chuskey

Just ordered a Helix today from them and got 15% off. They didn't have one at the store, but did have them in the warehouse. UPS has already notified me that it shipped so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend. If anyone hasn't pulled the trigger yet this is a good time to do so :)

Sorry, I misread your question :) I haven't purchased the model packs, so I haven't been able to test that out.

I 2nd that. I use the Dr Z cab and usually the U87 mic, or sometimes the 121. Finding one good cabinet you like takes SO much of the guess work out.

Could have been a factor I suppose. The whole recording was setup and done in about 15min. Just a quick and dirty test, nothing fancy :)

This is what drew my buddy to that amp. Instantly plug in and go. It just sounds good. We talked at length about different solutions for different needs and it makes perfect sense that we ended up with what we did. My mentality is immediately "what's coming out of the house and what will the audience hear". Most folks in the crowd aren't going to discern subtle differences and are looking to have fun. I'm looking for a rig His is more a pure tone pursuit. Different tools and they're both great solutions. As I said I could have for sure done more tweaking to the HD and gotten closer, but I was more going for a proof of concept. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the feedback guys, this was fun to do! As mentioned in the video this was a very quick and dirty setup and spent maybe 10-15 min dialing in the HD, and that's including narrowing down amp models. So tone wise the HD wasn't completely dialed in, and as we all know it takes some tweaking to get it perfect :) Couple notes about the patch and then the reveal: 1. The patch was a little boomy hence the bass being pulled out. Initially it was a little harsh on the high end which is why the treble was pulled out. After listening back it could have used some treble dialed back in, but just a little. 2. The Dr. Z Cab is pretty much the only cab that I like and can get quick and good results with. I use it on everything. Not saying you can't make the others work, but this one works well for me and I know what to expect from it. I spend too much time trying to "fix" other cabs. That's just my workflow. 3 & 4. A lot of this patch is left over parts of the patch I started with. I never used the tube screamers or delays on this patch, they were just already loaded onto the patch I started with. I was trying to match the volume of the amp and didn't get any clipping. May have been a different story with the tube screamer(s) turned on. Note: On the DEP I usually run the master down closer to 50% and jack up the Res all the way. That wasn't the case on this patch when I opened it up to upload it. I can't remember if I simply didn't change these from default or if it didn't save. So don't be afraid to play with the Master and Res knobs. OK, enough talk here's the results: Tone A: Friedman Tone B: HD500X Listening back I think there are things in the HD I would have liked to have dialed in a bit more. It could have used a little more bite. We ran into a time crunch and had to go with what we had. Having said that I think the HD held it's own and then some as is! We were both pretty darn impressed with the results. Especially once you factor in cost, the value of the HD is off the charts. Personally I'd rather gig with the HD and Alto if given the choice regardless of cost. . More compact, faster setup time, more versatile, and if I break it I can afford to replace it :) One note is that, to me, they both felt good to play. I know sometimes people say that digital gear and FRFR sounds good but doesn't feel good. I didn't find that to be the case at all. They both felt like "amps in the room" to me. Thanks again to my buddy for letting me come over and play his amp. This was a fun experiment. The Friedman is awesome for what it is, and it's beautiful! I'd love to decorate my living room with one :) Thanks guys for the feedback! Chad

Did a quick and dirty A/B today with a buddy of mine's Friedman Amplification Dirty Shirley. We obviously didn't try to "amp match", just wanted to see if the HD500X/Alto TS110A could get a similar quality Marshall sound. For a live rig at 1/4 the price or so I was VERY happy with the HD rig. Let me know what you guys think!' https://youtu.be/pWV3f3pJK58

Thanks So far I've only done direct into my audio interface or into an Alto TS110A. If I were going to do a straight acoustic gig I could definitely see trying an acoustic amp. I'm sure it would sound killer!

As requested after my last video here's one focused primarily on getting acoustic tones. https://youtu.be/-7MGLY3F4JY Here's a link to the patch I used: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1162678/ I started to spend more time "explaining" how to dial in the settings, but in the end basically just demoed the patch I created. That came across quite boring :) So let me know if anyone has any specific questions and I'll be glad to answer!

Based on some requests I'm going to put together a video on just acoustic sounds with the JTV/DH500X. It's not ready yet, but I did update my acoustic patch just a little bit and uploaded it to customtone. The original compressor setting was just a little too aggressive. Here's the new one: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1162678/ Hopefully I'll have time to finish up the video in the next couple of days. Thanks!

Very true! I think the Variax, and HD, are AMAZING values for what all they offer. In this day and age we've just been very spoiled and expect a lot. BTW, the mags on the JTV69 (and 59) are great! The guitar is very much worth what I paid for it even without considering the electronics.

Thanks man! I made sure to use the mags in everything except the acoustic type patches. So basically any strat style guitar would be the same effect as what I'm getting in the video. The acoustic stuff was just a "bonus" :) Obviously that would bump up the budget to over $500. However a used/B stock JTV and HD500X would still fall under the price of Helix. So still budget friendly ;)

Here's the acoustic preset: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/989823/ I think it's pretty much what I used in the video. I may have tweaked it slightly since uploading this tone, but it's pretty close if not exact. I can double check when I get home. I think based on the feedback I've gotten I may do a video just focusing on getting acoustic tones out of the HD/JTV. Obviously the most important thing is using FRFR, but I'm assuming that goes without saying :) Here's the link to the Dr Z patch: http://line6.com/customtone/tone/1159581/ It's designed to be played direct/FRFR and played at stage volume. That's where the dynamics really start to kick in. Also if you run direct and don't have the input gain high enough on the audio interface it's very flat and lifeless. Thanks for the kind words! Chad https://www.reverbnation.com/chadhuskey/songs

Thanks for the heads up. I wanted to get this kind of info before trying it! I'll check the volume knob to make sure that it is making good contact.

That means a ton coming from you, thanks! I always enjoy your videos very much, and learn something every time :)

Thanks! I especially love the acoustic modeling. I've done gigs where songs needed to be led by acoustic, but we didn't have an acoustic player that day. Flip a switch and I've got it covered :)

The volume pot on my JTV69 is scratchy. Only on the mags/analog. No noise on the digital side. Is it safe to use a spray contact cleaner? It's the same stuff I use on my regular guitars without incident, but since the pot is also a digital control....

Totally agree. Newer, bigger, better doesn't break what's been working for you. I have to admit though I'm a sucker for the latest greatest. Even though I'm totally satisfied with my tone I can just feel the urge to get a Helix growing everyday :)

Thanks! That's quite a compliment. My whole point is that you don't have to drop a lot of money to get good tone these days. The question "can the HD500X still hang" is kind of rhetorical. Having said that, I REALLY hope to get a Helix by Christmas this year :D But it will be out of want and not need.

In light of the all the high end gear out there now, and with Helix looming, I thought I'd do a video asking the question whether or not good tone can be had on a budget. I'm actually quite happy with the tones I'm getting with my HD, though I'll still be getting Helix :) Anyway here's the video, hope you guys enjoy!

The only thing that keeps a product alive is sales. Not whether or not the sales hype is true or false. It can literally be everything they claimed, but if the sales aren't there it will go away. Straight economics. That being said I hope the JTV's are around for a long time to come. I love my 69 and 59!

I can also attest to having success running into a power amp and cab while leaving on the cab sims. A while back I even ran my old XT Live into the front end of a tube amp with all the sims still on. I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, but I think people get too hung up on how things "should" be run. If it sounds good it sounds good. For the last few years though I've gone all direct with an Alto TS110 as my stage monitor and wouldn't go back to lugging around a tube rig if someone gave it to me :)

Exactly!!! Especially when GC does 10 and 15% off coupons all the time. :)

I've been using one of these and like it a lot: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Road-Runner-Pedalboard-All-In-1-Gig-Bag-105462360-i1471720.gc It fits the HD well and the way it's designed I can just leave the HD in the bag and never have to take it out. I would recommend using 90 degree cable ends if you go this route because there isn't that much room between the back of the HD and the edge of the bag. Not as robust as some other cases I've seen, and probably not the best solution for everyone, but it's been a good solution for my needs.

I had a VDI cable go bad on me and caused the exact same symptom. This was a couple of years ago and wasn't related to a firmware update. The cable would work fine some of the time and seemed random, which made it kind of tough to narrow down what was causing it. But since switching to a new cable I've had no issues whatsoever.