PierM

The dead spots are by design. Contacted Roland last year and they explained the pedal range has been engineered to work 1:1 in the 1/127 range, so min and max aren't floored to mechanical limits. If you want to remove both IN and OUT dead spots you can use two piece of rubber. Works pretty good and it also remove that dry knock noise, when you hit the case with the huge pedal.

I'll tell you my problems, other people will say it's amazing. In my real life experience, it's a no go. 1) Monitor Input stage is doomed by compression hiss (see the video in the other dedicated thread) 2) When used in Stereo (using the two Monitor IN) it does use just the 2 coax L/R speakers and the limiter kicks in very early. Tone is thin, dynamic is gone. Volume range is limited to bedroom levels. It's like using two 5" speakers that you could buy alone (and probably working even better with no HISS), without breaking your back to move the thing. 3) When used in Wide Stereo (Monitor IN) it does use the two 5.5" coaxial and center speaker, but still you have the compression hiss, from 40% to 100% of the volume. If you play some part of your songs with clean tone, is like a pink/white noise flooding your music. Awful. It also does not mix at all in a gig. Weak presence. This is all real life experience. Again, get a look to that video the guy posted in the other thread. 4) Wet/Dry/Wet; it consists basically in splitting your Helix patch signal after amp modeling, with the stereo effect routed to the Monitor IN, and the dry signal sent to the FH1500 guitar in (using a empty preset). This way you have all speakers working but you are limited in the usage of the Helix stereo effect to avoid the phase cancellation. You'll need to rethink your entire way in creating presets, and you'll be forced to specific patterns. Once you did your presets for that scheme, you'll need to redo your presets for recording, foh and also basic gigs, as the Wet/Dry/Wet does really not mix in a band at high volumes. It's, as before, weak. You will end with a dominant of the dry signal into the mix, with effects buried by the other instruments and amp hiss, since they are driven by two 5.5". Again, bedroom scheme may works, or one man show. Not more than that. (Playing with a friend, I've been humiliated by a Fender Princeton reissue.) 5) It's heavy as a boat anchor. This wouldn't be a problem if only working good. 6) Line 6 support on this amp is zero. If you contact them via ticket they'll tell you it's not an issue, but it's the way the amp is working. If you moan on thread, nobody seems caring with technical responses. If you ask for a firmware, no one will give you an answer. 7) The app is a mess. It does keep disconnecting. Hanging. The procedure to save a preset in the amp is ridicolous. 8) When used alone, MIDI is useless. The manual is wrong, as confirmed by L6. Only way to control your presets it's buying its own board. All you can do with a controller, despite the full MIDI interface on the back, is to change preset UP/DOWN. The goods; it does sound stellar if used alone (just remember to turn down to zero the monitor in gain). DSP here works at best, and soon or later you'll start asking yourself why you need to use the Helix with it, messing with cables, phase issues, HISS...to get a ridiculous tone. :) The goods 2: If you use it in Mono, many problems are gone (apart the hiss). But then I'd buy a L2T or L2M. ;) Good luck with your choice. :)

Not a biggie for me. I can use an extra footswitch on the RC300 to tap tempo there, instead on the Helix. Hope this works, or would be a meh!

The FH1500 has not L6 Links. It has just standard Analogic inputs. That signal is then managed by the internal DSP to be processed and then sent back to speakers. Guitar in go through the Firehawk FX, while Monitor IN are bypassing that stage. Monitor IN needs to be set to 0dB to respect the signal coming from the Helix, but its doomed by hiss. See the video above. Only way to engage all six speakers, using with the Helix, is to go Wet/Dry/Wet using both Monitor In and Guitar IN on the amp. Which means your Helix preset routing is limited to specific settings (100% wet on the stereo path) to avoid phase cancellation and then you'll probably need extra versions of same presets to work in studio and live. Another issues with this setup is you get the compression hiss killing your signal once you are around 50% of the volume and above, which make the amp useless for high volume purpose. The only hope I personally have is they can reduce that HISS, so I can at least get proper volume. At the moment, Helix + FH1500, it's a bedroom setup. FH1500 alone is a blast. :)

Gold for me too, to master the RC300 looper tempo with the Helix tempo. Game changer. :)

If I put a TS - TS with my pedals they don't work. First thing I tried when bought the Boss. Figure. :D

Hmmm. My custom cables, which I'm using with FV500H Exp pedals, are leaving the Ring out of the circuit. It's tip to tip and sleeve to sleeve, and TRS into the Pedal and TS into the Helix EXP. As side note; if I connect the TRS to the Helix EXP, and the TS on the pedal, I get that 50% @ 100% issue. It's number 9 in this scheme;

That is also what I did with my beloved Boss FV500H and they work flawless. :)

Yeah, this is something we already knew, and also why the amp sounds miles better when used alone, as it use all speakers plus the top horn. That limitation makes the amp totally useless for FRFR purpose, above the 35/40% of the volume. Unless you dont go mono, but then dear L6, explain why people should buy a 30Kg amp with a million of speakers, to play mono. Just make your advertise and your manuals clear (and correct), so next time I don't lose my time and my money. Thanks.

Exactly same rubbish I have on my own. Noise as hell, compressend sound, everything goes squeezed. Problem is L6 does not seems to give a damn, and those guys saying the Helix sounds great with that amp, are not helping for sure. Thanks a lot for the video!

"Sounds great" means not to much in terms of facts checking. :) It may sounds great to you, and that is totally fine. But that is a subjective opinion. I will never argue with that. Happy for you. I see many other guys which are feeling same as me, with the amp working compressed, dull and weak, when connected to the Helix or something else. Don't get me wrong, it does sounds great to me too, but when used alone. It's huge. Fact is, there is a BIG difference when using built in AMP blocks and when using those coming from external devices, due the difference speaker usage by the DSP. The "in room" effect you get using just the FH1500, with its own amp blocks, it's impossible to reproduce when using whatever connection you want. Monitor IN, Return IN, 4 Cable, 5 Cable, etc.. Other than that, the SNR is real low quality when using external device, as well the drop in overall volume. Said that, again, if you are happy with your tone it's totally fine. At the moment I'm using the Helix with L2M and FH1500 alone and I'm happy too. Hope they will fix that aspect with future firmware (if it will ever happen), because getting the same "amp in the room" effect, but using the Helix amp simulation quality, would be a blast.

Happy you like it, still there is a problem with that amp and it's not an opinion. Proof is there are a LOT of reports about that and no, there is not any "connected correctly" to talk about. There are 2 inputs, they work bad, really bad... But glad you like your tone. :)

The best sound with the Helix + Firehawk1500 is when you use the Amp modeling in the FH1500 and use the Helix just as effect board. Yes, that's it. I'm not saying the FH1500 has better modeling than the Helix (I would be just stupid saying so), but the way that amp it's engineered, doesn't really work great with the Helix, because the particular speaker scheme and assignation...and the way it does manage the stereo when using external sources. It's like everything goes compressed once you plug left and right, whatever trick you use, isn't working good as when you use all speakers engaged by its own Amp blocks, in the HD version. To barely solve the problem you are forced to push on the gain (and that is producing noise), setting up the Helix in a odd way just to make it sounding as you'd hope, with the FH1500.

Stock pups are ridiculous HOT and flat. I've measured 14.5KOhm average from both, which is the official output of G&S G-109 humbucker, which should be the one used in the JTV59. Considering how weak the variax models are, in terms of overall output, I would swap mags with some warm and low output humbucker and/or P90 humbucker sized. I would stay on average 8KOhm so you don't have to do crazy things when moving from models to mags, and also you don't have to push on model gains to make it barely balanced with mags. I'm planning to do the same with mine, with a couple of '57, or P94. Still have to decide....:)

If you play clean stuff as me, the best sound (and I'm seriously saying BEST) it's coming from the Firehawk 1500 amp blocks, nothing more, nothing less. The difference between using, for example, the fender clean amps (in the HD version) stock in the Firehawk 1500, and the one I've in the Helix connected via Monitor IN, it's embarrassing. Same simulated amp, same settings, no effects, just the amp block. Try for yourself. :) Not talking using headphones, but using the Firehawk as a monitor/speaker. Using just the FH 1500 you get that huge, airy, open, bright tone. It's like you have the real amp in your room. When you go back to the one in the Helix (or whatever modeler connected through the Monitor IN, or the Returns), it does sound flat, closed, very small and compressed. Same using IRs. There is nothing you can do to make external modelers to give you the same huge sound you get straight from the Firehawk, using its own Amp blocks. There is some trick the FH1500 DSP is doing with speakers, when using its own amp blocks, something you can't do when using back inputs. If you want to test yourself, and you have the Helix, or the PODHD, try a preset with just a Tweed bright amp block in the modeler, connected to the Firehawk through Monitor IN. Then do the same using the same amp model, but this time using the one you have in the Firehawk. Save both, and switch between the two to compare A/B. :)

I've this bug, as the OP describes, since last update yes.

Last update completely messed up my patches using multiple blocks assigned to a footswitch and it seems totally erratic. Basically it happens that multiple blocks goes OFF when I click a different footswitch, like 2 reverbs going off when I click off on a Delay footswitch, and viceversa. Reliability on these updates is going worse than better. Never had all these problems with old firmware.

Since last update 2.11, when I split my signal, just after the input block, to use 2 amps, I get no signal on second path.. so I need to select that split and go back and forth to get the signal back.

Yes. At bedroom levels, it's good. Signal to Noise is acceptable. When you pass 50%, and especially when you hit 3/4 at 0dBs, the HISS is ridiculous. Problem is, it is not just a subtle noise, it's some sort of white/pink noise, very high frequency, so it does really kill your signal. I do play mostly jazz and clean stuff, and for me it's a total deal breaker. I'm in fact going to sell it for that reason as It looks like L6 really does not care about (and because I think it's hardware side). A workaround can be to use Helix to L/R returns in the FH1500, to avoid the gain section which is the module producing the most of the hiss, but still, even that section is too noisy if compared to other speakers. My L2M (apart the fan kicking when it's hot), it does not produce any digital hiss, at all.

I would not buy the 1500 for the Helix. I did, and I'm not happy, at all. In fact I'm now using my "old" L2M. Don't get me wrong, FH1500 It's a great amp, but standalone. As FRFR is noisy as hell. The monitor input is doomed by digital HISS. MIDI control is subzero. I believe there is to much electronics involved along the path, even with the FH off, which you really don't need for a real FRFR. For the price you have better solutions, imho. :)

Best thread ever. Mind to share what you did to fix the hiss?

That is a bug. I reported this on 28 August, Ticket ID: 277652, and they confirmed and logged the bug. Looks like isnt high in their priority list. :)

The only change I noticed is the Headphone Volume level. Dramatic drop for me; used to play at 3/4 of headphone level, now even at max it's really low.

Let's face it; that amp it's sort of abandoned project. Ideascale it will never work as the userbase it's too small that people who needs that MIDI section working as advertised are so few that you could count them on the fingers of one hand or two.

Yeah, at bedroom levels the hiss is less, still there btw. I'm mostly playing clean, so for me the hiss is something way more noticeable than a shredder. :) It start being loud as hell after 3/4 of volume (gig volume), again, you don't need to play so you can test it in house too, without being arrested by cops. :D BTW, Helix is set XLR--->Line, but you don't even need that as the hiss isn't noise induced by the source, but it's generated by the FH1500 gain section.