Jazz/fusion sounds

[egav2]

Hey all, brand new Helix owner here. I was drawn in by the capabilities and made a decision based on Mitch Baker's videos. Fractal sounds great and I do have to say most of the amp sounds did sound better there, but I liked the effects of the Helix more. I'm an improvisor so I also appreciate the ease of editing on the spot and away from a computer. I am way more of a gigging musician than a bedroom/recording guitarist. I'm also one of the few Helix owners out there that probably will be using my unit as more of an all in one effects going into a real amp rather than an amp sim to FOH. Mostly will use the amp sims for practicing, simple recording projects or additional channels in recording.

 

Anyways, I'm hoping to get some help from the tone gurus out there. I have yet to see any demos for the style of music I play and most of what I see is heavy djent stuff, or blues/dumble OD sounds. Stuff I do as well but not as much. I've found the Fender Deluxe and Twin amps great, but as I mentioned, I won't be using these as much as just effects. I tried routing a version of my real pedalboard into the Helix but it sounds way too gainy. Right now, I'm going for a jazz/fusion sound. Slightly fat/thick clean with just a hint of overdrive, not really amp breakup but tube screamer at 0 gain/10 tone type of thing. I'll post some videos in the bottom.

 

 

[Editing in my guitar choices] My guitars are a Kiesel HH2 and a custom Victor Baker semihollow Archtop.

My current pedalboard is this: SP Compressor [mid, unity volume, mix ~60%] > Joyo Vintage OD [0 gain, tone 80-100%] > OCD [for heavy sounds only, HP, tone 60-80%, drive 50-60%] > ISP Decimator [1oclock threshold, just for feedback on heavy dist sounds], Empress ParaEQ [big low Q, boost 2-3db around 100-200hz, mid mid Q boost 2-3db around 1.5k, big high Q, boost 1db above 6k] > Ernie Ball VP > EHX Freeze > BlueSky > Timeline.

Variants based on whatever amp I'm playing on or level I'm playing at. I get a sound I dig out of this. On the Helix, I did a similar setup with the Kinky comp > Scream808 > Compulsive Drive > Noise Gate > Parametric EQ > Chamber verb > Vintage Delay. I dig the verb and delay. Compressor seems to overcompress even at 3. 808 is way too gainy even at 0 drive. Compulsive Drive is also a bit too heavy.

 

Anyways, some sounds I'm going for: Tim Miller, Gilad Hekselman

https://www.youtube.com/8W8G1p0Z9nQ

This is a great sound that has some bite to it but chords still come out super clean. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/D1J3QvJeu00

Tim's sound here is also great, really articulate. The brightness of the sound has much to do with the fact that he also close-mics the guitar to get the string sounding but his amp sound is pretty great even without it. 

 

Lastly, here's a clip of myself. Very much the sound I'm going for, done with the pedals mentioned above a few years ago into a Twin. Feel free to skip to about 3mins in for the guitar solo.

 

 

Thanks in advanced and I appreciate the help! 

[ADBrown]

I'm into playing similar styles of music; I really like the Kinky Boost, set really low, for thickening up my tone. The Minotaur drive is also really great at boosting and giving just a bit of gain, depending how you set it. The Kinky Comp can be a bit "aggressive", I typically only use it for a really tight compressed funk sound. I like the LA Studio Comp, it's fairly flexible, from a smooth/transparent to actually driving your amp a bit. Check out Brandon Coleman from Cincinnati, he uses a Helix and gets a really nice Jazz/Fusion tone. 

[phil_m]

I'm not really a high gain player either. I'm not a true jazz/fusion guy, but I do try to fake it sometimes. I have an Ibanez LGB30, and I don't think it would be too hard getting those sorts of tones with the Helix, even if you are just using the Helix for effects. The Minotaur, Teemah and Kinky Boost are probably the drives I use most often. You also might want to try the Top Secret OD, which is based on the DOD OD-250 preamp pedal.

[egav2]

32 minutes ago, ADBrown said:

I'm into playing similar styles of music; I really like the Kinky Boost, set really low, for thickening up my tone. The Minotaur drive is also really great at boosting and giving just a bit of gain, depending how you set it. The Kinky Comp can be a bit "aggressive", I typically only use it for a really tight compressed funk sound. I like the LA Studio Comp, it's fairly flexible, from a smooth/transparent to actually driving your amp a bit. Check out Brandon Coleman from Cincinnati, he uses a Helix and gets a really nice Jazz/Fusion tone. 

Ah, Brandon and I happen to be Facebook friends, haha. I'll shoot him a message. 

 

10 minutes ago, phil_m said:

I'm not really a high gain player either. I'm not a true jazz/fusion guy, but I do try to fake it sometimes. I have an Ibanez LGB30, and I don't think it would be too hard getting those sorts of tones with the Helix, even if you are just using the Helix for effects. The Minotaur, Teemah and Kinky Boost are probably the drives I use most often. You also might want to try the Top Secret OD, which is based on the DOD OD-250 preamp pedal.

 

 

TInkered around with the Minotaur on suggestion of both of you. Actually dig that one a lot more (sounds closer to a true 808 honestly). It doesn't break up at 0 gain and really acts as a boost with just a bit more bite which is what I'm going for. Hesitated going for this because I'm mostly familiar with Kevin Eubanks using this for more gainy tones in this setting. This is a much better start now.