barnsleyboy
-
Posts
23 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by barnsleyboy
-
-
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.
-
On 6/29/2023 at 7:57 PM, rd2rk said:
This is sounding like something that's been reported before. Try contacting support and emphasizing that last bit about the zero volume setting.
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!
-
2
-
1
-
-
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/PartsMy 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!!
-
1
-
-
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
-
Sorry if I'm a bit late to this thread, but am I missing something? To my ears, the 12 string simulator sounds pretty awful. All I can hear is a wah-wah-wah-wah-wah when picking notes.
As an example, Watch this video, the sound I'm talking about starts at the 3:13 mark when he's using the Ibanez, but it's a lot more pronounced when I try it.
If anybody has some signal chain recommendations that would help please let me know. I really want to be able to use this block, but it just doesn't sound right.
Also, having viewed Paul Hindmarsh's video, I thought I'll have some of that Poly Pitch and Poly Capo goodness and download his patch from customtone.
Nope, sounds nothing like his tone at all. Ok, I appreciate that he is probably going straight into a DAW through an interface, and it's been all nicely mastered to sound amazing, but I can't get even close to it.
Surely I'm not the only one experiencing this?
On a positive note though, the acoustic Sim is fantastic, it's one of the few effects that I missed from my old Boss GT10 and GT100.
-
Now then....
I spoke to the nice chap from E&M, he suggested a factory reset, which did nowt, then raising a ticket with customer service. If that comes to nothing, package it up and courier to them. Minimum bench charge £48. He actually said that the L6 parts and repairs are expensive, and suggested that if I don't use the headphones that much, then consider if I really want to spend the money getting it fixed.
I'll see what the bods from the US say and mull it over. I was hoping that somebody on here had gone through the pain before me and could shed a bit of light.
Cheers for the reply fella.
PS: Not from Barnsley, I'm in Suffolk in East Anglia - land of the 6 fingered sugar beet pickers ..... Now hold you hard ba, I shew you ah right Yarmouth capon!
-
Nope - definitely not cell phone related, the left channel has now all but packed up. I've done a global reset and a factory one, but neither has fixed it. I'm worried that it is a hardware problem as Line 6 repairs are notoriously expensive. If I used the headphone socket all the time then I could understand it, but it is literally once in a blue moon. I wonder if an earlier firmware update may have caused the issue. I'd be tempted to roll it back to see if this is the case, but I'm unsure how to do this, and the last thing I want to do is mess it up and brick the whole thing!
-
Andy, I have a similar issue with my Helix floor. I just happened to plug in some headphones today and noticed first a faint distortion in the left channel and now it seems to have a level drop too. The problem only seems to occur through headphones. I run my helix in stereo through an amp and don't have any issue. Is your left channel distorted too?
-
I don't usually use headphones with my Helix floor, but I was tinkering around this morning and found that there is a faint distortion coming through on the left channel, and the volume has slightly dropped. It's happening on all patches. I've eliminated faulty leads, guitar and headphones from the problem and unplugged everything from sends and returns etc. I've checked and it doesn't come through when plugged into an amp, so it seems like it is headphone output related. Anyone got any ideas? Could it be as simple as backing up and doing a system reset? or is it something more sinister that requires returning the unit back to Line6 for open PCB surgery?
Any help gratefully received!
-
1 hour ago, hideout said:
You had my curiosity piqued but then I saw the eye watering price tag. Yikes.
£499 (in UK money) according to their website. I'm not sure I'd class it as 'eye watering'. Maybe a little expensive! But if it does what they say and bear in mind it has a couple of amp models in it too. I suppose if I had £500 to spend on another new guitar, I would consider it. But it would be interesting to get some feedback from others who had real life experience of the unit.
-
Has anyone checked out the SIM1 XT-1? I am mega excited about this and wondering if this sort of
technology is something that could appear down the line in the Helix.
Even better, has anyone here got one or tinkered with one? If so is it as good as they are making out?
It looks to me that you can make a sound imprint of your own guitar (or other peoples) and play that
imprint on a different guitar. If this is the case, this could be an absolute game changer!
Given that L6 has had Variax for so long albeit with its idiosyncrasies and glitches, and how faithful
the reproductions of actual amps are in the Helix, surely this has to be in the realms of reality?
-
1
-
-
Not a combo, but I have a Matrix GT1000FX-2U and a pair of their FR12P cabs which I run in stereo.
To say that it sounds awesome is an understatement. To get the full on Helix experience, you really need to
bite the bullet and go FRFR.
-
It's great you guys have taken the time out to respond to my slightly misguided post. I went back to the shiny shop in Wardour Street and had a second go at the 59. I'll definitely be pushing the button on this when I've managed to flog my valve head and cab.
Interestingly they had a 59 USA model which was £3600, so it was rude not to try it to compare with the Korean made version!
Oh wow, what a difference - sorry, that should have read "oh wow what difference?" Apart from different tuners, and a a bit of rounding off around the pickup selector and control recesses, it played, felt and sounded identical to the considerably cheaper version. I know this post is all about the 59, but with £3600 to spend, I would probably be buying myself a standard 59 and still have change to have me a genuine Les Paul!!!
Point taken about the standard of staff in music shops in general. In fairness to the guy that served me, although he was fairly clueless about the product, and he didn't really try to sell the guitar to me, he did quote me a good price on the guitar and an L2t, and said that they would always beat any price as they were the main L65 dealer.
Cheers.
Paul.
PS : Mr. F. Flame - I can only guess that the user name is in homage to the most awesome Fender original Master Series of the mid eighties. Mine is still going strong, just wish I'd bought another couple back in the day. But alas I was a poor 6th former!!!
-
Guys,
Thank you so much for the responses. That makes absolute sense. Armed with this info, I'm going to head back to the shop to have a second demo.
I hadn't realised that that my ears were so sensitive to picking up the secondary string sound.... even after all these years of abusing them with loud music!!!!
In reality, the alternative tunings are the icing on the cake for the 59. It's the acoustic guitar modelling that really blows me away (complete with string squeek-
how cool is that!
Do any of you guys play your Variax through an L2 or L3? I'm considering going the whole "ultimate FRFR rig" route and would be interested to find out how
it sounds. I generally play at relatively low volume levels, so I would be particularly interested to hear if the units have very low background noise such as hiss.
Also, I can't determine whether they are passively cooled or have a fan. I have had issues in the past with fan noise on one of the old Peavey Triumph PAG
tube amps.
Once again, many thanks for taking the time to reply.
Paul.
AKA: The last man standing from The Men From Barnsley Council
-
Hi,
I'm seriously considering buying a JTV-59. The youtube videos are really impressive, but looking at the number of complaints
and gripes about Variax posted here, I'm beginning to doubt that it is as good as Line 6 are making it out to be.
I played a 59 at Yamaha's flagship London store last week and found that the alternative tunings were really terrible. there was
generally a ghost note after plucking the string which sounded a fraction of a second after the main note. The sales person couldn't offer
any explanation as to why the guitars (and I tried 2) sounded the way that they did.
I really want this to work out as I would like to integrate the guitar with my Helix. I suppose the question for JTV-59 owners is, would you
buy one again? And, are there any top tips to getting the technology to work properly?
Any comments would be much appreciated.
Paul.
Helix - Great at home - not great at Band Practice
in Helix
Posted
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!!