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Comments
The Fractal, from what I’ve seen of it online, at least sounds convincing. I was thinking of getting a compact powered cab like a Tech21 Power Engine to use onstage.
Also, my gigging life tends to be a case of turning up in a pub, not knowing what the PA situation will be and just sticking my amp in the corner and hoping for the best...I rarely have the luxury of proper micing-up or an actual sound engineer. So for me, using a real guitar cab is just more predictable.
A 44 Magnum is loud, but if you’re coming from a valve amp even with as little as 20 Watts you’ll probably find it to be pretty thin at volume.
With solid state the bigger the better within reason. You pretty much never want to be pushing the limits of headroom. The only limiting factor will be the power handling of your speakers.
But I do find the thing to be very impressive - the build quality seems excellent, I love the screen, love the lights that change colour around the switches, love the design of how the interface works in general - it does feel way better than the MS-3 in that respect. Trouble with the MS-3 for me was, if at a gig, I found there was, for e.g. too much feedback on a delay in a patch, then I'd just avoid using it for the gig, because it was too much hassle to change. With the Helix, it's simple stuff - the whole thing is much better for fine tuning sounds in real-world situations where you don't have time to waste. Re the sounds - all I can say at the mo is that I was impressed using headphones enough to think there is serious potential there - the modelling seems very detailed and "real" to me.
Headphones
FRFR
Studio monitors
Power amp + cab
Of course, in terms of convenience and practicality, the list is the other way up
Like you, I felt like keeping a whole amp head just for running the helix into the power amp felt like a waste but the reality is that the valve power stage really did warm up the sound a lot. I don't know why you can't seem to buy a simple, cheap EL84 power amp. Seems to be cheaper to buy a whole valve amp and not use most of it. Seems a bit mad.
@gearaddict yeah a cheap tube power amp would be great. Something pedal sized would be ideal!!! Tho i dont know if it would be possible!
a FRFR monitor is the way forward IMO, and what I've settled on.