding makes a difference than the Cobalts should make this guitar unbearably bright.

Does the different style of strings available make any difference if you are only using piezo's? For example, with mag pups, DR Blues are much warmer and darker sounding. EB Cobalt's are very bright. Will the two different type of windings change the tone of the models, assuming you are using the same gauge strings? What's your experience with this? I feel like it does, but I'm wondering why it should.

I agree, and I'll update also. I'm glad L6 is keeping up on pest control.

Wha? I didn't know I had bugs!

I just listened to it for the first time, and I agree with this assessment. Weird interpretation, but delivered exactly as she intended.