jbright44

Keep me posted. Really wanted to pull together a lefty variax as a gift for someone who wants one really bad.

Would you be willing to share the contact info of those 5 so I can reach out and see if they'd be willing to take on a righty to lefty conversion project for me?

Did you ever do this Scott? I'm interested in doing a righty to lefty transplant with a variax standard.

I use the "8 Snapshots" mode so I can testify to the fact that snapshot copy DEFINITELY doesn't work in that mode. If I push FS1 and FS7 from that view will it just go to a "redundant" snapshot mode and allow me to copy?

Good to know

Just updated to 2.8. For some reason the touch and hold and tap destination to copy a snapshot function is not working. If I touch and hold 2 buttons it will give me the prompt to switch, but when I touch hold and tap it doesn't give me the prompt to copy. Any ideas here?

I'm using a long Amazon basics cable. No hub. Although I'm about to get a new laptop that is USBC only and I'll be forced to use a hub

What USB Cables have you guys had good luck with? I still have lots of USB issues with my Helix and one thing I noticed is that when I'm connected to the PC (Mac) whenever I step on the volume pedal, the helix drops connection. We'll go through this dance where I disconnect, reconnect and restart the helix 4 or 5 times with it doing this and then it will eventually stop screwing up and work. I'm wondering if it's the cable. What USB cables have you guys had good luck with??

I tend to use the Ownhammer studio modern mix of the bogner 2x12 with alnico silvers. I also tend to use vox and matchless amps. If 3 sigma has something similar that may work.

If you assign it to a switch it tells you on the scribble strip what it is. Editing from the front panel is almost always easier and faster

"Hey guys thanks for buying a helix. As a gift here's EVERYTHING WE'VE EVER MADE!" That's pretty much what this feels like and as a guitar player who's had some type of line 6 gear at pretty much every iteration of my rig this makes me feel very grateful. It's like everything of every line6 piece of gear that I've ever had that I loved just got given back to me for free

Holy lollipop! Legacy effects FTW! I was just wishing the other day I could get the seeker in there! This must be the "controversial" update but I think it's FANTASTIC! ALSO I sure love the sound of those reverb names. MAYBE they will make me stop missing my big sky

I had no idea. This is awesome

My guess is this uses the same architecture but only has one processor. Hence fx only, limited to 9 fx and a sub $600 price point DI said the reason the 2.3 and HXEDIT software took so long to get out was because they were reworking the whole architecture to give them more flexibility for the future and making helix more of a platform to do many things with. This makes sense. People have been crying about lack of updates or a new version of the M9 and 13 pedals. Well, here it is.

I think this is exactly it. People think of guitars in different ways than they do other pieces of gear I think. At least I do anyway. Plus as someone who is often buying and selling and trading and changing as my musical tastes and styles evolve, few things have stuck around for long periods of time.....

I do have that anxiety too to be honest. Look what people payed back in the day for Flextones and Axys212's..... It's one of reasons I've stayed away from modelers for years even though the concept of it was always appealing. However, the other side of that is that I've never felt like the modeling was good enough to satisfy me. At the time Line 6 came out with the helix, my playing situation had changed to where going direct to FOH was turning out to be a more pragmatic fit for me and I felt like the technology had finally "nailed it" and of all the top end modelers out there, I felt like Line 6 nailed the interface as well to make it easy to use. So, that decision was more pragmatic than anything else.

I know this is probably an incendiary topic to start with on a Variax forum. So, I'll say I get that. The Variax is something that has always peaked my interest and now that I've had a Helix for about 1.5 years now, I'm beginning to get more an more interested in it. The thing that's got me hesitating at this point is one thing: Inability to upgrade electronics. I think Line 6 has done a good thing with the JTV series. They learned that at first, this device has to be a good guitar, period. And I think the JTV's build quality and even the offering of the USA Custom Shop series were fantastic ideas. Obviously the USA custom shop didn't take off like they hoped and maybe JTV sales have been slow too. I don't know. But I think the market is saying the same thing I am. If I buy a nice guitar today. Say, a PRS or a Les Paul or a USA Standard Fender, 10 years from now, it will still be a nice PRS, Les Paul or Fender. And no marching of technology or future releases or upgrades are going to diminish the value of that guitar as a great guitar from a great manufacturer. The problem here is, as nice as the JTV's are as guitars, you cannot separate (for me) the obsolescence anxiety I feel about the electronics that are paired with it. If 10 years from now, Line 6 has 2 generations newer electronics, my JTV is no longer just "a really good guitar." It's a really good guitar with really old electronics and no person is going to purchase my now worthless guitar as just a "very good guitar" with some extra, albeit old technology. I know people will say "if it sounds good, who cares!? If it still works, who cares!?!" Come on guys, we're all in this market together and we all know that guitar purchases are largely emotional and have little to do with facts and logic. So all this to say, that if Line 6 made a variax that was a really good guitar (I'm talking G&L Tribute, PRS SE, typical super bang for your buck import guitar) and tagged on Variax electonics, where the primary DSP/Computer/Engine was a modular system that could be upgraded as newer models and newer hardware gets developed in the future, I would buy one today. Because now, I've got a really good guitar, with incredible usability, that doesn't get left behind by the march of technology. Charge me $300-$400 for an upgraded Variax brain and give me the updates as long as that hardware is current gen. No problem. Now I've got really good guitar in an of itself AND I've got a platform that won't go obsolete. And for me, THAT is a huge value that gives me security in my $1,000+ investment.

You can't create button groups like you're suggesting. This is exactly why snapshots were designed. Any reason why snapshots don't work for you?

I love that novation case. Works like a champ

I've noticed lately after the 2.3 update it seems the screamer model has a huge volume drop. I've got to crank the level to 10 to even come close to unity again and even then it seems choked. Any thoughts.

So I'm still having major USB issues on 2.3. Have a late 2011 macbook pro running El Cap. I keep having the connection drop and getting the following error in HX Edit. "Another application is already connected to the helix device. Close that application and click Retry to connect, or click cancel to quit." This is a clean reboot and NOTHING else is running? How can I see what other application (if there is one) that keeps hosing me?? WTF is going on here.

I'd love to see some cool reverbs like in the Big Sky. That's a sound I haven't been able to get out of the Helix yet

SO i tried some of your theories tonight. Used safari. Didn't have helix editor open. Playback from safari was coming through popping and crackling, working for about 5 minutes, playback no longer goes through the helix. However, the Mac still shows it as connected and still shows it as an audio device under the sound settings. Unplug, plug back in. Computer recognizes it, no audio. Restart the helix. Computer recognizes it and audio. 5 minutes later, Same results. Then after going through that 4 or 5 times, now everything is stable.... This is getting infuriating. I shouldn't have to go buy a hub. I shouldn't have to wait for the next firmware update. It should just work like every other damn USB device does. If 2.3 and HX Edit don't solve this, I'm done with this piece of equipment.

I can't imagine Chrome is more of a Hog than a DAW though right? I'll try Safari

I sure hope so. However the fact that 2 $2,000 laptops have issues like this only with Helix is disturbing. I'll try what folks have suggested, upgrade to Sierra, use a hub and try not to stream/edit at the same time. That last one will be tough because it's exactly that combo which has made the helix so useful. To be able to configure my patches while the reference track is playing and make sure my guitar sounds good in the mix has been a game changer.