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Helix tone suck?


guitarman2323
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I've had the Helix now for a few weeks.  I was getting it set up to play live tonight and noticed a few issues.  I'm using the Helix as a pedalboard into the front of a PRS DG30 amp and I'm using a PRS DGT guitar.  The DGT guitar is very responsive to volume.  The level of volume does not drop much when going from 10 to 6, it just gets cleaner.  Typically I drive it on 10 but go down to 6 or 7 to clean it up.  I noticed tonight that the minute I would take the guitar volume off of 10 there was a huge volume drop and by the time you hit 7 or 8 the tone was very thin and very low volume.  I've noticed while getting used to the Helix that my amp tone has been slightly muted, muffled, even stiff feeling so I plugged straight into the amp after sound check and there was the tone, lively, gritty, responsive, etc.  As soon as I plugged the Helix back in it was that same stiff tone, the amp had lost the great tube breakup and it sounded like there was a blanket over it compared to plugging straight in.  I have the Helix volume set between 12:00 and 1:00 and even if I turn it all the way up the guitar and amp still react the same way.  I've been playing the DGT for almost 8 years and I love being able to manipulate the guitar volume for my tones so this is weird how the volume drops off so rapidly.  To play the gig tonight I had the volume knobs and tone all on 10 the entire time and I don't play that way.  I'm loving the Helix as my pedalboard so any suggestions would be appreciated.  Any thoughts?

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Lets try to troubleshoot.

 

Did you try a new preset with no effects?

 

and ......

    

     Input impedance to Auto

     input pad off 

     Global set outputs to instrument level

     master to max volume.

 

trying to find unity setting.

 

do this with your PRS amp at a low gain setting.. that way you will be able to find unity easier, otherwise the natural compression of the amp will make it difficult.

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The issue with the volume cutting out below 10 on the guitar was the Fuzz in the first block.  I was using the Arbitrator Fuzz.  As soon as I cleared that block everything was fine.  It seems to do the same thing with the Triangle Fuzz as well.  I must be missing something on the settings correct?

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I'm pretty sure this is typical of Fuzz boxes.  Seems to me if input impedance is set to auto, Helix sets the impedance based on the first pedal in the chain.  I do believe that there's a post from Digital Igloo either around here or in THE THREAD at TGP where he outlined the impedances of the various pedals, and the Fuzz sets it quite low. 

 

Try changing the input impedance to 1M (although I'm not sure what that will do to the Fuzz) and see what happens...

 

(p.s. You may want to mark the thread as answered...)

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I think I must be blind. I can't find where I change the impedance. When I go into global settings the first thing is the guitar in PAD setting then it's straight to other settings but no impedance option. Am I in the wrong place? Has anyone found the other fuzzes to be overly aggressive? I was looking for a more vintage fuzz like the first two options but not at the cost of guitar volume control. Thanks!

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It's in the input block 4th knob "Guitar In-Z", normally set to auto, probably want to set it to 1M, but others like it lower, especially when using single coil guitars.

 

Yes, I have yet to bond with the fuzzes like I did with my Tech 21 Boost Fuzz and various Big Muff pedals and emulators I have used.  But I can't say I've really sat down and tweaked with them yet either.  Stuff like the Aribitrator I have found to be really spiky, with almost dropouts between spikes, and they really blow out my headphones (not as bad through my L2t and LSR-5's), and I tend to like a smoother sound.  But, again, I really haven't tried to tweak them yet.

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