Try playing along with a guitarist doing his best ''Call Me Al'', never having played it before, only knowing the little hook in the interlude and no slap skills. The crowd went wild. I am a bass god. A pint or two may have been involved.
The one in the OP link is male to male, a bit of an odd thing to sell for purpose when wall warts come with male plugs.
A bog standard daisy splitter is always female to male.
Makes one wonder what the heck is all cobbled together that it ever worked and now works as a splitter.
You'd really be up in arms if it didn't affect the sound when you turned it on!
I think you must have compromised your signal before the VT gets it. Maybe as simply as running very little level into it and making it good with the VT.
The Helix is supposed to be pretty damn good at squishy tubiness.
I guess you need to try some tube amps to see if you can do better without regretting the extra cartage.
Ime the cartage tips me over into leaving them at home mostly. For all the compliments I get on my solid state tones, the je ne sais quoi little jus that real tubes bring isn't enough motivation. Ymmv.
Maintenance isn't so bad so long as it's not a lemon you're buying.
The average age of my band members has been dropping lately as the newest recruits are all 20's and 30's. When we formed nearly everyone was greying to grey. Big band jazz still alive and kicking and playing to young and old.
8 or 9 years ago one of the trombone players was chuffed not to be the youngest in the band any more, looking at me. Trouble for him was he was mistaking my youthful looks and demeanour for less trips around the sun. It turned out I had four or five on him. Crestfallen about covers it. I had to call him Junior after that.
That's one way to find out how close they are.
My advice ''sorry, I don't let it out'', and no exceptions. Otherwise it will get roadworn at best and wrecked is a strong possibility. You really don't want to be dealing with that.
That's odd if you are saying there is no credit to the dealer for the VAT embodied in stock bought. It must make commercial 2nd hand dealing uncompetitive with private sales.
If I was selling you an expensive used widget I would be applying for my 'drawback' from NZ Customs before sending it to you. It would not matter if YOU were a business or not.
Then you would pay your VAT to H.M.U.K.Customs when it showed up there.
I realise this is a big stretch but for high value items it may be relevant. Export of EU used equipment should qualify the exporter for a pro rata refund of the local VAT that is embodied. The paperwork should be the similar as for return of repaired gear.