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Suffice to say pretty sure I'll be saving up and getting a HX Stomp when they're readily available in the UK. Not sure if I'll make the full switch to digital but that tone was perfect for me jamming at home through headphones, and I could probably ditch my drive & tuner and just use the Stomp as a pedalboard with my real amp for rehearsals
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
it's also quite a long question (series of questions) but gets to the knub of it really and £1000 is a big spend not without risk.
My current set up is guitar - tuner, wah, TC Spark booster, boss OD2, klone, Blackstar 100w 6l6 head (often on lower power!!) - then in the loop - volume pedal, TC Delay, TC reverb. Then a 2 x 12 cab reputed to be a zilla cab but unbadged
all fairly obvious. The tc booser is to kick the strat volume up to match the lester without having to fanny with volume levels.
the volume in the loop is essential as the "other guitarist" constantly dicks with his volume through a gig <sighs> and has to be the loudest
I also have a few other pedals and an acoustic DI box for acoustic gigs - my wife wants to get a set together (her singing thankfully)
I have two quesitons (simple answers for an idiot please). I can just about fund a Helix s/h by selling every pedal I own and the pedal board. But the eggs will have to be sold to get the chicken. and then I will have all my chickens in the one basket (formerly reserved for eggs).
The band is a pub band playing rock covers with the PA just being vocal - unless we do the odd big gig. We don't do festivals as at least two of us have lives that involve other hobbies and not just being weekend musicians - so we limit the gigs we do. so no real need to go direct to PA. However, who knows, and I have half of a fingerpicking acoustic set that might appear occasionally so the future might be slightly more varied.
Questions:
stage 1 - get me to the gig on time: Will the Helix happily, capably and easily (sonically) replace all of those pedals (my delays and reverbs settings aren't complex). Will it take long to set up and use. 4cm probably as this will make me feel at home.
stage 2 - will i acheive sonic happiness by going straight into the power amp section of the blackstar thusly reducing it to one cable. I appreciate this will take some fiddling time to get a nice amp/cab setup or whatever in the Helix.
stage 3 - will dumping the (stupidly heavy) amp and cab allow me to buy a flat wotsit speaker and acheive sonic happiness but with a lighter rig? (my back is fucked). This is the golden egg (or was it chicken)
stage 4 - will the helix plus the flat wotsit speaker do a good job of powering an acoustic rig of guitar (me) and vocal mike (sue)
I appreciate that is 4 questions not 2 - sorry.
thanks muchly, in nervousness and with the bloated feeling of an impending GAS explosion
Nick
Helix will easily replace your current pedal set-up, it will actually give you a whole lot more..
4CM is a doddle to set up, in fact the Helix as a whole is hilariously easy to set up.
Straight into Power Amp section will work, however, I will say I have never ever been 100% happy with this, in saying this, some of our "backline supplied" gigs I do this and nobody has ever died or moaned about the shit sound - it will work fine, it'll just need a little tweaking to get right IMO.
Flat Wotsit speaker is a place I haven't gone to yet but a few on here use them and they sound great - I may dip my toe soon too just to give my back a break..
And finally yes, there are enough signal paths in the Helix to process guitar and vocals - the only thing Helix doesn't do is vocal harmonies.
The standard Helix response - its the best bit of kit I have ever bought
My music:- https://soundcloud.com/hubobulous
the trick for me is to split the 1/4 into a different output just before the cab sims and to put the 5 band Mesa EQ block just before the output
Ive had to put some outrageous Eq settings into to make it sound good but all the tools are there
I MUCH prefer it to a single boost switch as I don’t need all the boost every time. Sometimes just for a small section where I’m on my own or if there is a wee phrase I want to pop out I’ll just ride that pedal till I get the volume I want
also when the solo is over you can fade back down rather than a big cliff like fall you get with a stomp. It sounds more natural to me
but was that a yes?
and regards the flat response speaker thing - is that going to work really well too as long as it is EQ'd properly and I get the right one?
got the bit about putting a volume onto a eq pedal - it would be nice to limit it too as my ernie ball goes from zero to hero and as such (with a grunty amp) it can be difficult to get to the right spot or it frightens everyone to death if i accidentally max it
A good frfr speaker is a portable rig. But even with vocal PA I tend to stick the Helix out front and use the frfr to monitor guitar and vocals
everyone is going powercab daft these days and I would like that as a solution but the good old fashion L2t are pretty cheap second hand. If you get one with the wheelie case you can stuff the Helix bag handle through the wheelie case handle. Quick bungee for security and the whole rig can be wheeled about.
When using it with a Foreign PA I always take the L2T with me. I get the sound guy to give me my monitor cable and put that in one channel for vocal and I take a feed off the headphone socket and put it into the other channel. That means whatever he does with the monitor mix I can always turn up guitar in my own monitor without affecting anything else
If you pick up a cheap variax the things you can do are amazing ....
@nickp IMO.....
tuner - Based on the old one no, based on the new one quite possibly, unless you want polyphonic (I've not updated mine yet)
wah - possibly, probably. Depends on the wah but the Helix sound good and have good variation
TC Spark booster - yes no problem
boss OD2 - Yes, but it's nice to keep the odd analog dirt pedal.
klone - As above
Blackstar 100w 6l6 head - Based on my experiences with Blackstar you will see an improvement with the Helix
volume pedal - no problem
TC Delay - Based on the Flashback I had, I would say you will improve in this area.
TC reverb. - Depends on the reverb but the latest Helix are very good.
Acoustic - The Helix is amazing for acoustic, the EQ and effects are great but the ability to load an IR makes it very powerful.
I still use an amp and some pedals for live mainly, but I've used the Helix and know how good it can be. With a decent monitor/PA speaker the answer would definitely be yes to all 4 questions.
I still use an amp because I love amps and also both my amps are light and compact. Swapping wouldn't mean any less gear.
I gig in a lowish volume acoustic 3 piece with no drums so my Princeton and Tweed Deluxe are perfect for this. But if a had heavy gear and swap in an instant.