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Guitars (or Guitarists) are Weird!


CraigGT
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So the other week a friend called in and I introduced him to my Helix. He seemed quite impressed with it but I was still surprised when I found out a week later that he had gone straight out and bought himself one!

 

Anyway he called in again this week, this time with his Les Paul in tow, so I plugged it into the Helix and let rip and It just sounded ok (probably more because I've tweaked my patches to suit my Charvel Model 6 than because it's a bad guitar)

 

So I decided to plug it into my old valve amp, this is a Burman Pro 502 which you've probably never heard of. It was hand built in Newcastle, England in 1978 and I've had it since new. I don't use it much anymore, partly because I fear that everytime I turn it on might be it's last.

 

Anyway, it sounded ******** awesome cranked up loud (gain 3 on 1.5!) with the Les Paul!

Now I don't know if I want the Charvel and Helix or a Les Paul and the Burman or maybe I just want everything :-)

 

Craig 

 

  

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The Helix Presets are extremely indicative of what you feed them!

 

If you build a Preset from scratch for a Les Paul, and another Preset from scratch for a different type guitar (and pickups), the Presets will sound quite distinct from one another.

 

What works great for a Les Paul, will sound very different if you use a Strat, or a semi-hollow guitar!.

 

I have found this to be the case with my several Les Pauls, Custom Strat, and Sheraton-II Pro.

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I would be trying to get to the bottom of what it is that I like about my old valve amp - read and youtube all you can, and see if I can get something very similar out of the Helix.

I have to say that I find the Helix superior to any valve amp I ever had - but that is because I like a produced sound - I keep saying in posts here that I realise some people like that raw punch in the guts of a valve amp that's cooking and moving a lot of speaker area.  And I understand that from using Marshalls and Voxs over the years.  What always bugged me was that you couldn't get the spatial spread you could in the studio - that it sounded different on every stage, and that it ended up 1 gig in 10 where all the magic happened.  

I'm so happy to have a predictable sound now - I'm so happy to know it is what people hear out front, and because I'm monitoring in stereo, I stand bathed in a broad wash of sound that I totally enjoy while knowing the rest of the band aren't damaging their ears trying to hear themselves over me (and the escalating noise as everyone compensates with their volume knob!)

There are still special nights and so so nights - but that's now up to me and the other members of the band - I've eliminated bad sound as one of those reasons.

On that perfect night with a valve amp was it better? - I'll never know, because I can't relive the experience with an A/B switch!

What I do know is I can get a Marshall rock based sound out of the Helix that does it for me - I can get a cutting edge that does what I always loved about my Vox and I can now enjoy an American clean when I want one - all in the one song if I really wanted to!

Never could have done that in the "good old days"!

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I would be trying to get to the bottom of what it is that I like about my old valve amp - read and youtube all you can, and see if I can get something very similar out of the Helix.

I have to say that I find the Helix superior to any valve amp I ever had - but that is because I like a produced sound - I keep saying in posts here that I realise some people like that raw punch in the guts of a valve amp that's cooking and moving a lot of speaker area.  And I understand that from using Marshalls and Voxs over the years.  What always bugged me was that you couldn't get the spatial spread you could in the studio - that it sounded different on every stage, and that it ended up 1 gig in 10 where all the magic happened.  

I'm so happy to have a predictable sound now - I'm so happy to know it is what people hear out front, and because I'm monitoring in stereo, I stand bathed in a broad wash of sound that I totally enjoy while knowing the rest of the band aren't damaging their ears trying to hear themselves over me (and the escalating noise as everyone compensates with their volume knob!)

There are still special nights and so so nights - but that's now up to me and the other members of the band - I've eliminated bad sound as one of those reasons.

On that perfect night with a valve amp was it better? - I'll never know, because I can't relive the experience with an A/B switch!

What I do know is I can get a Marshall rock based sound out of the Helix that does it for me - I can get a cutting edge that does what I always loved about my Vox and I can now enjoy an American clean when I want one - all in the one song if I really wanted to!

Never could have done that in the "good old days"!

 

That pretty much sais it all.

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Some of it is probably perception. There are days when i think my Helix, or tube amp, or whatever, sounds like absolute crap, and then other days when i love what im hearing.....and we all know, helix hasnt changed its sound to the point where its likely audible, so i chalk it up to my brain. Been Playing guitar since i was 13, so about 33 years, its always been this way.

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Some of it is probably perception. There are days when i think my Helix, or tube amp, or whatever, sounds like absolute crap, and then other days when i love what im hearing.....and we all know, helix hasnt changed its sound to the point where its likely audible, so i chalk it up to my brain. Been Playing guitar since i was 13, so about 33 years, its always been this way.

Yup. Barring actual malfunctions, the biggest variable from one day to the next is you. The gear stays the same...

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Yup. Barring actual malfunctions, the biggest variable from one day to the next is you. The gear stays the same...

 

That and the amp gremlins. Constantly changing things internally and subtley. Just enough to make me doubt my sanity.

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I can't even make it a day without my hearing/perception changing, mine changes from hour to hour. ;)

Same here. I have horrible sinus problems, and I live in Louisiana.

 

My eustachian tubes are constantly tortured here. This is more than likely a problem that a lot of us share, but often overlook. It does affect how you perceive sound.

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Exposure to one cigarettes worth of second hand smoke will close your eustachian tube.

 

I'm guessing the correct term would be can close them. I'm a former smoker and I don't recall ever noticing my eustachian tubes closing when I fired up.

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... Now I don't know if I want the Charvel and Helix or a Les Paul and the Burman or maybe I just want everything :-)

 

Craig 

Pffftttt... this is easy to answer: What you want is a KPA so that you can profile the Burman and then put it safely away and not have to power it up any time soon...

 

And, of course, you should keep your Helix. So, yeah, you want everything.

 

:) (Sorry, had to toss in this hand grenade...) 

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