Line 6 Helix

redrighthand

I have a creaky expression pedal. I'm guessing some silicone spray or WD40 will sort it - but where do I spray it?

menamestom

redrighthand said:

I have a creaky expression pedal. I'm guessing some silicone spray or WD40 will sort it - but where do I spray it?

Mine was creaky and I just loosened the allen bolt a little which stopped the creak.

TimmyO

redrighthand said:

I have a creaky expression pedal. I'm guessing some silicone spray or WD40 will sort it - but where do I spray it?

I loosened the bolt a lot so that the treadle was flopping about and I cold get the squirter in to the side of where the pedal pivots - use dry white spray lubricant

mattdavis

Finally got a chance to try the LT today in Andertons. Used it just as a über multi fx unit into the front of a Friedman but first impressions were very favourable. I have never found processed drive pedal models very good, but I thought they were very dynamic and chunky sounding. Liked the Wahs as well despite reading less favourable reports. The reverbs and delays seem perfectly ok, but didn't find one that had any particularly unique character that wasn't a bit cheesy. 
Came home and plugged into my tiny champ with a lazy j cruiser and suddenly realised that there is a very significant difference to playing the helix. Can't quite work out what it is. it's not the dynamics thing - I was really impressed how the Helix responded to different strengths of picking and input volume. I think there may be something to do with harmonic complexity of driven tones that processors are not quite capturing yet. The modulation and time effects are spot on - and indeed I prefer digital reverbs and delays anyway, so I'm certainly not anti-digital. 
More likely it's a psychological block of struggling to work out how so many sounds can be so instantly available without them being fake representations of the 'real' thing. 
On a more practical note, whilst it has the knobs to control 'pedal' parameters, I'm not sure I could get my full Ed o'brien on using those little knobs and having to gently touch the pedal switches to flick between which pedals were active on the screen. 
Really want to *want* go down the Helix route, move with the times, and simplify my life. It would be so much more convenient, hassle free, adaptable and flexible - and particularly great for playing at home whilst the kids are asleep -but I'm struggling. 
Please convince me I'm being an idiot and to just buy one. 

Cabicular

mattdavis said:

Finally got a chance to try the LT today in Andertons. Used it just as a über multi fx unit into the front of a Friedman but first impressions were very favourable. I have never found processed drive pedal models very good, but I thought they were very dynamic and chunky sounding. Liked the Wahs as well despite reading less favourable reports. The reverbs and delays seem perfectly ok, but didn't find one that had any particularly unique character that wasn't a bit cheesy. 
Came home and plugged into my tiny champ with a lazy j cruiser and suddenly realised that there is a very significant difference to playing the helix. Can't quite work out what it is. it's not the dynamics thing - I was really impressed how the Helix responded to different strengths of picking and input volume. I think there may be something to do with harmonic complexity of driven tones that processors are not quite capturing yet. The modulation and time effects are spot on - and indeed I prefer digital reverbs and delays anyway, so I'm certainly not anti-digital. 
More likely it's a psychological block of struggling to work out how so many sounds can be so instantly available without them being fake representations of the 'real' thing. 
On a more practical note, whilst it has the knobs to control 'pedal' parameters, I'm not sure I could get my full Ed o'brien on using those little knobs and having to gently touch the pedal switches to flick between which pedals were active on the screen. 
Really want to *want* go down the Helix route, move with the times, and simplify my life. It would be so much more convenient, hassle free, adaptable and flexible - and particularly great for playing at home whilst the kids are asleep -but I'm struggling. 
Please convince me I'm being an idiot and to just buy one. 

If you are into mid song tweaking get another 2 exp pedals
you can assign any number of parameters from any number of fx to any of 3 exp pedals
so you want one pedal to increase the delay time the mix and the feedback while simultaneously dropping the gain and increasing the volume of the amp and increasing the speed of a stereo panned tremolo ...
you can do it all very easily with the helix
You can actually edit any of the parameters of any of the pedals amps or cabs with the floor edit mode

John_A

I was of a similar mind-set,  I was probably very anti-digital but jumped in for the convenience and have never looked back.  I sound better, the band sounds better, set-up is quicker, and I play more guitar instead of faffing with settings and pedals - Just do it  

menamestom

mattdavis said:

I'm not sure I could get my full Ed o'brien on using those little knobs and having to gently touch the pedal switches to flick between which pedals were active on the screen. 

You don't need to do this, just use pedal edit mode and do it all with your foot and the expression pedal.  Far better than bending down because you can do it while still playing.

longshins

I'm probably not wording this right but I'm sure you will get what I mean... does the Helix 'see' your pickups? By this I mean can it do the fuzz factory oscillating with the guitar volume knob and the instant clean up thing you get when using a fuzz face type circuit?

sweepy

Being in the position of having bought another Helix and still having my Axe-Fx, I'm having an interesting time contrasting and comparing. It's early days yet as I'm reaclimatising to the Helix and it's way of doing things and finding uninterrupted time to do so. Both units are going directly into a Presonus 1602 monitored via a set of APS Aeon speakers. This could be fun and frustrating in equal measure

Cabicular

longshins said:

I'm probably not wording this right but I'm sure you will get what I mean... does the Helix 'see' your pickups? By this I mean can it do the fuzz factory oscillating with the guitar volume knob and the instant clean up thing you get when using a fuzz face type circuit?

Yes
it reacts pretty much as the originals and amp do
even with theZvex model
You can even change the impedance the Helix input "sees" although most leave it on auto as far as I know

Digital_Igloo

mattdavis said:

On a more practical note, whilst it has the knobs to control 'pedal' parameters, I'm not sure I could get my full Ed o'brien on using those little knobs and having to gently touch the pedal switches to flick between which pedals were active on the screen.

I know a couple guys who are using knobby MIDI CC boxes to control all sorts of things in Helix. Here's how you set it up:

1. Connect MIDI OUT from the knobby box to Helix's MIDI IN.
2. On Helix, press and hold the knob for the parameter you wish to control. Helix jumps to the Controller Assign page.
3. Press KNOB 6 (Learn Controller) and then move the desired knob on your knobby box.
4. Press HOME when you're done. You'll see the parameter's value appear white and in brackets, indicating it's assigned to a controller.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 for any other parameters you want to control. Helix can have up to 64 parameters controlled this way, and one knob on your knobby box could control all of them at once, with min/max values per parameter, even in reverse.

Instead of a knobby MIDI box, you can accomplish the same thing from expression pedals, Variax Volume and Tone knobs, and even stomp switches (which toggle between min and max values). Each assignment takes no more than three seconds.

mattdavis

Digital_Igloo said:

mattdavis said:

On a more practical note, whilst it has the knobs to control 'pedal' parameters, I'm not sure I could get my full Ed o'brien on using those little knobs and having to gently touch the pedal switches to flick between which pedals were active on the screen.

I know a couple guys who are using knobby MIDI CC boxes to control all sorts of things in Helix. Here's how you set it up:

1. Connect MIDI OUT from the knobby box to Helix's MIDI IN.
2. On Helix, press and hold the knob for the parameter you wish to control. Helix jumps to the Controller Assign page.
3. Press KNOB 6 (Learn Controller) and then move the desired knob on your knobby box.
4. Press HOME when you're done. You'll see the parameter's value appear white and in brackets, indicating it's assigned to a controller.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 for any other parameters you want to control. Helix can have up to 64 parameters controlled this way, and one knob on your knobby box could control all of them at once, with min/max values per parameter, even in reverse.

Instead of a knobby MIDI box, you can accomplish the same thing from expression pedals, Variax Volume and Tone knobs, and even stomp switches (which toggle between min and max values). Each assignment takes no more than three seconds.

Thanks for the info guys. Expression pedals slightly less fun than random knob twiddling. This idea looks very interesting- thanks for posting :-)
That said - you have to be careful when googling knobby box ...

UnclePsychosis

Seeing the phrase "knobby box" used repeatedly in a genuinely useful way has made my morning :-D

Voxman

Prices are definitely on the way down. PMT & Andertons are both selling the Full Helix for £1,037 - I don't think it will be too long before we see it break below the £1,000 barrier.  And the Helix LT has dropped to £777 in most retailers.  If the (ever) forthcoming Headrush is finally released, it just won't survive at the pre-order price of £899 - it will have to be below the LT price (say £749) to have a chance of gaining any reasonable number of customers.  

gibsongretschfan

Voxman said:

Prices are definitely on the way down. PMT & Andertons are both selling the Full Helix for £1,037 - I don't think it will be too long before we see it break below the £1,000 barrier.  And the Helix LT has dropped to £777 in most retailers.  If the (ever) forthcoming Headrush is finally released, it just won't survive at the pre-order price of £899 - it will have to be below the LT price (say £749) to have a chance of gaining any reasonable number of customers.  

Line 6 will readjust the price as he pound climbs. It's on the way up after BOE let slip about upcoming rate rises

longshins

Cabicular said:

longshins said:

I'm probably not wording this right but I'm sure you will get what I mean... does the Helix 'see' your pickups? By this I mean can it do the fuzz factory oscillating with the guitar volume knob and the instant clean up thing you get when using a fuzz face type circuit?

Yes
it reacts pretty much as the originals and amp do
even with theZvex model
You can even change the impedance the Helix input "sees" although most leave it on auto as far as I know

Any good video examples of this? I think I may get one...

Cabicular

longshins said:

Cabicular said:

longshins said:

I'm probably not wording this right but I'm sure you will get what I mean... does the Helix 'see' your pickups? By this I mean can it do the fuzz factory oscillating with the guitar volume knob and the instant clean up thing you get when using a fuzz face type circuit?

Yes
it reacts pretty much as the originals and amp do
even with theZvex model
You can even change the impedance the Helix input "sees" although most leave it on auto as far as I know

Any good video examples of this? I think I may get one...

I'm out today or I'd do you one
The original chappers video with Paul Hindmarsh had he Zvex specifically in it

About 29 minutes in

longshins

Can the pitch change with the guitar volume pot like on the real thing? Paul did it with a knob on the Helix in the vid I think.

Digital_Igloo

longshins said:

Can the pitch change with the guitar volume pot like on the real thing? Paul did it with a knob on the Helix in the vid I think.

That's one of the things no modeler can do, as you need some sort of analog impedance sensing circuit. We have an analog impedance switcher (as does AxeFX, AX8, Kemper, Eleven Rack, and POD HD500X), but that's different.

The Fuzz Factory is incredible, but it's a quirky beast. We almost didn't model it, because it's impossible to nail its sensitivity to impedance from your guitar's volume knob.

Didn't watch the video—maybe Paul was playing a Variax? You can assign pretty much as many parameters as you like to its volume and tone knobs.

Cabicular

longshins said:

Can the pitch change with the guitar volume pot like on the real thing? Paul did it with a knob on the Helix in the vid I think.

Yeah I haven't had much of play with it
You can assign the parameter to the expression pedal