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I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I run my guitar into a external wah then into the helix and one of the analog outs goes into a fender twin reverb reissue, everyone knows this is a loud amp but with the helix in front I can run it a bit hotter and use the volume on helix to tame it to bedroom levels! I know better not to use cab sims with a real amp but with how clean the twin is, I find I get great representations of various amps using the pre blocks as a gain stage pedal. I know this is all obvious, but it’s like finding the toothpick in your Swiss Army knife.

Howdy Folks, I have no idea if this already has been discussed but I'll share it anyway. I've been using the Helix for a few years now and used it on various non tube amps including a Powercab+. Although I've been content with the results I couldn't get the real tubeamp feeling. So I decided to buy a used H&K statesman 6l6 because I loved the sound of that specific amp. Once I plugged in my guitar turned on the amp I instantly knew, this was the feeling I've been missing on a helix/frfr combi. The only problem....the neighbours did not. The volume of this amp is louuuuuud. Since I'm not in a band anymore and thus only playing at home you could say that an uncontrollable amp is'nt the right choice. A friend told me about a attenuator, so I checked and found those to be quite expensive except for some that use the fx send and return on the amp like the JHS Pedals Little Black Amp Box attenuator wich is actually doing nothing other than act as a master volume between pre and end stage. And this is the part were the Helix comes in. The idea, use one of Helix's paths to controle the volume in the fx loop of the amp, either by placing a volumepedal block in the loop or just trim the return level. By doing this you can crank up your amp without a neighbour complaining. I chose for the last option and this works perfect. One warning though, turn back the volume if you go back to a Factory preset. Are there others using this method and if so any other suggestions?

Hey all, Long ago, I had a DT50 112 combo. But do to lack of space and funds, I was forced to sell it. Since the, I've been playing my HD500 and now Helix thru a pair of l3ts. It's been great, but I've read accounts of people saying how great it sounds when the play their Helices thru tube power amps and I had to know if I was truly missing out. I don't have room for a combo or half stack and I have to keep it down at home, so this is what I've settled on. I got a great deal on a used DT50 head and set it on top of my l3ts. Then I got a Weber Mass III attenuator to help me turn the Master up, but keep the volume down. For electric sounds, I'll go from Helix via L6Link to the DT50. Then take the Direct Out into the back of one l3t, then out the thru jack to the other. For acoustic/synth sounds, I'll go from Helix to the side inputs of the l3ts. It's still a work in progress and I'm still getting familiar with all the moving parts. I've updated the firmware and downloaded DTedit, but I still need to follow Colonel Forbin's and radatats's procedures for prepping the DT50 to play nice with Helix. Does anyone have any advice or see any pitfalls with this setup?

So I've noticed over the past year or two companies like Mesa boogie and Rivera are making load boxes/attenuators with cab simulators so you can use a non-digital amp, and record direct. Some of the recordings are ok, and some are pretty bad from what I've heard. I pretty much do the same thing with my DT25 and sounds pretty great imho. I have the non cab sim version of the RockCrusher. I squash the signal to my cab all the way down to nothing so I don't annoy my neighbors, and this way I can use the tubes on my DT25 to record direct using the direct out on my head. I don't have any clips just yet to upload, but I feel that it really gives it that extra crispness and punch that you don't quite get in Standby mode where it bypasses the tubes. It really makes a big difference! Hope to have some examples in the next few weeks if I don't get too busy at work. So my question for you all is, do you think Line6 would ever make an attenuator/load box with just cab sims? I mean they have way more extensive knowledge on creating them over these other companies so I'm sure they could do a much much better job, or do you think the market just isn't big enough for it yet? I honestly think more and more people will be using them in the future, because after experimenting with it myself I think a hybrid digit/tube setup for direct recording is pretty damn great!