silverhead

Do you have a 1/4 cable connected to the guitar's jack? This is needed to turn on the battery to activate the guitar's electronics.

You could download and install the free trial version of Helix Native. You can set its Hardware Compatibility mode to HX Stomp and then experiment to see what sort of presets it can and can’t handle.

Your original question was about getting a good sound using the two devices, and that was the focus of my answer. I didn’t discuss what is perhaps the most important way in which the Firehawk device is NOT a replacement for your FBV device. The FBV has one job: communicate with the Spider amp and allow you to control it using your feet. When you press a switch on the FBV it will send a control signal to the Spider amp which results in a change in the settings of the amp, e.g. a preset or channel change. Presumably, that’s an important part of what you want to replace, and what you want the Firehawk device to do. But the Firehawk is not capable of doing that. It does not communicate with the Spider amp and cannot control it any way. Any switches or buttons you push on the Firehawk will ONLY affect the audio signal that is sent through its outputs to the amp’s input jack. It will not affect any settings on the amp.

Try disconnecting the USB, or running your laptop on batteries. This could be an electrical issue such as a ground hum.

Also make sure there is no wireless router nearby.

The Firehawk FX and the FBV II Shortboard are entirely different beasts. The Firehawk is not a replacement for the FBV; it is a much more powerful and capable device. It generates sounds of its own, including amp, mic/cab, and FX modeling. The FBV does not produce or store its own sounds, it merely allows you to use your feet to select the sounds in the Spider amp. The Firehawk FX sounds good with your Bose speakers because it’s designed to work best with speakers, not with a guitar amp. The most likely reason that your Firehawk FX device sounds muddy with your Spider amp is that you have two amps and cab combinations in your signal chain. The Firehawk FX preset is probably using an amp and cab model which is then being fed into the input of your Spider amp, which adds its own amp model and cab sound. That almost never sounds good. To use the Firehawk with your Spider amp will require you to learn what the Firehawk device is designed to do. Start by reading the manual if you haven’t done so already. You will need to learn how to build Firehawk presets that don’t include an amp/cab model. You will need to learn how to select FX in the Firehawk preset that can be used effectively with FX in any given Spider amp preset. You will probably also want to learn how to use the Firehawk FX mobile app. All in all, there’s no simple answer to your question about ‘the best settings on the devices’. You have a learning curve ahead of you if you want to pursue using the Firehawk FX and the Spider amp together. It’s kinda like a square peg and a round hole. They’re just not designed to work well together.

The looper can record for two minutes in 1/2 speed mono.

If you are playing through physical amps, you are probably not using the amp and mic/cab modelling in the Pod Go. You might be better off with the HX FX which is designed to be used with physical amps.

Hadn't thought about the parallel processing options using the FX Loop setup. Good observation.

The 6-switch looper has a 'Once' switch that is the 'stop at end of loop' feature you mention. When you press the Once switch the loop will continue to play till the end and then stop.

Then I don’t think it matters how you connect the two HX FX units. In either case (serial vs. one in FX Loop of the other) you have to place all FX blocks in front of your amp. In both configurations your only concern will be the order of the blocks, and you can do that equivalently in either setup. Also, in either case you need to set the relevant outputs to Instrument level.

You had 3 speeds and reel-to-reel? How spoiled you were! I started with a simple stereo cassette recorder - 2-tracks, technically, but you couldn’t use them independently. Connect your 2 mics to the 2 inputs, separate them by a few feet, and hit the Record button. Whatever sound was floating around the room got recorded, and that was it. You had to know when the train was scheduled to run past your house, and you hoped the telephone wouldn’t ring.

I don’t think the looper in a Line 6 amp/FX modeler will ever really rival a standalone looper pedal for live play. If you want to use a professional grade looper for live play you should purchase a standalone device that is designed for that purpose. The looper feature in Line 6 modellers is very useful for two main purposes: providing short (max 2 minutes) background for practicing lead solos, and providing an ability to tweak tones in a hands-free manner using a recorded part. It simply requires too much tap dancing, imho, to be a useful looper in a live situation. I think it will remain that way because a looping feature is not really playing to Line 6’s strength, which is DSP modeling. There’s no DSP involved in looping. It simply records and replays sounds. Sophisticated loopers have long term storage, tempo capabilities, multiple simultaneous loops, etc. None of these things utilize DSP modeling and I hope Line 6 doesn’t stray into wasting resources by trying to integrate these advanced features into their modeling devices. Now, if Line 6 decides to build a separate product line of new standalone loopers, that’s a different topic. The Line 6 JM4 Looper has been discontinued for some years now. Does Line 6 want to start competing in that arena again? Who knows. But that would be a diversion from their core strength - DSP modeling.

Is Line 6 Support telling you to send it in for repair? If so, that’s likely what it needs. You seem to have already attempted everything short of that.

I think it depends at least partly on how you use your amp with the HX FX. If you are using 4CM then you are already using one of the HX FX effects loops. If not using 4CM then you might use one HX FX in front of the amp and the other in the amp’s FX Loop. There’s no ‘best’ setup. Experiment and see what sounds best to you.

Time to open a support ticket.

Please describe in detail how you are attempting to delete it. What specific action(s) are you doing?

Have you downloaded and installed the Pod Go Edit package? That’s the first step. After that, run Pod Go Edit with your Pod Go connected. Sign in to your Line 6 account within Pod Go Edit. If your device firmware needs to be updated follow the prompts to do so.

Here’s a similar situation I think. Maybe useful reading for you.

I have to disagree. The update instructions are already clear. Everything you need, including the drivers, is installed with the Pod Go Edit download package. You don’t need to even think about the drivers. Nor do you need to know that a program called Line 6 Updater is also involved. And there are actually two drivers that are necessary and installed. Do you need to know about all of that? The installation procedure was streamlined and automated some time ago precisely so the user did not need to know or be concerned about the background details like multiple drivers and a separate update program. All you need to do is follow the simple instruction: Download and install the Pod Go Edit package. When you perform the installation you will see that all these components are installed.

I think the best setup is #1). Use the L/MONO (or L and R for stereo) output(s) to your speaker(s). Set those Pod Go outputs to Line level. Make sure your computer is configured to use the Pod Go as its audio device. No need for Aux input or USB 3/4.

Your Pod Go firmware probably does include those amp models. But it seems there are no factory presets that explicitly name/use them. You can create your own presets that use them by selecting them from the amp models list that appears when you add/change an amp model during preset editing.

Does this happen with all snapshots in all presets, or is it limited to certain specific situations? If it only happens sometimes I expect it’s a by-product of the digital modeling behaving exactly as the real-life analog equipment would behave if dramatic changes in snapshot parameters could be made to happen instantaneously in real life. The most likely reason is a change in amp models, say from a lo-gain to a hi-gain amp. It can even happen within the same amp model if parameters such as Gain or Master Volume are changed dramatically. Imagine that you could instantly swap your guitar cable so that you disconnect from a real Fender amp with clean settings to a real very hi-gain amp with the Drive set to max, while the guitar is sustaining.This can be done in real life using an A/B splitter on your guitar input cable. I expect a similar popping sound would be heard. Similarly, these audible pops and warbles happen when time-based or gain-based parameters in FX blocks change dramatically from snapshot to snapshot. For instance, changing the delay time instantly by a large amount can cause audible warbling. This will happen on a real life delay pedal if you rapidly rotate the Time knob while the guitar is sustaining. Consequently, accurate modeling will produce this same warbling when switching snapshots with a similar change in the Time parameter. Many other examples exist, and a combination of these changes simultaneously in a single snapshot switch can easily result in the symptom you describe. It’s not a bug, and there is no fix because Helix is doing what it is supposed to do - model real life behaviour. I suggest you review your snapshot changes and reduce the drama.

I think it means the next update will include a mail out to every Helix owner in the world of a dozen real, physical power tubes along with a device that will allow us to connect them to our Helix in a mix-and-match fashion.

The cable that comes with the guitar is not a VDI cable. It is used for connecting to a computer to use the Workbench HD product. It should not be used for live play because it is not sufficiently robust.