barnsleyboy

Oooh I didn't know that. Is that just a best practice thing? or a definite no-no? I can't see many people removing the battery every time they plug their Variax into the Helix!

That's awesome mate thank-you. That's given me a bit more confidence. I've heard horror stories about using 3rd party batteries in the Variax - something to do with mis-matched power management. Do you have a view on that? If the battery the guitar comes with is beyond saving I may need to look to e-bay or amazon for a replacement.

Hi all, I have the opportunity to buy a used JTV59, But it is literally the guitar and battery. If I were to buy a digital interface lead could I use my Helix as the interface to connect to workbench? It's a really risky buy as the guy selling it can't tell me if the Variax side of things works. He thinks it just needs to be reset and calibrated through Workbench. I'd also need to get a 3rd party charger for the battery, but I'm assuming that connecting to Helix will power the guitar - am I correct? Any help would be much appreciated.

I don't think anybody is naive enough to think that you can just take a home patch, turn it up and get the exact sound you want at rehearsal volume. The essence of the post is that faced with a myriad of parameters to play around with are there any quick and easy things to look out for and adjust to get the sound closer to where he needs to be? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've read that you need to tweak the sound when you play at higher volumes, but what do you tweak? is it EQ? Reducing reverb mix? Less drive? etc. My go to patch has all sorts of stuff going on with it to get the sort of post-punk noise that I like. If I were to take it out to practice/ performance levels, I really wouldn't know where to start. I'm guessing that I would probably begin with the straight amp sound and add effects in one at a time. With a conventional tube amp the tweakable parameters are a lot simpler. Helix is a powerful and versatile unit which brings with it a lot more complexity in fine tuning the sound. The responses here have been a good starter for ten, so many thanks to you all for taking the time to reply. The Sadites videos have been a big help. I think it's a case of him spending time getting to know the Helix. He'll get there in the end!!

I think he's running it into an old Marshall Valvestate 8008. The cab is a Marshall cab. All I know is it has PA speakers - don't know about tweeters. He's using the same rig at home which sounds great, but at volume, totally different.

Hi All, I have a mate who has just joined the Helix club. He is only a week into ownership, but is having trouble using the unit for band practice. I think it's quite a common problem that patches built at home sound great when the volume is relatively low but don't necessarily translate when the volume is higher when you are playing with the rest of the band. He is playing through a Marshall power amp and a cab with PA speakers in both situations, so "relatively" FRFR. Are there any easy tweaks that will get him closer to what he has dialled in at home? Could it be just a case of global settings, or is it that the mix should be turned down on certain effects? or is it that in louder settings he should go for less gain? I feel bad because I have raved on about my Helix and how great it is, and I want him to really get the most out of his. Any help or advise would be much appreciated.

No need to contact support, I think I've found the issue. I'd assumed that it was the headphone socket that was the problem. It's actually the headphone pot. As I don't use headphones that often, the pot must have got gacked up with "guitarist dust and dander". I removed the knob, loosened the nut and gave it a good squirt with contact cleaner and with some vigorous twiddling, it seems to have got it going again. If anone has the same problem, this might be the solution that you are looking for ..... Phew!

One interesting development, I was just tweaking the headphone volume control and noticed that at zero I get sound coming out of the left headphone channel. As I rotate clockwise, the right channel volume increases, but the left channel stays at the same volume. Turn it more clockwise and there is a total imbalance in the stereo signal. I wonder if it could be the volume pot that is faulty or the contacts need cleaning? I'm going to try squirting some contact cleaner in through the top with the hope that it somehow makes it's way down the pot shaft and into the internal wipers.

I've done a factory reset and rebuilt the presets to their factory settings, so nothing to do with multiple amps, or indeed scabs!! ;-)

..... contact cleaner was my 2nd port of call! A liberal squirt of Servisol Super 10, but still didn't fix it Grrrr!

I posted on here sometime back about problems with the headphone output on my Helix floor. The left channel is significantly quieter than the right. It seemed to correct itself a while back, but has now come back again. I don't use the headphones often, but I wonder if a firmware update could have messed with things. Unfortunately I can't say for sure at what stage the issue corrected itself, or when it came back again in relation to which firmware version i was on. Does this sound like it could be plausible? Has anyone else on here had this issue? If it's possible, I'm tempted to roll back the firmware versions to see if it makes a difference. The only thing is I don't want to brick the unit by messing around with it's inner secret "gubbins". I did raise a ticket with the helpdesk, but there advice was to get it checked out by my UK service centre. I'm tempted, but worried about the likely cost (and that doesn't include the insured courier costs to get it to them!) As an alternative, has anybody got any recommendations for independent repairers in the East Anglian area who would be up to the job? Any assistance or advice, much appreciated. (I've done the usual checking the headphones/ different set/ trying different patches/ etc.)

Just following up on this thread, If anyone needs any spares in the UK: Sontec (Electronics) Ltd, Sontec House, Concorde Road, Norwich, NR6 6BE customer.service@sontec.co.uk +44 (0)1603 483675 http://www.sontec.co.uk/Parts My new volume knob and replacement expression pedal plastic washers arrived today. Approx. £15.96 for knob and 3 washers, which I thought was reasonable. Then I looked at the figures on the invoice. Before the VAT the washers were £1 each, the knob is £1.30. They charged me a whopping £4.50 for postage and £4.50 administration fee! What a rip off.

My Helix lives in the house and never ventures out. The dent was a freak mishap involving of all things Brian the robot from Confused.com. I'm surprised that a piece of plastic falling from a shelf could do so much damage to a tour grade piece of kit!

Nice one fella! I'm thinking that them there Tesi metal ones look pretty sweet, so I might cough up the extra and invest in a full set of those. Not sure if I've got the balls to go for a different colour though. Anyone else on here interested in getting some? If there's a good amount of interest, I might contact Tesi and see if they might be able to do a bit of a discount for any UK buyers .... special relationship and all that!!

I just dented the volume knob on my Helix floor, so I need to get a replacement. Any ideas where I could get one? The shipping from the States is astronomical, so it's not an option. British Audio has one for £5, but the priority shipping is £56.76!!! There are some really smart all metal replacements from Tesi which would look super cool, but again I can't get them in the UK https://helixknobs.com/