Dano2019

Jackgoat, here's a screenshot of the preset I described. Nothing fancy, I'm still learning how to create Helix presets. But this works for me.

I'll try to remind myself to get a screenshot tonight when I get home. The one thing I DO have to do with my setup is some manual level-matching before the gig. That usually comes down to getting my Helix-only level where I want it, first, and then setting the clean and crunch channel levels on the Crate to match, as a final step. My Helix presets use A/B loops for switching between the Helix/Crate amps. I should point out that I've ditched FRFR for a couple of gigs. The Helix preamps in my presets are routed to the Crate effects return, not through the front of the Crate. I mic'ed the Crate speaker for everything (no Helix XLR to FOH). Recordings made from the audience reassured me that my sound did not suffer by doing it this way. I had been worried about that.

I see that the Orange cr120 amp has an effects loop, which you'll of course want to be using with the 4cm. I have an old Crate vintage club 30 which has an effects loop, and referred to the video above when setting it up, and it works awesome. In my Helix presets I set up one of the foot switches to switch between Helix preamps and the Crate preamp, and switch between the two a lot, depending on the song. The Helix effects I have before the two preamp choices can be used by either of the two, and the post preamp effects (delays, etc...) can also be used by either one. I also have one foot switch dedicated to switching the channels on the Crate, and use that a lot also. I enjoy having so many options available, and to be able to switch between old school tube amp and modern Helix technology with the press of a switch. I've encountered no noise problems with my setup.

I had one of those AX2s for years. In fact mine was an "AxSys 212" that I upgraded to AX2 by swapping out the circuit board with the upgrade one. Since the amp was tasked with reproducing a wide range of tones I'll bet it might do a good job as a Helix poweramp. I can understand wanting to know the answer before shelling out the cash, though. As I recall it did a good job of putting out everything from super clean sounds to highly distorted ones, for its time anyways.

I played a gig like that recently. A bunch of bands in the line up, with everyone using the same PA. When it came to our turn, it took one of the sound guys less than 5 seconds to unplug the mic and hand me the XLR cable that had been in front of one of the previous guitar player's amp. I then plugged that into the left XLR out on my Helix. Nothing could have been easier.

Thanks phil_m I'll give that a try tonight.

I'd like to use my Helix EXT AMP 1/2 jack to switch channels on a tube guitar amp that uses a TS (mono) jack for channel switching, not TRS. Is the use of a TRS jack mandatory on the Helix, which would then require me to wire up a custom cable? Thanks for any advice.