maxnew40

I was editing a sound on my Helix floor unit and all of a sudden I noticed that the joystick no longer does anything when I turn the knob. Did I somehow configure my unit to not use the joystick for scrolling or is my joystick broken? I wanted to check with users here before I submit a ticket in case I just disabled it myself. I have version 1.10 firmware in my Helix. -Max

I see the OP complaining that reverb makes the tone sound more distant, but that is exactly what reverb does and is supposed to do. It simulates space and distance. -Max

I have used a HD500 into a L2 and also out to the P.A. for a few years prior to buying the Helix. My Helix arrived Wednesday and I had a gig on Friday night. To speed things up I bought the Standard patch set from Glenn DeLaune. I play in band that plays songs mostly from the 60s and 70s, so I chose 3 of his patches to work with, Clean, JCM 800, and Acoustic. Both Clean and JCM 800 are set up to switch between two amps and have a drive, lead boost and several effects. I set them up to select the guitar on my variax, added a wah and tweaked the gain, and in one case changed to a different amp. I ended up with about 6 patches that used for the night. It must say I am very impressed with this over my old HD500. It just feels more real. The lighted scribble strips made it easy for me to use it even though I had only spent a few hours with it before the gig. I could see what each switch was for with a quick glance down at the Helix. I would like to figure out if there is a way to set the Helix so that when I switch to a different preset that it loads the preset up and then switches modes so that all the pedals are available without me hitting the mode switch (The I could hit mode when I want to change presets). I like to set up a preset so that I can play a whole song without switching to a different preset -Max

I used to have separate patches for my Les Paul and Strat guitars, the output is too different between the two to use the same patches. My solution is that I now use a Variax guitar.

Congrats, I just got mine on Wednesday and am going to use at a gig tonight. -Max

I use one Line 6 L2 speaker and it it is a perfect solution for me. -Max

I got it fixed with a little bit of contact cleaner as you all have suggested. I just loosened the string so I could move it off of the saddle, shot a bit contact cleaner on the saddle, wiped it off and boom it is working just fine again. Thank you all for the great suggestions! -Max

I only see one JTV piezo saddle for the JTV at Full Compass, are they the same on the JTV-59 and the JTV-69? -Max

Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I have contact cleaner and I can solder(I have a collection of coin op video games from the 80's and that stuff is a must have). I will also look for pics of the the thing taken apart so I can see how it all connected. It failed without ever using the workbench, so I doubt string volume is an issue. I have a JTV-69 as a backup for the modeled sounds to get me through the next gig until I can get this one fixed. I also have a new Helix on the way and I am quite excited about that. -Max

Damn! After two years my JTV-59 has failed and will need repair. The bridge saddle transducer for the high E string has failed and doesn't produce any sound now (At least I was able to still play using the mag pickups in the guitar). I find it interesting that this is the same saddle that was broken on my first brand new JTV-59. Is the high E saddle a common failure point on these guitars? Before I go and find an authorized repair shop and have to be without my favorite guitar. Are there any troubleshooting steps I can perform to verify that the bridge saddle needs to be replaced? -Max

I really like the L2 and L3 speakers from Line 6. I currently have three L2 speakers, two for vocal monitors and one for my HD500 (soon to be upgraded to Helix). Our keyboard players uses an L3 for his keys and swears that there is nothing better sounding on the market. Our bass player is going to be switching to an L3 with my old HD500 for the SVT model. If you have not gotten chance to hear them perform, do it! -Max

You can't use the Variax VDI connection with a wireless unit only the 1/4 output from the guitar. The downside is that with the 1/4 output on the Variax you can't use the Helix to change guitar models or tuning or interact with the Variax guitar at all. -Max

Some of us already have a good system to use with a Helix that we have been using for the HD500 units with great success. My system is one L2 speaker on a tripod speaker stand behind me with the the XLR out to the mixer. I have done many gigs now with that system and I am now upgrading to the Helix. For all gigs I bring L2, speaker , speaker stand, HD500 (soon to be Helix) and a couple of guitars and some cables. This is the smallest lightest rig I have ever gigged with and it outperforms everything I have used since the late 70s also. -Max

I use an HD500 and an L2 speaker (my whole rig is Line 6). It sounds amazing for both electric and acoustic. -Max

As far as lightning goes. What I did was start with a couple of the Chauvet colorstrip units on tripods which was OK for smaller venues. What I have now is a small truss with two tripod crank stands that have 3 colorstrips, 4 PAR 56 LED, and a couple of effects type lights. I control them using DMX from a little USB box and a freestyler software. You can always start out small with the lights and keep adding to the system as the budget allows. -Max

Dang, if I had the spare cash I would probably pre-order also. As much as I try to make myself wait for a new product to go through the teething stages I often end up not being able to wait. -Max

I used the rubber band trick as suggested here and I have not once accidentally engaged the looper since. -Max

I tend to avoid new OS. The reason is that they have to make a business decision to release with thousands of known bugs some quite serious to meet the release date (I have worked there). Even before the release date the first service pack is usually under development. When they release SP1 for the OS you are finally getting the product that they really wanted to release but wasn't really ready at the scheduled release date. The free upgrade thing is a way for them to increase the installed base numbers when most people would hold off for SP1. -Max

Another example is televisions. I haven't had a TV die on me for many years. We end up replacing a TV because of technology changes (HD, Flat Screen, and so on) not because there was anything wrong with our old Cathode Ray Tube TV. -Max

I have also heard that Microsoft plans to disallow V3 drivers to install on Windows 10 after the first service pack. This means that many of our current device drivers will no longer work and new V4 drivers for Windows 10 will need to be produced if you want to use those devices on Windows 10. -Max

I know I will end up buying one of these eventually. At least my old HD500 is doing a fine job at gigs, so I can wait for the Helix to be out for about a year to get all bugs worked out (and time to same up some money). -Max

stumblinman, the power switch is easily seen in many of pictures and videos. -Max

Another plus on using the pole speaker stand is that it pretty much gets rids of any coupling effect with the floor. You will really appreciate this if you end up playing on a raised hollow stage that will cause all kinds of weird resonant frequency issues if the speaker is set on right the stage. -Max

Maybe if you could explain what you are attempting to do with your HD500 someone can help better. How are you running the HD500? What problems are you having getting the tones you are looking for? IR for AIR is used to simulate the mic in a room the way I understand it. It might sound OK in some situations but I don't find it useful to send modeled power amp, speaker, mic and room into a guitar power amp and cab. Are you trying to achieve a certain tone or trying to reverse engineer the HD500? -Max