jondufour

Using the stylized icons was just part of the UI/graphic design decision early on. I saw a few different mock-up ideas for what the editor would look like, and some involved denser graphics on the signal flow view, and my vote was for the icons. I thought the individual pedals actual made things look to busy. The thing I like about the icons and the color-coding is that even if you don't know the exact model right away, you can look at the signal flow and immediately get an idea of what's going on. If you have a little picture of, say, a RAT pedal, you don't have the immediate association of, "oh, this is a distortion"... So I think it might be kind of counter-intuituve, but I think the icons actually make things faster in a way.

This is exactly what my guess behind the icon choice was.

Not to mention how many more icons one would have to memorize if it showed unique ones for every block..is that a chrome custom wah or the chrome or the weeper or the ... you get the picture.

And they would be tiny.

I'll be getting some IEM's this month and feeding those with my own mix off the board....I won't even be bringing a floor monitor with me. I'm so excited about carrying my guitar, my IEM's and my Helix into the club in one trip that I can't even describe it.

Check out this thread here:

http://line6.com/support/topic/21821-modding-a-cry-baby-to-make-an-expression-pedal/

 

This is where I got all the specifics in putting this together.

THANK YOU!!! I can't believe how cheap this mod is. There is almost certainly some junk cry baby wah's in the back at my local music store that I can gut for this, awesome!

I don't have the Mission expression pedal but I've put together a very similar design using an old crybaby.

I took out all the crybaby guts and and put in this  10k pot:

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/potentiometer-dunlop-10k-linear

I put in a 1/4 inch guitar jack as well. I use it strictly for wah and whammy effects using the auto-engage feature.

I also stuffed a spring in the toe end so it returns to heel position when I take my foot off. I put a dab of gorilla glue at the base of the spring although It probably wasn't really needed.

 

I've been gigging with this for months now and it works great. For wah stuff i like the feel of it better than the on board pedal. I was also having problems with the on-board pedal not reaching 100% on pitch-wham stuff (I have theory on why this is, but that's for another thread). I've had zero issues with the external pedal.

That is absolutely awesome. I might have to give this a try too. I'm thinking find a cheap used one and re-purpose as an extra expression pedal.

This is the kind of thing that annoys me to no end, rack gear with no inputs in the back....what ... the ... heck. It's something that instantly takes a device off the list for me. I'm sure the excuse is well it's for the studio and you can plug things in the front....um yeah I can also have a cable running out the back that gets plugged into different things.

anyway...I love the Helix more than any piece of guitar gear I've owned and simply wouldn't buy the rack version for that very reason.

I loved the Bad Horsie sound and its sweep.  But if you're not using it with a few other pedals, its buffered bypass has a very noticeable change to your signal (and yes can be noisy).  Pretty much the same reason I switched.

Me as well, I've used this single Bad Horsie Wah Pedal since it was brand new on the market. It was so noisy for me with the Helix I had to put a noise gate after it. I even got another 9volt adapter just in case my older one was going bad and no change. 

After so many years of that switchless feature, just no way I could ever use a switched Wah again. 

So, even though I don't feel the Helix wah's are all that great, when I saw Mission had a spring option and I was mostly sure I could make it auto on with the Helix, oh yes, I'm all over that :)

I didn't even realize they offered spring loaded versions.  I have the regular one with the toe switch "SP1-L6 Helix".  As soon as the auto engage feature was added to Helix I stopped using the toe switch. I always loved the Morely Bad Horsie wah or the Dunlop 95Q, mainly for the spring/switchless feature.  

 

 Auto engage is easy to set up.  You set the position value for it, and it will bypass the block when it drops below that value.  There is even an adjustment for how quickly or slowly it bypasses the wah, so it doesn't constantly accidentally turn off while you sweep through the lower range.

 

Just a heads up, with the spring always returning it to heel position, it won't be a very effective expression for anything except wah and whammy uses.

Perfect, that's what I want and this will always be my wah pedal. I use the Helix pedal for expression and long volume swells. I gig a lot so I like to have the wah pedal auto engage as I'll grab it for random licks or something spontaneous.

I didn't know they had a spring load either, I was looking it up on the Mission site and that's where I spotted the option. This is replacing my Bad Horsie as that wah pedal is noisy as hell with the Helix and I won't have to deal with another ac adapter :)

Anyone using one of these expression pedals successfully for switchless wah? 

Some research tells me this probably works by setting the bypass parameter correctly so it activates when not in full toe position.

Let Pete tell you about a backup solution for $299.  :) 

Yep, my singer who covers some rhythm playing is picking up one of these and I'm grabbing one too. Put it in my guitar case for the gig as the back up, I'm not aware of a more perfect solution at the moment.

I simply use my ears and adjust the channel volume on the amp block to balance between presets/snaps.

Current preset is

Jazz Rivet

Mandarin 80

I'm using the expression pedal to go between full clean on the Jazz and and full dirty on the Mandarin which still has about 60% of the Jazz mixed in.

On the Mandarin I'm doing 8.5 gain with master and bias at 10 but I found a fun thing was turning the Hum up to 7 or just a tiny bit higher. Makes this cool overtone type thing happen when bending notes up.

Lead drive is Tube Screamer with gain 0 tone 3 level 7.5

I'm also using the free IR from Celestion, found I really like that one over all the other IR's I have.

I like the new editor so much better. Feels more like a more modern piece of software to me now.

Yes, really sounded good! I started thinking a cool thing would be assigning the drive and other parameters to the expression pedal and using that to fade between clean and over drive tones.

Are the black friday coupon codes for single cabs at Celestion working for anyone? I just get a coupon not valid error. 

I'm currently using a Lenovo X1 Yogo laptop with Win10. Helix is connected via USB and I'll have Helix editor, Chrome open to YouTube and Reaper at the same time.

I've never had the USB flake out. Nor any issue if I switch to my desktop.

*one item of note is my laptop and desktop are clean installs of windows, not out of the box with factory bloatware. Just in case anyone is running their computer that way, know it will be significantly better with a clean install of the OS. Meaning only windows and the apps you need to get the job done.

Just make the current ones sound even better, Helix has plenty of amps from my point of view.

I have never had a need for more three tones anyway. Clean, rhythm and lead and I did exactly that for a decade with a single Marshall JCM 800 and guitar.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, ability to rename the amps, effect, etc to what I want to name would actually be really cool.

*Edit - Improve the wah fx.

I use my Morley cause of the instant on it does but ewwww, the Helix wah fx just sound awful to me and I would buying a wah pedal if I didn't already have one.

I bought the Helix as a stand alone device, and use Line 6's Helix software solely for the necessity of updating firmware.

 

Once the overhauled HX Edit appears and Line 6 then overhauls the remaining suite of Helix software (Firmware Installation, Updater, Presets Backup & Restore, and IR Management) such that overall Helix housekeeping is brought to a modern level of operational functionality (including screen scaling for large hi res and 4k monitors), I'll reconsider using Helix with a computer. Until then, it's a stand alone device for me.

I too mostly use it as stand alone but sometimes it's just nice to connect the laptop which is at desk level and the helix is on the floor. There are things you can do for tweaking your sound in the editor much more efficiently than on the helix itself.

Plus the joystick on the helix just feels like it's going to wear out sooner than later to me.

Helix's firmware technology engine is now also being referred to with the new name: "Helix Core."

 

Oh god....another "core" software thing.

In IT and I hear this constantly, feels more like it's a trend now to identify everything as core.

...nothing is core when everything is core.

I did however experience this exact thing yesterday. Tweaked a template then wanted to save it to my intended destination. Can't do that via Save in the editor. I can however click copy on the template then change to my intended slot and paste it. It will ask to overwrite.

So that's a workaround but it would be more natural to have a 'Save To' and then select a slot, OK.

Or.... put a send block just before cab, set to instrument. No need to "waste" a split if you need it for something else..

 

Cat skinning.... no cats were harmed in this post..

This is a really great idea!

Yep you can totally do that.

Just put a split at the right spot in the chain where you want separate, I usually use a gain block to create the split. One side continues to the IR and FOH on the XLR outs and the other to the 1/4 outs and to your amp/cab.

something to be aware of, there aren't any power amp only models. It's pre-amp and amps (pre-amp / power amp together). Just to be clear based on the wording but wouldn't really make any difference.

I got my case from roadcasesusa about a year ago and my carpet is starting to come up from my case. I've had to pull my unit out a few times as it is velcroed in. I took the feet off of mine.

Most of the time the unit will be laying flat but no doubt it's going to be set on it's side enough times in transport that I would expect that to eventually happen.

I removed the rubber feet and found screws that fit the Helix which I used to add two pine cleats to the bottom of the Helix. The two pine cleats (holding the Helix) are held into the road case with wood screws. See this post for more information: http://line6.com/support/topic/17965-removing-rubber-feet/?hl=mikeolivercgp&do=findComment&comment=133317

That is a super great idea. It did not occur to me to secure the Helix to the case tray by attaching screws from the outside.

Could someone tell me what the dimensions of the G50 with the antennae on is please?

I'm laying out my pedalboard with the helix and need to make sure it will fit before placing an order for the G50.

Thanks!

I went with the 3M dual lock stuff and removed the feet. The Dual-Lock is pretty thick and still leaves ~ 3/8" for breathing room under the board. I mounted mine straight to the carpet with the adhesive on the velcro stuff and it hasn't budged in the last couple weeks, but we'll see how it holds up.

I'm curious about removing the feet, seems that I will need to for spreading out the contact load. Although, It would drop the helix deeper into tray so perhaps cutting two strips of wood and screwing that to the road case then mount the Helix to those strips with the 3M would work good. Point being retaining the height the Helix sits in the tray or even raising it a small amount would actually be nice.

I'll decide on that when I see the thickness of that dual lock, hard to tell exactly in pictures.

I think I'm going to pursue that idea.

*edit, Amazon shows that 3M as being .23 inches, probably be just fine.

I just got a USA road case for my helix with a little room for an extra wah pedal, wireless and I'm curious how others have mounted their Helix?

I did some searching and a person had mentioned they were using the 3M hook and loop velcro but didn't have to remove the feet on the Helix? How?

A second thing I'm curious about is the carpet stuff in the road case used to cover the bare wood, does that pull up over time? Should I trim it out and mount directly to wood?