jay bass Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Thinking of getting one of these in order to downsize my set up itl do away with my amp speaker cab and pedalboard this seems to be a all in one everything included combo anyone tried the stage 800 combo , ive tried the rumble 500 and it does a good job its realy the presets and different effects etc that im not sure about, there are some great reviews and demos on youtube but would prefer some 1st hand knowledge befor splashing out on one regards jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) - Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 (edited) I've been using mine for a few months now, replacing a rack setup with a Helix and a couple of Barefaced cabs that I just got tired of moving to the local Dog and Duck. All in all, it's a very capable unit. I play in a gentle indie rock band and a very ungentle hard rock band and it does fine in both of them. The amp unit is very much more capable than the speaker cab, I have a feeling I could easily send the drivers across the room if I wanted. Whilst volume is more than sufficient for indoors venues (I'm usually around 10am on the dial fwiw) I'm planning on buying the matching cabinet for the big outdoors biker rallies that we do every summer. When it comes to sounds and emulation the in built overdrive sounds have a tendency to be fizzy and none of the comps are subtle enough for me, but with that those aside (and at least the overdrives can be tamed with work) I think it sounds great. I use the first two banks of three presets as a smooth finger sound based on a GK, a driven pick rock, vintage fuzz, synth, really subby and deep and a modern od sound. That covers a lot of territory for two covers bands and there's loads more presets there if you want them. If you're not into the emulation thing than it does a pretty good impression of most major amp brands and generic sounds, so there's nothing to stop you just picking one you like and treating it like a normal amp. I was a GK user for years before I went digital, and the GK impression is particularly on point. I'd prefer this amp, set to the GK preset, over and actual GK combo and that's coming from someone who's owned 5 GK amps, 3 cabs and the plex. The tuner on the built in screen is brilliant, but the LED version on the pedal leaves a lot to be desired. My largest complaint is that I miss the global eq that the Helix has a lot, as it was really useful for applying a room or a bass specific eq to every patch all at once. Obligatory low-light, low-ability gig photo. Please note, after putting the phone down I tidied the cables. Edited February 12, 2020 by Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 (edited) - Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 3 hours ago, Jus Lukin said: There are some very basic global EQ options, low cut/high cut/high boost type things in there. Do you mean something more flexible on the Helix? Yeah, the helix has 3 fully-parametric bands as well as high and low pass filters. It's easy to notch a tiny bit of mud out when switching from a Stingray to my P for instance. Great for taming room boom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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