silverhead

From the manual….. ”AMP OUT This unbalanced output is meant to send directly to the front of your guitar amp. By default, it reflects the same output as the MAIN outputs (except in mono), but it can be globally switched to be tapped off directly before the Cab/ IR block. This way, you can send a cab-emulated signal to your mixer (or FRFR speaker) while simultaneously sending a non-cab-emulated signal to your guitar amp.” Lots of other goodies in the manual, too…..

A factory reset will restore the factory presets. Use POD Go Edit to create a system backup, then turnoff the POD Go. Perform a factory reset by holding down switches C and D while powering up. Then use POD Bo Edit again to restore the backup file. During restoration de-select the Factory folder so that it will not be restored.

Friend? Maybe you can return it and get your money back?

By any chance do you have the Path B input set to Mic? That will activate/sensitize the pins in the XLR Mic input. Perhaps they are picking up some sort of signal and accepting it as input?

Check the Playback level setting in the Looper block. I believe the default is less than 100% based on the notion that you likely want the solo level to be louder than the looped backing track.

That’s not uncommon with any audio gear. General rule is that you turn off the speakers before any other equipment. Do the reverse when powering up systems; turn the speakers on last.

Will that allow the signal to be processed by the external pedal in the FX Loop as desired? Or would this apply only if the POD Go output is connected to the external pedal input?

You do want the looper at the end of the chain in both presets. Make sure you are using the same type of looper block in both presets. Also make sure the Playback setting of the looper is high. Perhaps your crunchy preset is simply much louder than your clean preset which might result in the clean sound being overpowered (made almost inaudible) by the crunchy sound. To test this, switch back and forth between the two presets without activating the looper. Are the output volumes similar or do you have to turn up/down the volume of the preset each time you switch? If the latter, balance the preset output volumes first then try looping again.

What I’m suggesting does not involve guitar processing through your computer. The POD Go is the guitar processor and produces the sound. I don’t know how good the Audigy product is but chances are the POD Go is a better sound card. Try connecting headphones to the POD Go’s Phones output. There’s no latency. If you have external speakers connect them to the POD Go’s main outputs. You need the usb connection if you want to use POD Go Edit but the POD Go produces the sound. No need for your computer unless you want to record.

I assume you want to do this without having to change or reroute any cables. Otherwise the simplest thing would be to disconnect the POD Go and use just the external pedal. I also assume that you are using the Send jack as well as the Return jack so that the external pedal receives its signal from the POD Go and returns it’s processed signal. In other words your external pedal is in the FX Loop of the POD Go. Configure your POD Go preset to have only the FX Loop active. Deactivate (turn off) all other processing blocks in the POD Go. That will ensure that the signal your PC receives is processed only by your external pedal. A couple of A/D and D/A conversions are unavoidable but will have minimal impact on the overall signal quality. Have you ever considered using your POD Go as the audio card? Connect it via USB and connect your speakers or headphones to the POD Go. Unless your PC sound card is stellar the sound quality you hear will be much improved.

Define ‘work’. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Yes, it will likely work in the sense that you will hear sound. Will it sound ‘good’, whatever that means? Only you can say…. but probably not. Or are you trying to achieve something else?

And my JTV-59 is still my daily, go-to guitar. I have a Les Paul Deluxe that has been sitting in its case for several years now. I take it out occasionally to change the strings and have a nostalgia session. It sounds great. But then I find I want a Tele or Strat sound…. the Les Paul goes back and the Variax comes out again.

is the Line 6 driver installed?

Yes, setup your preset to place the PGW FX Loop at some point in your signal chain. I’m not sure if there are restrictions about it placement, but as early in the chain as possible to achieve your desired first-in-chain placement. I believe the POD Go impedance issue is in the input block so can’t be addressed by a pedal in the FX Loop.

Aaah. I hadn’t read that part in the manual. I just described how I know it actually acts which as you say is apparently a bug. Thanks.

I do know how the 'Don't Force' setting works. When you switch to a preset that has the Don't Force setting for the Vol/Tone knobs the Helix device takes no action on the current value of these parameters. It does NOT mean that the position of the physical knob suddenly defines the value. The value remains as it was regardless of physical knob position.

I've just looked into this. It seems that you are able to assign an EXP pedal to control the Variax Vol and Tone knobs in a sweeping fashion. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.

I wasn’t aware of that. I know Helix can store different values for the Variax Vol and Tone knobs, and can recall different values using Snapshots. But I’m not aware that you can, for instance, assign the Vol or Tone knob to an expression pedal and sweep thru their values. Are you saying you should be able to do that except for a bug? Or is there a bug in what I’ve described?

I take a dual approach. I have many song-based presets that I organize in the order I want to play the songs. One song per preset when I want to get as close as possible to the original tone for covering the song. I also reserve several banks in my main setlist for genre/style related presets. I have a bank for Clean tones, Acoustic tones, Blues tones, Crunchy tones, etc. These banks I use when playing free style, not necessarily a preordained setlist. As has been mentioned you can get a lot of variety using snapshots within a preset. Even more variety when you have 4 basic Blues (or whatever) tones each with several snapshots.

You said ‘switch Variax presets’. Did you mean ‘switch Helix presets’? If so, the answer is No, that’s not possible.

I’m not experiencing that.

Depends on your Marshall amp output level. The Mic input is expecting a mic level signal; if your Marshall is sending a line level signal it likely will overdrive the mic preamp leading to unpleasant distortion. But you could use the Aux input on the Spider Jam instead.

I’m happy to help. Enjoy!