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General Helix LT pre-sale questions


landofunland
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Hello!

 

Interested in the Helix LT, but very much a novice in setting up sounds. Hoping you folks with practical experience and answer a few basic questions.

 

Short background: I am getting tired of my L6 Spider IV 75w and shortboard. Was considering buying a new low watt tube amp and stomp boxes, but stumbled onto Helix LT and now am officially curious. 99.9% of the time I play for my dog in my living room. The typical artists styles I mimic include David Gilmour, Eddie, Carlos, Neal Schon, etc. My main guitar is a PRS core CU24 artist.

 

LT Questions:

How many factory preset sounds come with the LT?

Do the factory presets cover a wide range of genres including a selection of tones near the artists above? - basically will I be happy with the presets it comes with as I learn to shape sounds for myself?

 

Amp questions:

If I do decide to drop a grand on an LT, how good or bad of an idea would it be to simply run it through my L6 Spider IV set at clean and flat?

If I went out and bought a low watt Tube amp, would I be throwing away money since the tones are being generated by the LT?

If you recommend I do buy a low watt (living room) Tube amp, what would you suggest would be a good fit with the LT?

 

I greatly appreciate your responses, it's a lot of money!

 

Thanks,

 

-=gu=-

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Best thing with a Helix is going to be FRFR if you are running direct to the house PA or your favorite tube amp, preferably with a FX send Return so you can either use the tube preamp OR bypass it and use the Helix modeling preamps.

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 99.9% of the time I play for my dog in my living room.

Get a decent pair of studio monitors. I use Rokit6, but if you've got a GC nearby, go and try out different ones till you find one you like the sound of. Also, if you've got a high quality home stereo, don't sell it short. Just be aware that if you start playing out, whichever route you take, the sounds you create for home use will NOT sound the same on stage.

 

As for presets, I bought both the Glen DeLaune and Fremen packs. I was disappointed with GD, but Fremen has some very nice sounds and, to me, his way of building them is much easier to figure out, which makes them a very good learning tool.

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I would strongly urge you, if you can possibly afford it, to get at least a decent pair of studio monitors.  They can hook up directly to the Helix and will provide you with a great representation of what the Helix can do.  Some folks have mentioned several different brands here, but as someone mentioned...just go to your local music store and listend to a bunch of different ones and find something that sounds decent within your price range.

 

As far as the stock presets, some are pretty good for getting started.  Some are a little bit "out there" and over the top, but meant as learning tools.  But there should be enough there to get you started playing.

 

More important than the presets are a number of instructional videos both here on the Line6's web site http://line6.com/support/page/kb/_/tutorial-videos/line-6-video-tutorials-complete-list-r202

as well as on YouTube on how to dial in your own patches.  Just search for Helix on YouTube and you'll have hours of videos to learn from.  The thing is with Helix, the more knowledgeable you are, the more satisfied you will be with what you can do with it.

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Hi Guys,

 

Thanks to each of you for your advice and taking the time to respond.

 

I ended up buying an LT yesterday at GC because of their 15% off Memorial Day weekend sale (on items over one fifty), so I paid eight fifty. I will have to save up for studio monitors, I think that's a great idea. In the meantime, I'm running it through the L6 S IV 75 clean and flat. I have to say I have never heard that amp sound better, clearer or crisper. It's a night and day comparing the amps built in patches vs. the tones coming out of the LT. It's much closer to the sound and tones I've been wanting.

 

All I've done so far is go through the factory patches, but I did this until my fingers were practically shredded. Hurts so good. 

 

DunedinDragon - after barely breaking the surface of the inner workings of the LT, I see there a pretty huge learning curve - speaking to your point on the more you know, the more you'll get out of it. I was hoping there would be video guides online exclusively for the LT, but most are or the full Helix. After watching a couple of them though, I think the processes are very similar. I'm finding out there's a whole new vernacular I need to learn - not just turn the flanger up a little. One of the things I was used to in my previous setup was, the switch in the pedal always toggled between volume and wah on any sound I was using. I'm so green, not having that there isn't making sense at this time, so as I said I have much to learn.

 

Thanks again for your advice. You'll probably see my name asking questions here when I get stuck. 

 

Cheers!

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Hi Guys,

 

Thanks to each of you for your advice and taking the time to respond.

 

I ended up buying an LT yesterday at GC because of their 15% off Memorial Day weekend sale (on items over one fifty), so I paid eight fifty. I will have to save up for studio monitors, I think that's a great idea. In the meantime, I'm running it through the L6 S IV 75 clean and flat. I have to say I have never heard that amp sound better, clearer or crisper. It's a night and day comparing the amps built in patches vs. the tones coming out of the LT. It's much closer to the sound and tones I've been wanting.

 

All I've done so far is go through the factory patches, but I did this until my fingers were practically shredded. Hurts so good. 

 

...

One of the things I was used to in my previous setup was, the switch in the pedal always toggled between volume and wah on any sound I was using. I'm so green, not having that there isn't making sense at this time, so as I said I have much to learn.

 

Thanks again for your advice. You'll probably see my name asking questions here when I get stuck. 

 

Cheers!

 

I highly recommend the JBL LSR305's... You should be able to find them new on sale for $125 ea.  I haven't bothered to look at used prices since I own a pair. 

And if you are going to use 1/4 cables to go from the Helix to your studio monitors, TSR cables are a MUST or you'll get noise.  XLR cables are by design TSR.

 

I'm assuming your comment about switching between the Wah and Volume pedal is because not all the stock presets have a wah?  Otherwise, it should work that way if there are both a wah and volume pedal in the preset.

To that end, I also recommend getting an external expression pedal so you don't have to switch back and forth (I hate that anyway).

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I highly recommend the JBL LSR305's... You should be able to find them new on sale for $125 ea.  I haven't bothered to look at used prices since I own a pair. 

And if you are going to use 1/4 cables to go from the Helix to your studio monitors, TSR cables are a MUST or you'll get noise.  XLR cables are by design TSR.

 

I'm assuming your comment about switching between the Wah and Volume pedal is because not all the stock presets have a wah?  Otherwise, it should work that way if there are both a wah and volume pedal in the preset.

To that end, I also recommend getting an external expression pedal so you don't have to switch back and forth (I hate that anyway).

 

 

All great advice!

 

What do you mean by TSR?

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

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All great advice!

 

What do you mean by TSR?

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

 

Picture-31.png

 

TRS is what as known as a "balanced" cable, like an XLR cable.  The balanced cord has two wires and a shield inside and has the same signal running through both wires.

One signal is 180 degrees out of phase with the other (that is, their waveforms are opposite one another), and when the signals get to the mixer (or whatever they’re plugged into) one of the signals is flipped and added to the other. When this happens, any noise that built up in the signal is canceled out.

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There are no TRS balanced 1.4" jacks on Helix. Using TRS to XLR with Helix's 1/4" output is the wrong way to do it. It may work, but it's the wrong way, and is giving you no benefit.

Use regular 1/4" guitar-style patch cables for the 1/4" output. If you require a balanced connection, use the XLR outputs.

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