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Hello! I recently bought Helix LT. I've been extremely disappointed in it. I can't get a decent metal tone out of it. Like EVH type of stuff. Or Metallica, Megadeth etc. I even bought some IR:s from OwnHammer. Bought EVH cab, some Engl cabs etc. Doesn't make much of a different. Sounds like absolute garbage. Been trying out Engl model with EVH IR and different high gain heads/amps like 5150 and Soldano. They all suck pretty badly. Also tried to put Tubescreamer in front of the amp. In "real life" I play Engl amps. Have Savage head and Screamer combo. I put the guitar cable in and that's it, the sound is perfect, no tweaking needed whatsoever. Been playing guitar nearly 30 years and I teach guitar for living, so I'm no beginner with this stuff. Any suggestions ...?

just got helix lt today going direct into mackie mixer into mackie hr824's . initial impressions are very good.the scribble strips are not missed at all. modeling is very good. I thought the definite improvement over past modeling are the distorted amps.clean amps were just ok ( a bit thin[lack of bass],but going direct with global eq at default). effects are decent,but seemed to lack something, in particular,the delays in some way. presets are mostly weak. now, here is my dilemma. I use 2 hybrid tube/solid state amps and a delay pedal and a line6 m5 (used sparingly) and just love the sound. I found I liked the sound much more than helix lt?! what is wrong with me?! this just cant be. but here is the thing, the amps just have this sound I love. I am sure with some editing I can come close with helix maybe. only advantage I can hear is that I can go direct with helix for recording where as with my amps I have to mic them and hear chair creaks coughs etc...but the sound of my amps/effects just are perfect to my ears and blow away the helix for that type of sound. now hi gain /distortion- no doubt the helix is very good. but I don't use distortion as often as I used to, in fact, I still find the pod xt live plenty for me and I don't dislike the sounds I get at all.the distortions in line 6 m5 are just ok ,but pod xt live is much better and helix is better than both.. I love the pod xt live as its just fun to play into 2 solid state amps though i need to add a bit of reverb/delay. globally with outboard effects. just trying to justify $1000 and just not sure I can;helix lt is a great unit,but for me it may not be the answer. perhaps a pod hd500x would be better for me as I do dislike the pod xt live not syncing time based effects to midi clock (I think the 500x does this).I tried the 500x and didn't like it much at the time,but might be enough for me).I just think the helix is overkill.I do like that steve vai hi gain patch though.... conclusion thus far, I am thrilled with my clean amps,delay pedal and m5 setup and even my pod xt live. I found the helix excellent but cant justify 1k for my needs. Well,will try helix into my solid state amps and see if that works better for me

Hi everyone, I own a X3 Live which is my gig companion for years, a true workhorse battered and proved. The years are passing, however, and I'm considering to leave it as a backup and purchase a newer unit. I have an eye on the HD500x, which seems to be overall good, except for one thing... On the X3L I use a headphone for stage monitoring, so I assign the master vol to control to XLR only, this way I have the 1/4 outs at full volume, and I can control the headphones volume with the master vol knob. I haven't seen any mention to this on the HD500x reference... can't it do this? Thanks in advance.