Mini Helix - HX Stomp...

[Woodinblack]

I am sure I have said, although I have sold one recently. Its not a secret, it used to be in my sig but it got too long. I have a SR1000, 5005, 1605, SRF705, ICB305, ATK305, Thunderbird, Squier CV P Bass, Maruszczyk Elwood, Fireman, Dean 8 string and Spector Q5? Technically there are a few more in states of being built, being used for parts etc, but they don't really count. So 12, but I would be happy to sell the ATK, ICB, Spector and thunderbird if I could be bothered, so I am sure that only counts as 8.

Guitars, I honestly don't know - I have a yamaha RG, PRS SE, Ibanez SA36, Peerless tonemaster, Two acoustics, Indie tribal, and some more I can't think of. I would happily sell all but one electric and one of the acoustics, I really don't use them much. Did I mention the keys? The Roland Gaia, Yamaha piano, Waldorf blofeld, Bassstation, Roland Juno DS. Or the Akia EWI? 

Oh I have tons of stuff, but I still feel if there was a fire and I lost every non living thing in the house apart from one bass, and I walked out with the 1605, I wouldn't be unhappy.

So yes, if I wanted a full helix I would faff about it for a while then go out and get one, but TBH, if the B3 had a decent drive on it, I would probably be happy with that. If I played guitar in a band now though, I would almost certainly have a helix or even a stomp on order, they are fantastic with that. And if I owned a decent PA with bass, maybe I would have one for the bass too, at the moment I do love my CTM100 a bit too much for that!

Edited November 20, 2018 by Woodinblack

[Al Krow]

So "emotionally" you just have an Ibby SR 1605 and an Ashdown CTM100 

Have to say, they're damn good, those Ibby SRs! Never heard me say that before, have you? 😄

... OK, given that I'm no longer going to get my Stomp in time for that sun circling anniversary thing, I guess I can make do with my B3N? Ooooh did I just get (and act on!) a twinge of ANTI-GAS?! 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Al Krow
Cancelled my Stomp order due to delays...I'll maybe get one cheap(er) next year. OK time to catch up on the back log of gear I've already got. Zen and the art of GAS.

[CameronJ]

@Al Krow, I got an email saying my Stomp would be delivered on the 20th of December too but as the website said the Stomp’s were physically in stock (and I got the last one) that made no sense to me. So I rang G4M to query it and the helpful guy on the other end of the line said “That delivery date does look odd. We’re expecting a UK batch of Stomps within the next day and as our records show you have indeed purchased the last one that was in stock, one of them should be yours. Give it a day or two and check the tracking link before cancelling the order as there’s a chance that 20th of December shipping date is an error on our end”

So I left it. Woke up a few minutes ago. Just checked the UPS tracking link and well, well, well...looks like I’ll be getting a shiny Stomp very soon!

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

So "emotionally" you just have an Ibby SR 1605 and an Ashdown CTM100 

Thats it! Well, I wouldn't let go of the RH450 either. As good as the CTM100 is, if you just want to pick something up and go, its hard to beat and a fraction of the weight!

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Have to say, they're damn good, those Ibby SRs! Never heard me say that before, have you? 😄

... OK, given that I'm no longer going to get my Stomp in time for that sun circling anniversary thing, I guess I can make do with my B3N? Ooooh did I just get (and act on!) a twinge of ANTI-GAS?! 

Thats the other trouble of getting the latest thing, the 'oh we have this in stock, you can have it tomorrow.. no, next week, no next month'. If only companies could give you an actual date and stick to it.

[Jack]

@CameronJ, am I right in thinking you have a full fat helix already? I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on what separates them.

[CameronJ]

25 minutes ago, Jack said:

@CameronJ, am I right in thinking you have a full fat helix already? I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on what separates them.

No Helix here. I was toying with getting one a few months ago but couldn’t justify it, mostly for reasons of size.

[Bridgehouse]

7 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

No Helix here. I was toying with getting one a few months ago but couldn’t justify it, mostly for reasons of size.

Have you tried one before?

[CameronJ]

1 hour ago, Bridgehouse said:

Have you tried one before?

Not thoroughly. I used one very briefly at the London Bass Guitar Show earlier in the year - Alan @ ACG had it set up as a headphone amp and I played your very own RetroB P5 through it! But didn’t get too deep into it as I was focusing on the bass rather than the Helix.

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Thats the other trouble of getting the latest thing, the 'oh we have this in stock, you can have it tomorrow.. no, next week, no next month'. If only companies could give you an actual date and stick to it.

Quite! Well I've saved £465 (again) for now 😅 

[Bridgehouse]

24 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

Not thoroughly. I used one very briefly at the London Bass Guitar Show earlier in the year - Alan @ ACG had it set up as a headphone amp and I played your very own RetroB P5 through it! But didn’t get too deep into it as I was focusing on the bass rather than the Helix.

A helix is very much driven by how well the patches are set up - I’ve had some that were awful and some that were frankly stunning... which is why I think it’s one of those things you have to spend time with to appreciate

[Musicman20]

I've had a full fat Helix Floor, and whilst I was VERY impressed with the general ease of use, and some of the drives etc, and the phenomenal build quality, I wasn't sold on the size and weight.

This is a bit like a slightly larger Tech 21 BDDI Sansamp box.

I do have the possibility of buying one, but I won't have time to use it for a long time....

[Bridgehouse]

Just now, Musicman20 said:

I've had a full fat Helix Floor, and whilst I was VERY impressed with the general ease of use, and some of the drives etc, and the phenomenal build quality, I wasn't sold on the size and weight.

This is a bit like a slightly larger Tech 21 BDDI Sansamp box.

I do have the possibility of buying one, but I won't have time to use it for a long time....

I think the size is all about compromise - for me the standout thing once you get into it (full fat) is the sheer enormity of the i/o options

[CameronJ]

17 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

I think the size is all about compromise - for me the standout thing once you get into it (full fat) is the sheer enormity of the i/o options

Indeed. The I/O is exceptional on full Helix and was a big reason for me considering it for so long. 

[Musicman20]

35 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

I think the size is all about compromise - for me the standout thing once you get into it (full fat) is the sheer enormity of the i/o options

It is a fantastically well built and thought out piece of gear. I think if I was gigging heavily I would go for a full fat Helix and get a good powered monitor that could handle bass (5 sting) and guitar.

Unfortunately since I've been in my career my time is so heavily invested in work that my music has took a HUGE hit in terms of time. I don't have time for a band now...but I am making plans to change this. 

[Woodinblack]

Agreed that if you needed the routing options the full helix provided, you would hard pressed to find something to touch it. I would imagine most don't though.

It does however remind me that having ruled out a helix as I like my amp, with a helix HX I could go chanel -> CTM100 -> effects send -> HX -> HX -> Effects return, which would cure the only real issue i have with the CTM, that i can't easily choose to overdrive the preamp because i want to do some clean songs.

But.. the cabling...

 

[Woodinblack]

So here is a general helix question.

a problem I have with the ctm is that I am playing cleanish mostly, bass out into low, gain at half, volume at whatever needed. But if I want dirt, putting the gain to more than half produces a good sound but then volume has to go down some level. 

Could I set two patches / blocks so I can put gain up on the amp, and change the level sent, gain afterwards so I can have gain or clean but keep the volume the same?

[Bridgehouse]

Just now, Woodinblack said:

So here is a general helix question.

a problem I have with the ctm is that I am playing cleanish mostly, bass out into low, gain at half, volume at whatever needed. But if I want dirt, putting the gain to more than half produces a good sound but then volume has to go down some level. 

Could I set two patches / blocks so I can put gain up on the amp, and change the level sent, gain afterwards so I can have gain or clean but keep the volume the same?

Yes, absolutely.

[Cuzzie]

No one going for the Rack Helix?

[skelf]

I wish I had went for the rack. I use the Helix to take to shows which it is excellent for. But some people seem to want to put the footswitces down through the bottom of the unit. I have always looked after my gear and watching people stomp on my Helix is hard work. Had I got the rack with out the controller it would have worked better for the shows but I use the foitswitches all the time when used for my own entertainment. 

[Bridgehouse]

5 minutes ago, skelf said:

I wish I had went for the rack. I use the Helix to take to shows which it is excellent for. But some people seem to want to put the footswitces down through the bottom of the unit. I have always looked after my gear and watching people stomp on my Helix is hard work. Had I got the rack with out the controller it would have worked better for the shows but I use the foitswitches all the time when used for my own entertainment. 

I can imagine that pain... you are a brave man letting us ham-footed punters stamp all over your nice helix 

[mingsta]

I ordered mine from Andertons about three weeks ago, they advised they'd have stock on 20th November and kept to their word as it arrived today. 

Its pretty easy to use compared to most small format multifx (I struggled with my zoom ms60b). I managed to get around it without reading the instructions, not bad given that Im probably the lowest common denominator. 

The pc app is very good, connects instantly and makes editing a doddle, plus changes are fed to the pedal in near real time as soon as you make them. I can imagine I'd do most of my tweaking on the laptop. 

Haven't scratched the surface with the fx yet, but the bass amp and cab sims were impressive. 

For me, the three main cycle/toggle modes (patch / snapshot / stomp) would be enough for my gigging requirements with a bit of pre-planning, so I probably won't need to augment with further midi foot switches etc. 

Very nice piece of kit and I can see myself gigging it instead of my full pedal board once I've had done time to set it up. 

[Woodinblack]

31 minutes ago, skelf said:

I wish I had went for the rack. I use the Helix to take to shows which it is excellent for. But some people seem to want to put the footswitces down through the bottom of the unit. 

How odd - I have played through your helix but it didn't occur to me to press any of the footswitches, I thought the idea was to listen to the basses!

[skelf]

6 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

How odd - I have played through your helix but it didn't occur to me to press any of the footswitches, I thought the idea was to listen to the basses!

I got my unit pretty early and for a while people were more interested in the Helix than the basses. To be honest it is mostly guitarists that feel the need to stand on things. I have a setup for the basses with just an amp/cab plus a little room Reverb. Bass players seem happy with this and now that a Helix is not so much a novelty they want to hear the basses. Guitarists want to try a loads of amps and effects so the tap dance on every thing in front of them and some are less than gentle. Shows can be hard on gear I am on my third pair of headphones the previous ones all broken by people at shows. Some people just don’t care it is not theirs. 

Edited November 20, 2018 by skelf

[Muppet]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

So here is a general helix question.

a problem I have with the ctm is that I am playing cleanish mostly, bass out into low, gain at half, volume at whatever needed. But if I want dirt, putting the gain to more than half produces a good sound but then volume has to go down some level. 

Could I set two patches / blocks so I can put gain up on the amp, and change the level sent, gain afterwards so I can have gain or clean but keep the volume the same?

You don't even need to set different patches or blocks - you use snapshots.  This allows you to remain in the same patch but switch between different parameter settings for the same effect (or amp sim). Any effects you then kick in are applied to the selected snapshot. For instance I have a SVT setting with a clean snapshot, a snapshot using higher gain and lower volume for more crunch then another with even higher gain and lower volume for a dirty sound. A quick press switches the pedalboard from stomp/effects mode in to snapshot mode.  I also dial in a little increase in bass in each snapshot to to compensate. It's very very clever. 

[Bearfist]

Mine arrived yesterday, had a very busy day so only got to spend some time with it at around 11pm last night, its so much fun! I didn't get to bed until 3.45am.

Ive never owned nor used a Helix before , a few guys ive worked with have but ive never touched one before, it s so intuitive, within half hour i felt like ive been using one for ages. Its replaced everything on my board except the X7 which i'm running in the loop (i actually spent a bit of time trying to recreate the X7 on the Helix and you can get damn close but the amount of blocks it took me means that wont be an option so as i thought that wont be going anywhere). The Cab and Amps are really impressive, and i'm just getting to know the edit software after doing the update.

I like this a lot!