Assigning Drive Parameter to Variax Tone Knob

[steveglock]

Hi folks. I have created a Preset with the Line 6 Litigator Drive parameter assigned to my JTV-59 tone control knob.  I have it set up clean when the knob is maxed and dirtier as the know is minimized (turned counter clockwise). 

 

The issue is the tone knob seems to still be adjusting the output tone.  When I have the knob set to minimum, the output tone is indeed very dirty but also very bassy and dark.  With tone knob set to max/10, the tone is bright and clean as expected.

 

With the Tone knob set to 10, when I set the drive level to max/10 manually on the amp in HX Edit, the sound is bright. It must be the Tone control. 

 

Is there a parameter I need to set somewhere to turn off the Variax tone control when I am using it to control other things? 

 

Thanks for any advice you can share!

 

Steve

 

 

[steveglock]

:-) I guess I found a solution. In the Variax controller section, I assigned the Variax Tone Knob TO the Variax tone knob. Then set the Min Tone Knob to 10 and the Max Tone Knob to 10. Voila! 

 

If there is a more logical way to do this, I'd love to hear it.  Thanks. 

 

Steve 

[steveglock]

Whewwww. This solution did NOT work.  While I can get max(clean) and min(dirty) to work,  none of the in between knob settings are working.  Any better ideas? 

 

Steve

[codamedia]

On 10/2/2023 at 8:08 PM, steveglock said:

Whewwww. This solution did NOT work.  While I can get max(clean) and min(dirty) to work,  none of the in between knob settings are working.  Any better ideas? 

 

In workbench, set the tone resistance to 1M and set the capacitance to 1.1nF

That value almost nullifies the tone control, but leaves it open as a controller on the Helix. 

[silverhead]

See Helix manual, pg. 26. A quote:

“Remotely sets the Variax tone knob setting. When set to “Don’t Force,” Helix respects the current Variax tone knob position.”

[silverhead]

The page reference I provided was for the Helix Rack. If you have an other device it might be different. Look for the description of the Input block in the Table of Contents.

[steveglock]

Thanks folks. I gave up on this and didn't see the great replies you've shared. Let me give them a try! 

[brue58ski]

The Helix has a bug with the tone and volume knobs. I haven't heard of this thing. In the  case of the bug I'm talking about,  if you have the Helix control the tone knob, for example, and switch to another patch, it will keep the old tone knob position. It will go to the new patches position if you press the patches switch again. This is a summation of the issues. Sounds like what you're running into can be related to this issue for this bug. My fear is with the dumping of the Variax, the bugs in the Helix will never be fixed. very disappointing. I am mostly very happy with Line 6 and their attitude towards their customers, but this wouldn't be the first time they've left a product with bugs in it. Or left a project unfinished. It's the one thing I think they've really dropped the ball on. Or would that be two?

[steveglock]

Hi again. For posterity sake, I thought I would document the results. 

     1) adjusting the Variax Tone Control parameters DID work. I could adjust several parameters to go from Clean to Lead by turning the Tone knob. 

     2) However, switching from the Tone control Snapshot to another Snapshot brought the Lead parameters/sound with it (even though the boost devices were not even activated in the second Snapshot). I believe this is related to the Helix/Volume and Tone knob bug mentioned above by brue58ski.  I gave up. I gave up my Volume pedal and used Exp-2 to replace the Tome knob. Works great. I can get a dirty boosted lead sound or a clean/bright sound - or anything in between. Thanks for the great advice!

 

Steve