soundog

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I wish I hadn't read this thread on Thanksgiving morning. Or ever.

Yes, I think that's exactly what happened. The wire came completely off the piezo, under the ceramic. Good advice on the gentle alcohol cleaning, I'll do that when I change strings.

Back at ya! :D Gobble. Gobble.

And ... I'm still looking forward to a Variax Pack!

I'm one of those who really looks forward to: Workbench support—check! After that, all of the cool, crazy things that I don't expect. Yowza!

Its OK with me to always respond to SPP. My current timing sync needs are simple ---- send musical time sync (tempo) to the Helix via MIDI from my DAW for tempo information. I need this to sync to DAW tempo, with Helix as a simple slave. Even at a very basic level of support, if the Helix received tempo and then freewheeled, any time-synced effects (eg delay, modulation) would be good enough for me. Others may want critical start/stop stuff if they want to use Helix looper as a master, but I wonder how many actually use the looper as in performance vs just messing around with it or using it to tweak presets and tones.

@psarkissin -- Update: received the 2 piezos I ordered from Full Compass. I replaced the heavily oxidized one (low E), kept another as a spare. The ribbon cable inserted back in the board connector without too much trouble. Everything is back together and its working great. I'm still not certain what the root cause was. A failing piezo wire (the solder joints all looked good)? As mentioned, the wire disconnected at the low E piezo end when subjected to slight strain. Also, the same piezo looked dirty/oxidized and was "frozen" in its socket. Could that alone have caused the problem? And, if so, is there any preventative maintenance I could do to prevent future problems (such as spraying a bit of silicone on the piezo, etc)? Any guesses? At any rate, I'm very happy to have a fully functioning V700 again for this weekend's gig! :)

Great "minor" update. Keeps getting better and better. Still waiting for MIDI clock support (sync to incoming), and Workbench HD support. Then I will do a little dance.

Black Friday at Walmart (starts at 6 A.M.)

It's coming soon...I can feel it in my bones.

This is the most economical solution I've found and it works great. http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/usb-host-board-v2 Get the Midi Device firmware version, and you'll also need a power supply, 5-pin DIN connectors, and a couple of resistors.

A thing of beauty! If you're coming from guitar, you may want to try a bit lighter strings (100's instead of 110s). I like DR MLR-45 Hi Beams. And make sure the action is set low enough for you, sometimes they're set high at the factory, but I'm not sure about the newer J-basses.

I think it depends on how "active" the preamp in your guitar/bass is. It may take some experimenting. My Stingray bass seems to have a lot of output (especially with a fresh battery), so I ended up using the aux input because the guitar seemed too hot in the guitar input and sometimes heard what I thought was digital distortion. But others have reported (in another thread somewhere) they used the guitar pickup without issue. Try running some of the stock clean presets (no distortion blocks) using the guitar input and see if you hear anything nasty, and go from there. Try dialing up the gain on a clean amp and listen to where things start breaking up. You may like the guitar input more than the aux, or vice versa.

Thanks. I'll keep you posted ... piezos are in the mail. I can't gig 100% without my trusty 700!

@inerzia -- Don't worry, be happy. Buy them or don't. Ain't no big thang.

I've never encountered this using USB 1/2 when using Logic or Studio One 3. Weird.

a: ultra sensitive sensors from ebay b: Helix landed on cat c: lives on Jupiter, gravity 2.4 times that of Earth d: all of the above

The low E piezo was heavily oxidized and "frozen" in place. I noted that the other piezos were free to wiggle about in their sockets. I tried to clean the piezo using some CRC QD cleaner, but the wire was so corroded it just broke off at the piezo end. I've ordered a replacement from Full Compass. @psarkissian - you weren't kidding about the ribbon connector. I could find no obvious way to disconnect it, and may have buggered it. Both the ribbon cable and the pins from the piezo solder board came out of the black plastic connector. I won't know if I did damage until I solder the new piezo in and string it back up. Fingers crossed.

Gk9 -- yes, you can assign new or edited models to a specific "slot" in your Variax. If you upload Glenn's custom models into Workbench, you can audition them, then choose which ones you want to upload to and save in the Variax. If you do that, they will overwrite the previous model. But, those get backed up in a file on your computer, so you can recall them if you want. Its really quite easy when you get the hang of it. The most work right now is that Workbench HD won't work directly with Helix. You have to power your Variax from its charged battery, connect it to the Workbench dongle with a Variax (or ethernet) cable, connect the dongle to your computer with a USB cable, connect your Variax with 1/4" guitar cable to an amp (or Helix) to audition the sounds, and then run Workbench. Its pain in the toucas, but someday Line 6 will add support to Helix and Workbench so they work directly together. (In the meantime, vote up Workbench integration on IdeaScale here: http://line6.ideascale.com/a/ideas/search?templateId=0&discussionID=51424&tag=&query=Workbench+HD&date-submitted=&daterangepicker_start=&daterangepicker_end=&date-last-activity=&daterangepicker_start=&daterangepicker_end=

Thanks for the tip, Colonel! Got it. I haven't tried their electric-git IRs yet, but love their acoustic-git IRs.

They're Workbench files that can be loaded into Workbench, then you can upload the presets into your Variax so they are stored in the guitar. You can upload them into any slot, such as your "Custom" tones. Its easy to get the hang of after you've spend a little time with Workbench HD. If you own a Variax its worth doing, as Workbench really opens up the power of the Variax. I don't think there are any videos of the presets, but they are well worth the $6.99 in my opinion!

@amsdenj's tips are good, I've tried his Variax suggestions before (like using the Plank body) with very useful results. Also, Glenn DeLaune's Variax patches are good, and are helpful for learning how others use Workbench to create custom tones, or make improvements to the existing ones. I especially like his Les Pauls and Strats. Much better than the stock versions. Here's the link (scroll down to the image of the Variax guitar on the left) https://glenndelaune.com/patch%20downloads.htm

True ... if you are a guitarist and want to pick up bass as a "second" instrument, I would get something with a narrower, thinner neck. So, the J over the P for sure. Tonally, they would both work great with the Helix.

Regarding bass and the Helix, I've been experimenting with them to record bass tracks in a home studio. I usually record bass by mixing DI input (through a nice DI box), and a mic'ed cabinet (AKG D12 with an Ampeg B15). I thought I'd see what kind of results I could get from the Helix. First I did a split recording of my usual DI, and the Helix dry signal (USB 7). They were close enough that they nulled out if I reversed the phase on 1 track, and I couldn't hear any difference between the two through good headphones or monitors. So, the Helix passed test 1 (for the DI track). For the mic'ed cabinet track, I set up a simple preset using the Tuck n Go amp block with an RedWirez B15 IR, and the IR at 100%. That recording was very convincing when compared to recordings of the real thing, with a lot less hassle. This experiment has been promising enough for me to change my normal workflow for recording bass, and just use the Helix. Plus, I can reamp the dry track if needed, to try different amps, cabinets, or IRs when mixing.