chromecity

For me, I had a bad Amp button (the one just to the right of the Home button). Mine had no click and would not push in. If you pressed on it hard - pretty clearly harder than you should have to, it would actuate, but it was defective. It was a minor defect, but I want to enjoy my Helix for many years to come. I don't want to start out with something broken right out the gate. So I called the retailer (Musician's Friend) and they would take it back but wouldn't have any to replace it with for several weeks. Having waited more than 6 weeks to start with, that didn't sound encouraging. I told them I would contact Line 6 and see what they had to say. Well, the downside to contacting Line 6 is that nobody will answer a phone so you have to do it via an online support ticket - and the support tickets are monitored by whoever happens to be doing that at the moment your ticket (or further reply about an issue) comes in. In my case, one person told me that I needed to send it off to California, and as soon as I had the proof from UPS that it was on its way, they would send another Helix out to me. That sounded decent and I did it. Then later that night when I went to add my proof from UPS that it was on its way, the support ticket had "auto-closed" itself and I could not even view it anywhere. So I opened another ticket and referenced the now-closed one. Well, whoever replied on that one said I was wrong and that they would not send me back any unit until after they received my defective one. That's pretty lousy, being as I only sent it out under the pretense of being told a different story. Eventually, after enough back-and-forth with several different support people who all fielded my responses with no regard for continuity, I finally got the original person back and their story was that I had never sent them the proof that UPS had my unit. That was untrue - it wasn't in the original support ticket because it had somehow "auto-closed" which I had nothing to do with. But I had submitted the info they requested in a different ticket that referenced that one. That was the only recourse available to me. At some point, they apparently realized how messed up they had gotten things because they then authorized a next-day Saturday delivery to get a unit back to me in the time-frame that they had originally promised. The only indication that the replacement unit was not brand-spanking new was that the clear plastic bag around it was very crumpled, but everything else was proper and it had the latest firmware already onboard. Bottom line - if you go through Line 6 and if they have any units to send you, that might be your quickest way to get a fully-working unit. But be prepared for them to mess around with you in the process - and there's only so much you can do to try to keep it from getting derailed because you will never be able to speak to a person and different people will interact with your support tickets almost every step of the way. Of course, your mileage may vary. Good luck.

Yeah, poor choice of words. I'm on a lot of cold medicine. Wait til tonight when I get to natures cold medicine (Jim Beam). Then my posts will really make sense... ;)

I can't imagine they would be tied in any way. The two are mutually exclusive. When an update is ready, you just download it and your unit is up-to-date, regardless of what production run it came from. The glitches that are being resolved are software glitches - they are not changing the hardware, just the software (firmware, in the case of the on-board software).

I've been a software developer for over 20 years. We make estimates and attempt to adhere to tentative schedules which need to be very flexible. The Helix development team does not necessarily have the type of fixed update schedule in place that you believe they have. When a sufficient amount of bug-fix goals have been met and tested to a high degree of confidence, then the updates will roll out. It's not as cut and dry as you have made it out to be and I don't see why Line 6 (or any company) would go out on a limb to say something will be ready before they know for sure. That would put them in a bad light in situations where they could not meet any posted schedule.

Thanks for the suggestion, Phil. I tried it and didn't get any different results. Eventually, it got to a point where it would work with the original cable. What I needed to do was set the switch under the pedal to "Other" (from "Standard"), and power down the Helix and let it power back on with the pedal in that state. Then it worked (of course, backwards, just like everybody else's 3rd-party expression pedals have been reported to do). So I'm in business now. Thanks for the assist!

Hi folks. Totaly newbie at this (like many I'd presume, being as it's so new). I've tried plugging my expression pedal into both of the available expression pedal jacks and powering on the unit. Then selecting a wah and setting the controller to be the corresponding one for whichever jack I'd plugged into. No luck with either jack - nothing appears to be detected about my expression pedal. It works fine with my Moog Minifooger OD pedal, so it's not just a defective expression pedal. And it claims that it's a generic expression pedal that will work with pretty much anything: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/moog-ep-3-universal-expression-pedal Is there some sort of configuration I need to do that I have overlooked? Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Glad you got that sorted out. Mine arrived (finally!) with a semi-defective button - the amplifier button (looks like an amp head) sort of works if you press it enough, but it has no spring action like all the other buttons. It doesn't appear to be one of the critical buttons that needs to be used, but I'm afraid it will probably stop working at some point. I'm going to keep the unit in pristine condition but use it until more come in before sending this back for a replacement. It's pretty impressive so far, although I have not tried to do all the stuff where people are running into bugginess. I had pretty low expectations and am pretty impressed thus far.

@Drew... Yesterday, Musician's Friend bumped the date to 10/18, then later to 10/23. Then this morning it says 10/10, as you mentioned. That sounds like they might actually have gotten some info on a shipment. Fingers crossed...