alvmay25 Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Good evening to all, I Have a fender bassman amp head that i woul like to connect to my helix. the amp head doesnt have an effects loop so im going to try to connect it through the helix effects loop. Helix effects send > AMP guitar input > AMP speaker out > Helix return on effects loop. My question is will this work? or this will fry my helix. Im not sure if the Helix can take speaker out level. Thanks advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 DO NOT hook up an amp speaker out to ANYTHING on Helix... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvroberts Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Thank God you asked! t\You'd fry the Helix and most likely your amp. That's almost the equivalent of plugging your mic into the mains! You need a load box to replace the load of your speakers, and you need to find one with either a line or instrument out. Ground lift would be a good idea too. something here possibly - https://www.sweetwater.com/c1117--Attenuators_and_Simulators If you want to use the Helix speaker simulation or IRs - don't use one with speaker simulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HonestOpinion Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Good evening to all, I Have a fender bassman amp head that i woul like to connect to my helix. the amp head doesnt have an effects loop so im going to try to connect it through the helix effects loop. Helix effects send > AMP guitar input > AMP speaker out > Helix return on effects loop. My question is will this work? or this will fry my helix. Im not sure if the Helix can take speaker out level. Thanks advance You might want to look into the many posts here and elsewhere on how to use the 4 cable method. As rvroberts pointed out you must have either a guitar cab or a loadbox attached to the Fender head when you run it. I assume you are going to want to run the Fender into a cab ultimately or why even bother having it in your signal chain. You never want to even turn a guitar head or amp on without having a speaker or load connected first; even if the amp has a headphone output. Doing this can damage the head/amp quite quickly, faster with some than others. Without loading any amp's speaker output with sufficient impedance you risk damaging the amp as they always require a load, preferably with the proper impedance. Some heads/amps are more tolerant of running into a lower impedance than they are rated for but every head/amp I have ever encountered is meant to be run with some kind of load. The Helix inputs are definitely NOT designed with the proper impedance for an amp speaker output Additionally, as spikey mentioned, you never want to apply the high level of signal output from any amplifier's speaker output directly to a Helix input. This might easily damage the Helix. If you don't want to use the 4 cable method you could always connect the Helix's ouput directly to the Fender head's guitar input but you still have to make sure the Fender has a guitar cab or loadbox attached to the Fender's speaker output. There is a 4 Cable method template in the Helix's Templates list. Four cable method with the Helix video from Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/line-6-helix-tutorials-using-the-four-cable-method/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alvmay25 Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 Thanks everyone for the reply. Looking into a load box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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