Line 6 Helix

[Tollywood]

Hey guys.

I am a lifelong tube amp user (1986 up to the present). I swear by them. They may even qualify as my religion. I love my pedalboard but I only have one sound: early 1990’s Edward Van Halen when he was playing Music Man guitars. For clean parts I roll back my volume.

I play in a cover band and we only play 80’s rock songs, primarily hair band songs, so I am usually fine. But I would love to have some beautiful clean tones (for Queensryche) as well as a variety of overdriven tones to choose from.

My tube amps are valuable and many of them are loaded with vintage tubes ($$). Traveling to gigs I cringe with every bump in the road. I have to set up a microphone on the cabinet. Patch cables fail.

So, I decided to switch to a Line 6 Helix. Each footswitch button can be a collection of pedals and amps, a collection of tones called Snapshots. So far, that’s all I know. The rack Helix is here but the foot controller is back ordered. I bought a collection of Slash tones and a collection of Nuno Bettencourt tones to load into the Helix but I don’t know how to do that yet.

I should mention that I am not a computer guy. Does anyone have any helpful advice, please?

 

[beej]

Hey Tollie-

The Helix is a great piece of gear. There are so many tutorials online, I'd probably start with watching videos and get comfortable playing around with the interface. Not being a computer guy is a bit of a hinderance, however they make it pretty simple to move around on the device.

I've been gigging with the little HX Stomp for a few years now. While I don't use it for amp modeling (I prefer my amps, and they're pretty rugged - a well built tube amp can take more of a beating than many newer devices) it makes for an awesome multi-effects unit so I could shrink my pedalboard. Personally, I found it easier to use something else control; I have a MIDI controller (Morningstar MC-6 ) which handles a few duties (effects control on the HX Stomp, channel switching, controlling other gear, etc.)

The downside of these kinds of devices is also the upside- there are so many options, patches, settings, etc., that it's easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole. I always found it better to find a few main patches that just work and stick with them a while before you dive into the next level. In some respects, simpler is better.

Good luck.

 

[slogan19]

Helix user here, you can do a lot and it's easy to get lost. But yes, the versatility is hard to beat. I have a Majesty and within one preset via snapshots I have a dirty amp, an entirely different clean amp (usually Jazz120 as it doesn't use much DSP), different cabs for both and an IR of a Martin acoustic to spice up the piezo. I have a 5 button midi extension box below the unit that is just for snapshots. With those 5 buttons I have two rhythms each with it's own pre-amp distortion block and eq settings, lead, clean and acoustic. And of course a ton of effects, a wah that automatically comes on when I move the pedal (I use a spring loaded Mission pedal for that), tremolo, chorus, pitch, phaser, flanger, 2 different delays, reverb. I don't even have to flip the switch to engage the piezo. I split the stereo signal, have the mags come in the main input and bring the piezo in through one of the fx loops as just another in. I use a volume block to kill the mags when I engage the acoustic snapshot.

I concur that tutorial vids are a good place to start. I wouldn't bother spending much on tones. From my experience they just don't translate well as there are so many factors in play. Guitar, pickups, what you end up running the Helix thru, etc. A patch in the Helix coming out of an amp is going to sound different than one through a pa speaker or studio monitor. You'll get better results and learn the unit faster trying to dial them in yourself. HX Edit helps there. I'd also suggest putting the looper at the front and playing something simple so you have that playing over and over while you dial in rather than adjust, strum, adjust, strum, etc.

 

[Tollywood]

Thank you for the excellent advice, guys. I have watched a bunch of videos and as soon as the floor controller arrives I will dive right in. It is expected to ship within a week or so. Today I will download the Helix program onto my computer and plug the Helix into the computer to be sure that I have the latest version installed.

For the time being I will run it into the front of a clean tube amp but I do have a rack Fryette power amp on back order that I will use instead of a tube amp head. The Fryette uses tubes, too. I will use a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. I have one cabinet that I leave at our band practice space and to take to gigs, and another at home in my studio.

 

[slogan19]

In that setup I definitely wouldn't bother buying presets as most of them aren't going to be built with that configuration in mind. They're generally run either direct to the board with the Helix emulating cabs or into a powered FRFR speaker like the Line 6 Powercab. The Marshall is going to add its own color to it. Which isn't to say you can't get it sounding good, it's just not what the majority of people use unless they're just using the Helix for effects.

Take your time and read the directions carefully on updating the latest firmware. 3.5 can be a little tricky. I've updated mine a number of times and botched my first try with 3.5. Not a huge problem, it has you do a backup as part of the update process and it's easy enough to factory reset and restore.

Also, with HX Edit you can make presets without the controller. I have just the floor version and don't usually end up touching it when I'm making presets.

 

[Tollywood]

In that setup I definitely wouldn't bother buying presets as most of them aren't going to be built with that configuration in mind. They're generally run either direct to the board with the Helix emulating cabs or into a powered FRFR speaker like the Line 6 Powercab. The Marshall is going to add its own color to it. Which isn't to say you can't get it sounding good, it's just not what the majority of people use unless they're just using the Helix for effects.

Take your time and read the directions carefully on updating the latest firmware. 3.5 can be a little tricky. I've updated mine a number of times and botched my first try with 3.5. Not a huge problem, it has you do a backup as part of the update process and it's easy enough to factory reset and restore.

Also, with HX Edit you can make presets without the controller. I have just the floor version and don't usually end up touching it when I'm making presets.

Thank you for your reply. I will run directly into the board for front of house and for my in ear monitors. I will run into a Fryette tube power amp and from that into a 4x12 Marshall cab, just for a little stage volume.

Oh man, now I am nervous about the 3.5 install. Hopefully, it will come loaded with 3.5 since it’s new and on the Sweetwater webpage it mentions 3.5.

That’s great news about not needing the controller to get started.

 

[Ricman]

Helix user here, you can do a lot and it's easy to get lost. But yes, the versatility is hard to beat. I have a Majesty and within one preset via snapshots I have a dirty amp, an entirely different clean amp (usually Jazz120 as it doesn't use much DSP), different cabs for both and an IR of a Martin acoustic to spice up the piezo. I have a 5 button midi extension box below the unit that is just for snapshots. With those 5 buttons I have two rhythms each with it's own pre-amp distortion block and eq settings, lead, clean and acoustic. And of course a ton of effects, a wah that automatically comes on when I move the pedal (I use a spring loaded Mission pedal for that), tremolo, chorus, pitch, phaser, flanger, 2 different delays, reverb. I don't even have to flip the switch to engage the piezo. I split the stereo signal, have the mags come in the main input and bring the piezo in through one of the fx loops as just another in. I use a volume block to kill the mags when I engage the acoustic snapshot.

I concur that tutorial vids are a good place to start. I wouldn't bother spending much on tones. From my experience they just don't translate well as there are so many factors in play. Guitar, pickups, what you end up running the Helix thru, etc. A patch in the Helix coming out of an amp is going to sound different than one through a pa speaker or studio monitor. You'll get better results and learn the unit faster trying to dial them in yourself. HX Edit helps there. I'd also suggest putting the looper at the front and playing something simple so you have that playing over and over while you dial in rather than adjust, strum, adjust, strum, etc.

Slogan this is so inspiring. I have just snagged a JP6 with Piezo, and like you have the Helix floor, running into FOH with an FRFR as stage monitoring for me (our monitor setup is a bit simplistic and is mainly for the vocalist). I'm only just starting to learn what the Helix can do. Would you consider sharing your patch? I will need to tweak the actual tones to my taste I'm sure, but the routing and snapshot blueprint you have would be a really good starting place for me.

 

[dxb0078]

Slogan this is so inspiring. I have just snagged a JP6 with Piezo, and like you have the Helix floor, running into FOH with an FRFR as stage monitoring for me (our monitor setup is a bit simplistic and is mainly for the vocalist). I'm only just starting to learn what the Helix can do. Would you consider sharing your patch? I will need to tweak the actual tones to my taste I'm sure, but the routing and snapshot blueprint you have would be a really good starting place for me.

did you ever get a responce from Slogan?

 

[Ricman]

did you ever get a responce from Slogan?

No, I didn't.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Recently, I bought a HX Stomp XL, and a Headrush FRFR guitar speaker, placed behind me - same as my old amp set up.
Lugging heavy amps is getting more difficult as I approach 70.

Playing through my tube amps was always a buzz, but at the end of the day the person in the audience would not know the difference.
The HX is easy to set up especially using the software, and is a lot lighter.

I was playing a festival in the summer, and was really appreciative of a guitarists sound ... he played in an ABBA tribute band r5equiring a lot of different FX to get the authentic sound.

We had a few beers together later on and I asked about his set up (I was running my 06 LEAL through a pedal board through my Musicman RD50, mic'd up to the front of house). --He had XYZ guitar , through the smaller HX stomp, straight to front of house with in ear. So for him, it was a quite stage.
Fabulous sound, fabulous... so I bought one.

You can great great sustain through the headrush when you stand close to it .. just like a tube amp.
I no longer have to say a Hail Mary when I stomp on/off an effect.

I see more and more musicians using them live now.

Yup it's a buzz and a right of passage having a great tube amp behind you when you play ...