Dylanguitar Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 When I need to quickly go to the wah on a lead sound, I have to switch the patch, then switch to mode, then turn on the wah, then put my foot over on the wah. So basically the first 3 seconds of the solo are used making this switch. I know I could save another patch where the wah is already engaged, but it would be nice not to have to sacrifice a whole patch just for this. How are others navigating this? I really miss the feature on my old X3 Live where I could just depress the pedal and it would click the wah on, just like a regular wah pedal. Thanks Dylan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 What I do until an auto-engage might be put in is to have the wah engaged all the time. The pedal that's controlling the wah can be used for both the mix and position. Depending on the wah, a mix starting around 35-40% gives a mostly transparent sound, so the wah is essentially off. But because the mix isn't 100% through the wah's entire range, the character is changed slightly. This can be compensated for slightly by adjusting Fc Low and Fc High, which some of the wah's have, some don't. Or you could just the expression pedal switch if you're using the onboard expression pedal. Not sure I get why you'd switch to a different patch to engage a wah though. Maybe I'm missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtrman100 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm not understanding either- when you add a wah block, unless you have the EXP-1 toe switch reassigned to another function, it will default to turning the wah on and off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 My wah is the only external pedal I kept. Click it on when I want it, off when I don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanguitar Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm not understanding either- when you add a wah block, unless you have the EXP-1 toe switch reassigned to another function, it will default to turning the wah on and off. Because I don't always use the wah for that lead sound. I have my stock lead sound, and then the wah as an option. So I don't want to the wah to be engaged when I go to that patch, because I'm not always using it. I assign a switch to both the volume and the wah.....so it switches from volume pedal to wah, but it's still a lot of tap dancing....changing to mode, engaging the wah etc. With the X3 it seemed so simple. Dylan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Because I don't always use the wah for that lead sound. I have my stock lead sound, and then the wah as an option. So I don't want to the wah to be engaged when I go to that patch, because I'm not always using it. I assign a switch to both the volume and the wah.....so it switches from volume pedal to wah, but it's still a lot of tap dancing....changing to mode, engaging the wah etc. With the X3 it seemed so simple. Dylan I still don't understand why you couldn't set it up so the Helix behaves the same way the X3L did. You certainly can. There is a toe switch under the expression pedal on the Helix just like the X3L, and it can be assigned to turn the volume pedal off and the wah on at the same time, just like the X3L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeandTanja Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I still don't understand why you couldn't set it up so the Helix behaves the same way the X3L did. You certainly can. There is a toe switch under the expression pedal on the Helix just like the X3L, and it can be assigned to turn the volume pedal off and the wah on at the same time, just like the X3L. Phil is exactly right here...and I'm also totally confused as to what your problem is. When you add a volume pedal to the beginning of your signal chain, the default action of the Helix is to assign that to Exp2. So there's no footswitch to assign to turn on the volume pedal...the built-in expression pedal is already acting as your volume pedal. When you add a Wah to your chain, it will be turned off by default and will be assigned to Exp1 (again by default) so you don't need to do anything to get this setup to work. So, when you want to engage the Wah, just stomp on the toe of the Volume pedal (Exp2) and the toe switch will engage and change the expression pedal to act as the Wah (Exp1). When you're done using the Wah, stomp on the toe again to switch back to Exp1 mode and the expression pedal is once again your Volume pedal. This is the default way of using the expression pedal in Helix and I can't understand why you'd ever want to assign volume and expression to another switch anyway. If you're using the expression pedal for something else (like changing a delay mix ratio or something) then I'd suggest getting an external pedal for that and leave the built-in pedal for the Vol/Wah functionality. Just my 2 cents worth anyway... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylanguitar Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Ok I didn't realize there was a hidden "switch" on the pedal itself. With the X3 you can hear/feel it click on and off. Since I didn't hear/feel that with the Helix, I assumed there was none. When I pull it out later, I'll check it out and report back. Thanks everyone for their replies. Dylan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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