xmacvicar

I'm not an expert by any means, but I was able to clear my squeak by taking the back plate off and using dry lube carefully on the main bolt. I sprayed while moving the pedal back and forth and was lucky enough to have cleared it. I did it a few months back and have not heard a squeak since. I have used it regularly since Jan 2016 and have only had to do that once. I'm not sure if it's the most effective or safest way to do it, but it was easy enough.

I just took the back off to expose the internals. I backed off on the pedal bolt so that it started to separate from the nut you see when the back is removed. Once it started separating a little bit, I was able to slide a knife (or any metal flat edge) into both sides with a bit of white lithium grease. I worked the pedal back and forth and then retightened the pedal. Seems fine! I hope it lasts

Got my Helix today from Reverb.com (bought it used). Love it, but realized that I have a really squeaky and stiff pedal. 

With my purchase, I do not have the original receipt. Frank R. via email said if there is any warranty left they would transfer it to me - still waiting to hear back on that if there is any left.

I am wondering what is the easiest way to solve the squeak without really tearing the unit apart. I live quite far from any authorized service centers. I am wondering too, if my unit has the black washers, is it even worth just trying to fix myself or should they be replaced?

If anyone has an earlier unit with the black washers and was able to remedy the issue without taking it apart I would love to get some step by step instructions. I read some past posts but it didn't seem clear how to approach the pedal with lubricant (white lithium grease, triflow, etc) while its still attached, although loosened.

Yes, you can. 

They're not stupid questions. It is very important, especially with version 2.1 of the Helix editor and the firmware, that you follow the installation instructions exactly. You will find them on the Downloads page where you access the Editor download. On the Downloads page, select Helix in the Software (not Products) field.

 

Make sure you start by downloading the Helix Editor install program and then run the installer file. Install all three items: the editor, driver, and a program called Line 6 Updater. Then run Line 6 Updater to update the device firmware.

 

Also pay attention to the initial instructions re: backing up your current setlists. Don't back up the bundle - use individual setlists.

Can you install the editor before you even get the Helix hardware itself? I just bought it, should be here in a week or so. Was hoping to download the editor to poke around but it seemed like the install instructions were insanely specific.

So I opened a support ticket for this & Line6 says that

Wow that is just dumb. 

this doesnt tell me anything. i'm looking to buy an extension with the proper barrel and tip size.

sorry? lol

http://store.line6.com/dc-3g-power-supply.html

Did you contact line 6 support for troubleshooting yet?

Looks amazing. Saw some videos on the gearpage.net done by Marco that sounded just as good, if not better than Helix

What interface are you using for your DAW? Are you plugging the Firehawk directly into USB, or using something else? Does your DAW have an adjustable channel strip level for the input? If so, maybe you could trim it back. If you are are using a separate interface, maybe it's looking for a microphone level signal and you are sending it a line level signal. I have this issue with mixing boards when we play live through someone else's PA. When I get a chance, I'll run mine directly into Studio One and see what I get.

Using Reaper and Garageband. By default I leave the channel strip at 0 and use the white volume slider to adjust the input gain into the DAW. I connect my FHFX direct via USB and the DAW uses the FHFX as the full sound interface in/out. But yes, you are right - when I got the much larger speaker, I had WAY more headroom and my patch volumes were at sometimes 70-80 before the speaker would input clip.

I am really confused about the whole patch creation/volume thing because it really is situationally dependant - to me it seems to make sense to make your patches in the situation you use the FHFX with the MOST (like a gigging band FRFR situation) then when you are using it for other applications like recording or headphones for example you would use the volume options accordingly.

What is your technical basis for this? I routinely play in rehearsal with the white volume at 50% and the red at 75% into a JBL EON 612 via XLR with the master volume and signal gain maxed (switch on line level). My lead patch with channel volume at 100 sounds every bit as good as my Mesa tube rig... no clipping artifacts as far as I can tell. Maybe this setup would overdrive a DAW input, but it does not appear to overdrive my powered speaker.

So yeah I was wrong. I went and rented a Yorkville nx55 and using my existing patches I was able to raise the channel volumes substantially and the unit still didn't clip (no input clip light flashing). There is obviously way more headroom here than the YX10P little 10' powered speaker I have. What i'm confused about tho is why this would clip so hard in the DAW but not clip at all on the powered speaker? I guess I obviously don't know enough about this to understand the why!

Don't count on it. FH is dead, never to rise from the ashes lol

By putting those values into the firehawk:

1. 50% white ring volume

2. Any amp with the volume on 100 (regardless of the drive settings for the most part)

Would cause the daw to digitally clip way beyond 0db and would be red hot into the plus/+ values. If the daw is receiving such a clipped signal, would your JBL's not receive the same?

Give this a try. Put the volume slider at 100 on your "go to" lead patch. Start with 50 on your "go to" rhythm patch. Set the red volume at about 75% and use the white volume to adjust overall level to your approximate gig/rehearsal volume. Adjust channel volume on all your other lead and rhythm patches to give you equal levels (judging by ear) to the other two. Tweak channel volume as needed while rehearsing with the band. After a few rehearsals you will converge on the right relative levels. Certain "mid-rangey" patches will cut through a mix better and require lower levels than others. My workhorse bank has a Twin Clean patch with channel volume at 44, a straight Plexi rhythm patch at 50, an overdriven Plexi rhythm patch at 50 (HD screamer output at 53) and an overdriven Plexi lead patch at 100. This is not exactly clinical but it works great for me!

Thanks for the tips. The problem with this is that any patch with the volume slider on 100 (lead patch) and the white volume knob anywhere past 30 percent would cause digital clipping no matter what kind of drive you have setup on the amp. I am trying to avoid this.

 

The DAW approach is effective for getting you close. 

Sorry...close to what? The proper levels for not clipping or proper levels for normalization across all patches? Or both? lol

I'll say one very simple thing... set the volume(s) wherever they need to be so that your patches are balanced, and everything sounds the way you want it. No one gave you a concrete answer because there isn't one. Please don't take this the wrong way, as I'm not being trying to be flippant or dismissive...but there is more hand wringing and wasted energy regarding where to put volume knobs than just about any other topic that comes up around here, and it baffles me. If it sounds good to you, then it is good... turn it up until the levels are sufficient for the task at hand, and be done with it. If it starts to clip, dial it back a bit, and don't obsess over the number some meter spits out. Let your ears tell you if things are where they're supposed to be... trust me, it works.

No offense taken! Thanks for sharing - I appreciate any info at all :D

Sounds like your unit is corrupt.

Q: The ABCD lights are flashing and the unit does not function, even after a factory reset. 
A: This is recovery mode, meaning there was a failed update attempt. The unit will function again once the update is successfully completed. In the event of a failed update, power up while holding A/C and retry the update using the Line 6 Updater found at www.line6.com/software. If the update fails repeatedly, you likely need to try the process on a different computer.

I did not have any luck trying to update via iOS/Bluetooth. I had to download the line 6 updater software on my Macbook Air and update the FHFX that way. It was very fast and straight forward with the laptop - not so much with bluetooth.

Hey Helix crew. I am a firehawk FX user and I HAVE posted this in the FHFX forum but I did not receive any feedback. I think this topic is a bit bigger than the FHFX and applies more to the Helix and guitar rigs in general thats why I am coming to you all for help. Please mods, I am just hoping to get some answers on this topic to see if I am on the right track so please keep it in this forum!

I am further down the rabbit hole with the Firehawk FX. Truth be told, I have been following alot of the Pod HD500x and Helix training videos on youtube due to the massive lack of presence the Firehawk seems to have out there in the wild. There is really very little available on it compared to these other devices.

One helix video I came across was normalizing patch volumes using your computer DAW/interface. I found it very valuable. You can see that video here: 

Reading up around the Helix forums as well lead me to realize alot of people use their computer DAW to set patch volumes. The general consensus is, because this is a DIGITAL device (I still have a hard time realizing I have to treat this thing differently than a standard amp, because of digital clipping) is that your patch volumes should hit about -12DB on your DAW input meter with your most authoritative strum - when you whack at your strings the hardest it should peak about -12 db. This gives you a clean digital signal with room for spikes higher if it happens.

I run my FirehawkFX into my Yorkville YX10P floor monitor with the following consistencies:

Master volume output (main red rings) = 50%

Guitar volume (white volume ring) = 50% (or the exact middle of the dial)

The FHFX has 3 volume controls for those not familiar with it. I think this is where the whole thing starts to fall apart for me. There is the overall MASTER volume knob, easy. Then there is the WHITE volume knob which controls the guitar signal volume into the device (line 6 says this is for balancing your guitar sound with bluetooth audio streaming, a major 'feature' of the FHFX/amplifi line) and the PINK volume for control the patch or amp channel volume which does not affect tone.

The whole point of this post is to determine where the white volume/guitar volume knob should be set. I am not really using the FHFX to jam along to bluetooth tracks. I am treating this device like a live gigging device and this whole topic is in relation to original patch creation and patch volumes. Line 6 can't give a definitive answer on where the white volume ring should be set. Peter Hanmer wasn't able to give really an answer on this on his youtube page, Paul Hindmarsh also wasn't really keen on an answer for this either when I chatted with him on FB.
 

So I decided to get clinical with it based on the patch volume video done by Ben listed above. I connected my FHFX to my computer and loaded up Reaper. I armed the tracks and started playing with patches and volumes to see what the signal was in the channel. I wanted to measure currently how the patches were setup in relation to the guitar input volume  (white ring) and how they were reading digitally.

For the sake of consistency I decided to set the while volume for the guitar input at 50% signal as a constant when creating patches.

With my guitar input volume right in the middle, I noticed that basically all my patches as they were designed previously were clipping HARD - way past -12db. Amps' that I had set for Channel volume slider at 70% or sometimes 50% (which seems to be the norm based on every line 6 tone creation video on youtube) had to be brought down generally into the 20-25% channel volume range for the signal to hit that -12DB marker on my DAW.

Theoretically then...with alot of the amp channel volumes down much lower, I can push my Firehawk master output volume (red ring) higher, which from what I am reading online would give me a better signal to noise ratio overall. Would you agree with this?

So that leads me to the following questions regarding 'digital guitar' rigs. With my guitar volume set globally at 50% on the FHFX it seems like the patch channel volumes are SO low in this configuration. However there is an interplay here between the guitar input volume and the channel volume. If I decrease the white ring guitar input volume, then naturally there is less signal to the Firehawk and therefore the channel volumes would have to come up higher to compensate to get a stronger signal to peak around -12db. If i dropped the guitar input volume to say 20%, the amp patch channel volumes would have to come back up so that the signal would be about -12DB in the daw. Would both of these situations sound the same in the end? Is one better than the other?

I assume at this point that having the patch volumes lower like this WILL reduce digital clipping and probably make my guitar sound better overall. With a much higher powered FRFR like the Stagesource L2M or Yamah DXR12, I would be able to push a louder cleaner signal into it by having the ability to run the overall master volume (red ring) higher. 

Anybody have any feedback on this? I am new to digital guitar rigs so please bare with me as I try to sort this out with a little help from my friends! Thanks crew  :D

I think most firehawk guys would struggle to answer this, might be worth posting a version of this question in the helix thread asking for opinions, I'm following this one with interest

I am going to do a video of this whole process, procedure later today. I think the real disconnect is because I am trying to use this device like a Helix or PODHD500x as a live gigging thing, and the overal product design concept is "just use the levels to jam with backing tracks dude!" lol so I'm gonna do a video and post it here and in helix to see if I am on the right track

The reason to set the Crown (or any amp thats volume controlled by another unit) to max volume, to for "Head Room", not maximum volume. Huge difference but I assume most already know this.

Coming a bit late to this convo but I have a relevant question. I have a 200 watt Yorkville YX10P monitor that I use with my Firehawk FX. Is it better to set the volume on the speaker higher, and control volume (as to not clip) from the Firehawk, or the reverse where I set the output of the Firehawk high and then control the output/clipping of the speaker on the actual speaker itself?

I am not saying it is the best way, I am saying that it is MY way. It works for me. 

 

But, I understand why they say to turn it up all the way. Maximum volume has been the suggested usage for decades for numerous devices. It helps to reduce the noise/sound ratio.

 

For example: 

Your [physical] amp, if you turned it up to 10 would make a hum/hiss (even with nothing plugged in). If you had your guitar (or Pod) volume at 1, it may be the decibel level that you need it to be at, but you would have all of that amp noise. 

SO, you turn your [physical] amp down to 1 to minimize the noise, but then you turn your guitar (or Pod) up to 10. Same decibel level but the noise is reduced.

 

 

BUT, you also have to worry about redlining. If you run too much input volume, it will distort. That is why I choose to volume match. I know that my player puts out an acceptable level.

And, as I said, it provides a baseline volume for me to use.  

But how do you know what volume level to put your MP3 player at? There is a variable volume on it I assume?

So I am further down the rabbit hole with the Firehawk FX. Truth be told, I have been following alot of the Pod HD500x and Helix training videos on youtube due to the massive lack of presence the Firehawk seems to have out there in the wild. There is really nothing available on it compared to these other device.

One helix video I came across was normalizing patch volumes using your computer DAW/interface. I found it very valuable. You can see that video here: 

Reading up around the Helix forums as well lead me to realize alot of people use their computer DAW to set patch volumes. The general consensus is, because this is a DIGITAL device (I still have a hard time realizing I have to treat this thing differently than a standard amp, because of digital clipping) is that your patch volumes should hit about -12DB on your input meter with your most authoritative strum - when you whack at your strings the hardest it should peak about -12 db.

I run my Firehawk into my Yorkville YX10P with the following consistencies:

Output volume (main red rings) = 50%

Guitar volume (white red rings) = 54% (or the exact middle of the dial)

This seems to be a common practise to keep things consistent across the board. With my guitar input volume right in the middle at 54%, I noticed that basically all my patches as they are currently set were clipping HARD. Amps' that I had set for Channel volume slider at 70% or sometimes 50% had to be brought down generally into the 20-25% channel volume range for the signal to hit that -12DB marker on my DAW.

Theoretically then...with alot of the amp volumes down much lower, I can push my Firehawk master output volume (red ring) higher, which from what I am reading online would give me a better signal to noise ratio overall.

So that leads me to the following questions regarding 'digital guitar' rigs. Is this normal? For whatever reason it seems like the channel volumes are SO low in this configuration. However there is an interplay here between the guitar input volume (white ring) and the channel volume. If I decrease the guitar input volume, then naturally there is less signal to the Firehawk and therefore the channel volumes would like come up higher to compensate. Would both of these situations sound the same ultimately? Is one better than the other?

I assume that having the volumes lower like this WILL reduce digital clipping and probably make my guitar sound better overall. Also, with a much more higher powered FRFR like the Stagesource L2M or something, I would be able to push a louder cleaner signal into it by having the ability to run the overall master volume (red ring) higher. 

Anybody have any feedback on this? I am new to digital guitar rigs so please bare with me as I try to sort this out with a little help from my friends! Thanks crew :D

Ripping! Thanks for sharing - guitar is nice and up front and sits super well with the other instruments!

;) i edited the above for you ..... :D Just sayin'.....

bravo

And with a Variax guitar you wouldn't even need to swap physical guitars! You could store all the different Variax settings, including alternate tunings, in the Firehawk presets. By switching presets you could switch instantly from a Strat rhythm tone to an LP lead tone. Just one example of the additional flexibility. If and when you do start gigging in a band you will appreciate the convenience of carrying one guitar instead of four.

I gotta admit that is super cool but I don't think there is anything in this world that would tear my wonderful axes outta my hands for a variax. Maybe some day I will add one to the family :D