Line 6 Helix

fretmeister

I wouldn't know. But any vintage type amp model that makes my over powered Caparison sound like an old les Paul is doing something very right.

guitargeek62

The Matchless models are virtually all I've used since they were added, bloomin lovely.

Sporky

Me too - mostly the Matchless and JC-120. Though the Plexi is good with a RAT or TS into it.

Cabicular

I use the Soldano clean for most of my presets (and distort it up with a footswitch that activates a screamer stacked into an OCD
With the KOT looped in to provide the lower gain stuff that's my 3 channels and a ton of DSP to spare
Sounds very very good
Gigged last night with my dual Fryette power station stereo setup into 2 Orange PPC 112s fitted with Neo Creambacks (light as you like) either side of the drummer
The XLRs going into the mixer in hard panned stereo with the 80 1x12 cab model
It sounded HUGE

handsomerik

@johnonguitar. Don't discount the digital drives before you try these. I've never liked any digital drives before the helix but this is different. I plugged my 808 in to the helix fx loop and switched between them on the fly. Couldn't tell any difference and people that own klons say the same.

If line 6 released a small pedal just with the drives and fuzzes in I reckon they'd sell like hot cakes.

Helix is great in every aspect except the reverbs, which are presently just ported direct from the hd series. They sound very weak in my opinion and way less rich and 3D than the Flint and H9 that I was using prior to helix. Im hoping they update them soon. It's the only thing that makes me less than 100% satisfied with it.

Cabicular

I agree re the drives
The Timmy and the OCD (and the Klon for that matter) are indistinguishable from the real thing
I loop in my King of Tone because it has a certain something i love but if I was 100% honest I could take it off the board and not feel cheated
I'm currently running the gunshot for ACDC type gains but just because I like the voicing of it
Again I'm pretty sure I could replicate it
Nice to have options though
My main metal sound with the OCD is great
Loads of chug on the low strings and crisp rich overdrive on the highs

ThePrettyDamned

Oh man, I hope they do a new m series - an m5 and m9 would sell like hot cakes.

johnonguitar

handsomerik;1057678" said:

@johnonguitar. Don't discount the digital drives before you try these. I've never liked any digital drives before the helix but this is different. I plugged my 808 in to the helix fx loop and switched between them on the fly. Couldn't tell any difference and people that own klons say the same.

If line 6 released a small pedal just with the drives and fuzzes in I reckon they'd sell like hot cakes.

Helix is great in every aspect except the reverbs, which are presently just ported direct from the hd series. They sound very weak in my opinion and way less rich and 3D than the Flint and H9 that I was using prior to helix. Im hoping they update them soon. It's the only thing that makes me less than 100% satisfied with it.

Is that you running them into the amp sims or into the front of real valve amp?


Ps. To be honest as long as it has the 63 Spring and Plate from the M series I'll be ok for what I need reverbs to do.

kjdowd

johnonguitar;1057805" said:

[quote="handsomerik;1057678"]@johnonguitar. Don't discount the digital drives before you try these. I've never liked any digital drives before the helix but this is different. I plugged my 808 in to the helix fx loop and switched between them on the fly. Couldn't tell any difference and people that own klons say the same.

If line 6 released a small pedal just with the drives and fuzzes in I reckon they'd sell like hot cakes.

Helix is great in every aspect except the reverbs, which are presently just ported direct from the hd series. They sound very weak in my opinion and way less rich and 3D than the Flint and H9 that I was using prior to helix. Im hoping they update them soon. It's the only thing that makes me less than 100% satisfied with it.

Is that you running them into the amp sims or into the front of real valve amp?


Ps. To be honest as long as it has the 63 Spring and Plate from the M series I'll be ok for what I need reverbs to do. [/quote]

I've been doing both. Modelled into a line 6 stage source l2t, modelled into headphones for practice and 4cm into an Egnater tweaker 40. I think into a tube amp is my favourite. It's so flexible - you've got the two amp channels, drives on the Helix and Helix amp models to run either as preamps/drives into the front of the amp or into the fx return with the amp preamp either bypassed or blended in.

On the reverbs - not as good as the fx8 or the bigsky, but still very good. Everything else, including the delays, is superb.

johnonguitar

Ok so I've ordered one. Thanks for the help guys

Oh... And the backpack to go with it. So that's using any extra pedals with it out the window.

Oh and a Mono Dual Gigbag and some Bareknuckle Crawlers in Zebra for my Custom 24

Happy days

Sporky

johnonguitar said:

Ok so I've ordered one. Thanks for the help guys

Oh... And the backpack to go with it. So that's using any extra pedals with it out the window.

That's the approach I like. I understand people wanting to use their favourites with the Helix, and the routing makes it pretty easy, but I've always preferred going all-in with this sort of thing.

I definitely recommend upgrading the firmware to the latest straight away.

johnonguitar

Sporky;1059685" said:

johnonguitar said:

Ok so I've ordered one. Thanks for the help guys



Oh... And the backpack to go with it. So that's using any extra pedals with it out the window.










That's the approach I like. I understand people wanting to use their favourites with the Helix, and the routing makes it pretty easy, but I've always preferred going all-in with this sort of thing.

I definitely recommend upgrading the firmware to the latest straight away.

Yeah I'll do a firmware upgrade before I even plug my guitar into it


Every time I was like "well I need my BB Preamp because...." Or "I hate those line 6 wahs I want my RMC" I remind myself that to be honest I haven't been gigging with these things anyway... And putting this on a board, with pedals... And a power supply etc etc just utterly defeats the purpose.

Plus the backpack looked cool

Fiftyshadesofjay

Quick question for anybody that knows, if I'm using the Helix in 4CM and decide to use the stereo effects, does the Helix sum everything to mono out of the sends and the main output or will I end up with half the effect?

The send is typically headed to the amp input and the main output goes into the effects return. 

Sporky

Any mono-only block sums to mono if the signal coming in is in stereo. The sends are usable as mono-only or you can gang pairs to get a stereo send/return pair.

Fiftyshadesofjay

Awesome, I'll be running mono so it's good to know I can use the extra effects without any extra fiddling, cheers!

Teetonetal

Yet more questions:

What's the quality of the whammy effect like? Can it replace the genuine Whammy 5

What the ring mod like? Can it do the stuttery ring mod tremolo thing that the moog mf102 and Randy's revenge do?

Sporky

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

Awesome, I'll be running mono so it's good to know I can use the extra effects without any extra fiddling, cheers!

Most of the effect blocks can be set as mono or stereo; the former uses less DSP. I think the only ones that can't be set mono are the ones where that doesn't make sense - panning delays fer instance.

Teetonetal said:

Yet more questions:

What's the quality of the whammy effect like? Can it replace the genuine Whammy 5

What the ring mod like? Can it do the stuttery ring mod tremolo thing that the moog mf102 and Randy's revenge do?

Certainly there's been some grumbling about the pitch shifting, so without having used a Whammy 5 I would suggest that the Helix's pitch shifter isn't currently at that level. That's speculation though.

Not used the ring mod; if you pop a link to a clip of the sound you're talking about I can have a play and see.

Cabicular

It does octaves and harmonies pretty well. my Video clip shows the +12 pitch I assigned to the momentary switch

I also use it for harmonies on Tracks like the Trooper and Detroit Rock City

Placement of the block is key.. and not where you might expect it.

I quite like it AFTER the amp

Adamski

I've been seriously thinking abut getting one of these for a while now. Just checked out the sounds that Genn DeLaune can coax from this thing and have been seriously blown away! 

How is everyone running this? I'd have a few options I guess- in to the loop of my Bogner Shiva for effects, through the front end and set the Shiva as flat as possible or I have a pair of active KRK's that I could use for home use. 

Is anyone out gigging one? 

Cabicular