Helix through Blackstar Artist 30 4CM - great combination

[sgodden]

This is really just a quick note to say that after a total of about 4 hours playing round with the Helix through my Blackstar Artist 30, I'm getting some great results.

 

I really want Helix for live performance, and to be able to switch between a few different basic amp sounds.  So I'm going 4CM through the Artist.  The Artist is a great base amp for this type of thing - tons of clean headroom, and a nice neutral power amp section.  I bought it to replace an Orange TH30, which was an amp I totally loved, but which really can only do one thing, and had notoriously little headroom.

 

I have to say that experience so far with the Helix and the Artist is really good.  The Cali Rec Amp without any cab just sounds fantastic, and is going to be my go to solution for most classic rock numbers.  It sounds much grittier and more authentic to my ears going through the Artist than it did going through a stagesource L3, but that's just my ears.

 

If anyone is wonder about a good solution for live performance using a real amp, this could be it.

[Jugghaid]

This is really just a quick note to say that after a total of about 4 hours playing round with the Helix through my Blackstar Artist 30, I'm getting some great results.

 

I really want Helix for live performance, and to be able to switch between a few different basic amp sounds.  So I'm going 4CM through the Artist.  The Artist is a great base amp for this type of thing - tons of clean headroom, and a nice neutral power amp section.  I bought it to replace an Orange TH30, which was an amp I totally loved, but which really can only do one thing, and had notoriously little headroom.

 

I have to say that experience so far with the Helix and the Artist is really good.  The Cali Rec Amp without any cab just sounds fantastic, and is going to be my go to solution for most classic rock numbers.  It sounds much grittier and more authentic to my ears going through the Artist than it did going through a stagesource L3, but that's just my ears.

 

If anyone is wonder about a good solution for live performance using a real amp, this could be it.

I agree. Going through a real amp eliminates the whole "My sound isn't cutting thorough" problem. I have used my helix through several of my tube amps and while I generally use the Egnater Vengeance 1/2 stack live, it also works great with my Blackstar tube amps. Especially the HT-60 combo. The only thing I don't like about using it with the HT-60 is the channel switching on the blackstar is a pain due to the footswitch input type. On the Egnater it's a simple 1/4". So I just use the HT-60 for a crunch sound.