m_lance

I'm sure this has been posted already but a quick search didn't find anything. I love my Helix Floor but my presets are out of DSP. I play in church and normally use one guitar and one preset per service. I use it in 10-stomp pedalboard mode. My presets are maxed out. I've got mono everything into the amp and stereo after with stereo cabs BUT I don't have enough DSP to add stereo amps. I'm admittedly partial to the newer and more DSP-heavy blocks but I REALLY want stereo amps. So maybe you don't want to make a Helix 2. Can you at least make a Helix 1.5 that has upgraded DSP chips with more power? Thanks!

I'll add that after trying the cables that worked, I tried the one that didn't work again and it still didn't work which leads me to believe it is the cables and not just dirt or an issue with the HD Desktop or FBV ethernet jacks.

Tonight, had the same problem where the FBV display got stuck at initialization with "FBV 5B MKII" displayed on the screen. The issue was a faulty (or perhaps dirty) ethernet cable. Here's more specifics as to the problem. When I start up my POD HD Desktop with the FBV Shortboard MKII connected, the FBV typically shows "FBV 5B MKII" for a couple of seconds before becoming functional. Tonight, it got stuck at that point ... the screen just showed "FBV 5B MKII" and none of the LEDs on the buttons lit up. After playing for a minute, I figured out that the buttons still turned effects on and off (I don't used them in bank up/down mode), but the tap/tuner button would not start the tuner (I could still turn the tuner on by hand using the HD Desktop button). So I was able to limp along through our set as I only needed to turn one effect on and off for the entire night. I switched ethernet cables before the set, and of course, left the old one at home. Our sound man had an extra cable, but I tried his and had the same issue. The FBV still displayed "FBV 5B MKII" and the LEDs did not light up. After I got home, I tried two additional ethernet cables ... one that is dedicated to using the POD at my computer and the old one I used live up to this afternoon. Both worked with no problems. Using either of those two cables, my FBV initialized just fine (i.e., the "FBV 5B MKII" only stayed on the screen a couple of seconds and then the FBV started working like normal). I'm wondering from what was posted above if the other two cables are just dirty or if they're broken. Seems odd that two cables worked and two did not. I'd have expected only one bad out of four. I may post again if I can figure out what is different with the two cables that did not work. So bottom line is make sure your ethernet cable is good. And try a few just in case you have the same problem I had.

To Zoomstrat, I recently switched from a traditional rig to the HD500 series. On my traditional rig, I ran a few different overdrive stomp boxes into a big clean Fender amp. I used the stomp boxes for the distortion sound and left the amp clean. This is always just what sounded best to my ears. When I switched to the HD500, I dialed it in to sound just like my live rig (got really close) and just like the live rig, I use the Fender Twin on a great clean tone with overdrives (tube screamer and tube driver) for the distortion tone. I also use the Line 6 Drive in place of my fuzz for solo boost. I've only had one really nice amp, the big Fender, and I never cared for the way the amp's distortion sounded. But its clean tones are AWESOME! And the overdrive pedals always sounded fantastic, so I went with that. The HD500 is set up the same. Have fun!