Just bought Helix...

P.A.Foholic

P.A.Foholic

New member
And this thing is freaking awesome! :D I had AmpliFire before in my pedalboard. I also had wah, tuner and noise gate in there. Then decided to end the hassle with the board and go with Helix. One practice with the band and I must say this really surpassed my expectations. Nothing wrong with the AmpliFire, sounded really good also, but was a bit limited for what I wanted to do.

Our other guitarist also has now a Helix and we are both going to buy a set of Alto TS210s to go with the Helix. This way we can craft our presets to compliment each other really nicely. Also, we can build the presets in a way that we surely know that they are going to sound good in a live situation.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

These things are getting really popular. I use a Fractal, but some seriously great sounds have come out of the Helix, too. It is a great time to play guitar.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Yeah! Had an Axe Fx Standard back in the day. It was a great sounding machine. You said it man, truly a great time to play guitar.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Do you just buy these on faith or does your local dealer have them where you can try before you buy?
I would love to check out a Helix or AXE FX but no one ever has one in stock to try out. I hate that.

But on the flip side I gotta agree with you guys on the timing to play, I have a Boss ES-5 and want to get a ES-8 and Man I love that thing. I had a Boss GT100 prior and I liked it but never thought it was top notch in sound quality so I went back to pedals
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Congrats on the purchase. Is it the lt or the full helix? Also what do you play it through?
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Yeah, I could've tried it before I bought it in my local dealer (also the distributor in Finland) but I had already heard it in action by our other guitarist.

Thanks Dante! Yeah, mine is the LT, didn't find use for the extras in the regular version. Right now I play it through DV Mark 250GH (fx return) and DV Mark Neoclassic 212. Switching to the Altos soon, though :)
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Good decision. After many years I'm fed up to manage tons of cables and pedals. I have both Helix and AX8 ( as a backup ). I started to sell my pedals to have Kemper also :)

By the way... TECH 21 Brit is also good...
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

risingforce said:
Good decision. After many years I'm fed up to manage tons of cables and pedals. I have both Helix and AX8 ( as a backup ).
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Exactly this. Problem solving, managing your rig and exploring sounds has never been easier. Going to buy the G10 relay too for wireless operation.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Yeah I am looking at the Line6 wireless units for mine...either the G30 or G10 (I dig that it is rechargeable). But most people who buy things like a Helix, buy it on faith (I bought my Fractal that way). There are so many options on them, that it is hard to just try out in a store.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Yeah, and that is not the absolute truth even (testing out in the store) because third party impulses such as Ownhammer make the Helix soooooo much better. Fractal products too, ofc.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

IRs can radically change the sound of the amp model. There are literally thousands of free ones out there, too...troll the modeling forums.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

After discovering these better IRs the modelling hasn't been the same for me. In a really really good way.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

The Helix is amazing.

There is a great Facebook page for getting ideas and getting questions answered. Some of the Line6 guys are members as well.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

LesStrat said:
The Helix is amazing.

There is a great Facebook page for getting ideas and getting questions answered. Some of the Line6 guys are members as well.
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The group is amazing! I was there even before I got the Helix myself :D So much good advice and tips.
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

The whole IR thing is something I know nothing about. Sometimes I grow weary of the need to learn new things but the pursuit of tone always rules.

I have to say that when you switch to the Altos satisfaction with your purchase will skyrocket. The tone quality achieved by bi-passing a guitar amp's pre-amp stage only hints at how great your modeler can sound.

The only thing I haven't been able to do to my satisfaction with the AX8 is achieve a great clean tone at low volume, and maybe that's just because the speakers need to be pushed a bit more to get in the zone. IDK ... also, I have done no deep tweaking.

By the way, congratulations on your purchase!
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

Lazarus1140 said:
The whole IR thing is something I know nothing about. Sometimes I grow weary of the need to learn new things but the pursuit of tone always rules.

I have to say that when you switch to the Altos satisfaction with your purchase will skyrocket. The tone quality achieved by bi-passing a guitar amp's pre-amp stage only hints at how great your modeler can sound.

The only thing I haven't been able to do to my satisfaction with the AX8 is achieve a great clean tone at low volume, and maybe that's just because the speakers need to be pushed a bit more to get in the zone. IDK ... also, I have done no deep tweaking.

By the way, congratulations on your purchase!
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Thanks man!

Our other guitarist bought the Altos just about a week ago. They sound ridiculously good in our rehearsal space. I already love them even if I don't have them myself.

I've noticed too that clean patches have to have a bit of volume behind to get the grip of the dynamics. They always tend to sound really sterile with a very low volume.

You might already know this about the IRs but I'll give it a brief go if someone else is interested :) Someone can correct me if I'm wrong:

All the cabinet modelling blocks in Axe and Helix (and whatever modeler you take nowadays) are basically a certain kind of IR. However, what for example Ownhammer, Celestion & Redwirez do is that they the concept a bit further by making several IRs of one cabinet. In a package you get around a couple of hundred IRs per cabinet including already blended combinations of several IRs named as Mixes or Quick Start. In the IRs they define the distance from the speaker and the type of the microphone used. So if you buy a package from Ownhammer that has a Bogner cabinet for example one of the impulses could look like this: 412 BOG-ST 421-07. So in this sample they have made an IR where the mic is Sennheiser 421 recorded 7 inches from the speaker and the cabinet used is Bogner Standard 4x12.

The biggest problem with the IRs in my opinion is to try to find the best ones for your use. And that requires a looooot of testing and tweaking :D But nothing really special about them, they are just cabinet models basically :)
 
Re: Just bought Helix...

I think some of the free ones from dedicated brands like ownhammer & stuff are really good to start. I forgot if Celestion was giving away a free sample earlier this year but there was talk about it being very good. Fractal had IR packs available separately or something for sale I think, or they replaced the stock ones with those in firmware updates.

Its another rabbit hole of tweaking though, worth it with the paid ones out there I guess but with the user submitted ones it can take hours wasted auditioning each. They probably sound different with different amp models too, thus more time spent.
 
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