Two weeks of the Line 6 Helix
The Helix is truly a game changer, even for a hack like me. 2 weeks in, and I am getting more comfortable with it, and I am exploring more of its capabilities. It is just amazing kit!
Two weeks ago yesterday, I received the (lightly) used Helix floor that I purchased via Reverb. I could hardly wait to unbox it, and get started with it.
I discovered the Line 6 page where people share their presets, and that gave me some ideas. But I noticed that some (ok, many of them) weren’t great. Turns out that my cheap Presonus studio monitors suck.
So, I pulled the trigger on a (lightly) used pair of Yamaha HS-5 studio monitors, and also a pair of XLR cables to go directly from the Helix to the monitors. Boy, am I glad I opted for the 5” speakers, as they are plenty LOUD in my music room.
Now, I am getting good, accurate sound.
I did try to plug the Helix into my lil’ amp, and it sounded OK, but it is a small, single 10” speaker, so hard to get any stereo effects to - well - sound good. I guess I am a direct to Studio monitors guy now.
Anybody want to buy a couple of used amps?
Then I discovered the factory preset sets, with plenty of good starting points for building sounds that I like. One that comes amazingly close to the full throated sound of my Orange Rocker 15 is what they call “Mandarin Rocker” which is a 100 watt head and the 2x12 Orange cabinet. This is a fully “nailed it” starting point.
I have used that to build a lush, chorus encrusted tone, and a second preset that is pretty plain with just a touch of plate reverb and a Minotaur (Klon Centaur clone) to not overdrive the signal, but to give it a little push to cut through the mix.
And I like it. A lot.
I also created a blues preset, with a mid 60’s Fender 2x12 combo that just sounds vintage without the noise.
Other things I have learned
At first I was inserting a noise gate at the front of the chain, wasting a DSP position, merely to stop the open cable buzz. Turns out that you can set a threshold on the input jack to tamp down the noise. Neat.
The UI of the device makes it stupid easy to tweak settings in situ. Took me a few minutes to get the swing of it, but I am becoming facile at using it to tweak the configurations, on the fly, and to save. It is very intuitive. As a product manager, it is really great to see world class usability in the design and configuration of things I use.
The volume nob on the Helix only works if I am using 1/4” connections to the monitors. When I plugged in the monitors with the XLR cables, holy fuck did I get blown away (did I mention that these wee lil’ 5” Yamaha’s are LOUD for my space?) Fortunately, I was able to dial in the volume on the back of the speakers, and now it is just sweet!
Many of the built in factory presets use a volume effect tied to the expression pedal. I was struggling to hear anything with some of them the first time I ran through the presets. This was a “D’oh!” moment to say the least.
My current go to presets
I already mentioned the Mandarin Rocker (really an Orange setup), but I currently have two presets for Van Halen (one found through the website that has a few snapshots that show the evolution of Eddie’s sound (EVH MM Video), and a second one that is just following the Line 6 tutorial video. That nails the 1976 VH1 sound to a T.
I have a preset that I grabbed from the community that gives a pretty good early 80’s Iron Maiden sound (Dave Murray’s sound).
I have a preset that is a damn good clone of the amazing tone Michael Schenker had when he was captured in the 1979 live album, “Strangers in the Night” (UFO). This deserves some extra commentary. It really is a Brit P75 Bright (that is a Marshall 75 watt plexi head and the bright input) with a short delay in parallel with a plate reverb for an oh so slight wetness in the sound. It is a damn versatile tone, and while I do not sound as great as Schenker, it is a good go-to starting point.
Then there is the factory preset that I copied to my main set list titled Watt, Now? which is the Pete Townshend sound that powered The Who in the 60’s and 70’s. If you can’t make that sound good, you ought to give up playing guitar.
I have an 80’s classic metal preset that just completely embodies the hair metal era. Ratt, Warrant, Skid Row, Cinderella, Dokken, and others all are similar and can be found in this with some twirling of the knobs. Lush stereo chorus, some modulation, a bit of pitch doubling for clean channel. I might dig out my spandex (no, not really, nobody wants to see that on my fat ass) and reminisce.
What’s next?
So far, this has been a lot of fun. No, you don’t need high end gear to enjoy playing. Hell, I spend a fair amount of time on the couch noodling on my guitar when it isn’t plugged in, and I enjoy that.
But it does feel much more rewarding to sound like you hear it in your head. When I began the guitar journey over 40 years ago, it was almost impossible to sound like my favorite players. Tons of money and time to get in the ballpark.
Sure Michael Schenker played from his fingers into his Gibson Flying V, into a Crybaby wah pedal that was configured to roll off the mid-range, into a 100W Marshall amp, and two 4x12 cabs, and he sounded fabulous. Of course, to sound that good required a LOT of drive, and that means HUGE sound pressure, something that will destroy your hearing in a small room. Once, I got to play in that configuration (ok, 1 4x12 cabinet) and it was awesome, but the volume levels were uncomfortable, in a largish music store when I was blessed with the OK to let it rip.
The Helix + decent monitors = great sound at comfortable noise levels
I can see myself adding the Yamaha bass cabinet to round out the bottom end.
But I also will look to expand my knowledge and skills with adding a keyboard (I am really rusty on my music theory, and I know that shoring that up will make me a far more versatile player.)
In the mean time, it is time to ROCK!