chancecasey

Thanks! I changed that a bit before my HX Edit decided to stop talking to my Helix for some reason. They were all set to "auto" and I did not notice a big difference changing it to 1M. 500k and lower sounded more muddy. I'll try more patches when I get the HX Edit working again. Just discovered this - I didn't even know you could just play a blank preset and it will, I guess, be the Helix's "no color" amp of the guitar. Not sure why I didn't try that before, but it is interesting to see how the different pickups sound on Helix's "blank" setting. One other interesting tidbit - I think the caps in the tone knobs of my guitar are 47's not 22's or whatever "should" be there for some reason. I ordered the smaller orange drop ones and will check out how those sound.

I guess I posted this question way too soon. Now that I have taken the time to read through some content on this site I realize just how deep the deep end is, and how users model for different guitars, pickups, etc. For now, I went through all the factory presets and copied over the ones to my user1 setlist that sounded good right out of the bag (there were a LOT!). I'll use those for starting points to tweak I guess. I was pleasantly surprised that on most of the clean patches, my new Jazz neck pickup sounded better than the bridge JB pickup - sometimes by a lot. Cleaner, clearer, with more detail, yet still somewhat "neck" sounding. Hard to describe in words. I guess I need to learn "tone lingo" now if there is such a thing.. I'll code the pickup that sounds best in the name of the patch, in addition to single coil once I wire that option in. So, is it really worth paying money for presets then, in your opinion? I understand IRs can make a difference also - but should I even bother with them before I've explored all the options in the preset? Are there any universal sort of "this one makes almost everything sound better than the "X" amp/cab combo it replaces"? I think I know the answer, but have to ask... :-)

Yes, I expected to have to tweak the Helix - that was one of the sentiments I read about it vs. Fractal in the user reviews before purchasing. Not sure how that's possible. I have no problem tweaking and playing (and learning) with the Helix. I'm a tinkerer, and tinkering with it is half the reason I bought it. Just a data point - I put the Seymore Duncan humbuckers in last night, SH2 / Jazz on neck and SH4 JB on bridge, and, well, it was NOT a night and day difference. I guess this batch of Agile guitars did not have such crappy PUPs after all. There was a bit more, I dunno, "clarity" and character - but still very, I guess what they call "warm" vs. "bright". I would almost say muddy still. I know LP guitars and humbuckers are supposed to be more warm by nature but jeez, quite the difference from the Strat of my youth. I did not change out the pots and toggle switch yet - however I am doubtful those are doing anything too bad to the tone since I have it set at no treble cut. I do plan to do that, however, and will likely put in a new toggle or push/pull pots to access the single coils in them (they are 4-conductor) for more options. Hoping for something brighter. I know a lot of people would say just get a Strat but I've had a Strat, don't want a second guitar to manage right now, and frankly I'm finding this tone experimentation fun!

cruisinon2, The goal/theory was to isolate the differences to just the guitar/player. If Jason plugged his helix into his Mac to record as did I, then it's the same ADC chain. I played both his and my sounds back through my Mac - same DAC and speaker chain. We'll see. The choices are overwhelming. Thinking about picking up whatever Guitar Center has in stock just because I don't want to wait and in the mood to tweak. Seems like the "Slash" Seymore Duncans are the best rated passive humuckers they have at the store. Anyone play with these?

Hi everyone! I followed the Jason Sadites part 1 tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dan5B0Ydfqk&t=735s With the EXACT same settings, my tone was just, eh, muddy in comparison. However, I was playing the YouTube through the Mac and listening to my Helix on my $49 Audio Technica low impedance phones plugged into Helix. I changed the headphones monitor global setting to 1/4", didn't help. I kind of fixed it a bit by massive tweaking of the 10-band eq, but that just didn't sit well with me. I suspected it was my headphones not getting driven enough (probably an issue also) or it's just my guitar pickups are "muddy". To try to eliminate variables, I plugged my helix into my Mac and monitored the processed tone in Ableton. I listened with and without phones to my Mac - playing both Jason's YouTube video and my guitar - same issue. Mine was just, eh, muddy in comparison. If Jason recorded his processed helix output directly to computer - in theory it "should" sound the same as me monitoring it on Ableton. I mean, it's my Mac's DAC and speakers in both cases. At least, I've eliminated the headphones from being a major cause of this issue. Does anyone agree/disagree with this? I tried adjusting my pickup height, no real change. I am using bridge pickup on full treble. Still not bright enough. Muddy. I also remember I couldn't quite shake the "muddy" tone when plugged into a cheap Bugera amp (the only other thing I've plugged this guitar into). Also, I have one other "kid" guitar which is a real POS china-strat and it was actually a bit brighter - closer. My guitar is a few years old Agile 3010 with Alnico pickups that everyone raves about, but I suspect the issue is my pickups (or pots?). May be time to go to guitar center. I only need the bridge pickup - cheaper than HD 600's and I can return it if it doesn't fix the issue.

Thank you very much! I was finally able to get it working. I had to "approve" a driver in the security section of system preferences on my Mac. Then, using the latest updater I tried 2.71 again. The update "seemed" to work, but when the helix rebooted it just showed the boot error / update mode screen like forever. However, when I saw it in the updater screen it said it was at 2.71 now - but still not working. So, I just went ahead and then updated to 2.82 and voila! Works great now! SOOOOO relieved!!! I also ran the new HX edit and downloaded the free line 6 IRs. Now the massive learning process begins. I do quite like the PV Panama preset - I assume that stands for EVH's 5150 Peavey amp - sounds pretty tight!

Hi everyone! I did not follow the instructions to "back up" using HX Edit because the machine is brand new so nothing to back up. The instructions should be more clear it is MORE than a backup and is required. Anyway, the Line 6 Updater failed. I tried installing 2.71, 2.82, 2.5, even 2.30 again - all with the same results - install failed. By the way, nowhere in the instructions does it say if you need to do ALL the FW steps from 2.30 to 2.82 or not. I just saw that "2.71 or earlier" in the 2.82 instructions so that's what I tried first. I downloaded HX Edit 2.30 (current FW version) and it will not connect says error unknown -9123. So now, neither HX Edit works nor Line 6 Updater and my new Helix is now a brick. What can I do now? Max OS High Sierra 10.13.6 Helix LT 2.30