Clean sounds on Helix LT?

[wwatson740]

There seem to be more than enough presets (both stock and available to download) of pretty radically cranked distortion of all kinds.  I need a few options of hot sustained clean presets.  I'm trying to do some myself but they are lame.  Anybody have ideas or suggestions? Thanks so much.

[j_hotch]

I've gotten good cleans with the Twin, Hiwatt and JC120 models.  In my experience, the hardest thing was getting the volume matched with distorted tones. Try cranking the amp's channel volume and throwing a compressor after the cabinet model. If you need bite on the attack, try one of the compressor models before the amp.

[Hillman1312]

I built a clean preset on the Archetype model and it has become my favorite clean sound. Some chorus after the amp and delay if needed. To get that sustain you will want to use a compressor. The LA studio comp will work but you could also try the others like the red squeeze  (I like that one as well). The Placater clean also makes a nice clean tone, which sounds very good (to my ears at least) when you are just about to hit that breakup point. Good luck !

[Kilrahi]

I've done cleans with tons of amps, but when I'm felling really lazy it seems like just grabbing the amps with the word "clean" in them often tops whatever anything else did. 

 

Then you just gotta figure out what you want to put on top of that clean tone to make it sparkle a bit. Reverb? Touch of chorus . . . some slight delay?  Maybe you just need to split the amp signal out into two different styles of cabs? 

 

It depends on the style of music you play I suppose as ambient stuff often is heavy effects, but what I usually mess with it's all about having a wisp of additional effects on top of a clean amp. 

[DunedinDragon]

I play a lot of different clean styles and typically longer sustain isn't something that's really necessary on most of them.  There are occasions where I need some additional sustain for lead parts that still need to retain their clean feel and I always fix that with the LA Compressor at the end of my signal chain with a bit higher gain value.  Alternatively if I need just a very slight crunch for more sustain on a clean-ish lead tone I normally use the Minotaur.

I will add that different guitars make quite a bit of difference in the sustain on clean presets.  My Gretsch hollow body is probably the best at adding more natural sustain and my Tele is probably the worst at naturally providing clean sustain.

[marmatkat]

I'm totally loving the cali Texas ch1 for cleans. Both single and hb pickups. I also spent a lot of time with the us deluxe vib. 

[codamedia]

I'm a creature of habit... my favorite amp for cleans in the real world was the normal channel of a Blackface Deluxe... so that's what I lean to in the Helix, without disappointment.

 

[dannepop]

Thanks for the advice with a compression after the cab to get a long sustained tone.

I have always thought the string tone was to short on all the amps but this solved the problem!

Great!

D