Making Bass Presets

[coachz]

I had great success with this Nick Hill video after hours of failure on my own.  

 

Can anyone tell me why my Ibanez ATK305 bass with active pickups sounds better at 32K ohm input impedance than using Auto for In-Z ?   Auto takes the Impedance of the first enabled block and applies it right (Global Settings > Preferences / Auto In-Z set to Enabled in Stomp XL)?   

 

So is there a way for it to take into account the low impedance active pickups or what's the best way to deal with this ?

 

Also, is there a reason some bass amps don't have sag/bias/hum/ripple settings ?

 

Thanks as always for the great info !   The guitar sounds on my stomp xl are killing it atm but I was hoping I could also use this for bass.   Thanks to this video I see that I can.

 

[craiganderton]

I do a LOT of parallel processing with bass, so that the fundamental tone always remains. Then something else gets layered with it, like filter or distortion.

 

On 7/5/2022 at 8:38 AM, coachz said:

Auto takes the Impedance of the first enabled block and applies it right (Global Settings > Preferences / Auto In-Z set to Enabled in Stomp XL)?   

 

Well...it's not quite that simple, at least not with Helix Floor. From the Helix book:

 

In addition to a fixed impedance, an Auto Impedance mode causes Amps and effects to emulate the input impedance of their physical counterparts. Auto Impedance mode has two options under Global Preferences:

 

• With First Block, your guitar sees the first effect’s modeled impedance. In other words, if the first effect is a fuzz with a 10k input impedance, the sound will be the same as if you’d chosen 10k as the input impedance. If the first effect has a 230k input impedance, the sound will be the same as if you’d chosen 230k as the input impedance. 

• With First Enabled, the input impedance is the chain’s first enabled effect. For example, suppose the first effect has a 1M input impedance and the second effect has a 10k input impedance. With this option, if the first effect is enabled, your guitar will see a 1M impedance. If it’s bypassed but the second effect is enabled, your guitar will see the 10k input impedance.

• With line-level signals, impedance isn’t very important. A typical input impedance would be 10k to 70k.

• A fine point with First Block is that Line 6 assumes effects do not use true bypass. So, if the first effect is 10k, even when bypassed your guitar will sound like it’s feeding a 10k input impedance. You may not always want the dulling a fuzz produces, especially if you’re feeding an effect where you want a brighter sound. In that case, choose First Enabled.

 

On 7/5/2022 at 8:38 AM, coachz said:

Also, is there a reason some bass amps don't have sag/bias/hum/ripple settings ?

 

Good question! I have no idea. Maybe they're emulating bass amps with awesome power supplies and no transformers?

 

[lou-kash]

On 7/5/2022 at 3:38 PM, coachz said:

is there a reason some bass amps don't have sag/bias/hum/ripple settings

 

Some imitate solid-state amps.

[coachz]

Since helix was designed with passive pickup guitars,. what do I need to know when using my bass with active pickups regarding the input impedance? 

Global Settings > Preferences / Auto In-Z set to Enabled in Stomp XL.

Input Settings Page 2 Knob 1

In-Z
HX Stomp has an impedance circuit on its Main L/R
inputs that affects tone and feel by loading your
guitar's pickups as they would by an effect pedal or
amplifier. A lower value will typically result in some
high frequency attenuation, lower gain, and an overall
"softer" feel. A higher value provides full frequency
response, higher gain, and an overall "tighter" feel.

 

 

When set to “Enabled,” the impedance circuit reflects the impedance of the first enabled block in the signal path