dave_bass5

Look, if i have 3 white basses and buy a red one, and my GF doesnt even notice and i just say Ive had it for ages, do you think ill not get away with a lesser crime on here 🙂

I'm in for next year. I'm impulse buying everything this month 🙂

Dont get me wrong about the Quilter, its a very capable, musical head. The way the gain stage has been designed gives it a very nice compression when the gain is up over the half way point, but it never gives a nasty dirt tone. It gets very smooth, like you are using a tube compressor (sort of). Just enough break up to add harmonics. Well worth tying first if you can. The 'flat' comment can be taken both ways. Flat and Bland, or a blank uncoloured canvas. For me it was the former, not helped by using a fairly neutral cab, and still getting used to my Helix. I wanted more colour, and the Quilter wasnt quite doing it for me, but i couldnt spend much time playing with it. The band loved it though. Others swear by it, and its certainly a slight step up above a lot of other class D heads. Quilter use their own power stage, and it does seem to give the higher notes a bit more punch. This was why i got mine, as i play with a pick and do struggle sometimes with the D and G string.

I'd love to own one of those. They always seem to come up when I'm not looking for a head, or don’t have the money for it.

All sorted. Just ordered the Fender. Looks aside it ticks all the right boxes other than size. Might need a bigger bag if this replaces my GK.

I'd also look at the Fender Rumble 800HD. Ive not read anything bad about it, although ive never played one. I do have one coming this week,. Costs less than most of the above, and thats new. Not the smallest 'small' head, but still a small head. I had the BH800 and its a lovely head. I didn't find it particularly pokey, but i love the EQ. The Tone print feature is also cool, although you can only use one at a time, and for me i wanted a comp at the start of the signal chain, not at the end, so didnt really use it much. It's also a bit bulky compared to some small heads, but i don't think thats really a problem.. I have (until tomorrow) the Quilter. It's a very powerful head, especially with the gain above half way, where the compression starts to kick in. I liked it at first, but found I couldn't quite coax the tone i wanted out of it. I think it has a subtractive EQ system. Very powerful and easy to use, but I found the amp to be too flat and neutral for me, EDIT. Ah, got pipped at the post by John.

By the way, i have the EQ on a switch just so i can get easy access to it to tweak it. Anyone have a better solution to getting quick access to it? I dont need to turn it on and off, but going in to Signal Path is a bit longer winded than I'd like, at least while I'm still setting this up.

It was Paul's question about his switch that made me think this one through. Although it's a basic feature without Midi, it's certainly a very welcome feature. Cant wait to try it with the Genzler (when i get it)

I'm sure this is not news to some, but ive just found out i can switch channels on my GK MB800 using a normal jack to jack, between my Helix and my amp. The Helix lets you assign one of its foot switches to control the amp. You can even give the footswitch a name, and in my case also match the colour LED to the amp. How cool is that!!!

Ive always lived in flats, and not high enough to have lifts, so your photos would apply to me for any gig or rehearsal.

Yeah, i made a similar remark and it didnt go down well at all.

Funny you should say that. I work in Hatton Garden, and i used to do a lot of early morning shifts. One morning, around 5.30 i was happily walking up the street when a police car screeched to a halt and pulled over, and they were quite agitated when they got out. I had my Steinberger headless bass with me, and yes, they thought it was a weapon. They made me open it carefully and when there were convinced it was a bass (I'd have thought on first sight, but no, they had to inspect it) they walked me to work and waited for me to go in. Funny when i look back on it, not so funny at the time.

Welcome aboard 🙂

I know what you mean. Not so cramped and everything seems just a bit more acceptable. My only 'niggle' is having to touch a knob (lol) to see what its set to. Id like to see the numbers all the time. Also id prefer to see all the parameters as a default setting, rather than having to touch the foot switch first. Minor issues though. Wonder what FW 2.90 will have in store for us, other than the DG fix.

Nothing to apologise for, it was a good call 🙂

I blame @41Hz for getting me interested in the FX. Glad I found out about this though. Having owned (and still do) a few Zoom boxes i find them a bit too cramped to use on stage, and not ever intuitive to program. Even the Stomp was getting a bit complicated (and my needs are very basic). For me a multi effects is something that does it all, i don’t want any other boxes on the floor. It's a great box to use at home, but for live use the FX is the way to go. Good luck with it, might be worth posting in the main thread if you need help etc.

There will be a mass exodus over to the main Helix tips and ideas thread soon........ 🙂

Good work. I'm sure you will have lots of fun before buying them all back lol. (Kidding). I sold my Q/strip but ended up buying it back. I dont think ill sell my MXR fIlter as i cant get the same sound from the Helix, although it's close.

Yes, all the boxes now have the same effects. Most of the videos on YT are also using the older FW, so there were a few more effects etc available to us now. I love my Stomp but dont find it as practical to use live as the HX Effects. Each has its own speciality, the Stomp is more complete, just smaller, but the HX Effects has a few advantages and for me its the better one to use outside the house. Glad i started off with the Stomp and doubt ill get rid of it just yet.

I too didnt really get on with the Zoom stuff, at least not when it comes to using them live. For me the Filter and Phaser effects are the biggest let downs in the Helix stuff. At least, i cant get either to sound quite as good as my MXR Filter or TCE Helix (oh the irony). Usable though. I'm only just getting in to using Octave down, and for now its just a gimmick for me, but the boxes do seem to track well.