Wireless to Helix (Deranged Master)

[MayPRS]

For years I have something that prevents me going wireless... I use a Treble Booster right after the guitar and it doesn't take wireless signal (buffered signal) well - the sound becomes thin and harsh. This is a common behaviour for Treble Boosters.

 

Now... do you think that using the Deranged Master on the Helix could solve this issue? Or do you reckon the behaviour will be same?

 

And last... if someone with a wireless system and a Helix could test for me if the tone maintains the same whether is connected by cable or using wireless... Many thanks in advance! 

[codamedia]

 

On 3/1/2023 at 4:57 AM, MayPRS said:

if someone with a wireless system and a Helix could test for me if the tone maintains the same whether is connected by cable or using wireless... Many thanks in advance! 

 

Not possible unless someone has the exact guitar and wireless system you do. All wireless units differ to varying degrees. 

 

I use a G-50 wireless... and it sounds very similar to my primary cable, but not identical. My other cables don't sound identical to my primary cable either, so I don't worry about it. The G-50 has cable simulation (HPF) so I set that to 15' and like how it responds. 

 

If you are using a wireless without cable simulation and find it too bright, try inserting the TILT EQ on your preset and lower the title to about DARK 25 or DARK 30. That should take the edge off and make the sound more familiar. 

[theElevators]

I play a Brian May guitar myself, although I don't go for the Queen sound at all.  I use a wireless and I don't see any difference in how the guitar clean up, etc with it or without it going direct with a cable.  I'm pretty sure that's why the man himself puts the treble booster on the Red Special strap right before the transmitter.  I love the volume knob trick, and my sound is always configured in such a way -- rather than turning off the distortion for clean sounds, I simply cut the input volume either with my volume knob, or with a fixed volume pedal on the Helix. 

 

Maybe you can try downloading a free Brian May preset on custom tones, and seeing how it works out for you.  I did for the heck of it, and yep, sounded like Brian May. 

 

I say it's mostly cork sniffing to run the treble booster right out of the guitar.... Similarly to how some people swear by their vintage Vox wah, even though all it is is a filter that most modellers have. 

 

I use a Shure GLXD16 (now discontinued) and without any cable simulations it acts exactly the same as if I had a cable there.  There may be tiny differences, but I mostly just go wireless, unless I record stuff in a studio.

 

 

[gbr13697]

Many fuzz boxes and other effects are sensitive to input impedance.  Wireless systems intrduce a buffer, so the fuzzes were unable to see the impedance of the pickups, and the fuzzes sounded crap. Initially this was a problem with the Helix because some of the effects were similarly sensitive.  You could always adjust the input impedance, or set it to Auto which matched the input impedance to the first block in the chain, whether that block was active or not. That meant you could put the fuzz in as first block, making the impedance around 22k, and the fuzz sounded fine.  Trouble was that the low imput impedance badly affected subsequent effects and the amp when the fuzz was off.  Many of us devised a solution where the stomp button for the fuzz also switched the impedance to low, and switched it back to 1M when the fuzz was turned off.

After some long and heroic battle by a few users, Line 6 introduced an update so that the Auto Impedance could be set to that of the first Active block, not just the first block. This meant that the impedance changed automatically as the fuzz was switched on and off, so the problem was solved. 

If the treble booster emulations in the Helix are impedance sensitive (though I have never noticed this), they should be fine as long as you place it where it will be the first active block when it is on, and set the Auto Impedance to "First Active Block".

[MayPRS]

Thank you all for the replies... I will test it and sure post the results, once I get a wireless system.