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Hey all. This is going to sound dumb but I would love to get some (constructive) thoughts on this... I use my POD HD500X as a pedalboard for its great reverbs, delays, overdrive, modulation, etc. through my VHT Special 6 Ultra combo for guitar and pedal steel guitar. My pedal steel does not have an onboard tone or volume control, which is pretty common for those. Many players use a compact preamp mounted to their steel guitar so they can make tweaks to volume and tone on the fly. I don't intend to use amp emulation most of the time but I may do it on occasion to go direct to the board at church or a gig. Question: what is your best method to use the HD500X as a pre-amp? Subquestion: can I use the hardware knobs to modify treble/mid/bass/presence/volume (sound) without emulating an amp or cabinet? Subqueston: can this be done without using a pedal chain slot? Currently I am using the HD500X with Studio/Direct output mode and input Z set to 3.5m or 1m to neutralize any color to the signal (many, many thanks to @hurghanico for their invaluable advice!) . But I'd like to be able to shape the tone and maybe add a little boost, ideally without using one of the available blocks in the pedal chain. May you have a very Merry Christmas, strong health and the unmistakeable peace of the presence of the Lord this season!

Howdy all, _Apologies moderators if this is in the wrong forum.. figured it might get a few more hits if it’s in the main forum_.. Having been part of the Fractal Forum (however no longer because I’m a loud and proud HELIX user J), and Kemper Forum, and now the Line 6 Helix forum, I’ve noticed that in particular here in the Helix forum, there’s a huge amount of FRFR discussions, but there’s minimal discussions about players that don’t necessarily use FRFR. This could quite easily be because the bigger majority of players in this Line 6 forum ARE mainly FRFR users/players. This isn’t an anti-FRFR topic or discussion, it’s more about expanding on this forum and perhaps growing the capabilities of the Helix and sharing wins/strategies/tones etc etc. On the Fractal and Kemper forums, there are many discussions about FRFR, but there’s also a lot of discussions and banter about power amps + cabs + Kemper or Axe FX, _not just FRFR_. Is it worth having a forum or chat room for the players that mainly use their Helix rig in a non-FRFR situation? It’s all well and good to download and trade patches with one another that are FRFR; however from what I can ascertain on this forum, at least 90% of all things discussed is FRFR based, with not a lot of input on power amp + cab + Helix and so forth. Again, having owned and played all 3 modellers, I personally keep resorting back to a valve power amp + cab + Helix because that not only works for me, but the band that I play in as well. FRFR is the perfect bedroom solution (which a majority of us forum’ites are, presumably), however, I just think it’d be good to have a place to chat, trade ideas etc that are not always FRFR based.. Food for thought I guess..

Hey guys, I know I know, lots of players are really digging FRFR/cabs sims etc, but for my purposes, I'm really digging using amp sims IN CONJUNCTION with my VHT 2/50/2 power amp. Just curious to know if there's other players out there, as the title suggests, that use their Helix with a valve (or even solid state) power amp, AND IF SO, are you using it in a band? Last question, as far as hi-gain tones are concerned, what amp sims do some of you use for this? Thanks.

Hi guys, have you ever tried the Valvulator in the signal chain before the POD HD (directly into the PA)? Watching this video ( ) it seems like a great unit, BUT in that demo he runs the POD through a poweramp and a cabinet, not directly into a PA. My question is: does the Valvulator really worth it in that scenario? Does it take away some of the well-known "fizz" out and add some dynamics to the tone? Thanks! ;)