Leftzilla

Probably some of the controller assignments, as in using the volume and tone knobs to change drive settings etc. I would imagine the basic patch changes should work. And maybe anything to do with blending the mags and modeling. This just speculation though.

Its tough to judge from a forum the number of products that are bad or affected in the total population simply because this is where people go to when they have problems. I have both and 89F and 59 that do not have the plink problem.

I had dragged my feet on Purchasing the original VAX 700 because it would have replaced my 3 other guitars, and then had a gig where my Parker Nite fly was not available so I pulled the trigger and never looked back. I went for the JTV59 because of the upgrade in firmware, addition of pickups and the guitar was gorgeous, soon added a JTV89F due to the Floyd Rose and that has become my indispensable instrument. IN fact I would not be able to play live with Elephants of Scotland without it. All of our songs have multiple guitars in them. In combination with the VDI and Helix not having that capability is unimaginable at this point.

You can also set the patch up to use your volume pedal to pan between the mags and the model, this is an easy way to say switch between an acoustic (modeled) tone and the magentic pickups driving a distorted tone and/or mix between the two. (Only with VDI Cable)

Hopefully this isn't a disappearing shop issue, but we have seen this before where an "authorized" line 6 repair shop, can't seem to get things fixed in a timely manner or does a very poor job in other threads in the past. Hopefully you will get your 89F back in working order.

Yeah the split snake is kind of the key. That way you can run your own monitor mix on stage without affecting the FOH. My band picked up a Behringer Powerplay Pro because the local clubs had inconsistent monitors. So we designed up a small in ear system to give each person their own custom headphone mix. The next step is getting a wi-fi digital mixer and then each person can adjust the mix via their phone. We have used it live in Montreal and rehearse with it.

Yes very nicely done

Another added flexibility of having both the mags and modeling is the capability to use both signals at once or swap between them (with a vdi cable). I,e, having an acoustic patch that you either blend with the mags or swap over to mags in a distorted chain within Helix via the expression pedal. My prog band has several tunes where an acoustic guitar emulation is used and then switches to a distorted guitar in the same song. I use the method described above to handle these songs live. Also if you want to do harmony parts without using a pitch shifter you can have the model in a harmony mode while having the mags produce the main signal. Then you just use the expression pedal to raise the volume of the harmony part. This allows you set up a completely different signal chain to give some "separation" between the two signals. I own the VAX700 red and JTV59 and JTV89F. I haven't picked up the VAX700 in quite some time but I was impressed with the newer modeling in the JTV series. There are certainly members of this forum who prefer the VAX 700 series to the JTVs but I think you would be losing out on the newer modeling capabilities and added benefits of the mags with the original variax series along with no customer support or warranty.

I am in the same boat as in being able to more quickly model in the Helix than the HD500. It was very enjoyable rebuilding my HD500 patches (since I have to replicate 2 albums by my band live and I started recording the 3rd album with the HD500 and then switched to the Helix)

Thanks guys I appreciate the input!

This is off topic but perhaps someone in here may have some insight. What I am looking to do is setup an in ear monitoring system on stage that would give back Vocals, Guitars and keyboards to a small mixer that we can have permanently setup with our rehearsal mix. Okay easy enough, but I would also like to echo each input to the main board, i.e. Mike 1 send goes to both onstage mixer and mike input for main mixer board. Basically send the same signal so that each board has control over the that specific input, so that I could do individual mixes for each player onstage without affecting the main sound guy out front on his levels. Have explained the problem correctly? Would a y splitter do this job? I am just looking for a way that my band will have a dedicated monitoring system, no matter what the club setup (as long as they have a multi channel snake)

I agree with Inerzia's approach and use it myself on various Elephants of Scotland Songs that need multiple Guitars.

Yes they do, and I always forget about the new Standard that has been released since Yamaha took over. Certainly a good way to get into the Variax way of life. Just not a big fan of that type of tremelo system.

IF you are serious about having a tremolo then I would look at the JTV89F which has a dedicated Floyd Rose system with locking system. This is by far a much more stable system tuning wise.

cruisinon2 is right that the modeling aspect of the Amplifi is redundant, but I do use a amplifi 75 as a monitor for practice and run the Helix into the aux input. If you want to use and Amplifi as a stage monitor I would go for the larger version as the 75 watt version doesn't cut it with my band.

I think you will be very happy with the JTV89F. Along with the improved modeling, you also get the magnetic pickups and can blend these with the Variax Modeling, or use it in conjunction with the HD500 or Helix to do seemless switching between say an acoustic variax model and using the mags to produce distorted guitar. I also had a VAX 700 with tuning head string lock and I feel the Floyd Rose on the 89F is much more stable tuning wise. Also I have ordered all of my Variaxes (accept the vax700) online and have bee very happy with the setups these guitars have right out of the box (Especially those ordered from Sweetwater

Thank you Dennis!

Could you point me towards DI pinned info?

You can use the mag pickups and a Variax model simultaneously. I do this to swap between an acoustic sound and a distorted guitar via the volume pedal on the Helix. You cannot run 2 Variax models as you asked.

Line 6 did try this with earlier modelers (if I take what you are suggesting correctly) and computer interface hardware where the current POD modeler of the time was available as embedded computer modeling. Whether they do that for the Helix remains to be seen , but I think its safe to say that they are focused on the hardware end of it at the moment and using that same hardware as the source via USB or other interface method.

I have used Glenn's patches as a learning guide and as templates for live work or final patches. I have also the factory patches as templates and in some cases there are Glenn's and factory patches unmodified that made it straight onto our new album (Elephants of Scotland)

The multi tracking you are hearing might be a ducked or "original guitar" track as the rest of the bass, drums and vocals are there for comparison, I doubt there is much post processing as that would defeat the purpose of what Glenn is trying to do. I do have this artists pack and it is very impressive sounding. And the other great thing is this allowed me to also check out the thought process used in building these patches.

Great post. I too am loving the Helix, after a long time on Line 6 modelers starting with AX212. I am primarily a prog player on the high gain side, but the Matchless emulations combined with the modeling out of the Variax is pulling me in bluesier/jazzier types of playing that I have never been interested in before just due to the sheer beauty of the sound out of the Helix.

Jandrio, If you want a jump on this go to http://www.elephantsofscotland.com/there are 3 Videos posted there and all of these were recorded with the HD500 or 500x. Swing the gavel was recorded just before the Helix was released and you are actually hearing VAC700 on it. The distorted guitar was using one of the new HD amps. The live clip is a straight to mixing board at ROSFEST 2014.

Thank You!