Al Krow

It's points like that have got well and truly lost in some of the earlier discussion on this thread, so thanks for bringing that back to the fore!

In answer to that question, I couldn't have put it better than what you just said: A decent digital multifx can replace much of an entire board. My used Helix HFX costs about 1/5 of the board it's replaced. The only thing I need to add are a couple of filter and synth pedals. My used Barefaced BB2, however? Well that's going to take some beating!

What band mates and audiences are primarily interested from us bassists is playing with groove and flair and being "in the pocket". It really is in the fingers! Nuances of bass tone is something of particular interest and passion for us bassplayers. Obviously "in your face" bass sounds e.g. dirt, filter, synth etc will likely get much more attention from bandmates and audiences simply cos they "register". Back on topic: what tracks are folk on this thread using fuzz on?

Not that it's hugely relevant to the wider discussion - but personally I have no issues with PC editing multifxs, as the pay-off in terms of time invested can be large, as a decent multifx can cover off a heck of a lot of the pedal board and do it very well. The Helix HX Effects offers me a plethora of dirt and fuzz options. My particular "luddite" issue is having to PC edit every tom, Richard dic* and harry individual pedal, particularly those that don't have a decent visual user-interface display, and for that reason I took the decision to move on my Source Audio pedals. I totally appreciate where @Gareth Hughes is coming from too - we all have our different "luddite bars". And some of us don't use pedals at all in the mix and just go bass --> amp & cab and yet somehow still manage to have happy band mates and audiences! 😁

Where this fuzz pedal could have stolen a march would have been with the addition of a gated element available to dial in. Unless I've not spotted, that's an opportunity missed. I think it was @EBS_freak who gave us a really good overview earlier in this thread of the direction of travel of pedal tech and it's unambiguously towards to digital and modelling. At £249, this isn't just going into bat against just about every dirt pedal out there, but also into used Helix territory which has a ton of dirt / drive / fuzz options. And for all the nearly 200 posts on this thread I've not seen anyone actually reaching for their wallet to get this, which is a telling contrast compared to the launch of Helix HX Effects and Stomp. At the end of the day for all the words that are spilled by us and others, that's going to be key proof of the pudding. We've seen it before as other brands have sought to stray from what they are "famous for" and do really well. Alex makes some of the best cabs on the planet. The dirt pedal market is a massively crowded one.

Hey - it's all good. There have been strong views expressed, mostly with a great deal of decorum. BC'ers are passionate about gear, it's who we are. And there are plenty of us who admire, and own, Alex's cabs. I get Stew's sentiment. But if no dared express a view on whether they were even excited or not about a new product until they had owned it and put it through a lengthy workout, well this might as well be Bass Player Magazine, rather than a fun forum where we can spend far too much time enjoying the company of our fellow BC'ers. I wish Alex every success with his new pedal venture.

There is no amp.

That's worth a "like" just for the time, thought and effort that went into writing that post! Although having said that, I normally find such lengthy posts to be mostly baloney balderdash. But not that one.

I think it's very sad that no one has bothered to ask the really important questions about the pedal, so far, on this thread. So in the interests of the wider community, Alex... Is it any good for metal?

In case you haven't spotted already...discussion of the new pedal also on this thread (and in more controversial fashion!) with input from the man himself: Barefaced Machinist - Effects - Basschat

Symbols are cool BUT sine wave, square wave and sawtooth already have well known meanings attached to them for filter and synth pedal users. I appreciate that the Orange Butler decided to "abuse" these - but it's definitely confusing!

I can appreciate that - but seriously you could have an instant "best seller" on your hands and immediately wipe the floor with a lot of existing combos.

Given they already have experience of powered FRFR cabs, I'm surprised they didn't go for the more obvious development of the BF SC or SM combo? Alex could have had, at a stroke, a market leading lightweight product on his hands.

What do I think? Briefly excited when I see a sine, square and saw tooth symbols and get excited about a brand new synth pedal... ...only to find it's yet another dirt 😂

Finally unpacked and tried out the Levy 4.5" and the Minotaur 4.3". The Levy was first out the packing and took a little getting used to after using my Steph 2.75" straps with added JFT shoulder pad a combo I've been using for a couple of years, and improved on the Steph by itself - the JFT both increases the width and made the strap a fair bit more comfortable. I found the Levy to be a little too firm / unyielding and given that I don't have the largest frame actually a little too large - and I get the point about straps potentially being too wide and digging into your neck made by a couple of folk on this thread: The Minotaur is a less "firm" leather than the Levy, and felt more comfortable from the off. I think the Levy will, as with any quality leather become more comfortable with time and probably outlast the Minotaur, but my preference is to get something that works straight away particularly if it's half the price. The Minotaur made my heaviest bass (a Yamaha BBNE2) feel very comfortable to wear and I suspect will be just fine for a 2x1 hour sets with that strap - so I'll definitely be holding onto it. The Levy will be heading back to Thomann. Oh and as a final thought - I did give the Gruv Gear Duo a try out last year and absolutely couldn't get comfortable with it! Very limited adjustability - so you if you don't have the perfect shaped frame for it, I'd say it's one to avoid! Obligatory pics: Levy Minotaur Steph + JFT pad

That's a shame - if you fancy sharing his basic settings / which effects he's using on that patch, perhaps a few of us can have a go at tweaking to see if we can come up with something a bit more usable.

Sold Jake a filter pedal. Very straightforward transaction, good clear comms and swift payment. As mentioned by several others, Jake is a pleasure to deal with and I'd be very happy to transact with him again in the future. Cheers, Bas

Unless a patch has been specifically saved in the right format to download for a particular model I'm not sure that it is possible to use e.g. Dr Tone's Stomp patches can't be uploaded to HX Effects etc Don't know if there is a workaround on Native which allows you to upload any patch and then save in the relevant format for your own model? If so, that would definitely make investing in Native that much more attractive! But even that obviously won't solve the issue that HX Effects doesn't have amp and cab sims if these feature in Chad's patches.

Having now had a listen +1 for Chad's presets - they're the best synth patches I've heard on Helix! Particularly liked his "Dirty" patch at 5.06 of the YT clip - tracking is excellent and for me that would be a very usable synth sound. Cheers @PatrickJ for sharing. If you want any hints or tips on dialling in synth sounds then @Quatschmacher is our resident guru and super helpful - he's got a couple of links to some basic intros to synths which you might find useful. He mostly works with "proper" synths (C4, FI) - I've not been able to persuade him to go Helix...yet.

Look forward to checking out the other clips. With you on Dr Tone's synth patches - never felt it was his best stuff or particularly usable. But hats off to the guy for taking the time to share his creativity.

Ah, just get it! And if you find you don't need it you'll be able to shift it sooner than you can say "solo'd-minus-one-octave-volume-loss" and "at least this is still cheaper than pedal renting" 😁 The other thing Helix is absolutely pants at is as a looper. My little Lekato Looper does a pretty good job, but I've been GASing for a Boss RC-500 for a little while since they came out a couple of months ago, and now that I've just sold a very decent filter pedal that I wasn't planning to and also shifted your old BF Cab to Norway, if one comes up for a decent price on Black Friday I suspect I'm not going to be able to resist.

Well the only multifx that would get you there with capable filter and synth would cost a whole bunch more e.g. Boss SY-1000. It does look super cool though and it would be great to have everything under one hood - can't say I've not been tempted! But maybe a Helix HX Effects and a Source Audio C4 in one of its loops (based on the rep of that particular pedal - I've not had the pleasure yet, but plenty have and rave about it) would seem to me to be a really good pairing and I suspect where I may well end up too (particularly if / when SA sort out the lack of display UI on their pedals). Oh and treat yourself to an OC-5, while you're at it: it very affordably nails the OC-2 sound, as you'll have gathered from the OC-5 thread! You can put that in your HX Effects' other loop 😊