BigRedX

The vibrato mechanism on the Barracuda essentially became a fixed bridge once I fitted Newtone Axion Bass VI strings.

If I had a Fender obsession I'd want to buy from a store that had at least 10 examples of the supposedly identical bass (or guitar) I was interested in so I could try them all and select the one that suited me the best.

Up until earlier this week we had a massive PMT store here in Nottingham. Lots of guitars and not nearly so many basses but all very mainstream and nothing quirky second-hand. It's been over 30 years since I was last interested in a mainstream guitars or basses. I'll stick with well-known manufacturers for high-tech products mostly because I want decent support should anything go wrong. I bought my Helix from PMT (pre-COVID) mostly because they were one of the few resellers that had one in stock when I wanted to buy it. However when I was looking for a MIDI controller keyboard a couple of years ago they were exceedingly unhelpful (as mentioned earlier in this thread).

I'm not keen on built-in XLR outputs unless they are guaranteed to be protected from phantom power voltages. I always use my own passive EMO DI box with my Helix for connecting it to the PA.

If you look at the second photo you can see that the octave strings are above for E, A and D and below for G, B and E. Interesting idea. Something I might look at if I ever manage to find one of these.

These just appeared on one of the Burns Guitars Facebook pages along with the following explanation: Octave down 12 string which Hank saw when visiting the Burns factory. He took it with him and still has it. I believe it was converted to standard 12 string tuning. So this would have been Hanks first Burns.

The problem, as I'm sure I have said before, is that the frequent posters here on Basschat are not really the sorts of people who are interested what the typical bricks and mortar music shops have to offer. I for one don't except any of them to stock what I need any more even when it comes to picks and strings. Also I don't believe that you can make a properly informed decision about an instrument or amp from trying it in a shop. The last time I did that I ended up selling the bass less than 6 months later because it just didn't work in the band setting it had been bought for.

I've got the NUX 5G for exactly this reason works brilliantly for me and is far more reliable than the Sony 2.4G it replaced. I've played some fairly big stages using it without any problems. If I wanted something better I'd be looking at a seriously pro system.

TBH the situation regarding when stuff actually gets dispatched to the UK hasn't changed since the B-word.

Unless the bass is fretless you shouldn't be pressing down on the strings so hard that you come into contact with the fingerboard. For me fretted bass fingerboards are chosen for looks and nothing else.

I think the idea is that they replace your board completely, which is why the larger HX/Helix devices all have built-in PSUs. I simply take my Helix out of its bag and place it on the stage. Plug in the Main cable, MIDI, wireless receiver and output to the PA and I'm ready to go.

I've been looking at what little information is available about the more esoteric features of the Stadium and it looks as though if you want enough outputs to do packing playback seriously you will probably need the expansion box. The following will be important for me: 1. The ability the playback 4 channels of synchronised audio and send them to separate outputs. 2. The ability to synchronise Preset, Snapshot and parameter changes to the audio playback. 3. The ability to send MIDI program change, CC messages, and MTC/MIDI clock to external devices synchronised with the audio. 4. How quickly it loads a new "song" - ideally less than 5 seconds and is linked to Preset selection and Setlist order. So selecting a Preset also loads the corresponding audio and MIDI for playback, and the set order can be quickly changed using the Setlist function. 5. That it has sufficient memory to hold 4 channels of 24 bit audio for at least 1 hour of playback. 6. How easy it is to load all this information into the device from whatever DAW it has been created on. In the past I had a system that used standard MIDI files to control racks of synths and samplers as well as the guitar bass and vocal effects processors in order for my band to play live. While the playback worked really well, getting the information from the DAW into a format that the MIDI file player could use was massively convoluted, and once it had been done required me to run the "live" system to check that everything had transferred as I had intended. Also it then limited us to 16 channels of MIDI control rather than the potential 128 channels that a DAW plus MIDI interface could support. Ease of transfer (or not) could be the deal-breaker.

IME it doesn't matter when in the week you order something from Thomann, if it's destined for the UK it gets dispatched late on Friday afternoon.

But the old devices don't stop working. I was using a Bass Pod XT until I bought my Helix, which was bought on the strength of the features it had at the time of purchase. The firmware upgrades since then have just been a pleasant bonus. Unless/until the new Stadium version offers new features that I find indispensable, I'll be sticking with my Helix Floor

Only if the new version offers lots of new indispensable features. There's a couple of things that look interesting, but so far the teasers have short on actual information, and I don't think what I've seen so far is going to be worth the £2k+ outlay.

Depending on how many separate channels of synchronised backing you can output along with the processed instrument that might be useful. However, just stereo isn't going to cut it for anything other than the most basic of gigs. Edit: will it also send MIDI program changes to other devices? Edit 2: It will also depend how easy it is to get all that additional information loaded into the Helix Stadium from your DAW.

I already do all of that with my Helix Floor. Preset and Snapshot changes are controlled via MIDI from the computer that runs the drums and second synth part. Selecting a song also selects the correct Preset on the Helix and then the Snapshots change in the correct place as the song plays. On some songs then Snapshots change every two bars in places which mean that if the computer wasn't doing it for me I'd pretty much be glued to my pedals for those. We have a song we're currently working on where some of the changes only last a beat or two!

It has never worked for me on either the Intel based Mac I had when I first bought my Helix or the M-series that I use now. The release notes for 3.8 firmware do say that there is a problem with retaining the global settings on M-series Macs, and TBH I have never looked at them for previous updates, so I don't know if it was supposed to work before on Intel based Macs. All I know is that it has never worked for me, since I have been making changes to the factory default global settings.

As I said on the other thread: There will probably be trickle down to smaller/cheaper devices in the same way there was from the original Helix. The teasers have left me felling rather underwhelmed. I don't need pretty pictures of the amps and cabs they add nothing to my user experience. Also a lot of touch screens don't always work for me, so unless all the those functions can be easily replicated from the other device controls that will be a major disadvantage. It appears also to be aiming more towards (more realistic?) modelling. That doesn't interest me in the slightest. Firstly because I don't know what most of the devices they are modelling are supposed to sound like and secondly because all I want are things that make my guitar and bass sound like how I want. How the device gets there is of no importance. On the other hand if Line6 have decided to include MIDI-triggered full ADSR filters and gates (as well as keeping everything from the current V3.8 Helix), then I'll be first in line for one! Additionally: For me the amp and can models are the least interesting thing about the current Helix. I currently use two, both of which are guitar amp/combo models, on a handful of Presets where they are used either for the drive sounds or because the EQ frequencies work in the context of the overall band mix. For the vast majority of my Presets I simply don't bother because generally adding an amp and/or cab sim makes my bass sound worse.

There will probably be trickle down to smaller/cheaper devices in the same way there was from the original Helix. The teasers have left me felling rather underwhelmed. I don't need pretty pictures of the amps and cabs they add nothing to my user experience. Also a lot of touch screens don't always work for me, so unless all the those functions can be easily replicated from the other device controls that will be a major disadvantage. It appears also to be aiming more towards (more realistic?) modelling. That doesn't interest me in the slightest. Firstly because I don't know what most of the devices they are modelling are supposed to sound like and secondly because all I want are things that make my guitar and bass sound like how I want. How the device gets there is of no importance. On the other hand if Line6 have decided to include MIDI-triggered full ADSR filters and gates (as well as keeping everything from the current V3.8 Helix), then I'll be first in line for one!

Unless Line6 have added MIDI-triggered filters and gates I'm happy with what I have already.

IME it makes no difference to the global settings whether I do a wipe and restore or not. Neither way has reinstated them for me. All it appears to do is add another 30 minutes onto what is already and overlong process, and the last time I did a complete wipe and restore on my Helix, it insisted on rebuilding all my Presets for a third time when I next powered up the device.

Reminded me to install the 3.8 firmware as I don't have anything important coming up for over a week. Getting a better computer since I did the last update hasn't made the process any quicker and 94-100% appears to take as long as 0-93%. The HX edit link to release notes doesn't work either. Edit: And yet again my Global setting have reverted to the factory defaults. It does say in the release notes that there is a problem with Apple M-series computers regarding this, but it also affected Intel Macs on previous updates. Hopefully this will be fixed soon, because it's very annoying and I don't always remember to change everything to my preferences until I find that something isn't working as I expected it to. And... Every time I load up Logic I get a message saying that the Line6 44.1kHz Core Audio Driver will not be compatible with future versions of Mac OS. I've just checked on the Line6 website and the installed version 1.5 driver is now almost 4 years old. I'm still on Sonoma, but contemplating upgrading to Sequoia just before next version of Mac OS is released. Does anyone know if the 1.5 driver works with Sequoia?

Not my experience at all. My band has 3 hour practice sessions where the NUX system is running continuously for at least 2 and half hours with status lights still on green by the end of the session.

According to the Burns Website the scale length is 25.5" which IME is a bit short for a decent bass tone. Also the Burns neck for their standard Bass VIs is a bit on the narrow side (although not as bad as Fender/Squier) and you would definitely want it wider for the additional octave strings. Confusingly the website says it's 55m in the description which would probably be about right, but only 49mm in the specifications. Plus a 55mm wide nut would result in a near parallel string path unless the pickups and bridge had been modified for increased string spacing all the way. It's alll very confusing. The Barracuda Bass VI had standard guitar width pickups and bridge which wasn't great. I'd certainly be interested in one of these with a 30" scale length and a suitably wide neck, and overall string spacing.