All Around Strat or Tele Preset

[sdahe]

Hello,

 

Im still new to the digital world and Im in the learning curve with the HX Stomp. I have done some presets but I still don't feel 100% satisfied with them I know I can have a preset that will sound even better. Is there out there an all around preset that I can download?.. something good for classic rock and blues stuff... something I can use to play from Eric Clapton to Led Zeppelin.

[cruisinon2]

1 hour ago, sdahe said:

Is there out there an all around preset that I can download?.. something good for classic rock and blues stuff... something I can use to play from Eric Clapton to Led Zeppelin.

 

You'll get a thousand opinions on this,  so here's my 2 cents:

 

Simply put... no, not really. The problem with trying to use someone else's patches is there's no way to tell how or what was used to dial it in. The guitar, pickups, how the sound was monitored, and at what volume... those are just a few of the Gospel length list of variables that will affect your tone. When the only common denominator is Helix and everything else is a mystery, the odds of randomly downloading a patch that'll match exactly what your looking for without significant tweaking, is essentially zero. And yes, I've tried. Repeatedly. Between Helix and my 500X before it, I've tried hundreds of 'em. Some I paid for out of curiosity,  others I snagged free from Customtone... regardless, it always ends the same way: shaking my head and wondering why I wasted my time, money, or both. Again... perhaps I have a learning disability, lol. ;)

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter what Joe Blow puts in the description. It might have sounded just like Joe Satriani with his guitar, his studio monitors, in his living room, at "it's 2 a.m. don't wake the kids" volume... but that doesn't mean that there will be any continuity at all when you load it up with your rig. In my experience, it's almost guaranteed to be the opposite. There are simply too many variables.

 

If you're gonna have to tweak anyway, you may as well start from scratch yourself and eliminate the guesswork... and you're doing that already. Try different amp models, cabs, mic's, 3rd party IR's, etc... it'll take a while, but eventually you'll hit on what works for you.

 

[BBD_123]

What Cruisinon said.

 

But the good news is, building your own all-round Strat rock / blues patch isn't too hard :-)

 

I have Floor, not Stomp, but I *think* Stomp has much the same stuff on it, so try the Plexi Trem Bright amp and 4x12 Greenback 25 cab. This amp / cab combo seems to play well with Strats, even on the bridge pickup. Set the amp Master volume to 10 and experiment with cranking the Bright Drive, Bass, Mid, and Presence but keeping the Treble low. Use the cab block low and high cuts to eliminate boom and excessive top end. Slap a legacy Plate reverb at the end and fine tune the Plate block's low and high cut - A/B with it on / off until it just adds verb, not bass and treble as well.

 

Once that's all sorted out to your liking, you can experiment with a Teemah in front of the amp block for more snarl.

 

 

[paulmphillips813]

One great thing about the Strat is that the volume control is so effective.  You really don't need much in front of a cranked up tweed amp to get a great rock sound (not metal, like late 60's through the 70's and anyone who uses that base sound afterwards).  Since you have basically every amp worth mentioning in your box, try putting a small tweed deluxe and a Bassman together and use your volume on your guitar to clean it up when you need to.  Kind of defeats the concept of having hundreds of effects at your disposal but not really necessary.  Maybe a boost or overdrive if you don't want to fuss around with the volume knob on your guitar?

[DunedinDragon]

What I would suggest is going to YouTube and watch some of Jason Sadites videos on dialing in great tone out of the Helix.  You'll find plenty of exceptional ideas for getting any kind of tone you want.  However, you need to be aware that two things will limit you from getting an "all around" great tone for anything from Led Zep to Eric Clapton and those are the type of output device you use, and the type of guitar you use.

 

One of the key reasons many of us use flat response cabinets and speakers is so we can get an accurate representation of the tone we're dialing in because we eliminate the coloration of an external traditional cabinet.  The other thing that will limit you is the guitar itself.  For example getting an authentic representation of an Eric Clapton tone from his Cream days will be hard to achieve on a Tele or Strat because he was using a Les Paul or a 335 at the time.  Not that you can't get a passable representative tone, but the limitation is on the tone differences of the different types of guitar and their pickups, and those aren't things that the Helix can have any affect over.

The other limitation is that of the Stomp.  You simply don't have enough blocks or DSP to achieve everything in one preset.  For example, Clapton's tone on "Sunshine of Your Love" is from a Marshall amp, "Bell Bottom Blues" from the Layla album I believe is on a Fender Bassman, and his "Cocaine" tone came from a HiWatt.  That's three amps which would most likely use up all of your DSP in one preset.  So with the Stomp it might be more practical to do those different tones on three different presets.

What I would suggest is using some of the ideas from the Jason Sadites videos to create a good classic marshall rock preset, and a blues preset (both clean and dirty).  And you'll probably find other generic type presets that might work for you such as a Punk rock preset, or even a chunky rock preset for things like The Who, The Rolling Stones or the Doobie Brothers.  Those are all very doable on the Stomp.

[Smj7]

Do some research on what amps those artists used for the recordings you like..be it live or studio.  Use the appropriate guitar type.

 

Make sure you look at the list of amps in the helix manual which gives you the Helix nickname and the model it’s based on.

 

Setup a simple amp block.  Try to find out what type of speaker cab/drivers they used and match it up on the helix.

 

Set the amp controls at neutral and work from there.  Play some of the highlight riffs from those artists along with the recording and see how your tone matches up.  Eq to taste.

 

Stick to dynamic microphones first... nothing fancy.

 

You’ll be surprised how close you can get with appropriate combo of guitar and amp setup.  Seems obvious right?  But do your research first so you have an idea for the foundation of the sound.

 

Sean Meredith-Jones

www.seanmeredithjones.com