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Helix 2.82 Variax volume knob bug?


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Not for me...just tried it. Does it do it on multiple patches, or just one? I've had the occasional patch suddenly get FUBAR out of the blue... it happens. If it's just one, I wouldn't sweat it... if it's happening everywhere, seems to me it's more likely to be a funky volume pot, or some other issue with the guitar, rather than Helix.

 

For years now, if I roll the volume completely off, and just let the guitar sit for a few minutes, eventually the volume returns to 100% without touching anything. If I leave the knob the tiniest bit above zero, volume stays put. Never enough of a problem to justify a trip to an "authorized service center" (my only option is the local GC...nuff said). I learned to live with it. Point is, Variaxes are notorious for developing weird issues out of nowhere... it's largely why mine never became my go-to instrument. Guts are too complicated, too many things to short- circuit at a less than opportune moment. Aside from the occasional scratchy pot or toggle switch, "dumb" guitar guts are practically bulletproof, by comparison...but I digress. Anyway, I doubt it's a Helix problem.

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Turning the volume all the way down on a Variax puts the guitar to sleep to save battery. When it goes to sleep, maybe the volume is no longer being controlled and returns to 100%.

 

I'm getting this on my goto patch, and related patches that were derived from it. I'll try again with a new, simpler patch.

 

Update: the volume change doesn't happen on Helix Floor, it only appears to change in HX Edit. So it looks like the bug is in HX Edit, not Helix.

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, amsdenj said:

Turning the volume all the way down on a Variax puts the guitar to sleep to save battery. When it goes to sleep, maybe the volume is no longer being controlled and returns to 100%.

 

 

 

 

 

I've never used the battery... been on VDI since day one. Doesn't make sense either way though... even if I were using the battery, cranked volume is cranked volume, and that certainly wouldn't meet any reasonable definition of "asleep". After a few minutes of inactivity with volume rolled completely off, next time I touch the guitar it's live, and you hear string noise through the amp just by picking it up, without touching the volume knob. Whatever the cause it ain't normal, and it's something that just showed up one day...it didn't behave that way out of the box. Who knows... these things are a little too complicated for their own good sometimes. I've got instruments that are decades old that I'll always trust over fancy electronics.

 

"The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain."

- Capt. Montgomery Scott

 

;)

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/1/2019 at 5:56 AM, cruisinon2 said:

 

"The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain."

- Capt. Montgomery Scott

 

;)

 

I award you 1,000 points for using one of my favorite quotes of all time in a guitar related post. 

  • Haha 1
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